Page 57 of Unleashed

A soft grunt from Balir drew Nina from her thoughts. She realized suddenly that the wind had eased significantly.

“That is…strange,” he said.

She lifted her face, peeking out of the fur cloak. Lazy snowflakes still drifted down from the gray sky, but the storm had broken. A vast, white landscape stretched out before them; they were still in the valley, but at a much narrower point, where it climbed steeply on both sides toward mountains with huge slabs of exposed rock. The ground in the center — immediately before their group — was jarringly flat.

“What is it?” Nina asked.

“Hold!” Balir called.

Vortok came to a halt, snuffling and stomping a hoof on the ground.

Balir slid out from beneath the cloak, settling it fully over Nina, and climbed down from Vortok’s back. Aduun drew up beside Vortok, snow crusted quills flat against his back, as Balir moved ahead producing a series of clicks.

Nina frowned. “Balir?”

Balir stopped at the edge of the perfectly flat snow. Nina squinted and soon realized there was a faint shadow, indicating a dip in the snow level, running across that edge. Whatever lay ahead was lower than the surrounding ground.

He leaned forward and plunged a hand into the snow. Nina’s heart thumped; something was wrong, something only he could sense, but what?

After several seconds, he rose and made his way back to them. “It is a lake,” he said.

“How do you know?” she asked. “Everything is covered in feet of snow.”

“I heard the water,” he replied.

Aduun’s body changed, the quillbeast rising onto its hind legs as it took the form of a man. Baring his teeth, he growled and shuddered, shaking frost from his shoulders.

“When I dug into the snow, I found ice,” Balir continued, “and could feel the water moving beneath.”

“Is it safe to cross?” Nina asked, looking out across the expanse of white.

Aduun followed her gaze with his own. “Where do we need to go from here?”

“That way.” She pointed toward the rocky peaks on the far side of the flat area. “I think we’ll need to find a way through the mountains somewhere over there.”

“The ground is too steep on either side of the lake,” Aduun said. “Going over the ice is the only route.”

Vortok snorted and shook his head hard from side to side. She could guess his thoughts, even if they weren’t being projected — he was heavy, and the ice that would be between him and the frigid water beneath it offered no reassurance. If it broke and he fell in, he wasn’t likely to get back out, either as man or beast.

Nina tightened her fists on his mane and lay against him. “We’ll be fine.”

“The ice is quite thick,” Balir said, “at least near the shore. If I remain in front, I may be able to tell where it is safe to walk.”

Aduun nodded to Balir and gestured him forward. “Let’s move on then.”

Balir hurried back to Nina and Vortok and passed her the bag he’d been carrying before assuming the lead. Aduun remained a few feet behind him, and Vortok hesitantly stepped onto the ice after them. The thud of his hoof coming down rattled Nina; it was a hollow sound, confirming what she didn’t want to acknowledge — they were crossing a frozen lake, and there was nothing but freezing water below them.

They moved slowly, following Balir’s silent guidance as he slid forward, occasionally pausing before slightly altering their course. She couldn’t imagine how sensitive his hearing and sense of touch were to detect changes in the thickness of the ice, but she didn’t doubt his ability. If anyone could see them across safely, it was Balir.

As they moved farther out over the lake, Nina grew increasingly aware of the open space around them. It was exacerbated by the soft wailing of the wind — greatly diminished from what it had been during the storm — and the low, creaking groan of the ice, which she felt more than heard. She’d spent the last few days enclosed in a small shelter, secure and shielded, and during their time outside their vision had been so reduced by snowfall that the world around them had only existed within a forty-foot radius.

This lull in the storm provided Nina no relief after the dangers they’d already faced. Instead, it tightened her chest with anxiety.

Vortok was tense beneath her. She buried her hands in his mane and did her best to massage away the knots in his muscles, meeting little success. He was nervous, too, and not just because of the ice. When she glanced ahead to Aduun, she noted that his quills were raised as though in agitation.

Nina sat up only long enough to glance behind, running her gaze over their tracks, which stretched on up the valley. It was difficult to judge how far they’d come across the lake; she felt as though they’d traveled miles over the ice already and still had miles more to go. She knew that wasn’t right, that it was simply her uneasiness clouding her judgment, but she couldn’t shake the feeling.

Up ahead, Balir came to a stop, raising one hand. Aduun and Vortok halted.

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