The barbarian grinned and stepped back. He turned and motioned to the others and then frowned. "Garrick!"
The Snowbear clan warrior named Garrick was staring at Patrina. Alto followed his sapphire gaze and saw that she’d managed to get the hood of her cloak to fall free of her head. Alto saw her turn her head to stare at Garrick, complete with the rag still tied in her mouth. Their eyes met and she froze, held captive by the impossibly blue eyes of the barbarian. Alto felt his heart miss a beat in his chest and then pound against his ribs a moment later.
The snow and the cold disappeared. Alto felt a rush of heat spread from his chest to his face. His arms and legs began to tingle, even though he still couldn’t feel his fingers.
What he could feel didn’t matter anymore. He had to act and now was the time. Savages and wizards be damned.
"Mind your man," Krey snapped to the leader of the hunting group. He turned to his brother and added, "Cover her!"
"Garrick! Don’t make me regret the favor your father asked!"
Garrick turned to look at him and shook his head. "I want her."
"She’s not yours to be taking!"
Garrick shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. She’s not theirs. Look in her eyes; she’s no prisoner. She’s got the look of a warrior."
"We’ve paid your toll five times over; get out of our way and leave us be!" Krey demanded. He pulled his gloves off and shoved them into his pockets. "You won’t like what comes next if you don’t."
"You threaten us?" Garrick’s elder said. "That’s a fool thing to do."
Krey snarled and raised his hand up over his head. He began to chant, stunning the barbarians by the unexpected threat. Alto grabbed the rope and looped it around his wrists to take up the slack. The young warrior planted his feet and pulled on the rope with all the strength youth gave him.
Krey shouted in surprise as his saddle was jerked to the side and the energies gathering in his arms discharged into the upper boughs of a nearby tree. The branches burst, showering everyone with needles, bark, pinecones, and tree sap. Krey’s horse, already pulled off balance by Alto, reared up in fright and sent the wizard tumbling into the snow.
The hunters from the Snowbear clan howled. "Demon!" "Sorceror!" "Wizard!" and other cries filled the air. Garrick alone seemed unfazed as he charged through the snow and delivered a left hook to Rynn’s startled horse. The steed stumbled back and away from him, tripping in the snow and falling on its side. Patrina was thrown free and landed with a muffled grunt. Rynn was not so lucky.
Rynn struggled to push himself free of his mount while the horse flailed on the ground and rolled back away from him. Grimacing in pain, the tall man started to climb back up when Garrick’s shadow fell over him. He looked up in time to see Garrick’s sword swinging towards him.
Alto rushed over to Krey and jumped on top of him as he struggled to rise. He struggled with the wizard, overpowering him in spite of the lack of feeling in his hands. He managed to wrap the rope around Krey’s neck and was about to pull on it when both of them were jerked forward. Krey’s horse was trying to escape and pulling them with it.
They slid a dozen feet through the snow until Alto managed to get his feet under him. He dug them in and pulled, trying to stop the horse. It pulled harder, stretching the rope and yanking Alto off his feet. The only benefit of the tug of war was that Krey’s eyes bulged out and his throat was crushed under the pressure of the rope.
Alto slid through the snow another score of feet before one of the barbarians caught up to him and cut through the rope with the axe in his hand. The savage helped him up, and then grinned and displayed some missing teeth. Alto jerked back, remembering the last gap-toothed smile he had seen. He looked at the man again to be certain but the resemblance to Gerald, his missing companion, ended with the primitive dental work.
"My thanks," Alto mumbled. He felt warm but his lips were thick and numb. The savage nodded and took out a knife. A few moments later, Alto’s frozen hands were free.
"Rorgin," the barbarian introduced himself.
"Alto," Alto said. He looked at his hands and saw how colorful they were. Shades of blue darkening to purple at his fingertips.
"What clan?" Rorgin asked him as he turned and led him back to the others.
"What? No clan," Alto said. He looked up and saw Patrina was getting her ropes cut by the man who had saved her. Alto studied him as he spoke, noting his jet black hair and that he seemed to possess Rynn’s height with Alto’s width. "I’m from the Kingdom, other side of the mountains."
