Ake reached me before I could pull myself up off the ground. I wanted to go after them, but he grabbed my arm hard and held on. "What happened? Were's Gunny and Bolthur?"
"Bolthur tried to kill me," I said, and his brows shot up. "And Gunny went after him." Again I tried to haul myself up out of the snow. "Let me up. He's dangerous."
"You've been injured." Ake eyes me sternly. "And Gunny is capable."
"I what?" Tentatively I reached up and felt my brow, which was stinging, now that he mentioned it. The tips of my fingers made contact with the wet warmth of blood and came away sticky. I tried to swallow the nausea that was threatening. I hadn't even felt him hit me. I'd let him come way too close just to prove all of this to Gunny.
But it was necessary.
Slowly, Ake helped me to my feet. "Did he say anything to you before he...attacked you?"
The tone of his voice was critical, and I went tense, straining against his grip. "No. I mean...not to me. He just jumped me. Early I came across him in the woods with a hand held radio though. Maybe I wasn't supposed to hear what he was saying."
I was walking a fine line now. It would look bad that I'd withheld information from him, but at the same time I had to tell him something about who Bolthur really was. He had to take this seriously.
"Come back to the camp and tell me." Ake kept a steady hand on my arm as we walked slowly back through the woods. "What was he saying on this radio? Why do you think he would attack you?"
I said it without hesitation. "I think he's working for them. The humans."
Ake slowed down. The fading light cast his features into shadow, and it was frustratingly hard to figure out what he was thinking. "What do you base this theory on?"
"Well for one, he attacked me." It was hard to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Being snarky to the commander wasn't going to help me. "I think he wants to make sure I don't get to take my message to the king and queen. When he was talking on the radio he kept talking about "doing it" and "taking her out" which I think is pretty obvious now."
Ake remained silent. We were within view of the fire now, I could see the orange light flickering through the trees. A crunching sound behind us made me freeze, but a voice called out immediately afterwords. "It's just me."
We both pivoted around, Ake still holding my arm. Gunny was making her way through the trees toward us. Her sword was in one hand, and the blade was still clean and dry. My stomach sank. "He got away?"
She grimaced. "He had such a headstart. I wanted to check back in before I went back out after him." She gave Ake a curt nod, and then her face fell when he shook his head.
"We stay with her," he said firmly. "If what he wants is right here he may come back to us. We must be ready. And breaking apart and running through the woods tracking him is probably exactly what he wants us to do."
"Not us," Gunny protested. "Just me. I can track him in an hour or two."
"No, you can't," Ake said heavily. "You know he's too good. He's a hunter. He's in his element here. We pack up the horses and move on, get to the palace as quickly as possible."
Gunny didn't argue anymore, she sheathed her sword and strode forward, head swiveling this way and that as she stalked back to camp. We hurried after her, Ake forcing us to pick up the pace a little bit. My head was staring to throb, and I wished he would slow down in spite of the urgency. I thought I might throw up, and I really didn't want to do it while riding a horse.
Once we'd reached the clearing Ake instructed me to sit down beside the fire while he took the tents down and packed the horses up. I closed my eyes while Gunny gave my wound a quick once over, pouring a stinging stream of amber liquid from a flask from her saddle bag over my brow.
"You'll have a scar there, but you'll be fine." Gunny dipped into the bag again and brought out a tin of pale yellow paste, smoothing it onto the wound. I'd been grimacing and squeezing my eyes shut the entire time, and I finally opened them.
"Thank you, really. You saved my life back there."
Gunny shook her head. She glanced back over her shoulder once, at the trees. Her expression tight with anger. "I'm just...I can't believe he's a traitor. I knew he was a jerk but this...this is different."
"Ake didn't know either," I kept my voice low, glancing over at Ake as he folded the tents up into bundles, loading up the horses. "He trusted him. Bolthur betrayed that trust."
Gunny glared at the trees again. "I wish he would let me go after him. I could finish him off. I want to." Her face flushed. "I feel stupid, telling you that he was okay. That he's just a jerk. I'm sorry."
I shook my head. "How could you know? It's okay. And he didn't get me, you stopped him."
Gunny straightened up and gave me a tight smile. "Well, let's get you to the palace. Once you're there you'll be safe, and then I can go after that bastard." She wrapped one hand around the pommel of her sword, her smile sharp. I didn't envy Bolthur if she got a hold of him.
When it was time to go, Ake helped me back onto the horse. Just before he lifted me into the saddle he muttered in my ear. "He's probably watching. And he'll probably try something before we reach the palace. If something happens, you ride as fast as you can and don't look back. Your message is more important than any of us."
I started to turn my head. He spoke sharply but quietly into my ear, "Don't. Just get on the horse."
Fingers numb, I obeyed. It should have filled me with happiness that they were finally taking my message as seriously as they should. But his certainty that Bolthur was tracking us made me feel hot and cold all over. The way he'd said "he'll probably try something" made me curl my fingers around the reigns so hard they went white. He was expecting an attack. And if Bothur did attack he wouldn't be going for either of my companions. His first target was me.
