Page 32 of Veil of Winter

A crack appeared where she’d scraped her foot. She started to run. But the ground gave way beneath her and she sank straight down.

Icy water closed over her head before she could take a breath. She sucked in, filling her lungs with water instead of air.

She hadn’t had time to scream. Would Ysabeau go for help? Had she even seen her fall in?God,don’t let me die.

She didn’t know how to swim.

Nine

She was drowning, her chest burning like fire. Was anyone coming to help her?

She must have been oh-so-slowly rising to the surface, as the light was getting brighter.

Sir Gerard’s face was above her. His arms plunged toward her. He grabbed her and yanked her out of the water.

She drew in a breath—or tried to. It was as if the air would not go in.

Sir Gerard’s hands were still holding her arms, pulling her out onto the ice. As soon as he did, a dreadful cracking sound met her ears and the ice broke again, sending Sir Gerard into the water with her.

They sank into the cold, awful water.O God! I’m going to cause Sir Gerard to die too!

Two strong hands grabbed her hips and shoved her upward.She breached the surface again to see Ysabeau yelling and crying, standing several feet away.

Elyce wanted to tell her to get back, to get farther away so she wouldn’t fall in, but she couldn’t talk, couldn’t even breathe. She gagged and heaved and coughed while struggling to pull herself out of the water. If the ice cracked and broke some more...

Where was Sir Gerard?

Over her shoulder she saw his head rise out of the water. With one arm holding on to the ice, he grabbed Elyce’s thigh and pushed her up.

God, please don’t let the ice break again.

“Crawl,” Sir Gerard ordered, himself crawling out onto the ice, staying on his stomach.

They both crawled toward the edge of the frozen lake, where the ground started to slope up, then Sir Gerard turned and pulled Elyce up and into his arms.

“We have to get you warm.” Her face was pressed to his cold, wet shoulder and she was shivering uncontrollably.

Sir Gerard stood, hauling her to her feet. Holding her hard against his side, he half pulled her across the snow.

Her shoes were sodden, her skirts heavy against her legs, and she stumbled. He bent and lifted her into his arms, barely pausing as he hurried them back toward their camp.

Her teeth chattered violently. All she could do was stare up at Sir Gerard’s face, his eyes narrowed, his own teeth clamped together. She could not even tell he was feeling the cold, though his hair dripped and his lips were a dark shade of blue.

Ysabeau was crying and mumbling incoherently as she kept pace with them.

Sir Oswalt appeared ahead.

“Stoke up the fire,” Sir Gerard said in a gruff voice.

Sir Oswalt immediately grabbed a few sticks of the dry wood they had found in this snowy forest, and he and Bertold dropped to their knees to restart the tiny fire they had used to cook the hare they’d caught.

“I’m s-s-so s-sorry,” Elyce mumbled.

“You have to get these clothes off,” Sir Gerard said, setting her down next to a rock outcropping that was taller than he was. He started jerking off her outer cloak, then her shoes.

Ysabeau pulled at her next layer of clothing, then ran away, saying, “I will get some dry clothes.”

Elyce helped Sir Gerard as best she could, but her arms and legs were slow to obey her. Sir Gerard was stripping off her heavy, half-frozen clothing, but he should be taking off his own clothing as well.