stomach churn, she would have to find a good spot and pick them off. Otherwise, they would keep hunting her. And there was the matter of her sled. She was not leaving it there for them to mess with.
Kali spotted a thick copse and squeezed into it. Anyone following her tracks would have no trouble finding her, but at least she could use the trees for cover. She wriggled deeper. Snow dumped from the branches, pattering onto her head. An icy clump slithered past her scarf and invaded her shirt. She grunted and worked it out. That unpleasantness summed up the day so far.
She paused in the middle of rearranging her clothing. Her shoulder blades itched, as if someone’s eyes were upon her. Kali peered through the brush behind her. Nothing stirred.
Shouts came from the river below. It sounded like the pursuers had not started after her yet. Then what-
Something touched her arm.
Kali jumped. Cedar. He squeezed in beside her.
She cursed in her mother’s tongue, a chain of expletives that would have embarrassed most men in the tribe. She had not heard anyone crunching through the snow. It was as if he was a ghost, appearing from nowhere.
“I took care of the other two.” Cedar put his back to a tree and lowered a branch so he could watch the river.
“Took care of?” Kali asked. “That lady down there was sure they were taking care of you.”
“Not likely.”
In the tight space, she could smell the scent of gunpowder clinging to him. He slid a collapsible spyglass from a pocket and studied the river.
“What is that thing you threw at them?” he asked.
“I call them smoke nuts.”
“Because they make smoke and…?”
“The needles they expel tend to land about, er, nut-high.”
Cedar’s eyes widened. “Ouch.”
A gust of wind rattled the branches. Kali had started sweating during her traipse up the hillside, but her skin was cooling now. She flexed her muscles and bounced on her toes. “I imagine they’re down there picking things out of…things.”
“Good.” Cedar lowered the spyglass. “You specialize in making weapons?”
“Not weapons. Security devices.”
“The mechanical dogs?”
She nodded. “I made those.”
“Huh.”
His scarf hid most of his face, but she thought he sounded intrigued. Maybe even pleased. That notion warmed her more than bouncing in place. She started to smile, but caught herself. She knew nothing about him, and she knew better than to be flattered by some man’s attention by now. Whatever he wanted, it surely had little to do with her ability to make silly devices.
“Do you have any more of those…nut crackers?” Cedar asked.
“Smoke nuts.” Kali withdrew another from her pocket and handed it to him. She demonstrated how to arm it.
“How do you make them?”
She blinked. “You want to know? I mean…most people don’t….” She snapped her mouth shut. No need to tell him people usually ignored her when she talked about her inventions. Or that they shooed her away, afraid her witchy ways would bring bad luck.
“Yes. I have an interest in weapons. I-” He lifted the spyglass abruptly. “The two men are coming.”
Kali shifted until she could see through the branches. Rock and his male comrade were tramping up the hill with snowshoes on. The men hunkered low, moving from tree to tree as quickly as the terrain allowed.
She rested her rifle on a branch and pressed her cheek against the stock. For a heartbeat, she had someone’s head in her sights, but she hesitated to fire, and he slipped behind a spruce. For all that she spoke of security and defense, she had never tried to kill anyone. She had only used the rifle on hunting trips. The shot she fired at Rock had been nothing but a defensive instinct.
“Be ready,” Cedar whispered.
Branches shivered, and Rock left cover, angling for a snow-covered boulder. The second fellow tramped back downhill and moved laterally through a small gully that hid him from view. They were angling to surround her. They must not know her exact location-or that she could see them. Cedar had probably slipped in without attracting their notice either.
Rock was not fully hidden by the boulder, not from her position. His side poked out. Kali picked a target that should not be life-threatening if his comrades cared enough to tend to him. She let out a breath and squeezed the trigger. The man howled, clutching his butt, and staggered away from the boulder. That ought to take the fight out of him. She lowered her weapon.
The man seemed to realize his mistake and lunged back toward cover. Too late. Cedar’s rifle cracked. His bullet took the man in the neck. He pitched sideways and lay still, blood spattering the snow around him.
Kali stared at Cedar. “He wasn’t going to trouble us again.”
“They’re criminals.” He watched the gully without glancing her direction. “Bandits who work for gangsters and crime lords. They’ve killed before and would do so again. The authorities would issue them the same fate.”
Maybe so, but a warning twanged in the back of her mind.
“How do you know who they are?” she asked. More importantly, did he know what had brought them out here after her? Did he know about the flash gold? Maybe he had questioned the other two. They could have revealed everything to him. Or maybe he had known before he signed on with her. Maybe the only reason he was here was because-
“Look out!” Cedar pushed her out of the copse.
A fist-sized black oval with wood fins sailed through the trees. It bounced off a branch and landed in the copse behind her. Curious, Kali craned her neck, trying to get a look.
“Go, go,” Cedar barked. He shoved her again, then crashed into her from behind, bearing her to the ground.
The fall did not hurt, but it startled her. Cold snow scraped her cheek. Kali tried to push up, but Cedar pressed her face down.
“What are you-”
An explosion roared, hammering her eardrums. Wood splintered and snapped. Branches and needles pelted the snow around them.
“What was
“Grenade.” He patted the snow. “Tarnation, where’s my gun?”
Her ears rang, and she barely heard him. A rifle fired, the sound puny compared to the previous blast, but a bullet burrowed into the snow inches from her face, reminding her how deadly the threat was.
Kali rolled to her back. She had retained the grip on her rifle, and she lifted it, searching for the gunman.
Cedar, sword in hand, plowed down the hillside, churning snow as he high-stepped through the powder. The man in the gully popped up, rifle pointing toward Kali, but he shifted it toward Cedar.
Not able to target him from her back, she lunged to her knees. She feared she would be too slow to help Cedar, but somehow he anticipated the gunman’s shot. He hurled himself into a roll, and the bullet flew harmlessly high.
Kali fired, aiming for the man’s shoulder. She clipped him, but he did not go down. He howled in pain-or maybe anger-and turned his rifle on her. He pumped the lever, but she fired again first. Once, then again. Both shots took him in the chest.
Eyes bulging wide, he stared in disbelief. His rifle fell to the snow, and he slumped out of view behind the gully wall.
Dead. By her hand.
Kali propped herself on her rifle for support and closed her eyes, chin drooped to her chest. It was not the first time she had wounded someone, but it was the first time she had killed. Self-defense or not, it did not sit well
