Chapter 15

Present day...

“It looks like you were right,” Fiodor said. The burly driver brought his team of draft horses to a halt, then signaled to the other wagon behind him. “How did you know? The sky was completely clear four hours ago, and I didn’t see any signals from the towers.”

Sarette shrugged. The snowfall had been growing steadily heavier for the last hour. “I just knew,” she said, not wanting to discuss it with a stranger. “Let’s get the sleds and supplies unloaded so we can get on our way. Will you be able to get the wagons back to Snow Crown?”

“We’ll have to see how deep it gets. We may need to camp out here for a few days.”

She nodded. The group had hired the two teamsters to haul the sleds and supplies out to Tarvist Pass, since there was no snow on the valley floor and they couldn’t pull the sleds without it. Once they’d reached the road, the snow had been shallow enough for the wagons to keep going, so they’d paid the men extra to continue on. Now, though, the snow was up to a foot deep and continuing to fall, and Fiodor didn’t want to risk injuring the horses.

The teamsters had thought they’d be able to get the group all the way through the pass, and then at least a hundred miles south before having to turn back, but Sarette had sensed a heavy storm coming in that morning. They still had twenty miles to go before they were out of the mountains, and that would take them at least a full day of travel pulling the sleds. Probably more than a day—it was flat ground, but the outsiders weren’t accustomed to wearing snowshoes, and the sleds would get tiring after a few hours.

Fiodor climbed into the back of his wagon and lifted out one of the light sleds, then passed it to Sarette over the side.

“Let me get the other side,” Corec said, coming up behind her. He helped her steady the sled, and together, they set it down on its runners on the snow-covered road.

Sarette smiled her thanks. The warden hadn’t made a decision yet about bonding her, and she wasn’t entirely sure whether she wanted him to say yes or no. She’d always wanted to be a stormrunner, but leaving home would be a big step. She’d seen Ironholt from a distance once, but the only time she’d actually left the Storm Heights had been a trip to Lanport with her family when she was younger.

Gregor approached, the weathered scout already wearing his skis and a light travel pack. There was a long, smooth, waxed ski on his left foot, meant for gliding, and his right foot was strapped onto a shorter ski covered in animal skin, that he’d use to push himself along. He carried a tall pole to help control his direction.

“I’ll be heading out now,” he said in the stormborn language. “Are you coming with me?”

“I’ll stay with the outsiders,” she replied in the same language. “They’re not used to traveling in deep snow, and I think they’ll need some help with the sleds.”

They’d brought five sleds, and enough food for a month. The plan was to regularly resupply in the human villages that lined the foothills between the mountains and the plains. That way, they’d have extra food in case they got lost.

The weight of the supplies might be a problem, though. Paradoxically, the narrow sleds were more efficient when pulled by a single person, but Sarette suspected that not everyone in the group had the strength and endurance to haul one for long. For that matter, she’d have to be careful with how heavily she loaded her own sled, since she intended to leave her chainmail on it. The mail weighed twenty-five pounds by itself, and the bulk of that weight hung directly on her shoulders. It would be too exhausting to wear it and pull a sled at the same time. Her coat would still provide some protection if they were attacked.

Gregor nodded. “All right. I’m leaving my crossbow with you. It’s too much trouble to carry while I’m skiing.”

“You’re not taking a weapon?”

“I have my dagger and a sling. That’s all I usually bring. I’ll head to the end of the pass, then return to find where you’ve set up camp. The western watchtowers haven’t reported any issues along the Tarvist Road, but I’ll make sure we don’t run into anything unexpected. How far do you expect to get before stopping?”

The day was already half over. “Ten miles at the most,” Sarette said. “While you’re out, could you check the snow in the foothills? If it’s not deep enough, we’ll have problems with the sleds.”

“I will. Do you know signal code?”

“Yes,” she said, slipping a mirror out of her pocket to show him. “But it won’t do much good if this storm doesn’t pass.” Signal code worked best when the sun was shining.

“You may be able to signal the nearest tower at night using a campfire, as long as it’s not snowing too much, but it’s hard to get the signalman’s attention that way. They can’t always tell the difference between signal code and the flickering of the fire.”

Sarette already knew that, but just said, “I’ll try it if I need to.”

“Twenty miles out and ten back,” Gregor said. “If I make it back tonight, it’ll be close to midnight. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Fair travels.”

“And to you. Good luck with the outsiders.”

Treya had been pulling a sled behind her for two hours. She was starting to feel the strain in her thighs, but it wasn’t as awkward as she’d thought it would be. In each hand, she held a loop tied at the end of a lead rope. The lead ropes were tied back to the joints where the sled’s runners met the brush bow in the front. The setup meant she could keep her arms even with her body as she walked.

