Drem looked up at the sky again, searching for any sign of the Kadoshim half-breed. She had wheeled above them as the fight with the wyrms had ended, but now she was nowhere to be seen.
And that worries me more. I’d rather know where she is. We need to move, and move fast.
Cullen had found a stream to wash the wyrm slime and muck from his body, while Drem and Keld checked Hammer and Fen over for wounds.
The white bear still lay upon its side. Its breathing was steadier, though, but it appeared to be unconscious. Hammer rumbled over to the fallen beast, sniffed a wound and licked it with her rasping tongue. The white bear didn’t so much as stir.
Without thinking, Drem approached the prone bear, carefully, with one hand on his seax.
Its fur was stained pink, a tapestry of long red lacerations and puncture wounds covering its body. Tentatively, Drem reached out and put his hand upon the bear’s chest, felt its ribs flex as it breathed. Hammer nudged the bear with her muzzle, pushed into it none too gently, rumbled a sound deep in her belly, not quite a growl. The white bear rocked back a little, then rolled back.
Most of the wounds Drem checked were superficial, but then he found an injury high on the shoulder of its left foreleg that was leaking a lot of blood. He bent down and lifted its paw, grunting with the weight. He looked at the point where its claw had been severed, a hand reaching to his throat and touching the claw tied around his neck. A flash of memory, his da throwing himself upon Drem, the two of them rolling out of the bear’s way, Drem lashing out with his seax and slicing the claw. And then followed by another memory, the bear standing over him, sniffing him as he set it free from its cage of iron bars before the walls of Kergard.
It let me live.
He looked at Keld, who was standing back, staring at the bear.
“We need to leave,” Keld said. “Cullen,” he called out.
“Be with you soon,” Cullen called back, “but I can still taste and smell wyrm.”
“I’ve met this bear before,” Drem said, raising the bear claw around his neck and pointing to the bear’s front paw, with its missing claw.
Keld and Cullen shared a look, Keld nodded. “Just until Cullen is ready,” the huntsman said, and Drem hurried to his pack, unbuckled it and pulled out a smaller kit bag. He threw a wad of linen bandages to Keld and the two of them set to patching up the white bear as best they could, cleaning and packing the wounds with honey, comfrey and yarrow, and then binding them with strips of linen.
Footsteps behind them and Cullen ran into the clearing. His red hair had grown back about a knuckle’s length, and it glistened with icy water.
“Think my stones have frozen and fallen off in that stream.” Cullen shivered. He looked at them both, then at the white bear and its bandages. “Are you both moon-mad?” he asked them. “That thing will eat you for its supper.”
“Best be gone before it wakes up, then,” Keld said, hefting his pack onto his back.
Drem threw Cullen his pack.
Cullen slipped it onto his back. He was standing beside one of the dead wyrms. He looked down at it, his mouth twisting in disgust. Drawing his hand-axe, he crouched and chopped at one of its long fangs, hacking it free. He tossed it to Drem.
“Something to add to that bear claw around your neck,” he said with a grin. He chopped the other fang free and threw it to Keld, then strode to another wyrm and took a fang for himself.
“Keepsakes.” Cullen grinned. “To remind us never, ever to come to the Bonefells again.”
“It’s not so bad,” Drem said, feeling protective of this place that had been home to him and his da. As dangerous as it was, it felt like his home, and there was something safe and reassuring about that.
Cullen snorted a laugh and just shook his head.
A rumble issued from the white bear, and its legs jerked.
They all took an involuntary step away from the beast.
The white bear raised its huge head and looked at them. It took a few great sniffs, let out a growl, though to Drem it seemed more confused than aggressive.
Fen padded in front of Keld and bared his fangs at the bear.
The white bear rumbled another growl at Fen.
Now, that one was aggressive.
The white bear rolled onto its belly, managed to get its legs beneath it and heave itself upright, swaying, head lowered with the effort. Spittle drooled from its open mouth as it breathed heavily with the exertion.
Fen growled again, hackles a ridge on his back.
“Easy,” Keld said, resting a palm on the wolven-hound’s side.
The bear took a step towards them, lips curling in a snarl at Fen.
“Here we go again.” Cullen sighed and drew his sword.
Hammer stepped between them and the white bear. She roared at the bear, making its fur ripple as if in a strong wind, and it froze, regarding her.
Drem’s hand dropped to the hilt of his seax and he held his breath, balanced on his toes, waiting for the violence to explode.
The white bear stepped forwards and licked Hammer’s nose.
Fen took a step, snapping and snarling, and the white bear’s head switched onto him, another deep growl from the bear.
Hammer raised a paw and slapped the white bear across the muzzle.
To Drem it looked more like a reprimand than an attack.
The white bear took a step back, its head swivelling onto Hammer, a small growl and a curled lip at her, but nothing else.
Hammer growled back.
The white bear took a step forwards and licked Hammer’s muzzle again.
“I think he likes her,” Cullen whispered, a smile twitching his mouth. “What should we do?”
