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“We’ll need to take shelter soon,” I said, remembering how close that mountain purple was to bitter dark coldness.
The deep purple light on the peaks was almost black now. I was worried we’d waited too long to start setting up a shelter.
“Want me to help gather—”
“There,” he said, pointing into the darkness.
“What?”
“Can you not see that building?”
I shook my head. “I guess human eyesight isn’t as good as yours.”
“Yes,” he said, “well, there are a series of buildings ahead. They seem to not be in use.”
Seem. That sounded optimistic.
“What if it’s full of pirates?”
“The pirates came here for a reason,” he said. “I can get in other warriors’ heads easily, Love, and they came to fuck and to fight just like we did. They aren’t about to hole up in some shitty buildings in the middle of nowhere. Hey, there’s even these big cables running up the hill. Do those take us over the mountain?”
“Wait, describe that more. The cables.”
He described them, and I realized we were headed toward a ski resort. Those cables were the ski lifts. The long cables only went up far enough to let you ski back down, and they were powered by powerful electromagnets that probably weren’t even running anymore.
“Yeah,” I said, “it will be a good place for shelter, but it’s not going to give us a shortcut.”
Despite Tschenkar’s insistence of how safe this area was, the moment we were close enough to the buildings for me to see them, he stopped me. “If you can see the buildings, then anyone inside can see you too now.”
We walked around the entire perimeter of the area, often trudging up steep hills, ones that I needed Tschenkar’s help just to get up without slipping and falling.
“Tschenkar,” I whispered, “please.”
“I can’t shake the feeling someone is there,” he said.
In total there were a few dozen lodges with probably a few hundred rooms total. They were places people could stay while skiing. Then there were six or seven restaurants, and some larger communal buildings as well. In total, there were maybe thirty structures that Tschenkar had us patrolling around, never stepping too close to any of them.
Just when I was about to tell him he was being paranoid, someoneboltedout of the building nearest us, and she—it was clearly female even from this distance—started waving her hands and shouting.
I ran toward her, but only made it one step before Tschenkar’s powerful hand gripped tight around me. He ripped me from my feet and pulled me back against his body. I thrashed to break free, but it was hopeless.
“This could be bait,” he said. “What I said about the pirates is likely true, but what if they used her to lure you in?”
I stopped thrashing. It did sound paranoid, but I also didn’t—
More figures ran out. All of them women. They chased after the first, but she screamed and ran further—toward Tschenkar and me.
Tschenkar loosened his grip on me. My assessment of the situation was getting more and more optimistic, and his must have been too. Would the pirates usemultiplewomen as bait? It was unlikely.
She got close to us, then shrieked. “A Khetar! It’s really a Khetar!”
I waved, and Tschenkar finally released me. Laughing and smiling as I trudged through the snow to meet her halfway, I reached out my hands to hug the first humanorfemale that I’d seen in days, but she ran right past me. She didn’t even make eye contact with me.
I turned around in confusion, only to see her rushing toward Tschenkar. She leapt toward him, as if expecting him to catch her in his big, strong arms. I stood in horror, worried hewouldcatch her, but he side-stepped, and she fell right on her ass and into the snow.
I heard more screeching, then turned to see the rest of the woman—there were at least ten of them, bum-rushing Tschenkar.
I tried to block some of them, but a larger one just shoved me right aside and pressed on past me. Soon they were swarming Tschenkar.
