Winter Be My Shield (57 page)

When she smeared a drop of his blood on the milky surface of the stone she felt the enchantment inside uncoil and awaken, latching onto him like a leech. Cam didn't flinch at the touch of the blade, but when the enchantment sank its teeth into him he gasped and bent double as though someone had taken him by surprise with a punch to the gut.

Sierra grabbed his shoulder, forgetting that her fingertips were smeared with blood and left sticky streaks on his skin. ‘Cam?'

‘Ah … Fires Below, you might have warned me.' It felt like a fish-hook snagged beneath his heart — Sierra sensed it, too, for an instant before the pain was washed away in a tide of warmth. Part of her wanted to close her eyes and bask in it while the rest of her wanted to wilt in shame that she could take such pleasure in her friend's pain.

‘You'll forget all about it in a couple of days,' Rasten said. Sierra felt him come to stand behind her and he laid a hand on the back of her neck. It made her shudder. She wanted to slap him away but she made herself hold still, unsure how he would react if she did. Her power reared up and surged at the repression, though, and he surely felt it bite at him through her skin.

Cam must have felt her go very still. He looked up with an expression of pure hatred in his eyes and encircled her arm with his hand. He took a step back, drawing her with him.

‘I'll find something to bandage that cut,' she said to him.

‘Don't bother. It's no more than a scratch. It will stop on its own.' He pulled his clothing on again and took the bloody stone from her fingers. ‘Does the wretched thing actually work after all that?'

Well, let's test it and see
, she thought to him.
Can you hear me?

He recoiled as though she'd slapped him. ‘By the Black Sun herself …'
How … like this?

Yes. Just picture me and imagine you're saying the words.

Rasten watched them with his lips pressed together. He was jealous, Sierra knew, but she couldn't bring herself to move away from Cam to placate him. ‘There's one more thing to be dealt with,' she said. ‘I still can't keep my power from peaking —'

‘I've noticed,' he said dryly. ‘We don't have time to teach you to control it properly so we'll have to do it the roundabout way. I can take the excess from you but you'll have to lower your shields and let me in. If you fight me in the middle of an Akharian camp their mages will know at once just what is hiding among their slaves.'

‘I can do that,' Sierra said. She was familiar with the procedure. Raising and supplying power had been Kell's main use for her. Early on, the suppression stones had been enough to prevent her from fighting him and later the heat of the punishment bands had forced her to submit.

‘You're making a mistake allying yourself with these people,' he said to Sierra.

‘But you think she should go back to Kell with you?' Cam said. ‘You, who doesn't care what she might go though in the slave camps? Why would she ever choose to go with you over staying with people who care about her for who she is, not what she can do for them? But of course you wouldn't say anything against it. It's what you have in mind for her, after all, if she were ever fool enough to turn herself in.'

Rasten stared at Cam blankly, as though he'd spoken in an unfamiliar language. Then he turned to Sierra. ‘You're right. He doesn't understand.'

‘I tried to tell you,' Sierra said.

‘Look, princeling,' Rasten said. ‘She's higher above you than you could possibly imagine and she is still growing. She's not like you at all.' To Sierra, he said, ‘You're starting to feel it, aren't you? It's getting harder and harder to remember that you're supposed to share their little hurts and struggles. To pretend you're human. Well, this is only the beginning, Little Crow. That night at the village wasn't an aberration, a freak moment you can put to the back of your mind and forget all about. That's what the world is really like. At the moment you think these insects will help you, that they will keep you warm and safe and share what you're going through, but when they see the real you they'll run screaming.

‘I know you think I've forgotten, but I do remember what it was like to have a family, and so I know what I'm talking about. You'll destroy them if they don't abandon you first. I want to spare you that pain … but you'll fly where you will, Little Crow, and I can't stop you.'

He dispelled her shield with a flick of his hand, breaking it so sharply the power returned to Sierra in a stinging smack of energy that rippled and crackled over her skin before arcing down to earth itself in the ground.

‘When the time comes, call me. I'll be nearby.'

He turned and stalked away across the bright swathe of snow. In the distance a man started out from his waiting riders, trotting closer with a riderless horse in tow.

Sierra turned away, leaning towards Cam as he slipped an arm around her shoulders. She leaned close, taking comfort in his warmth and the trickle of power that still flowed from the cut on his chest.

