Winter Queen(26)

“Ilyenna, no!” Rone came crashing through the trees, his face white with fear and exertion.

She gasped out the breath she’d been holding. Her heart leaped within her. Why couldn’t he have loved her?

Darrien made no move to stop Rone as he cautiously approached her, his hand outstretched. “Come with me, Ilyenna.”

She shook her head violently, tendrils of her damp hair swaying. “I can’t. I have to protect them. Protect myself.”

Rone’s eyes were filled with pain, taking her back to when she’d teetered on the edge of the ice. “We’ll find another way.”

She smiled at him, trying to ease his pain. “There is no other way.” She stepped back, and this time, her foot caught nothing but empty air. She pushed off. Rone reached for her, his face twisting in despair. She heard his scream as she fell. Her heart plunged in her throat as she watched the ground rush up to meet her.

Suddenly a blast of hot wind slammed into her body, tossing her end over end. Instead of crashing into the rocks, she plummeted into the pool. The impact drove all thought of duty and honor from her mind, consuming her instead with pain. All the air burst from her lungs. She desperately wanted to live, but no matter how frantically she clawed at the water, she still sank.

Against her will, her aching lungs drew in water. Her throat spasmed. She coughed and gagged. Her lungs screamed for air. Her eyes lost their ability to focus. She concentrated on a grainy point of light as the water grew dark and deep.

The last thing she saw before slipping into unconsciousness was the moon exploding.



***



The water was so cold it drove the breath from Ilyenna, sending her whole body into a cramp. Her lungs burned with fire. Trapped beneath the layer of ice, she slammed into the riverbed before hurtling into the ice. The water dragged her along its jagged surface—so close she could see the pale winter sky, the dark trees framing it like lace. She clawed at the ice, numbly aware of the sting as one by one, her fingernails were ripped off.

Then, by some miracle, the ice broke above her. She bobbed along in the water, too weak and cold to fight the current. She bumped against another sheet of ice, and the water started sucking her down. Clawing at the icy snow, she bent herself in half over the ice. She couldn’t pull her legs from the river. She dug into the crystallized snow with her blue hands, trying to call for help. Her voice refused to work.

This is how I’m going to die, she thought.



***



Over and over again, Ilyenna coughed up water. Finally, her throat and lungs opened and she struggled to draw a deep breath. Her body devoured the air greedily, screaming for more. Ever so slowly, her mind cleared. She lay stomach first over Rone’s legs, his hand pounding her back.

“How could you?” She heard the tears in his voice.

She remembered the blast of hot wind slamming into her body. Somehow, the summer queen had saved her.

“How could you do that to me again?” he asked.

Again. Rone must have jumped into the water after her. They were lucky he hadn’t been killed.

She stared at the waterfall without really seeing it. Memories as painful as frostbite swelled in her mind. The first time Rone had pulled her half-frozen body from the river, he and Bratton had covered her in their clothes. Bratton had held her skin to skin and practically in the fire while Rone went for help.

Over the following week, Ilyenna’s sick mother had nursed her back to health—at the cost of her own life.

Ilyenna dug her palms into her eyes, wishing she could darken her memories as easily as her vision. In seventeen years, she’d nearly died three times. But someone always brought her back. With the exception of Rone, her rescuers had perished. Perhaps she really was marked. Perhaps she wasn’t meant for this world. And anyone who tried to cheat death only ended up dying in Ilyenna’s place.

Suddenly, she was afraid for Rone. “You should’ve let me die.”

He didn’t answer for a moment. “I’m going to pretend you never said that.”

Weakly, she rolled to her back, her head on his lap. She couldn’t meet his gaze. “He was going to beat my clanwomen until I agreed to marry him. How else could I protect them—protect myself?”

Rone’s face darkened. “I told you we’d find another way.”

“He’s going to kill us all, body and soul.”

“He’ll be coming for us, with more of his clanmen.” Rone gently lifted Ilyenna’s head and upper body until she was sitting on the ground. “Can you run?”

She surveyed herself. Her ankle throbbed dully. “I think so.”

