Page 55 of The Infernal Battalion

Winter’s nose wrinkled at the smell of rotting meat, and she was immediately on guard. They hadn’t found any of the Beast’s bodies for days, but that certainly didn’t mean it had given up. Leti smelled it, too, and pointed to the piled debris that had jammed together between the two rocks. A deer’s head was visible, eyes gone and skull showing through gaps in the fur.

“Floods.” Leti shook her head. “This land went mad. We should never have come here.”

“You can say that again,” Winter said. The unnatural freeze and subsequent thaw had wreaked terrible havoc in the wild, and she could only guess how bad it had been for the people who lived here.

“I can?” Leti said, puzzled.

“Never mind.” Idioms were tricky when neither of them was speaking their native language. “We should find the others and tell them to come this way.”

“Yes.” Leti looked at the sun, which was well past the meridian. “We will camp on the other side.”

The Haeta traveled in one main group, where they traded off carrying the tents and other supplies, with pairs of scouts thrown out ahead and behind. Their pace was deceptive—​they didn’t seem to be rushing, but Winter often found herself hard-​pressed to keep up. Despite the speed of the column, Leti never had any trouble finding her way back to it, apparently possessing an intuitive map of the local terrain that Winter entirely lacked. As usual, Winter followed her lead, and soon they crested a ridge and found the bulk of their group. A pair of girls at the front, carrying their spears and without packs, waved to Leti and shouted something in their own language.

“Winter!” Alex jogged over. The girl was apparently none the worse for wear after her misadventure with the red-​eyes, and once again Winter sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Abraham had insisted on coming along.

“Hi, Alex. You keeping up?”

“More or less.” Alex shook her head and tugged at the straps on her pack. “I can see why they use those little tents. They seem a lot easier to carry.”

“Any sign of red-​eyes?”

“None of the rear guard have seen anything,” Alex said. “If they’re there, they’re staying well hidden.”

“They’re there. The Beast isn’t going to just give up, and we can’t hide our trail with this many people.”

“We’re moving pretty fast,” Alex said. “They may have trouble matching our pace.”

“We need to sleep,” Winter said grimly. “I’m not sure they do.”

The rear of the party came into view, the last few warriors also unburdened by packs and carrying spears. Abraham was among them, limping slightly. He’d replaced his broken walking stick, and after some discussion the contents of his pack had been distributed among the others, but he still trailed the rest of the group.

“He’s getting better,” Alex observed. “Another week and he’ll be as fit as the rest.”

“Or he’ll trip and break a leg,” Winter said. “And then we’ll have to carry him. It’s a shame he can’t use his power on himself.”

“I’ve had that thought before,” Alex said darkly. The pair of them had fled across Murnsk together, Winter knew, and hadn’t had an easy time of it. Neither of them liked to talk about it, and Winter hadn’t pried.

“Leti said we’re camping on the other side of the stream, just ahead. Nearly there.” Winter nodded at Abraham. “I’ll go cheer him up.”

Alex grinned. “Cheering Abraham up is like trying to fill a pond with pebbles.”

“I’ll try anyway. You go on ahead.”

“Yes, sir!” Alex managed a reasonable salute, and jogged toward the head of the column, where Leti was talking with Vess in the Haeta language. Winter dropped back until she was walking beside Abraham, who took a few moments to notice she was there.

“You’ve done a lot of these marches,” he said, wheezing a bit. “Haven’t you?”

“I suppose I have,” Winter said. It still felt odd, sometimes, to think of herself as a veteran. We’ve crammed a lot of fighting into the last two years.

“How often does it happen,” Abraham said, “that somebody’s legs actually fall off?”

Winter grinned. “Never, to my knowledge.”

“Then I think I might be a unique case.” He paused, leaning on his stick. “I spent too much time reading and not enough running back and forth in the snow, apparently. Or whatever it is the rest of you did.”

“You’re doing better than half my recruits,” Winter said. “The first serious march of the Velt campaign, we had to send the cavalry back every night to round up the stragglers, and it sometimes took until morning.”

Winter wondered, abruptly, where those recruits were now. The Steel Ghost had told her the majority of the Vordanai army had returned home, but Raesinia would have to respond to the threat Janus posed. Are they marching again? Is Abby with them? Is Cyte? Between the two of them, at least the Girls’ Own would be in good hands. And Marcus will find a way through. He always has.