Chapter Nine: Deep Snow

As the days grew shorter and colder, Katla put her mind to her duties. It felt good to have a purpose. Most often , she hunted winter game with Kamiel, but she decided that taking turns at the guard posts and other such tasks would be more to her benefit.

Kamiel put her on a task rotation, which allowed Katla to get to know many of the boarders of the lodge as well as the permanent residents. Before long, few thought of Katla as the elf-bane or as a noblewoman. She was simply one of them.

Iasa's fuming quickly turned to melancholy. Lysar took Iasa out frequently on winter hunts, where he taught Iasa some of the finer points of being a ranger in the wintertime. The activity seemed to ease some of Iasa's depression.

Yuula hovered around Katla and Kamiel during the evening meals. All knew of the older woman's disapproval, but few paid her any heed as the deep snows pushed the guests into staying indoors more often.

"I wish your mother would not stare so much." Katla yawned.

"I do as well. It makes me feel like a little boy. You sound like you could use a short nap."

"I don't understand it. I never used to feel sleepy like this."

Kamiel chuckled. "It's the weather. I suppose, even elves feel the natural pull to hibernate. I have found that if I take a good reverie and the occasional short nap during the winter months, I am much more alert."

"Care to join me?"

"No, I need to wait for Lysar and Iasa. Lysar wants me to talk to him, and try to convince him to do something about his bout of winter melancholy."

"I will be waiting, then."

It took both Iasa and Lysar to shut the frond door against the howling wind when they came in from their watch.

"I don't suggest sending out the next watch through the front, brother. The snow is piling up fast. We are going to need to use the alternate watch points that we can reach from the tunnels. I estimate only a few more hours before we are snowed in from the front."

"Thank you. Good job. Now to the kitchens with you."

"Kamiel!"

"Mother says the kitchens are a mess and it is still your duty to clean them."

Lysar sighed and frowned as he shuffled downstairs.

"Come sit by me, Iasa."

"Is that an order?"

"No, but I do need to speak with you, about Katla."

"She's your lover." Iasa said as he plopped on the throw pillow next to Kamiel, "Why don't you ask her about herself."

"I have, but much of what she has told me leaves more questions than answers."

"I don't see why. She can be very blunt." Iasa grumbled.

"She says little, except that she hopes she does not get pregnant. I have told her over and over that one as young as she is, is not yet fertile, but she will not listen. She says her father worried about a pregnancy at her age."

"I don't know. I have never been told much, but my own mother did have her first child a little earlier than most do, but not by much."

"She tells me that she is only thirty-two."

"Yes."

"She said she began having serious suitors just before her twenty-ninth birthday? As a member of her own family, don't you think that is a little young for a girl to be married off?"

"I think my uncle was thinking more of her safety than anything else. She is an elf-bane, and his youngest child. Isolder tends to be very overprotective with her."

"That is still no reason to lie to her and line up men to bid on her like chattel. Elf-bane or no, Katla deserves a little more respect than that."

"I won't argue that point. I have known her since we were in our cradles. I am just as overprotective as her father. I thought she was going to marry Xarlion, and I felt confident that she would be alright. When his feelings for her waned, I wanted to step right in and be her protector again."

Kamiel cocked his head and rubbed his chin. "Rather, you wanted to be her lover. Am I correct? That is why you mope and why you avoid me."

"I am not sure of anything anymore."

The two sat in silence for a few moments while they finished their meal.

"Iasa, I would like to talk to you some more, but I have to make sure the tunnel to the alternate watch spots are clear. Care to eek out your frustrations on a few vermin?"

"You trust me to follow you with a sword in my hand?"

"I trust you much more than what might be lurking down there. We only use the tunnel when absolutely necessary. Side passages have been caved in, purposely. According to Lysar's father, some of those collapsed tunnels lead north to Myth Drannor. He claimed this was one of the escape routes when the mythal fell. Some of the tunnels could go further down into the underdark. I am not certain for myself. I never bothered to have the collapsed tunnels re-dug. Mother says the reason the camphor tree that makes up the lodge is so large is from the power of the mythal seeping in."

"You have piqued my interest. I agree to go with you then. I swear that I will not harm you."

