Ayn thought about those death wishes when they hit the next clearing. The path had led straight to it after a couple of blind turns, which made Ayn wonder if the dogs hadn’t first spawned as ambushes. Perhaps they’d been too noisy, or waited too long at the crossroads, and drawn the dogs from their hiding spots. Either way, she preferred how they’d fought them.

  The clearing they stood in now stretched out almost as far as the one with the pastures. Two small paths out were at the north and south.

  Nothing stirred. Even the party had stopped in their tracks at the sight of what stood in the center. A stone-gray pillar jutted up from the snow. It looked over twenty feet across, with a height Ayn didn’t care to guess. She followed its surface up and until the glare of the sun made her look away. Faces were across every inch. Humans faces with mouth wide open, and expressions contorted. It looked as if they were laughing, yet the wild look in their eyes sent a chill down her spine.

  “Nope,” Kayara said. “I’m not going anywhere near that thing.”

  “It might hold clues for a quest or boss,” Bren said.

  “Then you go look.”

  Bren paled.

  “I’m with Kayara,” Ayn said.

  The thing creeped her out, and after all the ambushes, and a near-fatal curse, even she didn’t feel like taking the risk. Some Dungeon floors relied on the monsters to provide a challenge, and some on traps. This floor was clearly the latter.

  “What about you, fuzzball?” Kayara asked. To Ayn’s surprise, Kayara was talking to the wolverine who’d come to a stop a respectful distance from the ranger. “Want to go poke it for us?”

  The wolverine snorted, blowing snow all over Sheyric’s legs.

  Kayara shrugged. “Guess not. Too bad. We could have killed two birds with one stone.”

  Ayn stared at the ranger. Despite her harsh words, Kayara had not only talked directly to the animal but also didn’t seem upset when it hadn’t listened.

  “What?” Kayara asked with a frown.

  “Oh, nothing.” Ayn averted her gaze, turning away to point at the nearest path out. “Let’s try that way.”

  The party skirted the edge of the creepy clearing and headed south. All five of them were about knee-deep in snow, belly-deep for the wolverine, when the ground gave way.

  One instant, Ayn was on her feet, the next she was careening through the snow like she’d been thrown down a water slide. Snow flew into her face. It blotted out her sight and choked out the air. She twisted and spread out, seeking something solid. One hand scraped stone, only for the avalanche to shift directions, pulling her away into the rock on the other side.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED

  108 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  She lashed out on instinct, trying to find purchase, only to be driven down into more sharp, slippery rocks. After a few more bounces and no shield left, Ayn stopped falling. The rest of the avalanche did not, and the weight of it buried her in deep, dark cold. As the icy chill infiltrated her armor, an even colder realization hit—she’d lost the Kaneake feather in the fall.

  Her lungs and skin burned. She floundered in the snow. One foot hit something solid. It had to be the floor, and if she knew where the floor was, she knew where the sky was. Ayn paddled at the snow like water. Each stroke numbed her muscles a little more, making the next stroke harder. It didn’t matter. She needed to find the others. They needed her, and she wasn’t about to let them down.

  Ayn sucked in a breath as her head broke the surface. The icy air invaded her lungs and stuck. She scrambled out and lay spread eagle on the snow. Everything felt so cold.

  “Ayn!”

  Kayara. At least she was okay.

  A pair of hands grabbed the back of Ayn’s belt and slipped something in. A flood of warmth rushed through her core, leaving a tingle in her toes and fingers.

  Ayn was on her feet in an instant, eyes scanning the blinding white. Only Kayara stood with her. “Where’s Sheyric and Bren?”

  “I don’t know, but we all fell at the same spot, so they must be around here, right?”

  Kayara’s usual calm demeanor had cracked, and Ayn could see fear seeping through.

  Ayn nodded. “Right. Sure. Uh….”

  Plenty of panic had seeped into her words as well, and she didn’t bother trying to hide it.

  Two holes marred the otherwise unnaturally flat aftermath of the avalanche. The spots she and Kayara had dug out. They were only maybe six feet away from each other, which meant the guys shouldn’t be far. Hopefully.

  “I’ll take this side,” Ayn said. She pointed off a way from the hole she’d popped out of. “You take that side and yell if you see anything.”

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  Kayara had already been shuffling through the snow but took Ayn’s suggestion with a quick nod.

  Ayn moved out a few steps and dropped to her knees. If the guys were buried as deep as she was, they’d have to dig a lot to get near the surface. Neither of the mages were very strong. One, or both, could easily suffocate before reaching the surface, and that didn’t include the danger if they’d lost their feathers.

  The thought of feathers pinged something in Ayn’s mind, but she pushed it down and redoubled her efforts at digging. They were running out of time. She dug a couple of feet down, shoveling snow behind her, and when that didn’t come up with anything, she moved outward, sweeping a deep groove in the white powder. Her movements grew more frantic with each unsuccessful spot.

  Kayara yelled right when Ayn’s hand hit something. Ayn’s heart pounded too hard to answer. She scraped away more snow, revealing a patch of brown cloth. Bren. She grabbed the cloth with both hands and yanked. Bren came out nearly feet first, the bit of robe turning out to be the bottom hem.

  With the mage gasping on the snow, Ayn turned her attention to Kayara. The ranger crouched over Sheyric’s still form, holding a potion to his lips. His hood had fallen back, revealing his long silver hair and pale skin faded to an icy blue. Along with his gaunt features, the healer looked already gone.

  Ayn was at their side before she registered who else was next to Sheyric. The wolverine had pancaked against Sheyric’s legs, its head up, and its clear eyes watching Kayara.

