Beside him, Tempest turned away for only a moment before looking back outside with her eyes narrowed. “You’ll adapt,” she told him. “You just have to get your snow vision back.”
“Is that what it’s called?”
“That’s what we call it, in the mountains anyway. It always takes a little getting used to when the first snow of the season falls, and our world becomes white for the next six months.”
“That’s not bothering you?” He couldn’t look outside again as the glare caused his head to pound and his eyes to squint until they were almost closed.
“It is,” she admitted. “But only because we’ve been in this cave for so long. I’ve spent the past twenty years readjusting to the first snow each year, so it’s easier for me.”
“Hmm.” He kept his head down, unable to look outside again but letting the sun filter in around him. His eyes finally adapted to it enough that he could lift his head to take in the outside world for longer than seconds at a time. When the wall was knee high, and Achilles would be able to pass through, he stopped beating at it and stepped back to examine the snow. “It’s beautiful.”
“It always is after a snowfall,” she said as she lowered her now blunted stake. She tilted her chin up and closed her eyes. The sun lit her hair, making it glimmer and shine in its brightness. She smelled like winter, but she radiated the warmth and light of the summer sun.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked.
Lowering her head, she tossed aside the ruined stake. “I hope so. I’m not one hundred percent certain of the direction I took to get here, but I think I can find my way back.”
Without thinking, he took hold of her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I know you can.”
- CHAPTER 17 -
William kept his head down as he trudged through the thigh high snow. Tempest stared at his bent head from where she sat on top of Achilles. She’d tried to persuade him to ride with her, but he’d told her he didn’t want to put added weight and strain on the horse. He’d been walking endlessly onward while she constantly searched the snow-covered landscape surrounding them for any hint of the creatures that had attacked them before.
She’d seen no movement in the sea of white, but William was convinced there were more of them, and she was frightened he was right. The sun beating down on her warmed her back and brought radiance to a landscape in desperate need of it. The hood fell away from her head when she turned her face toward the sun. It felt so marvelous to feel its warmth against her skin again, but it didn’t warm her anywhere near as much as William’s body had.
She turned her face away from the sun’s warmth. Her gaze fell back to William; a smile curved her mouth as she watched him striding purposefully through the snow. His step never faltered, he kept his head high and his shoulders back. He showed no sign of tiring.
Forcing her attention away from him, she returned to carefully searching the landscape. It would be easy to spot movement amongst the sparse trees dotting the land. None of the trees had leaves on them, and she would guess that at least eighty percent of them were dying if their broken branches and peeling bark were any indication.
Achilles tried to nip at the snow swelling up above his knees. William pulled the horse to a halt and turned toward her. “I think he could use a break. Will you be ok getting down for a bit?”
She released a small snort and waved her hand dismissively. “I’ve been in snow almost to my chest before, this is nothing in comparison.”
He grasped hold of her waist and plucked her easily from the saddle. Her hands rested on his broad shoulders as he lowered her to the ground. Her body slid down his, creating a friction between them that caused her stomach to plummet and her body to sway instinctively closer to his.
Her mouth parted; her fingers instinctively clenched his thick cloak. His blue eyes were dazzling and bright crystalline in the sun falling over him. The red in his hair shone like fire; it took all she had to keep her fingers from sliding through the thick auburn strands and pulling him to her.
She could clearly recall the heat of his mouth, the weight of his body against hers. His eyes burned into hers as he stood over her, his hands still gripping her waist. If she stood on her toes and pressed her mouth to his she’d be able to taste him again, she’d be able to ease the clamoring of her body.
Instead, fear of him and all of the damage he could do to her heart if she allowed this thing between them to grow, caused her to release him and take a step away. He stared down at her for a moment more before turning away. She watched as he pulled out a small feedbag, put a couple handfuls of grain into it and strapped it to Achilles' muzzle. Her attention turned back to the horizon as he pulled out a canteen full of melted snow water and set up a small container for Achilles to drink from when he was done with the feed.
A breeze flowed down from the wall of mountains in the distance; a wall surrounding her home nestled in the valley within them. Snow, caught up in the breeze, drifted up. Thousands of flakes danced through the air to swirl around them. The icy flakes fell against her cheeks and melted against her skin. They stuck to her hair, turning it white.
“There may be some game nearby,” William said. “If you’re hungry.”
“I am, but I’d prefer to continue on. If we don’t make it to the shelter of the mountains by nightfall, we’ll be exposed out here.”
He pulled the feedbag from Achilles and gave his neck a solid pat before giving him the water. “We’ll get there.”
Tempest glanced over the snowy landscape again; she saw nothing out there, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. William finished with Achilles and came to stand by her side. “I want to give him a little more time to relax and regain some of his strength.”
She nodded, she knew the animal needed time to rest, but she felt unbelievably exposed out here. William walked to the front of the horse and searched the horizon. Tempest folded her hands before her as she walked around behind Achilles. They spent the next half an hour circling the horse, and searching the horizon for any hint of menace.
