Too Cold to Bleed

by D Murray

  “Bear,” Harvind said as he and Broden stepped up, his eyes fixed upon the scavenged carcass of a horse. “They’ll feed on just about anything they can at this time of year.”

  Kalfinar hunkered down by the carcass.

  “Dajda!” Broden gasped, standing up and walking away from the blood-stained snow.

  Kalfinar looked about at the scattered wagons. “Where are the rest of the horses?” Kalfinar asked, looking up from the body and peering around the scattered wagons.

  Harvind replied over Kalfinar’s shoulder, “They’ll have slaughtered them all. They came as far as they could along the valleys. Wouldn’t have made it up the glacier.”

  “So we’ve walked into a fucking charnel house.”

  “Are we in danger?” Broden asked.

  Kalfinar looked across at his cousin. “Broden,” he said with a sigh, “we’re always in danger.”

  “What?” the big man asked, his palms upright as he shrugged. “I meant from the bear.”

  Harvind’s head dropped into his hands as he hunkered in the snow.

  “So that’s a ‘yes’?” Broden asked.

  “It’s a yes,” Harvind agreed, stretching up from where he crouched. “A big fucking yes.”

  Ruah’s heart raged so hard she felt as though the vessels in her throat were about to burst. Her leg ached from the frantic rush of movement away from the bloody scene by the shelter. She ran, without grace and without balance, but she ran hard.

  “We’ll cover the rear!” Kalfinar growled to her and Halpern, shoving her in the shoulder and near sending her sprawling. “Broden, Ferdus, with me.”

  Ruah ran on. The snow at the foot of the glacier was deep. The warmth of the rising sun was enough to turn the top layer into a granular snow, weakened from the hard, frozen state it had taken on at night.

  “Shit!” one of the party shouted ahead.

  Ruah looked up and saw the party struggling on, forward legs plunged hip-deep into the melting top layer of snow.

  “Don’t much fancy our chances in this.” Halpern grimaced as he dragged his weak leg up, placing his injured foot down into the snow with an almost tender step.

  Ruah stopped and glanced over her shoulder. She watched as the three men scanned the snowy ground for the massive white bear that had attacked them. She looked back to where they had sheltered using one of the abandoned slave wagons as a foundation. A long red stain marked the point where the bear had broken through the shelter wall and killed the Maracost man. She wondered how long Harvind had known him. Had he just lost a lifelong friend? Did it matter? She looked back up the hill. “Don’t much fancy our chances down there either, though, so we’ve got to keep going,” she said, wiping her raw, dripping nose with the back of her gloved hand. “That bloody smear down there could’ve been any one of us.”

  “Aye.” Halpern looked at the party ahead, then back at Ruah. “Get on to my right side and put your arm around me.”

  “What?”

  “My left side’s strong. So is your right side. Between the two of us we can maybe stay up in this and press on. Bit of luck, we might not get eaten today.”

  She looked at him, and then ahead to where the rest of the party struggled on in the deep snow. Tusk looked down at her from where he stood on the snow. “How come he’s not falling in?” Ruah asked, pointing at the dog.

  Halpern looked at the dog and pursed his lips. He looked around at the deep tracks left by the party ahead, and then at the prints left by Tusk’s three paws. “I don’t–”

  “He’s only walking on the solid snow.” Ruah grinned. “He’s picking his way through it.”

  “Clever dog!” Halpern laughed. “Guess we follow him then?”

  “Aye,” Ruah said, stepping awkwardly around to Halpern’s right side. “Here.” She latched her arm around his waist and looked up to him. She smiled. “Don’t let me down, you hear?”

  They followed Tusk up the side of the snow-covered glacier, keeping one another balanced, and using the strength of one good leg each to haul themselves up. They called ahead to the others, encouraging them to wait where they were until Tusk caught up to them. Once in the lead, the big dog showed them the way, stepping around deep drifts on the glacier and keeping them on as solid a surface as possible. Where the solid ice gave way to snow, Tusk kept them on a shallow path.

  “The dog’s got a fine sense of it,” Kalfinar said as he caught up to Ruah and Halpern.

  “Aye, he does,” Ruah agreed, looking at the cold-bitten face of the Free Provinces captain. “The bear gone?”

