Blood in Snow: (The Riddle in Stone Series - Book Three)

by Evert, Robert

  “Good luck with that.” Abby threw sticks into the wavering flames. “He’d never let the Highlands go without a fight. I say we ambush his scouts and kill them off one at a time.”

  Edmund considered his pitmate. Pond wasn’t crying anymore, but he looked miserable, seemingly torn between guilt and self-loathing.

  Pond looked at him, lip quivering. “I’m so sorry …”

  “I know.” Edmund wrapped an arm around Pond’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “Don’t worry, we’ll always be family.”

  Gratitude shone in Pond’s glassy eyes.

  “But I need you to pull yourself together, okay? I need you, Pond. I can’t do this by myself. Can I count on you?”

  Pond nodded, rubbing his bloodshot eyes with a mittened hand.

  “Are you going to return to Rood?” Abby asked.

  Edmund shook his head. “No.”

  “Okay,” she said resolutely, “so then where are we headed?”

  “You two are headed back to town.”

  “No, we aren’t.” She smiled at him as if he’d have a snowball’s chance in hell to change her mind. “Not without you we aren’t.”

  “No,” Edmund said. He had a vague idea for a plan but no clue how to do it. “No. I n-n-n … I need you two to do something for me.”

  “Ed, I’m not leaving you out here.” She gestured to the motionless Pond peering into the fire. “We aren’t leaving you out here.”

  “Abby, I love you.”

  Abby hesitated.

  Pond didn’t stir.

  “I love both of you” Edmund put a hand on Pond’s knee. “I love you two more than anything in this world, and I need you to trust me, okay?”

  Abby took a deep breath.

  “First,” she said, “tell us your plan and what you’re going to do. I don’t want you doing anything stupid, not without us near at hand to haul you to safety.”

  “I’m … I’m not really sure I have a plan,” he replied, evidently substantiating Abby’s suspicions. “But I know I want to save Rood and the Highlands.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, even after what they’ve done?”

  Edmund pulled his hat farther down over his ears, which had begun to throb with pain. He wondered if they were frostbitten.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Things have to change, and they’re going to change here. If the people of Rood want me back, they’ll have to accept all magic users. It’ll be a safe haven for everybody who wants to live free, or it won’t be safe for anybody.”

  “Ed, they want you back, but I don’t think—”

  “First things first, though. We have to stop the King’s scouts from finding Rood. There’s a group of men in the valley on the other side of the hill, and if they keep heading west, they’ll run right into Rood’s east gate tomorrow.”

  Pond exhaled resolutely, his breath extending out into the darkness in a long stream of vapor.

  “So I need you two to go back to Rood,” Edmund said.

  “Ed—” Abby protested.

  “Just listen to me, okay? We need somebody to take control of the town, somebody to keep order.” He looked at Pond. “Can you do that? Are you up for it?”

  Pond nodded, wiped his nose across his mitten. “Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

  “Good. And bring my horse with you. He needs food and shelter.”

  “Okay.”

  Edmund turned to Abby. “I need you to do something very important for me. If you don’t, people will die. Maybe all of us.”

  “What?” Abby asked doubtfully.

  “Go to Rood with Becky and gather all of the extra supplies we have, everything we took from the King’s wagons. Gather everything people don’t absolutely need—every extra blanket, coat, boots, food stuff, everything, and hide it all.”

  “Hide it all where? There are only a handful of buildings—”

  “No. Hide it out of town. There are caves in the northern hills about a mile from the old vineyards. Do you know where I’m talking about? Some caves up there can fit a large wagon. Hide everything that’s not absolutely essential, and here’s the important part …” He caught and held Abby’s gaze to make sure she knew how serious he was. “Don’t let anybody know where you’ve hidden it, okay? Tell everybody in town I took it. Nobody can know where those supplies are.”

  “Okay, but why? What’s the plan?”

  “I’m not sure yet, but if I don’t stop Lionel’s army from finding Rood, they’ll take everything we have. They need warm clothes and food.”

  “And they’ll take everything they find,” Abby said, now understanding.

  “Right. We n-n-need, we need to make sure our people still have enough supplies to survive through the winter once Lionel leaves.”

  “But Ed,” Pond said, “if they find Rood, they’ll kill us—all of us. We won’t need those supplies.”

  “They’ll kill me.” Then Edmund added begrudgingly, “And probably you and Hendrick. But the others are just settlers. We’re the ones who openly declared a revolt. Besides, Lionel will need them to work the land and pay taxes. He’ll only kill the leaders.”

  “What about me?” Abby asked, offended she hadn’t been marked for death.

  “Maybe. I don’t know how Lionel will react to rebel women. He may just flog you.”

  She seemed disappointed.

  “But you’re going to be with me, I think,” he told her, “once you’ve hidden the supplies. Becky can lead you to wherever I am.”

  “You think so? Even in all this blowing snow? I don’t want to lose you.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Pond asked.

  Edmund hunched closer to the fire. The waves of heat felt wonderful.

  “I’m still not sure. I just know I need to stall Lionel a little longer. This storm is going to get worse, and when it does, he’ll either leave the Highlands or die.”

