After what seemed to be forever, but which probably was little more than a couple of seconds, the blinding rush of snow seemed to lose momentum, and Va'del brought both hands to his face, pushing out to create a breathing space.
Jasmin had been right, there was only a heartbeat or two between when the snow stopped moving, and when it hardened to a stone-like consistency. Va'del's efforts to increase the size of his breathing space proved futile, his arms were unable to make any impression in the snow.
I'm probably going to die. Jasmin and Betreec said that one in two families caught in a snow slide don't survive.
Betreec had shrugged when Va'del had asked why more families didn't survive. "Any number of reasons. It's actually surprising that so many survive. It hinges on one or more of the wives being strong enough to use her power to dig herself out of the snow. There are countless scenarios where that isn't possible. The wife may not be strong enough to tunnel out with her abilities, or may end up buried so deeply that even one with strong abilities may not be able to reach the surface. Alternatively, they may suffer some injury while being carried by the snow."
Jasmin had nodded. "Some of them die because they leave their mouths open to scream and instead find it filled with snow. Others are broken against the rocks before the snow stops moving."
The whole conversation had been little more than an abstract exercise at the time. The trails used by the Guadel to move from village to village had long since been mapped out to minimize exposing travelers to avalanches, and it was now mostly just a concern for those specialized Guadel used to scout for new village possibilities.
Only now it's an eventuality that has suddenly become real. Maybe Jain or Cindi were sheltered by the rock. If not, I don't think Jain is strong enough to free herself. Cindi might be, but she is the last person I would trust to keep her head under a stressful situation.
Va'del realized that his thoughts were still tinged with panic, and tried to get a grip on himself. The more frightened I am, the faster I'll use up my air.
The thought suddenly didn't hold as much fear for Va'del as it had a second ago. Dying in an avalanche would be a kind of release. It was failure, but a failure that wasn't Va'del's fault. It was likely the closest he would have ever come to actually succeeding.
Va'del tried counting heartbeats as a way of measuring the passage of time, but soon abandoned the effort. As the minutes passed, the cold gradually started to seep into his limbs. It was a steady process that seemed to mirror a rising inability to think. Air must be going bad already.
Va'del lost consciousness never expecting to awaken.
At some point the welcoming blackness turned hard and cold as it pushed him away, back to a world of light and chilling wind. Cindi slapped him, and then made as if to repeat the blow.
"I'm awake."
"You have to get up and start moving around or you'll freeze to death."
Va'del stared stupidly at the Guadel for several seconds before the words finally penetrated and he struggled to his feet with her help.
"Walk in circles while I dig out one of the gurra."
Questions of how Cindi had freed herself seemed strangely unimportant, and the teenager set about walking back and forth across the broken surface of the snow while the old woman walked several steps and then knelt down.
Va'del was too far away to see what the Guadel set down before her, but within a few seconds the snow started to sink, forming a cone-shaped depression. Cindi paused and glared at the snow before reaching down and picking something up and then depositing it a foot away from the depression.
The procedure was repeated four more times, and each time the new depression was deeper than the last, so that taken as a group they formed a kind of ramp down into the snow.
As Cindi picked up what Va'del had to assume was a heat sphere for the last time, she waved him over and pointed at a spot just beyond the end of the ramp.
"One of the gurra is here. You're going to have to dig it out. If I use the stone, we'll soak all of the supplies and render them useless."
Va'del started trying to dig away at the snow with his gloved hands, but Cindi shook her head. "Use your knife or you'll never get it out."
The teenager started to protest that he didn't want to risk hurting the animal, but his thoughts must have been written plainly on his face. The older woman shook her head once more, this time with a gentleness that was completely at odds with what Va'del knew of her.
"Use the hilt to avoid damaging any of the supplies, but you don't have to worry about hurting the animal. It died before I could get you out. They aren't smart enough to form air pockets like you did."
Va'del wanted to cry, wanted to scream that she should have hurried faster, should have dug it out first, but he knew that wouldn't be fair. Instead he drew out I'rone's knife and started chipping away at the stone-like snow, all the while trying to ignore the tears blurring his vision.
The gurra that was gradually taking shape beneath the cleared snow turned out to be Hungry, and Va'del felt his heart suddenly tear as he realized that he hadn't even thought of Jain since he'd been pulled out of the snow.
"Where is she? Where is Jain?"
Cindi grabbed the teenager before he cleared the ramp leading up from Hungry. "She's not dead, boy. At least she's not buried in the snow like the rest of us were."
All of the pieces suddenly fit together with an exactness that Va'del wouldn't have imagined possible a day previously. "The rock outcropping must have protected her from the snow. But she isn't down here helping. Bandits, it was all just another ambush."
Cindi looked at her young charge with something that bordered on respect for the first time since he'd met her. "Aye. I think you're right. We have to have the supplies on that gurra, though, or we're both dead."
Va'del felt something that was a close cousin to despair wash through him at the thought of Jain in the hands of the kind of men who had murdered Jasmin, I'rone and Betreec, but he stopped the emotion just before it was able to take him over, fighting it down, restraining it to a corner of his mind so that he could think rather than collapsing as he wanted to.
