Frozen Prospects (22 page)

Va'del
didn't like leaving Jain, but she gave him a weak smile, so he
nodded and led Hungry and Sleepy over to the part of the cave that
had been marked off for the beasts. It took Va'del nearly a cycle
to unburden and wipe down the gurra while Oh'scir set about making
food and Cindi paced their little corner of the cave and complained
under her breath.

It
wasn't until the beasts of burden were seen to and the various
caravan members had sat down to consume simple dinners, that Va'del
realized that Jain was still sitting completely motionless in the
corner where he'd left her.

When
Jain didn't respond to her name, Va'del ran to her.
She's
asleep. No, her breathing isn't right for that. It is too rough.

Cindi
saw Va'del's sudden motion and stalked over. "I'll not have
you bothering that poor girl. Oh. Why didn't you say something?
Her lungs are filling up. Stupid boy, if I hadn't caught this, we'd
have found her dead in the morning."

Angry
words of reproach died behind Va'del's lips as he realized pointing
out that he had been rubbing down the gurra wouldn't make any
difference to the older woman. "Can you do anything for her?
Jasmin did something to my lungs the first time out. She cleared
out the fluid and made them so that they could handle the thin air
better."

"That's
Guadel Jasmin to you. I'll not have you dishonoring her memory,
boy."

Va'del
bit his lip to remain silent, and was rewarded a second later when
Cindi nodded to herself. "We should be able to have her back
to normal by tomorrow if I can get some help. Boy, go get the
Caravan Master and tell him I'll need his wife to thicken up the air
in here and then come help me."

The
Caravan Master's wife, Sophie, proved to be a thin, plain woman who
smiled easily and proved incredibly adept at countering Cindi's
attempts to place blame. The pair had hustled Jain off to a corner
where they could work on her undisturbed, and Va'del found himself
unsuccessfully trying to eavesdrop in an effort to find out whether
or not Jain was going to be okay.

The
Caravan Master saw Va'del's apparent stress, and took a few moments
to come speak with him. "She'll be just fine, boy. It's my
fault really. All of us old hands tend to forget that the only
reason we can survive out in the thin air is the modifications
someone did to us decades ago. I should have thought to check and
make sure all of you youngsters had been taken care of. We've got
four other cases. None of them quite as bad, but don't you worry.
The ladies will have your friend and all the rest of them fixed up
and ready to go by the time morning rolls around."

A
quarter cycle later, while Va'del was fingering a narrow package
that Javin had dropped off for him the night before, Oh'scir ambled
over to tell him that Cindi wanted them both to go to sleep so that
they weren't tired in the morning. The younger man nodded and
wrapped himself up in blankets, but closed his eyes sure that sleep
would be a long time arriving.
Javin
said to leave it wrapped up until things got their worst. Does
Jain's illness count as something terrible enough to unwrap his
gift?

When
Va'del finally awakened, it was to glares from Cindi, who seemed to
have been waiting for him to stir. "What are you doing with
worked stones? Did you steal them?"

Still
somewhat confused from having so recently been asleep, it took
Va'del several seconds to understand that the Guadel was talking
about Betreec's and Jasmin's gemstones. The teenager's hands darted
to his chest to make sure that the pouch containing the two stones
was still there.

"Yes,
those two. Did you really think that I wouldn't sense them? It
doesn't matter. I'll have them now."

The
action seemed to tear at Va'del's heart, but On'li's warning that he
needed to be very careful not to defy Cindi and Oh'scir pounded away
at his thoughts. The teenager had worked the pouch free from his
shirt by the time he realized that the weak movement behind Cindi
was Jain, and that she was shaking her head emphatically.

"No,"
he said. "They were the lifeworks of Ja...Guadel Jasmin and
Guadel Betreec. Guadel On'li gave them to me for safekeeping. I
have to keep them until she asks for them back."

