Another dozen paces, and she let out a breath when Copper’s hooves met the resistance of firmer ground. She urged Copper up, out of the water, onto relatively dry land. The water here only came up to his knees anyway and he picked up his pace.
They’d nearly reached the edge of the swamp when the sky opened with a clap of thunder and a heavy downpour.
“Do you have oilcloth?” Casrian shouted.
“No.” The contents of her saddlebag were woefully deficient compared to his. “I don’t need any.”
The rain was cold but she’d been dunked in a swamp and was covered in filth. Her whole body itched with it. She hoped she was soaked with rain. She hoped she was soaked to the skin.
He pulled up next to her. He’d shoved a wide-brimmed hat onto his head and wrapped an oilcloth around his shoulders to keep off the rain. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “Just wet.”
She didn’t think she was hurt. It was hard to tell, honestly. Her whole body was shaking from the cold and the rush of terror. Everything seemed to be working, though.
“We need to get to those trees.” She nodded to the copse of black willow ahead. “It should be dry enough there to wait out the storm.”
He nodded and followed her in. Copper moved faster as the swamp receded. The rain fell in fat, cold droplets, and the air shook with a deep growl of thunder.
The fog lifted ever so slightly the farther they rode from the swamp. The towering dark shadows slowly resolved into the copse of black willows that she remembered from her trip with Toby. When she and Toby had last been here, the sun hadbeen shining and they’d made fishing poles from the flexible branches. They’d camped that night beneath the stars, toasting their catch over a fire.
That wasn’t happening tonight. They’d be lucky to find enough dry wood to start a fire.
When they reached the stand of willow, Casrian dismounted and came to her. He pulled her out of the saddle and into his arms, carrying her beneath the scant shelter of the trees. The leaves on the willows were mostly gone, but near the trunk he found a dry spot to set her down.
It was a measure of her shock that she didn’t have it in her to fight him at all, not even when he pushed up her breeches to examine her calf.
Her skin was red, splotched all over. It felt like she had a sunburn from her ankle to her knee. There was a patch of scraped skin all the way down her shin from where she’d driven the walking stick to pry herself free.
“It doesn’t look so bad,” she said.
Casrian scowled down at her leg like it was a mortal wound. “We need to clean it. Who knows what was in that water.”
She laughed a little hysterically. “Giant snakes. At least one of them.”
Maybe more. The water was so dark. It could have been hiding anything.
His gaze flicked up to meet hers. “I’m more worried about the kind of foulness that will cause infection.” He searched over her face, dropped his attention to her chest where she’d wrapped her arms around herself to stop the shaking. “You look like a drowned rat.”
“I feel like one.”
She tried for a smile but her teeth were chattering too hard.
Casrian didn’t smile back. “Take off your clothes. I’ll bring you a blanket and some water to wash out the wound.”
He turned around and headed toward the horses. She glared at his back and used the tree trunk to steady herself as she climbed to her feet.
Her fingers were numb, and she fumbled the buttons. Casrian returned with the blanket and waterskin which he placed on the ground near her feet. Then he pushed her hands away, quickly unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it from her shoulders. He dropped it on the ground and then pulled at the tie that held up her breeches. He made quick work of it, silent, not even looking at her. Just pushing the breeches down her legs and tossing them aside. Her boots were still tied to the saddle. She’d never had the time to put them back on her feet. Her shirt was wet and clung to her body. She imagined he could see everything, but he kept his gaze locked on her face as he stepped back. His expression was hard, angry. She didn’t know why he was angry. It wasn’t like she’d summoned the monster snake.
“Can you manage the rest?” he asked brusquely.
She nodded, and he moved away to tend to the horses. She waited until his back was turned before she pulled the shirt over her head and wrapped herself in his thick woolen blanket. She was still shaking when she sat down on the ground and started to wash the scrape on her leg. He’d brought her bag to her and she fished out the salve and some clean cloth. She truly needed a bath, but the salve would help to ward off infection until she could clean it better. The bandage would keep the dirt out.
Casrian returned after a while and placed the saddles on the ground beside her. He draped oilcloth on the nearest branches to create a makeshift tent and then went off into the woods with the waterskin and her muddy clothes to look for fresh water.
She shivered beneath the blanket, staring out into the rain. The fog was dense now. She couldn’t even see the swamp anymore. She was glad they’d cleared it when they did or theymight never have made it out at all. Another chill shuddered through her, and she clamped her teeth closed.
Right.
