Page 93 of Winter Lost

That whole bit sounded like a non sequitur, but I thought he was leading up to something. I kept my mouth shut and waited.

“I told him that I would not kill Adam, because of the role he and his pack played,” Hrímnir said. “Ymir assured me that it was not a problem. That he, my brother, could take the pack and make them even stronger. The wolf is his to call.”

“When he came to examine Gary”—I fought to keep a neutral voice, but it emerged sharpened—“he took control of one of our wolves without her consent…or ours. My husband took her back from him.”

“So you said earlier.” Hrímnir stepped around the horses so he could see my face. “Your husband is strong.”

“Yes.”

I was pretty sure that if Ymir tried to take the pack while Adam and I were here, Adam would notice. Even I, as a pack member, could still feel those bonds. The pack was okay, I reassured myself. They’d be okay until we got back.

I don’t know what he saw in my face, but whatever it was, he apparently approved. He nodded once, then walked back, putting the horses between us once more.

“Are you going to find my harp?” he asked.

“Is there a reason we can’t just line everyone up and ask who has the artifact?” I asked. I didn’t mean to whine. “I can tell when someone is lying. Adam and I might not be able to force the Heddars or the vampire to cough it up—but Liam is anxious to let the marriage take place. The three of us—”

“They are all guests,” the frost giant said, apparently unsurprised about the vampire. “Liam cannot allow you to take something by force regardless of his personal feelings on the matter. And if you scare whoever has it—they might destroy it.”

I rubbed my temples to alleviate my headache. He was on the other side of the horse, but I felt the frost giant notice. I shouldn’t have been able to know that.

I needed to get out of here soon. I did not want to be standing next to the frost giant when the damage I’d received from the Soul Taker decided to open my mind again.

“There’s a pair of goblins,” I said, to distract myself from my weakness. “They aren’t with the wedding party—they were apparently planning on climbing in the Cabinet Mountains but were discouraged by the blizzard.”

“Do you think they took the harp?” he asked me.

“Liam does, I think. Possibly Adam, too.” Though Adam wouldn’t say so unless he had proof.

“Do you think they took the harp?” he asked again, in exactly the same tone.

“No.” I blew a bit of horsehair off my face.

“My brother took the harp,” I said slowly, trying to work things out through the warning buzz in my head. “Then he dropped it off at the hot springs or hid it or somethinged it. But it makes the most sense if he left it with someone at the lodge. You wouldn’t just dump an artifact somewhere and leave it by itself.” I paused. “I wouldn’t, anyway. There is no end to the trouble a loose artifact can cause.”

“Somethinged it,” said Hrímnir, as if he enjoyed the word. “And then came to tell me he’d done it.”

I stopped grooming. Incredulously, I turned around.

“What in the name of little green apples did Gary do that for? I thought you caught him, or cornered him into telling you what he’d done. He just went up to you and said, ‘Hey, you know that harp…lyre…thingy? Yeah, I’m the one who took it’?”

“You know,” Hrímnir said ruminatively, “I should have waited for him to tell me why before I spelled him to shut him up. And to punish him.” He stared at me. “Because you are just like he described you. And you risked running into me in order to make sure the horses had food and water.”

“Maybe I came here to see if I could talk to you,” I said. “Because you’d been up here to take care of the horses yesterday.” I tapped my nose.

“Maybe,” he said. “But that’s how he described you, too. I would like to know what my brother did to make your brother befriend me, then steal my harp.”

I scoffed. “There is nothing that your brother could do to make Gary take your harp.” I was pretty sure about that.

“Ymir has money. More gold than Andrew Heddar.”

“If my brother were motivated by money,” I said dryly, “he wouldn’t be babysitting a ranch in the winter and breaking colts in the summers.”

Hrímnir grunted.

“Besides,” I said, “there is no world in which Ymir and my brother managed a civil conversation for longer than it took one of them to open his mouth.”

Hrímnir grunted again, this time in agreement, and went back to grooming. After a while, he stepped back, and then held out a hand for the brush I was using. “They’re clean enough.”

---