The
expression of surprise on Cindi's face at Va'del's refusal was
almost an exact mirror of what he felt himself at having stood up to
her. For a moment Va'del worried that he'd done the wrong thing,
but his trust in Jain was absolute. He could only hope that she
knew something he didn't about what was happening.

Guadel
Cindi's face instantly flushed with anger. She glared for several
seconds and then stalked off muttering about disrespect and the
unworthy state of the current generation of youth.

Once
they were as alone as was possible in a roughly-circular cave filled
with people, Va'del crept over to Jain. "Are you okay?"

Wrapped
in more blankets than Va'del had suspected could be found in the
caravan's baggage, Jain nodded. "I'll be fine. They patched
me up, and did the alterations that make you all able to breathe out
there without having your lungs fill up with fluid."

"I'm
sorry. I should have remembered and said something."

Jain
quietly laughed, but as always there was nothing of mocking in it.
"Please. I should have remembered it. We learn how to do the
procedure, for Powers' sake. With all of the excitement, I guess we
all just forgot."

Va'del
shrugged, still somehow feeling like he'd failed Jain.

"It's
okay. You don't have anything to be sorry about. You all but carried
me up the last few steps into the cave last night."

Va'del
wished he could lean in and give Jain a kiss, but Oh'scir was up now
and looking their direction. "I'll get Hungry packed and take
care of any of the chores that would otherwise fall to you. See if
you can't go back to sleep for a while. You'll need all of your
strength if they're really going to make us travel today."

##

The
Caravan Master had indeed been unwavering in his desire to move out,
and although Va'del understood that Black Rock Village was probably
only a week away from starvation, he had bitterly wished they could
wait for even one day while Jain and the others recovered.

He'd
been sore enough when they'd started out in the morning that he'd
known each step must have been sheer torture for her. Unable to do
anything other than lighten her burden, Va'del had tied Hungry's
lead rope to Sleepy's pack, and led both gurra to save Jain from
having to fight one of the sometimes stubborn beasts.

Yesterday's
relatively good weather had disappeared, replaced by a wind that was
bitingly cold, if not overly strong. For the first time Va'del
could remember, Jain was obviously shivering just as badly as he
was. The fine, stinging particles of ice that the wind was
propelling into the openings in everyone's clothing despite their
best efforts to stop it left Va'del feeling as though his skin had
been abraded against a rock wall.

At
least the wind is at our backs, so Jain and the others don't have to
fight it as well as their own aching muscles.

Each
time the Caravan Master stopped in the temporary shelter of a rock
outcropping, Va'del handed Jain a water skin and tried to ignore the
fact that she was obviously closer to total exhaustion with every
passing cycle.

Somehow
they all made it through the day. Of almost equal amazement to
Va'del was the fact that he'd managed to continue to bite his tongue
in the face of Cindi's repeated attempts to find fault with
everything he did.

The
next day promised to be even worse. Everyone's muscles were in the
worst shape of the journey so far. Jain had started the morning
pointing out, with something very nearly like her usual cheer, that
at least the gurra all would have an easier time of things since
their loads had been lightened by two days' provisions.

The
statement had managed to draw a smile out of Va'del despite his
worry about her, but as the day wore on, Jain once again retreated
into herself, as if simply putting one foot before the other was all
that she could possibly handle.

Jain
collapsed into her blankets as soon as she finished dinner that
night, and Va'del was forced to endure Cindi's endless
remonstrations alone. He understood the need to avoid further
straining relations with the villagers, but it hardly mattered next
to his worry that Jain wasn't going to make it to the village.

The
next day went much better for everyone, whether because they were
starting to accustom themselves to the journey, or possibly because
they knew the warm sanctuary of the village awaited them at the
day's end.

Whatever
the reason, the caravan made excellent time, and Va'del saw the dark
smudge that signaled they'd arrived at the village at least a cycle
sooner than he'd expected.

The
subtle straightening of the backs of each member of the party as
they entered the village seemed to signal that they, like Va'del,
had been carrying tension and stress they hadn't known about, but
which evaporated as they finally made it safely to the village.

