Va'del
realized that his thoughts were still tinged with panic, and tried
to get a grip on himself.
The
more frightened I am, the faster I'll use up my air.
The
thought suddenly didn't hold as much fear for Va'del as it had a
second ago. Dying in an avalanche would be a kind of release. It
was failure, but a failure that wasn't Va'del's fault. It was
likely the closest he would have ever come to actually succeeding.
Va'del
tried counting heartbeats as a way of measuring the passage of time,
but soon abandoned the effort. As the minutes passed, the cold
gradually started to seep into his limbs. It was a steady process
that seemed to mirror a rising inability to think.
Air
must be going bad already.
Va'del
lost consciousness never expecting to awaken.
At
some point the welcoming blackness turned hard and cold as it pushed
him away, back to a world of light and chilling wind. Cindi slapped
him, and then made as if to repeat the blow.
"I'm
awake."
"You
have to get up and start moving around or you'll freeze to death."
Va'del
stared stupidly at the Guadel for several seconds before the words
finally penetrated and he struggled to his feet with her help.
"Walk
in circles while I dig out one of the gurra."
Questions
of how Cindi had freed herself seemed strangely unimportant, and the
teenager set about walking back and forth across the broken surface
of the snow while the old woman walked several steps and then
knelt down.
Va'del
was too far away to see what the Guadel set down before her, but
within a few seconds the snow started to sink, forming a cone-shaped
depression. Cindi paused and glared at the snow before reaching
down and picking something up and then depositing it a foot away
from the depression.
The
procedure was repeated four more times, and each time the new
depression was deeper than the last, so that taken as a group they
formed a kind of ramp down into the snow.
As
Cindi picked up what Va'del had to assume was a heat sphere for the
last time, she waved him over and pointed at a spot just beyond the
end of the ramp.
"One
of the gurra is here. You're going to have to dig it out. If I use
the stone, we'll soak all of the supplies and render them useless."
Va'del
started trying to dig away at the snow with his gloved hands, but
Cindi shook her head. "Use your knife or you'll never get it
out."
The
teenager started to protest that he didn't want to risk hurting the
animal, but his thoughts must have been written plainly on his face.
The older woman shook her head once more, this time with a
gentleness that was completely at odds with what Va'del knew of her.
"Use
the hilt to avoid damaging any of the supplies, but you don't have
to worry about hurting the animal. It died before I could get you
out. They aren't smart enough to form air pockets like you did."
Va'del
wanted to cry, wanted to scream that she should have hurried faster,
should have dug it out first, but he knew that wouldn't be fair.
Instead he drew out I'rone's knife and started chipping away at the
stone-like snow, all the while trying to ignore the tears blurring
his vision.
The
gurra that was gradually taking shape beneath the cleared snow
turned out to be Hungry, and Va'del felt his heart suddenly tear as
he realized that he hadn't even thought of Jain since he'd been
pulled out of the snow.
"Where
is she? Where is Jain?"
Cindi
grabbed the teenager before he cleared the ramp leading up from
Hungry. "She's not dead, boy. At least she's not buried in the
snow like the rest of us were."
All
of the pieces suddenly fit together with an exactness that Va'del
wouldn't have imagined possible a day previously. "The rock
outcropping must have protected her from the snow. But she isn't
down here helping. Bandits, it was all just another ambush."
Cindi
looked at her young charge with something that bordered on respect
for the first time since he'd met her. "Aye. I think you're
right. We have to have the supplies on that gurra, though, or we're
both dead."
Va'del
felt something that was a close cousin to despair wash through him
at the thought of Jain in the hands of the kind of men who had
murdered Jasmin, I'rone and Betreec, but he stopped the emotion just
before it was able to take him over, fighting it down, restraining
it to a corner of his mind so that he could think rather than
collapsing as he wanted to.
Dropping
back into the hole where Hungry's body was trapped, the teenager
worked with an urgency that simple survival hadn't been able to
conjure inside of him.
We
need the supplies, but once we have them I can go after the bandits.
There can't have been many of them or they'd have just attacked us.
Maybe I can somehow pick them off one at a time and free Jain.
Cindi
was unusually quiet the whole time Va'del was digging out the gurra,
and it wasn't until he had dragged the various packs to the surface
that he thought to wonder why.
The
Guadel was kneeling in the snow, silently staring at a spot no more
than a couple of feet in front of her. Va'del approached the
heavy-set woman and saw tears trickling down her face.
"He
was such a good man. All the things I put him through for so many
years, and never a true word of complaint."
Cindi's
grief was a palpable thing, strong enough to momentarily tear
Va'del's thoughts away from the horrible fate no doubt awaiting
Jain. Looking at the Guadel's face, he was struck by the fact that
she looked decades older than she had when they set out, and
suddenly he was filled with uncertainty.
It
was so much easier to hate her. To think of her as something less
than a real person, but she is a real person. One I don't
understand most of the time, but someone who is just as vulnerable
in her own way to loss as any of us are.
Fighting
against the sense of awkwardness that told him he shouldn't have to
be the one to shock Cindi out of her grief, Va'del sorted through
his packs, leaving the unnecessary things like his books next to
Hungry and then draping the harness across himself so that he could
carry the food and blankets.
"Guadel
Cindi, it will be dark soon. We have to find shelter or we'll both
die."
The
words didn't have any effect on the older woman, and for a moment
Va'del nearly gave up, but the knowledge that he was Jain's only
chance made him cast about for another avenue of attack.
"This
is a chance to destroy the bandits once and for all. We survived
their attack; we can trail them back to their base of operations
before the snows tomorrow hide their tracks. We can stop this from
happening to anyone else."
For
a heartbeat it still didn't look like Cindi would respond, but then
her tear-filled gray eyes sought him out and she nodded.
