Chapter 126: Abomination
In the dimly glowing cavern, Ashlynn’s mind worked rapidly as she tried to find a way out of this nightmare without doing as the ghostly Frost Walkers demanded. She wasn’t sure what the floating glyph the Frost Walkers had conjured would do to her, but if they wanted her to ’give energy’ to their work, she had no faith that they would stop at a point that was healthy to her.
They wouldn’t wait for Hauke to recover on his own and instead seized control of his body. That told her everything she needed to know about these ’ancestors’ and their respect for the living. Nyrielle had warned her several times that overdrawing sorcery could leave her an aged and withered husk and she feared that these ghosts wouldn’t stop using her energy until there was nothing left of her to give.
"Wait," she said, holding up her hands and casting her gaze around the room as she backed away from the menacing glyph in the air. "There should be another way. I don’t have enough energy to give. I will still help you break the ice," she insisted. "Let me find another way."
"Lies," the dark voice controlling Hauke said. Hauke shuffled toward her, moving as if he was a puppet controlled by strings. "Earth Children, endless energy. Use your witchcraft."
"No, no I can’t," Ashlynn protested. "Not here. No trees, no soil, no wind, no energy," she explained. "But, but I still have strength," she said. From the floor of the cave, she picked up a large rock the size of a small melon.
"Those glyphs," she said, pointing at the glyphs carved into the wall of ice. "What happens if I destroy them? Will that make it easier to break the wall?"
"Give your energy," the gravely, imperious voice said from Hauke’s mouth. "Do not delay!"
"Don’t kill if we don’t need to," the feminine voice said an instant later. The claw Hauke held to Heila’s neck seemed to tremble as the voices fell into disagreement. "He is like me, like you, like us. Will join us. He cares for these outsiders. Harming them harms him, harms us, harms you."
"Lytle Sweostor, strong is," the childish voice said as Hauke’s head tilted at a strange angle looking at Ashlynn. "Break glyphs will, break spell will, break wall will."