03 Wolfblade by Jennifer Fallon

Author:Jennifer Fallon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, General, Epic
ISBN: 9780765348692
Publisher: New York : Tor, 2006.
Published: 2006-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

With the stream still iced over and no sign of Zag, the name Xanda had given to their missing fish, Mahkas suggested after lunch that his nephews might like to take a walk even further from the castle, into the woods. Under the shelter of the trees closer to the pass, the small stream was still flowing. Mahkas thought the boys might have more luck finding Zag upstream and they happily agreed to the suggestion. Riika wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to stray so close to the border, but figured that if Mahkas thought it was safe, there was nothing to be concerned about. Once he’d made the suggestion, there was no chance of getting out of it anyway. Travin and Xanda were determined to find their fish and, with an ally as influential as their Uncle Mahkas, they knew there was little chance of Aunt Riika overruling his decision.

The air grew colder as they walked under the trees. The boys bounded on ahead, as usual, calling for Mahkas to catch up with them. Mahkas had left the guards back by their picnic things, claiming (out of his nephews’ hearing) that there was no need for everyone to traipse through the forest upstream trying to find one not-very-large fish that probably wasn’t there anyway.

Mahkas hurried on ahead to catch the boys. He stopped after a few steps and turned to look at Riika. “Come on, slow coach!”

“It’s all right for you,” she called after him. “You’re not wearing a skirt!”

The snow was deeper here in the shadow of the trees where the shade stopped it from melting in the weak winter sunlight. Riika trudged through it doggedly, wishing she’d decided to stay back with the guards and their picnic.

At least she’d had the sense to wear an old outfit, even if it was a little tattered and ragged; she knew it’d be messy and wet trudging around in the snow with her nephews.

Mahkas laughed and turned to follow the boys. Within a few steps he was hidden by the trees, only the sound of Travin and Xanda’s distant laughter reminding Riika that she wasn’t totally alone in the world. Smiling at the boys’ obvious delight and at Mahkas’s generosity in humouring his nephews, Riika slowed her pace a little. She wasn’t really needed. Mahkas and the boys were having plenty of fun without her. It must be something about boys—little boys as well as big ones—this idea that floundering around in knee-deep snow looking for a fish probably long gone in an icy stream in the dead of winter was entertaining.

Riika’s next step plunged her into a small gully, where the snow went from knee-deep to thigh-deep in the space of a single step. Cursing, she struggled out of the depression, looked in the direction Mahkas had disappeared with the boys and threw her hands up in defeat. They didn’t need her and she was going to be soaked to the skin. At least, back at the picnic site, they had a small fire going.

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