Page 72 of A Shard of Ice

“Maybe Thesha and I should go alone and—” Kyrie starts to say.

“No!” Xander and I say in unison.

“We’re quite capable.” Thesha narrows her eyes at Xander.

“Yes, we can do it.” Kyrie sounds a little less sure, but her chin tilts up, and there is defiance in her eyes.

Damn, but she is beautiful. Her hair is loose and blowing in the wind. Her eyes are big and framed by thick lashes. Her skin is like—

A few drops start to fall. It won’t be long before all hell breaks loose. I need to keep my focus. We need horses and supplies. A warm bed would be welcome, too.

“We can absolutely handle ourselves, Kyrie. I have every faith in you. As long as you remember not to slash,” Thesha says.

“I remember. I will stab.” Kyrie moves her hand in a stabbing motion.

“It’s not that we don’t think you’re capable,” I tell them. “I don’t think we should split up. If anything goes wrong—”

We all look toward the sound of an approaching horse. We see a single male on a shaggy mountain pony. He waves as he approaches at a fast lope.

“Greetings, travelers!” the man calls out as he nears us. He has a warm smile on his weathered face and his eyes crinkle at the edges. His hair might be gray, but it is thick, like a mop atop his head.

He jumps off his pony, smiling all the while. When he looks at me, his eyes narrow, and he cocks his head. Then he takes a step back, scrutinizing me all over again. I don’t think he realizes it, but he takes shuffling steps toward me, looking me up and down.

“You look just like our late king, lad,” he mutters. Then he looks up at my face. “Are you His Majesty Lord Kyran? You can’t be the king, for we were informed that he met his end many years ago at Snow’s hand, and yet…you look just like him. The spitting image, only a little older.”

Pain rushes through me. My brother and I were born only one and a half moon-cycles apart. Many said that we lookedjust like twins. This was more and more the case as we reached adulthood. I was a touch taller and always let my hair grow a little longer; otherwise, we were very similar in all ways. Our features, our coloring, even our mannerisms.

“No,” I husk out. “I’m not Kyran. My name is Damon.”

“Damon.” His eyes narrow for a moment, and I’m sure he’s going to realize that I’m Kyran’s brother, but it doesn’t happen. “I am Grigor.” The rain starts to fall, and he looks up. “I see you are in need of shelter. My cabin is just up the way.” He points to a grove of dying olive trees. “Just beyond those trees in a valley. That’s me. You’re welcome to take refuge. My cabin is too big for just one person. You can’t miss it.”

“That’s kind of you,” Xander says. “We will take you up on your kind offer.” He quickly introduces us as we all pull our hoods over our heads.

“Good to meet you all. I will head back to put some supper on.” With that, Grigor turns and lopes away.

We watch him go as the rain begins to fall harder.

“It could be a trap,” Thesha says.

“That was very convenient,” Damon grumbles.

I sigh.

“We should approach from the opposite side to what he is expecting. We could go to the right of the trees,” Kyrie says. “That way, if there is an ambush, we’ll know about it.”

I smile at Kyrie. “That’s an excellent idea.”

“And just what I was thinking.” Thesha squeezes Kyrie’s arm. “You’re a real warrior in the making.”

Kyrie beams.

We set off as the rain starts to fall in earnest. It’s miserable. We’re going to be soaked by the time we make it to Grigor’s cabin. Although it’s tempting to go straight to his place, we go around the long way to investigate first.

As we round the grove of olive trees, we start to make out the shape of a cabin nestled in the valley below. The rain is coming down harder now, making it difficult to see, which is good. We can use it as a shield.

Thesha points to the right. “Let’s approach from here; it looks like there’s a slight incline.”

We all nod in agreement and begin our cautious descent into the valley. The terrain is rocky and uneven, making our progress slow but steady. We keep our senses on high alert. It is a tense few minutes as we navigate the tricky ground, but eventually, we make it to the base of the hill and into the valley without incident.

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