He looked up, startled from his reverie. ‘Good night, dear love.’
He had spoken from the heart. Even in the moonlight, Calwyn saw his face flush. She lowered her head, feeling an answering heat in her own cheeks. She heard the snow crunch beneath his boots as he strode to her, and then she was in his arms, and his lips were on hers. Calwyn’s heart leapt into her throat. He murmured in her ear, an explanation or an apology, she couldn’t make out the words.
‘Calwyn!’ Keela’s imperious voice rapped out from the mouth of the small tent. ‘Hurry up, I want to seal the tent. It’s freezing in here!’
Calwyn and Darrow sprang apart. ‘Go,’ whispered Darrow with a rueful smile. ‘We can talk another time.’
It isn’t the talking that I care about!
lamented Calwyn to Halasaa in mind-speech, as she curled up crossly beside Keela.
I’m sure
Keela interrupted us on purpose.
Do not blame Keela. Since the day you met, you and Darrow have taken
turns to push one another away, like children squabbling.
Calwyn smiled in the dark.
You’re right.
Halasaa’s voice was sober.
There will be time to make up your
quarrel with Mica. But do not wait too long to mend your friendship with
Darrow, my sister.
Calwyn did not answer.
THE NEXT DAY,
as usual, they had to chivvy Keela out of the tent, and, as usual, she grumbled as she emerged into the cold, clutching her fur-lined cloak around her throat. ‘Why can’t I sleep a little longer? It isn’t even light yet! I don’t want breakfast.’
‘You’re lucky we woke you at all,’ growled Tonno. ‘If it was up to me, we’d let you sleep till we were well away.’
‘Now, darling, you know you’d never do that.You’d miss me
far
too much!’ purred Keela.
Halasaa smiled to himself as he gazed at the line of the mountains and the curve of the river ahead.
‘What is it?’ asked Calwyn.
These forests are known to me. We are entering the lands of the
Spiridrelleen.
‘But Spiridrell is near the sea!We’re a long way from where we first met you, Halasaa. These can’t be the same forests, surely?’
These are the winter forests
. He placed a picture in her mind: Tree People, huddled in caves for shelter, seeking food among the snowy trees. She remembered as he showed her that winter was especially difficult for his people, and she was ashamed that she had forgotten it until now. She touched her friend’s arm. ‘Tonno and I saw a fire last night. Perhaps it belonged to some Spiridrelleen, not Samis after all.’
Halasaa smiled a little sadly.
I think it must have been Samis, my
sister. There are no Tree People here now.
‘I didn’t know the Tree People came so close to Antaris, Halasaa. I could almost have seen you from my tower!’
I did not realise it either,
Halasaa admitted.
But we have not come
so far north for many years. Now we keep further south, to make the journey
shorter for the old ones and the children. There are fewer of us now than
when I came here with my father. Every year, fewer. Every year, weaker.
Calwyn was silent, wondering how the Tree People were faring in this hardest of winters. Halasaa had been treated harshly by his own people, but he was still one of them. As if he understood her without words, Halasaa smiled.
I will know
if we come close to my people. I will tell you, Calwyn, when they are near.
Thank you.
But Calwyn turned away with a twinge of pain, knowing that a year ago she would have sensed the presence of the Tree People in the forests without Halasaa’s help. He was the last of his people to have the gift of the Power of Becoming, and the discovery that Calwyn shared it had filled him with joy. Though the Power of Becoming was expressed in silent dances, not songs of chantment, Calwyn had lost that ability when she lost her other powers of magic, and she knew that Halasaa’s sorrow for her, for what she had lost, had been compounded with the extra grief that he was alone once more.
As Tonno had predicted, the day was fine and the air crisp. By the time the sun had risen, they were out on the frozen river. Darrow’s rhythmic growl of ironcraft droned beneath the hum of sled runners and the hiss of skates. The morning sun turned the snowdrifts on the bank to dazzling white, and Calwyn narrowed her eyes and blinked against the glare.
No one was prepared for the chantment that roared out of the forest, and struck like a leaping roancat. The front sled, towing Darrow, Trout and Keela, was wrenched violently sideways and slammed into the second.
The first sled tipped up, spilling its load of packs and bundles, while Darrow managed to fling himself clear. But Trout and Keela collided with the toppled sled and sent it crashing down so hard that it cracked the ice. Calwyn’s breath exploded from her lungs as she was flung into the capsized sled. A jagged chasm split the ice apart; black water yawned beneath.
