Soul Seeker

18: Thunder Song

To Ciara's surprise and relief, Isa and Sebastian let her sleep. Her doze in the root disk had been fitful at best. When Isa prodded her awake, she realised she had slept through the dismantling of the shelter and the fire had been quenched. All trace of the camp was practically invisible. Sometime in her sleep, Sebastian had placed his own sheepskin over her to keep her warm.

She handed it back to him without speaking, her face uncomfortably hot, and he took it with an awkward clearing of his throat.

"Can I have weapons?" Ciara asked.

"No," Isa said, even though her belt was full and glittering with them.

"But if I'm coming with you, I need them."

"You won't, because our goal is to stay unseen."

"And if I'm seen?"

"We'll shoot them down for you."

"What if you can't?"

But arguing against Isa when she had made her mind up was like fighting a lynx with a feather, so Ciara gave up and had to resort to grinding her teeth and hoping Isa could hear as she led them back the way she had come. Every torn muscle in her body cried at her that she was undoing all progress from the night before. She gave the musk oxen a wide berth this time, and prayed she was leading her companions the right way. The wolf, her mysterious visitor, did not reappear. Every tree looked unfamiliar to her in daylight, so she breathed a silent sigh of relief when she found the upturned birch.

"We're getting close."

They switched to the silent tread of the hunter, watching the trees for any movement and keeping to the thickets. Ciara forgot her marrow-deep fatigue as the energy of the hunt swept into her blood.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Sebastian muttered, wringing his hands. The morning had worn on and the forest looked the same. "We –"

They came upon the hollies and the blood-spattered clearing, which was only half-concealed by fresh snow. The bodies had been dragged away and the snow was a churned-up mess, making it impossible to tell whether Fell had been killed here or taken.

"See, just like I told you," Ciara said. "The camp should be on the other side of the thicket of hollies. Watch for guards."

Hunkered low, her leg muscles shaking, Ciara darted to the thicket. She dropped to her stomach and used her forearms to crawl into the gap beneath the lowest branches, acutely aware she had dragged the body of the man she had killed into this space to hide him. Guilt gnawed at her. She crawled until she could see the camp through a web of thorns.

No wonder it had been so quiet: the camp was empty, the fire a smoking shell of ash.

Isa, Tonraq and Sebastian pushed through branches on either side of her.

"They're gone," Sebastian said in disbelief. "They've moved."

"Or they're lying in wait," Isa suggested.

Ciara twisted to look behind. There was no sign of life in the clearing, either.

"We've left tracks," Sebastian murmured, and unease trickled between her shoulder blades. Wedged under the hollies they were sitting targets, but if they moved, they might attract attention.

Isa had already decided. She shuffled backwards, and the others had no choice but to follow suit.

"Aunt, be careful," Sebastian hissed.

Isa strolled into the camp with her hands lingering by her belt.

"She's going to get herself killed," Ciara said.