Chapter Ninteen

It was the cold that woke Arabella up; the absence of a warm weasel body. Carefully she rolled over and faced the sky. Her body hurt. She examined her arm and saw red puffy welts traveling in spirals around it. She slowly sat up and noticed that the dizziness of last night was gone. Her throat still hurt though. She looked for Stig and found his tail sticking out of the sack. He must be in the food bag, she thought. She poked the sack and Stig jumped. He popped his head out and blinked at her.

“Good morning,” he said. Arabella pointed at her throat. Stig nodded and ducked back into the sack. Arabella picked up the necklace. It felt right nestled around her neck.

Stig dragged out a steaming cup from the food bag. When Arabella tasted it, she discovered that it was strong mint tea. It made her throat feel better but upset her empty stomach. She searched the food bag herself and came up with butter bread. It was very soft. She was glad that she did not have to talk to activate the magic for the food bag. After studying the map, Stig was extremely happy to find out that they were past the swamp. In fact it had disappeared off of the map entirely.

"Look," Stig traced a valley nestled between to snowy mountains. "I think we can get through there. It should not be too difficult. It looks lower than the mountain pass we took in the south."

"Well at least I have boots and a warm cape this time," Arabella croaked.

"You sound bad," Stig stuck his nose on hers. "You probably should not talk for a while unless you have to. I know it is going to be hard for you to stay quiet, but you will have to be brave and try." He went back to his food.

Arabella just stared at Stig. She could not make up her mind about whether he was being serious or not. She shook her head and put the supplies away. She picked up the knife and weighed it in her hand. It felt lighter then it had. She ran two fingers down the middle part of the blade, staying away from the sharp edges. The blade rang a beautiful note and started to glow softly.

"I don't know how you did it," Stig said gazing over her shoulder. "I think you created a magical weapon. That is one of the hardest of all magics to perform."

"Dragon magic," Arabella whispered. She found that if she whispered her throat did not hurt as much.

Stig just looked curiously at her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of whose dragon magic it was. She shook her head. Denrisi was dead, but his magic was still looking out for her. Silent sobs shook her body. She let the knife fall. Stig did not say anything. He looked puzzled but climbed up into her arms. He just let her hold him. Finally she felt she did not have any more tears to cry and set the now wet weasel down.

"You will have to tell me about it sometime," he said rolling in a patch of grass to dry off. The sun was finally fully up. A light fog was wandering between the trees, but even as they watched it started to melt away. Arabella felt better and at Stig's prompting started walking toward the mountains in the east.

As before patches of snow was their first warning that they were getting close to the mountain pass. They stepped out of the woods and into a bare wind swept snowfield. It went gently up a slope. Animals had compacted a trail that was visible even to Arabella's eyes. Stig sniffed and pulled back. He nearly ran into Arabella's legs.

"Stig, what is it?" she asked.

"Uh, I see the trail and the animal prints," he said sniffing the ground again. "I can't smell the animals. It is odd. Sent lingers where animals step, but yet there is nothing."

"That is odd," she agreed. "Do you think it could be a trap? Is there another way?"

"No, this is it," he said. "Let's go cautiously." Arabella nodded.

Arabella followed Stig up the trail. She stepped where he stepped and stopped when he stopped. When they reached halfway up the first slope Stig hit a patch of ice and went sliding. He held his legs stiffly and dug his claws into the ice. He worked his way across the ice sheet. Arabella waited.

"Careful now," Stig yelled back at her. "Get your knife out. Then go down on your hands and knees. Use the knife like I used my claws."

Arabella slammed the knife blade into the ice. Then she pulled it back out and cut into the ice farther up the slope. She put her free hand into the cut and then used the knife to make another cut. She used this method to inch herself up the ice sheet. By the time she reached Stig she was wet with sweat and her hands were raw with cold. Stig had her brush the snow off a boulder. Side by side they sat there resting and drying off in the sun. He also took the time for a food break. Stig offered a slice of his mystery meat to Arabella but she politely refused. A cup of plain hot chicken broth warmed her nicely.

It was after mid-day when they reached the top of the first slope. The path turned sharply and then went up another slope. This one was shorter than the first. Arabella was glad that there was not another ice sheet ahead. Clouds rolled in. They were white and fluffy. The temperature suddenly dropped and Stig glanced at the clouds. He looked worried and began to quicken his pace.

Stig froze and by now Arabella knew that it was a sign of danger approaching. She wondered if it was more of his weasel magic or if all weasels had this sense. Arabella stopped directly behind him. If he backed up, he would run into her. She followed his gaze upward and watched awestruck as a wall of snow came rumbling down one of the peaks. It filled the valley with eight feet of snow in front of them. Arabella figured that if they had kept on walking, it would have landed directly on them. A snow chunk broke free of the avalanche and bounced towards them. It rolled to a stop right in front of Stig. He cocked his head to one side as if in deep thought. Then without a word he led the way up the snow slide and down the other side.

The path leveled off here. A small white snowflake drifted down in front of Arabella. Stig froze again and looked at the sky. When he continued on he was grumbling under his breathe. The snow began to come down harder and a wind started to swirl the flakes around. Arabella took one step farther and lost Stig. One moment he was there and the next he was gone.

"Stig," she called in panic. "Where are you?"

"Right here," he put a paw on her foot. His fur had gone as white as the falling snow. The snow started falling even heavier. "It is starting to turn into a blizzard." he said looking around. "We need to find shelter."

Arabella followed as closely as she could, but he kept disappearing in the snow. Whenever she lost him, he would come back to her.

