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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Wy
How long until dawn? Could she keep moving until then? Would the storm break and let in a little sun? What would Sgaile say if he were here?
He would give her another lecture about her foolishness. No doubt followed by the threat of more stringent methods in his guardianship.
Wy
She lost track of the rise and fall, the twists and turns of her path. Then the blizzard's white blur before her turned black in the crystal's light-as though a large, looming shadow had suddenly appeared.
Wy
She raised her head and blinked frost-laced eyelashes. A rock face blocked her way-another dead end. Before she dropped her head, weakly resolute to turn about, she spotted a blacker space along the wall's surface.
She forced her legs to move. As she neared the black space, it became a hollow in the ridge wall. Peering around its edge, she looked up a steep chute where the ridge wall had cracked through. Its rock-strewn bottom was clear of most snow, for heavy wind could not drive the snowfall inside the narrow space.
Perhaps she had been wrong about Chap going back. What if he and Leesil had found this passage as well? And if not, at least she might hide from the wind.
Wy
She wanted to slump down-just for a while, to get out of the wind- as she could not stop shivering. Maybe sleep a little before going on. A small voice whispered in the back of her mind.
"If you stop, you will freeze to death."
Oh, yes, that was such a good sign-now she was talking to herself in her own head.
Wy
A rock shard shifted beneath her foot, and her ankle rolled.
She barely winced, for the pain was dulled by cold. But as she fell, her gloved hand struck the chute's floor and broken rocks ground through her glove against her palm. She lifted her head, looking up the chute with tears freezing on her face. The top opening lay just above, and she started crawling. But when she looked out the chute's top, only more ice and a snow-coated landscape awaited.
Nothing else-no one else.
Wy
A tinge of nausea rose in her stomach. The two small bites of dried fish she'd had for di
Wy
Nausea sharpened as the sound of a leaf-wing buzzed in her head.
Wy
Chap struggled through trackless snow with no scent to follow.
At first he simply retraced the path he and Leesil had taken. If Wy
Wy
And Chap cherished her for this.
He halted beneath an outcrop and closed his eyes. Even slightly shielded from the wind, he could not stop shaking. He and Leesil had taken a left fork into a boxed gully, where they had found Magiere, but Chap had seen no other tracks. The blizzard had erased them.
When Wy
His kin were of all elements, and not just Spirit, the one that collected strongest in living things. Fay were of Water and Earth, Air and Fire, as well, and as they wished, so there was no place in this world they could not come to at will.
If they felt him try to call to Wy
And they had tried to kill her in the elven forest.
Chap could not take such a risk. He veered from the outcrop, continuing up until he passed through a saddle between two rock spires. It looked too much like the path into the boxed gully, and doubt pressed him down.
Wy
He circled back, loping across the rocky saddle, and turned up another cut in the mountain. He barely finished three strides before he slowed to another halt.
Even if Wy
Chap ground his numbed paws, digging down through the snow until his claws scraped frozen ground. He rooted in this for Earth and snow for Water. Hard wind in his face brought Air, and lingering body heat gave him Fire. With the Spirit in his own living flesh, he bound himself to these elements of existence and sank into what Wy
But not with his kin-he focused only upon his memories of her as he called out through his spirit.
Wy
No response came.
Wy
Chap heard nothing but the wind tearing at the mountainside.
Please, if you hear me… feel me… even a twinge in your stomach…
He stood poised and listening until panic made him rush blindly upslope.
Wy
"Chap?… Here… I am here!"
He froze with ears pricked at the weak shout, faint in the storm's noise.
Again! Do not stop until you see me!
"Here… in the chute."
Chap spun about, cutting along a slant below an overhang.
Her voice could only reach him by traveling upon the harsh wind. So he turned into its currents racing between the crags. Pattering snow stung his eyes and filled his ears, but he pushed on-and then stopped short, staring into a dead-end gully of sheer walls.
"Chap… in the chute… look for a crack!"
He paced along one high wall where the snow was shallower. In the dark path, he did not notice it until a break appeared suddenly beside him. A rocky-floored chute blocked out the wind-driven snow. Chap scrambled up over loose stones. His heart beat faster when he caught a familiar whiff.
I am coming!
And he saw Wy
Snowfall had dusted the back of her cloak with white. Chap struggled upward as she reached out for him.
You must try to move. Put your hands under my blanket and against my fur.
Chap shoved his head into Wy
He had to keep her awake and so began babbling mindlessly.
We found Magiere… she is safe… the others are with her at camp. You and I must live until morning and find them again… everything will be as it was. Wy