The absurd thought of turning into a windigo intruded for a brief instant. She couldn't help placing herself in the windigo's position. Could she even consider what would happen if she were caught out here with those two people behind her now? Starving to death? Knowing what she had to do in order to survive?
That would never happen, of course, given the huge rescue efforts certain to be mobilized should she and Caleb get lost. They'd had the foresight to tell Hjak where they were and carried survival gear in the snowmobile luggage compartment. There were also cans of sterno and a few flash-dried meals, even a tent. She would never find herself in such dire straits as her ancestors.
But back then…centuries ago….
Forcing the things she couldn't do anything about out of her mind, Kymbria concentrated on the trail. The snowfall was obliterating their earlier tracks, and she sped through the wilderness as quickly as possible, at times faster than safe. She had to weigh two dangers against each other: getting lost in a blizzard versus delay in treatment for the injured she carried.
Forced to halt and try to get her bearings, Kymbria peered through the dense snow. It was nearing whiteout stage, but she thought she still knew where she was. Here, the trail forked, so she damned sure hoped she was right. If she took the wrong path, she might end up deep in the wilderness instead of back at her warm, cozy cabin. She started to turn left, the direction she was positive led to Caleb's truck —
She would have seen it even if it hadn't howled a shivery waver that cut through her with almost physical force. It blocked the trail she had chosen. The huge, shadowy bulk could be nothing else but the creature. She braked so hard her passengers hit against her, forcing Kymbria into the handlebars. She straightened immediately, hoping against hope the creature was only toying with them, would disappear as quickly as it had when Caleb had been injured.
Instead, it stood there, glowing eyes cutting through the densely falling snow with the intensity of a laser, the beams dropping to the trail right in front of the snowmobile. The sight should have filled her with terror, but instead, she waited for it to mentally communicate with her again.
It remained silent, though, and behind her, Nodinens shifted to the side.
"Don't, Grandmother," Kymbria cautioned. "Stay still."
"I know he is here without even seeing him," she replied as she inched upward until her chin was on Kymbria's shoulder. "He is not here to attack us, is he?"
"I don't know. He can't come close, not with our protections barricading against him. I believe he’s been following us. I think he's trying to tell me that I've chosen the wrong fork. Need to go the other way."
The laser beams of the beast's eyes died as soon as the last word left Kymbria's mouth, except for enough light around its head for Kymbria to see it nod. Then it disappeared as though it hadn't even been there.
As Nodinens settled once again against her back, Kymbria turned the snowmobile around. Five minutes later, relief filled her as she caught sight of a shadowy vehicle through the blur of the blizzard. She had made the right decision, understood the beast's appearance and taken the correct fork.
She didn't bother with the snowmobile. She left it in a ditch, safe from an unsuspecting driver encountering it around a bend in the road. She and Nodinens managed to get a nearly unresponsive Caleb into the rear seat of the double cab pickup, and fish the keys out of his jacket pocket. Seconds later, she carefully drove the truck along the roadway, Nodinens shivering beside her, while they waited for the heat gauge to move off cold.
"It's closer to your cabin than to the clinic in Neris Lake," Nodinens said when they reached a Y in the road.
"And I'm a nurse," Kymbria said. "We'll trust Hjak can get more medical help to us, if Caleb needs it."
A long half-hour later, the faint glow of a light intruded past the nearly impenetrable snow: the outside security light beside the driveway to her cabin. Kymbria groaned under her breath in relief, at last allowing herself to ease the tenseness and pain in her rigid shoulders. She headed for the light and drove down the driveway, straight up to the back door before she turned off the engine. Caleb stirred..
"How are you, Grandmother?" she asked first.
"I am not hurt," Nodinens replied from the depths of the jacket hood.
"Caleb?" Kymbria asked.
He roused and lifted his head. "I'm…alive."
"You don't sound like that's good enough," Kymbria said as she twisted around and tilted his chin up. "Open your eyes." When he obeyed, she shone the beam from the tiny flashlight on the keychain to check his pupil. "You don't look concussed. Are you able to help us get you inside?"
