A week prior

Kaimana set his drink on the wooden table and studied the room. It was busy at this time of evening. Humans laughed and called out to each other. Liquid sloshed over the rims of cups as they knocked together. There was a smoky quality to the air, thanks to all the men who puffed away at their pipes. It seemed nearly all of them had one in their mouth or waving around in their hand while they spoke. 

Across from him, Kestrel, his Commander and travel partner, set her own drink down with a grimace. Her long dark hair spilled over her shoulders, covering her ears and their secret.

 It was remarkably easy to blend in among the humans if you only watched them for a short time and imitated their behavior. They’d never question you weren’t one of them.

Kestrel leaned her elbows on the table. “This was our last lead,” she said. “Is it time we head home?”

Now it was Kai’s turn to grimace. He’d been sure this one would yield something, but like all the others, they’d only found a dead end. 

“We’ve been gone a long time. The council is going to stop believing us,” she added, tipping her mug and swirling the contents.

“The council can hang,” Kai said.

Kestrel gave him a look. “We’re going to have to tell them eventually.”

“Tell them what? I’ve been searching for my dead sister in another world? That I suspect she never died, but by the way, I have no proof that she is still alive?”

“Neorah could—”

“No,” Kai said. “Having Neorah tell the council what she told me will do nothing. If they won’t believe their Prince, why would they believe a mere healer?”

“If we find her—”

“When,” Kai corrected.

“When we find her,” Kestrel said, “we’ll have to tell them.”

“And I have no problem with that, but first we need to find her and sitting around in this place will not help us do that.”

Kestrel leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “What’s your plan when we can’t find her? And don’t tell me we will. We’ve been searching for months with nothing to show for it. We need to be realistic about this. We need to be prepared for the possibility of losing our magic.”

Kai shot a look around the room, checking to see if anyone had heard. He’d learned early on in his time with the humans that they were a superstitious lot and did not like the idea of magic. Not that he blamed them, given their past shared history.

When the raucous laughter continued and no looks were sent their way, Kai relaxed. No one had heard Kestrel’s slip. Kestrel herself looked unrepentant, even though she knew what kind of trouble a slip like that could land them in.

“I am not ready to give up yet,” he said. “Call it a feeling.”

“I call it delusion,” Kestrel mumbled under her breath.

He was about to retort when he heard a voice above the crowd. Kai tilted his head, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. It took a moment to spot them.

A pair of travelers, by the look of it. One wore a cloak that had more patches than original fabric, while the other was dressed in a dark brown tunic and matching pants that were favored in this area.

“You’ve been there?” the man in dark brown was asking.

“Aye. I’ve seen it all covered in snow and unnatural like. Can’t say it was worth the trip.” He sucked down a gulp from his mug. “Don’t know that I’d ever want to go back.”

“I’d heard that everyone had died.”

The cloaked man shrugged. “Don’t know. Wouldn’t surprise me. Not sure how you can stand to live in that cold for so long. It eats into your bones. Saps the spirit.”

Kai made a note to catch the man alone. A city stuck in an endless cycle of winter? He’d only heard of one such place before, but it wasn’t part of this world. There had to be something magical going on there, and where there was strange magic, there might be his sister.

“Do you remember what Jensira’s affinity was?” he asked suddenly, leaning across the table toward Kestrel.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure.” 

“Did it have something to do with ice, maybe?”

“It’s possible, I suppose, but I couldn’t say for sure. What’s this about?”

Kai’s eyes flicked over her shoulder to the pair of men and then back to her again. “I think I’ve just found us another lead.”

Kai waited until the other man left the table. It was late in the night by that point and much of the room had settled down. There were only a few locals still nursing their drinks and a handful of travelers staying at the inn scattered around the room. The pair he’d heard talking had rooms at the inn as well, but it didn’t appear they were traveling together. This was only a chance meetup between acquaintances in the same business.

Kai jerked his chin toward the table, and both he and Kestrel rose. It took only seconds to cross the room and fall into the seat the other traveler had vacated.

The cloaked man glanced up in surprise, but before he could speak, Kestrel slid into the chair next to him.

“Hello,” she greeted him. “We’d like to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”

The man looked nervously between the two of them. “I don’t have much,” he said, “but you can have my wares. I’m sure they will fetch a decent price.”

“We aren’t robbing you,” Kai told the man. He lifted a coin purse and let it clink against the table. “But we will pay you for information about this city stuck in endless winter.”

He’d expected the man to relax once he knew there might be money coming his way, but if anything, he only tensed up more.

“What would you like to know about that cursed place?” he asked, eyes darting to the coin bag.

“Anything you can tell us,” Kestrel said.

“How can we reach it?” Kai asked.

“You can’t. If you were listening, then you already know about the snow. There are only two ways into the city of Ratha. The mountain pass,” he rapped a knuckle against the table, “and the other through the woods. I haven’t been since snow blocked off the pass.”

“Then why not go through the woods?” Kestrel leaned an elbow on the table. “Sounds easy enough to me.”

The man shook his head, knocking back the hood of his cloak to reveal a face worn by years on the road. “Not with the beast.”

“The beast,” Kai repeated, eyes narrowing.

“Last I was there, the townsfolk were talking about it. It’s the reason they never leave. They can’t get out. This creature in the woods eats people. They find pieces of them sometimes.”

“Like a bear?” Kestrel asked.

The man shrugged. “Dunno. No one who had seen it was still alive. There is good trade to be had there since they don’t get many visitors, but I’m not about to risk my neck for it.”

“I see,” Kai said. “What else can you tell us about this city?”

The man explained every detail he could, but it wasn’t much more than they’d already learned from listening to his earlier conversation. In the end, Kai thanked the man and slid two silver pieces across the table before they abandoned the common area for their rented rooms. 

“I don’t know about this,” Kestrel said, following Kai into his room instead of going straight into hers across the hall. “The snow and the beast could be nothing more than coincidence.”

“We won’t know until we visit,” Kai said.

Kestrel sighed. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

“This will be the last one. If we don’t find her here, we can go back home and forget all about the quest to find her. We’ll have to come up with another way to save our magic.”

“It could pass to someone else,” Kestrel said.

“But it hasn’t,” he reminded her. “If my sister had truly died as a baby, we would have found it already. We wouldn’t be slowly losing our magic. The fact that it hasn’t passed means she is still alive out there somewhere, and I want to find her.”

“Fine, but this is absolutely the last one. I want to go home to my own bed.”

“We’ll leave in the morning,” Kai said to her retreating back before she closed the door between them.

He knew Kestrel was tired. He was tired too, but he had a feeling about this city. This must be the one.