Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,73
the young woman couldn’t be much older than Aida herself. The red-brown russet of her hair coiled around her head in a crown of thick braids, her tawny skin sallow against the stark white of the snow. Burdened by small packs, their contents of nuts and berries tumbling out, the poor girl whined as she dug her heels in to scuttle farther back.
Without thought, Aida clambered down from Kal’s back. More or less falling into a heap at his silvered hooves, she forced her sore legs to straighten and carry her through the thick drifts to reach the cowering woman. Smile soft and disbelieving, Aida offered a hand to help the woman up.
“Aida!”
“Please, they will not hurt you,” Aida said as the woman refused any aid. Looking back over her shoulder, Aida couldn’t find fault in her fear. Er’it had dismounted, his long legs bringing him ever closer. Face mottled red, golden eyes wild, he looked like a man possessed. Turning to the woman, Aida crouched and began scooping the lost bounty back into the bags. “It’s me he’s angry with. I will not let him harm you.”
Whether the woman believed her or not, Aida found truth deep in her words. For once, she didn’t feel so helpless, so at the mercy of everyone else’s whims. Jaw firming, she focused on pushing the freezing berries into the packs before the ice could steal their delicate lives. Already she wondered if she could control it somehow, to replenish any lost stores the woman had gathered. Perhaps Er’it could show her, or even Tor’en once he’d chastised her.
Aida snarled as Er’it grabbed her arm, upending the leather satchel she’d just finished filling. Ignoring his low growl, she twisted free of his bruising grip and dropped back into the icy cold to begin again.
“Who are you?” Er’it demanded of the woman as he stood over Aida’s kneeling form.
Aida could feel his conflict as if it were her own. He didn’t like that the woman had snuck up on them somehow, was angry at himself for having been caught out as well as at Aida for distracting him so. Not only that, but she now defied him in front of another, a possible enemy at that. The realization twisted through her belly, making it roil and churn. If he felt like this, it was no wonder he was so often dour.
“I am Aida,” she whispered, offering a conspiratorial grin.
“T-Tyssa,” the woman mumbled, jerking as her brow furrowed. Eyeing Aida sidelong, Tyssa snatched up the nearer packs to clutch them against her chest as a useless shield.
“It is a pleasure to meet—”
“Silence, Aida,” Er’it hissed, grabbing Aida’s nape to drag her away. Leaving her sprawled in the snow, Er’it stepped over Aida’s prone body to put himself between the two women. “Who are you?”
“Tyssa of the Scaora, sire,” she stammered, cowering deeper into her tattered coverings as Er’it’s vicious presence fell in a dark shadow over her. “I meant no harm!”
“What are you doing here?”
“We heard the commotion from the trees, and our scouts found the forest brimming with food. There’s not been much here since the mountain fell, little before that. We hoped to replenish what we could before we were forced to go into the forest to find a way around the rubble.”
“Why not take the road?” Aida asked, peering through Er’it’s legs with a furrowed brow.
“What mountain?” Er’it demanded at the same time.
“Did you not hear me? The mountain fell,” Tyssa said, scoffing with a faint bob of her head. Turning the pale ochre of her gaze to Er’it’s chest, she continued, “One of the Rhillas range, sire.”
“It… it just fell? When did it fall?” Without grace or preamble, Aida crawled between Er’it’s spread legs, crunching through the ice and powder until she could kneel before Tyssa.
“A fortnight past, perhaps a bit longer? It was days of finding the dead and the living. I’m only certain it happened on a beautiful night with no sign of trouble. It just crumbled to pieces as if rotted from the inside out. Boulders larger than our homes tumbling through the darkness…” Though Tyssa’s eyes remained on Aida, they no longer saw her. She seemed lost in some horrible dream where the moments replayed on an endless loop and refused to allow her to forget even the smallest detail.
Aida knew that look well. She sucked in a slow breath through her nose, attempting to quiet the roaring in her ears as she recalled the shuddering rumble