"You should have learned by now, none of us get the things we want."
The song of steel against stone filled the night. Nyssa, sharpening her blade by the fire, held the walrus-bone hilt of her knife as if it were an extension of her own arm. As her father had taught her many years ago, when he'd given her the knife. She ran her fingers over the notches in the bone. There was one for every man her father had killed.
"I think it's sharp enough," Alger said, from where he stood over the fire, turning a horse leg on the spit. The meat popped and crackled.
"Don't be an idiot. There's no such thing as sharp enough." Still, she set down her knife and whetting stone. Beside her, Illa picked through the painted beads in her lap. They were made of walrus bone, like the knife hilt and the clan's sleds. She picked up a blue bead and held it up to the firelight, and then braided it into her long, red hair. The men took more note of Illa, kissed by fire as she was, every year, but they rarely dared to make any moves on the young girl, for fear of Nyssa. A few bold soul's had already lost a finger a two for trying.
"We should go fishing tomorrow," Illa said, looping another bead into her hair.
"That's not such a bad idea," Alger said, as he slid the horse leg from the spit and began cutting it into strips. Nyssa shrugged her consent. They could use more fish. The bay would be frozen three feet thick before too long. Winter was coming.
As the three of them ate, heated voices from Bone Dust's nearby tent carried over to them. Nyssa, chewing on a tough piece of fat, strained her ears. She couldn't make out a single voice among the throng. For many nights now there had been such gatherings in Bone Dust's tent. She suspected they were discussing Mance Rayder. It was no secret that Bone Dust wished for them all to join with the self-proclaimed king. Half of the clan agreed with him. The other half said it would be death for them all should they go.
As for Nyssa, she cared little one way or the other. Let Bone Dust and his cronies join the King-Beyond-the-Wall. She had enough concerns, what with the Frozenriver people growing bolder each year and tramping further into their territory.
"Do you think they'll go?" Alger asked, having noticed where her attention lay. Nyssa faced him.
"Yes," she said. "The question is, will you go with them?"
"Father's against it. He doesn't trust Rayder. Says were Free Folk and Free Folk don't have kings. Look where that's gotten us, though?" He swiped at the snow. "A frozen wasteland with half our people starving."
"It's not all that bad," Illa said. "We've enough."
"We have ice."
"And our freedom," Nyssa added, grinning.
"Then you won't fight with Mance?" Alger asked, remaining serious. She didn't answer. Instead, she stood.
"Where're you going?" Illa asked.
"To take a piss," she said, ruffling her sister's hair as she walked past. The clan was rowdy tonight. All this talk of war had brought peoples' blood to a boil. Nyssa found a private spot just outside of the tent village. Steam rose from where her urine struck the snow. She did the deed quickly, rose from her crouch, and was relacing her britches when she heard footsteps from behind. She spun around, with her knife raised at the ready.
"Easy girl," Bone Dust said. She lowered the knife, but not her guard. There were few people she trusted, even within her clan, and he certainly was not one of them. His skin shone as white as his namesake.
"Drink?" he asked, offering her a skein of fermented milk, which she could smell five feet away.
"Another night," she said. "How go your meetings?"
"You'd know if you ever came." Bone Dust took a swig of the fermented milk. "Your father would have. He was a strong warrior. We could use him now."
"Too bad he's dead," she said. Then she spat at the ground between them. Bone Dust ignored the slight.
"You and Illa should join us," he said.
"And what would Illa do at war? She has no stomach for blood and I will not leave her behind."
"Don't you want a better life for her?" he asked, taking a step closer. "Think of what we could have over the Wall. That land, it belongs to us."
"When I was young, my mother told me that the land belonged to no one, except to itself and the gods," Nyssa said. "I'm not interested in your war." Then, she pushed past him. Making her way back to Alger and Illa, though, she remembered what the Child had told her nearly three weeks ago. The land is shifting. Prophecies and wars be damned. She wanted no part in it.
The Bay of Ice stretched farther than they could see. Glaciers sparkled in the distance. Soon, the few traders who came from over the Wall to do business with the Free Folk would stop coming, as the bay would freeze over when winter came. Nyssa stood on the shore, with her fishing pole over her shoulders. It was a fine day. One of the last she expected to see. She remembered little about the last winter, having only been a child, but this land was already cruel enough. She dreaded how much worse it would be once winter had them in its icy fist.
She watched Illa glide over the frozen surface of the bay. The young girl slid about ten feet out from shore, before lifting her axe and carving a hole in the ice. Then she sat with her legs crossed and lowered a hook into the water. Within seconds, she was reeling it back up. A fish flopped out onto the ice. Tenderly, she removed the hook from the fish's lip, while she stroked its silver scales. No one could catch fish the way she could. She sang to them and they swam to her. Nyssa had tried many times to do the same, but, as Alger often reminded her, she did not have a voice near as sweet as her sister's.
"So, I heard Bone Dust tried to recruit you," Alger said. He was sitting at her feet and eating winterberries from a pouch in his lap.
"You hear too much," she said, reaching down to pluck a berry from his hand just before he popped it into his mouth. She broke the skin with her teeth. Bittersweet juice coated her tongue. "It's no surprise with ears as big as yours," she added.
"You refused him," Alger said.
"We've better chance of surviving a winter than a war," she said, stealing another berry.
"I'm going," he declared. Nyssa wasn't surprised. Mance Rayder was all he'd talked about for months.
"When?" she asked, staring out at the bay.