  “Gone for now,” Kalfinar grunted, looking over his shoulder and back down towards the foot of the glacier. “May come back. Has a taste for us now.”

  “Great,” Halpern grumbled, squeezing tight onto Ruah as he took a step forward and brought her with him.

  “Harvind seems to think it’ll follow us. We’ll have to be quick,” Kalfinar added. “What’s going on up there?” he asked, looking ahead to where one of the party was cursing, up to their waist in a deep drift of snow.

  “Get me off it! Get me the fuck off it!” It was Jukster’s thick-lipped voice. “Dajda!”

  Kalfinar strode on ahead, careful of his step as he passed Ruah and Halpern.

  “What is it?” Ruah asked as Ferdus and Broden stepped up beside them.

  “Can’t see,” Halpern said.

  “Looks like blood in the snow,” Ruah said, eyes squinting in the bright reflected light of morning.

  Halpern let go of Ruah’s side and began to rush on up the slope with a heavy limp.

  “Hal!” Ruah cried as he tore on ahead. “Hal, wait up.”

  Ruah rushed up and saw a frozen corpse face down in the snow. She reached out and touched Halpern’s shoulder as he tried to fight his way through to get to the bloodied body in the snow.

  “Let me go, Roo!” he yelled.

  “No, Hal!” she yelled, but he was too strong. He broke free of her grip and sent her tumbling over in the snow, sending a flare of pain searing up her back to explode hot and bright before her eyes. She sucked in freezing air through her teeth, swallowing the pain. She tried to right herself but found she was stuck on her back in the snow. Tusk hobbled up to her and nuzzled a cold nose in her face. “Thanks.”

  “Here.” Bergnon walked up, knee-deep in the snow, and reached down with both hands. He grabbed hold of her wrists and hauled her onto her unsteady feet.

  “What happened?” Ruah heard Halpern ask.

  “Someone didn’t make it,” Murtagh’s sharp voice sounded. “Looks like they just left them here in the snow.”

  “Selby?” Halpern said with a fearful voice. “It’s not Selby. It’s Jo. She worked with my Selby.” Relief sounded in his words.

  It wasn’t so much the name as it was the way he said it. It caused a twist at the top of her stomach, like when she was about to be sick from pain and the hot bile began to rise. That old familiar hurt. Fucking Selby. The thought caused her cheeks to flush. She knew she should have been sad for Jo. The woman had never really done anything to harm Ruah. It was for people like Jo that she’d come here; to save them, and to show them her worth. But fuck Selby.

  “Sorry, Roo,” Halpern said, stepping over to her.

  “What?” she said, snapping out of her thoughts.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to push you over. Know it must’ve hurt. Was just frightened, that’s all.”

  Ruah waved it away and started to limp over towards where Harvind stood with Kalfinar, looking over the body.

  Broden scraped away snow with the blade of his hatchet and squinted in the sunlight at the clean line where the woman's leg had been taken below the hip. He turned around to Harvind and Kalfinar. “Would a bear take a leg as cleanly as that?”

  Harvind’s brows furrowed and his face clouded. “No.”

  “Didn’t think so.”

  “You saying people did this?” Broden asked, standing up beside Kalfinar.

  Harvind frowned at the body
in silence for a moment. “The Raven Men don’t fuss too much about where their meat comes from. They believe eating their captives gives them greater strength.”

  “Dajda,” Kalfinar said in a low, troubled voice. “They’re eating them.”

  The fine, still morning was swallowed up by the darkening sky of afternoon. With the plummeting temperature came the vindictive wind, whipping stinging snow about them in a swirling mist. Tusk led the way, with Harvind and his crew feeling out the path marked down by the big dog. Kalfinar and Broden kept watch at the rear.

  “Can’t see us being able to keep this pace much longer,” Broden shouted over the wind.

  Kalfinar peered to the left, scanning the snow and ice for any sign of movement. “Can’t see a damn thing,” he grumbled. “Have to keep going,” he replied to Broden. “Nothing else for it.”

  Broden nudged Kalfinar in the side and handed him a torn-off chunk of dried meat.

  “Lemming?”

