“ Look out,” Maldynado cried from a few feet away.
Evrial started to turn, but her reflexes were already compromised. She couldn’t move quickly enough. Even the snowflakes flying downriver seemed to sail by at half speed.
Something blunt slammed into her back. Hands grabbed her, more than one pair. She hurled an elbow, trying to force her attackers to back away, but she didn’t connect with flesh. The movement only stirred more pain in her shoulder.
“ Get him, he’s the dangerous one,” someone yelled.
“ He’s one of those murdering outlaws!”
Grunts and scuffles sounded behind Evrial. There were far more than two men. She needed to do something, to tear away from the ones restraining her, but blackness edged her vision. Fear crept into her heart. What if it wasn’t simply a paralysis poison? What if this was the end? The enforcers hadn’t even wanted her; they were after Maldynado and his team.
Enraged at the notion, Evrial summoned all of her remaining strength. She pushed away from the railing and threw a punch at the first person she saw. The man dodged-like the snowflakes, he seemed to move far more slowly than usual, but her punch flew slowly too. She only clipped the side of his jaw. He backed up, letting go of her.
“ Take care of that woman,” someone ordered. “She’s expend-ow, you slagging-”
Maldynado was keeping the others busy. Evrial had to deal with the two focused on her. She kicked at the shin of the sole man left holding her. Her leg was too heavy, though, and she could barely lift it. The effort upset her balance. The man she’d meant to attack snorted, stepped inside her extended leg, and sank a punch into her stomach. Though those curled fingers arced in slowly, she couldn’t bring an arm across to block them fast enough- she barely had time to exhale and tighten her abdomen to protect against the blow. The impact sent her staggering back against the railing.
Before she could come up with an attack-one she might manage in her slowed state-the men grabbed her legs, lifting them in the air. Since she’d just tossed someone over the side, she knew their intent right away. Evrial flailed, trying to find a chin or knee or other weak spot that would slow them down, but she was helpless to thwart the men.
They counted to three, then heaved her over the railing. White flurries blew past her face, a stark contrast to the dark, cloudy sky above. Ages passed before she struck the water, landing on her side and sinking quickly. The river’s icy embrace shocked her body. She couldn’t move. It could have been the cold or the poison, the final stage overtaking her. It didn’t matter. There was nothing she could do but sink.
CHAPTER 5
Before Evrial hit the bottom, the blackness swallowing her was complete-as was the icy chill paralyzing her limbs. She was vaguely aware of a current passing over her, but she might as well have been encased in a glacier for all that she could move or escape. Her lungs ached for air, but she couldn’t push off the bottom, couldn’t do anything. If she died down there, nobody would ever find her body. Her family would have no idea what had happened to her.
Something prodded her. What new insult? A giant river fish to eat her alive?
No, that was a hand groping about. Hope sprang into her mind. Maldynado?
The hand caught her beneath the armpit. In a burst, Evrial found herself rising to the surface, water rippling past her body. Her head broke the surface, and her lungs still worked enough to suck in a great gasp.
Water streamed into her eyes. Lights burned in the distance, but she couldn’t tell if they were on shore or belonged to the steamboat. Was that it pulling away? She tried to raise a hand to wipe the water away, but her limbs wouldn’t respond.
“ Just relax,” came Maldynado’s voice near her ear, the words barely recognizable over his chattering teeth. “I’ve got you,” he said, then added, “Blast, it’s cold enough to freeze a man’s love apples right off.”
All she could concentrate on was breathing as he swam, not toward the lights-they were pulling away too quickly-but toward the dark shoreline. Trees loomed along the banks, thick evergreen branches outlined with snow. Of course they’d picked this fight out in the middle of nowhere without a town in sight. There would be no hotels or even farmsteads where they could recover. Tremors coursed through Evrial’s body. If the poison on that dart didn’t kill her, the cold might.
No, she told herself, don’t think like that. She wasn’t going to die on some wild forsaken shore.
“ Lo-oo-ve ap-ples?” she stuttered, trying to distract herself.
“ Sure. They’re terribly important. A man’s most prized possessions, you know.”
Water continued to stream past as they drew nearer to those towering trees. Finally Maldynado shifted position-his feet must have found the bottom. He released her armpit, and terror flowed into Evrial, a fear that she’d slip away and float-or sink-into the darkness again. But Maldynado was only changing his grip. One arm slipped beneath her shoulders and the other beneath her knees. He lifted her from the water and carried her to the bank.
The snow made the night seem brighter than usual, but Evrial still couldn’t make out Maldynado’s face, just his dark form above her. It shouldn’t matter, but she wished she could see his face. Somehow it felt important. He’d just saved her life.
“ It’s darned inconvenient that we lost Akstyr,” Maldynado said, teeth chattering as he climbed away from the water. “He does know how to make fire with his mind. I can’t say that I thought to bring matches to a dinner show. Not that they would have survived a dip in the river anyway.” He paused to look around. “No chance of catching the steamboat, I don’t think. They’ve already disappeared around that bend up there. Though sprinting to catch up might keep us warm.” He gazed down at her. “But you don’t look like you’re up to that.”
“ Bastards shot me,” Evrial said, though it came out muffled, and she didn’t know if he could understand.
“ With one of those crossbows? The poisoned ones?”
Evrial nodded.
Maldynado growled and looked around again. “If those shrubs come ashore on this side of the river, I’m going to pound them into the ground like a jackhammer.”
He laid her down, and a grunt of protest escaped Evrial’s lips. Being pressed against his chest had been the closest thing to warmth out there. At least she found-by inadvertently dropping her hand onto the cold snow-that she could move her arms now.
“ I’ll be back in a minute,” Maldynado said. “I’m going to try and find a cave or nook or something where we can huddle until you get the feeling back in your limbs. You should probably, uhm, take your clothes off.”
Having been born in the country, and seen any number of people caught out in the area’s harsh winter elements, Evrial knew the dangers of hypothermia well enough and was already trying to pry open her trouser button, but she did manage a moment of wry amusement over the way he fumbled the statement. Funny to think that a man who had doubtlessly told dozens-maybe hundreds-of women to disrobe would find it awkward to do so now.
“ I don’t think it’s much below freezing,” Maldynado said, “and the snow will be insulating, but that water was cold enough to shrivel up, well, you know.”
“ Love apples?”
“ Precisely so.” Maldynado jogged into the forest. “Be right back!”
It took Evrial five or six hours-or so it seemed-to remove her soggy boots, socks, and trousers. The shirt and jacket came last. Shivers wracked her body, but she knew that was better than if she stopped shivering. She would have liked to leap to her feet and run to warm herself, and maybe catch that steamboat, but her limbs were still heavy and slow to respond. Fortunately, the trees sheltered her from some of the frosty northern wind that had been gusting downriver, battering the boat with horizontal flakes.
The snow crusting her bare, numb backside convinced her to see if she could stand. Even using a tree for support, her leaden legs barely held her weight. After a moment of standing on the snow, she chanced sticking her bare feet back into her boots. She draped her clothing on branches to dry, though more likely they’d freeze into stiff