"Thank you, Iasa."

Katla was plagued with a strange dream as she napped. The more she tried to rouse herself, the stronger the dream pulled her to stay in her sleep state.

She sat in a simple but elegant sitting room made of white birch interwoven with a pale purple stone.

She looked at a woman with hair blacker than night and skin pale and luminescent as a pearl as she went to the task of setting the initial pieces of a game of mandalla, an ancient form of elven chess on the round, stone table made for that purpose.

After setting up the pieces, the woman lit a lightly floral incense. She reached into a shelf and brought out a teapot, tea and two cups. She hummed as she made the tea.

Katla knew the tune, but she could not place where she had heard the melody before.

A tendril of the woman's long black hair fell into her face. As the woman brushed away the hair, she looked up at Katla. The woman seemed to see her, no see through her, as if Katla was a ghost.

Katla made a mental gasp as the violet eyes of the woman met her own.

Suddenly, Katla was in the body of the woman. Katla thought she should be alarmed, but she felt comfortable as if she had always belonged in that body.

Her heart beat wildly. She was anticipating her lover. The game was a diversion they used to relax themselves before love play.

Light footsteps padded into another room of the house, so quiet that if she had not anticipated the sound she would have not heard the sound on the cool, violet stone floor.

She poured the tea into the cups and handed one to the blonde handsome man who stepped into the room. His white tunic with gold embroidery set of the shine of his eyes and his hair.

She knew he normally wore a sword or some other sort of small weapon, but this day was for pleasure, not war.

"I see I still can not fool your ears, my dear."

"Are you ready to play?" she said teasingly.

"Yes, but not mandalla," He purred back as he sipped the tea.

"Oh? What sort of play did you have in mind, Corellon?"

Katla pulled herself out of the dream woman's body. As she stepped away, the woman waved her hand and the mandalla pieces tea pot, cups and all other small clutter cleaned themselves up.

The woman lead Corellon into another room and the door magically sealed itself behind them.

Katla was quite aware of what was happening in that room, and she did not want to feel jealous, but somehow, she did. Worse, she got the feeling that the scene was set for her, and that there was some sort of point her god was trying to make. Whatever point that was, Katla did not understand.

Katla woke in a sweat. She sat up and shook her head. Her head pounded like it always did when she slept.

She sat up, crossed her legs and took reverie in order to find some possible resolve for the strange dream.

"This tunnel is still secure." Iasa said as he waved a torch in front of the rubble.

"Good. Two more side tunnels, then checking the two watch points and we should be through."

Iasa was not sure why Kamiel was so concerned with the tunnels that lie below the dungeon of the lodge. The only disturbing thing about them was the lack of light and the rats and other such that ran about in the darkness.

Dust and patches of mud were everywhere. There was no way that anything could have disturbed the tunnel without easily showing a trace of being there.

Even so, Kamiel's uneasiness was rubbing off onto Iasa. He jumped as he stepped on a large rat's tail.

The creature squeaked in pain and ran to hide in the shadows.

"Come on Iasa, I can't have you lagging behind down here."

Iasa quickened his pace to catch up.

"This is the last of the side tunnels. It is secure as well. Now to check the guard posts and we will be done."

Kamiel led Iasa into a small circular room. Five narrow stairways hewn into the rock and earth itself were opposite the door they came through.

"Only two of the guard posts are useable, but enough for our needs. Two of the other three are caved in and the last one doesn't work properly."

"Doesn't work properly?"

"You will see what I mean. We will have to go up the steps one at a time, and it will be tough to squeeze both of us in once we reach the top, but it can be done."

Iasa furrowed his brow at Kamiel, but followed as he had been instructed.

At the top of the stair was a tiny circular room. Kamiel sat on a slightly raised stone and instructed Iasa to squeeze in next to him. The guard post was designed so that only one person was needed to man it.

Suddenly, the stone around them seemed to melt away. Iasa gasped as he looked around. It was if the two of them were sitting on top of a rocky hillside. Despite the look of the hilltop, Iasa still felt cramped.

