Frost (5 page)

Sweat ran down his forehead and dripped onto his nose. His eyes were wild with pain and terror.

“Please,” he whispered, and for a moment he looked pitiful instead of defiant and dangerous.

I didn’t know what he wanted.

Ivy returned, the bucket of soapy water spilling a little as she set it down by my feet. She handed me the bowl of stew and Jonn’s shirt. Her eyes widened as she saw he was awake.

The Farther gazed at her with a mixture of anger and detachment, and Ivy stepped back and wrung her hands under his stare. She was good at rescuing things and wretched at doing anything about it afterward. I’d already spent most of the last fourteen years disposing of the animals she’d saved after they died without her knowing. But this stranger in our barn was not a bird with a broken wing. It would take more than a trowel and a soft place under a bush to make this problem go away.

“Eat the stew before you starve,” I said.

The Farther picked it up. He ate quickly, hungrily.

“The rag,” I commanded Ivy, and she dipped it in the water. Shoving up my sleeves, I crouched beside him and took his shoulder in my hands.

“What are you doing?” he gritted, his voice low and hard. He dropped the empty bowl and tried to rise.

“Lie still,” I said. “I’m just cleaning the wound.”

“Why?”

What did he mean,
why
? I pressed the rag hard against his skin, and he twitched with pain. “So you won’t die from infection,” I said, and I used the harshest tone I possessed so he wouldn’t know how terrified I was.

He watched me warily, but he didn’t move as I took off the old bandage and pressed the rag against the wound. The Farther hissed in agony as the hot water touched his flesh, but he held still while I washed the dried blood away and examined him. The wound was deep, but I saw no infection yet. I rinsed the injury carefully, dabbing at the torn edges of his flesh with the rag. I could feel his muscles beneath my hands, tense and coiled.

As I washed the blood away from the wound, I saw that his shoulder was inflamed as well. Another injury? I prodded the area gently, feeling something hard and flat lodged there, as if the tip of a blade had broken off just below the surface of the skin. What was this? I got my fingers around it and tugged gently, and his hands grabbed at the straw as his face contorted in pain and a moan escaped his mouth.

“That hurts,” he gritted through clenched teeth, turning his head to look at me. His eyes captured mine, and his gaze frightened me. The fear in my belly was like a trapped bird, scrambling and fluttering, but I shoved those feelings down because I had to be strong.

“Lie still,” I repeated for the third time. I tried to speak firmly, but my voice shook. “Something is buried in your back.”

“It hurts—”

“Lie still! Do you want to die from infection?”

That shut him up. His whole body trembled as I touched the injured flesh, but this time he didn’t snap or try to pull away. I used the rag to wipe at the place. The rag dislodged a flap of dangling skin that had been torn by whatever had caused the other wound and revealed some of the thing in his back. I pinched it between my fingers and tugged again. Metal glinted against my finger.

I couldn’t tell what it was—some kind of metal that had become buried in him. It wasn’t a rock or a pebble—too smooth. Whatever it was, it shouldn’t be there. I pulled harder, wiggling the piece. It was slippery with blood, and when my fingers found purchase I yanked.

The Farther’s head snapped back, and a scream pried its way from his lips. Ivy made a strangled sound and covered her eyes. Sweat broke out across my back.

“Just pull it out,” he panted.

I gave a final wrench and pulled it loose, and his whole body stiffened as he fainted against the straw.

“Oh,” Ivy said. “Oh.”

I sat back hard, my fingers bloody and my skirt wet from where I’d dropped the rag. I was breathing hard, and my muscles were tight. I locked eyes with my sister, and she must have read the murder in my gaze.

“I’ll get more clean rags,” she murmured, scrambling for the door.

The barn was very quiet now. I turned the thing over in my hands. It was small and square, covered in his blood and etched with lines that might have been a symbol or picture. They meant nothing to me. I wiped the blood on the straw and slipped the metal piece into my pocket before I finished cleaning the wound. Ivy returned with more rags, and I bound up his shoulder with them.

“What do we do now?” she whispered.

I wiped my hands on my skirt and pulled my mother’s pocket watch from my skirt pocket. “Now you work your fingers off getting quota filled. I have to go into the village. I cannot miss another Assembly.”