  “Lemming,” Broden confirmed, chewing a mouthful. “Getting quite the taste for it. Tastes a bit like–”

  A slashed and bloody snout reared out of the swirling haze of snow. Kalfinar dropped his shoulder and rammed Broden in the chest, shoving him to the left and out of the way of the bear. Kalfinar rolled as the massive beast bounded through the spot they had just been standing. “Bear!” Kalfinar screamed. “Bear! Bear! Bear!” He pulled free his sword and shuffled backwards as the beast turned around.

  “Fuck!” Broden shouted, crouching with his sword and hatchet free.

  Kalfinar drew his own hatchet from his belt loop. The bear’s head was low to the ground, tasting the scent. Its black eyes fixed hard on them, and breath plumed out around its face, curling and twisting tendrils of smoke anointing its bloodied head.

  “Never fought a bear before,” Broden grunted. He crouched, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

  “Avoidance,” Kalfinar muttered, his eyes fixed on those of the bear.

  “What?”

  The bear launched itself forward, landing in the space between the rolling forms of the two men.

  “Avoid the swipe,” Kalfinar shouted. “It can’t attack us both at once.” The bear took two steps back, eyes darting between the two men. “You feign and avoid, and I attack. Then again with you.”

  “Aye,” Broden agreed, barely visible now in the swirl of snow.

  “Now!” Kalfinar shouted.

  Broden’s roar sounded over the howl of the wind and snow. Kalfinar could see the darker form of his cousin step in and then dodge the lunge from the bear.

  Kalfinar’s sword lashed out across the back of the bear’s left leg, slashing a line of red through the thick white fur. A slick of blood flooded from the wound and across the snow as the bear turned in the instant, yellow teeth snapping in the empty space. Kalfinar edged backwards as the bear bellowed, turning between Broden and Kalfinar, ready to strike out.

  A hatchet spun out of the snow and hit the bear on the side of the head with the haft. Shouts broke through the gusting wind, and shadowy forms burst out of the snow.

  Harvind skidded to a halt, sword pointing towards the bear. His free arm stretched out to his side, trying to prevent anyone running past him and into the path of the bear. One of the Maracost came in too fast, and slid in front of the beast. Black claws lashed out across the man’s face, sending him spinning through the air to land in a bloody, twitching heap on top of Kalfinar.

  The bear roared and spun back to the rear, its broad rump facing Kalfinar and showing another bloody slash, this time across its back end. As Broden jumped clear of the following slash of claws, Harvind stepped in and stabbed his sword into the flesh of the beast's lower abdomen. With a howl of pain, the bear turned and slammed both front feet down hard in the snow, and bellowed to the men. It turned and lumbered away into the haze of snow, blood trailing in its wake.

  Kalfinar heaved at the inert form of the now dead Maracost. He shoved hard, his hand warm and slick from the man’s blood, and rolled the body aside. Harvind reached down and hauled him to his feet.

  “Close thing,” Harvind said, his voice trembling. He bent down to feel his friend’s pulse, but as he rolled him over it was obvious he was dead. Three deep, dark lines had been torn through his face and throat. His blazing red eyes were wide, and absent life.

  “Come,” the Maracost said, standing from the corpse.

  Spinning snowflakes landed on Kalfinar’s chest, turning red from the blood of the fallen man. “I’m sorry, Harvind.”

  “We need to move, and fast,” Harvind said, standing without emotion. “That bear will come back for us. I fear it isn’t hunger that’s driving it.”

  “There are spirits in this land.” Valus’ gentle voice sounded as she stepped up to the gathered troops. “I don’t think the creature is what it seems. There’s a malevolence within it, a malevolence that spawns from the dark spirits that haunt this land. I wasn’t sure this morning, but I felt something from it. That feeling was all the more strong now.”

  The spirit caused the amulet to heat up.

  Broden blew out his cheeks and sheathed his sword. “Wonderful. Because being hunted by a great big angry fucking bear just isn’t bad enough.”

  “So,” Kalfinar said, “shall we start running?”

  Ruah struggled. The pain of her leg flooded her body, dulling her hearing. Her eyes clouded, and the image of Tusk bounding ahead flitted in and out of view. The darkening sky cast the rest of the party as shadows as they ran ahead, swirling like darkened spirits against the soft white of the snow. Halpern’s grip, holding her firm under her ribs, was all that anchored Ruah in this world. Even then, it was hardly enough. Her left foot crashed down as the fragile layer of hard snow gave way. She dropped, left leg driving deep into the snow up to the hip, her bent right knee almost smashing into her chin. Light flashed white-hot in front of her eyes and she screamed. A fiery release of agony erupted from her mouth, and then she fell away and lost consciousness.

