A Time of Blood (Of Blood and Bone #2) - John Gwynne Page 0,67
temper.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DREM
Drem looked up at the sky again, searching for any sign of the Kadoshim half-breed. She had wheeled above them as the fight with the wyrms had ended, but now she was nowhere to be seen.
And that worries me more. I’d rather know where she is. We need to move, and move fast.
Cullen had found a stream to wash the wyrm slime and muck from his body, while Drem and Keld checked Hammer and Fen over for wounds.
The white bear still lay upon its side. Its breathing was steadier, though, but it appeared to be unconscious. Hammer rumbled over to the fallen beast, sniffed a wound and licked it with her rasping tongue. The white bear didn’t so much as stir.
Without thinking, Drem approached the prone bear, carefully, with one hand on his seax.
Its fur was stained pink, a tapestry of long red lacerations and puncture wounds covering its body. Tentatively, Drem reached out and put his hand upon the bear’s chest, felt its ribs flex as it breathed. Hammer nudged the bear with her muzzle, pushed into it none too gently, rumbled a sound deep in her belly, not quite a growl. The white bear rocked back a little, then rolled back.
Most of the wounds Drem checked were superficial, but then he found an injury high on the shoulder of its left foreleg that was leaking a lot of blood. He bent down and lifted its paw, grunting with the weight. He looked at the point where its claw had been severed, a hand reaching to his throat and touching the claw tied around his neck. A flash of memory, his da throwing himself upon Drem, the two of them rolling out of the bear’s way, Drem lashing out with his seax and slicing the claw. And then followed by another memory, the bear standing over him, sniffing him as he set it free from its cage of iron bars before the walls of Kergard.
It let me live.
He looked at Keld, who was standing back, staring at the bear.
“We need to leave,” Keld said. “Cullen,” he called out.
“Be with you soon,” Cullen called back, “but I can still taste and smell wyrm.”
“I’ve met this bear before,” Drem said, raising the bear claw around his neck and pointing to the bear’s front paw, with its missing claw.
Keld and Cullen shared a look, Keld nodded. “Just until Cullen is ready,” the huntsman said, and Drem hurried to his pack, unbuckled it and pulled out a smaller kit bag. He threw a wad of linen bandages to Keld and the two of them set to patching up the white bear as best they could, cleaning and packing the wounds with honey, comfrey and yarrow, and then binding them with strips of linen.
Footsteps behind them and Cullen ran into the clearing. His red hair had grown back about a knuckle’s length, and it glistened with icy water.
“Think my stones have frozen and fallen off in that stream.” Cullen shivered. He looked at them both, then at the white bear and its bandages. “Are you both moon-mad?” he asked them. “That thing will eat you for its supper.”
“Best be gone before it wakes up, then,” Keld said, hefting his pack onto his back.
Drem threw Cullen his pack.
Cullen slipped it onto his back. He was standing beside one of the dead wyrms. He looked down at it, his mouth twisting in disgust. Drawing his hand-axe, he crouched and chopped at one of its long fangs, hacking it free. He tossed it to Drem.
“Something to add to that bear claw around your neck,” he said with a grin. He chopped the other fang free and threw it to Keld, then strode to another wyrm and took a fang for himself.
“Keepsakes.” Cullen grinned. “To remind us never, ever to come to the Bonefells again.”
“It’s not so bad,” Drem said, feeling protective of this place that had been home to him and his da. As dangerous as it was, it felt like his home, and there was something safe and reassuring about that.
Cullen snorted a laugh and just shook his head.
A rumble issued from the white bear, and its legs jerked.
They all took an involuntary step away from the beast.
The white bear raised its huge head and looked at them. It took a few great sniffs, let out a growl, though to Drem it seemed more confused than aggressive.
Fen padded in front of Keld and bared his fangs at the bear.