5
Without thinking, Únik gripped Hatyara's furs, lifted her bodily and tossed her as far as she could towards the bank of the lake. The Ūtharan girl landed heavy, sliding almost to the edge, ending in a heap. Barsa had caught his feet, by now, and struggled to pull against the weight of the sled as it began to slip backwards towards the lake waters between pieces of broken ice.
The other dogs joined in Barsa's struggle and Únik knew, if the animals had a chance of pulling the sled from watery oblivion, she had to lighten the load. She began grabbing and tossing everything she could. Sacks of supplies, furs, even her whale hook, flew towards the bank of the lake, landing near Hatyara. The girl recovered fast and began reaching for the supplies, dragging them from the ice.
Still the hounds struggled and, with little else Únik could salvage, she jumped from the sled, landing on a tipping chunk of ice, almost falling back into the waters herself. On hands and knees, she clung to the ice, balancing it out before rising to her feet and jumping once again to a more stable part of the lake surface.
Racing to Barsa, she began to tug upon the dog's reins, digging her heels in as well as she could, but she could find no purchase. Gritting her teeth, she knew the sled was now lost, she had to save her dogs, instead. Using the reins to pull herself along, she made her way down the line until she reached the final dog, its forelegs scrambling as its hind legs dipped below the waters.
The attachment to the reins proved difficult for Únik to unfasten. Taking the tip of her furred mitten between her teeth, she dragged it off, dropping it and then did the same to the mitten on the other hand. Fingers cramping, Únik struggled with the fastening, even as the dog lost its battle to gain a foothold. The sled dragged the dog under and Únik would hear those yelps of terror for the rest of her life.
The other dogs were now becoming dragged backwards at a faster pace as the sled fell down into the depths of the lake and, one by one, the struggle to release them became nothing but desperation, their wide eyes pleading with Únik as they passed into the water, beyond sight.
"No! No!" Únik screamed as the final dog came to the edge of the hole in the ice. Barsa.
Her favourite hound's paws scratched against her hands as she held onto his reins. She could not let him go. Never. No more. She had seen her dogs, her family, disappear before her eyes, suffering as they slipped beneath the icy waters. She could not allow Barsa to die too. Cursing her freezing fingers, she leaned down, trying to bite through the tough leather.
A hand appeared beside hers. A tiny, ice blue hand, joined by another, gripping the reins. Barsa's back end had fallen into the water, now, and he howled as the combined weight of the sled and his companion dogs dragged at him. Even with the added aid from Hatyara, there was little Únik could do. The weight too much. She prepared herself to let Barsa go.
The leather of the reins snapped beneath Hatyara's hands and the momentum of pulling against the falling sled and dogs transferred back towards them. Únik, Hatyara and Barsa fell backwards onto the ice and, before Únik could think about it, she grabbed both Barsa and Hatyara, dragging them away from the treacherous hole and the slippery surface of the lake.
They all fell to the ground at the side of the lake, breaths coming fast, and Únik began to howl like one of her dogs that now descended to the bottom of the lake. She battered at the snow beside her, yowling to the sky at losing her family. Again.
Barsa came to her then, licking at her face, clambering to sit upon her legs, rubbing his face against hers. She wrapped her arms about his neck, pulling the dog into a tight embrace, his sodden fur hiding Únik's tears as they fell upon him. Her hands clutched at his fur and snapped away as they felt something even more cold than the waters and the snow.
Lifting her head from Barsa, she looked at what had bitten her with such intense cold. A buckle upon what remained of Barsa's reins, frozen and glistening with ice. The leather, too, seemed caked with ice and both the leather and buckle broke as she touched them. So cold, they had become brittle. She had never seen its like in all her years out in the wastes.
"I'm sorry. About your dogs." Hatyara sat beside her, hand reaching out to rub the neck of Barsa. "But we must keep moving. Even now, the enemy regroups."
With her other hand, Hatyara pointed to the other side of the lake, where Únik could see several figures clambering onto the bank. A few horses had survived, too, and some of the figures held onto their reins, attempting to calm the rearing, bucking animals.
"You're sorry? Sorry?" She turned back to Hatyara and all she could see were her dogs slipping into the icy lake waters. Her hands flashed out, grabbing Hatyara by the throat. "I've lost everything because of you! Everything!"
Pushing Hatyara down into the snow, Únik began to squeeze at the Ice-Kin's throat, placing her entire, considerable body weight upon the girl. Hatyara's fingers scrabbled at the hands at her throat. She began to croak as though trying to speak, but Únik didn't give her that chance. She continued to squeeze, even as the girl's almost-white eyes began to roll up into her head.
Barsa's head appeared between them, licking once more at Únik's face, paws scratching against Únik's hands. Únik released Hatyara's throat with a start, scrambling backwards, sending clouds of snow fluttering into the air. Barsa followed continuing to lick her face, nudging her hands.
