The cold air pinched their hands, numbed their feet and cut into their lungs like frost knives. A score of women and children shuffled through knee—deep snow, wrapped in hastily snatched blankets and random bits of winter clothes. An occasional whimper from the younger children betrayed their presence in the moonless night. Karux paused to brush off the large snowflakes which fell from the black sky like ash and to let Eiraena catch her breath.
"Hold up!" He called out as loudly as he dared.
Somek and Pronos in the lead paused, frowning back at the long line of stragglers.
A long mournful howl of hunting drwg echoed across the foothills from the northeast. Everyone cast glances around the snow-shrouded brush, fearing the next inevitable explosion of fur-wrapped teeth and claws of a drwg attack.
"We're getting near the southern trail," Karux hissed, dragging Eiraena by the hand through the snow which nearly came to her chest. "If the angorym chased anyone southwards, they could be nearby." He indicated the women and sniffling children with a jerk of his head. "If we all go blundering up to the trail, they'll hear us."
"So?" Somek said. "You want us to wait here until they come for us?"
"No. We need to send someone to scout ahead to see if the trail is clear."
Pronos glanced at Somek then frowned down the dark trail. "I'm not going."
"Me neither," Somek said.
Theris stepped up next to Karux, clenching his spear in one frost-chapped hand. "I don't know about this, Karux."
"We can't all go," Karux insisted. He looked around for Eiraena's mother, hoping he could hand her off since it was clear no one else was up to the task.
"I'll go."
Karux turned on Macander. "You can't go. Aunt Sairu would kill me."
"And you can't go," Macander countered. "You've got a bad leg."
"It is stealth, not speed, which is called for here."
"So? I'm probably the stealthiest one here. No one has ever caught me at hide-and-seek."
"That's true," Somek added helpfully.
"This isn't a game, Mac. This is life and death."
"Like last winter?'
Karux glanced at Theris and read stubborn disapproval there, but Theris said nothing. Karux couldn't help but feel Macander had always been blessed by the Most High in everything he did. With a certain sense of disbelief, he looked into Macander's determined eyes and nodded his assent.
Macander pushed past through the snow without a word.
Karux heard a muffled cry behind him and saw Aunt Sairu clutching her hands at her throat as she watched her youngest walk into imminent danger. He hoped she wouldn't scream and give them all away. He glanced back at Macander, intending to urge him to caution for all their sakes, but Macander had already disappeared.
-=====|==
The snow drifts were so deep, that Macander thought moving forward was more like swimming, than walking. Like swimming, he had dived into the cold deep without thinking, before the fear could catch him and hold him back. He held his spear up, bracing it against his right hip so it wouldn't drag in the snow, and tried not to think about how useless the spear would prove if he were discovered by even a single angoran with its attack trained drwg.
He scanned the surrounding landscape, trying to get his bearings. He had not often come by this side trail and in the dark everything looked strange and out of place. He spied a tall tree in the distance he vaguely remembered having once passed on the southern trail.
Macander paused to listen. No breeze disturbed the snow as it fell around him. He slowly crept forward, sniffing the air for even the faintest whiff of wet-dog smell. Something snarled nearby.
Macander froze, heart pounding, fearing he'd already taken one step too many. He waited until he'd lost count of his frantic heartbeats then slowly moved one foot forward. Hearing nothing further, he moved another step. Crouched low over the white powder, he nearly crawled to the intersection of trails before he heard the rumble of deep panting. Peering around a bush, he spied an angoran sitting on a stone, eating a gristly chunk of bloody meat while three drwg watched and sniffed the air. It didn't appear the angoran was going anywhere soon and the waiting drwg looked dangerously bored.
Creeping slowly backwards, he waited until he put a slight rise between himself and the beasts before hurrying back down the trail. They were going to have to find another way.
-=====|==
"Now what are we going to do?" Theris said. "We don't dare cut across country in weather like this. We'd freeze to death in the middle of the night before we got anywhere."
The young children, whom the women had just calmed, began crying again. "Theris!" Aunt Sairu admonished. "You're not being helpful."
"He's right though," Karux added. "We can't go south from here and we don't dare go back."
Mahd Uday, his wiry old gray-haired neighbor, nearly hidden within multiple blankets, pushed forward. "What about Korion-Fugo? Perhaps these...things...haven't got to the far side of the valley. This trail will take us there. At least we could find some help."
Karux looked at Theris, who shrugged and Pronos, who nodded his agreement. Though Korion-Fugo wasn't on the way toward anywhere, he couldn't think of any alternatives. "It's worth a try," he said.