"Yeah. Just get me out of here."
Kymbria got out of the pickup and walked around to open the rear door closest to the cabin. He groaned and sat up, then started to slide across the leather seat towards her. She restrained herself from helping him, wanting to gauge his injuries. When he got to the edge of the seat, she wrapped her arms around him and helped him slide to the ground.
She said to Nodinens, "Please get the door for us, Grandmother. There's a key beneath that turtle shell on the windowsill."
"Stupid place to leave a key," Caleb muttered as Nodinens retrieved it.
Kymbria didn't dispute him. Until now, it hadn't seemed impractical to leave an extra key somewhere easily accessible by a neighbor.
Or an evil paranormal entity.
When Nodinens shoved the door open, she put one arm around Caleb's waist and pulled his other arm over her shoulder. Although he leaned heavily on her, he was able to walk, albeit unsteadily. Hopefully, that meant his injuries weren't too extensive.
"Please bring the key inside," she told Nodinens as she assisted Caleb into the kitchen. The first thing she noticed was that Scarlet wasn't there to greet her. She called for the setter as she guided Caleb into the living room and helped him lie down on the sofa.
"Scarlet?" she called again, fear burgeoning as she unzipped Caleb's snowsuit and Nodinens busied herself at the fireplace. Had that fucking beast beat her here and gotten through her dog’s protections? Carried her off in order to blackmail Kymbria into doing whatever it wanted?
Finally, the setter crept from Kymbria's bedroom. She crouched on the floor outside the doorway rather than bound toward Kymbria with her usual enthusiasm after an absence. Filled with elation at the dog’s appearance, Kymbria clicked her fingers to urge Scarlet to her for a hug. Scarlet didn’t move.
"You can turn up the thermostat, if you want," she told Nodinens as she frowned at Scarlet. "It's on the wall there beside you, and we have gas heat." The dog rose and disappeared into the bedroom, but Kymbria didn't have time right then to check on her.
"I will turn it up," Nodinens replied, "but a fire will help warm us with both its heat and the sight of the flames."
"You're definitely right about that."
She pushed the snowsuit hood back from Caleb's pale face and removed her gloves before she touched his cheeks. "Open your eyes again, Caleb."
He did, and she reassured herself again that his pupils were equal. "We need to get this suit off so I can examine you better."
He continued to stare into her face. "What did you mean when you said that thing wouldn't hurt you? And why did it ask you if you — "
She sighed and stood. "Let's get this straight, McCoy. Right now, the most important thing to do is check you and Nodinens for injuries. We can talk about what happened out there later. So shut up and cooperate. Understand? Otherwise, you're delaying my examination of Grandmother."
He thinned his lips in irritation, but held his tongue as she removed her heavy clothing and then his. She hung the suits on the hooks by the front cabin windows and set the boots on the rug in there to dry. Nodinens rose from lighting the kindling in the fireplace as Kymbria came back into the living room. She'd shed the huge jacket she wore, tossing it into a corner of the room, and a pair of moccasins lay on top of it. Nodinens was in a heavy flannel nightgown, a blanket wrapped aro
und her, her feet bare.
"I am not injured, Child," she said. "I can feel all my extremities. What I need is a shower while you take care of Caleb. And a garbage bag to place those — " she nodded at the jacket and moccasins distastefully " — in. I suppose we will have to keep them. The sheriff will want to examine them."
"You were in its lair," Caleb said from the couch. He pushed himself upright and glared at Nodinens, although he wrapped an arm around his stomach as though his ribs hurt. "Where is it? Tell us!"
Nodinens drew herself up to her full height and stomped over to him until they were nose to nose. "I do not know a damn thing that will help us right now. I am going to have a shower to get the feeling of wearing a dead man's coat and a dead woman's moccasins off me. Then I am going to put on one of Kymbria's robes. You are going to let the only medical person we have available examine you so we don't have to worry about your dying on us and us having to drag you out into the blizzard so you don't stink up the cabin!"
