Page 75 of The Exile's Curse

"I think so." She pushed herself into a sitting position. "Ow.Ow.Ow. And bloody ow. You’re going to have to help me stand." Her uninjured arm reached for him.

He took her good arm and pulled her gently to her feet, tucking her in against him. His cloak threatened to fall off her shoulders. He caught it, pulling it around both of them. They were both comprehensively soaked, but wet wool was still some protection against the elements. Chloe leaned into him for a moment, then straightened.

"Maybe I could try to find a cave," she said. "I mean, I understand the theory. They use the magic to follow the shape of what's beneath the earth. I should be able to tell solid rock from a gap, at least. How hard can it be?"

"Given it seems to be an unusual talent, perhaps harder than you think." And magic took energy. Energy she didn't have to spare.

"Yes, but they don't train people in earth the way we do. If those with earth sense are stronger in earth than usual—and men strong in earth are rarer anyway—then maybe what's difficult for them wouldn't be for me."

He couldn't think of a counterargument. Chloe was a strong witch. Granted, she'd spent ten years in exile not using much magic, but that didn't mean the power wasn't there.

"Let's get closer, and then you can try. No use wearing yourself out." He didn't want her to carry her or, worse, have to leave her while he looked for shelter. The wild pigs weren't the only creatures in the forest, and while he hoped most of them would be sheltering from the storm, he didn't want to leave her alone.

"All right." Lightning flashed above them. "Can you do your sparkly light thing, at least? It's getting dark fast."

"Yes, I can do my sparkly light thing," he said, then did just that, conjuring the illusion to give them some light.

They moved slowly. He didn't want to hurry her despite his better instincts, but his memory of the map proved correct and they only walked what he judged to be a few hundred feet before the grass started to slope upward and peter out into stone. There was a boulder about ten feet past that point, and he led them around to the sheltered side. Out of the wind, it was slightly less cold. But not warm. They needed proper shelter or they would both freeze to death.

"This is probably as good a place as any to try," he said to Chloe, who was breathing hard despite the short distance.

She nodded and closed her eyes. He saw the gleam of magic surround her, but he had no idea what she was doing. So he shut up and let her do it.

She stood there for a long time, and he was beginning to think it wasn't going to work when her eyes snapped open and she grinned triumphantly at him. She lifted her uninjured arm and pointed farther up the slope.

"Up there. There's a gap in the rock. A hole. A cave, unless I'm doing this completely wrong."

"I'm sure you're not," he said with more confidence than he felt. Her breathing was fast again, and she slumped against the stone, as though the magic had taken more out of her than she'd expected. "So we should get going."

She winced at the suggestion but just nodded and took his arm again.

It wasn’t far, though the journey up the sloping rocks, trying his best to support Chloe, seemed to take forever before they found the small entrance in the stone. The cave wasn't very big, stank like several large animals had met their untimely ends there, and was cold as hell. But it was empty, and mostly dry, and that was all that mattered. Chloe stood shivering beneath his arm and not entirely steady on her feet as he surveyed it. Finding the cave had clearly drained her. And with the bloodstain on the cravat he'd wrapped around her arm still spreading, she didn't have energy to spare.

Goddess damn it.

They needed warmth or they still might freeze to death, cave or no cave.

"Come away from the entrance," he said gently. "The wind won't reach us farther in." There was another near deafening clap of thunder as he spoke. Chloe flinched and moved deeper into the cave.

He listened to the storm a moment longer before he followed. The thunder showed no signs of easing, and the rain was still heavy, though not quite the torrent it had been earlier. Bad enough though. No one would be searching for them in this weather, not with night falling.

So, no rescue until morning, most likely. They only had an hour or so of light left, if he was judging the time correctly. No way to tell if he was.

"Right. We need to figure out how to stay warm," he said. He eyed her mud-stained sodden cloak. His own wasn't much better. The wool might dry off some with a fire, but they wouldn't be warm enough to help them much if they weren't fully dry.

"I know a warming ch-charm," Chloe said, teeth chattering. "How about you?"

He shrugged, trying to seem unconcerned. "You know me, terrible at most magic other than illusions. And an illusion of fire won’t help. It might keep animals out, of course, once it's dark, and it will give us some light, but it's not going to keep us warm." He grimaced. It was the problem with his talent. Too much of it channeled to illusion at the cost of all else. He remembered Charl once drunkenly teasing him that the truth wouldn't keep him warm at night. It seemed he would be proven right. "The question is, can you keep it going? You're hurt."

"I know," she said sharply. "But we have to do something. Unless you have matches and tinder somewhere handy." She swept her good hand around as she studied the cave. "There's enough leaves and branches here to burn for an hour or so, perhaps, but not longer than that. Anything outside will be too wet."

He thought fleetingly of his horse. The Andalyssians had made a point of telling them that there were matches and rations in their saddlebags. But that was no use when Chloe's horse was at the bottom of a cliff and his own had hopefully either found shelter or was on its way home to Deephilm. He hadn't remembered in his frantic need to reach Chloe when he'd spotted her lying so still and then the horse had been gone.

Which was the kind of mistake his squad sergeant in his basic army training would have had his guts for. They'd covered basic survival skills. He just had to remember what they were.

"All right," he said, coming to a decision. "I can spark a fire, at least, and we'll burn what we can for as long as it lasts. That will warm us up some, and we might be able to dry off the cloaks and our clothes enough to use them for sleeping. How wet are you?"

"Wet enough," she said. "Not entirely soaked through, maybe. Though my feet are frozen. I think water got into my boots when I fell."

---