V
Although the clouds had threatened snow for the entire day, by nightfall only a faint flurry drifted down on the Timber Road as Crispin led his horse to a small, rocky outcropping set back a few yards into the forest. Talia remained on the road as her guide dismounted and examined the small clearing set against a thick backdrop of trees, holding down a shiver as another light gust of wind blew down the road from the west. Without the moon or stars in the sky, Talia could barely see the ranger as he rummaged through his saddlebags for a moment.
"There wouldn't happen to be an inn somewhere nearby, would there?" the mage inquired, hoping that she would not have to spend a night out in the cold. Her voice carried easily through the still air, sounding almost unnaturally loud in the otherwise silent forest.
"This is it," Crispin answered, starting to scoop snow away from something on the ground. "Why don't you tether the horses while I see about a fire?"
"Oh, sure," Talia said, sliding down out of the saddle and leading her horse to a large, broken pine. With her own horse secure, the mage turned back to Crispin's mount and did likewise, stumbling through the snow and nearly tripping on hidden rocks and branches along the way. Finally, Talia turned back to Crispin, but the ranger had vanished in the minute that she had turned her back to him. Quickly the mage spun around, but her guide had disappeared completely into the trees.
A loud snap, somewhere just beyond her feeble night vision, nearly caused Talia's heart to stop. Frantically the mage raced through her mind, searching for some kind of spell to help her see through the inky night, but a darkvision spell was one thing that she belatedly wished that she had studied. A second snap nearly had the mage running for the Timber Road and the distant inn at Mattin, but Talia swallowed her fear and took a hesitant step forward.
"Crispin?" the mage called out nervously, edging closer to where her companion had been.
"What?" Crispin asked irritably, still nowhere in sight. Talia breathed out a sigh of relief as she put her hand to her racing heart.
"You're making a racket," the mage remarked, turning back to her horse and searching for her heavy blanket. The snapping was replaced by a series of sharp cracks as Crispin hacked away at something with his hand axe.
"If you want a fire, you'll deal with it," the ranger grumbled, still working in the darkness. "Take the spade I left by the fire ring and finish clearing it out, or at least try to find some wood yourself."
"You got it," Talia said, easily finding the half dug fire ring and swiftly finishing the job. Crispin appeared as she stood from the ring and scanned her surroundings, looking for any kind of shelter from the elements. "Um, do we have a tent, or something?"
"A tent?" Crispin repeated, a bit surprised. "No. We sleep under the stars."
"What if it snows?" Talia asked. Crispin studied the cloudy sky for a moment, then shook his head.
"Won't bring much snow until tomorrow, most likely," the ranger decided. "And if it does get too heavy, we'll move back under the trees."
"Away from the fire?" Talia concluded. Crispin took a deep breath as he considered the question.
"It's not that far away," the ranger said. "Look, if you want to go back to Mattin or Montcalm and get a tent, that's fine by me. I'm making a fire and getting some sleep tonight."
"What about wolves?" Talia asked as Crispin began to arrange the branches he had taken from the forest. "I mean, you said there was a winter wolf out here somewhere."
"Look, if you don't stop asking questions, I'm going to find that winter wolf and feed you to him," Crispin said, growing more and more impatient with the arcanist's constant inquiries. As the mage fell silent, Crispin turned all of his attention back to the fire ring, and within minutes he was quickly adding sticks and small branches to the swiftly growing fire. As the flames began to brighten the small clearing, Crispin dropped back on his heels in satisfaction, holding his hands over the small fire. Finally, the ranger looked back over his shoulder, to see Talia sullenly trying to brush a last bit of snow from the ground only a few feet away. "Come on over and warm up a little. You'll have plenty of time to finish that up."
"I didn't think you wanted my company," Talia huffed, not even casting a sideways glance at the ranger.
"Suit yourself," Crispin said, allowing the heat to soak into his partially frozen beard and face. The ranger added a couple more branches to the fire, then stood up and brushed a little bit of snow from his knees. "We'll need more wood," the ranger surmised, glancing at his meager fuel pile. "I'll be back in a few minutes. If you want, take some green branches off a pine tree, and use it as bedding. It'll help insulate you a little from the ground."
"Thanks," Talia said curtly, still not paying attention to her guide. Crispin shrugged once more, then disappeared into the darkness with his hand axe. As soon as he had left the circle of light thrown off by the small fire, the ranger glanced back to see Talia give up trying to completely clear the ground and move next to the fire. With an amused shake of his head, Crispin started off into the darkness towards a large, dead spruce that he had found on his first search for dry wood.
He returned a little less than half an hour later, dragging several large branches behind him, to find Talia adding the last of the fuel he had gathered earlier to the fire. Sitting on a rock next to the coals was a small copper pot, and the mage had taken two wooden cups from her pack.
