Snow

"Grab the damn blanket and wrap it around yourself so you don't freeze to death. And please don't tell me you don't know what a blanket is."

"I know what a blanket is," David said, and smiled.

Alec's mouth parted and his face flushed again. "Then stop talking and get it already." And the words sounded angry but his voice--his voice didn't sound angry at all. David grabbed the blanket out of the back and wrapped it around himself. It smelled like the horse and Alec. He felt--awake, he thought. Real.

"And now, of course, it's not snowing," Alec said. "Never fails. Get out the jacket and all of sudden it's sunny and..." He kept talking. David tucked the blanket tightly around himself and looked up at the sky, watched blue push past gray. He felt as light as the clouds racing across the sky. He liked the feeling.

Chapter 5

They reached town as night was starting to fall. David wished he could see more but all he could make out were close clusters of buildings, the huddled shapes of people moving through the streets, bowed against the cold, and the occasional flicker of fire or candlelight in a window. The ground sounded different though, like the inside of the castle, and when he peered over the edge of the cart he saw they were riding over stones buried in the ground, slicked by ice and snow but still barely visible.

The cart stopped. David straightened up and looked at Alec, who said, "We're here," and didn't quite look back at him.

"Oh," David said. "Okay." He put the blanket away and grabbed his bag, climbed off the cart.

The stones felt strange under his feet. They weren't smooth like the ones in the castle. They were pitted, cracked from where they'd iced over and split open again and again. He looked around.

There was a child sitting huddled in a doorway nearby, scrawny with white pitted scars all over his face and too-wise eyes that met his and quickly looked away. Some of the buildings had signs on them, a few with words but most with pictures. One had an eye, another a pot. The stones led off in three directions, one back the way they'd come, one branching up and off into a curl that snaked out of sight, and one that went straight ahead. David squinted, but all he saw in that direction was dark.

"The pale," Alec said. "You do know about that, right?"

"No," David said, because he didn't. "It doesn't look very pale. What is it?" The child in the doorway laughed, a sharp coughing bark.

Alec looked at him for a long moment, eyes glinting. Then he sighed and said, "Never mind.

There's an inn down by what used to be the river. They probably won't overcharge you too much.

You do have money, right?"

"Yes," David said, because he did. He'd packed the coin his nurse had kept in her coat.

"Great," Alec said and lifted the reins, turning to look out at the street. "Good luck with…whatever it is you're doing."

"You too," David said. "Thank you for being so nice to me."

Alec's mouth tightened. "How much?" he said abruptly.

"What?"

"How much money do you have?"

David fished in his bag and held up the coin.

"Why did I even ask?" Alec muttered. "All I had to do was keep driving. I swear I am never ever--" He got out of the cart and pointed at the child, said, "If you have someone steal this I'll find you and cut off your thumbs."

"Four bits to watch the horse," the child said disinterestedly. "Eight to watch so your stuff don't get taken."

"Eight? Do you think you're bargaining with--" he pointed at David. "Five."

"Seven."

"Okay, three."

"Five," the child said quickly. Alec nodded and walked off. After a minute he turned around and beckoned to David.

"Come on," he said impatiently. "One glass of ale and you'd better not order anything that comes covered in sauce because that always costs extra. And then that's it, you understand?"

"Not really," David said.

"I supposed I asked for that one," Alec muttered.

He took David inside a building that had a sign hanging from it, a swinging picture of a cup and a swirling word underneath. The first letter looked like a tree, long with two branches winding off it on either side. Inside it was smoky and dark and smelled like his nurse used to on holidays, a warm yeasty smell. It was hot too, almost furiously so, and David saw two fireplaces, one on either side of the room, both of them glowing red bright. It seemed every inch of space was filled with people, all of who were looking at them. At Alec. And the expressions on their faces at the sight of him were ugly, twisted mean smiles and angry frowns. Alec didn't seem to notice them.

"Troll," someone muttered as he passed by, eyes narrowing to slits.

"You mean miner," Alec said, and kept walking. David followed him, watching everyone watch Alec and feeling the room grow warmer still, as if something was starting to simmer under its surface.