  Abby warmed her hands above the flames. “Let’s hope it’s the latter.”

  “No.” Edmund shook his head. “I’m tired of all the death. We can’t gain peace by killing more people. It’ll never end.”

  “How are you going to stall him?” Pond asked.

  The fire popped and spit an orange spark, hissing, into the snow.

  “I don’t know. But our time is slowly running out.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  By the time Abby and Pond had ridden off with Becky, night was well underway. Snow continued to fall in great slashing sheets through cutting winds now beyond bitter. Edmund tugged his hood farther over his face, thankful for the moose fat and extra clothes. It was warmer, yes, but the temperatures would soon plummet even more, and he had to do what needed to be done before he, too, froze to death.

  He shuffled along on the crude snowshoes Cavin had made. They worked well enough; he didn’t sink into the calf-high snow, but they were much too big. Edmund felt like a frog, hopping from drift to drift, and he debated whether he could run faster with or without them.

  Far off within the dark hills, a wolf howled, long and mournful. Several others answered farther to the west.

  Through the trees, Edmund saw the three men-at-arms flinch as they huddled around their pathetic campfire.

  “Damn it!” One of them rubbed his bare hands over the dying flames. “If it ain’t this blasted snow and accursed cold, it’s wolves. I say we let the filthy rebels have the damned place. It’d serve them right.”

  “Can’t you make a better fire than this?” a second snapped.

  “Not with no wet wood,” a third answered. “Everything out here is either frozen or covered in snow. It won’t burn proper-like.”

  Edmund stood nearby in the blackness, sword drawn, waiting for them to go to sleep. The men’s horses snorted and stamped as though sick of the cold as well.

  “With no supplies,” the first man grumbled, “there’s no sense in us even being up here. I say we make like the others and head back
south. There’s no glory up this way anyhow.”

  “Nothing but snow and cold,” the second agreed, wrapping his face in a blanket until only his eyes could be seen.

  “And all these damned hills,” the third added. “I feel like a blind rat trapped in a maze.”

  They fell silent, each hunched over the fire so close they were practically in the sputtering flames.

  Eventually the first man spoke again, this time in a near whisper. “I’m serious.” The other two looked over, firelight reflecting off their bluish skin. “I say to hell with orders. Let’s hightail it southward. Those lads guarding the supplies had the right idea.”

  “Those lads will be strung up for treason when His Majesty catches up with them.”

  “Catches up with them?” The first man laughed. “He can’t even find a blasted city! We’ve ridden here, we’ve ridden there. Nothing! Not this Rood, not a village, not a stinking farmhouse. We’ve seen nothing but hills and forests and rivers and ruins. It makes me think this whole damned place is haunted or something.”

  The other men tried to scoff, but their faces were too cold.

  Edmund stepped closer.

  Their horses snorted again, but the men took no notice.

  “What about the smoke?” the second one asked. “Can’t you smell it? There has to be a settlement somewhere around here, and when we find it, we’ll have all the hot food and warm beds we’ll need.”

  “And women,” the third added. “I didn’t come all this way not to have a little fun with the farm girls! I hear the women up this way all have big breasts!”

  “Oh, stop talking about big breasts already,” the first said, disgusted. “Besides, we’ve followed smoke before. Remember the ride along the river? Look how that turned out.”

  “Nothing but dead bodies,” the third muttered.

  Come on! Go to sleep. At least one of you needs to get some rest.

  “There’s something mighty wrong up here,” the first went on, “and I don’t want any part of it. How can an entire city just up and disappear?”

  “Maybe there aren’t any cities here. Not big ones, at any rate.”

  “All right then,” the first countered. “What about villages? Or farms? Or ranches? These lands are supposed to be good for sheep, and we haven’t seen a damned thing other than giant deer!”

  “They’re called elk.”

  My god, they’re never going to lie down! They’re going to talk all night.

  “Whatever. They’re queer, like everything else up here. I tell you we should leave.”

  “You can l-l-leave if you want to,” the third said, teeth chattering. “I’ll turn you in and get a reward. I should just turn you in now.”

  “Now, n-none of that,” the second said. “We’re all just cold. No use adding worse to bad. This campaign will be over soon enough, I say, and then we’ll have something to tell those who stayed behind.”

  Oh, forget it!

  Edmund shuffled into their camp.

  “If you want to leave,” he said to the startled men, “then leave.”

  One of them leapt up and drew his sword; the other two remained on the ground, cold fingers fumbling with their hilts.

  “Put down your weapon,” Edmund said, as commanding as he could with numb lips. “I’m not going to kill you.”

  The standing man-at-arms tried to laugh, but the wind stole his breath.

  “You won’t kill us?” He eyed Edmund’s black blade. “Th-th-there’s three of us against y-you!”

  “Is that what you think?” Edmund gave his practiced smile.

  The men looked about, scanning the shadows. Their horses snorted. One reared.

  “Sheathe your weapon and I won’t kill you, though you might freeze to death before long. We need you to run an errand for us.”

  “Wha-what, what do you want?” the man with the drawn sword asked, shivering.

  “To deliver a message to your King.” “Message?” the other two said together.

