Too Cold to Bleed

by D Murray

  “Aye,” Harvind chipped in, “and it’s Dajda and Canna we have to thank for it.”

  Broden shook his head and leaned back onto the stone of the boulder. “Yes, the Great Corruption.”

  Kalfinar looked at Valus and shook his head. “He still has his faith. Leave him be,” he whispered.

  She nodded to him.

  “Are we near?” he asked Valus.

  “We are. The valley of Hagra Iolach is below us.”

  Kalfinar felt a flare of excitement in his chest, and he felt his blood pressure rise. I’m coming, Evelyne. Hold on a little longer. I’m coming.

  Ruah stirred at the crunching of snow and then settled back to her half-sleep. Tusk nestled in to the crook of her legs, warming the backs of them as Hal’s chest warmed her front. But Tusk is dead. He’s gone. Someone’s near. She snapped her eyes open and looked around. Tusk was not sleeping at the back of her legs; rather, it was Jukster’s arse jutting out from where he lay asleep alongside Murtagh.

  Bergnon was walking through the snow and around the boulder. Ruah gently lifted Halpern’s arm from around her shoulder, then placed it across his chest and covered it with his woollen cloak. She regarded his face for a moment. The fair hairs of his beard made him look older, but his peaceful eyes, closed in sleep, remained young, untroubled. She found herself smiling. How can I find joy in this place? How can such good come to me at such cost to others? Her mind wandered to the men she had killed, and the warm, wet blood on her hands. She thought of Selby and the rest of the people of Overn Station, killed, tortured, enslaved. She thought of Tusk, and the smile slid from her face.

  Voices from the other side of the boulder drew her attention. She carefully stepped around the sleeping forms of the party and out of the shelter dug from snow on the leeward side of the boulder. She stepped around the great stone, staying on the opposite side to the voices. The wind and snow had died away, leaving the night calm, with only a gentle wind blowing. She looked overhead and saw purple clouds drift above, with pockets of night sky poking through. Bergnon stood with Kalfinar, Broden, Harvind and the woman, Valus. They looked down into the valley. Ruah followed the pointing arm of Valus into the space of deeper night, the valley below, and Ruah saw the lights. The shape of a fortress was visible in the distance. Lantern light pinpricked the darkness of the valley, straight lines marking walls as those of Overn Station did on the nights she and Old Paw came back late from caking. Windows were marked by hazy amber light from within. Three levels appeared lit, from what Ruah could see. The fires and lights of the fortress courtyard washed the keep in light, marking it, even from a distance, as having been carved into the face of a great cliff that appeared to rise up huge and imposing at the end of the valley. A gout of fire flared in the valley floor below, momentarily brightening the area around it, before receding. There’s fire under the valley. Another burst of fire appeared further into the valley, followed by several more. Ruah watched for a moment, mesmerised by the random pattern of the flames. She looked down at the wall of the fortress again, Hagra Iolach, and thought of Selby and the rest of the townsfolk. Her guts twisted, and instead of the nervous grip of fearful excitement, that which she thought for so long she would feel at rescuing her people, she felt fear. Her heart began to race, and she stepped back around the boulder and looked to where Halpern slept peacefully. You’ve grown, Hal. You’re so different now. How could she not fear the past? Ruah had only ever trusted two people her whole life long. Old Paw, and herself. In these last weeks, she doubled that number, allowing Bergnon, and then Hal, of all people, into her world. Even in all the freezing, bloody hell of it, she found purpose and joy. Am I about to lose it all now?

  “We can’t just walk up and knock on the door,” Broden grumbled, drawing Ruah’s attention. “Oh, hello, Grunnxe,” Broden mocked Kalfinar’s voice, “I don’t mean to trouble you so late at night, but would you mind terribly if I just nipped in and took Evelyne? Oh, and while we’re here, can we rescue the townsfolk you haven’t eaten, and free Dajda so your demon of a god can get fucked? Also, I’m really sorry for tearing your guts asunder back in the last Red Season.”

  Ruah stepped back around the boulder and watched as the big red-haired soldier shook his head and threw his hands up in exasperation.

  “Kal,” Broden continued, “I know how desperate you are to get her back. But you need more guile than going at it head-on.”