“Well, as bonny as this all is, we are being hunted by a Kadoshim half-breed, Feral beasts and a giant, so we should probably leave,” Keld answered.
“Agreed,” Cullen said.
Fen growled again at the white bear.
“That’s enough of that,” Keld scolded, and Fen’s ears dropped, tail tucking between his legs. “You’re looking after me, I know, but you can be a bit over-protective sometimes, and right now you’re going to start a fight, lad.” He ruffled the wolven-hound’s head.
They backed away, Fen following them. As they reached the edge of the clearing and stepped into the cover of the pine trees, Keld looked back to call Hammer. She was still standing before the white bear, the two of them sniffing and snorting at each other.
“Come on, girl,” Keld called.
Hammer looked around at Keld, then back at the white bear. She shook her body, fur rippling as if she’d emerged from water, and then lumbered after them.
The white bear stood and stared at Hammer’s considerable rump as it walked away from him, then gave out a rumbling snort and shambled after her, limping.
Keld raised an eyebrow and looked at Cullen and Drem.
Drem shrugged.
They turned and walked on, the two bears following behind them.
Drem stepped out from a thinning stand of pine; snow-covered meadows opened up before him.
The foothills of the Bonefells rose behind them, framed by the looming bulk of mountains, but before Drem and his companions was a long, undulating slope that led down to a vast plain, broken by clusters of jagged crags, knots of woodland and notched ravines.
Drem knew that Keld and Cullen were glad to be leaving the Bonefells.
Because it means we are that much closer to Dun Seren, which is good. But the ground is more open, so we will be much easier to find, especially from above.
“Dun Seren is less than a ten-night that way,” Cullen said, pointing to the south, with his other hand scratching at the red hair on his head that was growing longer now.
“A while before I have my warrior braid back,” Cullen muttered ruefully.
Drem looked up at the sky, searching for bat wings, subconsciously put a finger to his throat and counted the beats of his heart.
“Waiting’s not going to make it any easier,” Keld said and walked out from the cover of trees, choosing a path that hugged boulders and wind-blasted stands of hawthorn.
Some cover, at least.
Fen padded alongside the huntsman, both of them seeming fully recovered now from their injuries.
The Order of the Bright Star breeds them tough.
Drem absently scratched at the scab on his waistline, checked the sky again and then followed, picking his way down the slope. After a short while there was a scraping and creaking of trees and Drem looked back to see Hammer emerge from the pine trees. A few score paces behind her was the white bear, still limping. He had followed Hammer for two days now, keeping his distance, disappearing at night when Drem and the others stopped and made camp, but reappearing each morning to snort and snuffle around Hammer. Hammer did not seem to dislike the attention. After another scolding from Keld, Fen had taken to pretending the white bear was not there.
Keld led them through shadowed paths, though Drem was certain that even if they were hidden from eyes in the sky, Hammer and the white bear were not.
Another glance upwards and Drem saw a flicker of movement, a dark smudge silhouetted by pale cloud.
“Ware,” he called to his companions, and they all melted into the shadows of an overhanging crag. As Drem watched the silhouette above, he realized it was too small for the half-breed Kadoshim.
Just a crow, then.
As Drem looked at it, the bird banked to the left, flying in a wide-looping arc.
Then Cullen was stepping out from the shadows and waving his hands in the air.
The bird above them started cawing, flying in a tighter spiralling loop down to them. As it drew closer, the squawks started to resemble words.
“Cullen, Cullen, Cullen,” the crow squawked, and Cullen held his arm out, the crow alighting on his shoulder. It was huge for a crow, far bigger than Rab, its feathers neat and glossy.
“Ach, but it’s good to see you, Flick,” Cullen said, scratching the bird’s chest.
“Flick happy see Cullen,” the bird croaked. “And Keld and Fen.” Flick regarded Drem with one shiny eye, his head cocked to one side. “Well met, Drem ben Olin,” he said, bobbing his head.
“Well met,” Drem said, a little taken aback.
“Flick is the politest bird in Crow Tower,” Cullen said, grinning.
“Flick, what news?” Keld said.
“Rab told us all. Gulla in north. Sig dead.” Flick shook his head mournfully. “Byrne ANGRY,” he squawked loudly, flapping his wings for emphasis. “Byrne called the muster, Byrne want to KILL GULLA.” Flick shrieked. “All of Order summoned to Dun Seren. Byrne sent lots of huntsmen to find you. Stepor closest.”
Hammer lumbered up behind them.
“Well met, Hammer,” Flick croaked. The bear rumbled at the crow. Then Flick jumped into the air with a flap of wings when he saw the white bear appear behind Hammer.
“Hammer has an admirer,” Cullen said, with a roll of his eyes.
Flick landed back on Cullen’s shoulder.
“Stepor? Good,” Keld said. “How far away is he?”
“Two, three days,” Flick croaked, shrugging his wings. “Follow Flick.” With a beat of his wings the crow leaped into the air.