"Tea?" Crispin assumed, dropping the branches next to the fire.
"A peace offering," Talia corrected, carefully picking up the pot with a gloved hand. Crispin looked over to her quizzically as he began to strip the smaller branches from a bough. "Look, I know you don't like me," Talia continued, seeing the ranger's confusion. "I know you think we're out here looking for nothing. Thierry told me you like to get some rest at the Western Sun about this time of year, and I apologize for having dragged you out of your time off. But please, Crispin, at least try to get along with me. You've been nothing but cruel to me since we started this trip. Please, let's just pretend that we're friends until this is all over. Please?"
Crispin stared at the young woman for a long moment, then looked back to the axe in his hand as he considered her statement. Finally, Crispin dropped the bough on the ground again and hooked his axe in the loop on his belt.
"Look, Talia, I don't hate you," the ranger finally said. "You're probably a very nice person. But you should not be out here. I've met all sorts of wizards, Arcanists, and city loving folk, and every time they get out here they want all the beauty and no hassle. I'm sick of being a babysitter for people that wouldn't last one night out here without ten porters and a local tavern. Just like those damn mapmakers that wanted me to show them around, cook for them, start all their fires, and set up their shelters. And when they weren't bossing me around, they were always complaining about the weather, or the lack of inns, or the wolves at night. And you, well, you have us out here in the middle of late season storms, and even you don't know what you're looking for. The southwest is a very big place."
"Then help me, Crispin," Talia countered, almost pleading. "Show me what I have to do to survive out here. Help me figure out what it is that I'm looking for. Everyone in Montcalm seems to think you're the best there is when it comes to the southwest, so please, just help me!"
"Pour the tea, Talia," Crispin said simply, unhooking his axe again and finishing off the branch that he had dropped. Talia hesitated a long moment, waiting for something more from the ranger, but he simply continued to hack away at the smaller branches and throw a few on the fire. Finally, shaking her head in resignation, the mage poured out two cups of tea, and placed one on the stones in front of the ranger. Crispin dropped the bough and picked up his tea, sipping the liquid as he stared into the fire for a long moment.
"All the signs indicated an early spring," Crispin said thoughtfully. Talia had begun to turn away from her guide, but she looked back to the ranger in surprise as he spoke.
"That's what I've been trying to say," Talia said eagerly, trying to keep the conversation going. "The winds are pushing against the storms, but they keep coming! And they're getting nothing if not worse!"
"Look, Talia, you seem to be a pretty smart woman," Crispin said. "But you're asking for my help, and refusing to believe anything I say."
"You keep telling me that these storms are nothing out of the ordinary," Talia said.
"And I still think that," Crispin pointed out. "But even if these storms actually are unnatural, you want to look in all the wrong places."
"Then tell me where to look," Talia said, sliding a little closer to the ranger. "Don't keep telling me that I'm crazy."
"All right," Crispin said. He sat back for a moment, sipping some more of his tea. "First off, forget the goblins. They're raiders and thieves. It's hard to raid when there are no caravans on the road, and it's hard to raid for food when no one can grow any. The same goes for the barbarian tribes. They need the spring even more than we do. Beyond that, the barbarians have begun some trade with the western settlements. Not much, but a little. They stand nothing to gain by bringing an unnatural winter to Tourant."
"What about the frost giants?" Talia asked. Crispin shook his head.
"They have no reason to bring winter down here," the ranger answered. "They're rarely seen beyond the Sarektjakka Peaks as it is. They may occasionally raid western Tourant during the winter, but they would be wasting all of their magic on us for no apparent gain."
"Don't the barbarians have cults of winter?" Talia asked.
"Not any more," Crispin answered. "A hundred years ago, maybe, but not any more. The rest of the barbarians couldn't take it. Cults of winter tended to destroy all of their food, thinning out herds and killing the plants that they gathered. If a new cult were to be behind this, they probably would have already been destroyed."
"So who are we looking for?" Talia asked.
"I don't know," Crispin answered. "If there is someone behind this, it would have to be a rogue mage with some serious problems. I can't think of anyone else with the means and the reason to do this. When we get to Falloux, I guess we can ask if they've seen anything unusual, but I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. If it's a rogue mage, I can't see him coming out to announce himself to the people he's trying to freeze out. If nothing pans out there, I can think of a handful of places that might make a decent natural fortress on the edge of the Khairathi. Barbarians used to use a couple of ridges and hills in the Khairathi foothills as natural keeps, or as a place to ride out severe winters. A rogue mage or a cult of winter would need some kind of defensible position. We can check there, but if they don't pan out, we go back to Montcalm and you accept the fact that weather can't always be predicted."
"That suits me fine," Talia said. The ranger nodded, and slurped down the last of his tea. "Crispin?"
