He strode over to her, pulling three layers of gloves from his hands. Once finished with his own, he started to pull them from her hands too, ignoring her squeak of protest. Finally, skin on skin, he wrapped his hands around hers and his amazing heat bled into her. She felt a sudden surge in his Gift, and then warmth started flooding through her.
“No human can survive in this cold for any amount of time,” he said quietly. “But remember, we’re more than human. Reach for your Gift, let its power warm you.”
“But I’m not an Inferno—I have no sway over Fire and heat.”
Jason shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Your Gift makes you more. It is energy, in its purest form—call on it to warm yourself.”
The shining core of her Gift was bright, and she pushed for its energy to seep into her body. Like rays of light, warmth pumped into her blood and spread through her body.
She allowed Jason to keep hold of her hands, feeling slowly returning and chasing the freezing numbness as away. Leaving stabbing pain in its wake, followed by warm relief.
Allyra glared at Jason. “You could’ve told me about this earlier. It’s quite a handy tip. So handy I might not have needed to curl up to someone who shall remain unnamed in the desert during the Second Final…”
Jason grinned at her, utterly unrepentant.
“Nonetheless, if I use my Gift like this, I’m going to run out of energy pretty quickly,” she said.
He nodded. “I know. But hopefully they’ve left us with enough food.”
Allyra glanced at the sacks distributed around their feet. Extracting her hands from Jason, she pulled on two layers of gloves, enough to keep her warm but not too much to impact the range of movement in her fingers. She untied the strings on the sack closest to her. Inside, she found a variety of food.
“We can’t carry all of this.”
Jason nodded. “Story of our lives. They’re testing us—again. Take too much food, and it’s going to slow us down, and we’ll lose. Take too little food, and we’ll die of exposure.”
“Any idea how far away we are?”
“It’s beyond my range—more than two hundred kilometers.”
“Two weeks?” Allyra asked.
“At least.”
“Then we’re going to have to figure out a way to bring this food with us.”
Jason nodded. “There might be equipment in the sacks.”
Allyra started opening more sacks, systematically going through the contents. A small voice in the back of her head kept reminding her that this was a race, and somewhere out in the white swirling madness were Xolani and François racing toward the same goal. She fought against the desire to throw everything into one big sack and just start moving. Proper preparation at the start might just win them the race at the end.
In the end, they managed to separate all their supplies into three piles: food, equipment, and weapons. It was the third pile that reminded her that the Fourth Final was a combination of all the Finals that had come before it. At its heart, it was a test of survival and endurance, but it was also a test of combat. There were no rules of engagement should they run into the other team. And if she’d learned anything from the Third Final, it was that the players in The Five Finals would stop at nothing to win.
There were perhaps a good fifty kilos of food: meat, cheese, butter, oranges, and something that resembled bricks of lard. And in the equipment pile, there was a small two-man tent, a couple of sleeping bags, some changes of clothing, and a small sled that had taken significant effort to assemble. Also part of the equipment pile were a couple pairs of snow shoes and some skis.
Allyra stared at the skis doubtfully. “I’ve never skied before.”
Jason glanced up from strapping on his skis. “You’ll be fine, you have plenty of balance. Kick and glide, and get a good rhythm going.”
They strapped all the food and extra equipment onto the sled, which was then attached to a pair of straps, allowing one person to pull it behind them. Jason offered to pull it first to allow her some time to come to terms with the skis. And finally, they pulled the leather baldrics across their chests and slipped their twin swords into place, leaving the other weapons behind. The bulky layers of clothing meant that she couldn’t feel the straps of the leather baldrics close to her body, and it left her feeling strangely naked and vulnerable.
* * *
They spent the next eight hours skiing, but by the end of the day, they’d only covered around fifteen kilometers at best. It had taken her a couple of kilometers to get the hang of gliding on the skis. It had involved a couple of tumbles, including a particularly spectacular head over heels somersault, which left her on her back, staring at the sky in disbelief, and Jason trying to muffle his laughter.
Lunch had been no more than a ten-minute break as they tried to force down a couple of energy bars, doing their best not to crack their teeth against the frozen bars. Jason melted enough water for them to gulp some down and keep their thirst at bay. It was a strange feeling to be surrounded by so much water but to have so little of it available to drink. Throughout the day, the sun barely rose at all, just skirting along the horizon before disappearing again. They spent most of the day in the darkness, navigating by a single beam of the flashlight.
The going was difficult and treacherous, the snow was at times loose, making skiing difficult, and at other times slick and icy, giving way to sudden deep crevasses. After nearly disappearing down one, Allyra and Jason had taken to tying a rope
