Page 65 of Condemned

Chapter Twenty-Three

Riding with Zo againbecame something she could settle into and ignore. He let her grasp the saddle or his arm to keep herself steady without much of a reaction. The road narrowed and became a rough rock-strewn track. The trees transitioned from being upstanding green firs to twisted imitations of trees with few leaves, or dead, gnarled gray things. The grasses remained for longer, a green carpet to either side, both upslope and down, until even tussocks of green were sparse.

Snow began to fall, wafting down in flakes, and up ahead where the track curled about the mountain white patches were visible. This was the low pass she’d taken with her team, but they’d detoured several times, going off-track to avoid others. That was how they’d come across the wreckage.

Even this route had its dangers. She couldn’t help eyeing Timin whenever they passed through the narrower sections, where toppling off your mount might mean falling over the edge to the right.

Eventually, her anxiety tied her stomach into too many knots and she spoke.

“What if Timin has a fit?”

“Hey?” She felt Zo shift. “I see. It’s possible. I think he knows. I know he does. Either he stays in one place on flat ground and does nothing dangerous, uses nothing sharp, tries nothing new, or... he lives life.”

Zo’s statement left her thinking. What else could Timin do? Live a proper life or hide himself away. She knew what she would do. What she was doing, really. She could’ve played it safer than she had. Being a huleon was like having fits, only other people were the hazards.

“Yes,” she murmured. “I was thinking I could sit with him and maybe—”

“Grab him before he could fall? You’d fall too. He’s going to look into new medications once we reach home. There is that.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Zo squeezed her shoulder. “It’s good to know you care.”

Fuck.She stiffened. That was indeed what it was. Where had her I don’t give a damn for the rest of the world attitude gone?

Somewhere else. She should look into that. Dig it up again. She would probably need it at Omage.

Several times she caught Takk staring at her as if he’d found a new bug underneath his boot. Well, no need for words, she’d figured him out. It still hurt, strangely, and she realized she had been hoping that somehow this odd situation she was in would not end up with her having to run from Omage. She’d been hoping to stay... with them. Ugh. Her mind was half cesspool, half whirlpool of insecurities and stupid.

By nightfall on the second day in the mountains, the temperature was dropping fast. Snow was falling thicker and visibility was low.

Takk turned back and gathered them on a small flat section. He yelled above the strengthening wind. “We need to find a camp out of the wind or we could be in trouble!”

“Yeah, I’d say a blizzard is coming.” Rime had formed on Kondio’s gray hair where it sneaked past the hood. He pulled his hood closer, tightened it. “Lucky we didn’t try the higher pass.”

“We could camp here but it’s too exposed.” The wind doubled and died, as if tricking them. “Was planning to stop here! The map... The map doesn’t show anywhere promising, for quite a distance.” Takk looked about, then past his shoulder.

“I know where we are,” Avalon ventured.

Water had frozen in the shape of rivulets on the mountainside to the left, as if a pond had formed above and melted and refrozen. It was a distinctive mark.

“What do you mean? Is this going to help us?” Zo asked, speaking near her ear and placing his hand on her waist. “Speak up.”

“This is where my team went higher to avoid another party of travelers we saw coming. Up there.” She pointed. “It’s where I found Nibbles and where the battle sat came down. This ice is from the heat of its core. It melted the snow. It’s still hot.”

“Really?” Timin craned back his neck. “Dangerous though? Could be radiation too. And the melting might be a problem.”

She was revealing a few secrets but what was the point in keeping a secret that could save them from sitting out a blizzard on the face of a cliff?

“I can show you the way up. We had equipment that measured most forms of radiation. It’s partly how we bypassed the ancient locks guarding the Claw. The core is using something that isn’t reaching dangerous levels. We’d be safe and warm in the wreckage. That is, safe unless the sats use something we cannot detect? Do they? The old battle satellites?”

This was a question none of them seemed able to answer.

The silence lasted all of a few seconds.

“Sir?” Zo asked.

“We’ll do this. You and Avalon can be our guide. If we don’t get out of this wind, I’ll have a frostbitten cock and I’m unhappy at that.”