"Yeah," Crispin said, looking back to the mage. Talia hesitated for a moment, but then smiled slightly and batted her eyes at him.
"Thank you," she said. Crispin's hard stare softened for a moment at the act, but then the ranger quickly stood and grabbed his axe.
"You're welcome," Crispin said with a faintly awkward tone as he went back to work on the branches. "You should get some sleep. Tomorrow's not going to be as nice a day as this was."
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"Should we be traveling in this weather?"
"It's just snowing," Crispin said, turning to Talia as the young mage brought her horse alongside his mount. The storms that had been moving in from the mountains had finally reached them at midday, and the snow and wind had rapidly begun to build in intensity. Now, with no sun to brighten the day and the snow and wind dropping visibility to a mere twenty yards or so, Talia could not even be certain that they remained on the Timber Road. "Besides," Crispin continued, looking to the mage, "where would you have us stop? We're already more than twenty miles from Mattin, and the next inn along this road is in Falloux."
"Falloux is still a day away?" Talia asked, looking back to the road ahead of them. A gust of wind whipped up the snow into her face, forcing her to take cover inside the hood of her cloak.
"That's right," Crispin answered, simply squinting into the harsh winds. "We'd have made it late tomorrow morning if the snows weren't so bad. There's a thick stand of spruce that we can use about four miles ahead as a camp for the night. Hopefully, the last people through were nice enough to leave us a little bit of firewood."
"What if they didn't?" Talia asked, growing uneasy at the thought of freezing to death in the middle of nowhere.
"Well, we'll just have to gather some of our own," Crispin answered. "We should be able to reach the camp by nightfall."
"And you can start a fire in this weather, right?" Talia asked. Crispin turned a weary glare on her, but said nothing. "I was just checking."
"You sure you don't want to turn around and go home?" the ranger asked after another minute had passed.
"Positive," Talia answered in an irksome tone.
"I was just checking," Crispin said with a touch of humor. "I think your lips are turning blue again."
"I'm fine," Talia said stubbornly, despite the fact that the cold was indeed getting to her once more. Even through her heavy woolen clothing and thick gloves, the mage could barely feel her hands or feet, and the icy wind was slowly sapping her strength. Talia glanced back to Crispin, ready to convince him that she was not as cold as she felt, when she noticed that the ranger had stopped in the middle of the road. Talia pulled her own mount to a stop, but Crispin said nothing to her as he continued to stare absently ahead into the swirling squall. Talia opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but the ranger held up a gloved hand for silence before she could speak. The two sat in silence on their horses for what felt like several minutes, listening to the falling snow and the gusts of wind that pushed east along the road.
"Get off your horse," Crispin finally ordered, sliding down out of the saddle and pulling his long bow free of its case.
"What is it?" Talia asked quietly, glancing around nervously.
"Just get off your horse," Crispin said, his attention on the forest in front of them. "And get ready to cast. Can you throw a fireball?"
"A lightning bolt," Talia answered, anxiously pulling off her gloves. Crispin groaned in disgust. Talia quickly began to scan the dark trees around them as Crispin nocked an arrow, but the mage could see nothing through the swirling snow, or hear anything other than the occasional creaking of the trees under the accumulating snow. Crispin still remained silent and still, little more than a statue collecting snow next to his waiting horse. Slowly the mage began to turn in a circle, trying to find anything in the gloomy forest that could have spooked her guide.
A terrible growl rumbled through the silence, sending a spike of fear through the mage. Talia turned quickly back to Crispin just as the ranger loosed a pair of arrows on what could only be a winter wolf. The arrows struck the huge, pure white canine as it leapt into the air with a bloodcurdling howl, ready to bowl Crispin over with its charge, but the ranger ducked and rolled forward under the monster's outstretched claws and cruel fangs at the last instant. The mere sight of the gigantic canine, easily as big as the villagers of Taureau had described to Emeri's Lancers, froze the young mage in horror even as Crispin drew his long sword and hand axe to face the monstrous wolf in close combat. The ranger glanced over to her as he regained his feet and the wolf whirled on him, and he quickly waved his sword in her direction.
"Behind you!" the ranger shouted. The words jolted Talia back into action, and the mage spun to see another of the monsters sprinting at her from the screen of trees along the edge of the road. Frantically Talia tried to remember the words to a spell that could save her, but the horrifying specter of the wolf bearing down on her stole coherent thought from her mind. Desperately the mage turned to flee, but she only made it four steps before the wolf's jaws clamped down on her leg.
