Chapter 9
Larana leaned against one of the trees, arms folded, watching the soldiers with open disinterest. Her blade rested across her thigh, already clean.
Gralen stood near the wagons, muttering something low to the captain, who listened with the patience of a man who didn’t have better options. I didn’t like that, but I had no choice but to leave them to their whispering.
And Nicco… I didn’t look for him. I told myself there was no reason to. I didn’t need to know where he was because it didn’t matter. Right now, he was just another man in this mess, and I had more important things to focus on.
I lasted three seconds before I turned my head to find him.
I told myself it was because I liked to know where the danger was. If I was honest, that wasn’t a lie. Something about him made me tense. Nervous.
He wasn’t near the others. He stood at the edge of the clearing, just beyond the reach of the wagon’s shadow, where the trees thickened again into the dark forest beyond.
He had his back to us and was facing outward, as if he were waiting for something to come out of it.
I frowned slightly, shifting my weight. He was keeping watch, even though it was still light enough to see clearly. I dragged my gaze away.
“Get some rest where you can,” I said, louder now, pulling attention back to me. “We move again before full dark.”
A few of them groaned at that. I ignored them all. Comfort wasn’t part of this. It was about survival.
I stepped back toward the fire that the soldier had started. Adjusting my cloak tighter around me as the cold began to settle in again, I braced myself for what came next.
“Let me see,” I murmured as I approached the one who still had his hands clenched around the other's thigh.
A deep, bloody gash ran along his thigh. The blood wasn’t flowing out quickly or eager to escape. It was slowly oozing.
I looked up at the captain, and he looked as grim as I felt. “It comes off,” he said calmly.
Baxley leaned over my shoulder. “Burn it.”
I nodded before he finished speaking. “We burn it. It’ll seal it, stop the bleeding, and he might not lose it.”
The captain looked between us like we were insane. “It’s too deep. He’ll get infected and—”
“I can do it right,” I told him. “I’ve done it before.” I glanced at the soldier. “It’s going to hurt, though. Hopefully, you’ll pass out quickly.”
He swallowed hard. “What’s the other option?”
“Amputation.”
He looked ready to pass out as it was.
I tried to sound reassuring. “I can stop the bleeding. It might work, or it might not. Or we take it clean off. Then we stop the bleeding. It might work. It might not. Either way, we need to stop the bleeding.”
“You sound like the healers in the Verei Kahn,” he mumbled. “They’re blunt like you.”
Associating me with the Verei Kahn was the worst thing he could do, but I forced myself not to react.
“The difference is that they have the magic to heal you. I don’t.” I gestured to the soldier by the fire. “I have the fire going.” I drew my dagger. “I warm the blade, and then…” I tried to smile. “Pick.”
Baxley sniffed. “Why have you no healer with you?” he asked the captain. “None of your men are menders?”
Menders, the old term for the Chosen in the Verei Kahn who had the affinity for healing.
“We had one, but that monster just ate him,” the soldier whose leg I was hoping to save said with a scoff. “Irony. Right?”
“At least you have a sense of humor,” I murmured. “I’ll be right back.”
I’d stuck my smallest blade into the fire as it was being made, and now I sat back and waited a little bit longer as it heated. Movement beside me made me turn my head.
Nicco handed me a thin, long dagger. “Has a better reach for what you’re about to do.”
I hesitated, and his eyebrow lifted. I snatched it from him rather than listen to whatever he was about to say. I laid the blade in the fire alongside mine.
“You’re welcome,” he murmured as he moved away.
When I saw my blade start smoking, I quickly opened my pack and pulled out the single leather glove I had. I’d stolen it from a blacksmith two winters ago, and it had come in handy more times than I wanted it to.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled the glove on, then grasped the handle of my dagger. His dagger might have been finer, but I knew how to use mine.
I walked back to the wagon and saw the soldier had passed out.
“A mercy, I suppose,” I said to no one. “Baxley?” He was there almost instantly.
“Hold his legs. He’s going to feel this.
” I looked at his friend, who looked horrified at what I was about to do, but he knew this was how we would save him.
“Pin him down. Do not let him jerk, or I’ll probably kill him. ”
“You might kill him anyway,” he blurted, and I choked back a bubble of hysteria.
I took a deep breath. “Whatever god you pray to, ask for their help.”
I don’t know if anyone responded. I was so focused on what I was about to do. With a clenched jaw, I stuck the burning metal of my dagger straight across his wound.