It took them what seemed hours to reach Korion-Fugo. Their feet and hands had grown numb and the women staggered under the weight of the small children they carried. Karux had slung Eiraena over one shoulder like a sack of feed. He tried to keep his hopes in check as they approach the circle of buildings, but when it became clear the houses were still intact and smoke still streamed peacefully from their chimneys, he let out a ragged sigh.
"Help!" the children cried and the women took up the chorus. "Help! Help!"
In moments the first adult emerged, soon followed by others. The women of the village quickly swept up the women and children of Korion-Garanth with much cooing and fussing and tucked them away in various houses to be warmed and fed. The elders gathered in the common area and lit a fire in an open fire pit, asking urgent questions as the story of Korion-Garanth's attack spilled from the boys.
Gerron, the village's chief elder, took charge, silencing the barrage of questions until he could make sense of all the different accounts. "Where are your fathers? The men of your korion?"
The boys looked at each other and some of the younger ones started to cry. Arnion, at twenty-one, was the oldest male from Korion-Garanth. He looked down at his empty hands then shamefacedly looked back at the elder who had spoken. "They stayed behind to fight."
The chief elder's grim face softened in sympathy. "Are you all that are left from your korion?"
The boys nodded.
"As far as we know," Theris added with a touch of defiance.
Gerron turned to a broad-shouldered young man. "Akonti, have some men get their hunting spears and spread out along the edge of the pasture lands. Keep watch and listen for any sound of the drwg." He cast a glance over the boys standing nervously before him. "Hopefully these weren't followed here."
"Right away." Akonti ran off to one of the houses, calling to a couple of men, shouting names of others he wanted. They gathered, spears in hand, and disappeared into the darkness beyond the village fire.
Theris stared after them, then turned an eager face on Karux. "We should go back, back to the korion."
"What?"
"Our adras might still be alive!"
"Are you mad?"
"No! These men could help us. We could go back—"
"No." Gerron shook his head. "The angorym destroyed your korion. What makes you think we—"
"But they surprised us! They snuck up when we were asleep. We're prepared now. We have spears. It's not like we haven't fought them before." He held out his arm, covered in the drwg-skinned cloak.
Gerron touched it, examining it in the firelight. "Perhaps that is so...."
"We fought one last winter." Macander said. "But we saw dozens tonight and who knows how many drwg."
"But, our adra—"
"—Is almost certainly dead." Karux added.
Theris dropped his spear and leaped on Karux with a roar, knocking him to the ground. "You don't know that!" he shouted, clenching Karux's cloak and shaking him. "They had spears. They were prepared. They might still be alive and fighting."
Gerron and Arnion grabbed Theris and pulled him off, holding him back as he kicked futilely at the ground and tried to get away.
"We have to go back. If we don't they will die!"
Karux stood, picked up his fallen spear and brushed off the clinging snow.
"And you know how they'll die." Theris' accusing tone shifted to a plaintive cry. His legs buckled and Gerron and Arnion allowed him to slip down to sit in the snow. "They'll die slowly, screaming in pain. Your adra, Arrain, will die screaming, watching as those monsters carve the flesh from his body and eat it before him!"
Karux leaned hard on his spear. The village fire had blazed up and the heat now fell painfully on the side of his face while the rest of his body ached from the cold. He wanted to believe his father, Uncle Naipho and all the other people he'd known and loved were still alive and fighting somewhere. But he remembered that last look over his shoulder as they fled the village.
His father had given him a look that had clearly said "goodbye and good luck" before turning to face the hulking shadows approaching across the commons. Karux knew the men had held no hope of surviving. Their only intent was to delay the attackers and give the others a chance to escape. Each man had known the fate that would befall him if he gave up, so Karux was confident they each had fought on until a spear thrust or lunging fang had killed him.
Karux closed his eyes as a dizzying wave of fatigue washed over him. He tried not to imagine the moment of their deaths, though it was too easy to picture. He'd been dreaming something like this for months. But he was certain the survivors would all see a lot worse before they could finally rest in peace.
The fire fluttered and hissed as it chewed on the logs, popping the wood like a hungry dog crunching on a bone. They stared into the flames, each lost in their own thoughts and memories.
"Well, I can put four of you up in my house if you don't mind stepping over each other," Gerron said into the fire. "We'll find places for the rest."
A foot scraped on icy snow. Karux spun around to find Eiraena. One of the village women burst from a nearby house calling, "Little girl!" as she ran toward her.
Eiraena, who normally avoided direct eye contact, locked her big amber-colored eyes on his and spoke a single word.
"Drwg."
"Void take it," Karux swore, knowing their night of running had not ended even before he heard the pounding footsteps approach from beyond the village.
"They're coming! They're coming!" Akonti called out as he neared.
"What? Who?" Gerron asked.
