Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (23 page)

  
              Dor’s face softened some from her reproach. “Well, I was injured yesterday. Someone must have...wait a minute,” his face quickly turned crimson. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. You tell me what you are doing up here and give me my bow.” He reached for it but she held it back while still holding him down.

  
              “Just wait one second will you,” she spat while maneuvering the bow to keep it from his reach. “If you’ll just settle down I’ll tell you everything.”

Dor finally stopped and lay still but tried to bore holes into her with his eyes.

“By the Mother’s blood you are impossible, DorMar,” she huffed, returning her own stare of icy darts. “Like I said, I saw you leave so I grabbed your bow and was on my way to practice when I began to wonder where you were going in such a hurry. So, I came back searching for you. When I couldn’t see you anymore I found your trail and tracked you.”

  
              “Tracked?” he almost shouted.

  
              “Shush!” she scolded. “Let me finish.”

  
              Dor went silent but had a slight smile on his face knowing that she must be telling him some type of story to try and make herself look good.

  
              “I
tracked
you
,” she said emphasizing the words, “from Thane’s hut, knowing you would go there first, into the woods and then up the mountain side. I must confess I was a little unsure if I was actually on your trail because only an
idiot
would go up into the mountains,” she emphasized again glaring down at him. “But, then again, it was you I was tracking so I kept going. I could tell you were in a hurry for some reason but I had to make sure I kept to the trail or I would have been here sooner. But, no matter, I got here in time.” She stopped and smiled feeling extremely proud of herself and then suddenly frowned. “Where’s Thane?”

  
              Dor looked away as tears began pooling in his eyes.

Tam stared at him in horror, “Answer me you dung pile,” she said elevating her voice and shaking his arm. Dor grimaced at the returning pain and she stopped. “Where is he?” she asked more calmly, tears beginning to form on her lower lids.

                 “I don’t know,” he whispered trying unsuccessfully to keep from crying in front of her. “I came up here looking for him but I’ve lost his trail.”

  
              Tam’s face paled. “What? What happened to him? Why would he be up here? I heard about what happened yesterday but why would he come to the mountains?”

  
              Dor felt his anger return along with the loathing he held for those he knew were directly responsible for what had happened to his friend. Tam was still spouting off questions when he finally shouted, “Shut up! By the five Tane and all that is holy, shut your trap for just one minute!”

  
              Tam glared at him but closed her mouth with a snap.

“Now,” he said, running fingers through his hair and matching her glower with one of his own. “What I know is that last night Thane was beaten up and then brought up here where he was left for dead.” Tam gasped, opening her mouth like she was about to say something but Dor quickly raised his hand and silenced her. “I went to see Thane this morning,” he continued leaving out why, “but he was gone. Because of what his father had said to him, that didn’t worry me much until I found a puddle of blood on the ground just outside his hut while his bow still rested inside. I found some tracks leading away so I followed them here but they’ve disappeared.” Finished with what he was willing to tell her, he stood as quickly as he was able, gathered Thane’s bow and then busied himself by looking over the dead troll in hopes that Tam would not see him crying.

                 Tam was frozen in place, dumbfounded. How could this be? How could something like this happen? “We have to find him,” she whispered still staring off into space. “We have to find him,” she repeated louder, tears streaming down her cheeks as she turned her attention back to Dor. “We have to find him!”

  
              Dor looked at her for a moment, his no longer able to keep back his own tears. “I’ve looked. There is nothing.”

  
              “Well, you just don’t disappear off the face of the world, there must be some clue. We have to try.” Tam began to search the area’s perimeter frantically looking for anything that might clue them in to their friend’s fate. Dor watched her numbly not finding anything useful from the troll. She was wasting her time. He had already looked and there was nothing. Tam’s search went out farther and farther until she disappeared around an outcropping of rocks.

  
              “Wait!” Dor called, “we shouldn’t get separated.” But she didn’t answer so he reluctantly followed after her. As he made it to the edge of the rock he heard her scream his name. He rushed around the corner expecting another troll but instead found her jumping up and down in the snow.

  
              “I’ve found him! I’ve found him!”

  
              Dor hurried through the deepening snow expecting to find a frozen corpse but instead his eyes were cast upon a trail heading deeper into the mountains. He was so overcome with joy he grabbed Tam with his good arm and pulled her into a bear hug. When it finally struck him as to what he was doing, he quickly let her go.

  
              “Uh, let’s have a look at these tracks,” he said awkwardly, not daring to look at her, hoping his face was not as red as it felt.

 
              Tam knelt down next to him, as if nothing had happened, trying to ignore her own embarrassment as they both looked over what at first they thought were Thane’s tracks.

  
              “These can’t be Thane’s,” Dor suddenly announced with a worried shake to his voice. “See, they’re too deep and too big. Whoever made these tracks was either extremely large or carrying a load.”

  
              “But who else would be in these mountains?” Tam asked still looking intently at the prints in the snow.

  
              “I don’t know. They don’t appear to be troll prints though.” Dor got up and followed the tracks a little further. “Look over here,” he called while kneeling down again.

  
              Tam was by his side in an instant. “What is it?”