His scream tore through the clearing, his body convulsed, and I pressed down harder, fighting back nausea as the smell of burning flesh assaulted my nostrils.
Moving quickly, I turned the blade, ignoring the sizzle as the other side pressed against him.
I tossed my dagger aside and pulled off my glove. “Take this,” I said to whoever was behind me. “Bring me the other dagger from the fire.”
I peered at the scorched skin. With careful fingers, I pulled slightly, checking to see where the blood still flowed.
“Here.”
I nodded. “Drop it on the wagon, gently! Give me the glove.” I hurriedly put the glove on, grabbed Nicco’s dagger, and did the same again.
I moved along the wound until the lump in my throat made it hard to swallow.
I took the bottle of warm liquid from Baxley and took a large gulp of lukewarm water.
Once I was sure I’d done all I could, I moved back. “I need cloth for bandages. Let’s wrap it and hope it doesn’t fester.”
I jumped off the wagon. After cleaning both daggers in the snow, I shoved them back into the fire.
I looked up and met Captain Marson’s gaze. “Who’s next?”
By the time I’d assessed the other three, only one of them needed my dagger, and I felt drained.
I hadn’t lied. I was no healer, and my methods of fixing injuries would probably get me locked up in any other part of the continent, but I was in Crystallese. Our land wasn’t full of Verei Kahn. There were few magic users here, and the ones who came here stuck to our capital city.
A long way south of here.
I was careful to make sure there was enough distance between the Institutions of Magic and me as there could be.
I sat down but didn’t close my eyes. There was no time to rest. No time to wait to become something’s dinner. Even if it was only the hunger of the cold you fed.
And I had the strong feeling that we weren’t the only ones taking a moment to rest before the next stage of whatever was coming our way.
“You did well.”
I looked up at Larana as she crouched beside me. Strands of her braid were loose around her face, softening her appearance. Yet her eyes remained hard. Nothing about this woman was gentle.
“Thanks.”
“Thought you were going to pass out,” she told me conversationally.
“So did I.”
She grinned, and I smiled back. “A pack of snow wolves is moving from the south. You were right. They want dinner.”
I gulped. “Snow wolves? A pack? How many?” I pushed to my feet. “They smell us, and they’ll want their dinner fresher, especially him.” I nodded to the wagon.
“Nicco counted eight.”
“Shit.” I moved to the fire and stomped it out, taking in the sight of the camp. “Captain? We need to move, and we need to move now.”
“For wolves?” Larana was at my side, having moved with me.
“They’re not just wolves,” I growled, grabbing my pack and slipping it over my shoulder. I turned to Nicco, who was now watching me. “They’re about this high,” I said, dropping my hand to my hip. “And moving just too smoothly over the snow?”
He frowned but nodded.
“Drift Wolves,” I told them. “Wrap him up. I don’t want a hint of that burn escaping that cloth. They scent him, they’ll track him, and us, to Iskaeld and probably beyond.” I looked at the wagons. “Unhitch the wagons, they won’t make it. I need a carrier for him, and two of you to carry it.”
The captain looked at me with concern. “We’re going through?”
“The only way to deal with them if they follow is to split the pack and fight them one by one.” I raised my hands. “Do you want to lose anyone else, or do you want to trust me?”
The captain held my gaze, then turned and barked out the orders.
“We could leave him.”
I turned to look at Nicco, my eyes wide. “What?” He didn’t look sorry that he made the suggestion. I knew I disliked him for a reason. “While he still has a chance to live, let’s not throw him aside.”
He shrugged and sighed. “Fine. Let’s move.” He met my gaze. “But when he dies anyway, I won’t say I told you so.”
Larana and Baxley were already waiting. The captain and his men took a little bit longer, and I ignored them all as I watched the movement to our flank.
Hulgrim and Drift Wolves. What had I agreed to when I said I would be their trailfinder? Every nightmare that lived in this damn land was coming out to greet us. I’d walked this land for four years; why were they emerging now?
“Amarya, we’re ready,” the captain called softly.
I walked to the front, trusting the soldiers behind me to take care of the horses.
“Same rules,” I told them all as I walked forward. “Do what I say, when I say it, as soon as I say it.” I pulled my cloak over my hair. “No matter what it might look like, we’re not the only ones here.”
“Pep talks aren’t her thing either,” someone muttered behind me, and I heard the thud as someone hit them to shut them up.
“She’s the only reason only two of us are goners,” someone else pointed out, and I was unsure who it was.