Swords Over Fireshore (26 page)

Glancing aside, she saw that Vanorin was watching them. She offered him the bread Luruthin had refused, and he took it with a nod of thanks. She held his gaze for a moment, silently questioning. He glanced at Luruthin and gave a small shrug.

Well, they would go carefully today. They would have to take care in any case, for the snow would make crossing the heights treacherous. She glanced toward the smoke vent in the roof, where the sky showed bright, sharp blue. At least they had sun.

By the time the snow covering their shelter began to drip with melting, Vanorin had everyone ready to march. They took down the last two blankets and stowed them away in packs, scattered the coals and doused them with snow, and pulled apart the roof, taking the stripped support poles for walking sticks.

Vanorin took up the lead again, prodding at the snow ahead with his stick. It was not deep, but in places it drifted as high as his knee. They went slowly, carefully.

Eliani was glad for the occasional splashes of sunlight across her shoulders, though the brightness of the snow blinded her whenever they crossed open spaces. They climbed higher, making for a hot spring marked on Kivhani's map. If they reached it they would spend the night there.

Vanorin called fewer halts, possibly because their careful pace seemed to tire Luruthin less. Whenever Eliani glanced back at him he was walking with his head bowed, frowning, squinting against the bright snow. Her thoughts kept returning to his vision, and she was watchful, keeping open to any change in the khi of the forests around them.

Glancing westward she searched for signs of another storm, and was glad to see that the sky was clear. The Great Sleeper was powdered white down to its shoulders. She felt safer here in the heights, despite the cold and the hazardous snow, than she would down on the trade road.

In the afternoon the wind picked up sharply, and she and Luruthin took out their blankets to use as cloaks. Their progress continued slow, although Eliani could see that they were steadily gaining ground. By dusk they had come near a jutting finger of rock that was a landmark on the map. The spring was some distance beyond it, and Eliani resigned herself to not reaching it until the next day.

Vanorin found a curved hollow in the rocky mountainside that would accommodate them all. Using their sticks as poles again, he and Felahran set up a frame over which to hang blankets across the front of the space.

There was no room to make a fire. They would have had to dig beneath the snow to find firewood anyway, and it was enough to be out of the wind, sharing the warmth of their bodies in the close space.

Eliani joined Luruthin as the party settled in together for the night. “Will you be all right?”

“Yes. It was the snow overhead that troubled me before. I felt trapped in darkness...”

Dismay crossed his face as words failed him. He shook his head as if to clear it. “This will be all right.”

She smiled to encourage him, then lay back between him and Birani. Outside the wind moaned among the rocks and whispered in the evergreens, a sad sound.

Eliani felt her brow grow warm and smiled as she closed her eyes. Yes, my love?

We are making camp. Where are you?

On the shoulders of the Sleeper, crouched behind our blankets. Come and warm us.

I wish I could. More snow?

No, it is clear tonight, but bitter cold.

They shared what little news they had, then settled into comfortable silence, holding each other's thought as they might have held hands were they together in flesh. Eliani tried to lie still, but found it difficult not to fidget. The close quarters, everyone touching his neighbor, helped to keep them warm but made it difficult to relax. She was aware of everyone's khi, and knew that the others, too, were waiting out the uncomfortable night.

At length Vanorin sat up and remained so. Eliani watched him as he listened, frowning, to the low moaning of the wind. It had fallen off somewhat, she thought. She felt cold on one side, and turning her head saw that Birani was gone, then remembered that the guardian had stepped out some while ago.

With a cold sinking in her heart, Eliani realized that Vanorin was listening for Birani's return. He turned his head to meet her gaze, then stood.

Eliani got up as well, folding her edge of the blanket around Luruthin. She followed Vanorin outside.

The wind had indeed fallen, though the air was bitter and the stars glittered overhead like sparks of white fire. Birani must have gone to the place they had agreed on for use as a privy, for no other footprints were visible in the snow than the trail worn down by the party. Eliani felt the need to make use of the privy herself, now that she was out in the cold.

She followed Vanorin until he suddenly halted. Eliani looked past him to where a dark shape lay in the snow.

“No!” She clapped a hand over her mouth at Vanorin's sharp glance.

Her heart hammered. She followed Vanorin's cautious advance and stopped when he held up a hand. He crouched and pushed the figure over. It was Birani, blood clotted at a wound upon her throat, just beneath one ear.

Eliani moaned softly. Vanorin gently touched Birani, seeking a pulse. Eliani knew that he would find none. There was no spark of khi in the air around the guardian. She was dead.

Luruthin held his blanket close as he hurried after Eliani. He had known something was wrong when he heard her startled cry. Now she turned and gestured to him to stay away, but he had already seen what lay beyond.

A female, dead. Birani, their clan-sister.

Shock and horror swept through him, then his gaze fixed on her throat, where dark, frozen blood had scarcely closed a sharp cut. He could smell the blood despite the cold, and it sparked a strange twist in his gut. Turning away, he stumbled a few steps and then fell on his knees in the snow, retching.

