The Fragile Tower - Book 1 of the No.1 magical fantasy series

The Fragile Tower Chapter 10 - The Hunter and the Mist

When the alarm on Grace's watch woke her at six thirty, it was to the sight of ice on the inside of the tent and her breath misting in front of her. She had slept in all her clothes except for her coat, which she had scrabbled over the top of her sleeping-bag at some time during the short night's sleep, but she was still stiff with cold.

She pressed the snooze button, and huddled there with her eyes closed, delaying the time when she would have to leave the relative warmth of her sleeping-bag, but quickly found the need to empty her bladder stronger than the desire to stay where she was. With a sigh, she sat up and extricated herself.

She was noisily unzipping the tent when she saw movement outside, and froze. The light was a dim pre-dawn blue, and her eyes strained to make out the pale moving shape. It was close to the edge of her circle and moving in little fits and starts, and the movement reminded her of a dog sniffing out a scent, and the thought was terrifying. Could it find her? Was it a creature that would be able to resist her protections and attack?

Her sleepy mind started frantically hunting for what she could remember of the book, reaching for memories of something that might be able to get to her. A constructed creature – could one of those burst through her spells? She glanced out at the circle in the snow, which glimmered only faintly now. She couldn't even remember how long the protective circle would last.

And then a flood of warm, yellow light shone out against the snow, and Grace's fear vanished, to be replaced by wonder. It was its mouth, she realised. As the creature opened its jaws, it was letting out light and warmth and melting the snow in front of it.

She had seen a picture of this creature. A tiny winged horse, or something like a horse, which could warm the snow in winter to get to its food. But to see it here, in front of her, was as dizzyingly strange and wonderful as it had been to stare up at the travelling winds.

Slowly, Grace unzipped the tent the rest of the way and stood, uncertain whether it would hear her moving within the circle. But it was feeding now, the light from its mouth a flicker of yellow brightness against the snow as it nuzzled into the hole it had made. She stepped slowly up the slope of the little hollow until she was only a foot away, and could make out its sleek white fur and small, folded wings. Its snout was shorter than a horses, and it gave the thing such a cartoonish look that it was impossible not to smile.

The tiny horse finished feeding and closed its mouth, then wandered a little way away and began snuffling at the snow again. She was suddenly seized by a desire to touch it, to confirm that it was real, and so, tentatively, she stepped outside the circle and gently towards it.

The creature lifted its head to look at her once she was a few steps away, and she stopped where she was. Its large eyes gleamed at her in the half light, and then, instead of running, it came towards her.

Grace crouched in front of it, seeing its stocky little body clearly now. She held out her hand, hardly breathing as it closed the gap between them. It pressed its nose into her palm, and it was a soft, gorgeous, but absolutely real feeling. She ran her hand down its back, her fingers sinking into the soft white fur, and it lifted its head and half-closed its eyes in the way her Aunt Frances' cat would do when stroked.

Crouched like that, she wasn't ready for the voice behind her.

"They'll make friends with anyone. Hardly surprising there are only a few of them left."

She tried to spin round and stand up at once, and ended up with one leg awkwardly out to her side and the other one twisted under her as she searched wildly for the speaker.

He was indistinct in the dimness, his clothing all browns and greys and whites so that he seemed to be a part of the black and white landscape. Even his skin was a tanned brown, and only his hair, blond and unruly, marked him out from the background.