Talia screamed in pain as she tumbled into the snow, brought down in a cloud of icy frost issuing from the wolf's mouth. With her legs frozen and torn by the winter wolf's fangs, the mage desperately threw herself onto her back to try to meet the wolf's next assault. The huge beast lunged at her throat, intending to finish the mage with a single strike, but Talia somehow managed to scramble to the side as it plunged its muzzle into the now bloodstained snow. The wolf snarled and turned quickly on the mage, but Talia had finally managed to regain enough of her wits to frantically tear through her first spell.
The wolf was already driving toward her, but Talia somehow managed to find the tiny glass rod in her belt pouch and point it toward the beast before it could reach her. A bolt of lightning blasted forward from her outstretched hand, slamming through the charging wolf and hurling it ten feet away from the mage. The smoking wolf staggered back to its feet almost as soon as it had landed, however, growling at her as it stalked in once more. Again Talia fumbled through her belt pouch for her spell components, rapidly coming up with a pinch of brimstone and some iron dust and flying through a second spell. The winter wolf hesitated as a ball of fire, taller than the mage, erupted into life directly in front of Talia, melting the snow around it instantly into a thick cloud of steam. Talia breathed a sigh of relief at the success of the makeshift barrier, but her respite was shortlived as the heavy snow quickly doused the flaming sphere. The wolf charged forward again at full speed as soon as the flames died out, intent on finishing the mage before she could cast any more spells. Talia hurriedly cast one last spell, sending three magic missiles unerringly into her opponent, but the wolf barely even slowed its charge. Before she could try to drag herself out of the way or defend herself, the wolf slammed into her chest, driving the wind from her lungs as it tore through her heavy tunic. Collapsing under the assault, the last thing Talia saw was the wolf rearing back, its mouth filling with frost and ice.
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It might not have been a worg, but it was close enough.
Crispin feinted left and then struck right, tearing another line of blood across his attacker's flank before the winter wolf could react to his deception. With so much experience fighting worgs and winter wolves, Crispin could nearly anticipate the monster's every move, reacting to each snap of the wolf's teeth with a devastating counter. Already the wolf bore a half dozen wounds from the ranger's sword and hand axe, limping on one crippled front leg as it tried to back away from its deadly opponent. Crispin matched the magical beast step for step, measuring the wounded wolf for one final, killing strike. The monster was already close to death, and would likely collapse from blood loss even if the ranger did allow it to escape, but Crispin wanted to take no chances in giving such a lethal monster a chance to recover and possibly show up again in the future to launch another ambush. Slowly the ranger drew up for the last strike, ready to run the winter wolf through on his long sword.
Talia's scream of terror and pain stopped Crispin just before he drove forward. The ranger glanced quickly over his shoulder to see the mage go down beneath the second winter wolf, shaken like a rag doll as the monster fought its way through the heavy woolen garments to her flesh. With his own enemy nearly dead, Crispin turned and charged forward, hoping that the badly wounded wolf did not strike from behind.
He reached Talia and her attacker before the winter wolf could react, slamming into the creature from the side and jamming his sword between two of the monster's ribs. Crispin tore his blade free in a shower of blood as the wolf turned on him, but the monster only brought its huge muzzle in line with the ranger's descending axe. The creature's icy breath chilled him to the bone and numbed his arms, but the wave of frost died out as rapidly as it had come when Crispin's axe smashed through the wolf's nose and shattered its skull. The wolf dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, letting out one last, pathetic whimper through its destroyed mouth before it died. Crispin turned quickly as the monster fell, ready to ward off an attack from his original foe, but the badly injured wolf had already disappeared into the forest. The ranger took one step to follow the creature, knowing that the trail of blood that it left would be lost within an hour, but stopped as he remembered his unconscious companion.
Talia lay half buried in the bloodstained snow, one leg badly torn from the winter wolf's initial assault. She was barely breathing and her pulse was weak, but her frost covered wounds had at least kept her from losing too much blood. Still, Crispin would have to act quickly if he wanted to save the mage's legs; frostbite was already setting in, and unless the ranger thawed her frozen extremities, her left leg at the least would be lost. Crispin carried the unconscious girl just off the road, placing her gently beneath a thick tree where the snow had not yet penetrated, then turned back to the road to look for the horses and their packs.
The horses were still on the road near where the two travelers had dismounted, but Crispin let out a sharp curse as he stared at the two smoking corpses. Talia's lightning bolt may have wounded the winter wolf that had come after her, but it had also barreled through both of their horses and destroyed their packs.
"Oh, you really did it this time," Crispin spat, turning back to the unconscious mage. The ranger racked his brains quickly for some kind of plan, then unclasped his cloak and wrapped it around Talia's legs. Without wasting any further time to watch over his shivering companion, Crispin tore his way through the spruce around them, trying to gather up enough dry wood for a fire. The ranger had no idea if there were more winter wolves in the area, or if the two would survive the night, but he was certain that Talia's expedition was over.