The Deceiver's Path - Chapter 131 - Biting Winds (Patreon)

A gust of arctic wind sent snowflakes eddying around the camp, temporarily blotting out the sun and turning the entire world white. When the squall finally passed, the remains of the fire had been buried under a thin layer of slush.

Ophelia stamped her feet and shook the snow off her cloak, her teeth chattering loudly. “What are we supposed to do? We’re all going to freeze to death here!”

“There’s no need to panic,” Piper said, scanning the forest. “All we have to do is find a dead tree to cut down. That should give us enough firewood to get through the day and hopefully the night.”

Zenos craned his head back and shielded his eyes from the sun. “The next storm looks nasty. Regardless of what Lysander said, we should consider leaving the valley.”

“We were told to stay here for five days,” Piper pointed out. “And we’ve only been here for one so far.”

Ophelia scowled. “Who cares about joining a stupid guild if we freeze to death? Lysander can stay in this stupid valley, but I want my warm bed.”

“I’m with your sister,” Zenos said, rubbing his hands together.

Frowning, Piper examined the frozen landscape. Even if they wanted to leave, it would take hours of hiking through frozen terrain to exit the valley. And then they’d have to climb down the mountain. The trip here had taken nearly half a day in good weather. With snow up to their waists, it would be almost impossible to make it back to the villa before nightfall.

“We’d never make it back before dark,” she said. “If we get stuck outside overnight without shelter, then we’d almost certainly freeze to death. I think our best bet is to stay here.”

“No way.” Ophelia crossed her arms. “I’m going back to the villa, and you’re coming with me. You’re not staying here in this frozen abyss.”

“We’ll never make it,” Piper insisted. “Remember, in survival training, they always said to stay put if we got into trouble.”

“Don’t you remember back home?” Ophelia asked. “Sometimes the storms would last for days or even weeks. At least there we had a real home with food. What do we have here? A little lean-to that barely keeps us warm? We’re all going to freeze our butts off out here!”

Piper considered her friends' words. None of their options looked particularly appealing at the moment. But if they decided to leave the valley, they might get stuck outside on a bare mountainside with no shelter overnight.

Then there was the matter of getting into trouble with the guild. After all the work she’d put in over the last year and a half, she really didn’t want to get kicked out of the Silver Hippogriffs for disobeying Lysander.

However, she also didn’t want to stay here and slowly freeze. Then there was the matter of food. Small game would be almost impossible to hunt with the thick layer of snow on the ground. And most birds would hunker down for the storm, making them more difficult to find.

Unless the valley had some larger game that she hadn’t seen any sign of during her brief time here, they would have no food for the next four days. She wouldn’t even be able to forage for berries and tubers after the heavy snowfall.

Exhaling slowly, she looked at the others. “We’ll take a vote. Whatever we do, I think it should be unanimous. Especially since we’re risking getting punished by the guild if we leave.”

Ophelia blew into her hands to warm them before speaking. “I say we get out of here.”

Zenos peered at Ophelia before turning his gaze to Piper. He seemed to be weighing the options in his mind. Finally, he said, “I vote we leave as well.”

Piper nodded slowly. “I think we should leave, too.”

“Great!” Ophelia cried out. “I bet if we hurry, we can make it back in time for dinner. Maybe they’re even having honeyed eels again. I would kill for a big dinner right now.”

Glancing down at the snow, Piper didn’t share her friend’s enthusiasm. Maybe if they had snowshoes, they might make it to the villa before nightfall. But trudging through snow that was almost up to her chest in some spots would make for slow, arduous travel.

Still, she didn’t want to share her doubts with the group. Instead, she gestured at the shelter. “Make sure you have everything. We have to leave this instant if we’re going to make it back to the villa before dinner.”

Her friend gave her a lop-sided grin. “We weren’t allowed to bring anything with us. Remember, Pip?”

“Oh, right.” She grinned weakly. “Sorry, I’m a bit tired.”

Zenos pulled his cloak around himself and pushed into the deep snow. “I should probably lead the way. I remember the path to the valley entrance.”

Holding out her hand, she stopped her companion before he could go any further. “You’re just going to exhaust yourself doing that.”