  “You’re Pathfinders,” Harvind said. “You’re famous for being sneaky bastards. What about the cliff face? You could cut around the side of the mountain, and scale down the cliff face. The keep is carved into the wall. If you scale down it, you can drop in through the windows.”

  “What’s the face like?” Kalfinar asked, an edge of excitement sounding in his voice.

  “It’s a cliff face,” Harvind grunted. “It’s flat, it’s rocky, it’s windy and it’s cold. Old Crene would tell me stories of the Free Province Pathfinders when he visited me as a child. Always thought they sounded almost as able as we Maracost.”

  “Could you and your men make the climb?” Bergnon asked.

  “As good as you Pathfinders are meant to be, I’d say – and no offence meant – you, Broden and Jukster are too big and too heavy for a climb like that. The rest of you may be fine, but what about the Lady Valus, Hal, and the girl? They wouldn’t make it.”

  Valus raised her arm and made to speak but Ruah cut her off, storming around the boulder.

  “I can make the climb. I can make it fine,” she snapped at the Maracost leader. “The lady fixed me. I’ve no pain no more.”

  The party overlooking the valley turned in surprise, Harvind’s eyes widening. “Sorry, Roo,” he said, palms outstretched to deflect her fury. “Meant nothing by it.”

  “Morning, Roo.” Kalfinar smiled to her. “Sleep well?”

  “Aye, I slept well,” she snapped, the twist of anger about her face suddenly feeling foolish. “So we’re climbing, then?” she followed up, looking into the valley.

  “What?” Kalfinar voice was loud and edged with fear. He turned to face Valus in that strange way they seemed to have, as if they spoke between minds.

  The blond-haired woman pointed down the mountainside and into the valley. “There’s a scout party coming this way.”

  The big vein throbbed at the side of Kalfinar’s neck, and he felt the chill reach deep into him as he hunkered down against the leeward side of a small boulder. He looked down at his feet to the heap of his coat and scabbard. The metal buckle of his sword belt reflected the cold, dull light that picked its way through the bruise-ugly clouds that clawed their way across the dawn sky.

  They had roused those of the party still asleep, and waited on the advance of the scout party from where they hid amidst the strewn boulders. It had been half an hour. Kalfinar had removed his coat to prevent any snagging in the midst of a skirmish, but the lack of movement and the rising chill of the dawn wind was settling a cold deep within him.

  Snow crunched, and Kalfinar sucked in a slow, deep breath. It ached as it slid down into his chest. He pursed his lips and exhaled slow and quiet. The first of the scouts walked past the boulder. Kalfinar tensed, and waited. A second scout walked past him, a few steps behind the first. Then came a third, a blue shadow ghosting its way through the contrast of snow and rock. Kalfinar inhaled again, letting the cold flood his chest, and still his racing heart. Palms are sweating. Why do they always sweat? He marvelled at the warm, moist feeling inside his gloves as a fourth scout passed him as the first red light of dawn emerged over the ragged peaks.

  In total, there were eighteen members of the scouting party. They approached the giant boulder Kalfinar and the others sheltered behind, stopping on the side facing Hagra Iolach to recover from their climb up the mountainside.

  Wordlessly, the scouts passed bottles about, drawing long on them before stooping and scooping snow into them. One of the scouts turned from facing the dawn light. Eyes blazed for an instant as the man turned from the l
ight; he was a Raven Man. Several more of the scout party hunkered down on the ground, stretching their legs after their exertions. One of the scouts, a Solansian by the looks of him, stood and walked over to a boulder and unlaced himself. He was standing about ten stride lengths before Kalfinar, back turned and facing the rising sun. Kalfinar squinted, and saw it was Ferdus who squatted behind the stone, hatchet in hand. Kalfinar primed himself as splashing sounded, and a plume of breath clouded up above the man’s head. Kalfinar selected the scout nearest him, and glanced back to where the other scout was pissing. The splashing had stopped, and the scout fell away with a quiet retch as Ferdus bounded across the space to his next target.

  A shout of alarm rose from the scout party, words in Cullanain, and Ravenmayne. The rush was on.

