All through the afternoon the clouds built, rising behind them in great roiling sky-mountains dark with menace. The sun vanished as the clouds blocked its rays and a chill wind came moaning down from the north. Mari and Alain paused long enough to pull what other protective clothing they had from their packs. Mari took another look at the clouds, thinking that what clothes she and Alain had weren’t nearly heavy enough to deal with what that weather was bringing. After a moment’s hesitation, she pulled off the shoulder holster that held her pistol and stuffed it and the weapon well down inside the pack as well. As a final precaution, they draped their blankets over their shoulders for more protection and so they could improvise head coverings if needed.
They altered their track a bit, bearing to the east as they closed on the road, and the wind shifted as well, coming around to strike them in the sides and the face. Mari gasped as the cold hit. “This is off the Bright Sea. Alain, how can there be a blizzard out of the north in the fall?”
“It is late fall,” Alain stated, his face and voice betraying grimness. “Such storms are rare but not unknown. When they strike, they can be terrible.”
“We need to get into shelter.”
Alain swept his hand across the horizon. The land still rose and fell in slow gradients, but no sign of buildings could be seen. “All we can do is seek the road. If there is shelter, it will be along there.”
Even though it wasn’t yet sunset, the sky had darkened to an ominous gray tinged with yellow. The cloud cover had overtaken them now, reaching ahead to swallow the clear skies before them. To the north, the sky under the clouds was dark with curtains of falling precipitation. Mari and Alain walked quickly, still setting the best pace they could as the wind whipped at them.
Rain started to fall, large, hard drops spattering onto the ground and striking the two walkers. Mari wrapped her blanket over her head as best she could, knowing it would soon be soaked with the chilly rain but needing to keep out the cold. Within minutes, though, the rain changed to sleet, icy particles stinging their exposed skin.
Then came the snow. Big, fat flakes hurtling down under the wind’s lash to quickly accumulate on the ground. Mari blinked her eyes clear, feeling an icy fear inside that matched the cold outside. What have I done? We’re here now because of me and we’re stuck out in the open in a blizzard. What have I done?
Alain shouted something and Mari looked down to see they had struck the road at last. Turning to follow the track, they leaned into the storm, plodding ahead and staring forward for any sign of safety. But the swirling mass of white kept them from seeing more than a lance ahead now. “Alain, I’m sorry!” Mari cried, unable to keep it inside any longer.
“For what?” he called back, the impassiveness of his voice a comfort now.
“For leading us into this. I saved you, but now I’ve led you into this and I don’t know how we’ll survive.”
“Mari.” His hand fell on her shoulder and gripped her. “It is not your fault. No one can predict these storms. And I chose to walk with you. I do not regret that.”
“Alain, we’re already tired and we have no idea how far it is to any shelter. We could walk past shelter in this storm and not even see it!”
“But we must keep trying,” the Mage insisted. “Remember the Waste, when you would not let me give up. You were right then. To survive now we must keep moving.”
Mari blinked away snow again and rewrapped her blanket head covering. “Yeah. I guess so.”
They couldn’t tell whether or not night had fallen, since the blackness had become so complete and the snow limited sight. Drifts began forming and blocking their way, so that before long they were slogging through snow past their ankles and in some places up to their knees. By now Mari couldn’t even tell if they were still on the road or if they had wandered off to one side into the empty fields. The crunch of Alain’s boots in the snow told her that he stayed just behind her, but otherwise the only sounds were the howling of the wind and the spattering of the snow against her.
Mari stumbled, barely catching herself in time to keep from falling. I can’t keep this up. Not much longer. She squinted against the brutal wind. “Alain!” she shouted through lips gone numb. “Listen, if I fall, you keep going, you understand me?” He didn’t reply. “Alain! Did you hear me?”
“I heard you!” he finally called to her over the moaning of the blizzard. “I will not leave you!”
“Listen, you fool, if I fall you won’t be able to carry me! We’ll both die out here if you stay with me!” A wild swirl of icy snow battered them, then passed on. “So if it comes to that you go! Just keep walking and get yourself safe!”
“No!” Alain’s voice, which had barely carried over the storm before, came clearly this time.
“I’m not asking you! I’m telling you! I won’t have anyone dying for me! Especially not you!”
“No! I would rather leave this dream in your company than continue to live in it without you!”
“I don’t care, you wretched Mage!” Tears were welling in her eyes, freezing on her cheeks. “If I fall, leave me!”
“I will not take orders from a Mechanic!” Alain shouted. “And I will not leave you, just as you would leave no one behind. We will live together or we will die together and enter the new dream hand in hand.”
Mari glared into the blinding sheets of snow and sleet being hurled at them, her anger bringing the first hint of warmth she had felt for a seeming eternity. “You’re an idiot, Mage! Have I told you that?”
“I do not think so.”
She realized he had sped up slightly to be next to her, then felt something on her arm. “What are you doing?”
“Tying us together so we will not lose each other in this storm. We should have done that already. I had forgotten, though. My father’s words come back to me.” He leaned his head close, but it was so dark and her eyes were so weary from the storm that all Mari could see of Alain’s face was a blur. “We are in this together, no matter where it takes us.”
“I don’t want you to die!” she cried, tears once more fighting their way out against the wind and joining the ice on her face.
“And I do not want you to die. So we shall stay together, and we shall continue putting one foot in front of the other, until we either reach safety or we lie down together for the last time.”
“You are such a fool, Mage. I love you.”
Even over the storm she could hear the struggle as Alain tried to voice something he had been trained never to say. “I…I…love you.”
“Stars above, you said it. You managed to say it.” More tears, trickling out to freeze against her cheeks. Why now, when their lives seemed to have very little time left? “If you love me, then leave me. Leave me when I fall so that I can die knowing you still have a chance to live.”
“No. We seem to be made for each other’s company, so I will not deny destiny by ever leaving you.”
She managed to rouse one last protest. “I don’t believe in destiny!”
“Then I will believe for both of us. Do not talk anymore. Just walk.”
And she did. Thinking angry thoughts of Mages too stubborn to pay attention to common sense, of boys so blinded by love that they wouldn’t do what was obviously the necessary thing, Mari kept raising a foot, planting it a little farther forward, then raising the other foot. She pulled her head covering over her completely, trying to give her face what protection she could, and trusted in Alain to guide them while she muttered a continuous string of comments through numbed lips about his failure to be reasonable. Every step was an agony, but Mari kept going without any idea where she was getting the strength to keep lifting her feet and moving them forward, time after time. I can’t let him die out here. If I stop, he’ll die. So I have to keep walking. Why is he doing this to me? If he’d just leave, I could lie down and sleep. Couldn’t I? He said that he loved me. He said that he’d never leave me. Do I ever want to leave him again? Not if I can help it.