Chapter 7 - Frostbite

We rode for a long time before we finally allowed our horses to slow to a trot. We had been heading northeast, being sure to not stay directly on the main road just in case Whiterun sent any guards this direction. Borrin reassured us that they likely wouldn't send any search parties too far out until the next day so that they could prepare for the journey. The only thing they would do immediately is send out couriers to all of Skyrim's main holds to inform them that Dragonborn had been assassinated, and that the assassins were on the run. Whoever the real assassin was would surely be on the run like we were, but as far as all of Whiterun knew, we were the murderers. And that made us fugitives, despite the fact that we were innocent.

I pondered that for a moment. A few days ago, I was working the mill, splitting wood and helping Hod move logs about. Now, I was a fugitive running from a death sentence. A few days ago, I wasn't even sure that magic was real. I think maybe I always knew it was to an extent, but I simply couldn't believe it until I experienced it. Borrin healing me, Cal's flame that he produced in our prison cell, and my apparent ability to bend metal without touching it. I recalled the rage I felt in that moment when I was choking the guard in Dragonsreach. I then remembered that we had left the guard there, on the floor, gasping for life. I knew the guard had hit Kaira, but I also knew that, as far as he knew, we were prisoners trying to escape punishment for killing the most revered man in Skyrim. He was just doing his duty, and we just left him there to die, because of whatever I had done to his armor…

I tried to shake the thought, but Kaira spoke gently, "Jol? You're sulking again. I can tell. You're looking off at nothing." Still sitting behind me on our horse, she moved one of her hands from my waist and placed it on my arm, "What is it?"

"You mean besides the fact that we've just ridden a horse at full speed for the last hour? Or the fact that it's getting colder? Or that we're running from the law?" I said this with a tone of irritation, and Kaira began to remove her hand from my arm, but I placed my hand on hers before she could move it, "I'm sorry. I'm just… You know I don't complain normally. My head is still throbbing from being hit, this ring in my ear won't go away, and I can't stop thinking about how we can't go home now."

I felt Kaira's grip on my arm tighten as she spoke, and I squeezed my hand tighter on hers as well, with my other hand still holding the reins, "Jol, we'll eventually be able to go back. We just... We just have to clear our names, is all."

"How do we do that?" I asked, trying to stifle my irritation. I wasn't irritated at Kaira, but just at everything that was happening. Not to mention, my stomach was grumbling because I hadn't eaten in over a day.

Kaira's voice was soft, but she also managed a sense of directness, "I'm honestly not sure. Frankly, I don't even know where to begin. We have not a single idea who really assassinated Dragonborn, and no leads to start off with." She paused, perhaps realizing that she wasn't sounding very reassuring, before she continued, "All I know is that I saw a hooded figure. And I think I may have seen them climbing over the wall right after it happened."

I looked over my shoulder, suddenly recalling, "I remember now, I think I saw that too. My head has been cloudy since I was knocked out, but I remember seeing someone standing right over our shoulders with a bow and arrow when we were cheering Dragonborn on. And I saw someone go over the wall shortly after Dragonborn was shot. I had forgotten until you mentioned it just now."

Kaira was quiet for a moment, perhaps trying to think, before asserting, "We at least know that we are dealing with someone who knows what they are doing. They were gone within seconds of shooting that arrow at Dragonborn. And it was a clean shot, from a long distance. Certainly a professional."

"Do you… Do you think it could have been someone like The Dark Brotherhood?" I asked, although this was a wild guess, as I only knew of the stories about this alleged organization.

"No. I don't think so. I'm sure that is not the case." Kaira was almost laughing at the fact that I had suggested such a thing.

I was a little taken aback by the certainty that she said this with. How would she know? I wanted to ask her, but we had caught up to Borrin on his horse, and Cal and Garren on their horse, all of us trotting now in a slightly uneven line. I changed the subject, "So, how did you pull that off back there, getting us out of the dungeons?"

"I've been wondering that myself," Borrin seconded, overhearing, "Was the explosion something you did?"

"That it was," Kaira responded in a smug tone. I turned to look at her sitting behind me on our horse, and she had a smile on her face, looking between all of us. "It was a whole lot of fire salts, packed in a small barrel. Enough of that stuff will make a hole in any wall. It made for a nice distraction for the guards while we escaped, obviously. But even better, you can be sure that they think we ran off southwest, since the hole I blew in the wall was on the southwest side."

