“Six!” Her big, dark eyes met his and narrowed. “If you care for her at all, you’ll move your paws.”
Another howl sounded, this one closer than the last. Ravens cawed somewhere deep in the trees, and an animal yelped as its life was cut off short.
Arawn’s horse bolted, abandoning him in the snow and silence.
So, he drew his sword and pointed at the raphon. “I swear to the gods above, beast. If you don’t move, I will cut you limb from limb, and?—"
She huffed in his face. Her tail twitched twice...and she covered him with snow.
Gods.
“Please,”he said, lowering the sword as desperation brought an unwelcome warmth to his eyes. As he stared at Ezer, helpless on her back. That tiny healing rune...it would not be enough. “Please, or they’ll freeze to death.”
Six considered him, head cocking to the side.
Her paws clutched at the snow as she shifted, and on her back, Ezer groaned.
The sound convinced her more than Arawn’s sword did.
For her tail twitched once, and then she turned. And slowly, as silent as the grave...she walked deeper into the woods.
Arawn had no choice but to follow.
Six found a cave.
A cave that was empty of any bears or beasts, thank the gods, and Arawn covered the entrance with sealing runes. A feeble protection, for he was no Scribe, but it would do until the safety of morning.
The cold clung to every part of him, his breath coming in thick clouds as Six curled around both Ezer and Kinlear, offering them her body heat. A strange and gentle movement, for the Acolyte’s beast.
Perhaps there truly was more to her than he realized.
Arawn sat down, cursing the world around him as he tried to light a fire.
“Come on,” he growled. He’d gathered what little sticks he could find that weren’t drenched in snow. He’d piled them high with trembling hands, his entire body racked with shivers...
And begged Vivorr to gift him with a wave of magic.
“Comeon!”he yelled.
His voice echoed off the rounded cave walls, the darkness lit only by the twin runes on Ezer and Kinlear’s hands.
“Vivorr,please!”
But his hands did nothing. They gave no spark, no flame, no warmth to bring Ezer back to life. “I need you.”
There were tears in his eyes now, pain throbbing in the back of his skull.
He’d failed her.
He’d failed Soraya, and he had failed Ezer.
“Not again,” he whispered. “Please, not again.”
He slammed his hands together, as if he could make Vivorr listen. As if he could call power to them, but silence came, no matter how furiously he hissed his invocations.
There was no peace in his mind. There was only terror, and there was only cold that would shatter her bones, soon, if he did not bring this flame to life.
He cursed beneath his breath, desperate enough that he might have to leave this cave, go back into the woods, and--
