Chapter 16
By the time I’d checked the soldier, I was no further forward in my thinking of whether we could save him or put him out of his misery.
While Captain Marson and Sergeant Gralen discussed the options in a whisper, I refused to look at Nicco.
I felt eyes on me, and half turned to look at Baxley.
“What?”
He scratched his jaw once and then looked at the soldier who had slipped into delirium. “Skallfen was the last town?”
I shifted on my feet. “Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
I started to speak, but Nicco cut me off. “What he’s saying is that you’re lying.”
My eyes widened with surprise before I masked it, but it was too late. Nicco saw me and stepped closer. His attention was on me, and in doing so, he didn’t realize that everyone’s attention was on me.
“I don’t know your kingdom,” Baxley said softly but firmly, moving closer so that Nicco didn’t look quite so intimidating.
“But if the inhabitants are anything like you, Amarya, then I don’t accept that the town we left two days ago is the farthest point north in this land.
” He looked around for emphasis. “There’s a whole lot of something out here. ”
“It’s a whole lot of nothing, Baxley.” I didn’t look away from him as I spoke.
“Crystallese relies on trade with its neighbors. We import everything. Our land is too hard and too frozen to grow crops. Our lakes and streams are too ice-covered to fish for food. We have a window, three to five weeks just after Herag Solstice, when we might get some days without snow, but that’s it. This is a barren land.”
“Then why are you here?” Nicco asked.
I blinked as he watched me. “This is my home.”
“No, it isn’t.”
I felt like I was under attack from them both, and I gripped my staff a little tighter. “Yes, it is. I live here.”
“Where?” Nicco shrugged, unperturbed that he was making me uncomfortable. “Which part of this barren land do you call home?”
“All of it,” I snapped back.
He smiled. “Exactly. And for some reason I can't understand, there's a whole nation like you that looks at this land of snow and ice, where nothing grows, and only monsters walk in comfort, and they call it home.”
I licked my lips as I looked around, seeing them all watching me. “So? What do you want me to say? We’re all mentally impaired. The freezing winds have altered our brains.”
I heard a few chuckles and almost relaxed.
“Since we’ve met, you’ve been remarkably self-sufficient, and apart from one inn owner, well-liked among your kind.”
“My kind?”
Nicco ignored my question.
Baxley was shaking his head. “You are well-known, Amarya. When we were looking for a trailfinder, yours was the name most recommended.”
Well, that was both flattering and unfortunate.
“What he’s trying to say,” Nicco spoke up, “is that in this frozen waste, there seems to be more of you than we expect. Crystallese has named towns and a city, but there are far more people in this kingdom than you let us see.”
“I don’t understand.” I looked over at Captain Marson, hoping for some help.
“There’s a settlement near here,” Nicco said bluntly. “I’d bet my life on it. Why are you keeping us from it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The blade was at my neck before I could blink, and as he looked down at me, I felt a frisson of fear as I looked into his eyes. Even with all my layers, he’d found flesh with no effort at all.
“Who are you protecting?” he asked quietly.
“What do you care, even if I was?” I challenged, leaning into the blade, ignoring the bite of pain as the tip speared my skin. “You were all for splitting his rations up and leaving him to die.”
Nicco smirked. “I still am. But I also want to know who else is out here. I don’t like ambushes, bunny.”
“Ambushes?” I watched him, then threw back my head, and my laughter echoed through the cold morning air. “Who the fuck do you think is out here who’s interested in Darysian soldiers and three mercenaries? You have nothing of value to anyone.”
“You said I was stupid rich,” Baxley reminded me.
I rolled my eyes. “You carry around a pack full of weapons, metal is valuable, but you can also use your weapons, and trust me” —I was back to glaring at Nicco— “if and it’s a huge if, if I knew anyone out here, anyone who lived beyond Skallfen, they sure as shades wouldn’t be stupid enough to ambush eleven soldiers for a bag of weapons.
” He let me go, and I stepped back. “A caravan of food? Well, I couldn’t say what your chances are of surviving that, but as I told you, clearly there is no way a wagon can clear this snow at this time of year. ”
I refused to check the mark on my neck even though I could feel the blood trickling down my throat.
“There’s nothing between Skallfen and Iskaeld?” Baxley asked, his eyes narrowed as if he didn’t believe me.
“Yes.” I pulled my hood over my hair and gave them all my haughtiest stare. “It’s called snow and ice.”
