The barrack doors creaked open, a cold wind swirling through, raising goosebumps on Riv’s arms. Aphra strode through the doors, her unit captains behind her. They marched to the fire-pit, all eyes upon them.
‘Make sure your kit-bags are packed and your weapons polished,’ Aphra said. ‘We’re marching out at dawn.’
‘Why?’ Riv called out before she could rein in her tongue.
Aphra stared at Riv a long moment, silence settling in the hall.
‘We’re going to Oriens, a town on the east road, about a ten-night’s march. Israfil has received strange reports. Screams heard by travellers on the road. No word from there since.’ Aphra looked around the whole hall, her gaze finally coming back to rest upon Riv and her mam.
‘Israfil fears the Kadoshim are behind it.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
DREM
Hildith, Ulf and their riders were arriving as Drem stepped into the yard, through the huge hole in the building’s side. It had exploded outwards, splintered wood sprayed about the yard, littering the ground, spiking up through the snow, like the skeleton of a leviathan in a white sea.
Except for the blood.
Droplets speckled the ground, no death wound, but injuries, nevertheless.
Is the bear wounded? From Surl as the hound put up a fight? Or is it Fritha’s blood, spilt as it crushed her in its jaws?
He didn’t like that thought and pushed it away.
His da appeared by his side.
‘You like this girl, don’t you?’
‘I do,’ Drem muttered, only admitting the thought to himself at the same time as he did to his da. At that internal and external confession he felt a rush of fear and dread at what might have happened to her. The thought of life without her sky-blue eyes and freckles.
‘We’d best be getting after her, then,’ Olin said.
Drem nodded.
‘Why’s the bear taken her?’ Olin muttered.
‘Bears do that, take their kill to a den where they can eat in peace,’ Drem said. ‘The white bear did it with our elk, remember?’ He thought his da was being kindly, telling him that, even though they both knew that Fritha, despite not being here, was most likely dead.
‘Why did it leave Hask and the hound?’ Olin muttered, quieter, more to himself than to Drem.
For the first time in his life Drem didn’t want to ask questions. He felt frantic with worry for Fritha, desperate to find or avenge her.
‘Now’s the time to hunt, Da,’ Drem said.
Olin looked up at him and nodded.
Drem sat silently upon his mount, snowflakes falling steadily about him, gusts of wind catching and swirling them into twisting, spiralling patterns, like a kaleidoscope of white butterflies. His da was beside him, Hildith and Ulf just ahead.
We are wasting time. Let’s get on with it, Drem thought, knuckles white as he gripped his reins.
Ulf raised a horn to his lips and gave a great, ringing blast. Hounds were released from their leashes and bounded baying into the gloom, noses to the ground. From left and right answering horn calls echoed out, dull, distant things in the snow-shrouded woods. They had followed the bear tracks in the snow from Fritha’s hold back to the woods and then formed a long line through the trees, over a hundred men wide, far wider than Drem could see, long enough, he hoped, to catch any sneaky creature that thought to circle around the hounds on its trail, as a beast at bay is likely to do. With a stuttering shudder, Drem lurched into motion, following Ulf and the hounds-men who led the way, following the blood-spattered bear-prints into the wooded murk of shadow and thorn.
Drem saw his da glance skyward, searching for any sign of the sun’s position through the snow curtain beyond the branches above. It was hard to tell, but Drem guessed it was closer to sunset than highsun.
Not the best time for a bear-hunt. It should really be starting with dawn on the morrow.
But then Fritha would be gone another day. The cold will have killed her even if the bear hasn’t.
A branch slapped into Drem’s face, sharp fingers raking his cheek. The trees were growing thicker about them, branches lower, men ducking in their saddles. They’d made the decision to stay mounted for as long as possible, just to use every moment of extra speed to close the gap between them and their quarry, but the time to dismount and leave the horses behind was rapidly approaching.
The line of hunters grew fractured, the thickening trees and dense scrub a barrier that sent horses searching for easier paths. A horn blast, and then they were dismounting, Ulf choosing a score of his followers to stay with the mounts, the rest of them reforming as best they could and marching on.
Hounds bayed somewhere ahead of Drem, a fresh excitement in their barking. His da was beside him, the next hunter a vague shadow slipping in and out of view.
‘Do you think they’ve found it?’ Drem asked his da, a hand reaching for his sword.
Should have brought a spear.
His throat still hurt, inside and outside, his cloak rubbing against the rope-burn, his voice grating raw when he spoke.
‘No,’ Olin said. ‘They’d be making a different sound entirely if they had. More like dying.’ He looked at Drem’s face, saw the worry in his eyes. ‘They might be getting closer, though, the scent stronger.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ Drem muttered.
Snow was falling thick about them, swirling with gusts and eddies into banks at their feet.
If it’s this thick inside this wood, what is it like beyond it? We’ll be needing to dig through snowbanks to get in our front door.
A hand closed around his wrist.
‘Drem,’ his da said, leaning close, ‘we should leave.’
‘What!’
I can’t. Fritha.
Olin saw Drem’s expression, but continued anyway.
‘We should go, now. While we have a chance.’
‘Da, how can you say this?’
‘Drem, you’re usually the practical one. Think. I’ve told you what I plan to do.’ He put a hand to the sword that was hanging through a leather thong at his hip, the blade wrapped in leather and sheepskin.
Asroth. Drassil. With us being attacked, Fritha taken, I’d almost forgotten my da plans on slaying a demon-lord.
‘Hildith and Ulf have told us we are involved in this investigation into Calder’s death. Do you think we’ll just be allowed to leave? And now there’s blood feud against us. A whole town of miners and trappers out for our blood. I’ve told you: something is wrong here, and we need to be away, before it’s too late. This is the perfect opportunity, while the townsfolk, and the men who wish us dead, are stumbling snow-blind amongst these woods. We could just turn around and go back, and no one would know for a good while. We could get a day’s head start. We should go.’
He let go of Drem’s wrist, just held his gaze. His looked grieved to say it, clearly knew the turmoil Drem was feeling over Fritha.
‘You’re right,’ Drem said, ‘it is logical. It does make sense. But . . . Fritha . . .’ He trailed off, unsure of what he meant or wanted, just knowing that he felt torn, emotions running through him that he was unable to put into words. He looked at his da, feeling as miserable and conflicted as he could ever remember.
His da sighed, nodded.