by Merry Farmer
“I want the two of you to go on ahead,” he ordered Heather and Jonah when they stopped for another rest on Grace’s behalf. “Go further inland. See if you can reach the plains and get any sort of bearings, a view from a hilltop.”
“Right,” Jonah nodded.
“What about me?” Stacey was all business now.
He paused to consider, glancing over his shoulder to where Kinn stood beside Grace’s sled, scanning the forest. He caught Danny watching and narrowed his eyes, starting toward their group.
“I need you to stay close, just in case.”
Stacey nodded in complete understanding.
“What are you talking about?” Kinn pushed into the private conversation.
“None of your business.” Stacey sniffed.
“Hey. Watch it.”
“I’m sending Heather and Jonah to the edge of the forest near the plain to scout,” Danny answered the threat.
He blinked, wondering if he had the power Heather’s grumblings about her father hinted that he might. His plan changed.
“Kinn, I want you and Stacey to ski straight ahead through the forest to scout in that direction.” It was a wild gamble, one that could land him on the wrong side of a solid fist if he wasn’t careful. He held his breath to see if it would work.
Kinn glanced back at Grace, swaying on his skis, his mouth pressed in a tight line. He glanced ahead, eyes sweeping Stacey, assessing her. He peered into the forest, shoulders bunched with tension. Finally he stared straight at Danny.
“You should have let me go back for more men.”
Without waiting for Stacey, he skied on ahead, weaving through the trees.
“You owe me so big,” Stacey grumbled, rushing to catch up.
Danny nodded to Heather and Jonah to go. He watched their backs for a moment before taking a deep breath and skiing to Grace.
“Where are they all going?” She eyed him warily.
“I sent them ahead to scout. I don’t trust this sled over hills.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” She flicked the reins. Scruffy started forward at a moderate pace.
Danny glided by her side. “Have you tested it on hills?”
She hesitated. “Not yet.”
He nodded. “As soon as we’re not on a futile mission in hostile territory with life-threatening temperatures and a meat-headed rapist breathing down our necks we’ll have to test it on hills.” His careful calm dissolved into venom as he reached the end of his sentence.
Grace was too stunned to reply. She stared straight forward, eyes wide and vivid with emotion, scarf hiding the rest of her expression.
“I have to believe it’s not a futile mission,” she mumbled after several minutes had passed in silence.
“I know you do.” He sighed. “But this is Kutrosky we’re talking about.”
“If he’s starving—”
“What is he looking for?”
Grace blinked. “What?”
Danny checked to be sure the others were out of earshot. He grasped Scruffy’s reins, bringing the sled to a halt.
“Jeff, the man from Kutrosky’s camp, told me that the raiders were not sent out to steal food from Kinn. They were sent after you. Kutrosky thinks you have something he needs.”
Grace squirmed in her seat, her eyes losing focus. “I don’t have anything. Nothing. I don’t even have my pride.”
Danny clenched his jaw, stomping a ski against the ice-covered snow. She was far too good at stinging him with words.
“We don’t have to do this now,” he said in a fast, tight whisper. “Kutrosky can wait. We can turn this thing around and make a run for home. Right now.”
Grace shook her head, writhing with frustration. “We can’t. People are starving right now.”
“A few days won’t make a difference.”
She pursed her lips. “You would really abandon your friends? Leave Heather out there alone?”
A stab of guilt hit his chest. “She’s got Jonah, and besides that, she can take care of herself.”
“Danny, I—”
A loud crack and a woman’s scream split through the forest. Through the endless trees, it was difficult to tell whether it had come from Stacey or Heather. His heart jumped to his throat. Several more cracks followed, loud and sharp, but not gunshots. Scruffy crouched, ears flat.
“Stay here,” Danny ordered Grace and launched off in the direction of the scream.
