Tower of Winter (The Traveler's Gate Chronicles: Collection #1) by Will Wight Page A
Book: Tower of Winter (The Traveler's Gate Chronicles: Collection #1) by Will Wight
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Authors: Will Wight
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Traveler for a few years, but she was already getting personal assignments from the Overlord.
Annoying as this job might be, she had to prove she could do it.
A patch of glittering snow caught Donia’s attention, lying at the base of a twisted tree. In the right light, it looked as though someone had sprinkled the snow with a handful of crushed diamonds or powdered glass.
She recognized the signs immediately, as any Helgard Traveler would: an icefang lay in wait beneath that shimmering snow.
Icefangs were among the least of the dangers that Helgard had to offer, but she had known careless Travelers to lose chunks of flesh to an icefang bite. The creatures were scavengers, usually preying on the sick or the dead. She wondered if Nikolos counted as sickly. They were also highly territorial, and it was entirely possible that she had tread near this one’s burrow without realizing it.
Donia took a few steps closer to the icefang, away from Nikolos. The beast began to tremble, almost imperceptibly.
She held her middle two fingers together, leaving her other fingers spread out, stretching her hand out to the icefang in a sign of peace.
For a few seconds, the scavenger’s eager trembling stopped as it felt Donia’s imposed peace wash over it. That wouldn’t be enough to stop it, not on its own, but it gave Donia enough time to enact the next step.
Under her breath, Donia whispered the icefang’s name.
Not its personal name, of course. Learning that would have taken entirely too long, and she didn’t have time for that right now. Instead, she recited the generic name for the icefang species. It was twelve syllables long, all but impossible to pronounce, and all icefangs would respond to it to some degree.
She had heard it said that being a Helgard Traveler was half research and half rote memorization. In fact, she had spent three-quarters of her time as a student simply memorizing the hundreds upon hundreds of names that all Travelers of Helgard were expected to know as a matter of course.
At this point, keeping an icefang quiet required no more effort than walking through the snow.
As usual, when she correctly named a creature, she felt a rush of emotions in return. With more intelligent creatures, she would receive a rush of specific thoughts and memories, but the icefang was little more than a vulture. It felt frustration, deep hunger, and a barely-restrained eagerness to attack the intruders that had dared to set foot in its home.
The peace she had imposed with her sign still lingered in the creature’s mind, and the unnatural calm also gave the icefang a degree of confusion. It wasn’t used to being calm.
As always, the icefang’s emotions weren’t the only things that got transferred along the bond. Donia felt her own frustration with Nikolos, her hope to please the Overlord, her fear that she wouldn’t live up to her reputation, and her satisfaction at finally being home in Helgard all flow out of her.
The icefang wouldn’t fully comprehend any of that, of course, but it grew to understand her nature just as she understood it. More than anything, it felt her power and authority as a Traveler of Helgard. It knew that she could call up a dozen forces more deadly than itself, and it wanted no part of that.
The glittering snow shrunk two sizes as the icefang cowered in the snowbank.
Nearby, Nikolos heaved a sigh and rose to his feet.
“I suppose I was mistaken,” he said at last. “We must remain vigilant.”
He trudged over to Donia with his hands tucked into his pockets and his blond hair disheveled. The corner of his boot almost scraped the icefang hidden in the snow. Without her interference, it would have taken his foot off.
Nikolos never even noticed.
***
After Donia and Nikolos climbed up the seemingly never-ending ladder leading from the fifteenth floor to the sixteenth, Donia remembered something that she had been trying to forget.
She hated this floor.
The entire thing was just
Annoying as this job might be, she had to prove she could do it.
A patch of glittering snow caught Donia’s attention, lying at the base of a twisted tree. In the right light, it looked as though someone had sprinkled the snow with a handful of crushed diamonds or powdered glass.
She recognized the signs immediately, as any Helgard Traveler would: an icefang lay in wait beneath that shimmering snow.
Icefangs were among the least of the dangers that Helgard had to offer, but she had known careless Travelers to lose chunks of flesh to an icefang bite. The creatures were scavengers, usually preying on the sick or the dead. She wondered if Nikolos counted as sickly. They were also highly territorial, and it was entirely possible that she had tread near this one’s burrow without realizing it.
Donia took a few steps closer to the icefang, away from Nikolos. The beast began to tremble, almost imperceptibly.
She held her middle two fingers together, leaving her other fingers spread out, stretching her hand out to the icefang in a sign of peace.
For a few seconds, the scavenger’s eager trembling stopped as it felt Donia’s imposed peace wash over it. That wouldn’t be enough to stop it, not on its own, but it gave Donia enough time to enact the next step.
Under her breath, Donia whispered the icefang’s name.
Not its personal name, of course. Learning that would have taken entirely too long, and she didn’t have time for that right now. Instead, she recited the generic name for the icefang species. It was twelve syllables long, all but impossible to pronounce, and all icefangs would respond to it to some degree.
She had heard it said that being a Helgard Traveler was half research and half rote memorization. In fact, she had spent three-quarters of her time as a student simply memorizing the hundreds upon hundreds of names that all Travelers of Helgard were expected to know as a matter of course.
At this point, keeping an icefang quiet required no more effort than walking through the snow.
As usual, when she correctly named a creature, she felt a rush of emotions in return. With more intelligent creatures, she would receive a rush of specific thoughts and memories, but the icefang was little more than a vulture. It felt frustration, deep hunger, and a barely-restrained eagerness to attack the intruders that had dared to set foot in its home.
The peace she had imposed with her sign still lingered in the creature’s mind, and the unnatural calm also gave the icefang a degree of confusion. It wasn’t used to being calm.
As always, the icefang’s emotions weren’t the only things that got transferred along the bond. Donia felt her own frustration with Nikolos, her hope to please the Overlord, her fear that she wouldn’t live up to her reputation, and her satisfaction at finally being home in Helgard all flow out of her.
The icefang wouldn’t fully comprehend any of that, of course, but it grew to understand her nature just as she understood it. More than anything, it felt her power and authority as a Traveler of Helgard. It knew that she could call up a dozen forces more deadly than itself, and it wanted no part of that.
The glittering snow shrunk two sizes as the icefang cowered in the snowbank.
Nearby, Nikolos heaved a sigh and rose to his feet.
“I suppose I was mistaken,” he said at last. “We must remain vigilant.”
He trudged over to Donia with his hands tucked into his pockets and his blond hair disheveled. The corner of his boot almost scraped the icefang hidden in the snow. Without her interference, it would have taken his foot off.
Nikolos never even noticed.
***
After Donia and Nikolos climbed up the seemingly never-ending ladder leading from the fifteenth floor to the sixteenth, Donia remembered something that she had been trying to forget.
She hated this floor.
The entire thing was just
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