I looked over at the captain. “Your man is too far gone. He’ll be dead in an hour, maybe two.” I ignored the look of surprise and the sighs of distress. “Do him a favor. Make it quick.”
I walked away from them.
Nicco’s cold voice echoed behind me. “Where are you going?”
“Away from you,” I called back. “I’m feeling murderous, and I fear one of us won’t make it much further unless I calm down.”
His laughter irritated me even more than he did.
“Stay close, bunny,” he warned.
“Go fuck yourself, asshole.”
I was half a league away from them when they caught up. The cut on my neck had stopped bleeding, but my temper hadn’t improved. I noticed they were a soldier short, and I didn’t ask who delivered the killing blow.
I knew we’d had a hard trail so far, but I genuinely thought any suspicion about me would have long since passed. Had they been biding their time? For what purpose?
“Trailfinder,” Captain Marson said as he joined me. “It is done.”
I nodded. I didn’t want to ask. It didn’t matter, but I needed to scratch the itch under my skin to know who it had been.
“Who?”
“Who?” he echoed, frowning at me.
“Who ended his misery?”
Captain Loel Marson drew his shoulders back and gave a slight bob of his head. “I am his captain.”
“I’m sorry.” And I was. No one should be left to die like this, but I was pleased it was the captain and not Nicco.
“I am also sorry,” he said carefully. “The mercenary is… harsh.”
“He’s a dick.”
The captain licked his bottom lip as he looked away from me. “Perhaps. However, it is not their place to air their grievances with you like that.”
I was already frowning. “You’d have preferred them in written format?” I scoffed when I saw the captain about to reply, not caring about his answer. “Well, I can’t read, so that would have been a waste of everyone’s time.”
“You can’t read?” Marson looked confused.
He should be. I could read and write well, but I just didn’t like people knowing that. It was better if they thought you were soft in the head. I hadn’t been playing my role on this trailfind. I’d been too alert, which was my job, but also too open.
A trailfinder didn’t have friends. We had clients.
A mistake I would not repeat.
“I think we should keep you and the mercenary separate, and gods willing, there are no other setbacks for us on our way north.”
He was delusional. I couldn’t tell him what was or wasn’t waiting north of here. I’d never been farther than this. Well, not much farther.
The unfortunate fact was that after a particularly bad skarveld storm, you either went through multiple days of mini storms or had clear days with normal snowfall and travel, which was almost… pleasant.
We’d been climbing, and they hadn’t noticed it. Because in the conditions we’d been traveling in, the snow had been up to their knees at times, so an incline basically went unnoticed. The mountains had started to get closer to us, and soon we’d be walking through the pass.
By the time we'd climbed enough that my legs felt it, and the sky was the lightest gray we'd seen for days, it was hard to ignore the curl of smoke that lazily floated into the air.
“What is that?” Gralen asked no one and everyone at once.
I could feel Nicco and Baxley’s eyes on me before I even turned my head.
“There’s another one,” someone murmured.
“It’s a fire?”
“It’s smoke,” Nicco said, his voice hard. “From a chimney.”
I would not look at them.
“Bunny?” His voice was coaxing. “Did you forget to share with the group?”
Shades.
“Amarya?” he snapped, more pissed off sounding than usual.
I looked down at my feet once before I turned to meet the quizzical stare of the captain.
“They don’t like outsiders,” I told him flatly. “They would have offered no help, only hindrance.”
“You said there was no one.”
“You didn’t state specifics,” I muttered, not meeting his stare.
I glanced at Baxley and caught his look.
“They’re really not friendly at all. They’re more likely to eat you than share their warmth.
” My eyes flicked to Larana once. “They may let you have an easier time, but only because you have a woman in the group, but I don’t think you’re willing to hand her over easily. ”
“Why didn’t you just tell us that?” Marson asked me.
“Because your man was dying. Because you were eight Darysian soldiers with three mercenaries. Those mercenaries killed a Hulgrim and never even broke a sweat.” I shook my head. “You think you are invincible. Everyone knows Darysia has the most arrogant soldiers.”
“You were protecting me?” Larana spoke for the first time.
I met her stare. “Tried to. Some of your companions have inflated egos, and think they are unbeatable.”
She grinned, but it was gone as quickly as it came.
“How many of them are there?” Baxley asked. He was not smiling. He was pissed off, and I knew why, but they didn’t understand.
“I don’t know.” I held up my hands before he could speak. “I don’t know. I know they’re a bunch of assholes who deserve to freeze up here, but like any parasite, they survive. They work in roaming caravans. I don’t know how many there are.”