Ice Country

For a few minutes we scrape at our rolls withour teeth, trying to get some kind of sustenance from them.Watching Buff gnaw away, I almost laugh, but my lips don’t turn upso quickly these days. “You make these?” I ask, raising myeyebrows.

“Shove it up your snow-blowin’ arse!” Buffsays. I glance at Jolie, who’s as silent and motionless as ever. Ifshe can hear us, she’s getting a topnotch education on theintricacies of cursing. Buff’s as good a teacher as anyone.

“Sorry,” Buff says, covering his mouth with arock-roll. “It’s easy to forget your…gut-slash is theresometimes.”

“Stop calling her that,” I say, feeling aflash of heat for the first time in three days. “Her name’sJolie.”

“I know, it’s just hard—”

“And quit forgetting she’s there,” Iinterrupt. “She’s still a person. She’s still my littlesister.”

Buff nods a heavy nod and right away I knowI’ve been too hard on him. It’s not like he doesn’t have problemsof his own. It’s not like he doesn’t care about Jolie. The fire inme dies quickly, like it was no more than a spark anyway, and Ifind myself backtracking. “Look, man, I’m sorry, it’s just…seeingher here like this, day in and day out, it’s getting to me.”

“Don’t apologize to me, Dazz. Everyone’s onedge. It’s natural. And she’ll…Jolie will come out of it. Iknow it.”

“Thanks,” I say, nearly breaking a tooth as Itry to bite into the roll again.

Buff grins. “Alright, alright, I made them.But only because Darce was busy cleaning my father’s injuries.”

“How is he?” I say, wishing I’d asked rightaway. It’s so easy to get stuck in the snowdrift of our problemssometimes, so deep and cold that you can’t see anything else atall, even the important stuff.

“The slash he took from the rider should’vekilled him,” Buff says. “Even the healers can’t explain how therider, in that position, didn’t manage to do more damage. It’s likehe only did enough to keep my father from hurting him, so he couldget past and on to the castle. The men he was with had similarinjuries, none of them fatal. They’re healing up nicely.”

“That’s good,” I say, managing a weak smile.“And his leg?”

Buff frowns. “Not so good. When the horsestepped on him, his leg shattered into a whole lot of pieces. Hewon’t be able to work for a long time. But even that…” Buff trailsoff, staring at Jolie.

“What?” I say.

Buff tilts his head thoughtfully. “It feelslike even that was an accident, like the rider didn’t want to hurthim badly.”

Now I frown. “Buff, that rider was lightinghouses on fire, stampeding through the village with a sword,chopping down good men like your father. That’s no accident. It wasthe Stormers who took the children, too. I told you what the kingsaid, they wanted my sister to marry one of their boys. They weregoing to force her to obey him. They’re evil.”

“The king was evil,” Buff says, “he might’velied to you.”

I close my eyes because I know Buff’s right.“Some of it was the truth,” I say. “He had no reason to lie.”Like the part about my sister being betrothed.

Buff sighs. “I know, I’m just saying it’sweird. My father said the horse was bearing down on him, about tostomp all over him, and then the rider pulled up sharply, like hedidn’t want to step on him. The horse turned as best it could, butwasn’t able to avoid my father’s leg.”

“He still trampled him,” I say. “He stillslashed him.”

“But didn’t you say one of the riders savedyour life? That he left you with Jolie and gave his life to holdback the guards? That he told you to save her? Why would he do thatif they wanted your sister? It doesn’t make sense.”

Vivid memories flash through my mind: therider, dark-robed and menacing, stepping toward the king and mysister; his words, “You’re here for the girl?”; then, watching himleap past me and into the flow of guards, fighting them back whileI barricaded the door. He did save my life. Maybe Jolie’s too. Butwhy?

“He thought it was over,” I say. “He thoughthe’d killed the king, which apparently was what the Stormers wereafter in the first place. And he didn’t take Jolie because he knewhe couldn’t possibly escape and abduct her.”

“Maybe,” Buff says. “But no one else in thevillage died. Other than the castle guards, casualties were zero.The Stormers massacred or injured almost every guardsman and thengalloped off with their own injured on their backs. They could’vetaken over the entire village if they’d wanted—but theydidn’t.”

“But the burning,” I say.

“Only houses with no one in them.”

“But why?”

Buff cringes, closes his eyes—opens them.Says, “I don’t know.”

“Aren’t the people angry?” I ask.

“At King Goff mostly,” he says. “Now that thetruth is out, people are saying he brought a curse on ourcountry.”

“I meant, aren’t they angry at theStormers?”

Buff chews his lip. “Yes and no, but mostlyno,” he says. “Sure they’re angry that they have to rebuild, butmostly at Goff for bringing the curse on our people. Already theStormers are falling back into myth and legend. There are rumorsthat they rose out of the ground, formed from clay, and returned toit, like inhuman shadows.”

“I saw them. They’re as real as you or I.They’re evil,” I repeat. “Child stealers. Don’t you get it?”

Buff nods. “I do, but the rest of thevillagers won’t be so easily convinced. At least they didn’t getyour sister.”

“Thank the Mountain Heart,” I say.

“Do you want to know what’s been going on atthe castle?” Buff asks, changing the subject.

I raise my eyebrows. I’ve been so set onwatching Jolie and praying for her to wake up, I’ve almostforgotten there’s a whole world out there, one that’s broken into athousand pieces. “The king?” I say.

Buff nods. “You gave him quite a beating, buthe survived it. The truth is out though, and already the people arecalling for his head on a platter. A consortium’s been created withan equal number of representatives from each of the Districts,which the White District folks aren’t too happy about, but giventhe situation they haven’t fought it too hard.”

“Who’s included from the Brown District?”

There’s a twinkle in Buff’s eye. “Yo, forone,” he says, and I smile. I couldn’t think of a better choice.He’s always had more wisdom and kindness than most.

“Good,” I say. “What’ll this consortiumdo?”

“Decide on what’s to become of the king, andthen what’s to become of the Icers. Yo says they’ll be a

I feel like I should smile, but I can’t, notwith Jolie the way she is.

“And then what?”

He shrugs. “Not even Yo can predict, but heexpects things’ll get better.”

“They could hardly get worse,” I say.

Buff leaves after that.

~~~

Skye comes shortly after Buff leaves. She’swearing thick snow pants and a heavy coat, borrowed from Looza, sothey hang from her like extra skin, way too much material for herlean frame. But at least she’s warm. And she still looks beautiful,breathtakingly so.

“She’ll heal soon,” she a

Her words give me hope, which surprisesme.

With her leg tapping on the floor, alwaysmoving, I feel the warm sensation I get inside me whenever she’saround. “Skye?” I say.

“Yeah?” She tilts her head to look at me.

“Why’re you doing all this?” It’s a questionI’ve been holding for a while, but with everything happening, Ihaven’t had the chance to ask it.

She shrugs, keeps on tapping her foot. “Whynot,” she says. “We were ’ere. The village needed help.” Youneeded help. The rest hangs unspoken on her pink tongue.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help you get yoursister back from the Stormers. Jade.”