"It's magic. When someone sits on this stone, we can see out but no one can see in. We are still inside the stone. The white stones surrounding the room trigger the opening of arrow slits. It is useful, but most of those who serve guard duty in this or the other one get ill after a while. Something to do with the nature on the magic that made them. A wizard that stayed here two winters ago suggested that these were here before Myth Drannor, or some sort of artifact from an earlier settlement."

Iasa tried to move his legs into a more comfortable position and accidentally knocked aside a smooth stone near the center of the floor. "Look at this," he exclaimed as he brushed away some of the caked earth around a symbol etched into the floor.

"I wonder if that was carved later or if that symbol is actually older than I know it to be?" Kamiel said as he carefully moved to see the circle with a harp in the center.

"Do you know what it means?"

"Yes, but now is not the time to discuss it. You are closer to the door. Can you go check the other guard post? It is the first stair on the left. I will wait for you at the bottom."

"Alright."

Iasa nearly fell down the narrow steps as he rushed down. He quickly found the set of steps Kamiel had asked him to check. Iasa sat on the stone and found the guard tower to work just as the other one had. Out of curiosity, he scratched along the floor with his dagger. Just like the other post, this room had the circle with the harp buried under the caked mud.

"Kamiel," He shouted down. "The harp symbol is in here too. I wonder if it this the key to fixing the one you said did not work?"

"Perhaps, now come down here. "

Iasa walked with a smug gait as he met Kamiel at the bottom.

"There is another reason I asked you down here. I need to speak to you where my mother will not be nosing about."

"What is it, Kamiel?"

"Katla told me that she had other suitors besides Xarlion. She said no name, but often when we are in private, she mentions that I resemble one of them. Which one, she will not say. Since she is only my lover and not my mate, I should not feel so leery, but for some reason I do. I feel it is wrong for me to feel this way. I have been honest about my past lovers."

"Unless you believe that cockamamie story about her sleeping with the god Corellon himself, there was only one other suitor that I know of."

"Will you tell me who?"

"Kymil Nimesin, but she did not like him at all. She thought he was too full of himself."

Kamiel felt a chill run down his spine and a pain in his gut. "Did she sleep with him?" He tried to keep hold of the anger and disgust he felt.

"No. Not as far as I am aware. Are you alright?"

"Yes, just fine. I will be in a moment. Go on ahead. Since all of the side tunnels are secure, it will be easy to find your way back up."

Iasa nodded and turned away from Kamiel. He ran as soon as he was out of Kamiel's sight.

"Damn you Katla." Kamiel breathed to himself as he slammed his fist into the stone wall. He pulled back his throbbing hand and looked at the cuts and the blood running down his hand. He knew it was lucky that he had not broken it.

"No, not Katla. She doesn't know." He thought to himself, "Kymil Nimesin, you are the one who should be damned. I hate you, Kymil Nimesin . I will always hate you." He tore off a piece of his sleeve and wrapped his hand.

Katla could not concentrate well enough to take reverie. Guilt clouded her thoughts and would not allow her to meditate. She should not be jealous over someone in a dream. Jealousy over a lover was for those who had no lover. She was using Kamiel. She knew the feeling of being used was not pleasant, and she hated herself. It did not matter why.

She stood and prepared to go back to her old chamber as soon as Kamiel returned. She enjoyed Kamiel's body, but it no longer felt right to be his partner in lust. She felt that it would hurt both of them if the affair continued. The affair needed to come to an end, and Katla wanted to be the one to end it.

"You are up." Kamiel said flatly as he walked into the room.

"Yes. there is something I want to talk to you about."

"I have some questions myself."

"Kamiel! You have hurt your hand!"

"It's nothing. I was taking out my anger on a stone wall and paid the price. Nothing is broken."

"Have you had one of the clerics or healers who are staying here have a look at it?"

"No. As I said, it is nothing." Kamiel snapped.

"What is the matter?"

"Did you take Nimesin as your lover?"

"What?"

"Answer me! Did you take Kymil Nimesin as your lover?"

"No! I did not like him. I was flattered by his offer at first, but I did not like him at all!"

"Good, because I refuse to have his leftovers from that piece of offal."

"I see."

"The man is the vilest person on the face of Aber-Toril! I do not doubt he would have used you to do his dirty work. If you ever see him again, do not trust him. He is ruthless and evil, no matter what praise his peers give him."