The young man cocked his head to the side. “Did you have something else in mind?”

“I may have another idea…”

Piper cast [Shifting Veil] and visualized a woolly rhinoceros in her mind. A moment later, the massive, shaggy beast took shape in front of them. She barely reached halfway to the rhino’s hairy shoulder, and its towering horn must have been at least two meters long.

She then cast [Flesh Weaver] to give the illusion mass and form. The moment she did, the beast sank deeper into the snow. With a flick of its horn, the rhino hurled the snow away from itself. An avalanche of icy flakes crashed over Ophelia, who was standing directly in its path.

Ophelia’s mouth dropped open, and she held her hands out to the side. After standing there stunned for a second, she shook her arms and pulled at the collar of her tunic. “There’s snow down my shirt!” she cried out. “You did that on purpose!”

Piper fought down the urge to giggle at her friend's shocked expression. She hadn’t ordered the rhino to clear away the snow, and its actions must have been from the new spell granting her summons limited autonomy. Apparently, an illusion of a summoned rhino would act like its wild counterpart.

As Ophelia gathered a pile of snow with her hands, Piper mentally commanded the woolly rhino to begin clearing a path for them. She dodged a snowball thrown by her friend and hurried after the beast. Every few steps, the illusory rhino used its towering horn to clear a wide path for them.

Marching forward, Piper dodged another barrage of snowballs and continued across the mountain slope. After nearly a quarter of an hour had passed, Zenos tapped her on the shoulder and pointed down into the valley spreading out below them.

A howling wind sprang up as they descended the rocky slope. The wind cut straight through her cloak, making her shiver and flex her numb fingers. Already, she could barely feel her hands and feet.

Above, the sunlight faded as dark clouds swept across the sky. With the arrival of the storm, tiny flakes descended in a flurry, obscuring the distance behind a veil of falling snow. Before long, she knew they would be blinded by whiteouts.

Glancing over at Ophelia, she saw that her friend was struggling with the cold. Her lips had turned blue, and her skin was deathly pale. Even worse, her friend wasn’t throwing any more snowballs, which was a really bad sign. It probably hadn’t helped that the rhino had thrown half a snowdrift over the young woman.

“Zenos,” she called out above the wind streaking down the mountain. “Can you do something about this storm?”

“I’ll try,” he said stiffly. “I don’t know if I can stop a gale this strong.”

The young man must have cast something because the windstorm died down to a stiff breeze. Almost immediately, it felt as though the temperature had risen a few degrees. But judging by the look of concentration on the wind mage’s face, he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long.

Piper ordered her illusory rhino to increase its pace. As she did, she slipped up beside Ophelia and offered her hand. Her friend shook her head and stumbled onward. It seemed she wasn’t ready to accept any help yet.

The three of them plunged back into the forest, the snow becoming shallower and allowing them to pick up their pace. Several times, they reached snowbanks taller than Zenos, but the rhino plowed straight through them.

When Piper reached a clearing, she spotted three aspirants clustered around a tree. She’d almost missed seeing them at first, as their cloaks were almost completely covered with a layer of ice. Only when one of them shifted did she realize what she was looking at.

A young man whose name she couldn’t recall pulled back his hood slightly to gawk at the rhino. He rose unsteadily to his feet.

“You have a pet woolly rhino?” the man gasped.

Ophelia grinned at him. “Didn’t you know that I’m one of the greatest beast tamers in the land? This little fellow wandered into our camp, and I convinced him to help us get out of the valley.”

The man motioned for the others to rise. He frowned when one of them jerked upright before collapsing to the side. After helping the young woman regain her feet, he turned to face them again. “It’s Piper, right?”

Piper nodded.

“My name is Marco, leader of my group. I assume you’re trying to leave the valley?”

She nodded again.

“Praise the Emperor. We tried to escape from this snowstorm, but Thalia couldn’t go any further. The rest of us were too weak from the cold to carry her the rest of the way.”

Pressing her lips together, she considered the situation. The aspirants looked half-frozen and probably had no chance of walking out of the valley on their own. Then she glanced over at her illusory beast. There was no reason they couldn’t ride the rhino out of here.