Dropping back into the hole where Hungry's body was trapped, the teenager worked with an urgency that simple survival hadn't been able to conjure inside of him. We need the supplies, but once we have them I can go after the bandits. There can't have been many of them or they'd have just attacked us. Maybe I can somehow pick them off one at a time and free Jain.
Cindi was unusually quiet the whole time Va'del was digging out the gurra, and it wasn't until he had dragged the various packs to the surface that he thought to wonder why.
The Guadel was kneeling in the snow, silently staring at a spot no more than a couple of feet in front of her. Va'del approached the heavy-set woman and saw tears trickling down her face.
"He was such a good man. All the things I put him through for so many years, and never a true word of complaint."
Cindi's grief was a palpable thing, strong enough to momentarily tear Va'del's thoughts away from the horrible fate no doubt awaiting Jain. Looking at the Guadel's face, he was struck by the fact that she looked decades older than she had when they set out, and suddenly he was filled with uncertainty.
It was so much easier to hate her. To think of her as something less than a real person, but she is a real person. One I don't understand most of the time, but someone who is just as vulnerable in her own way to loss as any of us are.
Fighting against the sense of awkwardness that told him he shouldn't have to be the one to shock Cindi out of her grief, Va'del sorted through his packs, leaving the unnecessary things like his books next to Hungry and then draping the harness across himself so that he could carry the food and blankets.
"Guadel Cindi, it will be dark soon. We have to find shelter or we'll both die."
The words didn't have any effect on the older woman, and for a moment Va'del nearly gave up, but the knowledge that he was Jain's only chance
made him cast about for another avenue of attack.
"This is a chance to destroy the bandits once and for all. We survived their attack; we can trail them back to their base of operations before the snows tomorrow hide their tracks. We can stop this from happening to anyone else."
For a heartbeat it still didn't look like Cindi would respond, but then her tear-filled gray eyes sought him out and she nodded.
"The rest of the gurra are buried too deeply for us to get at them, even using the heat stone. At least not in the time we have left. We'll have to leave them and Oh'scir here for now." The Guadel's voice caught as she said her husband's name, but she wiped away her tears with snow-covered mittens and pointed up to the trail they'd been walking on when the avalanche had struck.
"They couldn't have just chanced upon us. They must have had some kind of shelter up there to be able to wait for someone to walk into their trap."
Va'del nodded, more than a little surprised that Cindi could think so clearly while so obviously beset by grief. "It may still be up there so that we can shelter there for the night."
The trip back up the mountain took at least two cycles. The avalanche hadn't carried them nearly as far as Va'del would have thought, but they still had a considerable distance to climb, and the snow they were walking on varied between rock-hard and a fine powder that even the wide platform of their snow spikes couldn't manage.
The very real risk that Va'del or Cindi would freeze to death was mitigated by their exertions on the climb, and by the time they reached the trail once again, Va'del had opened up his coat in an effort to keep from sweating. For all that he was hot, he knew it was phantom heat. He was consuming reserves of energy that wouldn't be there indefinitely. Their tent had been on one of the other gurra, so if they didn't find the bandits' cave soon, they'd quickly freeze once they became exhausted.
The snow was heavily trampled in the slender section that had been protected from the avalanche by the rock outcropping, and Va'del got the distinct impression that there had been a struggle.
Cindi must have seen his anger in the set of his shoulders. She reached out to Va'del and shook her head with more than a little of the imperious manner he'd grown used to on the trip. "Anger won't serve any purpose. We have to find shelter."
Va'del shook her hand off, but walked over to the tracks left in the snow and began following them back the way they'd come.
They went a different direction as they left, so their shelter should be unguarded.
Despite his confidence that they should be relatively safe, Va'del drew both his weapons from the scabbards where they'd somehow stayed despite his having tumbled down the mountain.
It was impossible to truly move silently in the snow—it crunched and shifted too much for that—but it also served as a kind of damper that absorbed at least some of the sound. There was still a possibility that someone a little distance away might not hear him.
Cindi followed along behind, close enough that she wouldn't lose sight of Va'del, but far enough back that distance served to muffle slightly her heavier footfalls.
The light was failing quickly now, but enough still remained for Va'del to see that from his current vantage point it was easy to watch the trail for more than a mile in each direction. They would have had plenty of time to move their people into place to trigger the ambush.
The air was cooling, and Va'del was moving more slowly now. He found himself temporarily sheathing I'rone's knife so he could tie his coat closed once again. It was nearly full dark by the time that Va'del finally found the first of the shelters.
It is a cave all right, but one dug into the snow itself. Who would have thought of something like that? The snow is so cold, how can it possibly serve as a shelter?
The questions were forced out of Va'del's mind as quickly as they appeared, and he made himself stand motionless as he waited for Cindi to catch up. I can't go inside. There's barely enough room to crawl, I'll be all but helpless if there is someone inside the cave waiting to dispatch me. Maybe she can tell if there is someone inside or not.
