In the distance, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed against the northern horizon. The storm was gathering strength and moving closer, clouds rolling out of the darkness in massive banks.
“I can’t remember the last time we had a storm with thunder and lightning,” Kirisin said quietly. “Do you think it will rain hard?”
His sister nodded. “I do.”
“Maybe it means something,” he murmured.
“Maybe it means we will be getting wet before this night’s over. Better keep your cloak close at hand, Little K.”
They were silent for a time, listening to the peals of thunder, blinking against the sharp flashes of lightning, waiting for the storm to reach them. Kirisin realized all at once how sleepy he was and then remembered that there hadn’t been much time for sleep in almost two days.
“Angel will be furious when she finds out we’ve left her behind,” he said.
“Angel might be furious, but she will also be alive.” His sister gave a small sigh. “I don’t like leaving her, either. She’s a lot better equipped than we are to fight off what we are likely to come up against. But not like she is. She has to be well enough to stand on her own first. And we can’t wait on that. We can’t wait on anything if we’re going to help our people. We just don’t have a choice.”
“I know,” he said.
The rain began to fall, a steady downpour that quickly turned into a deluge. They huddled back against the cliff, doing what they could to stay dry. Everything more than ten feet away disappeared in shimmering wet curtains of water, swallowed as if it had vanished entirely. It was an unsettling feeling. Kirisin wondered what would happen if the river rose another foot or two, but decided the chances of that were small. Even a storm as strong as this one shouldn’t be able to swell the river that much. Redonnelin Deep had been ten feet higher twenty years ago, he had been told. But the weather patterns had changed, and rain was a rarity these days, even here in the northwest part of the country, where it had always rained regularly in the past.
“How are we going to do this, Sim?” Kirisin asked her suddenly.
For a moment, she didn’t say anything. It was so dark by now that he could barely make out her face. “I don’t know,” she said finally.
“Will they even give us a chance to tell them what might happen? Will they listen to anything we have to say?”
“Kirisin, I don’t know,” she repeated. She glanced over, and in a sudden flash of lightning he saw anger on her bruised face. “You have to find a way to make them listen, Little K. That’s what’s expected of you. That’s what you’ve been given to do. You have to figure out a way to do it!”
He was surprised at her vehemence, and he went silent immediately in response, hunkering down farther into his cloak to ward off the harshness of her words as much as the chill and the damp. He wished he hadn’t asked the question, that he had kept quiet about the whole business. She was right, after all. It was his charge to fulfill and his responsibility to figure how to carry it out. She had come with him on this journey out of love and loyalty, his big sister looking out for him. She had nearly died because of him back in the ice caves on Syrring Rise. Ultimately, she had saved his life. He had no right to expect anything more from her, no right to ask it.
He was embarrassed and ashamed that he had.
Nevertheless, after a long silence, she said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things. This isn’t your charge alone anymore. It’s mine, too. I accepted that when I decided to go with you in search of the Loden. I just get so frustrated about things. I know I don’t show it much. My Tracker training, I guess. I keep everything inside. I let it get away from me this time, and I shouldn’t have.”
“I shouldn’t be asking you to solve my problems,” he responded quickly. “You were right. I am the one who has to figure out how to make everyone believe. I am the one asking for their trust. So I have to demonstrate that I deserve it. You can’t do that for me.”
She reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “But I don’t have to make a big point of it, do I? What you need to hear is that I intend to stand with you no matter what.”
He grinned. “I never thought you would do anything else.”
He reached out to her and hugged her through the rain, feeling the reassuring comfort in her strong arms as they embraced him back. For just a moment, he could believe that no matter what obstacles they might face, they would be able to overcome them.
“Go to sleep,” she told him, breaking away. “I’ll keep watch.”
He was too tired to argue the matter, his eyes already drooping, his body stiff and aching. “Wake me so you can sleep, too,” he said.
But even as he hunkered down to shield himself against the weather, he knew that she wouldn’t.