Winter, White and Wicked - Shannon Dittemore Page 0,21
open the door.
“Stay in the rig,” Kyn yells.
“Because it’s safer?” I drop off the running board and whip around, the rifle aimed at the rocks beyond the trailer. We could blow these caves to smithereens with Hyla’s turret gun, but we’d bring the entire mountain down on us too. “He won’t be alone.”
“Get back in the rig, Miss Quine.”
I can hear the sneer on Mars’s face, but I’m backing toward him now. “There’s a string of dwellings on the other side of the ridge,” I say. “And more behind the monument, deep in the mountains. They’re accessible through the cave there.”
Hyla spins around, her handguns aimed at the cave.
“Kyn,” Mars says, almost bored, “get her back in the rig.”
“Why don’t we all get back in the rig?” Kyn asks.
“Do it,” Mars says.
Kyn sighs and drops the gun to his side. “Let’s go, Sylvi.”
I wheel on him, raise my gun. “Don’t even think about it.”
He takes another step toward me. And another. My hand shakes, but I jab his own rifle into his chest. “Don’t touch me.”
“You want to shoot me?” he asks, something sharp in his eyes. Eyes that were quick to smile just moments ago. The encounter with the Shiv has shaken him, a wound festering so near the surface I find myself wanting to pick at it, to see what oozes from beneath. “Do it. I dare you.”
I’m trying to understand just what he’s daring me to do when I see a rock sail toward us. Kyn grabs the barrel of the rifle and pulls me out of its path, but when I whirl around, Mars has caught the rock with a gust of wind. It bobs midair and then, with a whispered word, Mars sends it flying toward an outcropping of trees hanging out over the mountainside.
A thud as the rock connects and a Shiv woman falls from her cover.
“You’re becoming a liability, Miss Quine.”
Another rock whizzes toward us—toward Mars—and another. A flurry of stones now, pocking the cold air, cutting through it.
“I told you,” I growl, dropping to the ground. “They don’t fight alone.”
Hyla and Kyn drop to the ground as well, but Mars stands his ground. He speaks into the cold air and every one of the stones freezes in midflight. With a dismissive gesture and a growled command, the colored rocks explode—shrapnel spreading away from our huddled forms.
Shrieks and grunts fill the pass as the shards find their marks. Kyn and I follow the sounds with our guns.
“Mars,” Hyla warns. “You have to keep moving.”
I turn and, despite the gravity of the situation, I almost laugh. Mars has stepped out of the safety circling the Kerce Memorial and beneath his feet, snow has begun to gather. Winter is taking advantage of his divided attention.
“Something funny, Miss Quine?”
“She doesn’t like being commanded,” I say. “I did tell you.”
Winter has hold of him now—his left boot is encased in ice. He curses and drops down to examine it. Kerce words slide off his tongue, melting the ice.
“Mars!” Kyn yells, as another rock sails toward him.
But there’s nothing to be done, and no time to do it. Mars can only speak one word at a time, can only give one command. The rock connects with his temple and he drops to the ground, awkward, his knee bent, his foot still frozen in place.
And then an arrow wings toward me. I flinch but it passes overhead, disappearing into the cave, a rope fluttering behind. The rope bobs and then snaps taut. It’s been anchored. Which could only happen if—
The shadows inside the cave move and a whistle slices, echoing off the stones, bouncing from rock face to rock face.
“We have to go,” Kyn says, “we have to run.” He’s standing now, pulling me, half carrying me. I’d fight, but all my energy is focused on the entrance to the cave, suspended halfway between the ground and the road above. Shiv fighters emerge and slide down the rope, their hands wrapped in thick cloth.
“Hyla!” I scream. “Run! Run!”
But Hyla does nothing of the sort. She pulls herself upright and stands over Mars, her golden guns aimed at the Shiv fighters descending on us.
Men and women appear, clad in thin, snow-soaked clothes, their bare skin a mixture of color and stone. One by one, they drop to the ice. Surrounding us, separating Kyn and me from Hyla and Mars—still fallen, thoroughly unaware of the danger he’s placed us all in.