She followed him anyhow, Scruffy’s sudden energy pulling the sled fast enough for Grace to have to pour all her concentration into controlling it. The trees whipped past as they dodged up a slope that took them closer to the plain. If anything had happened to Heather, Danny wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Stacey and Kinn charged out of the forest and through the snow toward the point where Heather and Jonah and God only knew what else might be. The trees hid too much from view and Danny noticed too late the crouched figures lying in wait for them. One stood and lashed out with something long and black that split the air with a crack, a whip. Kinn went down. A heartbeat later came another crack and the whip caught Stacey’s outstretched arm and yanked her off-balance. She tumbled into the snow, losing her crossbow and sinking several inches.
“Stop!” Danny flung out an arm to Grace, who pulled Scruffy to a skittering halt.
Pulse pounding, he scanned the scene ahead. A cluster of men reached Stacey and Kinn and jerked them to their feet. They each tried to fight, but with odds of three-to-one first Stacey and then Kinn was overpowered. Their hands were wrenched behind their backs and they were marched double-time up over the hill, disappearing at its crest. Three figures in white fur cloaks raced toward Danny and Grace.
“We’ve been seen,” Danny said. “Let them come and get us.”
They waited as the figures dashed closer. They wore a modified version of snowshoes with tapered tips that allowed them to run faster. He studied them. On skis they would be easy to outrun. If Scruffy was in good form, Grace’s sled could far outpace them. But escape would get them nowhere. Abandoning his friends when they were mobile was one thing. He couldn’t leave them as prisoners.
“Stay where you are! Put your hands up!” one of the men yelled, whip out and ready.
Danny thought fast. If they were using whips then they were out of bullets like everyone else. The two crossbows were the only projectile weapons with them. One of Kutrosky’s men was already picking up Stacey’s and chances were that Heather had lost hers too. Strength was not on their side, but intelligence might be.
“We’re on a peaceful mission.” He spoke evenly, holding up his hands as instructed, mentally feeling the pouch of bullets against his thigh. Just because they were out of ammunition didn’t mean that Kutrosky had thrown out all of his guns. Each of the transport ship’s emergency ships had been stocked with the same firearms that used the same ammunition. All he needed to do was find a gun in Kutrosky’s camp.
“Drop your backpack and step away from the…from the sled.” one of their assailants ordered.
There was nothing in the backpack that Danny desperately needed. He shrugged it off and let it drop to the snow. Grace pushed herself to her feet, belly thrust out. She risked a sideways glance to him. Clever as always. He caught on to her ploy and lowered his hands to reach out to her as if she were a fragile flower. She pushed back her hood and yanked down her scarf to show her face then made a show of wincing as she grabbed his forearms and lurched into the snow. He held her up as her boots sunk to her calves.
“No sudden moves,” their assailant told them in a far less certain voice. He and his back-up checked nervously with each other.
“Are you Brian Kutrosky’s men?” Danny took control of the situation, mind racing through the possibilities before them. They were hesitant to attack a pregnant woman. They might not attack an unarmed scientist with glasses either.
Kutrosky’s men shuffled in the snow, checking with each othe
r before their leader answered, “Yes. Who are you? Show yourself.”
Danny pushed back his hood and pulled down his scarf. “I’m Dr. Daniel Thorne.” Might as well use his full name. “This is Grace Hargrove.” Might as well name-drop Grace while he was at it. Chances were these men would have heard of her. “We’re looking for Brian.”
The three men kept their heads and faces covered. “Why?”
“We’ve come to speak with him.” Grace smiled. She smiled. Her body was tense in Danny’s arms as he helped her move closer to the men, but she was playing the game like a pro. “It’s been a long, tough winter and we’d like to see if he needs any help, any supplies. Do you need supplies? Food, furs? Are you hungry?” Another calculated blow.
The men had no idea what to do. It was clear from the way they shifted in their shoes and looked to each other for answers. One rubbed his mouth, eyeing the sled as though it contained a feast. Danny couldn’t believe his luck. If discipline was this weak with all of Kutrosky’s men, he would have Stacey home with Jasper and Gil in her arms by sunset tomorrow and the rest of Kutrosky’s people tucked in warm beds right behind them.
