Winter, White and Wicked - Shannon Dittemore Page 0,26
I say, choking on the words. “Jymy had the same barrels in his pickup. It’s acid, isn’t it? What’s it—” But I’m coughing again, blood on my tongue.
“What’s it called? I couldn’t say. But the Ranger brings it to us in bulk when he can. Mixed with kol, the effect is remarkable.”
Jymy won’t be bringing them anything ever again, but I know better than to tell him that.
“It eats through the tires,” I say, finally able to breathe and speak at the same time. I take another breath. This one as deep as I can manage. “Then Jymy and his boys show up and collect a hefty fee for rescuing the poor stupid riggers.”
Shyne’s eyes sparkle and I know I’m right. “They used to, yes. But the trick worked so well, it’s been some time since any real effort was made to cross the pass. Only you. And your tires are not the same.”
I close my eyes, walk my fingers down each of my ribs, wincing with every touch. “What do you get out of it? The Shiv.”
“Peace,” he says. “And the assurance that our slopes will not be plundered for twyl.”
My ribs are broken, I’m sure of it. At least two. Panic rises in my chest at the thought of how desperately the injury will slow us. I push back the tears and clear my throat. “The Rangers keep the farmers away?”
“Winter, the Rangers, rumors of dark magic and crazed savages. Oh yes. We know what is said about us.” A one-shouldered shrug. “We will be what we have to be to ensure Begynd’s Pool is not desecrated and the Shiv people survive to see his rebirth.”
Rebirth? I sit up, though this too is a fight. The fire is roaring now, popping and snapping, the stench of twyl spiraling up and through a chimney hole high above. Winter’s white light is visible just beyond. It strengthens me to see her again, gives me hope.
“Do you want to know why I let you pass time and again?”
Aside from whatever chemical they’re using on the tires, I’ve never known them to wield anything but bows and rock pulled from the mountain. It would take much more than either to stop the Dragon’s tank tread.
“Could you have stopped me?”
He doesn’t answer and I realize that perhaps he could have. With the help of the Rangers. Their pickups are armed, the men too. If he had wanted to, perhaps he could have found a way to stop the largest, most powerful rig in the Kol Mountains. It hardly matters.
“I only care that you let me pass now.” I can’t tear my eyes away from Kyn. The firelight playing across his face, the smears of dirt and agony.
“I cannot let you go,” he says.
“I have no desire to take your twyl. And I won’t tell a soul about your arrangement with the Rangers. If you ask it of me, I’ll stay clear of the pass from this day forward. I will do anything you want, but if you kill me—”
“I will not kill you.”
Relief pricks my eyes and nose. I sniff it away. “Because of Crysel?”
He rolls his walking stick back and forth between his palms. “Others would not have been able to do what you did.”
“Perhaps the girl has a friend in Winter.”
“Winter has long hated the Shiv. My daughter is no exception. It was your magic that built that wall. Your magic that stopped the Ranger’s rig.”
A groan echoes off the walls and I twist my neck to see Kyn. He fights to lift his head, but it’s no use. His eyes flutter open and then closed. His chest rattles and the rock sinks lower into his rib cage.
“I’m begging you to let us pass. Another girl’s life is in danger.”
His brow lifts. “If you insist on saving Shiv Island one soul at a time, it will take far too long. We don’t have that kind of time.”
“Please.”
“There are other things that need your doing.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“When you do, I will let you pass.”
“And my friend?” Is Kyn my friend? Hours ago I would have said no. But now, locked away with the Shiv, he’s the closest thing to a friend I have.
“His sins are many. Not so many as the Kerce smuggler’s but more than enough.”
“What sins?”
Shyne grunts, clamps his mouth shut. The silence grows until finally I can take it no longer. I peer past Kyn’s sleeping form, deep into the cave, looking for some way to