‘He's mad, isn't he?' Cam said. ‘Totally and utterly mad.'

‘I tried to tell you,' Sierra said.

Cam made her a makeshift toboggan by cutting a forked limb from a tree with the two long branches to form the base and a short, upwardly curved stem on which to affix the traces. They disturbed a moose feeding in the stand of trees where he cut the branch. The beast peered down its long nose as it stamped and pawed at the snow and rather than risk goading it into a charge they took the branch elsewhere to finish the job.

Sierra lashed a hide to the forked branches with the fur side down to provide a slick base, then tied her meagre supplies to it. She hoped it would be enough to convince anyone who came across her that she had been travelling alone in the wilderness for some time.

When it was all ready Sierra slipped her feet into the thongs of her snowshoes and slung the sled-rope across her shoulder. ‘Well,' she said, ‘I suppose this is it.'

‘Do you have your magic rock?' he said with a straight face.

‘Cam!' She went to prod him with her forefinger but he stepped back out of her reach with a grin. The humour was short-lived. They could hear the sound of axes echoing over the hillside.

‘Will you be alright?' he asked her one last time.

‘They can't do anything to me unless I let them. I'm more worried about you, getting past Rasten first, and then dealing with Dremman.'

Cam shrugged. ‘Ardamon won't be far behind us. I'll wait with him until you send word that everything has gone as expected.'

Sierra shook her head. ‘I'd rather not use it unless it's absolutely necessary. There's always the chance that one of the Akharian mages will overhear. Just go, Cam. If anything goes wrong, I'll deal with it and tell you afterwards. But if Rasten gives you any trouble, call me, and I'll deal with him.'

He turned away with a grimace. ‘I'm the warrior here, I should be protecting
you
.' He scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘Well, at the rate the Akharians have been travelling they should reach Demon's Spire within a month. So long as the Thaw holds off, anyway.' He looked away over the valley. ‘He was only saying those things to scare you.'

‘I know.'

‘You won't need his help once you get your hands on Vasant's books.'

‘I'm sure you're right.'

He wrapped his arms around her. Sierra shut her eyes against the sting of tears. She'd hugged her mothers and fathers before walking down the hill to surrender to Kell. They'd begged her not to go, but they hadn't tried to stop her.

‘You're shaking,' he said.

‘I'm just a little nervous.'

‘You don't have to do this.'

‘Yes, I do. There's nowhere else I can go, remember?' She shook her hood back and let the cold air brace her. ‘I'd best go.'

‘Sirri, tell Isidro … tell him I'll see him soon. And tell Mira I'll bring her the head of any man who hurts her. Starting with her uncle if she wants.'

‘I will. Be well, Cam.'

‘Spirit of Storm watch over you, Sirri.'

Sierra left him in the cover of the trees, dragging the awkward and unbalanced sled behind her as she descended into the valley. The one time she let herself look back she couldn't see him at all.

She followed the sound of the axes. If she were really a wandering traveller living hand-to-mouth in the thin and hungry end of winter, she might be desperate enough not to care that the sound was as much a threat as it was an offer of safety. If she was desperate enough she would take the chance.

 

They must have seen her coming as she crossed the open valley, for they were waiting for her at the edge of the trees. The first she knew of them was a shout of warning in a strange-yet-familiar language and then a rapid bellow of orders as they fanned out from the trees to surround her with spears and bows. She recognised few words from their rapid babble but the meaning was clear enough. She let the sled-rope fall and dropped
to her knees, raising her hands in surrender. A moment later they'd shoved her face down onto the snow while they bound her hands behind her back. She couldn't have resisted if she'd wanted to. She was too busy trying to keep her power contained beneath her skin.

They kept her there with the snow melting and seeping into her clothes while they sorted through the gear on her sled and discarded it all as worthless. Between Kell and Rhia she'd learned just enough Akharian to tease some meaning from the conversation going on over her head:
What do you reckon, sir? She looks like a young 'un under all those furs.

Ye Gods and demons, man, d'you think I'm going to stand around here in the cold waiting for you to get your end away while there's a hot meal waiting for me back at the camp? I don't care how desperate you are to get frostbite on your tackle, you can do it on your own cursed time. Get her on her feet.

One of the men hauled her up and shoved her towards the sound of the axes.

As she let them march her away Sierra heard Rasten's voice drifting over the snow-covered hills.

I'll be waiting for your call, Little Crow.