“Would you be able to take us to Brian?” He appealed to them, trying Grace’s tactic of smiling.
The lead man lowered his whip arm. He pulled his scarf down. “Did you say you have food?”
He was gaunt and pale, his beard doing nothing to hide the undeniable signs of malnutrition. All his theoretical knowledge of starvation couldn’t keep Danny from being shocked. Grace had been right. Kutrosky’s people were in trouble.
“We have a little on us.” He nodded to the backpack. “Each of our villages has more in storage.”
“You’re welcome to come stay in either settlement,” Grace added. “They’re both well-established. You’ll be safe there.”
The other two loped forward. The leader turned to consult with them. Danny stole a glance to Grace. Her face was tense with anticipation, her eyes bright. He raised an eyebrow at her. The discussion broke up and the leader turned back to him.
“Come with us,” he ordered, fixing his scarf back in place. “Keep your hands where we can see them.”
They let Grace take her sled and Scruffy with it. Another stroke of luck. That or a sign of loose discipline. On the other side of the hill, they found Stacey and Kinn, Heather and Jonah with their hands tied and their heads uncovered. They were being guarded by half a dozen other men, five with whips, two others with what Danny presumed to be Stacey’s and Heather’s crossbows.
“Tie them up!” one of the ones with a crossbow bellowed when he saw Danny and Grace’s hands free. “What are you thinking?”
“She’s really pregnant, Irv, I mean really pregnant.”
Irv marched toward them, crossbow aimed at Danny, to take a look.
“We’ve come to speak with Brian Kutrosky.” Danny repeated their overtures of friendship, hoping they would get lucky twice. “We’re unarmed. Can you take us to him?”
“Kyle!” Irv shouted over his shoulder. “Tie this one up. Luke, Hal, make sure she’s unarmed. If he struggles, kill him.”
So much for luck.
Two of the fur-swathed men started toward Grace. Scruffy sat back on his haunches and growled. They stopped and muttered curses. The others jumped to alert. Irv aimed the crossbow at Scruffy.
“No!” Grace stopped him from firing. She lunged out of the sled and shuffled through the snow to the cat’s side. “He won’t hurt you.”
Irv checked the crossbow’s mechanism and cocked it, taking aim again.
“Here.” Grace fumbled in her mittens to unfasten the harness holding Scruffy to the sled. “I’ll let him go.”
The harness peeled away and Scruffy stretched free. Grace gave his backside a swat. He lumbered off, turning to check the men, almost as if to tell them this wasn’t over. Then he bounded across the snow into the trees.
“It’s okay.” Grace turned back to Irv and his buddies. “He’s gone now. He won’t come back.” She straightened, taking advantage of her shape. “Now, could you please take us to see Brian?”
Irv wasn’t convinced. He jerked his head to the men behind him and one, presumably Kyle, jogged forward to grab Danny’s hands and wrench them behind his back. Danny was too late to suppress a cry and a wince as his injured hands were crushed and twisted.
“Please.” Grace jumped to use it to their advantage. “He’s injured. Please don’t tie up his hands. He won’t do anything.”
Irv wavered, but in the end he nodded for Kyle to keep doing what he was doing.
Danny hadn’t lost control of the situation yet. If he had to bet on it he would say they were planning to take them to Kutrosky. Whether they went as emissaries or prisoners made no difference to him. Grace was his only concern.
Irv turned and shouted, “Move out.”
“She’s heavily pregnant,” Danny appealed. “Can you give her a pair of snowshoes at least?”
“I’ll be fine,” Grace protested, tromping forward through the snow to prove it.
“Grace!” Kinn surged against his bonds, trying to struggle forward. A whip-crack sounded and Kinn shouted as a bleeding welt appeared across his face. He turned to Danny. “You are so gonna pay for this.”
Danny narrowed his eyes as he slid past him, keeping his balance as best he could with his hands tied behind his back and no poles. He might end up paying, but not until he got what Grace wanted.