  “She can’t carry on. Neither of us can,” the voice sounded in the blackness above Ruah.

  “I’ll do what I can,” an accented female voice sounded.

  “Leave us. We’re just slowing you down. We can maybe stall the beast.” It was Halpern’s voice.

  “Move aside,” the woman’s voice sounded. “Let me place my hands upon her. I can try something to ease the pain. It won’t fix her leg, but it will free her of the constant pain for a day.”

  There was silence a moment, and then Ruah’s eyes flickered open. She saw the woman lean over her. Short strands of blond hair fell across her forehead and her wide mouth opened in a comforting smile. “Stay rested a moment, child.” Ruah looked to see Bergnon and Kalfinar standing behind the woman. Bergnon’s brows knitted deeply, his cut and bruised face a brooding cloud of worry. Hands touched her knee, then slid up the outside of her thigh. Heat spread from the touch, tickling up her skin like the touch of a spider. She shuddered as the sensation ran about her pelvis and all the way up her spine. The howling wind was freezing. But rather than the warmth be leeched from her body by the darkness and the wind, instead the warmth of the Lady Valus’ touch cocooned her. The pain pulsed hard as something smacked into her leg below her hip. Ruah gasped, the white-hot light flaring in her vision again. Then it was gone. Or at least what she supposed gone felt like. Her leg was numb. A wet tongue slipped warmly up her face. She opened her eyes to see Tusk wagging his tail over her.

  “Stand up,” the Lady Valus said, rolling back onto her heels and standing up. She offered Ruah her hand, before gripping firm and then hauling her to her feet.

  Ruah looked down at her leg. It was thinner than the other. The loose fabric of her trousers showed as much. But although it was twisted, thin and weak, it did not hurt. It was entirely numb, but it did not hurt at all. She lifted her foot and placed it into the snow. There was no sharp nervous jangling running about her knee. She looked at Halpern and returned his smile. Ruah leaned her weight onto t
he leg, but there was no flare of pain around her pelvis and up her back. She looked at Bergnon, and laughed as his eyes widened. “What did you do?”

  Valus frowned a little, as though regretting what she had done. “It is not healed. I have temporarily paralysed the main nerve to the leg. You won’t feel pain.”

  Ruah grinned. “Brilliant!”

  “You need to be careful,” Valus continued. “You won’t feel pain, but equally you will not feel the cold, should it grip the leg. Be careful with it, Roo.”

  “Right then,” Kalfinar interrupted her as she tested the new feeling. “Reckon if you’re about done with that, we could really be getting on with the whole running away from the big, bloody, angry spirit-bear that’s chasing us.”

  Ruah nodded, feeling silly all of a sudden.

  They ran as fast as they could in the buffeting wind. They were bent low, keeping eyes on Tusk as he bounded from one patch of solid snow and ice to the next.

  Ruah couldn’t help but laugh as the free movement of her knee was put to work. It was weak, and she still had to be careful not to overburden it, but the sensation was so good, or the lack of it at least.

  “It’s coming back!” A voice broke Ruah from her reverie.

  “Fuck!” Halpern’s voice sounded beside her, and he grabbed her elbow. “Got to hurry now.”

  Ruah bounded on, trusting her leg more than she had ever thought possible. She sucked in the freezing air, chest aching as it was heaved in and coughed out again. She dipped her head, gritted her teeth and pumped her fists forward, powering herself up the slope.

  Halpern slipped, and fell behind with a cry.

  Ruah stopped, turned, and saw the shadow looming towards Halpern, then a red flash sped past her. Tusk bounded past Halpern’s prone form and towards the shadow of the approaching bear. “Tusk! Come back!” she cried out, her heart hammering inside her chest as fear caused her gorge to rise. “Tusk!” Ruah’s voice broke into a high-pitched shriek as her fear came spilling out. “Tusk, no!” Tears wet her cheeks. She heard the snarling and barking of her friend on the other side of the white veil.