"I'm not dropping her," Kyton insisted.

I squirmed in his arms. "I'll meet you at the cliffs. Don't worry. I'll be fine." With that, I focused all of my magic into becoming untouchable.

His grip automatically loosened when he couldn't feel me in his arms anymore. I could almost hear his thoughts whirring. Had he dropped me already by accident? Was I using magic to hide?

Yes, I was, but if he realized that, it was too late to grab me. I plummeted, but it was nothing like leaping from a second floor balcony onto a steep hill. When I hit the snow, I sunk up to my waist. Icy hands grabbed my arms and neck before I could scramble out of the hole I'd made.

I couldn't panic. I could get out of this. Untouchable and scentless, that was what I needed to be. Untouchable and scentless. Don't worry about sight or sound; they were blind and deaf. Just be untouchable and scentless.

The hands moved away. Crunching footsteps passed by my hole. I kept repeating my mantra: untouchable and sentless. My glamour reacted, keeping me hidden until the pack of v'kindra had passed completely.

Even in countless layers of clothing, the cold of absolute darkness made me shiver. I dug myself out of my snow hole. Now the v'kindra had passed, the silence was oppresive. My mind started playing tricks on me. As I started after Eva, my footsteps seemed to echo strangely, like they were happening twice. Or four times, I guessed, seeing as I had two feet.

You okay? Eva asked.

I'm fine. It was nice to hear her voice, but I had to concentrate on following her trail and listening for v'kindra. I'd dropped my glamour for now to concerve energy, but I needed to be ready to activate it again at a moment's notice.

The smells were distracting me, too. Even in the snow, I could smell a dozen strange things I'd never smelled before on Earth. I couldn't put a name to them, but a lot of them smelled dangerous. Twisting through the other scents was the smell of sickly-sweet dragon magic. It was definitely a fairy dragon's. If I was being honest, it really smelled like Clastor.

That probably meant I was either going insane from sensory deprivation, or my sense of smell didn't work right in the cold. The latter wouldn't surprise me. I was shivering too much to take a deep breath.

We land now, Eva said. Come fast, I miss you. Kyton say he worried.

Had it been twenty minutes already? I couldn't have been walking for that long. It was probably less time than that. They would've made better time without having to carry me.

I'm coming as fast as I can. Tell him that. "As fast as I can" was a slow trudge through several feet of snow with soaking wet boots and a numb face. It would be a while until I reached them.

***

When a chorus of groans reached my ears, I knew I was close. Eva was high above me, no doubt on a cliff with the others. I activated my untouchable and scentless glamour to avoid any roaming v'kindra.

Ask them how I'm supposed to get up there, I said.

Nissa comes. She say no move.

Okay, I won't move.

A few minutes later, Nissa shouted at me from above. "I'm going to dive and grab you. Stick your arms out. Don't move."

I stuck my arms out and dropped the untouchable glamour. The last thing I needed was her dropping me on top of a v'kindra. Bracing myself for an impact, I scunched my eyes closed. It didn't make any difference in the darkness, but it was a little comforting.

Nissa hit me a second later. She hooked her arms under mine and took off straight up. A v'kindra caught my shoe, but a bit of glamour made it let go. We were off. The buzzing of her wings was like a foghorn after the silence of the dark snow. Wincing, I did my best to be a good passenger and stay still.

We landed soon enough, on something hard that had to be a rock. It wasn't too slick, and it was a relief to be able to stand on something that wasn't going to swallow me in cold snow. Someone slammed into me. I started to put up my glamour, but then I caught the strong scent of fairy. It was Kyton.

He squeezed me in a bearhug. "You're okay. I didn't think-"

Something soft and feathery--but too big to be antennae--rubbed against my cheek. Eva cooed softly. She fluffed her wings in my face, and I fought the urge to sneeze as I inhaled her dander.

Yeah, you knew I was fine. You could see my thoughts. You weren't worried.

She chirped. I worried.

"What are they doing?" Piper asked from somewhere behind Kyton.

Nissa scoffed. "Hugging, of course. At least they're not getting really mushy."

Blushing, I wiggled out of Kyton's arms. "No one's getting mushy, ever. We have bigger things to worry about. If this darkness doesn't end soon, we'll have to find a way to travel toward Icorit Island in spite of it."

"Wherever that is," Piper said.

"Exactly." Shivering, I sat down on the rock and pulled my knees up to my chin. "We just have to think like a dragon. Where would they put an exit island?" I could almost feel everyone staring in my general direction. "Before anyone says anything, I'm not a dragon. I have no idea where the island is."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Kyton said. I felt him sit next to me. He scooted close and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

If I hadn't been freezing, I probably would've complained. But I was freezing, and he was strangely warm, even in this environment. I pulled closer and buried my face in my knees. It stung as pins and needles cut through the numbness.

Where would Icorit Island be? I'd thought about it in between all the life-and-death instances yesterday, but I still had no idea. First we were in a desert, then a swamp, then a frozen tundra. Was the land changing, or were we teleporting? Was the island a stationary point, or was it moving, too? If it was moving as randomly as the rest of the land, it would be impossible to find on purpose.

We might stumble onto it, though escaping the arena wasn't something I wanted to leave up to chance.

Nissa plopped down next to me. "If anyone needs to take a leak, eat, or drink--do it now. The v'kindra found a way up onto the cliff. They're a ways away, ten minutes max."

***

We spent the rest of the day flying from cliff to cliff, avoiding the v'kindra just long enough for the fairies to rest their wings and everyone to eat and drink. As the hours of darkness wore on, I felt my magic draining away. Unless the v'kindra were right on me, I conserved my glamour completely.

Even so, a sharp magic hunger burned in my stomach before long. Near the end of the "day," it got so bad that I couldn't be anywhere near Kyton during our rest stops. That made the cold unbearable. I couldn't feel my face or my toes or fingers. Every breath froze in my throat. Still, I trudged on.

I had to keep going. If I stopped, I wouldn't start again.

Look, Eva said.

What? I took a step. Another step. One after the other, following her mind.

Moon come out.

I froze and stared at the sky. A dull silver light started glowing high above my head. As pale as it was, it nearly blinded me after a day of darkness. I squinted as a real moon appeared in the middle of the silver glow. Stars dotted the air around it.

It took an age for my eyes to adjust to the new light. When they did, I spotted a crowd of v'kindra under a nearby cliff. They sunk into the snow like they'd never been there. Relieved, I let myself fall on my back. As soon as I laid down, I knew I shouldn't have.

Kyton and Nissa had to be exhausted after flying all day. There was no way either of them could carry me up to the cliff. Or at least, they really, really wouldn't want to. Though, they would have to. I felt like my stomach was digesting itself, and my muscles burned with cold. Climbing a cliff wasn't going to happen.

Why you stop? Eva landed on my chest and hopped up and down. She was apparently full of energy after a day of riding on Kyton's shoulder.

Tired. Cold.

I make fire on cliff. Nice, warm. Come, come.

A fire sounded wonderful. If only I had the energy to stand, I would love to go and enjoy it.