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When she tried to turn to fall into line behind Rharreth, she crossed the front of her skis and nearly fell. It was strange, having her feet attached to something so long and bulky.
“I will break the trail. Your skis will follow the tracks left by mine. Slide the ski forward with your toes, keeping the ski on the ground, then put your weight down on your heel and glide all in one motion. Then repeat with your other foot. Your poles give you an extra push and help steady you.” Rharreth shuffled forward a few steps, showing her the motion he was talking about. “Your skis will glide forward easier than mine since I’m breaking the trail, so try to leave enough space between us that the front of your skis don’t keep running over mine. Understand?”
“I think so.” Melantha shuffled one foot back and forth, trying to get the feel of the ski beneath her. She would just have to learn as she went, and hopefully she would get the feel of it quickly.
Rharreth slid forward on his skis, the snow giving a crunch each time his skis sank in at the end of each gliding step. He left two parallel tracks behind him, and Melantha placed her skis in the tracks and pushed forward.
She wobbled, catching herself with the poles. Gritting her teeth, she called on every scrap of balance she possessed and pushed forward. The ski glided in the track. She leaned her weight into the movement, letting the momentum carry her as she slid her other foot forward.
The skis made a soothing shushing sound against the snow, and the gliding motion felt like a elven dance. It was the most peaceful, relaxing thing she had been asked to do since she had arrived in Kostaria.
Within seconds, she caught up to Rharreth, the front of her ski clattering as she ran up and over the back of one of Rharreth’s skis. “Sorry.”
He stumbled, her ski acting as an anchor on the back of his, before he righted himself. “A few stumbles are to be expected.”
They continued on in silence, the only sound the whisper of their skis and the muffled softness of the falling snow.
The wind picked up, the snow falling harder until Melantha had to blink against the flakes to make out Rharreth ahead of her. His ski tracks were half-filled in with snow by the time she glided over them, and her progress slowed as the new snow made gliding harder.
After they had been traveling for an hour, Rharreth halted them for a small break while he tied a short length of rope to his waist, then had Melantha tie the other end to her waist.
After two hours of travel, Melantha’s legs burned from the effort, and this was no longer the most relaxing thing she had done in Kostaria. After three hours, she was panting, and she had called on her magic to give her strength. Her nose ached with cold even with her scarf pulled up to under her eyes, and mucus was dripping onto her upper lip.
But she refused to ask Rharreth to slow down or stop. They had to put as much distance as they could between themselves and Osmana.
What if Drurvas got to the border first? Would he invade Tarenhiel? What if Weylind was not prepared for such an attack, thinking the peace treaty with Rharreth was still in place?
Melantha called on her magic, using it to give strength to her legs and warm her numb fingers and toes. She had to keep going. Not just for the innocent citizens back in Osmana. But for the innocent citizens of Tarenhiel who must be warned that danger was coming to their border once again.
“Are you all right?” Rharreth’s shout was muffled by the whipping wind and lashing snow. Melantha could barely see him only two yards ahead of her.
“Fine.” As she felt the tug on the rope when he resumed, she put her head down and kept shuffling her skis forward.
The gale blasted harder until she had to lean into it to keep from being knocked over. The snow stung against her eyes until she squinted to see. Her world narrowed to the tips of her skis shuffling through the fresh powder, the cold slicing through her layers faster than her magic could warm her, and the constant tug on the rope that told her Rharreth was still ahead of her, giving her a direction to follow.
Hopefully Rharreth knew where he was going. Melantha had no sense of anything. Even the sky and the ground were lost in the whirling, swirling tumult of wind and snow.
It could have been hours. It could have been days for all she knew. Maybe the darkness lightened into day, but the clouds pressed hard to the ground, snow choking the air.
The end of her ski clacked into something, and she fell to her knees as she went from gliding forward to a halt within a split second. She braced herself on her hands and knees, her arms sinking up to her elbows in the snow.
A crunching sound came from in front of her, then Rharreth was leaning over, balancing on his skis as he gripped her arm and pulled, helping her get back to her feet. When she was upright, he still did not let go. His eyebrows were rimed with snow, his gray skin shiny with a layer of ice. “We should rest for a while. You look about done in.”
“I can keep going.” She reached for more of her magic, trying to stop her legs from shaking. She could not be weak. She reached for his face, her fingers sliding over the layer of ice covering him. “Are you all right? Your face is covered with ice. Do you have frostbite?”
“I am fine. Thanks to my magic, I can cover myself with a thin layer of ice to protect myself from the snow and wind, and I don’t get frostbite from it.” His smile was soft. “Not something that would work for you, I’m afraid.”
“No.” Melantha shoved more magic into her face, trying to stay warm as another gust of wind buffeted her, driving stinging snow into her cheeks.
“I know we have to cover a lot of ground, but we also need to pace ourselves. You can’t tell, but it is morning. We have been traveling for hours. We should rest.” Rharreth glanced around them, as if trying to pierce the impenetrable whirl of snow and white that surrounded them. “Hopefully the blizzard will abate by the time we are ready to continue.”
“All right.” Melantha was not going to argue when he put it that way. It made it sound less like he was stopping because she was too weak but because he, too, needed a break.
Rharreth removed a glove, and magic poured from his fingers. Snow mounded into a small hill. A small doorway big enough for Rharreth to crawl through opened in the side.
“We are going to stay inside a snow house? That does not sound very warm.” Now that she had stopped, the wind felt even colder. Even with her magic, she was still shivering.
“Snow insulates, and it will be warmer than you would expect.” Rharreth knelt and unbuckled her skis for her. Once she was free, he helped her step out of them, then motioned toward the door. “Crawl inside. I will follow.”