Chapter 20
Cindi had confirmed that the snow caves were indeed empty, and the pair then crawled into one of them and found something that, in their desperate state, felt like paradise.
The snow caves wouldn't ever be as warm as a proper cave with worked gemstones to seal off the entrance and heat the air, but it quickly heated up to the temperature of the surrounding snow which was considerably warmer than the air outside had been.
Still, the blankets that had been in Va'del's packs barely sufficed to keep the pair warm, and worry for Jain continued to gnaw at his thoughts. Only the fact that Va'del knew he needed to replenish his strength was enough to force him to lie down and try to sleep.
Cindi had spent the night in silence, but Va'del had a suspicion that she'd been quietly crying most of the time. It hadn't really mattered; both of them had been content to be alone with their grief.
As the sunlight trickled through the snow, the pair crawled out of the cave and Va'del was astonished to find that Cindi was planning on returning to the village.
"We have to go back and get reinforcements. The two of us couldn't possibly defeat a group of bandits."
Va'del shook his head. "It's going to snow tonight. If not tonight, then sometime in the four days between now and when we could get back. That's even assuming that we can convince the Headman to let us take any guards."
Cindi's face once again took on a familiar expression of contempt. "That is foolishness. Of course he'll let us take guards. There isn't any other course."
Va'del shrugged and then opened his packs, splitting up the food and blankets. "I'm not going back. We're Jain's only hope, and if we don't follow the trail now while it is fresh we'll never find her. Here's your share of the supplies. Go back to the village if you want, but I'm going after her."
"You're disobeying me? You'll die, and if you somehow don't I'll have you exiled as a coward."
Shifting his packs around, Va'del laughed—a humorless biting sound. "That doesn't matter now. Nothing matters but getting her back. If I can't save her, at least I can die trying."
The Guadel looked at her charge for several seconds. "You really love her, don't you?"
"I don't know. I haven't ever thought about that. I just know that she's my best friend and I'm the only chance she has."
Cindi finally shook her head. "I can't make you go back with me, so I suppose I'd better see what I can do to help. It isn't like I have much left to live for anyway."
##
Va'del's fear it would snow proved well-founded, and only a couple of cycles passed before a light snowfall started.
The pair continued to push on, hoping they'd either be able to find the hideout before the snow filled the tracks completely, or that it would stop without putting down enough moisture to hide the trail.
Va'del wanted to travel faster, but his body was simply too exhausted to muster a better speed. Judging by the trouble Cindi was having keeping up even with his slow amble, she was in as bad or worse shape than he was right now.
Jasmin always said that the first rule of outside travel is to make sure that you have plenty of safety margin. Plenty of reserves, plenty of food. Always stop with plenty of light left to the day so a freak storm doesn't catch you too far away from shelter. We're running on the ragged edge now. If anything even remotely serious goes wrong, we're dead. In another day or so we won't even have the food we'll need to keep up what little strength we have left.
Va'del tried to push the doubts away. He refused to even consider that once they found the bandits they were still going to face some very long odds.
The trail curled around to the shelter of a pair of rock outcroppings, and Va'del took the opportunity to stop and dig some food and water out of the packs. The teenager was halfway through his portion when Cindi caught up and took her share.
"We're running low, aren't we?"
The Guadel shrugged at
Va'del's nod and kept eating. "It doesn't really matter. We have to eat to keep moving, so rationing it won't do any good. We'll just have to hope that they picked Black Rock Village to raid because it was close to their base. If we somehow survive getting Jain out, maybe we can capture enough food to get us back to a village before we all starve."
The break was over all too soon, and then Va'del was once again trudging through the cold with legs that ached from the exertion of walking with his heavy snow spikes.
The snow had very nearly filled in the tracks, but there was just enough of an impression left to follow. Va'del had been walking for another cycle, mind continuing to shut down from cold and exhaustion, when a loud hiss split the air and a lance of fire slammed into him.
Crossbow.
Va'del looked around frantically for the source of the shot, afraid that the bandit would have time for a second, more lethal attempt before he could close, but a shabby form rose up from behind a snow drift and threw itself towards him with a howl.
It was all that the teenager could do to get his weapons drawn before the larger man was upon him, slashing and stabbing with a slightly curved blade.
Va'del dodged the first blow, and turned the second with his dagger, thereby buying himself enough time to go on the offensive.
The bandit was strong and fairly skilled, but his blows came slightly too slow, and were a little awkward.
Va'del forced himself to ignore the slight trickle of blood from the quarrel still embedded in his side, and parried another blow, bringing it up enough to pass over his head with less than an inch to spare.
I have to finish the fight soon. Going to bleed out and weaken unless I can kill him in the next few passes.
On the next exchange, the teenager put his full strength into a blow and was astonished to see his opponent's feet shift slightly. Va'del would have dismissed the movement as nothing more than his imagination except for the fact that the bandit's next few blows had the frantic quality of someone who was trying to regain his balance.
One of the stabs was a little too quick for Va'del to parry completely, and he paid for his discovery with a shallow wound to his arm, but he forced the pain away and upped the tempo of the fight as much as he was able.