“Stupid Assemblies,” Ivy muttered.

“At last, something we agree on.” Smiling wryly, I gathered the rags and stood. “Keep an eye on the barn. I probably shouldn’t even have to say this, but don’t let anyone inside for any reason.” I headed for the door.

“Lia?” she asked, and her voice hitched at the end of my name.

“Yes?”

“What are we going to do with him?”

I just looked at her, because I had no earthly idea. How did she expect me to know?

Her big eyes filled with tears, and I felt myself soften. “It’ll be all right, Ivy,” I said. “We’ll figure something out.”

Outside, I leaned against the barn as I examined the results of the storm in the light of day. A few of the fence posts had sagged over or tumbled down, and a loose shingle dangled from the farmhouse like a tooth in the face of a fist fighter. As I was looking, the wind blasted over the trees and swept my cloak into a snarl around my legs. I stooped to set down the heavy bucket so I could rearrange it, and as I bent over I froze at what I saw.

A line of claw prints made a path through the snow, past the barn and around the house. They led into the forest.

I’d only seen a Watcher once in person, when I was a little girl. I was leaving the barn early one morning before dawn after milking the cow, the steaming pail of milk in one hand and a glowing lantern in the other. I realized as soon as I saw the curls of vapor in the freezing air that I’d forgotten the lid, and I left the lantern in the snow as I ran back for it so I’d have a free hand. When I returned, the door creaking beneath my hand, I saw something skitter away from the circle of light, just a flutter of fur and a scrape of metal against metal as it slipped back into the darkness at the edge of the trees. The ice along the path was sliced up as if someone had taken a knife to it. I almost thought I’d imagined it.

But there was no mistaking the tracks, then or now.

Ivy saw them and put her fingers over her mouth. She didn’t speak.

“Go back to the house,” I said finally. “I need to get into town.”

THE SKY WAS clean-swept and clear. The air tasted crisp and new. Sunlight sparkled on the fresh-fallen snow, making the trees and branches look encrusted with diamonds. But I couldn’t enjoy the beauty. The fear in my stomach was gnawing at me like a rat again. I hurried down the path toward the village. With all the things that had gone wrong in the last day—the Farther, the Watcher tracks, the storm, the almost-missed quota—I couldn’t be late to another Assembly, too.

I crossed paths with Adam Brewer close to town, and I swear he looked at me like he knew the secret I kept. Our gazes met briefly, and this time I didn’t even make a pretense of greeting him. I just put my head down and pushed on.

At last the town swung into view. Our village huddled against the side of the mountains like a calf seeking protection against its mother, although I found the idea of seeking solace against the mountains ironic, since the stony crags had always been less than forgiving of us. But at least here, we had the hope of safety.

As I approached the familiar stone houses with their sloping moss-covered roofs and sturdy wooden doors painted blue and hung with snow blossoms, my heart thumped in my chest and my mouth grew dry. Could they sense the fear on me? Would they look at me and know what I’d done, what I had hidden in my barn?

My friends stood in a cluster near the door of the Assembly Hall. Ann spotted me and waved, a smile stretching across her face, and for half a second I was tempted to run straight to her and tell her everything that had happened—the Farther, the thing I’d pulled from his back, my stupid sister, the Watcher tracks in the fresh morning snow. All of it. She was my closest friend. She would understand, wouldn’t she?

But something held me back, like an invisible hand pressed over my mouth to keep me silent.

“You came,” Everiss said, startling me with her sudden nearness at my elbow. She looked as if she’d just come from her family’s shop. A smear of blue dye stained her wrist.

“I said I was going to, didn’t I?” I meant it to be sassy, but my nerves were fried and my tone came out too sharp. I tensed, waiting for the questions. Waiting for the accusations. They would know...they would suspect...

But Everiss just laughed and hooked her arm into mine, dragging me forward, and my moment of weakness about telling Ann vanished. The group clustered around me, and Cole tipped his head and smiled slyly. I tried to smile back because Ann was giving me her “be sociable” frown, but worry made my lips feel heavy as lead. I grimaced instead.

