Page 50 of Dragonbound

‘Erann,’ she said, but he remained unresponsive. ‘Right. Come on then.’

She bent and managed to get him over her shoulder. This was the best way to try to carry him, but he was a dead weight. Within moments, her arms and legs were trembling. She felt hot and sweaty all over again. She staggered towards her improvised steps, pressing against the slippery sides of the hole to stay upright. She was overwhelmed with a feeling of failure and disappointment. There was no way she could do this.

Arrow let out a strangled yelp. Sereh felt rather than heard the boom. She glanced fearfully at the mountains around her, or what she could see of them from this angle. She couldn’t see another avalanche gathering on any of the slopes, but even so she didn’t want to wait around to find out.

She got her foot on the first step, and then the next. Suddenly, Erann didn’t feel so heavy any more. She was doing it. She wondered if she was having a moment of incredible strength in response to the emergency. She’d heard of it happening to other people before.

Step by step, gritting her teeth with the exertion, she heaved Erann up the side of the hole. At last, she lurched out onto the remains of the avalanche, still gripping Erann tightly. She gazed towards the cave. The surface was uneven, littered with twisted dead branches and hidden stones. It would be easier to pull him than carry him, but that would take too long. No, she’d managed so far. She’d carry him. Digging her feet into the surface, she took a staggering step and then another.

Sereh finally reached the cave entrance, her chest burning, her legs wobbling, his weight seeming to more than double as she stepped within. As carefully as she could, which with hindsight wasn’t very careful, she managed to bend to her knees, to grip his head, and then to lower him to the ground. She rolled away from him, and allowed herself time to catch her breath, to still her drumming heartbeat. Only then did she get to her feet and rummage through her backpack, pull out two more furs and cover him with them before returning outside. He still hadn’t stirred and that worried her.

The avalanche had ripped up the few sparse trees that survived on the mountainside and dragged them with it. They were littered everywhere. She quickly gathered an armload of broken branches and piled them back in a sheltered corner of the cave away from the mouth. She found the heatstone in Erann’s backpack and used it to light a fire.

‘Water,’ she gasped next. She grabbed both wooden cups and went outside to gather some snow to leave it to melt by the side of the fire. She’d make them tea. There was still some left over from the last time they met.

Although the fire had only just caught, Sereh felt too warm from her exertions. She removed another fur and laid it over Erann as well. He looked terrible and hadn’t moved since she’d brought him to safety, aside from his shivering. He lay where she’d placed him; his arms by his side, his legs stretched out as well. Arrow sprawled to his other side, once more keeping him warm where the fire couldn’t reach. He’d been buried for a long time. She didn’t like to think about how close he’d come to dying. Or how it might still happen.

To distract herself, she upended the backpack filled with food from his steading. She took hold of a tunic and, gritting her teeth, ripped it. With the snow melted, she dipped a corner into the water and used it to endeavour to clear away the blood from his face. She winced at the sight of his swelling eye, but he didn’t so much as stir when she pressed against it. Content she’d done all she could, and not wanting to move any of the furs, she hurried to refill the cup with snow and placed it to melt once more.

Then she sat beside Erann, watching him, willing him to come back to her.

She hoped the building warmth from the fire, and the collection of furs over him, would stop his shivering and return his beautiful face to a healthier colour. But in spite of all the furs, he continued to shiver uncontrollably, his face bluer than ever.

‘Erann,’ she murmured again, but there was no response. ‘Erann, please wake up.’

33

SEREH

Sereh was trying to dribble water through his closed lips when Erann gave a gasp and abruptly fluttered his eyes open. He stared around the cave wildly, then back at Sereh and then beyond her to the mouth of the cave. A small smile lit his bruised face. He glanced back at her and she reached for his hand, feeling the jolt his touch elicited in her. She felt her heart clench. He was awake. He would be well.

‘I take it I have you and Arrow to thank for saving my life again?’ She expected his voice to be raw. Instead, it sounded sharp and amused.

‘Well, yes, you do.’ She smiled. She still wasn’t sure how the hole in the snow had appeared. Had their Gods made the snow collapse? She wished she knew.

He grinned at her, one eye swollen, and said, ‘I don’t suppose there’s more water, is there?’

Almost falling over herself with relief, Sereh dashed to reach the cup with the melted snow. She passed it to him. Her hand shook as she did so. She hoped she wasn’t suddenly going to suffer a delayed reaction to what she’d endured to rescue him. She needed to be strong for Erann if she was going to nurse him back to health. She wouldn’t be able to look after herself and him if she suddenly struggled now.

He either didn’t notice or chose not to comment. Whichever, she was grateful. He drained the cup and handed it back to her with an apologetic grin.

‘Don’t suppose I could have some more, could I?’ She tripped over the strap of her backpack as she rushed back to the other cup and handed it to him. Arrow looked at her, almost in amusement, wearing what Sereh suspected was a wolf-dog grin, from where she lay to Erann’s other side. Sereh frowned at her. She needed to calm down. Her relief was making her giddy.

‘I owe you thanks as well,’ she called lightly from just outside the cave, as she busily refilled the first cup with snow. ‘If it weren’t for you pushing me into the cave, I’d have been buried as well. I don’t think either of us would have escaped.’ She turned back to him at that moment and saw his cheerful grin replaced with a small, tight smile. She wasn’t sure what it meant.

He replied in a soft voice, ‘I’m just glad I got you out of the way. When I was under the snow, it was good to know you, at least, were safe.’

There was no denying the catch in his voice. Sereh looked at him. He met her gaze unflinchingly.

Sereh felt her cheeks flush and she turned to place the cup near the fire.

‘It must be getting hot in here,’ he murmured, throwing his furs aside. He gasped in pain, collapsing back against the furs.

‘What is it?’ she demanded. He sounded like a wounded animal.

His face was sheeted in icy sweat once more. She hurried towards him and touched his forehead. He was burning hot.

He scrunched his good eye in pain. His breathing was ragged. Sereh felt a stir of panic where a moment before there’d been only excitement. She knew people could be hurt inside even while everything might seem fine on the outside. What if Erann had injuries that couldn’t be healed? They were alone in the caves surrounding Vatna Jokull. There was no one she could ask for help.