“Thanks.”
Alex lay back down. Winter undressed in the dark and slipped under her own blanket. The thick wool the Mountain people had provided warmed up quickly, and she pulled it tighter with a contented sigh. Her legs burned, but her stomach was full, and for a moment she felt almost calm. Maybe it’s being in a proper camp again. There’s something about knowing there are people all around you.
“I really am sorry,” Alex said quietly.
“I forgive you,” Winter said. “Honestly. Just go to sleep.”
Outside, the howls went on.
*
They saw the first of the wolves the next day, just a glimpse of a long gray body through a break in the decaying undergrowth. Winter, walking near the front of the column, pointed in time for the Haeta nearby to catch a glimpse of it.
“I heard them howling last night,” Winter said to Leti. “I didn’t realize they were so close.”
“Howls at night are very hard to place,” Leti said. “But don’t let them worry you. Wolves will not attack humans. Most likely they follow us hoping to make a meal of our leavings.”
Winter nodded. The flash of gray was gone, and she couldn’t see any others. I think we have more to fear from the Beast than from anything that lives in these woods. She shook her head, looking back over the marching column, and trudged on.
Sometime later, her curiosity finally got the better of her. “Leti, can I ask you something about your people?”
“Of course.”
Leti had taken to spending most of her time beside Winter on the march. Winter had noticed Leti didn’t talk much to her fellow Haeta, who were otherwise constantly chattering in their own tongue. She wondered if it was a social dynamic she didn’t understand, or simply the difficulty of being the one in charge. I certainly know how that feels.
“When your girls go to their tents for the night, they... hmm.” Winter’s Murnskai vocabulary wasn’t really up to this particular challenge, at least while remaining polite. I suppose I could always ask Abraham. “They, ah, touch one another?”
“Of course, if they are lovers.” Leti cocked her head, frowning. “It is different in the south?”
“Sort of. I mean. Most women don’t take... other women as lovers.”
“It is expected for members of a warhost to take lovers among their century,” Leti said. “It is the same among the men. It increases their tenacity in battle.”
“What happens to them when they get home?”
Leti shrugged. “Most leave such things in the wilds where they belong. Warriors of the second line can expect to have their husbands presented to them soon after their blooding, when they become full adults.”
“I... see.”
Winter had never been able to guess what lay in store for herself beyond the end of the war. At times—?many times—?she’d despaired seeing the end of the war at all, told herself that it wasn’t even worth thinking about. She and Cyte had pointedly never talked about it, about what might happen once peace finally returned and the rules of civilized society rolled over the Girls’ Own like a tide.
It felt like an indulgence to even consider it now. After all, even the Steel Ghost said I probably won’t survive using Infernivore on the Beast, assuming by some miracle I make it that far. But, Winter thought, she was owed a little self-?indulgence.
I’m sure Raesinia would help us. It wasn’t like Winter had any profession, outside the army. Surely the queen could find me a sinecure, though. And then...
She couldn’t even picture the “and then.” Her mind rebelled. She’d been taking her life one day—?one hour—?at a time for so long that she couldn’t imagine what it would be like without danger. When she could assume today would be more or less the same as yesterday and tomorrow. Settle down? Raise children? That was what people did, as far as she knew, but...
“There’s another one,” Leti said.
“Hmm?” Winter looked up and saw the wolf, standing on a rocky outcrop, staring down at the passing column with steady interest.
“They usually aren’t so eager to show themselves,” Leti said, looking back. “I wonder if there’s something wrong with it.”
“It looks... thin,” Winter said. Her skin prickled. The wolf’s ribs were clearly visible, and its coat was patchy. Its tongue lolled, breath steaming in the chilly air.
Three Haeta, led by Vess, came running up the length of the column. Seeing Winter standing beside her sister, Vess hesitated for a moment, then strode forward.
“Wolves,” she said. “A dozen or more at the rear of the column, following close.”
“Wolves will not attack humans,” Leti repeated, though now she didn’t sound quite as certain.
“Wolves don’t gather in packs larger than a half dozen, either,” Vess said.
“I think,” Winter said, “that the rules may have changed.” She had an image of packs stalking through the empty forests, with most of their usual game fled or dead and rotting. Getting hungrier and hungrier, until...
She looked around. They were on relatively open ground, a rocky hillside leading down to a winding stream. A few miles farther on, the stream curved across their path, and beyond it was another ridge, huge chunks of tumbled stone rising above the trees.
“I think we need to move a little faster,” she said carefully. She wasn’t sure how well Leti would take advice from a strange foreigner. “If we can get to the forest, we can put our backs to those rocks.”
“She’s right,” Vess said, though her expression was pinched. “In the open they will surround us.”
Leti nodded. She was trying hard to look decisive, Winter thought, but it made it easier to see how young she was, her big eyes just a fraction too wide. Vess, half a head shorter and several years younger, seemed more calm. Leti shouted something in Haeta and sent her sister to the back of the column to spread the word.
Winter herself fell back, looking for Abraham. She found him and Alex together, watching apprehensively over their shoulders. Two wolves were visible, walking at an easy pace well behind the rear guards, their gray fur flecked with white patches.
“Did you ask Leti about—” Alex said.
“Yes,” Winter said.
“And are we worried?”
“Yes. We need to move fast. Abraham, can you run?”
“Run?” He groaned. “I can try. Not for long.”
“I can carry him, if we need to,” Alex said. “I’ve done it before.”
“Good,” Winter said. “Make sure he keeps up. If anyone gets left behind...” She looked back at the wolves again and shuddered.