Winter Prey

Chapter 46

Right now, everything from moose to wolves to rabbits huddled drowsy and warm in the pine-thicket beds, dens and underground burrows they had retreated to in order to avoid the blizzard. A blizzard not nearly as horrible as the ones that had started this chain of events. A blizzard that was over for now, but whose brother, according to Nodinens, was looming just on the other side of that full moon. One of a line of blizzards similar to those that had isolated her ancestors.

She had no way of knowing whether or not she herself might be trapped out here, or for how long, when this next storm set in. Earlier, she'd rationalized that major rescue attempts would be expedited should she and Caleb disappear, since they were smart enough to notify Hjak where they were going. Now, she was out here alone. No one would know where to look, should she go missing, unless Nodinens figured it out.

She gritted her teeth as a picture of Risa flashed through her mind. She didn't have any right to risk her life and leave her daughter motherless...for the second time. Did she?

No, but she wasn't going back. She couldn't be the mother Risa needed if she turned coward now. The prayer filled her mind as though Adam stood there with her.

Mino-dae/aeshowishinaung

Tchi mino-inaudiziwinaungaen

Nanaukinumowidauh matchi-dae/aewin

Zhaugootchitumowidauh matchi-dodumowin

"Against evil prevail," she repeated aloud.

Surely Nodinens would suspect where she had gone, but Kymbria doubted anyone would check the bedroom until morning, and initially, this had been a plus for her plan. Now, though, faced with the reality of what she had done, the breadth of the wilderness she was navigating and the fact that perhaps she and the windigo were the only two inhabitants in this vast land....

She should head back and wait until she gathered help. The cave that held the lair was off the beaten path, in an area that hardly anyone ever explored, even in the summer. If the blizzard trapped her out here, the search would focus in an area a mile or so away from where she was headed, where numerous other caves spotted the landscape. Far enough away to make a difference in her being found in time.

But if she went back, it might be days before she could return. Everything pointed to the fact that this final confrontation was between her and her ancestor. Did she have enough faith and confidence in herself to see this through?

Listen when your heart speaks its honesty to you.

"I hear you, Adam. And right now, my heart is telling me that I'm tired of running away. That it's time to take an active part in my destiny."

Other words brushed her mind in a whisper that Kymbria didn't even try to comprehend. They weren't teachings from Adam; they were another attempt by the windigo to gain her attention. She almost expected the beast to appear to her again, as it had twice on the trail, both times fostering the enigma of the tie between them. Once, it had threatened someone she cared about to try to force her to accompany it. When she thwarted that, it appeared in rescue mode to guide her to safety.

She gritted her teeth as she stared into the distance, but the monster didn't show itself. This would never end until she ended it.

She fed the machine gas and slowly crawled out into the open. She supposed the beast was watching her from somewhere. How ineffective she must look in all this vastness: a tiny figure on a toy machine crawling across the last portion of land between her and the hill that contained the cave she sought.

Could the creature be smart enough to lie? To manipulate Kymbira into coming to it so it could add her to its list of prey? Did it, instead, want to kill her? Would her death empower the windigo in some manner that couldn't be foretold, since no windigo had ever interacted with a human before?