Katla blinked and tried to hide her shock at the violent display Kamiel was making as he paced back and forth and ranted on about every vile thing he could think of that Nimesin had done to himself and others he knew. Katla was unsure that Nimesin could be capable of such deceit and never been caught.

"If that ass knew the location of the Ranger's Rest was, he might be inclined to burn it down with the well placed pitch pots he likes to use."

Katla furrowed her brow at Kamiel's choice of words. Her mind wandered a moment wondering why. Katla had been involved in two fires that nearly claimed her life. She began to wonder if her refusal to wed Nimesin had anything to do with both murder attempts. "Pitch pots? Pitch pots, like those found near my home?" She thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and decided not to think on the past, but rather deal with the situation in front of her. "Calm yourself Kamiel. Getting angry will not help right now. We are snowed in, and as for Nimesin , he can cloister himself in a hole full of rats for all I care."

Kamiel took a few deep breaths and sat on the bed. " I hate Nimesin worse than any being on the face of the world. He has more than once made attempts on my life and on the lives of my family. Just knowing that he sought to make you his wife, disgusts me."

"I see. Then you will not fault me if I choose to move back into my own room?"

"I think it would be wise, for the time being."

"I have been having disturbing dreams during reverie, but the one during my nap was stronger. We should spend some time away from being lovers."

"I was thinking much the same. You will be leaving for Straankeep as soon as the snows start to melt?"

"I will. I need to work on my clerical studies. I also wish to become a knight of the Astral Blade, or rather, it seems that my destiny is pointing me to become a knight."

Kamiel sat on the bed and nodded as Katla picked up her things and left for her own room.

Katla wondered if spring would ever come.

The upper rooms became colder as a blizzard piled up a blanket of snow two stories high.

Fuel for the small braziers in the private rooms was running low, so the people inside the lodge moved down into the great hall to conserve warmth. Between the heat from the kitchen fires and the larger braziers in the great hall, Kamiel assured everyone they would survive out the wicked storm.

Yuula added that they had plenty of food in the stores as long as no one was gluttonous or wasteful with the food.

Katla took her turns in the kitchens, the watch posts and other duties assigned to her, but she felt no sense of satisfaction in her work. No matter how much praise she received for work well done, she did not feel that she was doing enough.

The strange visions, similar to the one Katla had during her nap, kept invading her thoughts during reverie. In order to avoid the visions, she took reverie less and less.

Her restlessness was made worse by Kamiel. Kamiel made a blatant show of flirting with several of the other female guests whenever Katla was in the room. Katla did not mind the flirting, but the way Kamiel would turn to her with a smug expression every time she glanced his way made her upset.

Katla wanted to talk to Kamiel, not to scold, only to speak to him about his comment on Kymil's pitch pots. Kamiel always found some way to walk off and ignore her completely.

Work in the kitchens became more of a chore than it should have been. Yuula constantly berated Katla. "You ruined my son. I do not what kind of spell you used on him, but he will never find true love now. Not after he had your body."

She traded work in the watch posts with anyone who would let her. If Kamiel wanted to be out of her sight, then she would do so. She hoped being out of his sight would help her odd dreams dissipate.

Her rigorous work schedule helped fend off the dreams for a short time. Eventually, the visions came to her in her waking moments.

To avoid Kamiel, Yuula, and anyone else who would make her feel hated, she moved into the lower tunnel leading to the guard posts. Once there, she reverted to practicing with her sword in order to alleviate her tension. She craved the euphoria of battle. While training did not fill the void, it helped her feel better.

Iasa grew very concerned when Katla moved into the tunnel. "What did Kamiel do to you?"

"Nothing."

"He had to have done something to make you like this. I have never seen you this bad. I hope you don't start crying the flower tears. How in the hell am I going to explain that to Yuula?"

"I don't care. This has nothing to do with Kamiel or flowers or you."

"You are working yourself too hard."

"I am keeping the visions away." Katla blurted out before she had a chance to stop herself.

"You have told me nothing about visions. I am your best friend. Why have you not told me this?"

"It is none of your concern."

"To the hells it is not! It is not just my concern, but everyone's here if yougrow ill."