The only problem was that if she pulled too hard on a downhill slope, the sled sometimes caught up with her, and the brush bow hit her in the back of the legs. Sarette had given her shorter lead ropes than everyone else, to cut down on the weight and the drag, but Treya decided to switch them out for longer ropes at the next opportunity.

She was musing about how long she’d be able to pull the sled, when Corec, who’d been at the tail end of the procession, drew even with her.

“How’s it going?” he asked, dragging his own sled behind him, which was more heavily loaded than hers. He didn’t show any signs of strain.

“I’ll be all right,” she replied. “I think Sarette gave me the lightest load, even though I’m supposed to switch off with Katrin. I’ll be sore tomorrow, though.”

“So will I. It’s been a while since I’ve done this. The knights used to make the trainees haul loads of firewood this way for exercise, even though they had oxen teams that could have handled it. I’m more worried about Bobo. Next time we stop, I may take some of his load and distribute it between my sled and Boktar’s.”

“Maybe Shavala and Ellerie could help him,” Treya said. Sarette hadn’t given the two elven women a sled.

“Maybe, but it’s tricky to have multiple people work together on one of these unless you put them in harness like mules, and something tells me they wouldn’t appreciate that.”

Treya laughed, imagining the sight. “The snowshoes are the problem anyway, more than the sleds. It’s my legs that are bothering me.”

“Are you ready to give Katrin a turn?”

“I’ll give it a little longer. I don’t know that taking turns will help—I’ll still be wearing the shoes.” It wasn’t just the snowshoes that were bothering her, but also the boots and her winter coat. A mystic needed to feel the world around her, and the extra layers weren’t helping. Perhaps she could learn the concentration techniques that Shana used to ignore the cold.

“The shoes are new to me, too,” Corec said. “We may need to take more breaks than Sarette had been planning on.” He hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’ve been thinking about some of the things Yelena suggested.”

Treya glanced his way, wondering about the change in topic. “Yes?”

“You’ve mentioned before that the mystics in the Three Orders aren’t the same as concubines.”

“That’s right.”

“But I’ve also heard you say you trained with the concubines...”

“In some things,” Treya said warily. “Mother Ola wanted me to have something to fall back on if being a mystic didn’t work out.”

“If I’m going to take being a warden seriously, Yelena thinks I need to pay more attention to what’s going on elsewhere. She suggested that I should ask for your help. I know concubines handle a lot of correspondence, and they keep in touch with other concubines to stay up to date on the latest news. Is that something you learned how to do?”

Treya stopped moving and stared at him. “You want me to be your concubine?” she asked, startled. Behind her, Katrin burst out laughing.

Corec stopped too. “No! I mean, that wasn’t what I was talking about. I just meant helping with the correspondence and keeping track of things.” Treya suspected he’d be blushing if his face wasn’t already red from the cold.

“Oh,” she said. “Well, there’s no great trick to it. It’s just writing letters back and forth. But it takes time—maybe years—to build up a network of Sisters and other contacts, and the people you look for will depend on what sort of information you want to collect.”

Katrin trudged past on her snowshoes, still snickering. “Don’t fall too far behind, you two.”

Treya shrugged at Corec and they resumed pulling their sleds before she continued speaking. “The King of Tyrsall’s concubine would correspond with a different group of people than, say, my friend Nallee, whose patron is a blacksmith in a village south of Four Roads. If she writes to anyone at all, it’s probably just someone who can give her a good deal on iron shipments.”

“But it’s something you can do?” Corec asked.

“Mystics don’t usually do it, other than keeping in touch with the chapter houses, but I suppose I could. What sort of information are you looking for?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself. Yelena seems to keep an eye on everything, but I don’t want to do things the same way she does. I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we go.”

Treya started to get interested in the idea herself. It would give her something to do if she decided to stay in one place rather than travel. “There are Sisters of the Three Orders from Telfort to Tyrsall, and from Lanport down to Sanvara City. I don’t really know who keeps track of what, but there are people I could talk to about it. It can’t happen until we find a place to settle, though. The Sisters I write to need to know where to send a reply.”

“That makes sense,” Corec said, “but I don’t know where we’ll end up settling down yet. I keep coming back to the idea of Four Roads, or somewhere else in the free lands. That would be near a chapter house and the Terril Forest, and I prefer smaller towns anyway.”

“I don’t!” Katrin called back to them over her shoulder.

Treya laughed. “I’m from Four Roads originally. I wouldn’t mind going back, but I’m open to a larger city, too.”

Corec said, “The biggest problem with the free lands is finding jobs. We’re not going to get any bodyguard work there, so how do we support ourselves? I don’t plan to go back to working the caravans.”

“I don’t know. Shana does a job in the free lands every now and then, but not enough to keep her occupied all the time.”

“Well, it’s something to think about while we help Ellerie find Tir Yadar. Maybe we’ll find some other city along the way that everyone likes—there are still a lot of places we haven’t been to yet.”