I didn’t know how long it was going to take to find Fell, but I couldn’t head out into the Crags without proper provisions, and verdaberry, with its healing properties, was always useful. I wasn’t quite one hundred percent yet, and I would need all my strength for what I might face. It didn’t take much imagination to envision what that might be: the skelm (truce or not), raiders from the north, raiders from the south, and a whole host of other threats in the formsof creatures I had not yet experienced. Being caught out on my own would not be ideal.
I shoved such worries aside, reminding myself that I was a firebreather. I could take care of myself.
The pride’s gathering area was silent and still as a tomb. Shadows flickered across the stone walls from the low-burning fire in the great hearth. It never burned out completely. Someone would be along soon to stir it to life. I needed to be gone before then.
I plunged into the tunnel leading out of the pride’s caves and followed it as it coiled up through the mountain, finally reaching the waterfall. The roar of falling water, however, did not greet me as I approached. It was noiseless, frozen solid courtesy of the recent squall. It wasn’t like the Great Falls, a massive waterfall in the Crags so large it never froze.
I followed the path along behind it, the wall of ice to my left preternaturally motionless, almost like time had stopped, freezing the countless droplets mid-flow. My fingertips grazed the bitterly cold barrier as I went.
The path I walked was not obvious at first glance. Or even second. It was one more layer of protection, an obstacle that helped keep us hidden from prying eyes or those intent on searching for passageways or caves that could lead to dragons and their hoard.
I stepped out from behind the falls. The ground inclined steeply at this point. I moved along its slick ascent. I was almost to the crest and not yet out of breath. Even after my lengthy svefn, I was still in good-enough shape. Training had conditioned me. My limbs were strong, toned with muscle where they had once been soft.
I reached the crest and stood poised, looking out through the mouth of the cave, facing the waiting world, listening to the howl of the wind and snow in the eons-hewn mountain, the pride, Vetr at my back.
Where he would stay.
“Going somewhere?”
I bit back a scream and whirled around. Kerstin advanced on me, looking rather smug as she trekked up the incline behind me,her long, coltish legs encased in thick wool trousers. Thick fur boots hugged her feet, and that told me everything I needed to know. She was dressed for travel.
With a hand pressed over my pounding heart, I exhaled the words: “You gave me a fright. You shouldn’t sneak up like that.”
“Andyoushould not sneak out in the middle of the night,” she retorted with a grin.
“I’m not sneaking out,” I lied, my mind working quickly to come up with a reason for being only a few steps from the opening of the cave.
“No?”
“I’m just getting some air. I’m not like the rest of you … accustomed to being underground so much. I have need of fresh air.”
“Yes,” she said in slow agreement. “You’re not like the rest of us.” Arms crossed, she sent a pointed look to my knapsack, full of the provisions I’d packed. “And you’re not getting fresh air. You’re getting out of here.”
I opened and closed my mouth several times before acknowledging to myself that she was not one to be put off with fake denials. She had eyes and a brain in her head. No sense denying it. “I can’t stay here another moment,” I admitted.
She considered me a long time and nodded, just once. “Where are you going?”
I exhaled with relief that I would not be required to defend my decision to leave. She seemed to accept it. She didn’t want to knowwhy. Justwhere.
“He’s out there.” I motioned vaguely, as thoughout therewas not a vast area that stretched miles and miles. Even the pride couldn’t know every inch of it. There was too much ground to cover.
She nodded solemnly.
I did not miss that she didn’t ask me who I was talking about. She understood, and I again wondered how much she knew. Did the entire pride know that Fell was buried somewhere in these mountains? Was I the only one living in the dark?
“Did you know?” I demanded, feeling the heat rise in my face,in all of me, eager to burn a path outside myself. “That Fell is not dead … did you know?”
“Me?” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t say I’m exactly part of the pride’s inner circle.” Her steady gaze fixed back on me. “No. Of course I didn’t know.”
“But you’re not surprised,” I countered. “You’re not surprised that he’s out there … buried alive.”
At that she hesitated, and then she nodded. “The skelm are capable of terrible things. Burying their enemies alive is athingthey do. We all know that.”
We all know that.
“Ididn’t know that,” I snapped. “No one saw fit to tell me that.”
She shrugged. “You cannot expect to know all our ways. You’re learning, though. You’ve come far.”
