After making sure everyone was settled, Vlandar asked, “Nemis, where are we?”
“Near the entrance to the Rift, a major hold of frost giants,”the mage replied. His teeth chattered. “I shortened that chain by a link so wewould not appear inside the Rift itself.”
“Well thought, but we’ll talk later,” Vlandar said. “Listenand watch, for now.”
Even bundled close between Rowan and Vlandar, Lhors felt half-frozen, and the noise of the storm frightened him. Anyone could be out there, and they wouldn’tknow until too late. But would giants be out in such a storm as this? He doubted it, but then again, he had no experience with frost giants. They were used to weather such as this.
Fortunately, Khlened was back while the youth could still feel his fingers and toes.
“Found a cave,” he announced, visibly pleased with himself.“Slopes uphill, low entry, high ceiling inside. Better, some beast ’r ’notherpacked in trees, p’raps to make a nest. Bleryn stayed t’build a fire.”
“Beast?” Agya demanded. All Lhors could see of her was hereyes peering out from Malowan’s cloak. They were wide and scared.
“Is it safe for fire?” Vlandar asked.
“No creature of late, we checked. Wood’s dry enough t’won’tsmoke, and th’ ceiling will keep it off us and still inside. But no fire’s moredeadly in such a storm than th’ chance beasts or giants’ll smell th’ smoke wherenone should be.” The barbarian shrugged. “Way th’ winds are, who could tellwhere it came from anyway?”
“If yon fella says fire, can we go to it now?” Agya demanded.“P-p-please?”
“Lass is right,” Khlened told Vlandar.
Vlandar nodded. “Of course. Lead, we’ll follow.”
“Stay alert, best you can,” Malowan warned. “I also knowcold. It would be easy for one of us to fall by the way and be lost. Watch out for each other. Do not worry about guards. I made a search just now, and I can assure you that there are none outside the Rift in this storm-certainly none upon this ledge.”
“Are you always so cheerful?” Maera demanded waspishly.
“Call him sensible,” Rowan suggested. “Let us go.”
To Lhors’ surprise, she laid a gloved hand on Vlandar’sshoulder. “You were wounded earlier. I know how magic healing works. You cravesleep after. Maera, if you can manage Florimund, I will stay with Vlandar.”
They toiled back into the open and followed Khlened. Lhors gasped and his eyes teared as the wind sliced through his cloak and makeshift face mask. He freed a hand to drag his hood down to his nose before yanking the cloak back snug around him and squeezing his hands into his armpits where they might thaw.
Moments later, his feet scraped on bare stone, and the wind was gone again, replaced by flickering ruddy light. He blinked and shoved the hood back. Khlened’s cave was bigger than their last haven. The youth movedinside, making room so Rowan could come in with Vlandar. The entry was a low, only slightly taller than Lhors and no wider than he could reach. Wolves might use such a den, but giants couldn’t. Mal or Nemis could keep wolves out, he wascertain. But he forgot all that as his eyes touched on the fire.
The dwarf sat cross-legged on a ledge of yellowish stone, his axe embedded in a thick branch just behind him. Fire, Lhors thought with longing and moved toward it.
“We had the luck,” Bleryn was saying as the youth came near.“Ledge is riddled wit’ caves, but we found this and all this wood on our fourthtry.”
“Luck indeed,” Vlandar said. Rowan was getting the warriorsettled on a blanket where he could get warm, his back against the rock wall. The man looked tired and old at the moment, but the ranger caught Lhors attention, sent her eyes sidelong, and nodded. He is just tired because he was hurt, she means. Lhors hoped, but he couldn’t ask while Rowan was hovering overVlandar.
“No beast tracks in this cave, no gnawed bones, no scat-fresh or dry.”
“Scat?” Agya asked. She sounded even more tired than Vlandar.She leaned gratefully forward to warm her hands at the fire. Malowan wrapped his spare blanket around her.
Rowan laughed. “Food goes in, scat comes out.” The girlmanaged a faint grin in response. “Speaking of food, I can make a passable soupor stew.”
Lhors sighed. “Hot food. It sounds wonderful.” He dragged hispack from under his cloak. “Take anything you need. I can’t remember when I lastate.”
“Still growing, are you?” Rowan replied cheerfully. She wassorting through her own bag and hauled out an odd-looking bit of metal. “One ofyou fill this with snow for me to melt for soup water. It will take several trips, I fear.”
Khlened took the thing and shook it. To Lhors’ surprise, theflat piece opened into a tin pail made of overlapping segments, complete with handle. “My task,” the barbarian said. “Done this most of m’ life.”
Maera eased Florimund down flat and covered him with her spare blanket, then dug a similar item from her own pack: a small pot of blackened metal, the base forged to a low tripod. Rowan extended it with a snap of her wrists, then began rummaging through the pile of food the others had set out for her. She separated things, putting aside packets of cracker-bread and dried fruit, then rummaged through two bags of dried beans. She took the canvas bag Vlandar gave her and scooped out several handfuls of dried vegetables, then pulled a bundle of herb-packets from a side pocket on her pack. She plucked a fat brown onion from the braid of them that Khlened carried and tossed two sticks of jerky into the pot. Over all, she poured the first batch of melted snow.
The stew took some time to cook, but the apple and spiced hot water that Rowan prepared kept Lhors comfortable. Gran had known that trick, and so had his father. The flavor of fruit seemed to soothe his mind as well. He turned to Vlandar to see if the man needed another cup, but the warrior had fallen asleep.
By now, the cave was almost warm. Even Agya was moving around and had shed the spare blanket. Vlandar was awake again by the time Rowan pulled the pot from the ashes, and Gerikh had fed more logs onto the fire twice. They all felt like friends, Lhors thought, but a snowstorm and an unexpected hot meal could do that for people.
Even Maera seemed to feel it-or maybe she was very hungryherself. “We’ll want real bread with that, sister. The cracker-stuff we may needlater.” She broke out a packet of flour and leavening, swept leaves from a flatrock, then began working water into the dry stuff. Lhors watched as the half-elf kneaded the brownish mess, tore it into strips and deftly braided and shaped it into a round loaf that she shoved it into the ashes.
Rowan tested the soup and nodded. “Cups or bowls, everyone,”she announced, then dipped them into the pot and handed them around. Maera brushed ash from her crusty loaf and broke it into equal shares.
Lhors blew on his soup to cool it, sipped cautiously, then stared at Rowan over the rim. “You said passable! It’s-” He couldn’t find theproper word and contented himself instead with draining his cup, then swabbing the last drops up with Maera’s bread.
Rowan laughed and refilled the cup, then handed him part of her bread. “No, take it,” she assured him. “Such praise deserves reward, and anear-grown man needs his food.”
Florimund still slept, but Lhors thought seemed Vlandar almost normal thanks to the warm meal. “All right,” the warrior said mildly. “Ifeared we might somehow wind up here, even before we left Cryllor. The frost giants have raided the Yeomanry before now, and Keoland too.”
Maera snorted. “The rangers of Keoland have long suspected analliance between frost and hill giants.”
Vlandar shrugged. “Now we are certain of it. You may haveoverheard me talking to Nemis and Mal back in that locked chamber. We found proof that Nosnra is now under orders to attack Keoland hill villages. We found a written command from the chief of the frost giants along with the chain that brought us here. Who knows how long Nosnra has used that chain to come here to report his successes or failures and receive new orders?”