"Over here," he led her to a snow bank. It looked like on old avalanche. She joined him as he began to dig. Soon they had enough of a tunnel to crawl into. "Go drag that brush over here." Arabella was startled because she had not even seen the twisted branches in the snow. When she gathered enough, Stig had her crawl inside the snow tunnel. He directed her to create a barrier with the branches.

"Now pack the gaps with snow," he used his nose to start pushing the snow into the barrier. "Leave a gap at the very top for air to come in and out." Soon Arabella found herself entombed in the snow tunnel. The wind started howling down the valley. It was making an awful ghostly sound.

"What now," she asked him.

"Now we eat and sleep," he said. "It will be better tomorrow after we rest. These storms usually go away after a couple of hours. "It is strange that we are getting a blizzard this time of year, even though it is not that weird. I was expecting more avalanches because of the warmer weather."

Stig spent the next couple of hours alternating eating and checking on the blizzard outside. He had moved some of the snow from the entranceway and kept tunneling out. To Arabella, he seemed worried, but he would not say why when she asked. Finally darkness settled in. She wrapped he cape around her. It was not quite freezing. All night she felt Stig whenever he jumped up to check outside. When he would come back in, he would put his cold feet on her and snooze for a while before repeating. Stig woke her up at daybreak.

"We need to eat and move on," he said.

Arabella felt cramped and wanted to stretch, but the space prevented it. After a quick breakfast, Arabella discovered that she had to dig out. She followed Stig's instructions. Together they dug at the top of the entryway to escape. Once out Arabella stood and stretched.

"It is still snowing," she looked up at the sky.

At least two feet of snow had accumulated while they slept. Arabella followed Stig through the pass. Finally the valley began to run downwards. She could not see more than two feet in front of her. She pulled the hood of her cape low over her head. The wind was attempting to snatch all her warmth away from her. It was difficult to hold the cape shut as she walked. Without warning, Arabella tripped over Stig. The weasel had suddenly stopped. She landed in the soft snow.

"Stig," she said breathlessly. "Are you all right?" She twisted back on the ground to look at him.

"I can't see," he whispered. He was huddled down in the snow. Arabella reached out and pulled Stig to her.

"Look at me," she said. Stig's eyes were covered with a white film. "Oh Stig," she said on a sigh. This was not good, she thought. "I'll carry you." She put the weasel up on her shoulder under her cape. He whimpered as if in pain. "Does it hurt?"

"No," he whispered. "I'm useless to you now. I can't see. I can't smell the trail."

"Shhh, it will be okay," she patted him. "Once we get out of this snowstorm things will get better." Stig just moaned.

The path slanted sharply downward and became very slippery. As Arabella went lower the snow lessened. Soon it was just a light flurry.  She was so focused on where she was putting her feet that she was surprised when she looked up and found she was facing a wall of ice. She stopped and shook her head in disbelief.

"What?" Stig perked up. He poked his head out of the cape and attempted to look around. He blinked hard, but then gave up. "What is it? I don't smell anything."

"It is a wall," Arabella said. "A great blue wall of ice. It is taller than I can reach and it is filling the valley."

"Blue ice?" he said. "I've never seen that before."

"I can see into it," she came closer. "It is very clear. Almost like glass." She ran her hand over the surface. "It is very cold to the touch."

"Wonder if we could melt it?" Stig muttered.

"What would we use?" she asked. "Stig there is something inside." He pushed farther out of the cape. "It looks like a long stick, or maybe a crack in the ice."

"Could be a weak spot," he said. "Arabella, do you know any fire spells?"

"Oh I know lots, but my magic does not work," she said.

"You can't say that anymore. You created a magic knife," he said. "Think of one that doesn't need anything to burn and see if you can make it work."

"All right," she said slowly. She took off the sack, setting it out of the way. She put Stig on top of the sack. "I think I got one."

She walked up to the ice wall and began chanting under her breath. One the rhythm of the spell settled into a steady beat, she drew a wide circle in from of her. The air caught fire where her finger sliced the air. She felt her heart leap in anticipation. Her magic was working. She kept the chant steady though. Laying her palm flat against the flaming circle, she pushed the fire into the ice.

The ice sizzled and crackled. Steam rose as the ice evaporated. She pushed the circle in until she reached six feet. She released the spell then. She was panting from exertion and she noticed that the crystal ball was glowing again. She closed her eyes. Was it really her magic that she used or Denrisi’s? Did it really matter? She opened her eyes. There before her was a silver sword. Its point was buried in the ice. The handle was set with a deep blue jewel. Silver spikes radiated from the hilt. The rest of the handle was twisted and ended in a hawks head.

“What is it?” Stig asked.

“It is a sword,” she said.

“Better leave it alone,” he said, but Arabella had already wrapped her hand around the handle. She pulled hard and the sword slid out of the ice. The glacier began to rumble. The tunnel began to collapse around her.

“Arabella,” Stig shouted. “What did you do?”

“I am sorry,” she ran out of the tunnel as the glacier cracked open. She went to stand by Stig. She watched the ice wall crumble and turn into rubble. “I think we can go on now.” She stood there staring at the remains of the ice wall. Stig took a couple of steps towards the rubble.

“My word,” he said. “That was shocking. Looks like that sword was hold all the magic here in place.” He looked up at Arabella holding on to the sword. “I can see again. It came back when you pulled the sword free.”

“That is strange,” Arabella said.

“Yup, I think so too,” he said. “It is almost as if someone is deliberately trying to stop us.”

“It seems that way,” she said. “It could be my mother.” Stig agreed. Arabella tied the sword to her back. They carefully picked their way through the broken ice and finally could see trees before them.