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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.
We took turns guarding each other as we stepped outside the snow fort to relieve ourselves, and then we spread out our cloaks and snuggled beneath them to generate as much warmth as we could. We didn’t dare build a fire, but the snow packed around the sides sheltered us from the worst of the wind, and if we lay facing each other, we were warmed by each other’s breath.
Sleep did not come easy and neither of us felt like talking, so we dozed, listening to the howl of wolves in the distance. Shortly after moonrise, I woke, sensing something was going on. I slowly peeked over the edges of the fort, up the slope toward Hyto’s cave.
Fire. Fire was burning near the top of the mountain. I could vaguely make out where it was coming from—sparks were lighting up the sky near the cave. Hyto had returned and discovered we were gone.
I quickly woke Hanna and we scooted as far back in the shadow of the boulders as possible. My stomach lurched as we watched the pyrotechnics. I tried to keep my thoughts away from what might happen if he found us. A low rumble and we could hear the sound of a small avalanche racing down the slope, but I searched, reaching out, and could feel that it wasn’t heading toward us, so we stayed put. Hyto must have set it off in his anger.
Another flare and the upper forests began to burn. A loud roar filled the air—this time Hyto rather than tumbling snow. It echoed all the way down the mountain to where we were, and it took everything I had to keep from screaming. I began to cry, silently, the tears freezing on my face. As my shoulders shook, Hanna drew me into her arms and I hid my face against her shoulder.
We clung to each other through the night, unable to sleep, as the show continued. Toward morning, before dawn hit, she leaned close and whispered, “We should go. Now, before first light. We may have a chance to cross the glacier in the mists . . . if we wait till they clear, he’ll see us.”
I nodded, staring out across the wide ice fields. The mist was thick; it would be dangerous, but we had no choice. My stomach lurched as she pressed another piece of bread and some jerky into my hands, but I knew we’d need the fuel and so I ate, chewing mindlessly, forcing it down my throat.
“Do you think he can find me from this collar?” I tugged on the fucking leash around my neck.
“I don’t know,” Hanna said. “I just know I don’t want to chance cutting it off you and having some spell kill you or something.”
When we finished, we packed up our rucksacks and headed out, cautiously creeping over the sides of our fort, trying to keep low to the ground. We skirted through the fields, from boulder to boulder, crouching as we went.
The rocks from the alluvial deposits were sharp and dangerous, and more than once, my ankle began to turn before I caught myself. The mist rose in swirls, like ghostly sentinels, and now and then I’d hear snuffles and movements in the fog, but we couldn’t stop, couldn’t chance finding out what they were. We had to reach Howl’s cave before Hyto decided to fly lower.
The upper tier of forest was burning brightly, even in the new snow that had begun to fall, and I bit my lip, feeling a hollow sadness at the loss of the woodland. Hyto didn’t give a fuck about the land, about the creatures who might be making their homes in the forest. All he cared about was his rage.
Another hour and we paused for a quick rest. The mist was starting to lift, even as the snowfall was growing deeper. With a ragged pant against the cold, I tried to gauge how long till we were near Howl’s cave. It couldn’t be that far away. And then I glanced up and saw the opening to Hel’s Gate. Iris had confronted Vikkommin there and destroyed him for good. We were near.
“Hurry,” I whispered. “We’re almost there. We have to hurry.”
We slid down the icy slope, crossing as fast as we dared. And then a roar filled the air again, and I glanced back at the mountain.
“Hyto! He’s out and searching. Hurry!”
Hanna said nothing, just pushed ahead as we scrambled forward, trying to keep our footing on the slippery glacier. I fell once, but she yanked me back up, and even though the jarring pain in my wrist told me I’d broken my little finger, I ignored it, biting back the pain. My forehead had hit a sharp rock, but I’d only grazed myself and drops of blood were streaking down my cheek.
Hanna tripped next, and despite the pain in my finger, I helped her up as we scrabbled for footing. We were almost off the glacial field when a noise in front of us took us by surprise.