  “Tell him I’m willing to help him and his men, to give him warm clothes and supplies, if he agrees to leave the Highlands for us to govern as we see fit.”

  Again, they tried to laugh.

  “And who are you to give orders to His Highness?” asked one of the men on the ground.

  “I am Edmund, elected Governor of the Highlands.”

  They glanced at each other.

  “Governor?” one repeated. “Wh-what, what the h-hell is that?”

  “I kn-know who he is,” another said, reaching for his sword. “He’s the one-eyed r-rebel who killed the lord in these here parts, Lord Nevel or something.”

  “Norbert.” Edmund pointed his sword at the standing man and stepped closer. “And I didn’t kill him. We have no lords or nobility in the Highlands; everybody has a say, and they’re free to do what they like.”

  The standing man snorted, but the other two seemed to be thinking.

  “What do you m-mean?” one of them asked. “How do they have a say?”

  “Everybody got to vote and I was elected to run things for two years. After that, somebody else can be governor. We all voted on the rules and laws.”

  They don’t care about this. Tell them about the land.

  “One of our laws is if you work and help the community, you get land in return.”

  This got even the standing man’s attention. His sword lowered a bit. “What do you mean, ‘you get land’?”

  Edmund waved a hand at the surrounding darkness.

  “We have m-more land than we can possibly farm. If settlers come and help rebuild this region, they get as much land as they can tend—for free. But they first have to help rebuild the towns and share their crops for two years.”

  The three men gawked.

  “Never mind all of this,” Edmund said. “Go tell your King what I’m offering. If he agrees to leave, we’ll give him supplies. If he doesn’t, he and his men … all of you … will freeze to death. This snow is nothing compared to what’s coming, and it hasn’t even begun to get cold yet.”

  The men peered at the darkness above as more flakes drifted down amid leafless branches.

  Scare them. Make them see what they’re in for if they stay.

  “You’ll get frostbite soon,” Edmund said, “if you haven’t already.”

  “Frostbite?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your fingers, toes, ears, nose … anything exposed to the cold will become numb—painfully numb.”

  The men looked down at their blue fingers then back to each other.

  “They’ll hurt for a while,” Edmund went on. “Then you’ll have difficulty moving them. They may even start to itch or burn.”

  “Burn?”

  “Shut up and listen!”

  “Your skin will get so cold,” Edmund said, “it’ll feel like it’s on fire. Then you won’t feel it at all, like your hands and feet and face are just blocks of wood or clay. Frozen.”

  The men flexed their fingers as if trying to restore their feeling.

  “At first, this’ll feel good because the pain will be gone and you won’t feel as cold.”

  “But …?” one of the men said. “What then? What happens?”

  Edmund shrugged. “You’ll start losing fingers and toes, maybe your ears and your nose. Anything that gets too cold.”

  “Lose them?”

  “He’s lying.”

  “No, he’s not! I’ve heard about that from people who’d been trapped in the mountains. I’ve seen it. Their fingers are all black.”

  “If they don’t fall off completely,” Edmund said. The men stared at their exposed fingers. “Have your horses started to die?”

  “What? Horses? No. No, not yet. But they’re getting hungry.”

  “They will. And when they’re too weak to carry you”—Edmund nodded to the three skittish horses tethered to a tree—“it’ll be too late for you to survive. Withou
t supplies, you’ll need to be able to ride south quickly enough, and without horses …” Edmund shrugged again. “Y-y-you’re, you’re done for.”

  One horse stamped and thrashed its great head, steam snorting from its flaring nostrils.

  “Even with supplies,” Edmund went on sadly, “you’ll freeze to death soon if you stay out in the open like this.”

  The three men were seasoned soldiers, no doubt veterans of past battles, but fear had nevertheless crept into their eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” Edmund said sincerely, “this isn’t your fight; I understand that. You’re just doing what you’re told, following orders. But if you don’t leave these lands and go south soon, you will freeze to death. Look at your clothes, your blankets. The wind goes right through your cloaks, doesn’t it?”

  One man gave a shivering nod.

  “Well, if you stay, you’ll freeze. No nobility can change that, and it’s just a matter of time.”

  Again the men exchanged frightened glances.

  “I, I can’t feel my fingers,” one said. “My, my left hand, I can’t feel the fingers on my left hand!”

  “Keep moving it,” Edmund told him. “Keep the blood flowing. And go back to your King’s camp. I’m sure they have better fires going than this.”

  “We have to get out of here,” another man said.

  But the man still standing with the drawn sword seemed doubtful.

  “Let me ask you this,” Edmund said to him, “have you tried to urinate recently?”

  All three looked at him abruptly.

  “You don’t mean …!”

  “You’re not saying that …!”

  “It happens”—Edmund grimaced—“frequently.”

  The men looked down at themselves and then back to Edmund.

  “Will you deliver my message to the King?” he said.

  “Y-yeah, yeah. We’ll tell him.”

  “He won’t like it; he won’t leave until he has your head. No offense or anything.”

  “None taken,” Edmund replied. “Just give him my message. If he wants you all to die in the snow, I can’t stop him. I just feel sorry for all of you. This isn’t your fight.”

  Chapter Nineteen