Chapter Seven – No Man’s Land
Kutrosky’s men would have been smarter to give Grace a pair of snowshoes, or at least to let her keep her sled. They’d hardly made it a mule north along the edge of the forest and over the first hill before Grace needed to stop and rest. Danny hovered by her side, helping her to sit against him as he knelt in spite of his bound hands. His worry was only half-feigned. Kinn fumed as he watched them. He struggled against his restraints, earning himself a snap from a whip when he refused to settle. Grace lost patience with all the growling and posturing and pushed on after only a few minutes.
Half an hour later she needed to stop again.
“Just leave her here,” Irv huffed. He tightened his grip on Heather’s crossbow and raised it as though itching to fire.
“You do and you’re a dead man,” Kinn roared.
“I’ll string you up if you so much as think of it,” Stacey said at the same time.
Even a few of Kutrosky’s men grumbled, eyes sharp with protest.
“All right, all right,” Irv barked. “I just thought it would save time. Jesus!” He marched off to relieve himself while Grace sat on a large boulder protruding from the snow. The rest of them squatted on the snow or stood with arms limp at their sides, waiting.
Danny kept quiet, eyes narrowed behind his glasses, reading the situation. Irv may have been the leader, but he had caved to the others at the slightest resistance. He didn’t have as much control over his men as he thought he did. The crossbow didn’t help. One deft flick of a whip from a man who had had enough and Irv would lose his weapon and his advantage. If this small group couldn’t keep discipline, it was a strong indication that there wasn’t much discipline at the top. Kutrosky could be an easy target. It would be simple to bring him down.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Grace frowning in disapproval. She sat with her hands resting over her round belly.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She took a moment before replying. “Why did I never see how calculating you can be?”
“You noticed,” he told her. Whatever confidence his observations had given him wilted. The ghost of every emotion between them flickered—everything that had once been and everything that could still be, with time. “You used to trust me.”
She opened her mouth to reply but shut it before words came out. Her face softened into weary resignation and she turned away. “I used to trust a lot of people. More than I should have.”
“You can still trust me,” he argued.
“No
, Danny.” She shook her head. “I can’t. Not like this.”
When they started walking again, she pulled away from him and kept her attention focused on Kutrosky’s men with what Danny could only call pity. The pale lines of her face framed by her hair and the warm green of her eyes were mercy itself. She actually felt sorry for these people and their pitiful discipline, their thin and haggard bodies. They were being marched across a frozen field as prisoners under guard, and the expression she wore told him she was determined to rescue them.
They ended up carrying Grace. Irv had no patience and cursed out his men for leaving her sled behind. He ordered two of them to carry her between them. It was arduous, pointless work. It took them long, draining hours to traverse the increasingly steep slopes of the hills.
When they rounded the crest of the last hill, Danny found himself looking down into a shallower valley than any they’d traversed. The sight before him didn’t make any sense. Thin streams of smoke seemed to be coming out of mounds of snow on the ground itself. The valley was dotted with lumps, like ancient burial mounds. A few fires burned in the open air, carcasses cooking on crude spits. When he saw someone emerge from the base of a mound, as if rising from the grave, he realized that once again, Kutrosky’s people had dug into the ground to live.
“Anyone who speaks gets a crossbow bolt in the gut!” Irv shouted at them, cocking the crossbow and waving it toward them. He included his own men in the warning.
Several sets of eyes sought out Danny’s. Heather was terrified, near tears. Stacey looked ready to pummel someone, probably him. Grace glanced over the shoulder of one of the men carrying her to pin Danny with a look that told him who was really in charge. He’d done what she’d asked him to do. He’d brought her to Brian Kutrosky. His promise was fulfilled. All bets were off from that moment forward.
The men carrying Grace eased her to her feet, arms remaining outstretched to catch her if she stumbled. Not to be outdone, Irv pushed his way past them to shove Grace forward into the warren of cleared paths that made up the settlement.