With that, she strode away from him, then halted and stared at Kymbria. Kymbria pointed at her half-open bedroom door and said, "The bathroom is through there, Grandmother, and there are robes hanging in the closet."
"Thank you, Child."
"But…Grandmother, Scarlet's not acting right. Before you go in there…."
Nodinens shook her head and held out a hand. A second later, Scarlet appeared and allowed the elderly woman to pet her.
"It was the clothing," Nodinens explained. "She will be all right now."
Nodinens closed the door, and Kymbria looked over at Caleb. With a shrug, he started unbuttoning his shirt.
Later, Nodinens re-joined them, wearing a short robe of Kymbria's, which, nonetheless, dragged the floor. The setter padded behind her. Nodinens took a chair beside the fireplace, and Scarlet laid down at her feet.
By then, Kymbria had assured herself that Caleb had only suffered bruises, although they were deep and serious. She'd have to keep an eye on him. One dark spot of injury was close to a kidney, and repercussions could still evolve. There was also a large bump on his head, above his temple, which was causing his head pain. If they'd worn their helmets…but they hadn't. His heavy clothing had cushioned part of his body from more severe injury. He lay on the couch, head on a pillow and the heavy blanket she had retrieved from the linen closet draped over him. She'd given him aspirin for his pain. She also had a shrink-wrapped bag of stew thawing in the microwave, a pot waiting on the stove for it as soon as she could peel the plastic away.
"Can we talk about this now?" Caleb asked in a respectful tone, directing his question at Nodinens.
"First we must call Gagewin," she said. "Tell him I am safe, so he can let the others know."
"I'm afraid that will have to wait," Kymbria informed her. "I've already checked, and the cabin phone is out. Nor is my sat-phone working, so I assume neither is Caleb's."
Nodinens frowned. "I had thought of getting one of those satellite phones myself. But I did read that they suffer interruptions the same as the TV service that sets a gadget on your roof."
"If the line of sight to the satellite is blocked, like in the blizzard outside, then we can lose contact," Kymbria confirmed. "As far as the cabin phone, your guess is as good as mine. We lose service a lot up here."
"So be it," Nodinens responded. "Then we will talk as we eat."
~~~
Caleb insisted on eating at the table, which meant Kymbria suffered through another of his unsteady walks to the kitchen. None of them finished their bowls of stew, though; the subject matter they had to discuss was definitely not conducive to strong appetites. Kymbria pushed her bowl aside first and scooted to the edge of her chair so she could wrap an arm around Nodinens.
"How horrible it must have been for you."
"It was," Nodinens admitted with a shudder. "And here is where I suppose I should say that I have suffered worse. But I have not. This was the most hideous thing ever to happen to me in my long life. To even be there where the windigo killed our people. To be where they had suffered such pain and fear. To have to dig through the clothing of the dead, some which had been moldering for years and years, in order to find something so I wouldn't freeze to death myself." She gazed at Kymbria, a tear rolling down her cheek. "You can see why I needed your shower."
Kymbria brushed the tear away with her thumb and caressed Nodinens' cheek with her other hand. "You are welcome to all I have anytime, Grandmother."
"But you still haven't told us where you were," Caleb interrupted. "We have a chance to find this thing's lair now."
Kymbria glared at him. He could at least show a modicum of sympathy for what Nodinens had gone through. Even knowing what Caleb had suffered himself didn't alleviate her irritation at his apparent cold-heartedness, his continuing focus on finding the lair. His attitude reminded her far too much of the Army and its steadfast sights on the end goal, heedless of the paths of destruction left in the wake.
"No, we do not have a chance to find the lair now," Nodinens denied with a stern look at him. "I do not know where I was. He covered my face when he took me there, and when he carried me out to where he left me so Kymbria could find me. All I know is that I was indeed in a cave."
"It," Caleb growled. "This creature is not human, not a he."
"He once was," Nodinens said calmly.
"Grandmother, why…?" Kymbria clamped her mouth shut over her words, which would possibly be disrespectful to Nodinens.