Únik lifted her hands and stared at them. Flashes of another time when her pudgy fingers had wrapped around a throat came to her and she lifted those hands up to her head, running them beneath her fur hood and digging her fingers into her scalp. After all this time. She had tried to forget, but memories like those never truly disappeared. They lingered.
Hatyara coughed several times and Únik could hear her struggling to breathe, but she lived. Unlike Únik's dogs. Unlike Gislarik. Death covered this Ūtharan like a shroud and any who came close. Despite the flooding memories, Únik sneered at the girl, dropping her hands from her head. For such a little creature, Únik fostered such a hatred she had not felt in some time.
"Pick up the supplies." Rising to her feet, Únik moved towards the supplies she had managed to save.
Picking up the furs, she began to roll them together, finding a couple of long strips of leather in one of the sacks, and tying them tight. She slipped the roll of furs over her shoulder, picked up two sacks in one hand and her whale hook in the other, she stood, waiting for Hatyara to pick up the last sack. Without saying a word, Únik turned, looked up to the sky and then began walking eastwards.
"I mean it. I'm sorry. If I had any control over the situation, I would never have come here." The girl looked ridiculous, with her bare shoulders, tiny body engulfed in fur, the sack hanging over her shoulder and down almost to the back of her legs. "But, you must understand, this is far bigger than a few dogs and a ramshackle hut. The fate of nations is at stake. I'll buy you a dozen dogs if you can get me to Star Harbour."
"You need to stop talking." Únik couldn't look at the girl.
She had no compassion. No feelings whatsoever beyond her own nose. Únik had not hated anyone in years, but she could do nothing but despise Hatyara. The lives of others seemed to mean nothing to her. Not even the life of her own kinsman, forgotten almost as soon as he died.
Únik could never expect someone like that to care about her dogs. She looked down at Barsa, keeping in step beside her. He was the only thing, the only creature she cared about, now. The only thing she loved more than herself. For Hatyara, Únik doubted she even knew how to love anyone but herself. A creature so self-centred, the lives of anyone else meant nothing to her.
She tried to keep a strong pace as they moved away from the lake. It would take their pursuers half a day to navigate around either side of the lake. It stretched long, if not wide. That was why Únik had chosen to cross it. She had not expected the ice to break so easy. Had not expected to lose her dogs.
Keeping her own counsel, she put her head down and forced herself to keep walking. If she didn't, if she stopped to think for even a second, she knew she would stop blaming Hatyara for the deaths of her hounds and start blaming herself and, right now, her hatred of Hatyara was the only thing that stopped her from collapsing to the ground and never wanting to get up again.
-+-
The terrain began to change the further east they travelled, changing from snow blasted waste to a rocky tundra of permanently frosted ground. If they had come this far, she would have had to abandon the sled, continuing to travel on foot with her dogs by her side. Now, she only had one dog and no sled to abandon.
The girl had taken Únik's advice to stop talking and remained silent for hours, now. On occasion, she would reach out to scratch Barsa's neck, as though reminding herself she did not walk alone. Únik held no sympathy for Hatyara. None at all. Every so often, she would call Barsa to walk at her other side, away from the Ice-Kin, but, after a few minutes, the dog would wander his way back between then, nuzzling at both their hands at one time or another.
For some reason, Barsa seemed to like Hatyara and that annoyed Únik. She felt as though the girl took it as a triumph that Únik's dog liked her, even if Únik herself did not. Eventually, Únik gave up trying to separate the two and began to quicken her pace. If Barsa wanted to walk with the woman that had caused the deaths of his sled companions, he could. Patrons damn it. If the dog preferred the little, ice blue woman, he was welcome to stay with her once they reached the nearest settlement.
It wouldn't be the first time Únik had to rebuild her life and, once Hatyara had left her company, Únik was more than happy to return to Tracis' Midden and start all over again. The Midden would provide.
"What are those? Over there?" Making short, skipping steps to catch up, Barsa at her side, Hatyara reached Únik and pointed into the distance, hand resting on Únik's arm. "Is it a city?"
"No. Tombs." Únik knew them well. She had passed through the line of stepped pyramids when first she came to the wastes, so many years ago.
"So far from civilisation? It seems a long way to go to bury the dead." Wrinkling her nose, Hatyara squinted through the half-light of the almost-day, trying to see the rising structures better. "Our tombs are always near to where we live. We tend to forget our dead easily. The tombs remind us when our minds would rather forget."
"They aren't just tombs. They're a wall." Despite herself, Únik found herself educating the Ūtharan. "Centuries ago, Uriok and Hagragng fought long and bloody wars. Peace came grudgingly and the Hagragng people had no stomach for it to start again."
"So, they are warriors' tombs?" Holding her hands behind her as she walked, Hatyara nodded as though she understood. "As a memorial to the honoured dead?"
