A Sword from Red Ice

For some reason then he thought of Mallia Argola. Perhaps it was something to do with the careful way she had mended his Orrl cloak. He imagined the curve between her waist and hips, and the way the fabric of both her dresses had strained across her breasts. Shaking himself, he took a drink from the canteen and then went over to take a look at the Sull horse.

No partition separated the animal space from the human space, though the ground here had been spread with pine boughs. Raif imagined that when the animals soiled, the trappers merely brushed out the branches and spread new ones. A makeshift trough had been dug out of a halved log. The Sull horse kept her head level as he approached but her tail was high and twitching. Raif raised a hand so she could smell it and watched as her de» te black-and-pink nostrils twitched. Easy, girl." She did not make any move toward him, and he did not force it. After a moment he letifcis hand drop.

It was time to go.

Addie came a few minutes later, bringing several folded items and two small sacks. Raif found his boots and Orrl cloak in good order, but his tunic, pants and undershirt were not there.

"Weren't worth the mending," Addie said smartly, about to take no fuss. "Here. These were Gordo's. Good skins. Just a bit stiff, is all."

Raif barely looked at them. "Where's the small brown pouch that was in my tunic?"

"You mean this?" Addie said, fishing into his underarm pack. He pulled out the sleeve containing the stormglass and handed it to Raif. "I didna look to see what was inside."

Raif had not thought for one moment he would. An odd silence followed and Raif tried to understand what, if anything, was happening. The cragsman left the sacks on the ground and went to look at something on the other side of the tent. He might have been checking on blankets.

Suddenly it dawned on Raif. "What do I owe you, Addie?" All the medicines and attention, the shelter, leeches, clothes. The price of Flawless' betrayal of the Sull.

The cragsman stared hard at the blankets piled against the support pole. "You owe me nothing, lad."

"I don't believe that." Raif was surprised by the emotion in his voice. Surprised by how quickly this had become serious between them. Addie had thought Raif had nothing of value, but now he knew the object in the pouch was worth something. And it upset him. Raif remembered back to the negotiation by the campfire, the meager clink of coins in Addie's sock. "How did you pay for all this?"

Finally the cragsman turned and looked at him. "A gold bar. It was my cut for the raid on Black Hole."

Of course. Any meaningful kind of betrayal was always paid for in gold.

Raif slid the stormglass from the sleeve and watched as it sucked in the light. The tent actually grew darker. Holding it out toward Addie, he said, "Take it."

Addie's head was already shaking. "Nay, lad. What's done is done. It's a pretty bauble. Keep it."

You knew when there was no arguing with Addie Gunn. Raif closed his fist around the icy piece of glass. A gold bar was enough for a man to buy himself a piece of land with a building upon it and a half-dozen sheep. The cragsman had given that up. Raif swallowed; there was a soreness in his throat. "I will pay you back, Addie. I swear it."

"I do not accept your oath," he said softly. "Save your word. Do not waste it on a cragsman like me."

His gray eyes met Raifs, and Raif knew something had forever changed between him and Addie Gunn.

Watcher of the Dead. He had nearly forgotten all the things that meant. If the stormglass had been given to Raif Sevrance, son of Tern, Raif knew he would have given it up three days ago when Addie brought out his sock. But the stormglass had been given to Mor Drakka, Watcher of the Dead. And it was not a gift. It was a marker.

Raif slid the piece of glass back into its sleeve and dressed himself in new skins. In one of the sacks he found his daypack, arrows, gear belt, weapon pouch and Traggis Mole's longknife. In the other he found the simple items Addie had first traded for: the medicine herbs, food and tea. He could barely look at them. Locating the scrap of fabric and length of twine that formed the lid of the leech jar, Raif sealed in the black worms. Leaving the jar on the floor for Addie to pick up, he headed outside.

Flawless was sitting on an upturned log by the fire, rubbing some kind of clear fluid into the Sull bow. Raif immediately saw the bow was brighter, bluer. The silver markings beneath the surface rippled like liquid mercury. "Nice work," Flawless said when he saw Raif. "Shoot arrows long way."

Raif wanted to snatch it away from him. Instead he said, "The Red Ice. How far?"

The Trenchlander shrugged. "Couple days. Trade for bow?"

He did take the bow then, yanking it from the old man's clawlike hands. Inches above Raifs heart, the coven of leeches stirred.

Flawless whistled as Raif walked away from the camp.