Ice-Bound Promise [Wattys 2023 Shortlister]

4

Únik reached up, placing her hand over Hatyara's face, and pushed the annoying Ice-Kin aside. Hatyara fell to her backside in the snow, but Únik had moved on. After seeing the fate of her old teacher, she had no patience for the girl. Barsa had found something else. The dog barked and pawed at a pile of bloodied snow, kicked over and trampled by, what Únik could see, horses' hooves.

Crouching, she brushed aside the snow where Barsa had scratched and scrambled. Removing her fur mitten from one hand, she dug her fingers into the blood covered snow as Barsa growled beside her, nudging her fingers with his nose, as though showing her where to dig. She continued to dig with her fingers, until she found what Barsa had smelled.

"Looks like Gislarik put up a fight." She knew the girl had followed her, the tell-tale, angry stomping of fur-covered feet had reached Únik's ears. She lifted the object that Barsa had found, showing it to Hatyara. A disembodied, ice-blue hand that looked as though Gislarik had ripped it off, somehow. "Your people? Why would they kill this man?"

The girl stepped away. Once again, her hand raised to her mouth, but, this time, Únik felt more inclined to believe she felt horror at the sight. Her almost white eyes had widened and she stared at the hand held by Únik. Únik tossed the hand aside as she saw Barsa sniffing at something else a little further.

"We must leave. We must head to Uriok, now!" The girl backed away, staring at the disembodied hand as its fingers clutched towards the sky. "My people, this group, they will not suffer anyone to live that may know of their plans, even in passing. Life means little to my kin, especially the lives of others not of our kind. We should go."

Únik ignored the girl, rising to her feet and following where Barsa led, the dog's nose tracing a scent upon the ground. When the dog stopped, looking up to Únik, she saw what Barsa had found. Trails. Hoof-prints from several horses, maybe as many as a dozen, leading off away to the south. Towards her home.

Slapping her thigh, drawing Barsa to her, Únik turned back towards the sled. As she passed Hatyara, she grabbed the girl by her arm and began dragging her along, deaf to the girl's protests. Upon reaching the sled, she threw the girl onto the bed of furs, then moved to the head of the line of dogs, attaching Barsa back into the lead.

"Those bastards are heading towards my home!" Stepping onto the sled, she gripped the handle as she swapped her whale hook for the light whip, cracking it above the heads of the dogs, causing the sled to lurch as the dogs began to pull. "What have you brought to my door, Ice-Kin?"

Únik had no idea what she could do, even if she caught up with the horses and their riders. She was no fighter. She had killed, of course and much to her continuing self-hatred, but only in her own defence and not against a warrior. Never mind a dozen. No more a lazy trail in a wide circle, now, she urged the dogs forward in a straight line, back to her cabin and the only belongings she had left in the world.

The speed whipped a breeze into her face and she lifted her thick woollen scarf to cover all but her eyes. The dogs, ahead, huffed and barked, snarled and howled as they pulled the sled at a speed they rarely achieved, but Únik did not relent. She pushed them on with whip cracks at regular intervals.

Cresting the peak of a small series of hills, she saw two lines of smoke drifting into the air. One where the rendering hut stood, the other, her home. The sled crashed and clattered as it hit hidden rocks as they rushed down the slope. Únik had to reach her home, had to save her things. Her only things. The whip cracked once again.

"Stop! You have to stop!" Tossed around by the sharp movements of the sled, the girl somehow managed to make her way to Únik's back, trying to grab her arms. "You can't go back there! They will kill me if they see me. And you, just for knowing about me. You must stop! Únik!"