Tonno yelled, ‘It’s Samis! Look out!’
Just in time, Darrow’s strong hand seized Calwyn’s and yanked her clear. The unmistakable throat-song of ironcraft was droning, not from Darrow, but from on the bank; Calwyn glimpsed a dark figure among the trees.
But the chantment was drowned out by the creaks and groans of the ice, and Keela’s shrieks of panic. She was a child of the deserts, and the water terrified her. Next instant the ice gave way, and the first sled plunged into the black water. Trout’s fingers scraped across the ice as he was dragged in after it, his skates tangled in the tow-rope. Tonno lunged for him.
‘No!’ cried Calwyn, and threw herself atTonno’s legs, for if he added his weight to the weakened ice, they would all go under. She called silently to Halasaa, who lay sprawled and winded beside the second sled.
The pole!
Darrow was singing. Gradually, the nose of the submerged sled lifted from the river, but Trout still floundered in the freezing water. As Calwyn helped Halasaa to free the long, sturdy pole they kept strapped to the sled for just this purpose, she scanned the bank for Samis, but the shadowy figure had vanished.
Flat on their stomachs to spread their weight, Calwyn and Halasaa thrust the pole across the ice to Trout.
Reach out, my brother!
called Halasaa. Blindly, his lenses lost, Trout clutched at the pole with numbed hands, and Calwyn and Halasaa hauled him from the water. Little by little, Darrow eased the dripping sled onto thicker ice, until it was safe.Tonno gripped his knife between his teeth and crawled to the sled so he could cut through the rope that tangled Trout. Only then did he shout, ‘Where’s Keela?’
But Keela had gone.
Clutching Trout, sodden and shivering, Calwyn fought for breath as she stared up and down the bank.
There!
Halasaa nodded; he too had caught the scarlet flash of Keela’s cloak between the black brush-strokes of the tree trunks.
She has gone with him
.
‘Let her go!’ barked Tonno. ‘Good riddance to her!’
‘Which way?’ demanded Darrow.
‘I didn’t see!’
It is too late.
Only Halasaa was calm.
They are gone.
‘Too late? Aye, it’s too late! We should have wrung her pretty neck when we had the chance!’
‘Peace,Tonno, peace!We must get everyone dry and warm.’ Calwyn glanced around wildly. ‘The Clarion! Trout, where’s the Clarion?’
Trout patted his clothes helplessly, squinting all around. ‘I – I don’t know.’
‘Did that rogue take it, as well as half-drowning us all?’ roared Tonno.
Trout’s shoulders slumped. ‘I must have dropped it into the river.’
Calwyn’s hand flew to her own jacket.The dense nugget of the Wheel was still tucked safely into her pocket; the silken wrapping was not even damp.
‘If the Clarion’s at the bottom of the river, I’ll find it,’ said Darrow grimly. ‘Even if I have to pick out every last stone on the riverbed.’
‘You can’t do that!’ cried Calwyn.
Darrow glared at her. ‘I haven’t lost my chantment yet.’
‘I wasn’t – ’ Calwyn stopped herself. ‘I mean, we haven’t time to wait. Tonno and Trout are wet through.’
‘You’re not exactly dry yourself.’ Darrow frowned at her. ‘And what’s
this
?’ He snatched up her hand.
Blood was dripping bright red on the snow; she had sliced her hand open on one of the sled runners. She hadn’t even been aware of the pain, but now the sight of the blood pouring out made her feel sick.
‘Must’ve been waiting for us, the dog,’ muttered Tonno darkly.
‘We saw his fire last night.’Weakly Calwyn let herself lean back against Darrow, but he seized her shoulders angrily.
‘You knew he was so close and didn’t tell me? Didn’t you
think
? How could we have caught up to him, unless he had waited for us? You know he does nothing, nothing, without a plan!’With a rough shake, Darrow pushed Calwyn away from him.
Halasaa was there; he caught Calwyn’s hurt hand between his, and she felt the warmth of his touch as he began the dance of healing, his fingers tapping and kneading her flesh.
This will stop the bleeding. I will complete the healing later. Can you wait,
my sister?
Calwyn nodded. Her hand was stiff and swollen, and the red weal across the palm throbbed, but the cut was closed.The real pain had come from Darrow’s fury.
Halasaa laid his warm hands on her shoulders.
