“I told you,” Dray said.
Malig sat up, shaking his head. “Shut up.”
Aemon got back on his horse and waited, saying nothing. Caim swung his steed back around.
Egil had paused down the trail. When the scuffle was over, he headed off again.
The stars came out in crystalline points of ruby as the sky deepened from twilight's coal to inky jet. At another time, in another place, they would have been beautiful.
“Hey, lover.” Kit planted a feathery kiss on his forehead as she appeared above him.
“You catch the fireworks?” he asked under his breath.
“Yes!” She giggled. “Malig should have known better than to mess with Aemon.”
“No. Back at town. The explosion?”
Kit came around in front of him. As he told her what had happened, her dress, or shirt-it barely came down to the tops of her thighs-changed from turquoise to a somber magenta. “I should have been there,” she said when he was finished.
“That would have been helpful.”
“I'm sorry. I, er…I thought you didn't want me around.”
Caim sighed. This was his fault. He had been acting different lately, more distant. “Don't worry about it. I'm glad you're back.”
She leaned closer. “You are? Then say it.”
He mouthed the words Kit wanted to hear, and then she threw herself across his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “That's better. Now there's something up ahead-”
A sharp whistle cut the air, and Egil ran back toward the party. His lantern was extinguished. “Put out the light!” the guide hissed.
Dray turned down his lantern and shut the hood. “What is it?”
“Torches ahead,” Egil said, his breath puffing in the frosty air. “A score or more.”
Caim considered the land around them. It was as flat as a griddle except for a few ripples on the snowy plain and some scattered stones. “Coming this way?”
“Hard to say, but it looks like they'll cross our path. We should be fine if we're quiet.”
Caim glanced at Kit, but asked Egil, “Are these Bear tribesmen?”
“Most likely. We're pretty deep into their territory now.”
“That's what I was going to tell you,” Kit said. “They're White Bears heading west to their spring homes. But they don't know you're here.”
“Yet,” Caim whispered under his breath.
The others rode up. Malig had his broadaxe out as he craned his neck around. “Trouble?”
“Not sure.” Caim wrapped his reins around the horn of his saddle and climbed down. “But I'm going to take a look.”
Dray loosened his sword. “I'll go with you.”
When Malig and Aemon got down from their steeds, too, Caim didn't argue. He pointed to a stand of ice- sheathed rocks just off the trail. “Take the animals over there out of the wind and cover them up, but keep the saddles on.”
“You've got the eyes of a cat,” Egil said with a shake of his head.
As the guide led the horses off, Caim checked his knives. “Keep up,” he said. “If we get split up, meet back here.”
Without waiting for a reply, Caim took off. His boots crunched through the snow's light crust, but the sound was swallowed by the wind.
Kit floated along beside him. “Caim, this isn't funny. What are you doing?”
“Just a peek,” he whispered back, not sure himself. Since leaving the last town he'd been uneasy. Recent events had him feeling like he was searching for a diamond in a heap of glass shards. The explosion had capped it. There were outside forces at work in his life, and it was time he faced them head-on.
“Just a moment.” Kit darted closer and threw her arms around his shoulders. Her feathery touch made him shiver. “There. Feel anything…different?”
Caim clenched his fists while he walked to keep from trying to push her away in front of the others. She was being more irritating than usual. Except he
She pulled back, her lips pulled down in a frown. “Okay. Sorry.”
Caim ducked through her with a shake of his head. As he led the Eregoths away, a familiar feeling of ease settled over him. For a moment, it was just like old times. Then Dray cursed and Malig snickered, and he wanted to kill them both.
“I see something.” Aemon pointed. “Over there.”
Caim had seen them, too. Several points of light bobbed on the plains north of their position. Hurrying across the uneven ground, Caim found a short esker and crouched behind it. The others joined him, their boots gouging footholds in the snow. The lights grew into torches, illuminating bearded faces under bestial helms. Two dozen Northmen on massive, hairy steeds. They rode double-file as they headed-thankfully-west. Caim was content to stay and watch until they were out of sight, the better to be sure they were gone, before he returned to the horses. He decided they would ride all night. If this territory was patrolled, he wanted to be through it as soon as possible.
A shout caught Caim's attention. The lead Northmen riders had pulled up. Their torches waved back and forth as if they were searching for something. Then a horse screamed, and one of the torches fell to the ground and went out. Caim squinted as more horsemen appeared from the west, plunging into the Bear tribesmen. By the dim light he could make out the rise and fall of gleaming steel, hear the angry clash of arms and men.
“What's going on?” Malig asked, rising up for a better view.
Caim yanked him back down. “Quiet! And keep your head down. There's two groups fighting. I can't tell who they are except they're both Northmen.”
Dray snorted. “That's good for us. They keep themselves busy while we slip in there and clean the pick-”
“You three aren't going anywhere,” Caim said. “Stay put while I go for a closer look.”
“Why?” Malig asked. “What's it got to do with us?”
Caim tamped down the urge to strangle him. “We don't know yet. The rest of you-”
“I want to go with you,” Aemon interjected.
“-stay here,” Caim finished. “If you see trouble, get back to get the horses.”
“What about you?”
“I'll be fine. You just keep heading north and I'll find you.”
“This is bullshit,” Dray muttered.
Caim ignored the comment as he made his way over the esker and down the other side. What was he doing? This was an unnecessary risk. Or was it? For better or worse, he was following his instincts. He looked around, but Kit was gone.
The original column of Northmen had broken up into small knots of fighters, but they still had the advantage of numbers. As those numbers began to tell, the attackers suddenly broke off. The defenders gave chase, cutting down those who were too slow in retreat, and it looked as though they had turned the tables on their assailants. Then clods of snow erupted from the ground, and men emerged-warriors wielding great axes and hammers. They hit the Bear tribe column from both sides.
Caim slipped behind a clump of thorny brush and got down on his belly. The Bear tribesmen were all down. Howls and groans carried on the breeze. Caim saw more headpieces, and for a moment he envisioned them as wolves with fangs agleam, but then they resolved into feline heads perched on iron caps.
A Northman pulled up near Caim's position. He was brawny, with a thick, black beard down to his chest. Blood dripped from the blade of his long-hafted axe; a round shield of wood was strapped to his other arm. His helm was topped by a tall headpiece made from the head of a great, white cat. It swiveled back and forth as if searching for more prey. Caim gritted his teeth as tiny voices chittered to him from the darkness. Shadows oozed from
