Chapter 38

Roh and Kihin met Luna out in the chilly courtyard of Kuonrada. They borrowed bears from the kennel boys with a note from Ora Dasai, marked by Keeper Takanaa. The bears were bigger than Roh was used to and didn’t have the forked tongues of the bears in Dhai. Their feet were broader, their coats shaggier.

The little party traversed the slippery ways of Kuonrada, through the walls of the keep, to the threshold of the massive city wall. As the bears stepped onto the road, Roh gazed over the broken, craggy landscape of snow and ice. He hadn’t been outside the hold since he entered it many weeks before.

Kihin had the book Dasai had tasked them with delivering bundled up on the saddle behind him. “Fresh air, at least?”

“And fun,” Luna said. “You’ll like the Bone Festival.”

“It sounds… different,” Kihin said.

“You don’t kill people during it, do you?” Roh said.

“Roh, that’s very rude,” Kihin said.

“It’s a fair question,” Luna said. “Did you know that when the Dhai ruled here” – he made a sweeping gesture across the wintry landscape – “they used to feed the Saiduan to bears during ascendance ceremonies?”

“I get it, all right,” Roh said.

“Let’s go,” Kihin said. He hung back with Roh as Luna urged his bear forward, and said, “Try, just this once, to not talk so much. I’m surprised none of those dancers killed you.”

“We got along very well,” Roh said.

“I bet,” Kihin said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, just… try to be nice.”

“I’m always nice!”

“Politic, then.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Kihin sighed. “Just… let me do the talking this one time.”

“I’m not sure you’re a very strong speaker.”

“Roh…” Kihin made a sound of distress. “Just… be quiet.”

“Are you coming?” Luna called back at them.

“Yes!” Kihin said, and patted his bear forward.

The cold outside was vicious, even bundled up as Roh was. His eyes stung, and he could have used another layer over his ears. He slowed his pace after a while, and Luna slowed next to him. Kihin took longer to catch up. They came upon the village a few hours later and left their bears with a stir of others in a broad pen. Luna led them to a bowled half theater dug into one of the hills. The circular space in front of the theater was penned and gated. Blood colored the snow.

The three of them sat shoulder to shoulder, pressed close to the other spectators. Roh stood up when the wolves were brought in, muzzled and hobbled, growling. He had never seen a real wolf before and didn’t know what to expect when Luna told them they would see “wolf dancing.” The three in the ring were big brutes, thick in the shoulders. Their eyes were unsettling, not yellow but a peculiar sort of gold that made Roh shiver. Unlike dogs, the wolves were a uniform black from nose to tail tip. They were physically bigger than dogs, more muscular, not sleek enough to saddle, even allowing for the shoulder-saddles used on all dogs.

“That’s Shodav,” Luna said. “The one Ora Dasai wants us to meet.” He pointed to a stir of brightly colored figures approaching the pen from the sidelines. There were five men, Shodav the tallest and oldest. The others looked like children or adolescents, thin and young. They were not dressed for the cold. The headbands and short trousers, ornate belts and streamers of ribbons at their elbows were ornamental, not practical.

“Aren’t they cold?” Roh asked.

“It’s like a battle frenzy, Shodav says. Keeps them warm,” Luna said.

The dancers leapt up on top of the wall ringing the circle and raised their arms to the crowd. The audience stamped their feet and hollered at the dancers. Roh strained to see around them. Luna elbowed someone.

The dancers jumped into the ring as a purple-clad man hit a gong. The sound reverberated in the cold air. The wolf handlers pulled off the wolves’ muzzles and jumped out of the ring.

The wolves snarled and leapt, and so did the dancers. The wolves paced the five dancers as a pack. The dancers leapt clear of them. A small boy gave leverage to his companion, who jumped up over the back of one of the wolves, spun, and landed neatly on his feet as the smaller boy sprang out of the path of the wolf.

The wolves snapped at the dancers careening over their heads and snarled at the tumbling boys. When one boy caught too much attention, Shodav jumped forward to call away the wolf.

After the dance, Luna brought Roh and Kihin around the back of the stage and introduced them to Shodav. Shodav, despite the cold, was covered in sweat. His hair hung down his back in a spiral of braids twisted through with tiny bells and brightly colored string. He grinned at Luna. He was missing his front teeth.

“Hello, maggot,” Shodav said. He collected Luna up into an embrace.

“Hey, stop!” Luna said, laughing. “I’m not that little.”

“Only just,” Shodav said, returning him to the snow. He took in Roh and Kihin. “What, are you collecting a set?”

“These are my friends,” Luna said. “Roh and Kihin. They’re from Dhai. They brought a book to translate, from Ora Dasai.”

“Ah, Ora Dasai. Business.”

Shodav led the party back to his house. There were only three rooms in the house and one hair-stuffed mattress on the floor.

They sat around a low table on cushions, like Dorinahs. The little stone house was well furnished with intricate hangings and rich carpets. It stank of sod and incense. Shodav made them tea.

“I expected Ora Dasai to come himself,” Shodav said.

“He told us to bring you this,” Kihin said, pulling the book from the bag at his hip.

Shodav unwrapped the book from its cloth binding. Turned the first page. Roh saw a blank piece of green paper inside, the sort that official messages in Dhai were written on. But it was blank.