"I am not ill, just bothered."

"Well you being bothered is making you ill. I can see it clearly even if no one else does." He shook his head a couple of times, "How could they when you avoid everyone? No one can see you have lost weight. Your eyes have hollowed from lack of rest." He stood and tapped his finger against his chin. " I have an idea. Wait here."

Katla groaned heavily as Iasa sped upstairs. She did not want help. This was something she had to sort through on her own, or at least she believed so.

Bhintel walked slowly down the steps laden with a basket of bread he was taking to those in the watch posts. "You will catch a cold if you stay down here too long. Spring is on its way, despite the heavy storms."

"How can you tell, Bhintel?"

"Look around you at the moisture in the cavern. It is starting to flow in small rivulets, rather than in icy spurts." He said as he put a finger on one of the walls. "The moss is getting bigger as well."

"Is that how they know the seasons in the underdark?"

"One of the ways. Here, I have an extra loaf of bread, I will share half of it with you after I make sure Ormin and the other boy are not asleep at their posts. Winter makes the body exhausted too quickly."

Katla nodded as Bhintel walked past her to make his deliveries. He quickly returned and sat by her. "Now, talk to me."

"Iasa did not send you down here?"

"No, I saw him speed upstairs as I was coming this direction. Not that it matters. You need to talk to someone. You have been avoiding everyone for days."

"I don't really feel like talking."

"But you will. I will be the one to listen. You are not the only outcast in this place."

Katla looked in the directions of the guard posts and back to Bhintel. "Ormin des not seem to mind. He is your son, yet no one treats him any differently. Not the way they treat you and me."

"He has always been coddled and protected by Yuula and has been surrounded by love. He has no idea what it means to be half drow. He will not until he is confronted with it in full force."

Katla nodded and looked at the damp floor of the tunnel.

"Do you think being an elf-bane any worse than being a drow on the surface?" Bhintel asked.

"I don't know. I have never been a drow."

Bhintel chuckled. "So true. But the hate is the same, I imagine. Always either being used or running for your life."

Katla nodded again. "Then there is the dreams I have whenever I sleep or take reverie."

"Tell me. Dreams can reveal much. It was a dream that initially brought me to the surface, I was frightened at first, not knowing what it meant. Even prophetic dreams are steeped in allegory."

"I see someone I love very much making love with someone else, but for some reason, I see that other woman as being me, and yet not me. It makes no sense."

"Kamiel avoiding you does not help either. Do not look surprised. I have eyes. Kamiel seems to be thinking with his loins rather than with his head these days."

"I thought he was my friend. It does not bother me that we are no longer lovers. He avoids me for no reason. I just need to talk to him on an important matter. I don't understand at all. When he found out Kymil Nimesin had been one of my suitors, he changed. He thinks of me as vile. The whole courtship to Nimesin was none of my doing. I never liked the man."

Bhintel furrowed his brow and wrinkled his nose. "He never bothered to explain his anger?"

"No, he only said that he hated Nimesin worse than any other being."

Bhintel whistled as he let out a breath. "This is complicated, because he did not tell you, and I am unsure if I should."

Katla looked up at Bhintel as tears that she kept inside began to leak down her face. "Please tell me."

Bhintel groaned and closed his eyes. He shook his head as he stood.

Katla grabbed his arm. "Please, I beg of you. Kamiel will not talk to me. I must know!"

Bhintel gently removed Katla's hand and walked towards the stairs. He turned for a moment to regard Katla as she huddled on the floor. He took a deep breath as he spoke, "Kymil Nimesin is Kamiel's natural father."

The bowl of one of the small braziers from the private rooms came rolling down the stairs. Iasa stood in the doorway and looked at Bhintel in disbelief. "He is what?"

Bhintel turned to Iasa , "Go pick up the brazier, Iasa, before Yuula finds out you brought it down here and dented it." He slowly pushed past Iasa through the door.

"Oh Katla, I am so sorry." Iasa said as he dropped the bundle next to her.

"You know better than any one that I need no pity."

"Not that. I spilled some of the oil and pitch that was leftover in the brazier onto your clean clothes."

"What do you think you are doing, Iasa?"