"The
rest of the gurra are buried too deeply for us to get at them, even
using the heat stone. At least not in the time we have left. We'll
have to leave them and Oh'scir here for now." The Guadel's
voice caught as she said her husband's name, but she wiped away her
tears with snow-covered mittens and pointed up to the trail they'd
been walking on when the avalanche had struck.
"They
couldn't have just chanced upon us. They must have had some kind of
shelter up there to be able to wait for someone to walk into their
trap."
Va'del
nodded, more than a little surprised that Cindi could think so
clearly while so obviously beset by grief. "It may still be up
there so that we can shelter there for the night."
The
trip back up the mountain took at least two cycles. The avalanche
hadn't carried them nearly as far as Va'del would have thought, but
they still had a considerable distance to climb, and the snow they
were walking on varied between rock-hard and a fine powder that even
the wide platform of their snow spikes couldn't manage.
The
very real risk that Va'del or Cindi would freeze to death was
mitigated by their exertions on the climb, and by the time they
reached the trail once again, Va'del had opened up his coat in an
effort to keep from sweating. For all that he was hot, he knew it
was phantom heat. He was consuming reserves of energy that wouldn't
be there indefinitely. Their tent had been on one of the other
gurra, so if they didn't find the bandits' cave soon, they'd
quickly freeze once they became exhausted.
The
snow was heavily trampled in the slender section that had been
protected from the avalanche by the rock outcropping, and Va'del got
the distinct impression that there had been a struggle.
Cindi
must have seen his anger in the set of his shoulders. She reached
out to Va'del and shook her head with more than a little of the
imperious manner he'd grown used to on the trip. "Anger won't
serve any purpose. We have to find shelter."
Va'del
shook her hand off, but walked over to the tracks left in the snow
and began following them back the way they'd come.
They
went a different direction as they left, so their shelter should be
unguarded.
Despite
his confidence that they should be relatively safe, Va'del drew both
his weapons from the scabbards where they'd somehow stayed despite
his having tumbled down the mountain.
It
was impossible to truly move silently in the snow—it crunched and
shifted too much for that—but it also served as a kind of damper
that absorbed at least some of the sound. There was still a
possibility that someone a little distance away might not hear him.
Cindi
followed along behind, close enough that she wouldn't lose sight of
Va'del, but far enough back that distance served to muffle slightly
her heavier footfalls.
The
light was failing quickly now, but enough still remained for Va'del
to see that from his current vantage point it was easy to watch the
trail for more than a mile in each direction.
They
would have had plenty of time to move their people into place to
trigger the ambush.
The
air was cooling, and Va'del was moving more slowly now. He found
himself temporarily sheathing I'rone's knife so he could tie his
coat closed once again. It was nearly full dark by the time that
Va'del finally found the first of the shelters.
It
is a cave all right, but one dug into the snow itself. Who would have
thought of something like that? The snow is so cold, how can it
possibly serve as a shelter?
The
questions were forced out of Va'del's mind as quickly as they
appeared, and he made himself stand motionless as he waited for
Cindi to catch up.
I
can't go inside. There's barely enough room to crawl, I'll be all
but helpless if there is someone inside the cave waiting to dispatch
me. Maybe she can tell if there is someone inside or not.
Cindi
had confirmed that the snow caves were indeed empty, and the pair
then crawled into one of them and found something that, in their
desperate state, felt like paradise.
The
snow caves wouldn't ever be as warm as a proper cave with worked
gemstones to seal off the entrance and heat the air, but it quickly
heated up to the temperature of the surrounding snow which was
considerably warmer than the air outside had been.
Still,
the blankets that had been in Va'del's packs barely sufficed to keep
the pair warm, and worry for Jain continued to gnaw at his thoughts.
Only the fact that Va'del knew he needed to replenish his strength
was enough to force him to lie down and try to sleep.
Cindi
had spent the night in silence, but Va'del had a suspicion that
she'd been quietly crying most of the time. It hadn't really
mattered; both of them had been content to be alone with their
grief.
As
the sunlight trickled through the snow, the pair crawled out of the
cave and Va'del was astonished to find that Cindi was planning on
returning to the village.
"We
have to go back and get reinforcements. The two of us couldn't
possibly defeat a group of bandits."
Va'del
shook his head. "It's going to snow tonight. If not tonight,
then sometime in the four days between now and when we could get
back. That's even assuming that we can convince the Headman to let
us take any guards."
Cindi's
face once again took on a familiar expression of contempt. "That
is foolishness. Of course he'll let us take guards. There isn't
any other course."
Va'del
shrugged and then opened his packs, splitting up the food and
blankets. "I'm not going back. We're Jain's only hope, and if
we don't follow the trail now while it is fresh we'll never find
her. Here's your share of the supplies. Go back to the village if
you want, but I'm going after her."
"You're
disobeying me? You'll die, and if you somehow don't I'll have you
exiled as a coward."
Shifting
his packs around, Va'del laughed—a humorless biting sound. "That
doesn't matter now. Nothing matters but getting her back. If I
can't save her, at least I can die trying."
The
Guadel looked at her charge for several seconds. "You really
love her, don't you?"
"I
don't know. I haven't ever thought about that. I just know that
she's my best friend and I'm the only chance she has."
Cindi
finally shook her head. "I can't make you go back with me, so I
suppose I'd better see what I can do to help. It isn't like I have
much left to live for anyway."
##
Va'del's
fear it would snow proved well-founded, and only a couple of cycles passed
before a light snowfall started.
The
pair continued to push on, hoping they'd either be able to find the
hideout before the snow filled the tracks completely, or that it
would stop without putting down enough moisture to hide the trail.