“Ah,” Shodav said, considering the page. “You’re to take this, then.” He went back into the bedroom and returned with another book. He pushed it across the low table toward Roh.

Roh looked at the characters on the front. They weren’t any language he knew. He opened it. The script was unintelligible.

“What’s this?” he said.

“Talamynii,” Shodav said. “Ora Dasai will know where to find the proper translator for it.”

“So, what’s in here?” Roh asked.

“A record of the Talamynii in your country, I believe,” Shodav said. “To be honest, that’s only a guess. It was the best match for the criteria Ora Dasai gave me.”

When all the tea was drunk, Shodav bid them farewell. They rode back out of town and came to a river crossing at dusk. Kihin and Luna rode up onto the glittering ice together ahead of Roh, heads bent toward one another. Roh lingered behind, watching them talk. The wind picked up, pelting him with icy snow. He shielded his eyes.

Roh heard a noise and pulled his hands away from his face.

Luna wasn’t there anymore.

Kihin was off his mount, bending toward a splashing form in the dark water. A jagged hole had opened in the ice.

Kihin’s bear roared and let loose toward the other side of the river.

Roh urged his bear forward. He dismounted and ran to the river’s edge. The crack opened up from the riverside to the gash where Luna and his mount had disappeared.

Roh slid out onto the ice on his belly. He reached the edge of the hole as Luna’s hands lost their grip on the ice.

Luna was carried under.

Kihin screamed, in Dhai, “He’s gone under! He’s gone under!”

Roh looked at the great sheet of dark ice. He saw nothing of Luna. He edged closer to the riverbank and stood up. He began sliding along the surface.

“The current has him,” Kihin said. Roh heard despair in his voice.

Roh slid farther along the ice. A face pressed up at him from beneath the ice. A bubble of air had formed between the ice and the river. Luna clutched the underside of the depression.

“Here!” Roh said.

He pounded at the ice.

Kihin slid next to him. He hit at the ice. Flakes splintered away.

Roh saw Luna’s fingers slipping. His face disappeared back under the water.

Roh yanked off his gloves and spread out his fingers. He concentrated on the ice, and the air beneath it. He murmured the litany for an explosive air burst. Blue mist suffused his fingers.

He ruptured the ice with a great exhale.

The circle of ice blew apart, revealing Luna’s face to the sky.

Kihin caught Luna by the collar. Roh pressed and pounded out the ice until Kihin could pull Luna’s limp form from the hole. Roh was dizzy and his breath came hard, as if he had run a great distance.

They grabbed hold of Luna and pulled him back onto the bank, into the snow. He lay limp.

Kihin turned Luna onto his side. They pounded his chest and tried to push the water from him.

“He’s too cold, it’s not–” Roh started.

“Luna!” Kihin said.

Luna began to shiver. His eyes rolled.

“Make a fire,” Roh said.

“With what?” Kihin said.

Roh gazed toward Kuonrada. The darkness was deep now.

“I’ll go for help,” Roh said.

“Ze’s going to freeze,” Kihin said, in Saiduan. He cradled Luna in his arms.

Roh looked back at Luna, then again at Kuonrada. He said, in Saiduan, “Here, get hir feet dry, wrap hir in blankets. I’ll take hir up on my bear and carry hir back. I can try to keep hir warm.”

Kihin pulled off Luna’s boots. He rubbed Luna’s feet dry and put his own dry boots onto Luna’s feet. He kept Luna’s stockings on.

“Be quick,” Kihin said. “I’ll freeze out here.”

“I’ll come back,” Roh said.

With Kihin’s help, Roh pulled Luna up onto the bear with him. He put his arms around Luna and took the reins.

“Will the ice hold?” Kihin asked.

“It better,” Roh said. He navigated the bear back up toward the place they had crossed that morning, a dozen yards upstream. He whistled to the bear. “Fast,” he muttered. “Like the wind.”

The bear shambled out over the ice. Roh nearly lost his grip on Luna. Luna shivered and clutched at the blankets.

They cleared the river and loped out toward the curve of the road.

Roh kept up the pace as long as he dared, but the bear was starting to balk. He slowed. An hour to the keep would be too long. He’d have to ask the garrison to bed Luna down. Even that might be too late.

The road was utterly dark. He navigated by the lights of Kuonrada. He was still some way from the gate, moving up toward the curve of the hill, when he saw the dark rider.

His heart stuck in his throat. He felt a tingling across his shoulders. The rider was tall, cloaked all in black. Was it one of the invaders?

Roh gathered himself and prepared to call Para, though his hands trembled and his body shook.

The rider’s voice: “Have you found your way back, puppy?”

Roh let out his breath.

The dark rider’s bear loped to him, the shadow of a sanisi, not… something else.

“Kadaan,” Roh said.

“You expected someone else?” Kadaan said. “Your Ora Dasai said you were late. My Patron has an interest in where you are.”

“Luna fell into the river. Ze’s going to freeze. Kihin’s back there without boots.”

Kadaan reined in next to him. His knee touched Roh’s. “This is what happens when Dhais are left alone,” he said. “You see it?”

Kadaan placed a hand on Luna’s forehead. The air around Roh condensed, felt too heavy. The blue breath of Para cloaked Kadaan’s body and then encircled Luna. Luna glowed blue for a long moment. Then his shivering ceased.