"No. They're a wall." Unused to speaking so much, Únik grew tired of talking. Becoming annoyed again, she tried to explain as fast as she could, in order to return to blessed silence. "The Uriok are superstitious. They fear the dead and will not approach. The Hagragng built the tombs so there were few gaps to pass through. Easier to defend if the Uriok attacked again."
"Well, that's ridiculous! Dead is dead. Everyone knows that!" Scoffing at the very idea, Hatyara shook her head at the stupidity. "The only thing to fear from the dead is disease as their flesh decomposes."
"I didn't say I believed it." And she didn't. Not any more. Yet, in the past, she had felt that very fear as she passed between those tall structures.
To this day, despite knowing better, she still believed the stories every Uriok child heard. Of the dead rising in the night to scurry away naughty children, to make them into the risen dead themselves. And then, as an adult, hearing the more detailed tales, told around campfires and in crowded taverns. Of the vampiric dead that would rise of a night to drink the blood of the living. Of the mindless dead that walked, passing disease to those that yet lived, causing them to become the same rotting walkers themselves.
Those tales had terrified Únik as a child and chilled her bones as a woman and she had resolved never to tell her child those stories. Had her child lived. The pain of long lost anguish gripped her heart. A pain she had not felt in many years, yet now, as they approached the barren plains leading to the Tombs of Hagragng, and then on to Uriok, memories resurfaced and began to prey upon her mind. Yet another thing to blame upon Hatyara.
"It'll be night soon. We should find somewhere to camp." Looking around, Únik tried to find anywhere that looked familiar.
"We can't stop! Our pursuers will not stop. She won't stop for anything." Hatyara's mouth opened and then clamped closed as Únik turned her head at the words.
"'She'? You know who follows us?" The girl looked away, as though her mind wandered, but Únik grabbed her shoulder, wrenching Hatyara around to face her. "What do you know? First you act like you didn't know what was happening, then you know they have a mage with them. What aren't you saying?"
"I don't know anything! I ... I have suspicions." The girl's almost-white eyes flickered anywhere but towards Únik. Beside the girl, Barsa began to make a low whimper, as though he expected Únik to attack Hatyara again. "Before I left Halthien, my home, to sail to Star Harbour, words were exchanged between me, my father and my sister, Ylthara."
"You have 'suspicions'? You exchanged words with your sister?" Únik released Hatyara's shoulder and scowled at Barsa for defending her. Barsa lowered his head, placing it beneath Únik's hand. "Speak plainly! For I will not suffer any more because of your family squabbles!"
"When Ylthara learned of my father's plans, she did not take well to it. She said it would pollute our society forever. She swore she would not allow it to happen. I thought she only raged, but now ... I'm fairly certain I saw her upon one of the horses at the lake." Now Hatyara turned her eyes towards Únik. She seemed to have genuine concern and worry, but Únik found it difficult to believe. Hatyara reached for Únik's hands, clasping them tight. "But she doesn't understand! She does not know the entirety of the plan and father could not chance telling anyone. Only he and I know the fullness of it. And there is one other thing."
"And that is?" Únik furrowed her brow, not wishing to hear any more, but needing the information to aid in their flight.
"Ylthara is a Storm Mage. Not powerful, not usually, but I believe she may have the aid of a wand." The girl's hands held Únik's to her chest, drawing close as she looked up. Those light blue eyes showing more emotion in one exchange than she had yet shown. "That's another reason why I believe it is my sister that follows our trail. She is dogged and determined. I can only offer my apologies for pulling you into this, but, I promise you, you will be richly rewarded. Enough gold to start anew anywhere you wish."
Únik didn't pull her hands away, not as she would have only minutes earlier. Instead, she eased her hands from Hatyara's and turned to look back they way they had come. She had made certain to change direction as they had hit the rugged tundra. Their pursuers, this Ylthara, would find no tracks to follow. But there was little cover upon the wind-scraped rocks. Chewing upon her bottom lip, she tried to think of the best option.
Continuing to travel, without rest, could cause more problems along the way. Tired legs made for tired minds. If they continued for too long, exhaustion could take hold and then mistakes could become made. If they rested, they chanced the possibility of their pursuers catching them. Neither option felt right. It all depended upon which option felt least wrong.
"We still need to camp. Sister or no sister. It's been a long, hard day." She looked around again and saw something to the north that she may have seen before, many years in the past. "If I'm right, that hill over there holds many caves. With luck, we might find one not occupied by bears."
"Bears?" Hatyara's eyes begin to survey all around them, as though even the mention of bears might bring them out to feed upon them.
"Bears. Or worse. But, more likely bears." Únik almost chuckled to herself. The look of fear that fell upon the Ūtharan girl's features was almost worth the horrors of the day. No. Not even almost.
Hefting the supplies back onto her shoulder, Únik began to set off north, Barsa beside her and Hatyara almost attached to her hip. Únik didn't know what the girl expected of her. There would be only one winner between a snow bear and Únik with a whale hook. Únik could only hope Barsa would not get eaten too.