Jon Sprunk - Shadow's master

Caim buried his face in the shirt he was using for a scarf, feeling the wool snag on his whiskers. For the better part of two days he had been pondering the explosion that had almost killed them. Yet, even as his thoughts chased themselves around and around, he couldn't make up his mind. Had they been attacked, and had it all been an unfortunate accident? Caim had heard of granaries catching fire like that, but not homes exploding without warning. More than anything it reminded him of the fire that had burned down his apartment building in Othir. Coincidence?

“For fuck sakes!” Dray yelled. “I can't feel my toes.”

Caim swallowed a sharp retort. Dray and Malig had complained nonstop since leaving the town, about the cold, the rain, the darkness, and the food, but mainly about how they had been forced to leave town before they got to “know” their lady friends. On the other hand, Aemon hadn't said more than a dozen words since they'd left. Caim looked back at the blond Eregoth riding at the rear of the party by himself. Probably brooding over that slave girl at the market. The boy's too sensitive for his own good.

But when Caim closed his eyes, he saw her, too. Defenseless and alone before the ravenous crowd. She'd looked nothing like Josey except the hair, but he couldn't put her out of his head. Now who's the sensitive one?

“We should have stayed back there,” Dray said. “What was the harm in a couple more days? Those girls! Oh gods! We should have stayed.”

“Damn right, we should have,” Malig said. “The fire wasn't even that bad. Those girls were ready to go, and I ain't had a piece of tail in weeks.”

Dray laughed. “Hell, Mal. The way you were drooling, I didn't think you'd ever had a piece.”

“Fuck you, Dray. I've had half the girls in Joliet. You remember Marsa?”

Caim steered his horse around a crater in the trail. There were a few tall boulders ahead, lying on the plains like huge snowballs. Maybe they could find a place out of the wind to bed down for a couple hours.

“Hamer's sister?” Dray asked.

“That's right. Say, didn't that girl back there look a little like Marsa?”

“Which girl?”

“The one those guys were trying to buy. You know, in the square.”

“At the market?”

“Yeah-”

“Gods!” Aemon's voice called from the back of the line. “Don't you talk about anything else?”

Caim turned around. The others had pulled up behind him.

“What's the problem?” Malig laughed. “You don't like girls?”

Aemon's face was stark white in the cold. “I never said that, but you don't need to be saying those kinds of-”

“Saying what?” Malig spurred his mount closer to Aemon. “I'll say what I fucking want.”

“Mal,” Dray said. “Let it be.”

Malig spat on the ground. “To hell with that! I want to know what your little brother thinks I shouldn't be saying. Maybe he thinks he's the one to shut me-”

Aemon's right fist connected with the side of Malig's jaw with a hard thud. Malig kicked free of his stirrups and lunged, dragging Aemon off his horse. Caim glanced at Dray, who stayed where he was even though Malig was stronger and meaner than his brother by a fair margin, not to mention Aemon had a bad leg. When Malig rolled on top, Caim wondered if he should intervene, but a sharp smack sent the big man toppling over to the ground. Aemon pushed himself to his feet.

“I told you,” Dray said.

Malig sat up, shaking his head. “Shut up.”

Aemon got back on his horse and waited, saying nothing. Caim swung his steed back around. Maybe now they'll be quiet for a while.

Egil had paused down the trail. When the scuffle was over, he headed off again. Probably thinks we're all crazy. And I'm starting to think we are, too.

The stars came out in crystalline points of ruby as the sky deepened from twilight's coal to inky jet. At another time, in another place, they would have been beautiful.

“Hey, lover.” Kit planted a feathery kiss on his forehead as she appeared above him.

“You catch the fireworks?” he asked under his breath.

“Yes!” She giggled. “Malig should have known better than to mess with Aemon.”

“No. Back at town. The explosion?”

Kit came around in front of him. As he told her what had happened, her dress, or shirt-it barely came down to the tops of her thighs-changed from turquoise to a somber magenta. “I should have been there,” she said when he was finished.

“That would have been helpful.”

“I'm sorry. I, er…I thought you didn't want me around.”

Caim sighed. This was his fault. He had been acting different lately, more distant. “Don't worry about it. I'm glad you're back.”

She leaned closer. “You are? Then say it.”

He mouthed the words Kit wanted to hear, and then she threw herself across his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “That's better. Now there's something up ahead-”

A sharp whistle cut the air, and Egil ran back toward the party. His lantern was extinguished. “Put out the light!” the guide hissed.

Dray turned down his lantern and shut the hood. “What is it?”

“Torches ahead,” Egil said, his breath puffing in the frosty air. “A score or more.”

Caim considered the land around them. It was as flat as a griddle except for a few ripples on the snowy plain and some scattered stones. “Coming this way?”

“Hard to say, but it looks like they'll cross our path. We should be fine if we're quiet.”

Caim glanced at Kit, but asked Egil, “Are these Bear tribesmen?”

“Most likely. We're pretty deep into their territory now.”

“That's what I was going to tell you,” Kit said. “They're White Bears heading west to their spring homes. But they don't know you're here.”

“Yet,” Caim whispered under his breath.

The others rode up. Malig had his broadaxe out as he craned his neck around. “Trouble?”

“Not sure.” Caim wrapped his reins around the horn of his saddle and climbed down. “But I'm going to take a look.”

Dray loosened his sword. “I'll go with you.”

When Malig and Aemon got down from their steeds, too, Caim didn't argue. He pointed to a stand of ice-sheathed rocks just off the trail. “Take the animals over there out of the wind and cover them up, but keep the saddles on.”

“You've got the eyes of a cat,” Egil said with a shake of his head.

As the guide led the horses off, Caim checked his knives. “Keep up,” he said. “If we get split up, meet back here.”

Without waiting for a reply, Caim took off. His boots crunched through the snow's light crust, but the sound was swallowed by the wind.

Kit floated along beside him. “Caim, this isn't funny. What are you doing?”

“Just a peek,” he whispered back, not sure himself. Since leaving the last town he'd been uneasy. Recent events had him feeling like he was searching for a diamond in a heap of glass shards. The explosion had capped it. There were outside forces at work in his life, and it was time he faced them head-on.

“Just a moment.” Kit darted closer and threw her arms around his shoulders. Her feathery touch made him shiver. “There. Feel anything…different?”

Caim clenched his fists while he walked to keep from trying to push her away in front of the others. She was being more irritating than usual. Except he did feel something, a lingering pressure where their skin met. More than the normal tickle, but he didn't have time for her games. “No. Now cut it out.”

She pulled back, her lips pulled down in a frown. “Okay. Sorry.”

Caim ducked through her with a shake of his head. As he led the Eregoths away, a familiar feeling of ease settled over him. For a moment, it was just like old times. Then Dray cursed and Malig snickered, and he wanted to kill them both.