"I am your best and oldest friend. I am moving down here with you, so I can make sure you don't get sick." He sat next to Katla after he picked up the small brazier and put it upon its tripod.

"I will be fine."

"Now you will, with the extra body heat and the heat from that borrowed brazier, this place will be cozy in no time."

"Oh Iasa," Katla said as she threw her arms around him, "You are starting to act like yourself again, like you did before all this elf-bane madness happened!"

Iasa took a deep breath and pulled her closer into his arms. He spoke nothing of his lust or longing. He knew Katla needed a friend now, not a lover, and was ready to oblige her.

A loud banging on one of the windows of the upper rooms broke Kamiel's rest. He unwound the supple legs of the female from around him, got up and dressed. He grabbed a sword that was propped against the wall before climbing the stairs to investigate. "Damn those fools at the watch posts. No one should have gotten this close."

He whipped back the curtains of the window in the empty room, expecting an enemy, only to find Iain's nose pressed to the pane of the magical window. A grin plastered on his face.

Kamiel dropped the sword and pressed the knot in the wall that allowed the barrier to disappear.

Iain tumbled in head first. The wizard was laughing as Kamiel helped him the rest of the way into the room before closing the magical window.

"What is the matter with you? Don't you know you could have been killed?"

"Bah! I know where those magic watchtowers are. I revealed myself and waved as I walked past."

"I am not talking about the guard posts. How in the hells..." Kamiel started before he looked at the strange contraptions on Iain's feet.

"Like 'em? I made them myself,using instructionsfrom one of my books. Northeastern nomads use them to walk the snowdrifts there. They are called snow shoes. " Iain rattled as he unstrapped the round, netted devices from off of his boots. "I have found the answer. I need to talk to your lady at once."

"My lady?" Kamiel said as he lead Iain down the stairs to the great hall.

"Katla, you silly boy. "

"Oh." Kamiel looked around the room, expecting to see Katla among the guests. He frowned as he noticed that neither she nor any of her belongings were in sight.

Iasa calmly walked in from downstairs. " Oh I see he made it in. Since it was Iain, we saw no need to raise an alarm."

"And who is 'we'?"

"The three of us manning the guard posts, of course." Iasa bit back.

"Why three? Only two of the posts are working."

"Well, then you have not been listening because Lysar told you last week me and one of the other wizards staying here got the third one working. Lysar himself is leading the group that is digging the other two posts out. Of course you head was down Aliba's cleavage both times, so perhaps you did not hear."

"Aliba?" Iain questioned.

"One of the guests, Iain. Iasa, where is Katla? I don't see her or her things."

Iasa blew up in Kamiel's face, waking the entire room. "You are dense as a piece of stone! Katla moved into the tunnels nearly three weeks ago. I moved down there last week, as did Lysar to keep her from killing herself. She has been taking up every guard duty she can get. This time she has been in the guard post for nearly four days straight and won't let anyone relieve her of her post. She just takes the food we deliver and growls for us to leave. Not that you would care. You haven't been paying attention to anything or anyone as of late. Good thing Bhintel and Lysar are around to keep things going while you wallow in your own pleasures! You selfish, unfeeling clod!"

Kamiel stood there stunned as he looked back to Iasa and then to the faces around the room. Every face he met turned away from him. Kamiel felt small. He realized he was acting the same way Nimesin, his absent father, might act and he was ashamed.

"Well are you going to just stand there, or are you going to make things right for what you did? You know better than anyone that staying in the watch posts can make the guard ill." Iasa said in a calm tone.

"I will go talk to her. Iasa, will you get something for Iain to drink. I am certain he is exhausted after his walk."

Katla wondered to herself how she could stand the stink of the guard post. If it had been anything other than her own mess, she knew she could not. How many days she had gone without sleep or reverie, she did not know. She had grown ill. She did not want Iasa or Lysar, whom had moved into the tunnel with them a day after Iasa had, to know of her illness.

Her clothing was heavily soiled from sweat, vomit and lack of hygiene. Her hair fell in limp, dirty clumps around her face and down her back.

Bits of uneaten food littered the floor. She had not bothered to empty the chamber pot she had brought with her, adding to the vile stench of the place.