“Climb up on the rhino,” she said. “It’ll carry you to safety.”

Ophelia spun around. “Wait, that’s an option? And I’ve been walking this whole time like a chump?” As she realized the other aspirants were staring at her, she coughed. “I mean, I knew that was an option, being an amazing beast tamer. I just didn’t want to ride on this majestic creature for reasons which I won’t be telling anyone.”

Piper smiled at her friend. “There’s probably room on there for you, too.”

“No,” her friend sighed. “I’ll keep walking for now. Let the others ride on it.”

With Zenos’ help, they guided the half-frozen aspirants over to the woolly rhino. One by one they boosted them onto its back, where they clung tightly to the long hair. Hopefully, the beast’s thick coat enfolding them would help to protect them from the cold.

Once the aspirants were all firmly on the beast’s back, she ordered it forward again. This time she commanded it to move more slowly. She didn’t want a swing of its head to dislodge one of its riders.

The now-larger group continued through the storm, the snowfall increasing until it was impossible to see more than a couple of paces. The wind continued to whip through the forest, sometimes blinding them with blowing snow. Piper could only pray Zenos knew the way, as she was completely turned around.

As the numbness continued to creep up her limbs, she focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The next time she went to the Infernal Realm, she needed to defeat a fire demon for moments like this one. There must be at least one demon there who could summon fire.

Without warning, Ophelia’s legs gave out from underneath her. Lurching forward, Piper managed to catch her friend before she tumbled into a snowdrift. She glanced down to see the young woman’s eyes closed, with ice crystals stuck to her long lashes.

“We need to find shelter!” she shouted to Zenos. “We’re not going to make it out of the valley. Can you do anything about the storm again?”

He shook his head. “There’s something unnatural about this storm. It’s resisting my efforts to calm the wind.”

“Then we need to stop here!” she called back. “They can’t go any further.”

“We’ll never survive without fire,” he replied, his words nearly drowned out by the howling snowstorm. The wind had grown to hurricane force, making the surrounding trees creak ominously.

Piper glanced at the other aspirants. The ones they’d rescued from the clearing clung desperately to the woolly rhino, but she could tell from their pinched expressions that their strength was failing. And Ophelia needed to warm up immediately. Otherwise, she was going to suffer frostbite—or worse.

Pushing the heels of her palms into her eyes, she sighed deeply. She had no idea why the guild hadn’t mounted a rescue operation to retrieve them yet. Was this really all part of the outdoor survival training? Or had something gone terribly wrong when the winter storms rolled into the valley?

She had three options to choose from, and she didn’t like any of them. The first was that they could push forward in the hope of escaping the valley. But they’d still have to make the trek down the open mountain to the villa far below. She wasn’t sure any of them would survive that long.

The second option was to take shelter here. They could burrow down into the snow to insulate themselves somewhat from the wind, but with everyone in such poor shape, she feared it wouldn’t be enough. She needed to warm them up somehow.

The third option was to seek shelter. There might be a deadfall or somewhere else in the forest where they could set up a small shelter. Though they would need to find something quickly. And then she’d still have to gather some dead wood and figure out a way to ignite it.

Zenos tramped up to her side. “I’m starting to regret our decision to leave our shelter.”

“Tell me about it,” she murmured. “But we had to at least try to leave.”

“What do you think we should do?”

Piper shifted Ophelia in her grip, who was leaning heavily on her side. Her friend was mumbling something under her breath, but she couldn’t quite make it out. “We need to find a shelter,” she said. “It’s our only hope.”

“I don’t suppose you can create one with your spell?”

Piper pursed her lips. She could create one with her spell, but it would disappear as soon as she fell asleep. And she could only use [Enduring Casting] on one thing at a time. She didn’t want to accidentally nod off and revert to being a demoness. That would cause some serious problems.

“I can try,” she said slowly. “But I’m not sure if it’s going to work.”

“If you’re going to do something, I would do it soon.”

Piper nodded and raked her mind for the best type of shelter to cast. Hopefully, whatever she managed to come up with would get them through the night.