“You can stop now.” She said in a soft voice.

  “I just want to be sure.” He said, his eyes darting back to the corpses. “I don’t want them to ambush us again.”

  “I do not believe they will. Why don’t you check on the witches? Can you do that for me? Check on everyone in the group and see if they need anything.”

  “I can do that.” He nodded. “Is everyone ok? Is Siouxsie ok?” he asked.

  “That’s what I want you to find out. Talk to everyone and report back. Be quick now.”

  “Yes, Hoxley!” He said with urgency before hustling off toward Ignatius. The poor thing was still in shock from the atrocities that had taken place. It would take some time, perhaps a lifetime for Morell to understand what had come to pass. She hoped in time he might forgive her. In the distance, the sun began to rise. As the first golden rays began to appear, the shadow girl recoiled. She quickly shrank in size to stay out of their path and in mere moments had diminished in size to that of a normal person before snaking across the last remaining darkness to reform in front of Hoxley and the others.

  “Dawn has come.” She said in her ghostly voice. “I cannot do anymore for now.”

  “You’ve saved our lives.” Said Hoxley. “We all owe you a great debt.”

  “And I to you for delivering me from the desert. I would still like very much to travel with you within your pockets if you’ll allow me. I don’t wish to stay here in these mountains. You’re still heading west, aren’t you?”

  “We are.” said the prince. “You’re welcome to travel in my pockets if you like.”

  “Thank you.” She said, stealing another quick glance at the quickly arriving dawn. “I fear staying in this form any longer would prove fatal.” Her girlish form collapsed upon itself until she was barely a black stain on the ground before she slithered up his pantleg, vanishing somewhere beneath his clothes. Here and there Siouxsie and Robert stepped across the bodies of the fallen soldiers, picking pockets and collecting coins for their pouches. Hoxley watched them for a moment before looking into the distance where the sunrise grew brighter to greet her.

  “Welcome, sunlight. Get rid of this terrible night so that it can quickly become a forgotten memory.” She said. “I do not wish to remember it.”

  “Nor I.” said Morell, looking over the mace in his hand. “I thought I was brave…”

  “You were very brave,” said Ignatius with an encouraging hand upon the shoulder. “Brave as any of us. The battles of our lives seldom come when we choose but we must meet them nonetheless. Do not doubt yourself. Your heart is as mighty as that mace.” The boy said nothing but nodded with reluctant acceptance.

  “Hey!” shouted Siouxsie. “Hey! Look what we found!” Everyone turned to see the twins carrying a large box made of metal and wood between them. An ornate iron lock clonked and banged as it swung from a hasp on the front. The pair brought it before the group and dropped it in the snow with a “clunk”.

  “What’s this?” asked Idris.

  “Spoils, hopefully.” Said Robert. “If this chest contains the wages for all the soldiers, then we’re going to have enough copper or gold to buy rooms at an inn with a large soft bed and a hot baths and hot meals and treats. Morell?” he asked “Would you open it?”

  “I don’t have the key.” Said the boy.

  “You have a large one in your hand.” Robert pointed to his Lythiuum mace.

  “Oh, yes! I suppose that might work.” Everyone took a step back and Morell brought the bulbous head of the mace down upon the lock, smashing not only the lock but the front half of the case as well with an appalling “Cronk!” Robert stepped in and struggled to get the ruined lid free before finally throwing it open. At first, Hoxley couldn’t figure out what the item was. It almost resembled a huge white pearl giving off a green ethereal glow. Everyone else looked upon the case with dire anxiousness. It wasn’t until she took a step to her left that she saw what they beheld. It wasn’t a pearl at all but the skull of a person with a strange and unsettling green magical glow twisting around inside it.

  “Bad magick!” Siouxsie shrieked as she pointed and backed away from the chest. “Bad magick!” It took the blink of an eye for Ignatius to react to her words and kick the lid closed with his winklepicker before snatching Morell’s mace from him and pushing the boy aside.

