Page 11 of Dragonbound

Arrow didn’t join her. She stood outside the isolated tunnel, whining softly to herself, her tail still held tightly against her back legs. The whine rumbled to a growl.

‘What is it, girl?’ Sereh questioned. Was it the smell of death or was her companion disturbed by something else? The ruins of her friend’s life were terrible to see but the smell, which so unsettled Arrow, could also entice other animals this way.

Unbidden, Sereh glanced again at the young boy’s face, and abruptly covered her mouth.

The boy. She’d only swept a glance on first entering, and then resolutely turned away. Now she could see his face had been ravaged. Only half remained, the rest torn away by fangs and claws, by wolves Sereh guessed. His one eye gazed imploringly at her, his brain shining grey and exposed in the dim light.

Sereh’s stomach heaved. She fled outside, and vomited onto the crisp clean snow. Arrow followed her, standing at her side, as she heaved and heaved again. She gratefully clutched her faithful wolf-dog to her, sobbing and heaving in equal measure. What, by the Gods, had happened here?

Eventually, Arrow slipped from her grasp as Sereh quietened and stalked inside the farm. Sereh forced herself to calmness as she watched the wolf-dog go where she now feared to go. She allowed herself to feel the chill seeping through her trousers from crouching in the snow. Her face was drenched in sweat, and yet she shivered through her heavy layers of furs. Her vomit spread before her, bright red from her previous meal, and as she looked at it, her stomach clenched again, but there was nothing left to expel.

Finally calmer, Sereh stood, wiping the snow from her knees. She looked around for Arrow, but the wolf-dog remained inside. She shuddered. She wasn’t ready to join her yet.

She tried to make some sense of what had happened here. It appeared her friend and her family had died, prior to the wolves attacking the steading. So who’d burnt it? Her journey from the glacier’s edge had revealed no other footprints in the snow. She’d assumed most sensible people were still locked up tight within their steadings, even with the start of the Long Day. She hadn’t seen a soul – and she’d been grateful for it. Better to reach Estrith’s steading first and ask for help.

But if no one had walked this way, how had the farm been burnt? And why had it been done so badly? Who could have done it?

‘Arrow,’ she called softly.

The light was fading fast now. Soon it would be too dark to even see her hand if she lifted it before her face. She needed to decide where to spend the night.

‘Can we make it back to the glacier, Arrow?’ she called to Arrow, but the wolf-dog didn’t come running.

‘Arrow,’ Sereh called again when the wolf-dog didn’t appear. She walked back towards the tunnel doorway of the steading. She didn’t want to go back in again and yet she had to find her. Surely, she was in there. Where else could she have gone?

She halted at the broken door.

‘Arrow,’ she called more quietly this time, but with more insistence.

A soft whine met her. Peering into the darkly shadowed room, she could just make out her wolf-dog, crouched over something on the floor. Hope flared momentarily, and she stepped into the chamber, a little bolder now. Perhaps Arrow had found someone who lived.

But she hadn’t – quite the opposite. It was the burnt remains of what must have been a huge midnight black wolf. Its fur was singed around the face, though the rest didn’t seem too damaged. At least compared to what Arrow was doing to it.

Almost looking apologetically at Sereh, Arrow worried at the wolf’s belly, greedily eating.

‘Lovely,’ Sereh muttered, turning to walk away. She shouldn’t have gone back inside.

Overhead, with the bite of the cool air driving the smell onwards, towards Vatna Jokull, the first stars were appearing, dazzlingly bright because snow clouds didn’t obscure them.

‘A night free of snow,’ Sereh gasped. ‘A blessing of some sort.’ She needed to find shelter, and it wasn’t going to be among the burnt and broken home of her friend.

In the last rays of the short day’s light, her gaze focused on the still-standing annex, which had drawn her here, promising her the safety and protection of being reunited with Estrith. It was attached to the main steading, but the fire had stopped well short of it.

‘Arrow,’ she called again. This time soft footfalls padding towards her greeted her. When the wolf-dog drew level, she placed her nose inside Sereh’s hand, as if asking for forgiveness for eating the dead animal.

‘Come on, girl. It’s no matter. You were only doing what needed to be done to stay alive. Let’s see if we can find shelter inside the annex. I’m not going back in there,’ Sereh jerked her head in the direction of the half-standing steading, ‘and we must get inside for the night. There’s no way we can reach the last cave we saw. The stars aren’t bright enough.’

Having discarded both backpacks after vomiting, Sereh hefted Erann’s backpack into place and picked up her own lighter one, dragging it behind her as she walked to where she hoped the outer door to the annex stood. As she went, Sereh glanced at the structure before her. It appeared sound enough to survive a night with her inside.

The ground between the steading and the annex was strangely icy. The snow which must have melted in the fire had frozen hard again. Sereh pushed open the door, and it swung inwards easily. Arrow nipped past her feet, nose to the ground, cautiously sniffing the entire place. She gave no whine of concern, so Sereh followed her in, dumping the backpacks on the floor.

It appeared sheltered and reasonably sturdy, but she tested the structure just to be on the safe side, leaning hard on the door frame. Satisfied, she pulled the door closed behind her.

Complete darkness descended. Arrow yelped in surprise.

‘Sorry, girl.’ Sereh reopened the door a fraction and rooted about in her borrowed backpack looking for Erann’s heatstone. She found it and placed it on the floor. A dull orange glow appeared. Sereh pulled the door shut again. There was a wooden lock, which she slipped through the holders to either side of the door. She was taking no chances. She didn’t fancy being the live part of a wolf feast if they chose to return.

That done, Sereh dragged the by now excruciatingly heavy backpacks to the back wall and, leaning against it, slowly sank to the dry dirt floor. Her thoughts were a mess – images, hopes and realities all tangled up together. Deep down, she grieved for her only childhood friend and her young family who’d perished during the Long Night. Had they starved to death? Had the snows kept them trapped and unable to reach their annex? There was no sign any herd beasts had lived within for some time. Had Estrith’s family succumbed to the most feared of deaths, trapped within their steading, while outside, the Long Night winds moaned, and the frozen conditions precluded any chance of escape? Selfishly, no sooner had she thought all this than her mind circled back to her own problems. What was she to do now? Where would she go? Who could she turn to? She sought her freedom from Rankil, but it seemed impossible now.