Faerie Winter - Janni Lee Simner [39]
“I do not know you.” So fierce, Elin’s voice. Karin flinched. I clutched my staff, alert for any movement, any attempt by Elin to do either of us harm. Karin released Elin’s hands, removed her pack, and drew a wool blanket from within. The girl pulled it around her shoulders, but the anger didn’t leave her eyes. Silver light flowed over gray wool, and the blanket shaped itself into a rough dress, frayed at the hem and the sleeves.
Elin hardly seemed to notice. Her gaze was entirely on Karin. “I do not know who you are, or how you have come to wear my mother’s face. I know only this: Karinna the Fierce would never consent to teach any human. My mother died fighting the human Uprising. She died bravely and well, and I’ll not have you insulting her memory.”
Mother? Karin was Elin’s mother? Elin was the Lady’s granddaughter; it only made sense—but Elin looked too young to have lived Before.
Faerie folk lived longer than humans. I knew that.
“I did not think to see you again, either.” How did Karin hold her voice so steady? “I do not blame you for being angry with me. We have much to discuss.”
“No. I don’t believe we do.” Elin stalked past us toward the river, head held high, feet bare. I thought Karin would run after her, but she only watched her go.
Snow blew into my face. “I could call her back.”
Karin shook her head. “She makes her choices freely as well. I’ll not decide them for her.” She closed her eyes and rested her head on her hands, and I felt as if I were witnessing something terribly private.
I silently kept guard as Elin followed the river upstream, away from us. At last Karin looked up once more. “Come. Let us find Kyle.” She tied her pack closed and pulled it onto her shoulders. “I fear there will be some climbing involved.”
I set my staff down, put my gloves back in my pockets, and started to climb. Karin scanned the cliffs, then began climbing beside me. The icy stone was slippery beneath my fingers, and snow stung my face. Kyle’s blood streaked the most obvious handholds. How long ago had he climbed? He’d have climbed more slowly than Karin and I. It should have been easy for Elin to knock him from these cliffs.
She should have caught up with him well before the cliffs. How had Kyle gotten so far?
From above, I heard a faint singsong voice. “The ants go marching seventy hundred by seventy hundred …”
I climbed faster. Karin and I were higher than the trees now. Karin made her way onto a narrow ledge, and I followed, inching sideways, listening. “The ants go marching seventy-one hundred by seventy-one hundred …”
A foot or so above the ledge, there was a narrow hole in the rock, too small for an adult to fit through. Karin stopped and peered into the dark. “Kyle?”
The singing stopped. “Go away!” Kyle cried.
Of course he wouldn’t trust a stranger, not now. Karin must have realized that, too, because she moved farther along the ledge, and I moved to the opening. “Kyle?”
Silence. My fingers felt numb against the rock. Then, “Liza?”
“It’s all right, Kyle. You can come out now.”
I heard cloth scraping stone. Kyle’s boots emerged from the hole, and his legs scrambled down to the ledge as he grasped the rocks. Talons had torn the back of his coat, and blood seeped through. He clung to the stone as he turned to look at me, eyes wide, quia leaf still hanging from his neck. “Scared,” he whispered.
“I know,” I said. “Ready to climb down?”
Kyle nodded solemnly. He followed me along the ledge, and then we descended together. His scabbed-over hand began bleeding again, but he seemed to have full use of it. We jumped the last few inches to the ground. Kyle looked up at me, lower lip quivering. He was going to be all right.
He burst into sobs and threw himself at me.
My arms stiffened around him. For a wild moment I didn’t know what to do. I stroked his tangled hair, as Mom had mine when I was little. Such a small thing—it hadn’t seemed small when Mom had done it.
Karin jumped to the ground beside us. Kyle’s sobs turned to shivers as he drew away from me. Karin nodded solemnly. “It is good to