thank you,’ she said to him, ‘for what you did.’
He shrugged, felt heat flush his neck, though he couldn’t understand why.
‘Anyone would have done the same,’ he said.
‘I don’t think they would have,’ Fritha said. She reached out a hand and squeezed his arm. Something about it felt agreeable, though he had to fight the urge to pull away. A smile twitched across Fritha’s lips. Drem saw that it made her wince.
‘Try a compress of comfrey and witch-hazel for that,’ he said, nodding at her bruise.
‘Has it helped you?’
‘Aye.’ He thought about it. ‘A little. Not as much as I’d have liked.’
Fritha laughed at that, making her wince again.
‘What do you think that fire is?’ she asked.
‘Don’t know,’ Drem answered. ‘But we’ll find out. And it had better be soon.’ He looked up, the pale glow of daylight shining in fractured beams through the canopy of pine needles above.
‘What’s wrong?’ Fritha asked.
‘It’s almost highsun,’ he said with a shrug. ‘If we don’t find whatever it is we’re searching for soon, we’ll be looking at staying a night out under the stars.’
‘So?’ Fritha said. ‘We’ve furs and blankets. Enough bodies here to keep warm if it gets that cold.’ She paused, looked at him a long moment. He felt his neck flush red again, though he still wasn’t sure why. He saw that shadow of a smile ghost Fritha’s lips.
So speaks a southerner, he thought. No one who’s tasted a winter in the north would say such a thing.
Something brushed against his face, cold. He blinked, saw a snowflake drift lazily down to the ground, others following, like silent feathers.
‘The Bonefells are not the place you want to be sleeping come Crow’s Moon,’ Drem said.
‘Why? Winter is harsh this far north, I imagine. But it’s not upon us yet.’ She looked at the snowflakes floating about her and shrugged. ‘A little snow. It’s not a blizzard, and we’re only half a day’s journey from our holds.’
Not a blizzard yet, he corrected, knowing how quickly winter’s caress could turn into a fist.
‘I wasn’t talking about the snow,’ Drem said. ‘I was talking about what the snow drives south. Those things that travel out of the north to escape the worst of it. We saw a giant bear, a little west of here; must have come south for a reason. Storms and blizzards are coming.’ As if to prove his point, a snowflake landed on his nose. It felt good as it melted, a momentary easing of the pulsing throb where his nose had been broken.
‘A bear.’ Fritha shrugged.
‘And other things. Wolven packs,’ Drem said, shivering at the memory of last winter. ‘And bats.’
‘Bats?’
‘Aye.’
‘I’ve heard tales,’ Fritha said, a seed of doubt creeping into her voice.
‘These are as big as a shield and will suck the blood right out of a person, like they’re a skin of mead.’ Drem said.
‘Thought they were just tall tales,’ Fritha muttered.
‘No. I’ve seen what they can do.’
For the first time Fritha didn’t look so confident. She eyed the trees suspiciously.
‘Best be home before nightfall, then,’ she said.
‘That’d be best,’ Drem agreed. ‘I don’t think they’ve come this far south, yet. But I’d rather not put it to the test.’
‘Aye.’
They spilt out of the woodland onto an open strip of land, a few hundred paces ahead the slope levelled off. The snow was starting to fall more heavily, the wind swirling it in sweeping eddies. Drem glimpsed his da at the head of the column, saw him ride over the slope onto level ground, Ulf and Calder with him, saw them rein their mounts in and stop, still as the boulders gouged into the land about them.
Drem joined them, their party spread into a loose line along a ridged plateau. The burned-out remains of a huge bonfire lay before them, black and charred, the wind snatching flakes of ash and mixing them with the snow, a dance of black and white. A thin line of smoke still curled from the fire’s cooling heart, the lingering glow of a dying ember at its root.
Drem’s eyes didn’t linger on the bonfire. A body lay spread across a boulder only a dozen paces from the fire. His belly had been slashed open, a ragged mess of torn flesh, his guts pooled around his boots like blue-coiled rope.
Olin was at the man’s side, Ulf and Calder a few heartbeats behind him. Drem dismounted and went to help, though there wasn’t much he could do. As he drew closer he saw the dead