Hands gripped his shoulders as his stomach heaved. When the spasms ceased, he felt shaken and weak.

“Come away.” Eliani's voice was gentle.

She helped him stand, retrieved the blanket he had dropped and shook it free of snow, and supported him as they walked back to the hollow. Felahran and Onami came toward them, faces anxious.

“Birani has been attacked and killed. Please help Vanorin.”

Looking alarmed, they hastened past. Luruthin wished that he could help as well. He felt angry at his weakness.

When they reached the hollow he sat down, huddling in the blanket. “Go and help them, I will be all right.”

“I will not leave you alone.”

A shudder passed through him. Eliani knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around him. Warmth spread through him from her touch. He sighed and bowed his head, closing his eyes. He had not realized how cold he was.

“So your vision was a warning.”

He remembered the savage eyes he had seen, then the image of dead guardian returned to him even more vividly. Frozen blood black against her flesh, black spatters in the snow.

“But this was the work of no beast. Her throat was cut, not bitten.”

“Kobalen, perhaps.”

“Up here, in the snow? I doubt it.”

Eliani made no answer. If it had not been kobalen, it must have been alben. Yes, alben.

Horror shook him, making him shiver again. Eliani's arms tightened around him. How had the alben found them? Had they hunted him even into the heights of the Ebons? The eyes in his vision had been golden, not black.

Fear froze his thinking, but he was able to find a flaw in the reasoning that alben had attacked Birani. If the alben had followed them, why had they waited so long, and why had they not attacked the entire party?

Sounds reached him from outside, voices and shuffling footsteps. They had brought Birani back with them, he realized as he heard them laying her down. Vanorin was talking of finding wood for a pyre.

Eliani raised her head, listening. Luruthin drew away.

“Go ahead. I am all right.”

She got up and went out. Alone behind the blankets, Luruthin shivered as he listened to their plans.

In the morning they would build a pyre for Birani, cut wood for it if they had to. They would take her sword and a few of her belongings back to Alpinon to give to her family. They had no leisure to make a conce, but they could set a plain stone to mark the place where she had fallen, and later it could be replaced with a conce, if anyone wished to make the journey.

Luruthin closed his eyes. Honoring everyone they had lost on this mission would require setting conces from Alpinon to Ghlanhras. He had never expected that so many would fall, that the hazards would be so numerous and so deadly. Most of the misfortune could be attributed to the alben, some directly to Shalár. A twist of anger tightened in his chest.

Someone pulled the blankets aside, letting in a gust of cold air. Luruthin looked up and saw Eliani, burdened with Birani's leather armor. He could smell the blood on it, and his empty stomach tightened into a knot.

“Put this on.”

He stared at her, aghast. He shook his head.

“It will keep you warm. Put it on.”

Her voice was stern and commanding. She dropped the armor beside him and went back outside.

He gazed at the crumpled heap of leather, tears welling in his eyes. He did not feel right benefiting by Birani's death, but Eliani was correct. He must avail himself of every advantage.

Poor Birani. He remembered her dancing a few steps around the campfire in the Lost's meadow, just two nights since, laughing and tossing her freshly braided hair. She was slighter of build than he. With trembling fingers he reached out to loosen the straps of the leathers.

“Vanorin, do not go alone.” Eliani could not keep the dread from her voice.

“Onami may come with me. Stay here.”

Onami glanced at her, then followed Vanorin down the trail back toward where they had found Birani. Eliani watched, feeling helpless, foolish, frightened. She wanted to command their return.

She was about to go back to the camp when she heard Vanorin's startled cry. She ran, heart pounding.

At a turning she saw Vanorin on his knees, Onami sprawled, sword fallen from her hand. Blotches of blood, dark on the snow, and a face snarling at her.

“Kelevon!”

He let his snarl become a grin. “Hello, my sweet.”

Even as she reached for her sword, she heard footsteps behind her. Kelevon threw his knife, and Eliani heard the thud of it striking home.

Half turning, she glimpsed Felahran, the knife lodged in his throat. She let out a cry of dismay as she turned toward Kelevon, drawing her sword.

Pain swept over her; khi that was fire, angry fire. Stunned, she stumbled, then it was gone and Kelevon was at Vanorin's side.

“No!”

Eliani lunged forward, sword swinging. Kelevon sprang away, laughing.

“Farewell, sweet Eliani!”

He turned and fled. She would have pursued but for fear that Vanorin needed her help.

“Coward!
Traitor!
”

It felt good to scream that at him. An arrow hissed past her as she turned; Luruthin stood over Felahran, bow in hand. She met his gaze, then knelt beside Vanorin.

“Are you wounded?”

He shook his head, breathing unsteadily. “Help the others.”

She put a hand on his shoulder briefly, and was reassured. His khi was far from calm, but he was unhurt.

She stood, swallowed, and went to Felahran.