"Clever. Hm." Borrin nodded as if to approve. His eyebrows were furrowed, though, and he looked almost as if he wished he was the one that had thought of Kaira's scheme.

"Some of it was luck, but the rest just came down to a simple plan and a bit of improvising. Pickpocketing the guard for the key to your cell was far easier than I thought it would be. Those dungeons are rather poorly lit." After Kaira finished, Garren excitedly asked her how she had made the fire salts explode. As she explained this, I trailed off into thought. She knew how to pickpocket, how to move about unseen? And how did she know to get fire salts to create an explosive? Where did she learn these things?

Some time later, the conversation had long ended and the snow was really starting to pick up. It seemed every single step we took towards the north grew darker, colder, and harsher. All of us now had cloaks on with our hoods pulled up, trying to fight the stinging gusts of wind. Exhaustion was truly starting to seep into my bones now as well. I could feel myself on the verge of nodding off despite being on horseback. Yet at the same time, the pangs of hunger combined with the numbing chill created an almost torturous state of existence that wouldn't allow me to fall asleep.

As we were making our way through a somewhat sparse pine forest, Borrin spoke, "I think it is safe at this point for us to stop and just take a short rest. Get off our horses, stretch our legs for a moment." His voice was nearly cut off here and there by the arhythmic gusts of wind as it whipped around the almost sand-like granules of snow. Nonetheless, we had all heard Borrin's words and it seemed that we all jumped out of our saddles as soon as he finished speaking. I reached a hand up to help Kaira down as well, and she took my hand with a smile, but I knew she did not really need my help getting down. Her feet hit the ground with the grace of a cat.

The insides of my legs felt sore from being on the saddle so long, and looking around, it seemed everyone was walking a bit oddly as we got used to being on the ground again. Garren declared that he needed to go relieve himself, and Cal concurred, both of them walking off in slightly different directions for privacy. I realized I was parched, and as if reading my mind, Kaira handed me a waterskin. It was nearly full, and I was very careful not to spill any as I drank. The icy cold water certainly did not help the fact that I was numb from the cold, but my mouth and throat were so dry that I welcomed it regardless as the cold liquid wetted my throat.

"I may need to step away for a moment myself," Kaira said somewhat quietly, implying that she needed to go and relieve herself as well. I nodded, rubbing and patting the side of our horse's neck as she walked off and disappeared behind a tree.

Holding the dapple-gray's reigns, I walked him over with me next to where Borrin stood. Borrin was patting his horse as well, and he was looking around in all directions as he always seemed to do. "How far are we, do you think?" I asked, trying not to sound too bothered by the current conditions. Somehow, Borrin looked completely unperturbed by the cold, and he showed no signs of weariness.

"It's hard to say, especially now that we've really veered away from the main road. If we ride hard, we might be at the inn in eight hours or so." My heart sank at Borrin's answer. We had already been riding for hours, and pushing our horses to their limits. It would be morning soon, and none of us had slept for even a minute.

"Should we set up camp? Maybe a couple hours of rest would be good enough to keep everyone alert." I did my best to sound as if I was only referring to everyone else, but I could have nearly fallen asleep where I was standing at that moment.

"Aye, normally I would agree with you," Borrin said in a low voice, squinting and looking through the dark pines all around us, "but I don't think we want to camp here. I really think we need to be out of this forest first." This time I looked around, studying the barely-visible shapes of the pine trees up and down, and on top of the darkness, visibility was hindered even further by the fine snow that was still being dusted around by the wind. It really was an eerie sight. Just then, I thought I could faintly hear some sort of footsteps distantly in the snow, but it didn't sound like normal footsteps. It sounded like several steps overlapping each other. Borrin was now looking in one direction, focussing towards where I had heard the sound come from. The horses began to make noise, stomping their front hooves and jerking their heads slightly as they huffed. I knew this meant they were spooked by something, and I could feel my senses heighten suddenly. Borrin commanded, not quite yelling, "Everyone, back to the horses, right away."