Finally, William turned back toward her. “Ready?”
“Yes.” She was more than eager to get out of here. “I can walk and give Achilles more of a break. I’ve been in worse snow than this before.”
He grabbed hold of her waist. “I’d prefer you not to be in the snow. Besides, you have a better view of the landscape from his back.”
Before she could respond, he lifted her as if she weighed no more than Achilles’ feedbag, and placed her onto the horse’s back. She settled the cloak around her, gathered the reins, and held them within her hand. Arguing with him would be pointless. She kept her back ramrod straight as she constantly searched the horizon.
The day dragged onward in an endless sea of white snow and incessant dread that something would launch itself at them in an attempt to destroy them. When she needed a break, she convinced William to let her down from the saddle, but she kept her attention riveted on the world around them. Her entire body had become as tense as a scared cat. If she so much as heard a twig crack, she was convinced she’d scream her head off.
Her legs grew tired from trudging through the snow, but every muscle and bone in her body ached from sitting so rigidly in the saddle. They were still a good seven miles away from the mountains when pinks and reds began to stretch across the sky. The closer they got to the massive cliffs looming over them, the more the wind howled down around them. The snow danced with rainbow prisms of color as it spun around them.
The sun had slipped beyond the horizon; both of them were covered in snow when they finally made it to the shelter of the looming cliffs. She tilted her head back to look at the mountains before them. Lowering her head, she searched the rock face but didn’t see any hint of the crevice she’d crawled out of a couple days ago.
Her fingers remained curved into a claw position when she released Achilles’ reins. She stretched her knuckles out, flexing them as she tried to get feeling
back into her extremities. William glanced back from where he’d been studying the rock walls with a critical eye.
The light slipped further away, the cold crept in to brush over her flesh beneath the cloak when she walked forward to join him. “I’m not entirely sure where I came out,” she told him. “It all looks the same from this side, and I only came out this way a couple of times before the other day.”
“Take your time,” he said.
They didn’t have much time. Once the sun slipped away, they would be left out here, exposed to the elements and anything lurking out there. They walked along the cliff wall together searching for her original exit point. William found a crevice in the wall, she stuck her head in to inspect it, but the rock formations and small size let her know immediately that this wasn’t what they were looking for.
The sun had completely set; stars were beginning to dot the sky when the first lonely howl echoed across the land. Tempest froze, her head turned to take in the sea of white surrounding them. “Wolf?” William inquired.
“I’ve never seen a wolf up here. Bears yes, but not a wolf.” From somewhere across the vast, empty landscape another howl sounded. A rock settled in the pit of her stomach when she realized it wasn’t the cry of a wolf echoing around them, but the cry of one of those demented vampires wandering the night.
William took hold of her arm; he pressed her closer against his chest and the rock wall of the mountain. He didn’t say she had to find the way soon, he didn’t have to; they both already knew it. “Keep moving,” he urged.
She trudged forward through the snow. Her hands ran over the mountain, searching for the entry point she knew was there, somewhere. They could be miles away from it still; she had no idea how far she’d roamed once she had exited the cave.
Helplessness began to swarm her. Stay calm, she told herself. For all she knew they were going in the complete opposite direction from where she’d originally exited.
“You are going to find it,” William said from beside her. “Relax.”
Throwing her shoulders back, she closed her eyes and took a minute to steady herself before continuing onward. Another lonely howl rang out, this one sounding much closer than the last two. She turned her head toward the noise, William stiffened beside her. He pulled his bow around and slipped an arrow from his quiver.
“Do you seen anything?” she whispered.
“No, not yet,” he murmured.
That not yet spurred her into motion again. She lost track of where they were between the gloom and the endless white. The rough and jagged formations of the rock scraped against her palms, creating nicks and cuts that healed almost instantly. The cold had seeped into her bones when she discovered an entrance into the mountain.
Her shoulders sagged; relief filled her. If it wasn’t the entry she sought, it would at least offer them some form of shelter for the night. Grabbing hold of William’s hand, she gave it a tug to alert him to what she’d found. “I’m going to go in and check it out.”
“Let me know what you find.” A gust of wind caught hold of his words, but she’d been able to make them out.
“I will,” she said before slipping inside. The moist scent of the cave filled her nostrils, but beneath that, she detected the familiar odor of her home on the other end. Fresh air flowed through here. It carried with it the smell of crisp lake water, snow, and the mountains she’d always known. It was so subtle someone who hadn’t grown up here probably wouldn’t have detected the different aromas, but she recognized them instantly.
A pang stabbed her heart. She almost bolted across the cave to the other side and out onto the trail lining the mountain, but she somehow managed to keep herself restrained. Turning around, she stepped back outside and gestured for William. “This is it,” she murmured.
Tugging on Achilles’s reins, he followed her into the cave.