  Kalfinar sprang up from the boulder he had crouched behind. In three steps he covered the distance. The scout turned, and Kalfinar noticed it was a female Solansian. Her eyes widened and her mouth flopped open, revealing a ruin of a mouth. His sword slashed across her throat. Blood sparkled in the dawn rays, and she fell to her right, arms still flush to her side. Kalfinar closed the distance to the next and dropped his shoulder, sending the man reeling to the ground, before he dodged a thrust and punched his sword with a double-handed drive up into the stomach of a Raven Man. He released his sword as the body fell over, and pulled his hatchet from its sling. He turned quick, and thumped it down with a crack into the back of the rising Raven Man’s skull. Kalfinar pulled free his sword from the folded body, and sought his next target.

  Ruah screamed. It was a shrill sound, one she had never heard herself make before. The Raven Man turned and roared at her with a mouth of sharpened teeth. Her battle cry waned at the sight of it, and doubt entered her arm. The Raven Man blocked the swipe of her hatchet, aimed at his face. He lashed out with a boot and Ruah stepped backward, avoiding a painful kick to the stomach. Fear gripped her in the instant as she expected to fall back onto her arse. She should have done, but she didn’t. Not this time. The strength in her bad leg shocked her. It shocked her into life. I can do this.

  She screamed again, and rushed at the Raven Man. She dived under the sideways swipe of the sword, aimed to take her head, and bowled into the man’s midriff. They landed in the snow and she rolled over onto him. She dropped an elbow hard into his nose and felt it crunch as bone met bone. A punch thumped up into her ribs, but she forced herself up, and drew her blade across the man’s neck. Blood welled up and spilled onto the snow, snaking its way in dozens of red veins through the icy upper layer. Ruah stood away from the scout as he bled out on the snow.

  She saw Bergnon drop another of the scouts with a counter across the chest. Blood plumed in the dawn light. Then she saw Hal. He was up against the big boulder, pressed by two Raven Men. They were beating him down onto one knee as Ruah sprinted the distance, her legs pumping strong. She dropped low and thumped her hatchet across the back of the first scout’s leg. As the second turned, Hal found his opening and drove his sword up under the man’s chin. Ruah swung a backhand blow across the face of the scout she had dropped. He snorted out a gout of blood from his cracked face and fell into the snow.

  “You all right?” she asked Hal.

  He smiled at her, blood speckling his face. “Thanks for that. Thought I was done.”

  “Not nearly. Come on.” She tore off towards the skirmish, and saw Broden send a Raven Man corkscrewing to the ground from a hatchet blow before stepping up to help Kalfinar with the two scouts engaging him.

  “Good timing!” Kalfinar shouted to Broden. He stepped aside and deflected a low jab from the snarling Raven Man. The momentum of the scout took him past Kalfinar, and as the man turned, Kalfinar’s downward sword stroke smashed him across the back and into the ground, red and twitching.

  Broden’s forehead smashed into the face of the Raven Man he fought, before his sword point punched into the man’s chest. In and out, quick and shallow, but deep enough. “You know something,” Broden said, breath heaving out in plumes in the dawn light, “I’m having a great time.”

  “You’re a fucking savage.” Kalfinar grinned before stepping up and taking the sword hand from the Solansian scout Bergnon was hard-pressed by.

  Bergnon didn’t hesitate, dropping the scout to the rapidly staining snow. “Thanks.”

  Kalfinar said nothing, but held his former friend's eyes for a moment. A Raven Man stepped up behind, and Bergnon’s face twisted as Kalfinar’s hatchet spun through the air and over his shoulder, thumping into the face of the scout before he could stick Bergnon.

  Bergnon turned, saw the twitching body with the haft of Kalfinar’s hatchet rising up from the steaming wound in its face. He turned back to Kalfinar. “Thanks, again.”

  Kalfinar stepped away, towards the glinting, milling blades where Harvind’s men were pressing the last few of the scout party.

  Jukster stepped around a thrust to his side and dropped the scout with a punch to the face. Murtagh jabbed her sword into the man’s belly as he tried to get up.

  Kalfinar stopped approaching them and lowered his weapons. Harvind and his Maracost were cutting their way through the rest of the scout party. “Keep one alive,” he shouted as Maracost cut down Raven Man in a one-sided, mechanical slaughter.