For
all that we spent most of our time and energy worrying about
fighting off the cold, I don't think that most of us ever forgot
that there was a very real chance that we'd be ambushed by the
bandits along the way.

The
Guadel tasked the rest of the party with taking care of the animals
and getting their gear to the guest rooms, and then left with the
headman.

Va'del
tried to convince Jain to leave the care of Sleepy, Hungry, and the
other two gurra to him, but she gamely insisted on helping despite
not knowing very much about caring for the animals.

The
two of them managed to finish up with all four beasts about the same
time as the rest of their party, and then tiredly picked up their
own things and followed the others to their rooms. Jain was
recovering more slowly than the rest of the Daughters. Va'del had
shouldered more than half of her things, but they were still moving
so slowly that they almost lost sight of their quickly moving
companions several times.

Once
they finally reached the guest rooms that had been reserved for
them, Va'del wanted nothing quite so much as to lie down and go to
sleep, but he forced himself to leave his things in a more or less
orderly pile, and head back for Oh'scir and Cindi's things.

Seeing
Jain turn to follow him, Va'del shook his head. "You should
stay here and rest. For all we know we'll be on the road again
tomorrow."

Jain
looked around, and seeing that nobody was looking their direction,
squeezed Va'del's arm. "Don't be silly. You're even worse
with directions than I am. Besides, if you stand here and argue
with me we'll just end up even further behind everyone else. I'll
come help, otherwise we'll still be looking for you tomorrow when
her highness is ready to get back on the trail."

Va'del
chuckled a little at the image of Cindi stomping around, quite put
out because he'd had the gall to go off and get lost, and then
nodded. "You're probably right."

Once
the pair was out of sight of the guest rooms, Jain broached the
subject that he'd wanted to ask her about, but hadn't yet had the
opportunity. "Jasmin and Betreec's stones properly belong to
their bloodline. Since On'li and Javin are the head of that
bloodline, if they gave them to you, there is nothing Cindi can do
to take them away."

Va'del
nodded, finally understanding why Cindi had backed down. "Thank
you for hinting that I should stand up to her."

"You
don't need to thank me for that. I know how much they mean to you.
Besides, I hate watching her pick at you all the time. She's
completely unfair."

Va'del
shrugged uncomfortably. "She's the Guadel though. I have to
keep her happy or I'll never have a chance to be a real candidate."

"That
doesn't make what she's doing right."

Even
with Jain picking their direction of travel the pair made two false
turns. It wasn't until they heard the rest of the caravan headed
back from the stables that they found the correct corridor and made
it to the stables. Anxious to try and catch back up to the others,
Va'del quickly loaded himself up with as much of the Guadel's
baggage as he could carry.

None
of the symbols at the cross tunnels looked even remotely familiar.
The clatter of their party was so faint as to be all but useless, so
after several seconds Jain shrugged and pointed down the left
passage. "I suppose one way is as good as the other. We can't
stand around and wait for Cindi to come find us."

Va'del
hadn't ever noticed just how similar tunnels could look when you
didn't know the meaning of the sigils at the crossroads. Still,
after several minutes they realized that they'd unsurprisingly taken
the wrong tunnel. What did catch Va'del off guard was the fact that
right before he decided to turn around, they somehow ended up in a
dead end containing three off-duty guardsmen who were passing around
some kind of dust.

"It's
the bloody kids from the Capital."

"Right;
we get overrun by those Powers-blasted bandits, left out here to
starve for two weeks, and then when help finally comes it turns out
to be a few old people and some kids to help defend the whole bloody
village."

All
of the men's eyes were somehow wrong—too bright, and not tracking
quite right—but one of them seemed less affected by whatever they
were taking than the other two.

"Lay
off, Vin'i. They're just kids, they don't have any more say about
what happens than we do. Besides, the Council has to have a good
reason for not sending more help. This must be all there was that
could be spared."