Without his full attention feeding it, the dragon found itself quickly enchanted again by Kalira. Sullenly, it coiled itself deep inside his mind, and dropped into uneasy slumber. Jolted back into the real world, Lan opened his eyes on a black patch in the snow that held nothing, nothing but a bit of melted metal—not a body, not even bones. Nothing but ashes.
Ilea sat on the bare road, Pol's bloody head in her lap, a frown of fierce concentration in her face. The gash across Pol's eyes closed even as Lan watched, but there was no doubt that the knife had cut right across Pol's eyes, blinding him, perhaps forever.
Gut-wrenching guilt hit him and nearly knocked him out of the saddle.
'Don't sit there feeling sorry for yourself,' Ilea snarled with a touch of hysteria in her voice, without looking up. 'I need hot water and bandages, and I need them
Elenor was useless; that much was obvious; she knelt in the snow and sobbed into her hands next to her father. That left Lan and Tuck; Lan went for wood while Tuck slid off his Companion and emptied the contents of all the saddlebags onto the ground.
When Lan returned with the wood, afoot now, with the wood piled onto Kalira's back, Tuck had spread blankets over the snow and Pol lay on them, his face neatly bandaged. There was a strange scent in the air, not of burned meat, but a metallic scent, hot stone and scorched earth. Lan piled the wood near Pol and Ilea and ignited it, turning it into a roaring fire in an instant. As he went back for more wood, Ilea pushed a small pot holding clean snow near the flames to melt for water.
When he returned the second time, Elenor was finally doing something, cleaning some of the blood off her father's face and clothing and helping her mother, although she was sobbing as she worked. Tuck was off getting more wood himself.
Ilea was on the verge of hysteria. 'I
At that, Elenor took her hands off her mother's and grabbed Ilea's shoulders, shaking her. 'And what good will
That seemed to snap Ilea out of her crazed state. She stared at Elenor in shock, then the two of them fell into each other's arms, weeping. Lan stared at them all, and it was only Kalira who snapped
He went back, and back again, until he was stumbling through dusk that obscured everything in his path and was forced to give up. By then, Ilea was sleeping, and Elenor organizing a crude camp. The three Companions arranged themselves in three sides of a square around the blankets spread on the snow, lying down. Pol lay still unconscious, with his eyes bandaged and his head pillowed on Satiran's flank, between Ilea and Kalira. The fire formed the fourth side of the square. Tuck wearily ate a handful of bread, and Elenor looked up at Lan's entrance.
'Get some sleep,' she said shortly, her voice nasal and thick with weeping. 'If we can, we'll have to leave in the morning. We've no food and no shelter; we can't stay here.'
Lan didn't say anything; guilt devoured him and killed any appetite he might have had. He lay down obediently and turned his face away from Elenor, sure that he wasn't going to get a wink of sleep all night.
And he was right. He stared at Dacerie's flank and the firelight flickering on it for candlemarks, stomach knotted with misery while the stars wheeled overhead. He heard Tuck lie down and eventually begin breathing deeply. He heard Elenor gently fall over sideways—
When he looked,
He sat up.
Satiran nodded, ever so slightly, but did not reply. Lan found some relief from his guilt by making certain the fire burned evenly and without smoke, feeding it diligently as the stars paraded overhead.
As dawn neared, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
'I'll take over now,' Tuck said, giving him an understanding smile. He nodded, finally so dull with exhaustion he couldn't feel anything. He curled up against Dacerie's shoulder, and knew nothing more.
*
HE woke to hear Pol's voice.
'—all right,' he said, as Lan started up, turning in his mentor's direction. Pol's head pointed toward Lan, and he managed a weak smile. 'Lan, thank you.'
'For what?' Lan responded harshly, scooting over to sit on his heels beside his mentor. The warmth of the fire bathed them both—and at least this fire smelled of wood smoke and pine, and not of burned flesh.
'That will be enough of that,' Ilea snapped, swiveling her head to glare at him. 'What's better, blinded or half-burned? If you'd gotten the bastard
Lan trembled anyway. The guilt was there; he couldn't exactly wish it out of existence.