  
              “More tracks. See, they join these here,” he pointed.

  
              “They look like some kind of animal.”

  
              “That’s what I think, but I don’t understand? Could he have been taken by rock trolls?”

  
              “You said yourself that they weren’t troll tracks.”

  
              “I know but what else can they be?”

  
              “Well,” Tam said, wrapping her blanket more tightly around her shivering form, “we won’t find out by just standing here. Plus,” she continued, lifting her head to smell the wind, “it’s going to snow soon.”

  
              “Oh no,” Dor said standing up and shaking his head. “There is no
we
. There’s just me.”

  
              Tam glared at him with a look that was colder than the snow that was numbing his legs. “Now you listen to me DorMar,” she hissed, “if it hadn’t been for me there wouldn’t be anything left of you and your better-than-anyone attitude. I found the tracks and I saved your life. That should at least warrant my going along, if not put me in charge. And let’s not forget the fact that you are as helpless as a newborn pup with that injury of yours. Now, you either put away that ‘girls aren’t good enough’ attitude of yours and be nice to me or I’m going to leave you behind.”

  
              Dor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Who did she think she was anyway? He could whip her with his good arm tied behind him if he wanted to. Leave him behind? Humph! He should leave her behind. Even though she did shoot his bow fairly well and, he had to admit, it would be nice to have someone to talk to, she was overstepping herself in thinking he needed her. He was about to tell her as much when he suddenly realized that he couldn’t send her back to the village. Her mouth ran off on its own so much that she would certainly blab to everyone about what had happened and then there would be men chasing him down to bring him back. Thane wouldn’t have a chance then. There was nothing for it.

“All right, Tam,” he finally said with a serious tone. “You can come along, but you must do what I tell you. You may know a few things but I am fully trained and know what I am doing.”

                 Tam bit her lip trying not to laugh right in his face. “Fine then,” she managed with barely a whimper, “agreed.”

  
              Dor nodded once and then turned to gather his things. Tam couldn’t hold it any longer and snickered into her blanket. Dor answered back with a ‘bless you’ only making Tam laugh that much harder.

  
              “You’d better keep warm,” he said returning with all of his belongings. “You sound like you’re coming down with something.”

  
              Tam nodded, keeping her face well hidden into the blanket so as not to let Dor see the smile on her face.

  
              “Let’s go.”

  
              True to Tam’s prediction it almost immediately began to snow. They followed the tracks down the backside of the mountain that sloped slightly between two peaks on either side. There were very few trees on the mountain and none of them availed them much as far as shelter from the frequent flurries. Dor led giving Tam a slight bit of protection from the wind and snow but soon he began to shiver. The storm was getting worse.

  
              “We have to stop and find shelter,” Tam yelled over the gusting wind. “It won’t help Thane any if we both die out here.”

  
              Dor turned to speak to her, his face a mask of white flakes, “As much as I hate to admit it,” he said, “you’re right. Let’s continue down further until we can find some protection.”

  
              Tam nodded. “Why don’t you let me lead for awhile so you don’t freeze.”

  
              Dor shook his head dislodging some of the snow pack that had gathered there. “No sense in both of us being cold,” he smiled at her. “Plus, I make a better snowman than you.”

  
              Tam began to protest but he had already turned and began to descend.

  
              The snow was coming down more forcefully now making it almost impossible to see. Dor kept following the diminishing trail farther down the mountain hoping they would find their friend before they froze to death or at least find relief from the snow.

  
              The snow was up to their waists when the trail reached a ledge and turned to the left along a second ledge that dropped off the side to another about a hundred feet below. Dor couldn’t see much further but it appeared that the path crisscrossed down the side of the mountain. They continued on with both of them now getting blasted by the blizzard. The snow was getting deeper by the minute making it more difficult to push through and covering up what was left of the tracks in front of them. They were exhausted and cold and both began to wonder if they wouldn’t add their lives to that of their lost friend.

             
Well
, Dor thought with a chill,
at least it will be warmer after death
.
I hope
. It was then that he almost passed by what looked to be a crack right in the side of the mountain. He stopped and Tam bumped into him almost knocking them both over.

  
              Tam was about to yell at him for stopping when she looked up and also noticed the crack.

  
              “A cave,” Dor said through chattering teeth.

  
              “Do you think it’s safe?”

  
              He gave her a look of incredulity. “Kinpa’s bones, girl, it’s got to be better then becoming ice statues.” Dor ducked his head into the opening that was large enough for one person to pass through standing fully erect. He wanted to check for himself to make sure they wouldn’t be killed the minute they entered.

  
              “What are you waiting for?” Tam asked impatiently. “Let’s go in.”

  
              “Just a minute,” he called back, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Oh well
, he thought,
if there were something in here I’d probably have found out by now
. With Tam right behind him, suddenly holding onto his arm, he followed the narrow cave for about fifteen feet before it curved to the right, bulging out into an area large enough for the two of them to be comfortably out of one another’s way. It then narrowed again returning to a tight corridor.

  
              “I guess this is it until the storm stops,” Dor announce, shaking the snow from his blanket and trying to keep his teeth from chattering. “The first thing we need to do is get dry and warm.”