Rorgin frowned, and then shrugged and walked over to join some of his clansmen. Alto stood still for a moment and then saw Patrina turn and look at him. Her lips parted and then she was wading through the snow towards him. Alto crashed into her a moment later, hugging her fiercely. He felt her warm breath against his neck and that was all that mattered.
Until Alto’s eyes rose up and he saw Garrick staring at them with a powerful cerulean gaze that felt like it could burn through him. Alto gently disengaged from the shuddering princess and walked over to the large hunter. He thrust out his hand, hoping he’d have the strength to grip Garrick’s.
"My thanks to you; we were waylaid and brought here by these two men," Alto began.
Garrick’s nose twitched as one side of his lip curled up in a sneer. He dropped his gaze to Alto’s hand and only then did his eyes widen. "I’ve seen this before," he said. "Usually in toes, but sometimes fingers."
"Seen what?" Alto asked.
"They’re frozen. They’ll need to be cut off and the wounds burned shut or the sickness will spread and take you."
Alto’s jaw fell open at the pronouncement. "You can’t! I can’t, I mean! How can I swing a sword without fingers? Wait! My sword!" Alto turned to see that Krey’s horse had stopped running and was walking through the snow to head into a patch of trees. "Stop that horse—my sword’s on it!"
Garrick shook his head. "You fought well, but you’ll not be fighting with those hands. Let it go, you’ve no use of it."
"That sword is no simple blade," Patrina said. She stood beside Alto and faced the barbarian down until he shrugged and turned away.
"Garrick, your father will have your ears boxed in for this!" the leader of the hunting party said as he walked over to join them.
Garrick turned. "Tyras, look at her. I couldn’t let them take her."
"Bah! You’re not even old enough to know the touch of a woman!"
Garrick drew himself up fully, towering over all of the gathered men. "I’ve known my share of women!"
Several of the others chuckled, with one of them even mentioning a few names. Tyras’s eye narrowed. "Boy, if you’ve dirtied my daughter—"
"I haven’t touched anyone who didn’t want to be touched," Garrick boasted.
Patrina grabbed Alto’s arm and pulled him back a few steps. "Go, get your sword!" she hissed to him. Alto nodded and hurried off, leaving the bickering savages to fight amongst themselves while he slipped away. They saw him leaving but made no move to stop him since Patrina stayed amongst them.
Krey’s horse had calmed enough to let Alto walk up to him. Alto spent a few moments soothing the animal before he led it back to the others. He gathered up Rynn’s horse and looped their reins loosely around a branch that Krey’s errant spell had knocked loose. He jammed the stick into the snow to provide the illusion of a fence post for the horses, and then retrieved his sword.
"Here." Patrina rushed over to help Alto buckle his belt and scabbard around his waist when his fingers fumbled with the clasp. They looked up from the task and found themselves staring into each other’s eyes with only inches separating them.
"Um, thanks," Alto mumbled.
Patrina’s cheeks, already tinged red from the cold and the wind, flared brighter for a moment. "You saved me again," she said. "Not bad for a farm boy."
"He didn’t save you, I did," Garrick boasted from behind them.
Patrina spun away to face the barbarian. Tyrus
was sitting in the snow behind him and rubbing his jaw. "Alto distracted the wizard or you’d be scattered across the snow like that tree was."
Garrick’s eyes went to the fallen needles and branches of the tree. He scowled. "He’ll be useless, no fingers or toes. What work can a man do like that?"
"You’ve broken the pact made with the men from the mountains!" Tyrus growled as he stood up behind him.
Garrick spun. "It’s no matter. Those two are dead; there’s no one to know they were ever here!"
Alto nodded. "Take their horses and whatever you want from them."
Patrina spun back on him. "What, you plan to just take me back home now and be done with me?"
Alto held up his hand to stop her protesting. She saw his mottled fingers for the first time and gasped.
"You should come back to my home," Garrick said from behind her.
"I’m indebted to you for your help," Alto said through his teeth. "But you’re overstepping your bounds."