  “Is he—” Ayn said.

  “In Near Death. But alive. Mostly.” Kayara gave Ayn a strained smile. Her skin had grown waxy, and she shivered hard enough to slosh some of the healing potion onto Sheyric’s robes.

  That niggle appeared in Ayn’s head again. She’d lost her feather, so where… Her stomach dropped as she noticed Kayara’s feather was gone. Of course. It wasn’t like the ranger had plucked an extra from thin air. Suddenly, she felt like an idiot. Ayn grabbed the feather at her back and wedged it into Kayara’s belt. Kayara looked surprised for a second, but anything she had to say was diverted by Sheyric’s sputtering.

  Kayara pulled him up into a sitting position and whacked him on the back as he coughed. “Hey. There you are! What’s with this place trying to turn us into popsicles?”

  Sheyric frowned at Kayara for a moment. His half-closed eyes flew open as his hands shot to his head. Ayn had never seen him move so fast. He was a body’s length away from them, hood up and back turned before she could blink.

  The wolverine snarled as it was pushed around in the healer’s panic, drawing the confused look Kayara had been giving Sheyric. The ranger backed away and stood behind Ayn as the wolverine stood up and shook snow from its fur.

  “It’s the one who found Sheyric,” Kayara said, her frown deepening. “Dug out of the snow, dragging him behind it.”

  Ayn kept silent. What could she say? She’d known the animal was trying to help ever since it had driven off the snow snakes. She also knew all of its heroics wouldn’t magically make Kayara’s fear disappear. But the lack of quaver in the ranger’s words spoke of progress. Ayn was more than willing to accept that.

  With all of them now fully relieved of healing potions, which Ayn tried not to think about too hard, they took in their new surroundings.

  The avalanche had dropped them into a deep valley. Sheer, slick cliff faces bordered all sides except one, where a conspicuously symmetrical set of stones jutted from the rock and led straight up. A ladder to the top of the far cliff. The top of the cliff plateaued and cut off the top from view.

  Kayara sighed. “There’s something waiting for us up there, isn’t it?”

  “Would it be fun if it there wasn’t?” Ayn asked with a grin.

  When Kayara returned her grin, a flush of warmth invaded the chill settling in her bones and set off a bout of shivers. Kayara slipped the feather they shared into her belt. Ayn tried to protest, but Kayara waved the words away.

  “This run is done for if either of us freeze, right? We’ll just have to share it.”

  With no way to argue, Ayn led the party up the rock wall. The hand and footholds were rough on the surface, making them easy to hold on to. Too easy. After all the traps and attempts to kill them, this finely crafted climbing wall felt as inviting as the treasure chest next to the nightmarish horse-gator. Ayn touched the top of the rock wall and hesitated. Whatever was up there wouldn’t be nice. With a deep breath, she pulled herself up.

  AEGIS OF AGILITY ACTIVATED

  112 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  A black and white banded feather the size of a spear plopped to the snow, all the momentum it had spent on Ayn’s shield. The tip was sharpened to a point. Ayn scrambled the rest of the way up, just in time to roll out of the way of another javelin-like feather.

  An ear-piercing screech echoed across the plateau. The area was the size of a football field, open on all sides except for a pillar-like boulder at the far end. A nest of bones sat on top, with an enormous bird mantling over it. It was the size of the Kaneake. That was where the resemblance ended. Where the Kaneake bloomed in color, most of this bird lived in black, white, and gray. It sat upright, its upside-down triangle of a body coming to a point above bony legs and long, gnarled talons. A bald, gray-skinned neck curled above the feathered body like a snake, its piercing red eyes matching the blood dripping from its hooked beak. Two broad wings stretched out to either side of it. Black and white banding, and gaps in the feathers showed where it got its ammo.

  Kayara peeked her head over the edge of the plateau. “Hold on, almost there.”

  A feather detached from the bird without it moving and hurtled toward Kayara as if it had a mind of its own. Ayn jumped in front of its target.

  102 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  “Thanks,” Kayara said.

  Ayn heard her free her daggers. “Stay there.”

  “What? That shield’s not going to last forever.”

  As if in agreement, another feather clinked off of it.

  93 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  “No,” Ayn said. “But if you run out, it will target you, and I won’t be able to distract it and shield Sheyric and Bren.”

  “I can distract it.”

  “Just wait until they finish climbing up!”

  Kayara growled in frustration. “Fine. But if your shield breaks, you’re coming with me, whether they’re up here or not.”

  With that, Kayara started yelling less than friendly incentives at Sheyric and Bren on why they should climb a lot faster. Ayn was torn between appreciating her concern, and worrying about how much truth was in her threats. That worry increased as more feather clinked off her dwindling shield bubble. Large gaps now dotted the bird’s wings, giving it a very ragged appearance. By Ayn’s estimations, it had used up over half of its flight feathers. Too bad more than half of her shield was gone.

  Ayn heard Bren scramble up with a string of complaints. Kayara redoubled her efforts to get Sheyric moving faster.

  8 POINTS OF ABSORBTION REMAINING

  The latest banded spear hit the snow. It joined the near dozen already there. That was it. One more hit, and her shield would shatter. Ayn resisted the urge to look back and see how close Sheyric was. Doing so would make Kayara suspicious, and she didn’t want to get dragged off just yet. Kayara’s incentives, now devolved into worsening threats of bodily harm, stopped, followed by some shuffling and grunting. Ayn hoped that meant she was pulling Sheyric up, because more of the bird’s flight feathers were sailing towards her.