Akonti slid to a stop and stood bent over, hands on his knees gasping. "The angorym." He paused to catch his breath. "Delaer went a little way down the market trail. He heard the sound of the drwg coming this way."
"I was afraid of that," Gerron muttered. "I think they mean to have the whole valley."
"The whole valley?" exclaimed a young man you looked like a younger version of Gerron.
"If they block the southern pass, then all the koria will be trapped between the mountains."
"No." A large, balding elder with a bushy gray beard clapped a meaty hand on the young man's shoulder. "I know of a trail that runs along the western hills and leads to Korion-Sotso. It is not easy, but it will get us to where we need to go."
The young man shrugged off the elder's hand. "We have to warn the other koria and tell them to flee south by this western trail."
The elder shook his bald head. "It's too late. We must flee south to Korion-Sotso, then to N'shia-Potoma. There we will have the numbers to defend ourselves."
"The market town is no good," Gerron frowned thoughtfully into the night. "They don't have enough spears or men trained to use them. If the angorym move south the people will panic and flee, only to be cut down by the drwg. No, our safest course is to flee to Korion-Sotso, then to Har-Tor."
"Har-Tor?" The bald elder gave a brief laugh of disbelief. "No one has lived in Har-Tor for ages."
"No one's needed to flee there for ages, but it has always protected our people in times of need."
"So the stories say," the bald elder grumbled, worriedly running thick fingers through his bushy beard.
The young man stepped in front of Gerron. "But father, we have to warn the others. We can't abandon them to die."
"Didn't we just have this conversation with our visitors?" the bald elder asked. "We may have mere moments before those drwg are on us. We must flee now!"
Gerron sighed. "You're both right. We cannot linger here any longer, but we cannot abandon koria that have not yet even been attacked." Gerron addressed his son. "Maelos, take a couple of your swiftest young men and go warn the other koria. Have them join us at Har-Tor. Stay to the west—well away from the eastern pass to the high meadow. Do not go past Korion-Olumi on the north-east side and take no more risk than you must. Now go."
"Jomel," Gerron turned to the bald elder as Maelos sprinted away. "Have the women and children put on all the warm clothes they can wear and grab all the food they can carry. They need to be out here in the commons in three minutes.
"What about the animals?
"Release them into the wild. The angorym will just slaughter them if we leave them in their pens. This way perhaps some will survive to be reclaimed in the spring."
"Some men won't want to leave them behind."
"Then they can be eaten by the angorym along with their animals. We won't slow down so they can keep up with us."
Gerron turned to Arnion and Karux. "I'm sorry I won't be able to give you a warm place to sleep as I promised."
Arnion waved away the apology. "You have nothing to apologize for. We are already in your debt."
Gerron eyed the two-headed spears in their hands. "Those are some mighty strange weapons you have. But you seem to know how to use them and the pelts you wear prove it. May I ask you a favor?"
"Certainly," Arnion replied.
"Would you help my men guard the rear? I don't have to tell you what will happen if the drwg catch us on the trail."
"We will." Theris glared at them. "I, for one, would rather stand and fight than continually run away."
"Let us hope it doesn't come to that."
It took more than three minutes to get everyone ready to flee, but when the first family began to move south down the trail, the others sped up their efforts for fear of being left behind.
Jomel appeared with a heavy boar spear and stayed behind until the last family had been hurried from the village. Karux left the fire reluctantly, heading back out into the numbing cold. He and the boys from Korion-Garanth stayed close to Jomel, trudging along in the rear listening for the drwg's howl amid the tramp of feet on ice, the hiss of falling snow and the occasional screech of an owl. Ice-covered rocks and exposed tree roots made the dark trail treacherous, especially when looking back over their shoulders for any sign of movement.
About an hour and a half into the hike, the drwg sent up a chorus of howls, freezing their already chilled blood. The boys stopped and Jomel turned back, peering into the black curtain of night. "I think they've found our korion. They're probably chasing down our animals right now."
Theris, his expression grim, hefted his spear as if expecting to hold off a charge of drwg any minute. "How long before they come racing down this trail?"
Jomel shrugged. "They're not as picky about their food as the angorym. They'll want to feed on the animals, at least until the angorym can get them back in control."
"Gerron planned this, didn't he?" Macander asked.
Jomel returned a crooked grin. "It wasn't wholly unexpected."
"How do you know so much about drwg?" Theris asked.
Jomel hefted his boar spear. "He was a big hunter in his day and he taught me a thing or two about it, including some wolf-lore. The drwg may be bigger, crueler and perhaps more cunning than the average wolf, but from all I've heard they and their wolf cousins all pretty much want the same thing."
"Which is?" Karux asked.
"A swift hunt and a fresh kill."