She hoped that if she stayed at the post long enough, Lysar and Iasa would go back to staying in the great hall.

The first few days the two had stayed down in the tunnel with her were nice, but as time went on, they kept trying to get her to go back to living upstairs. She could not handle going back up there. Going up there would make the dreams, which she had managed to suppress, come back.

Katla felt that if she stayed in the tunnel until spring broke fully, she and Iasa would be able to slip out of the lodge without Kamiel noticing.

"Katla?"

Katla ignored the voice calling to her, believing it was her mind playing tricks on her once again from her lack of rest.

"By the gods, Katla!"

Katla turned her weary eyes towards the opening to the guard post to see Kamiel crouched there, his eyes wide with worry.

"Go away."

"Katla, at least let me help you clean this place up. Let me empty the chamber pot and go get a small broom to sweep up."

"Go away."

"You can't stay here, Katla. You will die if you do."

"Then I will no longer be a burden."

"I will take this and be right back." Kamiel took the chamber pot to the garderobe in the dungeons and left it there.

Kamiel went to the kitchen to find a hand broom.

"What do you think you are doing?" Yuula said as her son started to rush out. "A broom will not clean seed off the stone floor."

"I am going to go sweep out one of the guard posts."

"The one it is in?"

"Katla is not an, 'it.' I have never seen anyone in such despair before. I can not let her die for my mistake."

"Oh let it sit there and die. It turned you into a rutting animal with her vile curse. You quit thinking of anything except your loins since it left your bed."

"Mother! That is not true. I was the one who pushed her away. I overreacted when I found out Kymil Nimesin had been one of her suitors. My anger, and the fact that we are snowed in, is what fueled my 'rutting,' not Katla!"

Yuula stood there stunned. She shuddered at the memory of the man she once thought she had loved. The man who abused her and threw her away. "Did you tell her?" She grabbed Kamiel's tunic and shook him. "Did you tell her who Kymil Nimesin is? Did you tell her what he did?"

"No. And that, mother, I believe is the problem." He yanked his arm away from Yuula and walked out of the room with the small broom and dustpan in his hands.

Katla was in serious pain. "Damn you, Kamiel. Your cruelty doesn't stop. You take my chamber pot away now."

"Katla, I am back. Now you just sit there and rest, I will clean this up."

"Why?" She said as she turned her face away and looked at the landscape.

"Because you are too weak to make it down those stairs."

"I need to piss."

Kamiel reached gently for Katla and smoothed the hair away from her dirty face, causing her to turn and look into his eyes. "I will help you down the stairs."

Katla moved slightly and winced. She pulled the tunic up where it tried to slip off of her withered shoulder.

Tears welled in his eyes as he saw just how thin and sunken Katla had become. "Please. I know I have not earned it and I have been awful to you. But please, give me a chance to earn your trust again." He took Katla by the arm and tried to help her crawl to the entrance.

Katla jerked her arms back and huddled into a ball. "Why? When you act like your father's son?" Katla snapped hoarsely. "Are you going to kill me too? Just like he killed most of my family?"

Kamiel bumped his head on the frame as he jerked up. "What did you say?"

"Kymil Nimesin burned down my house, killing most of my family. I did not make the connection until you said that he would use his pitch potsto burn down the lodge. That is how the trees we lived in were destroyed. I would have been killed if Iasa hadn't pulled me out of the smoke. I wanted to talk to you about it, but you snubbed me, just likeKymil did."

"You know then?"

"Bhintel told me. I think he wanted me to go back to the great hall."

Kamiel simply nodded. He felt more the fool than he had when Iasa had berated him. "Come let me help you out of here. Iain is here, he wants to see you."

"I saw him walking on top of the snow with his strange boots. He is here to see me?"

"Yes. And you will have to come out of there and see him yourself if you want to find out about his contraption. I will help you."

Katla nodded and winced as he helped her down the narrow steps.

Kamiel supported her as he walked her to the garderobe off the dungeons so she could relieve herself.

"You are going to be fine Katla. I will make sure of it. I will prove that I will never be untrustworthy to you again."

Katla simply nodded and smiled. Kamiel had to catch her as she fainted from exhaustion.

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