So here begins Fire and Ice. Truly, not my additional chapter from last week. Something about this chapter that vexed and amused me while writing (and it most definitely did as I'm remembering it clearly these months later), is that in this chapter they mention that they need to water the horses at the river before the road veers away from it. However, this is the last time in the ENTIRE BOOK that horses are mentioned at all. I have a plan for fixing this!
I hope you like this chapter!
-owl
The weather was terrible. A strong wind pushed at Meilin's back, urging her along the path. She didn't need the help, though. She was angry enough as it was, and that gave her all the drive she needed to keep going. The only way to avenge her father was to defeat the Devourer, and to do that, they needed the talismans.
Meilin knew that she was being a right pain for the others to be around, but she also didn't really care. They were riding in a single file line, their horses nose to tail. Tarik was in the lead and Meilin was bringing up the rear.
The cold wind blew again, and Meilin rubbed her arms vigorously to calm the goosebumps that appeared.
Rollan stepped his horse out of the line and let himself fall in step with Meilin. "It's only going to get colder from here," he commented, wrapping himself tighter in his green cloak. "Like unfriendly cold. Bite-your-nose-off cold."
"Yeah."
The boy grinned suddenly. "Did I ever tell you the story of a fellow lousy street rat who dared a rich kid to lick an iron lamppost in the middle of winter? The rich kid was stuck, and he got robbed of everything he had, even his coat and shoes!"
Meilin gave a noncommittal grunt. "I don't suppose the street rat in your story had a name that begins with R and ends with n?"
Rollan gave the air that he was appalled that she would accuse him of that. "Of course not! I was never lousy. And I only tell you this story as a warning because you have the unfortunate habit of licking lampposts."
Meilin almost smiled. Ever since the battle in the empty Lake of the Elephant, she had been sullen and antisocial. Rollan seemed to be doing the opposite, though probably to try to cheer her up. Their journey to get Dinesh's talisman was too heavy a loss. She wouldn't rest until the Devourer — her father's killer — was dead.
"There's a crossroads ahead," Tarik called back. "We'll stop for the night."
"It's not dark yet." Meilin objected.
"We're going to stop because we need to water the horses, and the river veers away soon after the crossroads."
Meilin huffed, but didn't say anything in response. She followed suit with the others and dismounted her horse, stewing in her anger over not covering more ground and not being able to get closer to their goal and, by proxy, the end of the war.
"Did you hear me?" Abeke's voice broke into her thoughts.
"What?" Meilin snapped at the girl.
Abeke sighed and repeated her question. "Do you want to come with me to find firewood?"
Meilin nodded and followed the Niloan girl away from the horses and began to gather wood for a fire. About twenty paces from the horses they split up. There were plenty of dry sticks and branches littering the forest floor. It didn't take long before Meilin's arms were full of firewood and she had to return as she couldn't carry any more.
Abeke had already returned, and a pile of wood was already in the circle of stones that they had set up. Meilin added her armload to the pile. A few paces away Rollan and Conor were setting up bedrolls. Tarik was preparing food to be cooked once there was a fire. Lucette was sitting next to the fire pit, Bryer by her side. Also next to the pit was another Greencloak, Maya. The Euran girl was somewhere between Meilin and Lucette in age, and her hair was a distinct ginger.
"Don't we need kindling for the fire?" Meilin asked. In her experience, to get a decent fire, one had to start with little twigs and leaves, slowly building up to bigger and bigger sticks.
Lucette shook her head. "I take it you've not seen Maya's trick?"
Maya grinned and pulled up the sleeve of her sweater. With a bright flash, the girl's spirit animal, a fire salamander, appeared in her hand. She took a deep breath and drew her empty hand away from the one holding the salamander, bringing with it a ball of fire.
Meilin gaped openly at the display.
"I'm not much of a fighter," Maya said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Tini and I only have the one trick."
"But that one trick will serve us well in the icy north," Tarik put in. He had approached with a pot of cold stew that he set over the burning sticks.
Once the stew was ready, they all grabbed a serving and sat down together. They sat in a circle, with the fire in the middle. To Meilin's right was Rollan, Lucette, Maya, Abeke, Tarik, and Conor sitting to her direct left. They were all happily chatting.
"I can't wait to see a walrus!" Rollan announced. "I won't believe they're real until I see one with my own eyes!"
Tarik laughed. "I've told you how many times already, Rollan, they're real, I promise you."
The former street rat just shook his head.
"Where are you going that you'll see walruses?" a strange voice asked.
It was one of the men from one of the nearby camps.
Tarik answered for the group. "Arctica."
"Where d'you plan on crossing the channel?"
"We're planning on finding an Ardu village," Lucette said. "But we were hoping to stop in Samis first."
"Nobody goes to Samis," the man's companion cut in. "They don't let outsiders into the village."
Meilin frowned. That certainly threw a wrench into their plans. They were hoping to get some sort of a lead in the village as to where Suka could be. There had to be a way around them not accepting outsiders, even for a few hours.
While she had been pondering, the two strangers had wandered away.
"If they don't allow outsiders," Abeke said. "They must rely only on what they can make themselves. There were a few times that traders came to Okaihee and we were quick to trade with them to get metal goods. What if we brought some as gifts?"
Tarik smiled. "That's a great idea, Abeke. Why don't you, Conor, Meilin, and Rollan go see what you can find." After he spoke he pulled out a few copper and a few silver coins from the money bag he carried and handed them to her.
Meilin followed the other three away from the fire and towards the other groups of people who had camped at the crossroads that night. They were able to find a traveling band of traders that had metal pots they could buy.
As they were leaving to return to their camp, a shriek split the calm evening.
"MY MONEY! SOMEONE TOOK IT!"
One of the traders that they had just been talking to was panickedly patting himself down, even as he looked around on the ground.
Rollan turned around to face the man. Then he pointed at one of the others from the group of traders. "Why don't you check him?" he asked.
The man who had been pointed out started to turn red in rage. "I— I did no such thing! You insult my honor, boy!"
"Mighty defensive for an innocent, don't you think?" Meilin asked, a sweet smile on her face as she looked right at the man accused.
In short order the man was restrained by one of the other traders as another search before pulling out a bag with cut strings. When the bag was held up to the trader who had lost his money, the strings matched perfectly.
"I can't believe you! Harold, you are hereby expelled from our band of traders! We cannot accept this kind of behavior!"
Satisfied with justice having been served, the four children returned to their own campsite.
Later, when they were getting into their bedrolls, Meilin got the sense that something was coming their way, and fast. Without a second thought she stood up and swung her quarterstaff just in time to wallop Harold as he came at Rollan with a particularly sharp looking dagger.
After everyone had settled down and most had fallen asleep, Rollan moved his bedroll over to lay beside Meilin. "Thank you." It was the most sincere that Meilin had ever heard Rollan.
She was going to brush it off, but he held up a hand and stopped her. "No, I really mean it. Back in Concorba, I had a crew, but that didn't necessarily mean that they would have my back like that. I appreciate it more than I think you know."
He reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it a few times. Meilin waited for him to let go, only to eventually hear the tell-tale snores coming from the boy. He had fallen asleep holding her hand. And she didn't seem to mind.
There was now, for nearly the first time since her father had died, hope in Meilin's thoughts. This was the first time she had been able to do something that directly helped another around her. She drifted off to sleep quickly, her hand still in Rollan's.