Kaira appeared next to me, looking around cautiously. Cal came back as well, and soon after, Garren appeared. "What's going on?" Garren began to ask, but Borrin shushed him, holding a hand up. I suddenly saw a large shadow cross in front of a tree, and there was a strange, liquid sound as something came hurtling through the air and landed right in front of my horse. The horse reared itself up, ripping the reins from my hand as it ran off into the trees.

I looked down, and whatever hand landed in front of the horse was some sort of dark, sticky substance that splattered into the snow. Borrin looked as well, then looked back up as several more shadows began to appear, muttering, "Frostbite spiders." As they got closer, I could now see that the creatures were indeed moving about on eight legs, and they were moving with great speed. Their quickness alone made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Borrin released the reins of his horse, reached behind his back, and pulled out his sword just in time to slice a spider that charged at him into a diagonal half. "Watch out for the venom!" He yelled, moving towards a group of three more spiders. They spanned about five feet across each, and stood about to the height of my chest from what I could see in the darkness. Their many legs scurried effortlessly across the snow-covered terrain. I turned to face a group that was heading towards me, Kaira, Cal, and Garren. Without any thought, my bow was in my hands, and I released an arrow towards one of the creatures as it darted towards us. It fell instantly, sliding several feet due to its momentum, stopping just ten feet from us. I turned to another, and again without any thought, I had already knocked another arrow and had fired it at the spider. It tripped over itself, struggling for a moment before rolling on its back and curling its legs, letting out a repulsive squeak as it died.

As two other spiders closed in on us, Kaira made two swift movements with her wrist, and the two spiders suddenly collapsed. She quickly ran up to them and recovered two daggers that she had thrown. I didn't even know she was carrying daggers. I shot another arrow, dispatching another spider that I saw further out between two trees. Looking over at Cal, I realized Cal was also firing off arrows, and Garren stood not far behind him, holding up his sword but looking frightened out of his skin. I didn't blame him. Suddenly, a spider came from the side and managed to reach Cal, knocking him to the ground. I saw the spider's many eyes and horrifyingly large fangs for the first time. Suppressing a shutter, I raised an arrow, but the spider was right over Cal as Cal was kicking it back with his boots, and I was afraid I would strike Cal by accident if I released my arrow. Just then, the spider managed to knick Cal's thigh with one of its fangs, but was interrupted as Garren charged forward and drove his sword into the spider's side. The spider squealed, stumbling backwards. Once it regained its footing, it quickly turned and disappeared back in the direction it had come.

Cal was yelping in pain, and Borrin rushed over quickly, apparently having dispatched the other group of spiders entirely on his own. "Were you bitten?"

"Slightly," Cal said agonizingly, breathing through his teeth and letting out occasional groans. We were all now standing around Cal. Garren was looking at his sword with disgust as it was covered in the guts of the spider he had slain. He crouched down and wiped it on the ground.

"What do we do?" I asked urgently, looking at Borrin.

"First and foremost, we need to find some place to hole up, and quickly." Borrin answered. "Kaira, Garren, could you try to fetch the horses? I think we will have scared off other frostbite spiders, they'll smell their kins' blood. But to be safe, don't go too far. Stay close to one another." Kaira nodded, and Garren still looked scared, his eyes widened, but they both began walking in the direction of wear the horses ran, making clicking sounds with their mouths.

"It's getting worse," Cal groaned, clenching his thigh where the bite had landed, and his eyes were squeezed shut.

"There's got to be something we can do," I demanded.

Borrin simply shook his head, "We don't have any sort of antidotes. There might be something in this forest that could help, but it is more important that we take shelter as soon as possible." Minutes later, Garren and Kaira actually appeared with all of the horses, Garren with one of the bays, and Kaira with the other bay and the dapple-gray. "Quickly, Jol. Let's get your brother onto a horse." We both helped Cal stand up, with an arm around each of our shoulders. He yelped in pain again as he stood up initially, and then he hopped over to his horse, using Borrin and I as support. We hoisted him up, and once he was settled, we all climbed onto our respective horses. Cal looked as if he could barely hold himself on his horse, but Garren held onto him to make sure he didn't fall.

Borrin immediately led us into a fast trot towards the northeast again. I tried to keep mine and Kaira's horse close to Borrin's as I asked as discreetly as possible, "How long does he have?"

"With frostbite venom and no treatment," Borrin said in a somber voice, "Perhaps a day or two."