Mark Sehestedt - Hand of the Hunter

"The wolf is undead then?" said Valsun. He had his own medallion in his hand and was looking sidelong at the wolf.

"Not like you're thinking," said Hweilan.

"What does that mean?" said Mandan.

"It means as I said before: You aren't asking the big questions. Uncle is no longer alive as you and me, but he and I are not evil. Had we wanted to kill you, I could have left you for dead last night-or killed you in your sleep. Or I could kill you all right now."

Darric heard the absolute assurance in her voice. She had no weapon close by other than the knife she had used to prepare their food. But she had no doubt of her own words.

"And the rest?" Darric asked. His voice was gentle but firm. "Forgive me, Hweilan, but Mandan's questions are just. How did you learn so much in so little time? And the scars…"

She told them of her escape from Highwatch and how she came to the realm of Nendawen, how he had chosen her as his Hand to hunt and purge Jagun Ghen and his servants from this world. Much she left out, partly because she knew they would not understand, but mostly because many of the wounds-those in her heart-were still too fresh to speak of, and she would not share such intimacies with strangers.

"Time…" She shrugged. "It passes differently there, I think. I don't know how long I was there. Months… years perhaps? I don't know. I learned. I learned how to deal with Jagun Ghen and his ilk. And now I'm back. And I'm going to hunt down every last one of them."

A heavy silence settled over them. Mandan was staring into the fire, and Darric recognized the look on his brother's face. He was wrestling with some inner conundrum, turning it over and over in his mind, worrying over it. Valsun was looking upward, almost wistfully, and Darric knew the man well enough to gauge his thoughts. All this talk of Silvanus and Nendawen, the Feywild and a generations-long war with some sort of evil demigod-Valsun was figuring a way to work it into his own understanding of the world. And Jaden was simply looking from face to face, reminding Darric of nothing so much as a henhouse rooster wondering which grub to peck.

"You'll never make it back to Damara," Hweilan said at last. "Four men headed west through the Gap, with nothing to pay your tribute to the local tribes. Some of the kinder tribes might make you fight one another to the death and invite the survivor to join them. How'd you like life as a hobgoblin, Mandan?" She gave them a wicked smile.

"We aren't going west," said Darric. "We came here to help survivors of Highwatch."

"And who'll help us?" said Jaden.

No one answered.

Hweilan's eyes had locked on Darric. "That's your decision then?"

Darric looked to his men. Mandan just scowled and shook his head.

"I swore my sword to you, my lord," said Valsun. "Nothing's changed that."

They looked to Jaden. "Well, sure as the Hells are hot I'm not walking back west through the Gap by myself, am I?"

Darric woke to the sound of ravens cawing. He opened his eyes. It was still full dark. The embers of their fire cast the faintest glow into their little hovel. Mandan was already sitting up, the other two men stirring… and Hweilan nowhere in sight. After talking most of the afternoon and well into the evening, she had stoked the fire, wrapped herself in her cloak, and been the first to sleep. But she and all her belongings were gone.

"What's that racket?" said Valsun, sitting up and blinking.

Jaden stretched but stayed in his blankets. "Sounds like the ravens who shared our supper."

"Ravens aren't night birds," said Mandan. "Something's riled them."

The branches around the nearest entrance rattled, but before any of them could so much as reach for a weapon, Hweilan came back inside.

"We're leaving," she said. She was wearing a full pack, a knife sheathed at her belt, another tucked into one boot, and her bow in hand.

"What's wrong?" Jaden asked.

"Company on the way," she said. "Stoke the fire and throw on the rest of the wood, then get moving." With that, she turned and was gone.

"Why burn the wood?" Jaden asked as he climbed into his cloak and began gathering his few possessions.

"The fire," said Darric as he threw on the wood and stirred the coals back to life. "It might distract whoever is coming long enough for us to get away."

"Who is coming?" said Jaden.

"You're in the Giantspires, son," said Valsun as he followed Hweilan. "Whoever it is, it can't be good."

Darric and the others followed.

Hweilan led them up the same saddle of the mountain to where Darric and Mandan had found her that afternoon. Only they went in the dark, no light but that of the stars and moon, and a hard wind coming down off the mountain that made the already frigid air deadly. They had just made the level height where Hweilan had found Darric and Mandan when Jaden fell and did not get up again.

Hweilan kept going, headed for the crevice in the cliff.

Darric tried to pull Jaden to his feet, but to no avail. The man sat there, huddled inside his cloak and shivering.

"Up, Jaden. Now."

"Let me die here," he said. "I'll go back to the fire. Better a quick death in battle than freezing to death."

"He's right, my lord," said Valsun, who had turned back to help. He too was huddled in his cloak and shivering. "We need a defensible shelter. No use running if the cold kills us."

Darric could no longer feel his face, and his feet and hands felt hard and brittle. His layers of clothing had kept out the worst of the cold so far, but he could feel it seeping in already, and they'd only been outdoors a short while. He knew his men were right.

Jaden looked up to where Hweilan was already disappearing inside the crack in the cliff. "I miss the wizard," he said. "Could always count on him for a fire."

Mandan looked to Darric. "What do we do?"

Darric thought only a moment, then called out, "Hweilan! Hweilan, stop!"

She rushed back to them, her movements stiff, the whites of her eyes shining with fury, even in the dark.

"Are you mad? Why not just blow a horn if you want to tell everyone within a mile where we are?"

Darric held her gaze. How could she not be freezing?

"This won't work. We need a defensible shelter out of the wind-and a small fire at the least."

"You want to die?" she said. "You go back to the fire and-"

"And if we don't, the cold will kill us anyway."

She cursed under her breath, turned-and stopped. Darric knew she was giving serious consideration to leaving them. Then she shook herself, tucked the bow under one arm, and began rummaging inside the large pouch on her hip.

"What's she doing?" said Jaden.

Hweilan tossed something into his lap. "Don't eat it," she said. "Just chew and swallow the juice."

She gave each of the others a small dark lump, longer than it was wide and slightly pliable.

"What is it?" said Valsun.

"Kanishta root," she said. "Start chewing, then keep up. You fall behind and you're on your own."

Jaden was the first to plop the root in his mouth and start chewing. His jaw worked a few times, he froze a moment, then began coughing.

"Agh! That's foul beyond… beyond…" Another chew, a swallow, then very eager chewing. "Oh, that's heavenly. I take it back. Stuff and stiff the wizard, this is magical."

He hopped to his feet as the others began chewing. Darric almost gagged. It tasted like roasted garden soil. No, worse. ItAnd then the warmth hit him. His entire head flushed, filling with heat, as if someone had emptied a bucket of steaming water over his head, for it spread all the way down, making even the tips of his toes and fingers tingle.

"Better?" said Hweilan. "Then move. Now."

The men hurried off after Hweilan, who had already disappeared through the crack in the cliffside.