A Sword from Red Ice

The cragsman continued staring ahead. Time passed. The fire crackled and spat as a willow knot filled with pitch went up in flames. Eventually Addie Gunn stood and turned to face Raif. "I hear you, lad," he said, "but do you ever wonder if some might feel the same about you? Your death would not be a weight this Rift Brother is willing to bear."

Raif had bowed his head, defeated and heartsore. He had needed this and didn't even realize it: someone to stand second to his oath. "We travel light and take no animals." Addie nodded wisely. "I imagined we would." It was hard to believe that conversation had taken place less than twelve hours ago. Already it seemed to belong in the past, in the city they'd left behind. Look west now and you could not see it Not even the smoke from the grass fires.

With Addie leading the way they made better time. He had a goat's instinct for the ways between the crags. Raif was content to follow, glad to have no responsibility for a while beyond the placement of his feet. The sky grew bluer as they moved to higher ground and subtle changes took place in the air. Below them the Rift was a trough filled with shadows, narrower here than in the city of Maimed Men.

The discussion as to whether or not to take the hidden bridge across to the clanholds had been a short one. Raif had not been for it, and the cragsman had acceded to his choice. "It means a couple of days on the journey," he had told Raif, so there was no misunderstanding. "The path to the north is rocky and we'll have to put our backs into it. After the third of fourth day it should begin to level off."

To Raif it was a price worth paying. He had a strong preference for not walking on land claimed by clan.

Addie wasn't much for conversation so they climbed in silence. Sometimes the cragsman would whistle a few notes of one of the old lambing songs, and other times he would pluck dried grass heads from the snow and chew on them. He kept an even, unhurried pace, and did not look around to check on Raif. Every so often he would halt to check the depth of a snowdrift with his stick.

Evcn though the light was failing they made good progress, and they topped the tiered and fractured cliff face just as the mist began to rise. Rail shivered as the sweat beneath his sealskins coded against his skin. For the last quarter they had been moving northeast lo the Rift and when they paused at the cliff top he tamed around and saw that the crack in the earth had filled with cloud

"Happens quick," Addie said, fallowing his gaae. "We wont be able to continue much longer."

Raif took the lead from him. He did not want to stop. While his mind was occupied with walking he did not hi to think about the look in Traggis Mole's eyes as he died.

Swear it.

As the hour wore on the shadows disappeared, driven away by the mist, Islands of cloud rose from the Rift and drifted slowly in circles. The rocks underfoot slickened and the surface of the snow mounds turned to grease ice. Rait had to bend his head to see his feet, and after a while he could not see them at all. Sunset had taken place some time back, but the light remained strangely, quivenngly while. Behind him he could hear the steady pad of Addie's thinly soled boots. The cragsman was not whistling anymore.

"Lad." Addie's voice pierced the mist like an arrow." I'm done here."

The words carried an authority that Rail had not expected. They did not mean I. They meant We. Rait put up no argument, and tracked Addie's footfalls through the mist. The cragsman had in rrand somc-where he meant to go.

He and Stillborn had probably hunted these clife, Raif realized, stalking mule deer and wild goats. Addie slipped between a crack in the rock and tots a pocket in the cliff walL It was not a cam, for the clouds floated freely overhead, but it offered some protection against the mist. Addie set about making a camp. It was darker here than out in the open, but still not as dark as it should have been. Raif wondered if the moon had risen.

He made a circuit of the small clearing, hiking up slabs of granite and leaping beween boulders.When he came across a dried-up sage bush wedged into a depression in the rock, he hauled it up for kindling. It had surprising tenacious roots.

Traveling light meant there were no tents, only sleep mats and blankets. Each man carried his own water and supplies and although they would not stray from the path to hunt they would keep an eye lively for game. Addic kept his supplies strapped to his torso in a series of tanned leather pouches that helped distribute the weight. This meant he took some unpacking, and Raif found himself smiling as he watched the cragsman struggle with an underarm pack.