  “Stand back!” he said motioning for everyone to clear a bath to the side of the mountain. With a quick stutter step, he swung a mighty underhanded blow at the box to connect with it fully on the backside. The box and its sinister contents went sailing off the mountain into the morning air before falling down, down, down, to the depths below. Once it was out of sight, he handed the mace back to its owner.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “What was that, Ignatius?” asked the prince. “Why was there a skull in that box?”

  “Bad magick.” He replied. “Sorcery of the foulest sort. That’s not something soldiers or any normal man carries with them. They brought that with them to aid to get rid of anyone in their path.”

  “How can you know that?” asked Idris.

  “What other purpose can there be?” asked Ignatius as he sheathed his sword. “The prince’s murderous uncle has a magic user in his company and his soldiers came looking for us. We cannot stay here in this place. We must leave immediately. Quickly, everyone, quickly! Gather your things! We must leave now! We must-“ As he spoke these words, the entire mountain began to tremble and shake beneath their feet.

  “What’s happening? Asked Siouxsie

  “Tremors? Asked Hoxley, her head whipping back and forth in search of shifting snow. “Is it an avalanche?”

  “This isn’t natural!” Ignatius commanded. “To the crest! Head for the high ground!” The companions wasted no time rushing up the hill. The twins mounted their brooms and sped ahead, landing upon the highest point. From there, they yelled and encouraged the others to catch up. They each scaled the flat top once more and when the last boot found its footing upon it, the trembling stopped.

  “Thank goodness it’s subsided.” Sighed Idris. “A landslide of any kind at this height could prove fatal for anyone.”

  Just then, the eyes of the companions were leant a terrible aspect. An unholy pillar of light green light leapt straight up from the depths where Ignatius had rejected the skull and its case. The bright pillar glowed a menacing green light stretching from the foot of the mountain straight to the sky where it immediately began to conjure dark clouds already churning green flashes of the same evil lightning behind the rolling darkness and its grumbling thunder within.

  “Siouxsie?” asked Hoxley “You’re not still casting, are you?”

  “No! his isn’t my doing!” She said “It’s the glowing skull, not me!”

  “This looks like the storm I saw before with the other scouts.” Said Robert coldly. “We’re all in danger! We have to get off this mountain as fast as we can or we may get caught up in its maddening!”

  “You heard the witch!” Hoxley called out. “There’s no time to waste! If you can’t fly, give me your packs and I’ll carry them.” Morell, Idris and the Prince were taking their arms out of their straps when six bolts of green lightning shot from the storm clouds. The crack of the bolts caused everyone to cringe and cower as three struck each side of the mountain a hundred paces from the crest; half to the west, half to the east.

  “What was that?” asked Morell?”

  “I’ve never seen the like.” said Hoxley. “It would be a mistake to linger.” Then, as if on cue, the ground began to tremble and shake again. So violent were the rumblings that Morell was thrown from his feet and landed with his nose upon a pair of winklepickers.

  “Get up.” Said Robert, reaching down to pull the boy vertical by the crook of the arm. After a few moments the shaking subsided. For a few breaths, Hoxley scanned the area looking for more signs of disturbances. When she thought it safe to continue, she turned to corral the others onward. That’s when Siouxsie’s voice split the frigid air.

  “Ignatius! Look!” she called as she pointed further down the mountain “What is that?” The eyes of Ignatius and the others followed to where her finger led. What they beheld none had ever experienced in their lives. What started as multiple bulging pockets of snow shifting about in place became something far more bizarre. The bulges grew and grew in size. Formations of ice grew out of the snow, becoming larger and taller by the second. Like baby birds pushing through their shells to be born, the foundations of frozen water mutated and raised themselves through the fresh powder to become even bigger in their proportions. Hoxley grew more frightened by the second. Looking to the east, the same three mounds were pushing their way through the surface. The ice creatures unfolded themselves to reveal fully formed ice terrors; grotesque and feral entities made of nightmares and frozen water. Each one’s face was a grotesque collection of sharp toothy maws and hollow black eye sockets. Their arms and legs looked mismatched and malformed but carried themselves in the same hungry manner as they started tromping up the hill. Elongated limbs like arms each held a claw of a hand at the end of it with icy scythes for fingernails.