"Why did it not kill me, Child?" Nodinens completed for her. "I could say I am not sure, but I am. The windigo did not take me to…to eat me. He took me because you had gone away."
"He took you hoping that would bring me back?" Kymbria asked.
"No. He did not think so far. Believe his actions would make you return. He wanted to ask me questions, questions he had tried to ask you. For some reason, he hoped you were brought here to help him during this hunting season. To — "
Kymbria jumped to her feet, hands clenched at her sides. "What the hell would make that thing think I'd help it kill our people?"
"Sit, Child." Nodinens pointed at the chair Kymbria had vacated and she reluctantly sat back down. "He did not think you would help him kill. He thought perhaps you would know how to release him from this existence. He wants to die. He believes he has sought enough vengeance over the years. Now he's ready to leave this existence and accept whatever will happen in the next life. Either face judgment or join the woman he loves. The woman who is the reason for all the Marten Clan kills over the years."
"But it intends to keep killing until this happens," Caleb pointed out.
"He has no choice," Nodinens explained. "He cannot control what he has become."
"And I suppose the fucking windigo thinks we should feel sorry for it," Caleb snarled. "Forgive it for what it's done over the years!"
Nodinens stared at him. "A warrior is not sorry for his kills, Caleb McCoy. Nor for vengeance he inflicts. A warrior does not kill for pleasure, he kills for a reason."
"It's still murder," Caleb insisted.
Nodinens shrugged. "In your society, yes. And these days, even in ours. Yet there are reasons why we carry our history down through time with us. All societies do that. In long ago days, vengeance was part of survival for our people. If you did not mete out vengeance for wrongs done to you, you were not a warrior. You would not strike fear in your enemies. And you and your family — at times, even your tribe — might not survive."
"He carries a mixture of what he was as a human and what he is now as a supernatural creature," Kymbria said.
"Yes," Nodinens confirmed.
"He may have dropped a clue as to where the lair is located when I talked to him," Kymbria said, forcing herself to look at Caleb. She knew exactly what sort of response her comment would bring from him, but he needed to know. His reaction corroborated her fear.
"I heard you talking to that beast," Caleb snapped. "For how long, though? More than I heard after I started waking up?"
>
Rather than confront his animosity and antagonize him further, Kymbria took a breath to calm herself and said reasonably, "How long isn't the point, Caleb. It's what the animal said to me. He said that after someone shot L…the man on the lake, they left the body in a part of the lair he hadn't explored. The windigo woke up and found someone he hadn't killed himself."
"And after it found him, it ate him," Caleb reminded her.
Kymbria swallowed her repugnance at the memory, and at Caleb for reminding her of it. "And ate him," she repeated, "since it was a convenient meal to help him regain his powers. Except for the head, where the bullet was lodged. Then the windigo brought him to the lake in front of my cabin. With the head intact. So we would know this wasn't a windigo kill. I think the 'why' behind that is extremely illuminating as to what's happening during this killing season."
When both Caleb and Nodinens waited for her to continue, she said, "I believe the windigo wanted us to know two things: this kill wasn't a Marten Clan member, and someone had found the lair. He…he ate most of the body not only for the strength eating flesh gives him…and the power…but also in case he had to leave the body somewhere without making his own presence known. The head being intact, the body eaten, would be evidence the dead man had come from the lair."
"And," Caleb mused, his expression now more a study of concentration than hostility, "if we had followed up on Len's murder, we might have found out who killed him. Maybe been able to force Len's murderer into telling us where he hid the body. Found the lair ourselves."
"And found the windigo," Nodinens added. "Perhaps come up with some way to kill him and allow him to leave behind this existence."
Kymbria stood to gather the dirty dishes from the table. "Well, that didn't work, because we continued to be sidetracked by the beast's other kills. Other people disappearing. So Hjak couldn't concentrate on finding a murderer."
She piled the dishes in the sink, and when she turned, Caleb was on his feet and walking out of the kitchen. At the couch, he groaned beneath his breath and laid back down, then turned on his side to gaze at the fire.
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