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An hour or so later, I motioned to Hanna to stop. As we’d gone along, I noticed that the mountain pines in the Northlands bore sharp needles, and they were strongly scented, reminding me of blue spruce. Strong scent was good—it would help to hide our own perfume. Being dragon, Hyto had a hypersensitivity toward fragrance, and anything we could do to confuse him, so much the better. I stripped off a handful of the spiny needles, broke them, then rubbed them over my face and hands, wincing as they pricked my skin. Hanna nodded, getting the idea, and did the same. The pitch stuck to my cheeks, but I didn’t care. Anything to help keep Mr. Big Bad Dragon away.
A blast of icy wind came gusting down the slope, sending snow everywhere. I gasped as the gust caught my breath and yanked it from my lungs. Leaning against the trunk of the pine, I forced myself to breathe deeply, slowly, until I felt able to continue.
Hanna led me off the main path, which seemed dangerous, but we didn’t dare hike around in plain sight. Even in camouflage, we could easily be seen from the air. I was just amazed we’d managed to come this far without being caught or keeling over from the freezing temperatures.
Another half hour struggling through the snow and she motioned for me to crawl under one of the trees with her, where there was some protection from the wind. As I pushed my way under the low-hanging branches of the scrub, I happened to glance up the mountain. The cave entrance was still visible, but just a tiny speck against the vast sea of white.
Hanna and I huddled together for warmth as she fumbled around in the folds of her cape, pulling out a thick roll with a slab of cheese. She broke the sandwich in half and handed me my share.
“Thank you,” I whispered, my throat raw from the air. The bread was dry and hard but I forced it down anyway, taking sips from my waterskin. I followed her lead. After drinking freely, I packed snow in the skin to melt for new water.
“No worry, Camille. We’ll need a lot of food. We have a long way to go to reach any sort of safety, and I truly don’t know if we’ll make it, but we may be able to reach the Skirts of Hel by morning. We may have to bivouac for the night down lower. I’d stay under the trees, but there is one danger in that.” She gave me a long look, as if deciding whether to spill bad news.
But I had far too good an imagination. “Let me guess: Hyto gets home, finds us gone, and decides we’re hiding out in the trees, so he decides to burn every stand from the top of the mountain on down.”
She blinked. “Yes, that was my fear. I didn’t want to worry you, however.”
I bit my lip, not wanting to say too much. “Back Earthside . . . where I’m staying . . . we are facing a danger far worse than Hyto. Trust me, if it’s big, bad, and possible, I’ve imagined it.” I stared at the vast swath of sloping snow fields that spread out below us. “If he does decide to burn the woods, surely we’ll know what’s going on before he hits us. At worst, he catches us again. And frankly, considering what he could cook up for that, I’d rather die in a forest fire, I think.”
Hanna bit her lip. “Yes, you are right about that. If he captures us, he’ll just kill me, but you . . .”
“I know.” I whispered. “I know.” The pain he’d already inflicted had been bad, but even I knew it could be far worse.
“Come, finish your meal and let’s be off again. The sooner we reach the glacial fields, the sooner we can make our way across to your Wolf Lord friend.” She held out her hand and yanked me up. The bruises on my back and thighs screamed in protest, but I bit my lip. Hanna had given everything to help me escape. I wasn’t about to bemoan my own state.
Over the rest of the day, we managed to elude any sign of Hyto, and the weather stood with us. We reached the bottom of the snow field where it evened out before heading into the Skirts of Hel by dusk, and I wanted nothing more than to keep going, but one wrong turn on the rocks and we’d have a broken leg, or worse. We found an outcropping of boulders and huddled behind them, trying to brave the winds the best we could.
Hanna suggested building up the snow on either side to block the wind, so we managed to find two boulders with enough room between them where we could stretch out. We packed snow around the entire fort, smoothing the sides to look like drifts. We couldn’t do much about being seen from the sky, but with our cloaks and the darkness, there was a fair shot that Hyto wouldn’t be able to spot us.>Now, struggling out of bed, I coughed up a mass of phlegm into an old rag, and she pushed a waterskin into my hand.
“Drink deep.”
I did, until I could speak. “What’s going on? Does he want me again?” Oh please, let it be something else, I breathed softly.
Hanna sucked in a deep breath, kneeling by my side. “I think I may be able to get you out of here. Hyto flew off not an hour ago, hunting for his dinner. When he hunts, he’s always gone for a good day, sometimes two. I will help you. You may not make it, but it’s better than staying and letting him eat you up. He was so terribly angry. I don’t think you’ll survive another bout.”
She shoved thick clothes into my arms, linen and fur, and a pair of fur-lined boots made out of leather. “I cannot allow myself to take my part in his crimes anymore. I’ll never see Valhalla, but perhaps I can redeem myself in the eyes of the gods.”
“What about your son?” I asked, but then something made me look over at the cage. Her son was there, but slumped over. I knew he wasn’t sleeping.
“Oh, Hanna . . .”
“Hyto tortured him to torture me and keep me in line. I told you, my son’s been locked up for five years—never once has he been allowed out of the cage. He turned into a wild child. Gone quite feral. I tried to keep him sane, tried to talk to him, but he had no release, no chance to stretch, to move his body. He was able to lie flat, but he hasn’t had a chance to stand free since the Master brought us here.”
She pressed her knuckles against her lips. “I’ve been selfish. When I brought you back tonight, I looked at my son and realized that he’s no longer here. His life has been horrific. He . . . he lost his mind somewhere along the way. That’s no way to live, and there’s no chance to free him. I realize that now. So I finally decided to do the only thing I could. The only thing a good mother could.” She caught my gaze, the pain in her face too much to witness.
“Couldn’t we have broken the cage open?” The fact that she’d killed her son shook me to the core, but then she put her arm on mine.
“Do not think I killed my son for you. The cage . . . it is magically enchanted. Over the years I’ve tried everything I could think of, but it won’t open, it won’t break. Dragon magic is tricky and dangerous. And my son . . . he was lost to me several years ago. I’ve made sure he’s fed and I sing to him and talk to him . . . but he hears only the sound of my voice, not my words. He retreated into his mind. There was nothing left of the boy I gave birth to save for an empty shell. I gave him a sleeping draught that put him to sleep forever. And then, I sang him to sleep one last time.” Tears clogged her throat and she let out a strangled cry and buried her head in her hands. I wrapped her in my arms, holding her until she forced herself to sit straight again.
She let out a shuddering breath. “It was too late for Kjell, but not for you. Whatever it takes to get you out of here, I will do. I don’t care about myself. My son is beyond Hyto’s reach, safe with his father.”
There was no debate. Smoky and the others might be on the way, but it was only a matter of time before Hyto lost control and killed me. He was too angry. As much as he wanted to torture Smoky by ripping me apart in front of my husband, he didn’t have as much self-control as he liked to believe. Most sociopaths lost it at some point, and he was a dragon on the edge.
My body protested, but I forced myself to my feet. “Let’s go. You must come with me. I need your help and I can’t leave you here.”
She nodded. “My son no longer needs me to protect him. He has gone to his ancestors, I hope. And perhaps, I will redeem myself in the eyes of Thor and Frejya.”
“May I say a few words for him?”
