Trickster s Girl - By Hilari Bell Page 0,82

the frogs and frowned. The dark dots seemed bigger now. She could see them, even though they weren't moving.

"Are they growing?"

"No. What you're seeing is water around them. Or to put it another way, holes in the ice."

Holes in the ice that were expanding even as she watched. "They're melting it? How? Frogs are cold-blooded."

"Well, Frog People is giving them some help. He sees no reason to let the leys get worse if we can make the situation better instead. And he owes me a favor. This pays it back, I'm afraid."

Kelsa cared nothing for his karmic balance sheet. "Frog People? He?"

"Frog People is a many-in-one kind of guy." Raven's voice was absent. "But he's good at balancing."

Kelsa didn't think he was talking about physical balance. There was a ring of water all around the shore now, and the ice had stopped reaching toward them. She leaned down and put a hand in the lake. The water wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't as cold as it should have been.

A crack rang through the night, like a big branch breaking. Or an ice sheet. The bikers, focused on their prey, paid no attention.

"Who are your other allies?" Kelsa asked. "And what can they do?"

"It's complicated," said Raven. "Are those bikers likely to be good swimmers?"

"Stop trying to distract me!" Kelsa said sharply. "I need to know this stuff. Who are your other allies?"

"Ah ... besides Frog People, well, Goose Woman is leaning my way. Though she's mostly a seductress," Raven added. "Not as useful as Frog People. Unless you want someone seduced."

Kelsa waited.

Raven said nothing.

"That's it? Frog People, who no longer owes you any favors, and maybe Goose Woman? Everyone else is on the other side?"

"There are a lot of neutrals," Raven said. "More neutrals than people who've declared themselves. If I can - "

"This is why you kept putting me off when I asked about your allies, isn't it? Because you don't have any - "

This time the cracking of the ice sheet was too loud to ignore. The bikers looked around, yelped in alarm, and started running toward the shore ... or more accurately, toward the growing rim of dark water that now lay between them and the shore.

Kelsa picked up her paddle and began pushing the canoe slowly back toward the dock. "I'm going to enjoy this."

The melting ice was slippery. The bikers skidded and flailed their arms as they tried to run. One fell, and the ice broke beneath him sending up a great splash. He bobbed up in the hole and threw both arms onto the ice sheet, yelling for help. One of them hesitated but didn't go any closer. The others ran on.

"They'll all be in the water soon." Raven had taken up his paddle too, guiding them through the rapidly dissolving ice. "Pity it's not cold enough to ... There! We can get through there."

Kelsa's hands burned with broken blisters, but she ignored the pain, paddling hard while Raven steered.

They bumped into several chunks of floating ice, but it wasn't enough to impede their progress, and only once did they encounter a piece of the ice sheet large enough that they had to maneuver around it.

No bikers were visible now, but Kelsa knew they were there. When a hand rose out of the water and curled over the side of the canoe she was ready, bringing up her paddle and smashing the blade down on the gripping fingers.

A man's voice screamed and the hand vanished. The swimmer splashed away, swearing and choking.

Kelsa kept watch after that, paddle raised at ready until Raven had pulled them well past the point where a swimmer might overtake them.

Then she returned to paddling. Raven put in a steering stroke occasionally, but he wasn't pulling his weight.

"A little help here?" Kelsa said. He was supposed to be the expert, after all.

"Sorry." But he didn't lift his paddle. "I put too much energy into trying to warm the water, and it's turning into a physical drain. I should have known better. I'm not a balancer, not at all."

"Is that a fancy shapeshifter way of saying you're tired?"

"Yes." He turned to glare at her. "I'm tired."

Kelsa stopped paddling. Raven's face was no longer the one he'd assumed in the diner, but the one she thought of as his real face. The face she'd first seen. The face of the boy in the newscasts, wanted on felony charges.

"Oh, carp."

She brought them in by herself, saying nothing more as he slumped wearily