8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Ty
It felt good to finally be on the move again after spending three days holed up in their inadequate shelter while the storm raged.
They’d passed the time okay—telling each other stories and resting when they could—but now, at long last, they were making progress towards their destination once more, as nebulous as it was.
Ty tried not to let his anxiety around that seep in too deep—the fact that they had no idea where they were going and instead seemed to just be aimlessly wandering deeper into the snowy, icy tundra of the Chasm Mountains while the weather got progressively worse.
He was, of course, extremely concerned about all that, and thought constantly about how he would continue to find them all food, or how long the rest of their supplies would hold out before they found what they were looking for, but he couldn’t let it show.
He needed to take care of Ena and their unborn child.
He needed to be strong—for them—and that meant putting on a brave face.
It was, after all, his mistake that had led to all this.
Not that having sex with Ena was ever a mistake, but he had realized a few weeks ago that it was he who had been late taking his contraceptive tonic.
Just by one day—the day they’d gone to take the allucinae and then swam in the hot springs.
Naked. Ena had been impossible to resist, all dripping wet and gleeful from her progress learning to swim and… well, now she was pregnant.
The idea of it still shocked him. Being a father was not something he had ever envisioned for his life.
But protecting Ena—his wife—was his duty, so he would be there for their child too.
He had to, even if it came at a cost to the Underworld.
Because he knew what it was like to have a parent abandon you just because things were tough, and he could never bring himself to do that.
He actively suppressed his anxious thoughts about meeting his mother now too as his horse’s hooves sank into a particularly deep snowbank.
The weather had warmed slightly as they’d descended from the peak, and the snow was slushy in spots.
They’d been traveling most of the morning, everyone in good spirits and happy to be riding once more.
But then, sometime in the afternoon, that ended abruptly as he heard the unmistakable sound of a rushing river.
Fuck. This could be a problem.
He looked back at Ena and Turner, unsure if they had heard it yet.
“What is it?” Ena asked.
“I hear a river up ahead. I’m gonna go scout it out,” he replied.
Ena nodded, and he spurred his horse ahead of the others.
After about a quarter mile, he came to the river.
Double fuck. It was huge.
Nearly as wide as the River Wry, the melting snow from the mountain’s peak thundered through it, crashing over boulders and giant wayward logs like they were nothing but a nuisance.
How in the fuck were they supposed to cross this?
Ty led his horse further upriver, looking for a spot where the water wasn’t as deep so the horses had a chance at crossing, but after about a mile, he turned back to no avail.
He found Ena and Turner waiting by the bank, their faces grim with concern.
“Find anywhere to cross?” Turner asked.
“Nowhere. It’s just as deep and swift upriver. But I’ll check downriver too,” he replied. “You doing okay?” he asked Ena, who sat on a downed, snow-covered log silently eating a piece of jerky.
“Fine,” she assured him, smiling lightly at him in that way that made his heart warm. “You go. We’ll wait here.”
He took off again, moving as quickly as the terrain would allow.
By about one and a half miles down, thank Iblis, the river moved into a wider plateau where the land flattened somewhat.
The river spread out, and he found a spot with no rapids that looked like it might be shallow enough to cross, though it still moved swiftly.
It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was the best he’d found, and they needed to cross somehow.
To go around the river would mean backtracking, and potentially several more weeks trying to find a route, if there even was one.
Their supplies wouldn’t last that long, and if the storms came back…
No. They had to find a way to cross here.
He went back to get Ena and Turner, leading them to the spot.
“What do you think?” Ty asked as they dismounted at the potential crossing spot.
“Still looks pretty swift,” Turner said, speaking loudly over the rushing sound of the river. “Do you think the horses can make it?”
“If the river bottom is solid enough,” Ty said, understanding his concern. “Either way, I’ll go across first with my horse and make sure it’s doable. Then I’ll go back and escort Ena and her horse, since she’s not a strong swimmer. You can follow with your own horse once she’s safe.”
“No, no, no, martyr boy,” Turner said, shaking his head. “I’ll go first and make sure it’s doable, then you come with Ena.”
“What? Why should you go first?” Ty asked, arching an eyebrow skeptically.
“Well first of all, I’m obviously stronger than you,” Turner said, smiling teasingly, and Ty rolled his eyes.