There is shelter
nearby. Come.
Swiftly, he extracted sleeping-furs from the dry sled and wrapped up Trout, then beckoned him to climb aboard.
The rest of us will pull; it will warm us. This way.
Already he had picked up a rope and begun to pull the laden sled up onto the riverbank. Tonno and Calwyn sprang to help him, and Calwyn winced as the rope bit into her injured hand.
Darrow called after them, ‘I’ll stay and search for the Clarion.’
We will leave a trail for you, my brother. We will not be far.
Halasaa trudged down the thickly wooded slope. At times there was scarcely room for the sled to pass between the trees. Twigs snapped and branches shook down snow on top of them.
‘You all right, lad?’ panted Tonno.
‘Y-yes.’Trout’s teeth were chattering. ‘B-but I wish I’d asked D-Darrow to look for my l-lenses.’
I will ask him, my brother.
Calwyn’s hand throbbed painfully now, though she’d wrapped it in a fold of her cloak, and at every stumbling step her bones jarred, as though they had turned to brittle ice.
Halasaa led them down into a hollow, and there, hidden from above, were the dark mouths of several caves.The nearest was partly screened by a curtain of long-dead ivy; Halasaa held it aside as proudly as if he’d led them to a palace.
Come.
There is room inside for us all.
Calwyn ducked beneath the frozen lattice of ivy and gingerly straightened up. But though the entrance was low, the roof rose steeply inside and there was plenty of room to stand. The cave reached so far back into the hillside that at first she couldn’t see the rear wall, but as her eyes adjusted to the shadows, she saw sleeping-ledges, lined with dried grasses, cut into the rock. There were other, smaller shelves that held earthenware pots and platters, folded animal skins and woven cloths like those Halasaa had once worn. There was a hearth-place, ringed with large stones, close to the opening, and firewood was stacked neatly along one side of the cave. Calwyn picked up something from the floor. It was a bone brooch, carved with flowers.
Trout and Tonno stumbled in. Halasaa moved quickly around the cave with his customary grace.
Help me to lay a fire,
Calwyn.We must have warmth.
Awkwardly, Calwyn piled wood inside the blackened circle of the hearth-ring. ‘But without the Clarion, how will we light it?’
Even in the dim light, she saw his teeth flash in a grin.
You
think the Tree People have lived so long without flint and tinder?
Without hesitation, he crossed to one of the smaller shelves and found the fire-tools. He crouched beside the hearth, and soon a tiny flame licked at the kindling.
Is this your place, Halasaa?
Unconsciously she slipped into mind-speech.
Mine? No. I have come here, with my father. But it is not mine, not as
you and Mica speak of your cottage on Ravamey, or Tonno of his boat. The
caves belong to all the Tree People.
Halasaa fetched wooden frames from another cave to hang their clothes, and more cloaks of stitched burrower-hide.
These
are old, worn cloaks, not very warm,
he explained.
But they will serve.
He sat down cross-legged beside Calwyn and took her hurt hand in his to finish the work of healing.
Tonno began to make soup from dried meat, beans, and the few withered vegetables that remained from their stores. Trout squatted near him, wrapped in burrower skins; occasionally he put his hand to the bridge of his nose, forgetting that his lenses were gone.
Drowsily, Calwyn leaned back and stared at the shadowy paintings on the cave walls. ‘Who are these people, Halasaa? I’ve never seen paintings like these before.’
I do not know. They are just wall-pictures, like the carvings on the walls
of the Palace of Cobwebs.
‘I prefer these,’ said Calwyn. ‘They look alive.’
In the wavering firelight, the figures seemed to stamp and whirl across the roof of the cave. Compared with the elaborate decorations of the Palace of Cobwebs, these paintings were simple, but the lean, energetic figures overflowed with life in a way that the stiff Merithuran friezes could not match. Halasaa’s fingers pressed and brushed over the palm of Calwyn’s hand with their own silent, insistent rhythm, until she almost felt that she could hear the beat of drums in time with the steady pulse of her own heart.The cave held her in a comforting embrace, as if Tremaris itself cradled her. The endless winter had prevented her from feeling the warm earth, from seeing green shoots push through the soil, hearing the whisper of growing things…As she sat there, Calwyn fell into a dreaming doze.
At last there came the thud of the other sled outside, and Darrow stooped to enter the warm cave. Every face turned hopefully toward him, but he shook his head. ‘The Clarion is gone.’