"Is she your woman?" Garrick asked.
Alto stiffened and then shook his head. Patrina was a princess; he was just the son of a farmer. More so he had a girl back in Portland that had laid a claim on him. Patrina watched him hesitate, and then she blew threw her nose in the same angry manner that Winter had done.
"I’m nobody’s woman!" she snapped. "I’m the daughter of the Jarl of Holgasford and you’ll stop speaking of me like a plaything or a possession!"
Garrick recoiled, and then chuckled. "She’s got fire enough to keep the snow away!"
Alto nodded. "That she does."
Patrina glared at them both. She ignored both of them and turned to Tyrus. "He called you Tyrus; are you the leader of this group?"
Tyrus nodded but could not hide the smirk on his face. "Daughter of the jarl—that makes you a princess?"
Alto saw the muscles in Patrina’s cheeks twitch but she gave a terse response. "Yes, something like that. These men who held us captive are working with evil forces and seeking to overrun his kingdom and my lands to the south. They used me to capture Alto, though we don’t know why."
"His kingdom? Is he a prince?" Tyrus asked.
Alto laughed. "My father’s a farmer. I don’t know why they want me."
Patrina snorted. "He’s the hero who killed the man that had taken Highpeak. What more reason do they need than to make sure you’re dealt with and out of the way?"
"Won’t be a hero anymore," Garrick muttered and glanced at Alto’s hands.
Alto used his hips to force his fingers to curl into fists. Now that the fight and the excitement was fading, the cold was creeping back in. With it came a distant ache in his wrists and feet.
"We know someone who can heal him," Patrina said. "He’s a friend of ours, but he’s in the south. We need to leave if Alto is to be healed."
"Another wizard?" Garrick sneered.
"No, he’s a priest of Leander," Alto said. "A powerful one."
Tyrus glanced behind himself and up towards the mountains. He returned his gaze on them and spoke as though he hadn’t heard their bickering. "The men you speak of have been bringing people through our lands. We fought them at first, but they made a truce with our chief so now we leave them alone, mostly."
Alto censored his chuckle to a mere sniff. Two men were dead because they’d been mostly left alone. It had been two men that had earned their fate, but dead was still dead.
"Many men, hundreds or more, have come through. Always they go into the mountains, to caves that we’ve stayed clear of because of dark things that dwell within," Tyrus continued.
"What dark things?"
Tyrus turned his gaze on Alto and let him know by the fold of his eyebrows that Alto’s question was stupid. "They wouldn’t be dark if we knew what they was! Men have gone in and not come back out. Good, strong hunters and warriors. Snowbear men, not weaklings like the Elkheart clan!"
The gathered barbarians laughed at the jibe, even Garrick.
"These caves, were they made by dwarves? Were they once mines?"
Tyrus cursed and spat on the ground. "Evil creatures! We’ve not seen them since before my grandfathers’ grandfather’s time. If they’re in the caves, they best stay there."
Alto nodded. "We need to be going," Alto said.
"I’m not going back to be trapped in my father’s hall," Patrina snapped at him.
Alto walked over to where Rynn’s body lay on the ground. He kicked him over and then reached down and used both hands to draw his sword. He presented it to Patrina and said, "No, we’re headed to the mines. We need to know what they’re doing down there. Tristam meant for us all to explore them, but since it’s just us, we have to do the job."
"You can’t wield a sword or fire a bow!" Patrina pointed out.
Alto nodded. "You’re better with a sword than me," he said.
She nodded. "I am, but you’re stronger and more reckless."
Garrick laughed. "A woman with a sword?"
Patrina turned to glare at him. She raised the blade and pointed it at him. "Got a problem with that, big guy?"
Alto started forward but Garrick spoke before he could intervene. "Put that away before you get yourself hurt. I see a fierce spirit in you, but fighting is a man’s sport!"
Patrina turned away from Garrick, ignoring him. "Do you have a shaman? A seer? Witch-doctor? Anyone who can call upon the saints to heal?"
Tyrus nodded. "We have a shaman. He prays to the saint of the hunt, though Arcan tells me that the saint seldom listens."