“But second of all, your life is much more valuable than mine at the moment. You’re about to be a father, and you’re the heir.
So yes…I’m definitely going first. If any of us is going to die, it’s going to be me, okay? ”
Turner spoke flippantly, as if his death meant nothing to him, but Ty knew it belied his true feelings.
He was doing this out of love—for him, and for Ena.
The man was the most loyal person he knew, and unfortunately, he knew from experience that that meant there would be no talking him out of this.
“Alright, if you say so,” Ty agreed reluctantly, though he didn’t like it one bit. This had been his idea, after all.
“Good,” Turner said, nodding his head with finality. “Glad my tone brooked no more arguments. You got anything to say, Ena?” he asked, raising his eyebrow at her, daring her to stop him.
Ena was staring at the rushing river, and Ty knew her fears of water and being swept away must be making her incredibly nervous right now. “Just don’t die,” she said simply, her brow furrowing with concern as she finally looked at Turner.
“Alrighty then,” Turner said. Turning away from them, he proceeded to take off his coat and put it in his horse’s pack, which would hopefully be elevated above the water. Then he rolled up his pant legs as high as they would go.
Taking a few deep breaths, he walked out onto the brief sand bar that led into the water. The moving river had melted the snow there, so you could see the river bottom clearly as it sloped into the freezing-cold depths.
Taking a cautious step into the water, Turner sucked in a painful breath. “Fucking Iblis, that’s cold!” he exclaimed. “We’ll need to start a fire on the other side to dry out.”
“Good thing you’re going first then,” Ty said, trying to keep his tone light as his stomach tightened.
Turner entered the water with both feet now as he led his horse by the reins behind him. When it came time for the horse to step into the water, he resisted, bucking his head backwards.
“Shh, shh,” Turner spoke to it. “You’ve got it, we’ve got it. It’s okay, see?” he added, demonstrating to the horse that the river bottom was steady as he took several more steps into it.
The water dropped off as the next few steps he took led him deeper, so the water came up to his thighs. The water was rushing around him as he crab-walked sideways facing upriver, arm outstretched to hold his horse’s reins.
“I can see deer tracks here on the bank,” Ena said nervously as they both watched him. “That means other animals have crossed here, which is a good sign.”
“Good,” Ty said, trying to sound reassuring. “He’s doing fine.”
Ena nodded in hesitant agreement as they both watched Turner like hawks as he and his horse made their way cautiously across.
He was at the middle of the river now, ostensibly the deepest and swiftest part, and he hesitated for a second.
You could tell the water was pushing on him, trying to pull him along with it, but after a second, he adjusted and kept moving, slow and steady.
After another few minutes, he was finally close to the other side where another sandbank waited like a mirror for them to exit.
Stepping clear of the water, his steady and true horse behind him, Turner raised his arms in triumph and whooped. “See that, motherfuckers?!” he shouted to them from across the river.
Ty couldn’t help but laugh gleefully at his friend’s joy, that ball of nerves in his stomach loosening ever so slightly now that he was across.
He looked to Ena, trying to be as steady as possible. “See?” he asked. “Easy peasy. Now it’s our turn.”
Ena stared at the river, then looked up at him with terror in her eyes. “Ty,” she said, her voice nearly trembling. “I-I don’t know if I can do this. That water is…”
“You can do this, Ena,” he said. “Focus your Knowing on me, and not the river. I’m not too scared, right?”
She nodded reluctantly at him.
“Right, so just hold on to me, and you’ll be fine. I won’t let you get swept away,” he added, a corner of his mouth tugging up.
Did she remember the last time he’d said that to her? When they’d been young and infatuated that summer by the River Wry, and he’d convinced her to go swimming? A river had been the start of their love story, and Ty knew it wouldn’t end it now.
His words seemed to reassure her slightly as she took in a deep breath.
“Okay, you’re right,” she said, before shedding her cloak, and tucking her heavy skirts up into her belt.
She was wearing skin-tight leather pants underneath as an extra layer, but those she couldn’t easily roll up, so they’d have to dry them out on the other side.
Ty followed suit, readying himself and Ena’s horse Mahnin for the crossing, until they were all standing on the bank, ready to go.