***
William surveyed the walls surrounding them before focusing on Tempest again. “Is it safe for us to stay here tonight?” he inquired.
She glanced around the cave, then back toward the entrance as another echoing cry resonated across the rock walls. Turning away, she looked down the lengthy, slender cave. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t think the soldiers in town would have found this. It branches off in a bunch of different directions once you enter on the other side.” She turned back to him, her eyes a deeper color in the darkness around her. “If you don’t know what you’re looking for you could spend days exploring the different routes. I don’t know if those things out there will follow us in here.”
“They might follow our scent, but it sounds as if they’re still at least a mile or so away. I’d like to try to make it to your town tonight, but I think we should get some rest.”
“I’m fine to go on, if you think it best.”
No, he didn’t think it best. He could see her exhaustion in the shadows circling her eyes, in the slump of her shoulders and the way she leaned against the cave wall for support. He couldn’t expect her to keep going. He knew she would if he asked her to, she trusted him. He recalled the feel of her in his arms, curled so innocently against him. He couldn’t shatter that innocence. He couldn’t let his need for revenge put her in danger.
“Can we move further in, somewhere more sheltered to get out of the way of the wind and anything that might follow us in here?” he asked.
“I know of a sheltered alcove,” she replied. “Achilles will be able to fit in it too, and there might be some water there.”
“Perfect,” he replied.
He kept hold of Achilles as he followed her further into the cave system. They walked through a series of intricate turns that would have completely lost someone else, but having grown up in caves, he was extremely adept at finding his way in and out of them. He mentally marked certain grooves in the rocks, different patterns in the floor, and odd rock formations they passed to remember in case he had to find his way out without her to guide him.
Halfway through the twists and turns, and away from any light, she stopped and pulled out the torch she’d kept all this time. He handed her a rag he’d made from one of his shirts. She wrapped it around the torch before lighting it. The small fire illuminated the gloom of the cave, causing the shadows to dance away. Lifting the flame high, she turned around and once again led the way.
Achilles nudged his shoulder, looking for food, but he’d have to wait until they were settled before he could have his dinner. Finally, Tempest made another turn into a large alcove that went about fifteen feet back before ending in smooth rock. The tinkling sound of water filled the alcove as it trickled down the back wall from somewhere up above. Achilles’s ears pricked forward; he practically shoved William out of his way to walk toward the back wall. The water had carved a round spot into the floor where it pooled before running downhill and vanishing from view.
The horse lowered its head before William could take the bridle off and began to drink the water. “This will be a good place to keep him while we continue on,” he said as he rubbed Achilles neck.
“In the dark?”
“He’s not going to make it through the trails and mountains you described on the other side. I can’t leave a fire burning; it could attract some of those things to him. He can’t stay outside and he can’t go forward. There’s fresh water here; we’ll leave him with plenty of food, and we won’t be gone long.”
She stared at him for a minute before rubbing Achilles’ neck. “Will he stay here?”
“He’ll stay close to the water.”
He didn’t like the idea of leaving Achilles here anymore than she did, but the horse couldn’t continue with them. Walking forward, he untied the saddlebags and placed them on the floor before unbuckling the girth and pulling the saddle free. Achilles released an audible sigh; he lifted his head and turned to look at him. William rubbed the white stripe on his forehead before removing the bridle and placing it on top of the saddle. He finished getting Achilles settled before turning
to Tempest.
She leaned against the rock wall as she watched him. Her eyelids drooped, but she forced them back open as she fought against the sleep trying to pull her under. “Would you like me to start a fire?” he asked.
She shook her head and brushed back the strands of hair that fell forward with the motion. “It’s warm enough in here.”
And it was. Sheltered within the middle of the mountain, out of the way of the whipping wind, it was actually almost pleasant. “We’ll move again tomorrow after the sun sets,” he said.
“I hope the guards aren’t out there,” she murmured.
“I’ll take care of them if they are.”
“What if there are a large number of them?”
“Then you will run as far and as fast as you can, and you will go straight to my sister, my brother, the king, or his brother, Jack. The best place for you to go first will be the town of Chippman. It’s closer than the palace, it’s the last place Aria and Braith were. If they’re not there, Jack will help you, and he will get men to the palace quickly.”
“No one is going to allow me near any of them,” she replied.
“They will if you tell them I sent you.” From the saddlebags, he tugged free his extra cloaks and spread them on the floor. He tore one of the wolf patches from it and walked over to hand it to her. “Keep this on you. If we are separated and you have to run, give this to the first vampire you see wearing one of these cloaks. Tell them William has sent you to speak with Aria, Daniel, Jack, or Braith.”
Her fingers trembled when she took the patch from him. “Are you sure they’ll take me to one of them?”
“Yes. Even if they don’t recognize my name right away, they’ll recognize that patch, and Aria and Braith’s names. They’ll make sure you’re taken to someone who will know me.”