I stare at her, hands on my hips, and she huffs out a breath at me.
‘You know she doesn’t understand every word you say,’ Kyor interjects, appearing at her side and rolling up his sleeve as he leans against a tree. There’s something so casual about that action. As if he isn’t the single deadliest fighter I’ve ever seen. Or at least he was. With his arm still healing, only time will tell if he can reclaim that title.
Still, my heart skitters at the sight of him and the fact that he’s speaking directly to me, but I force myself to stay focused.
‘She understood what I meant,’ I respond.
‘She got the gist.’
I look the wolf in the eye and offer her a brief nod.
With a slight sniff, her mouth closes and the snarling stops, and a feeling close to satisfaction grips me. I raise my hand to stroke her as a sign of goodwill. The growl is instant. I hurriedly pull back.
‘Okay, not at the stroking stage yet,’ I say, retreating. ‘Good to know.’ I turn away only to remember the entire reason I had to come over here.
‘We’re going west to Rowell,’ I say, looking straight at Kyor.
‘Why?’ he questions, face unreadable.
‘Because of the boats or something. Something about Vypash. Anyway, that’s the group consensus, so that’s the way we’re going. You should let her know,’ I add with a nod to Elska. With that, I turn around and walk away.
One step at a time. That’s all I’m going for.
And now that I’ve made the first one, maybe he’ll make the second.
Chapter 45
Deciding to go west narrows our options.
Rowell lies wedged between the frozen Follen Lake and the Taron River, with barely any room to manoeuvre. Whichever way we choose, there’s no easy path through.
‘Any preference, Caz?’ I ask. ‘You studied the maps.’
‘Yeah, but unfortunately the maps don’t give any indication of the weather, and that’s going to be what causes us trouble this far up north.’
She’s right. Over the last day it’s become noticeably colder, and the chilliness isn’t just coming from Kyor.
‘We should go east,’ Kyor grunts. ‘Closer to the lake.’
‘But if it’s rained recently, that whole area will be frozen,’ Caz counters. ‘It’ll be like walking on an ice rink.’
‘Which is not what we want with the horses,’ Ruben joins in.
‘Well, going by the river, the ground will be boggy. The mud there can be so thick that a man can disappear into it. It’s no less suitable for the horses than the lakeside,’ the prince snaps back.
‘The river will be okay,’ Benny says, ‘because it’s tidal.’
It’s the first time he’s spoken directly to Kyor since Galreck, and I half expect a lightning bolt to fire down from the sky, but it doesn’t.
There’s nothing. Complete and utter silence.
Benny clears his throat and continues. ‘We would just have to pick our time and route with care and make sure we stick to high ground. But at least that way we avoid having to deal with ice. I can’t remember how many times the river has frozen, but it’s a once-in-a-century type of event, rather than once a decade.’
‘Then the river gets my vote,’ Caz says.
Ruben also nods in agreement, but my gaze remains on Kyor.
His jaw is rigid, tension in every line of his frame. ‘We’re moving closer to Torailian territory that way,’ he finally says.