The others chatted about socials and engagements and making quota. I stood silent, still immobilized by the gnawing rat of worry in my belly.

The bell rang, calling us in. People began to stream from the doors of shops and houses, sweeping us along with them inside the sanctuary. I followed Ann, Everiss, and Cole to one of the hard wooden benches and sat.

A man stepped to the front of the room—Ann’s father. He was tall and thin, with a perpetually gaunt face and wide brown eyes topped with bushy eyebrows. He and Ann had the same nose and mouth, but otherwise she looked like her mother. I saw her smile a little as he waved his hands for everyone’s attention.

I settled down as he began by reading the marks. Assemblies were long and boring, and they wasted time—time I could be using to fill my quota or do the necessary chores around the farm, like cooking, caring for the animals, washing laundry, and cleaning the house.

While the names were read aloud, my mind returned to the barn and the Farther we had hidden inside.

Even with his wounds cleaned and bandaged, there was the risk of infection. I chewed my lip as I contemplated what we would do if he died. Or if he lived.

“Lia,” Ann hissed. “Are you listening?”

I sighed and sat up a little straighter. I loved Ann, but lately she was vexing me almost as much as Ivy.

The Mayor finished reading the names and and moved on to the community rules, a weekly tradition that grew duller every time I heard it. His voice droned, and my thoughts returned again to the problem currently sleeping in my barn. The Farther. Sweat broke out across my back, and when Ann leaned over and smiled at me, I couldn’t smile back.

I was being stupid. No, I was being worse than stupid, I was being reckless. When my parents died, the responsibility for my safety and my siblings’ safety had fallen on my shoulders. Even though I was young, the Elders believed I was capable of handling my family’s quota and duties, and so they’d allowed us to continue living in the farmhouse instead of splitting us up to go to other families. They’d almost sent Ivy to live with the Washers, who lived above the Mayor’s house and spent their days up to their elbows in scalding, lye-filled water. A shudder rippled through me at the thought of my sister trapped in that place. She was the most exasperating creature I’d ever known, but I didn’t wish her to be in torment. And spending her days sweating and straining at back-breaking labor while her hands turned puffy and red, never able to feel the sun on her face as she worked, or rescue her stupid animals? It would be a particularly vicious punishment for her.

But now, with the rescued Farther in the barn... If they thought I was incapable of following the rules and meeting the family quota, they would reassign me and take Ivy and Jonn away. Even though he was a man by our standards, Jonn was barely treated better than a child because of his withered leg and poor health. I didn’t know what would happen to him.

“All members of the community must fulfill all assigned quotas on time, attend the weekly Assemblies...” The Mayor was still reading the rules aloud. I took a deep breath and let it out. All was not lost yet. I still had time to sort this out. I would think of something.

Beside me, Cole was fidgeting, which made me feel a little better. At least I was not the only person who hated Assemblies.

The Mayor finished the list of rules and moved on to the courtship and marriage lists. Cole shifted as the names were read aloud. He snuck a glance at me, and I pretended not to notice.

When the readings were finished, the Mayor surveyed the crowd. “We have an important matter to discuss,” he said.

My heart began to pound, although I knew it was irrational. I had just come from the farm. The barn was undisturbed. We were at the edge of the Frost. No one knew about the Farther in our barn except Jonn, Ivy, and me.

But my palms turned clammy with dread anyway.

“There have been increased reports of Watcher tracks lately.”

The room seemed to shrink a little as the word left his lips. Everyone flinched, some muttered. I remembered the tracks across the yard and around the house. Watchers had been in our yard, too. My stomach felt sick and my heart began to beat faster, like a pounding hand against the wall of my chest.

Ann looked at me, her head cocked to one side. I gave her a weak smile, trying to swallow a little of my panic.

“Any member of the community who is out early or late must exercise extreme caution—carry snow blossoms at all times, and be sure to hang them on your doors and windows.” He paused, his gaze sweeping the hall, and I swear it lingered a moment on me. “There have been some reports of sightings, even. This boldness is troubling. We do not know what has caused the Watchers to become so active, but we do know that everyone needs to be more careful at this time.”