"Soon."
"And what about us?"
"You don't need me," he said.
"Illa does."
"She has you." His expression softened when his eyes lit on Illa, out on the ice.
"She loves you too, you know," Nyssa said.
"How did you-?"
"Everyone knows. Except maybe for her."
Illa brought another fish onto the ice. She turned back to him, holding up her prize and beaming with pride. Nyssa took a third berry and rolled it between her fingers.
"Are you going to tell her you're leaving or will you make me do it?" she asked.
"I'll do it," Alger sighed. Silence fell over them. Though she understood why he had to go, she wished that he wouldn't. Since he'd learned to talk, Alger had boasted of the day he'd climb the Wall and return to the land of their ancestors, a place of warmth and plenty. Nyssa bent over and put her hand on his arm.
"Brother," she said. He understood that she was giving him her blessing to go. Alger was her brother. Born only a week after her, she couldn't remember having spent a single day without him.
"Sister," he said, putting his hand over hers. After a moment, though, Nyssa withdrew. She smiled down at him.
"Enough serious talk," she said. "If we've only a few days left together, we shouldn't waste them. We should be preparing you for war. You look a bit soft." She nudged him in the ribs with the toe of her boot, then she turned and ran. "Race you to Illa," she cried over her shoulder.
Flying across the Bay of Ice, she felt like a child. She heard Alger laughing behind her and all thoughts of wars, winters, and wolves fled her mind.
Until an arrow whistled past her ear and Alger shouted, "Get down!"
Still running, Nyssa hit the ice. She was propelled across the slick surface on her belly, with no control over her direction. She tried to slow herself by clawing at the ice, but all she could do was wait until her body came to a stop on its own, which only took seconds, but felt like hours.
She scrambled to her feet and looked back to shore. A dozen or so men and women, all of them armed, charged towards them. They'd already overtaken Alger, three of them having broken off from the main horde and surrounded him. Nyssa didn't even have time to call out to him. Already, the others were upon her.
She ducked to the left to avoid the swing of an axe. The blade sliced the air above her head. Nyssa fell to her knees and plunged her knife into the axe-man's belly. Blood splattered her cheek. She rolled over, leaving the knife buried to the hilt in the man's gut, and he crashed to the ice.
"GO!" she screamed, hoping Illa could hear her, as she scooped up the fallen man's axe and faced the woman and man now circling her and their dead comrade. They charged at the same time. Nyssa swung the axe over her head and brought it down into the woman's skull. Then, she swung again, but the man dodged her blow and caught her across the back with his curved blade. Nyssa felt nothing. She spun around and flung the axe. It sunk into the man's chest and he toppled backwards.
Quickly, she scanned the bay for any sign of Illa. She didn't see the woman until it was too late. Cold hands curled around her neck. Her face slammed against the ice. Blood filled her mouth. Dark spots errupted across her vision. The woman's fingers curled into Nyssa's hair and beat her head against the ice once, twice...The weight lifted. Someone tugged at her arm.
"Sister," Illa said. "Sister, look at me."
Nyssa did as she was told. Beside her, another Frozenriver woman lay dead. Her throat slit ear to ear.
"I told you to go," Nyssa grumbled, as Illa helped her stand.
"Without you? Never." Illa pressed their father's bone-hilt knife into Nyssa's hands, but as she did so, her eyes suddenly widened in pain and she stumbled forward, falling into her sister and dragging them back down to the ice.
"Illa!" Nyssa cried. She saw the arrow shaft protruding from the girl's back. Blood bubbled at the corners of Illa's open mouth.
"No, no," she muttered, pressing her hands around the arrow shaft to staunch the flow of blood. Soon, her hands were stained crimson. The Frozenriver people were closing in around them. "We have to go," Nyssa pleaded, trying to lift Illa. "Get up. You must get up!"
But Illa was dead weight. Her eyes were as clear and blue as the sky above. A cold, bitter wind swept over them and Nyssa thought she heard a voice say, kill them, kill them all. She stood, eager to obey. Stepping in front of her sister's body, she raised her knife.
The last of the Frozenriver men cracked the ice when he fell, but did not break it. Nyssa stood amidst the bodies and looked over them with eyes not her own. She could not remember her own name. She yanked her knife from the man's back and wiped it clean on her leggings. There'd been at least a dozen of them, but she only counted eight bodies.
Warn the others, the wind demanded. Nyssa, go. She did not obey right away. Instead, she returned to where she'd left Illa. Any moment now, she expected blood to rain down from the sky. Kneeling by her sister's body, she did not cry. She rolled Illa onto her back and yanked out the arrow. Then, she unclasped her cloak and draped it over the girl
"I'll be back," she whispered into Illa's ear, before pulling the cloak over her face.
There was no sign of Alger. Either he'd escaped or...She could not think of that now. She had to return to camp, to warn the others. Refusing to look back at the bay, she ran as if there were an army at her heels. She slowed when she spotted smoke in the distance. Silence greeted her when she entered the camp. Tents blazed like bonfires, but she saw no bodies. They got out, she thought. Alger beat me here. He got them out. She hurried past her own scorched tent. There was nothing left for her in there. All she and Illa owned was a charred ruin.
She continued wandering until she came to the place where Bone Dust's tent had stood that morning. In its place there was now a pile of dead bodies. More of them than she'd ever seen. The stench of burnt flesh and cold rot forced her to her knees. Nyssa heaved into the snow.
All was gone. All went black.