As we rode deeper into the forest, the trees seemed to get taller and thicker. I kept peering into the underbrush, trying to spot any sign of movement. It should have been comforting having my strange new water powers. I could sense almost anyone coming. But I couldn't help remembering how blurry I'd been at sensing Bolthur the last time he'd attacked. The water inside his body had been so slight that he'd almost blended with the snow around him. This time, I might not sense him coming at all.
Ake and Gunnar rode on either side of me, guiding their horses in close. Both of them had torches, the flames lighting the path before us and behind. They threw shadows up around us, stretched and eerie in the trees, creating movement where there was none. I jumped at every little sound, and when we rode around a particularly wizened, dead tree in our path, and a pair of bright yellow eyes flicked open halfway up the trunk, I nearly fell out of the saddle.
My face went bright red when I realized it was a tawny grey owl perched on one of the branches. To think a bird could scare me half to death! I was glad it was dark and neither of my companions could see my face. I could see the outline of Gunny turned towards me as we rode away from the tree. Impossible to tell in the darkness, but she was probably smiling.
"Are you all right, Vee?"
"I'm fine," I mumbled. "Just...startled me."
On the other side of me, Ake hissed at us to be silent. The mood went back to tense, and I returned to flinching at the noises around us. Branches breaking, wind rustling the trees. If Bolthur attacked, would I even be able to stop him? Maybe he had no water left in his body at all anymore. No, that was impossible, wasn't it? Jotun weren't like humans, but we still couldn't exist without water. After a few days he would have to drink again.
Not that we had a few days.
I leaned sideways in my saddle, keeping my voice low. "How long till we get there."
"Another hour." Ake was keeping his torch high. Moving it slowly back and forth, casting the circle of light wider so that it took in more of the trees around us. "Perhaps less."
"We'll be there soon." Gunny's hand twitched, and occasionally she glanced down at the pommel of her sword. She wanted to hang on to it, but she still needed to take the reigns.
"Here, I'll take the light." I reached for it, and when Ake turned to look, I added, "My vision isn't as good as yours."
Gunny leaned over and passed it to me, instructing me to keep it high. She shifted to rest her hand on her sword, drawing it out a little from the scabbard so that it glittered in the orange light. It chilled my blood to see her so on edge.
We rode for another hour at least. I was trying to keep track in my head, to count down the minutes we rode. We were getting closer. It was too dark to tell if the woods were familiar, but I pretended they were. Told myself that we were getting closer, and that I would be home soon. I would see my mother, and slide in between my sheets, curl up in my worn, comfortable little bed.
But not before telling the king and queen everything.
"There," Gunny's whisper penetrated the darkness, making me jerk upright in the saddle. She was pointing straight ahead. Not at something in the woods, but the towers rising up over it in the distance. My shoulders slumped with relief as I recognized the twin spires of the ice palace. Kalda and I always found our way back by them when we went out berry picking in the winter. Every snow laden tree looked the same after a little while, but we could always count on the towers and peaks of the palace rising up over the trees. They always pointed us in the right direction.
Relief hit me so hard I felt like slumping in the saddle.
A rushing noise, and then the horse beneath me lurched, letting out a terrible scream of pain. Heart stopping, I clutched the saddle as my ride staggered sideways. Someone was yelling in a deep, panicked voice. Ake maybe.
The horse was about to collapse, and I might very well end up under him. Twisting in the saddle frantically, I pulled my foot out of the stirrup and launched myself off. Crashing onto the packed snow knocked the wind out of me completely, and for a few seconds I could only see white. I couldn't breathe.
Panicked, I thrashed in the snow. I'd landed face first into the drift, no wonder I couldn't see or breath. Rolling over onto my back I gasped in a lungful of air, struggling to sit upright.
It was hard to see the scene before me. Something was still screaming, a high-pitched whine of agony. A black patch of movement as something writhed in the snow a few feet away. My horse. He was on his side bleeding into the snow.
"What the hell happened?" Gunny was on her feet,her horse nowhere in sight. She faced the woods as she spoke, her sword pointed toward the darkness. "Where is he?"
Ake had the only remaining torch, since mine had fallen into the snow and been extinguished. "Gun, you get over to her. Vee, stay where you are," he barked.
Gunny backed her way over to where I was lying. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." I had to raise my voice over the sound of the dying horse. "My horse..."
"Ake is checking him." Her voice was tight with fear.
The torchlight wavered and Ake stepped closer, getting as near as he could without being kicked by the thrashing horse. The light illuminated a giant red stain on the snow. The horse was kicking and crying out, sweat lathering his coat. Out of his side jutted a long wooden spear, crudely made but still clearly deadly.
Ake cursed and whirled around, whipping the torch this way and that across the open space. The circle of light showed us nothing but velvety darkness and snow-laden trees.
"He doesn't need to attack out-right," Gunny said in a low voice. "He's going to pick us off one at a time."
The horse was still making horrible noises, but now his thrashing was growing weaker. I resisted the urge to clap my hands over my ears. "The horse...please..." I didn't know what I was asking for. For Ake to fix him? To put him out of his misery?
But then the noises finally stopped and he went still, and Ake shook his head, his expression darker than I'd ever seen it. "Gunny's right. One at a time." His dark eyes locked with mine and he nodded once, slowly. "Remember what I told you."