The Elkati were camped right where Theos had expected them to be. He’d noticed the spot on the journey toward Elkat and had seen how there was absolutely no way to pass without going through the narrow gap between two cliffs. But it had all been academic then, just one more bit of information to stash in case it was useful someday.
Now it was a serious problem. “We could get off the trail, den up, and hope for a storm,” he told Finnvid. “In the middle of a blizzard we could walk right through; no one would be able to see us well enough to know we don’t belong. If we were farther up in the mountains, that would make sense; the weather up there is bad as often as it’s good. But we’re pretty low, here. We could wait a long time and not get much of a storm.”
“What’s our other choice?” Finnvid asked.
“We don’t really have another choice,” Theos admitted. He’d been thinking about it for a while, worrying about it, but he’d hoped the Elkati incompetence would continue and theywouldn’thave seen the importance of the pass, wouldn’t have established a camp there. Now that he’d seen not only the Elkati but thenumberof Elkati, his optimism was gone.
“We need to get through,” Finnvid said. “There are too many of them to fight?”
“There’s about a hundred men.”
“That’s too many.” Finnvid grinned quickly. “Right? Even for a Sacrati?”
“It’s too many.”
“There’s no way around it. We can’t fight through it. I like your blizzard idea, but the weather won’t cooperate.” Finnvid stared through the trees in the direction of the camp. “This is a problem.”
“It is.”
“We can’t just wait it out? Maybe they’ll go home.”
“The men downhill from us have probably found our den, and they’re likely working their way back toward us. They’ll be sweeping the forest more thoroughly now, and they’ll know what they’re looking for. If they’re doing a good job, it’ll slow them down, but you and I haven’t been pushing as hard as we could if I were healthy. They’ll catch up to us soon.”
Finnvid stepped a little closer and drew a shaky breath. “We’ve come a long way, you and me.”
Theos heard the sadness in his voice. The resignation. “It’s not too late for you to go back. Or go forward. Stumble into camp with your wrists tied, say you managed to get away from me . . .”
“Stumble into camp,” Finnvid said. He frowned. “I probably could. Not asme, just as an Elkati soldier. Everyone will be wearing whatever winter gear they could find; there’s no uniforms to worry about. With scarves and beards, it’s hard to recognize anyone at a distance. Or even up close.”
“That’s why they’ll have passwords, and a process for identifying . . .” Theos looked more closely at Finnvid. “No passwords? No system for keeping track of who’s in camp and who’s out?”
“I don’t think so,” Finnvid said. His voice was cautious, but his excitement was clearly growing. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Never seen it done. When we traveled this summer, we did nothing of the sort, and as I said, we don’t usually leave the valley in the winter, so we’d have no special procedures in place.”
“It would be risky,” Theos said thoughtfully.
“No more than sitting here, waiting for the soldiers from downhill to catch up to us.”
“You could still go back,” Theos tried.
Finnvid snorted and clapped a mitt-covered hand to the side of Theos’s face. “You need to hear me when I say this, Theos.” He locked his gaze on Theos and slowly, clearly, said, “I’m not going back. I can’t live like that. I won’t.”
“Maybe you could—”
“No. I can’t. I won’t.”
“Just because they want you to marry a woman.”
Finnvid sighed. Then he shook his head. “No. Not because of that. Truly, it’s because they mispronounce my name. They say it ‘Finnvid,’ but really it should be pronounced ‘Feenveed,’ and I just can’t stand the idea of living the rest of my life with such ignorant people.”
“That must be very aggravating for you.”
“It is.”
Theos took both of Finnvid’s mitted hands in his own and said, “I’d rather you were safe. But, if you’re sure . . .”
“I am.”
“Then I think we should go at dusk.” And they stood together, there under the pine trees, and worked out the rest of their plan.