  “Those ones can fight when they get at it,” Broden said, stepping up to Kalfinar.

  “Aye. Keep one alive,” he reminded Harvind just as the fighting stopped. Harvind’s Maracost stepped aside revealing one of the Raven Men on his knees, blood-slick chest heaving great breaths out and in. “Hells, that was quick.” Kalfinar sighed. “Valus, you can come out now.”

  The Lihedan woman stood from where she had been secreted behind a cluster of boulders with one of Harvind’s Maracost.

  Kalfinar noticed the look of shock on the woman’s face as she picked her way through the rubble. He looked about him. Bodies were strewn across the blood-slick snow. The scene looked as though a keg of black powder had gone off. A hand lay in front of Kalfinar, next to a body with a wide-open slice across its face. Opened bodies steamed all around. It had been over in an instant. He turned around and looked to Harvind. The sun was now fully up above the ragged peaks behind him, silhouetting him against its fiery light. “Did you lose any?”

  Harvind nodded. “Lost three.”

  “Damn it.” Kalfinar stepped up to the captive. He looked down at the man, and saw his fiery eyes were filled with the same fear he had seen in any face in battle. His own men, the enemy. Fear was all the same. The Raven Man’s eyes flicked away from Kalfinar’s to where Valus approached. “Can you find her?”

  “Yes,” she replied as she stepped up to the prisoner. She hunkered down and touched his head with her hands. Her eyes closed and the Raven Man’s body stiffened.

  Ruah watched the Raven Man go stiff as the Lady Valus laid her hands on him. His shoulders slumped, and his hands dropped from his thighs to the blood-stained snow. The man’s blazing eyes rolled up in his head, and his mouth, full of filed teeth, sagged open. The Lady Valus’ eyes were open, but they had turned a milky white. Her upper lip trembled in a snarl, and her eyes turned blue once more.

  “Fire of the North grant us power and glory. To tear down the prison of the Great Corrupter, and claim it all,” Valus said. “These are the words you must speak to gain entry. Evelyne’s being held in the upper reaches of the keep.”

  Kalfinar’s head turned to the valley below, and the fortress of Hagra Iolach.

  The Raven Man wheezed, and his eyes rolled back down as consciousness returned to him.

  “Can’t leave him,” Harvind grunted towards Valus.

  “I’ve no intention of doing so,” Valus said. “This one’s heart is not worth saving.” A twist of fear etched itself upon the man’s face as Valus’ hands touched his head. His body jolted, his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth bared. Flecks of spit flew from his lips and mucus from his nose as Valus did her work. The man’s body shuddered, and dark blood ran from his nose and ears
. She took her hands from his head, and released his dead body to fall limp to the ground. “I’ve never seen a heart so full of darkness,” Valus said, tears brimming in her eyes.

  “Did you see how we reach her?” Kalfinar asked Valus.

  Valus dashed the tears from her eyes with her knuckles and looked down into the dawn-lit valley. “There is a central staircase that runs the height of the keep. She is on the third floor, along the hall and in a cell facing outward, over the valley.

  Kalfinar’s eyes widened and he turned back to the valley and peered down toward the fortress.

  Ruah followed where he looked, seeing only the tall walls of the fortress running in a semi-circle from the base of the cliff face and around a large courtyard. The keep itself appeared to be carved into the rock face, with a single, narrow entrance that promised only shadows. Her eyes traced the face of the keep, seeing the occasional windows, marking the position of the floors of the keep. She found the third and searched each of the window spaces. She could see nothing, only the faint contrast in stone, betraying carved balconies. But there was no one there.

  Kalfinar turned away from the valley, and back towards where the party stood, surrounding the strewn bodies. “Take the clothing you can that’s free of blood. If it can be dulled with snow, do so. The scouts aren’t likely to have returned until tonight, so we’ve time to plan this out.” He looked at each of the faces before him. “This isn’t going to be easy. It most likely won’t work. If you want to walk away, this will be your only chance.”

  “Nowhere I’d rather be.” Broden grinned.

  Ruah looked at Hal, and they both nodded. She felt her heart begin to race, and her hands tremble. But she was sure. She would show her worth to them all, if it was the last thing she did. She would show them.

  Thirty-Nine