He stood, then grabbed her under her arms and heaved. Once on her feet, she collapsed against him, her legs as weak as a newborn lamb’s. Her ankle stung when she put weight on it. Already she could feel her boot digging into the swelling skin. But after a few wobbly steps, her muscles seemed to remember what they were for.

Rone watched her until she steadied. “We have to put as much distance between ourselves and Darrien as we can before the dogs catch our scent. It’s one of the only hopes we’ll have of losing them.”

Limping, Ilyenna followed him. “One of the only?”

Rone grunted. “Oh, there’s lots of ways. None a sure thing.”

With that, they started running. They followed the river, neither speaking. Trying to ignore her throbbing ankle, Ilyenna listened for the baying of dogs.

As streaks of morning light strangled the last of the stars, Rone stopped and said between gasps, “That’ll have to do. They’ll have horses. From now on, we’ll have to outsmart them.” He pointed across the river. “It’s rocky and shallow here. Run across. Touch things, leave your scent. Run until you find a barren place—somewhere that would hide tracks. Then double back. Step in your own footprints or on a rock. Don’t leave any backtracks. When you return to the river, wait for me. Understand?”

She nodded. Rone turned and disappeared inside the trees, leaving Ilyenna alone. It was terrifying.

Squaring her shoulders, she forced herself to do as Rone asked. She stepped into the trees and crossed the river, then kept walking. She kept her arms out, touching things and hoping she’d find a rocky place soon. Every moment she spent searching gave time to Darrien and his pursuit. Finally, she found a rocky knoll. But she didn’t relax. She still had to find her way back to the river, and she was no woodsman.

She tried to keep to the rocks or step in her own footprints. It was time consuming and difficult. Day deepened, bringing with it heat and insects. Sweat ran into her eyes, while midges feasted on her blood. Ilyenna nearly cried out in relief when she heard the river.

She stumbled out of the trees and looked about. Rone was nowhere in sight. What if Darrien found him? Other unwelcome thoughts assaulted her. Determinedly pushing them away, she examined her ankle. It was worse from all the running, swollen tight inside her boot. She ate some wild rhubarb, swallowing the sour stuff as quickly as she could.

Something white caught her eye. A patch of snow. She suddenly remembered the winter fairies. Were they coming back for her? She stepped toward the snow, but instead of frozen granules, her fingers brushed the soft petals of a small cluster of white flowers. Her breath coming fast, she shook herself.

The winter fairies are gone, she reminded herself.

She looked around for Jablana or the others. There was no sign of them, and still no sign of Rone. Ilyenna sighed. Her skin itched where the midges had bitten her. She listened, but all she could hear was the river.

She smelled of sweat and fear. With nothing better to do, she stripped off her clothing and scrubbed it clean. After laying it out over a bush, she scoured herself with a patch of soapwort and sand.

The water should have been cold, but it felt oddly warm. Not daring to wade any deeper than her knees, she lay down, letting the current take the rest of the sand from her hair. But she’d never liked this much water—more so after last night. She burst up, water running in rivulets down her skin, and froze.

Rone stood at the edge of the river, his eyes burning bright and his chest rising and falling hard. He took a long, ragged breath. “We have to hurry,” he said.

Feeling shy under his penetrating gaze, she kept her head down as she walked past him. Just before she drew even with him, he reached out, the backs of his fingers moving down the curve of her hip. He pinched his eyes shut as if in pain. “You’re beautiful.” He said it with a regret and finality that sent an inexplicable sadness through her veins. He gently pushed her away. “Hurry.”

She shivered as a feeling of loneliness overtook her. Quickly, she tugged her damp clothes over her head. Rone led her downstream. “We’re downwind of the trail I created,” he said. “I’m hoping the dogs will get confused and lose our spoor. We need to put some distance between our false trail and our real one to ensure they don’t find it.”

Then they were running again.





14. Truth



Rone glanced up and down the road before he and Ilyenna cautiously moved out of the forest. Her arm was around his shoulders for support. They’d been traveling through forest thick as winter wool all day and long into the night.

She had gone beyond exhaustion and hunger into a kind of numb acceptance. Her ankle could barely take any weight now. “We shouldn’t be out in the open like this. Morning is coming.”