"All right, when I beat your boy in a fight, then you take us to him, and we’ll see if he can heal Alto’s hands and feet. Then we’ll be out of your hair and no one will know what’s happened."
The gathered men stared and then started laughing. Garrick scowled, his face red at the thought of the embarrassment of fighting a woman. "I won’t cross swords with a woman," he spat.
Patrina spun around and slapped the flat of her blade against the side of his cheek. Garrick stared in shock at her and then reached up and felt the blood where one of her edges had nicked him. He stared at the blood on his fingers and then howled and reached for his blade.
Alto grabbed for his blade but found he couldn’t get a grip on it with one hand. Before he could try to press it between both palms and draw it out, Patrina had spun away from the charging barbarian and tripped him with her sword. She pounced on his back and had her sword pressed against the back of his neck.
Alto let go of his weapon and shook his head, impressed. She’d gotten quicker and even more skilled since the last time he’d fought with her. Was there nothing she couldn’t find a way to do better than him?
"What say you, Tyrus?" Patrina asked from atop Garrick’s back.
Tyrus stared at the fallen man and shook his head. He chuckled and motioned for them to get up. "Come, it’s a few hours walk. Gather their horses; if they can’t be used, they’ll make a fine stew."
Alto grimaced at the thought but remained silent. He stripped Krey of his cloak and wrapped it around himself, praying it would keep him warm as the sun dipped toward the mountains in the southwestern sky.
Chapter 16
"We’ve ridden hard for days; where can he be?" Namitus complained as Tristam climbed back onto his saddle.
"That’s no ordinary beast our young friend is on," Kar lectured. "A unicorn is a magical creature, to say the least. Highly intelligent, as much as a man. Some say they come from another place, a different dimension where goodly and pure beings exist."
"Bah, it’s a horse with a horn, what’s so special about that?" Tristam muttered. "The innkeeper said a warrior rode through a few days ago on a white horse that some thought had a horn."
"A few days ago? That’s impossible!" Namitus muttered.
"Magic works in many ways," Kar reminded them.
"Goodly and pure? Is that why they’re supposed to only allow maidens to ride on them?" Tristam asked.
"That’s the theory. Few sages have ever had the opport
unity to have a discussion with a unicorn."
"They’re horses! How can you have a discussion?" Namitus interjected.
"Do you pay any attention at all?" Kar snapped at the rogue. "You have elven blood in your veins—how can you not understand all things are possible with magic?"
"Alto’s no maiden," Karthor pointed out. "Doesn’t that mean you might be wrong?"
"A maiden, no, but he’s about as goodly and pure as anybody I’ve ever met," Kar said.
Karthor chuckled. "And, unless I miss my guess, he’s yet to spend any time rolling a lass like Aleena in the hay."
The others laughed at the priest’s opinion, each of them nodding in agreement. When they quieted Kar said, "Perhaps being a woman isn’t the prerequisite. Mayhaps instead purity is all that is needed. Finding such purity in a man is rare."
"There are good men out there," Karthor retorted.
Kar raised his eyebrow and stared at his son. "Indeed there are, but I can’t recall any tales of priests riding unicorns."
"I’ll keep that in mind the next time you need Leander’s blessing."
"No you won’t," Kar said with a grin. "You are a good man; you’d never hold such a thing against me."
Karthor scowled and spurred his horse ahead. Tristam and Kar both chuckled behind his back. Namitus sighed and stared at the road ahead, his mixed heritage allowing his eyes to pick out details and distance in the dusk better than his companions. "Another day to Holgasford."
"Aye," Tristam said. "That barkeep said as much."
"I’ve ridden these roads with the jarl and Patrina," Namitus said. "I recognize where we are."
"Alto’s got a few days of travel on us; we’ll find him there, I’m sure," the wizard said.
"Then we’ll box his ears for running us all over the damn countryside," Tristam added.
* * * *
An early start the next day saw the Blades of Leander riding up to the outer gates of Holgasford with a few hours of sunlight left in the day. The guards met them at the southern gate and called them to a halt.
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