Silver and Snow: Book 3 of the Water-Folk Saga by Victoria Ravenwood

Author:Victoria Ravenwood [Ravenwood, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19 – Because Telling The Truth Was Hard

Dwynwen’s head wobbled back and forth as he lay strapped to the sled and Cali followed its tracks, thankful the snow was slightly compacted behind the runners, as opposed to the knee-deep drifts they’d traversed yesterday. She gazed at him, grateful the snow was not falling heavily enough to stick to her eyelashes today, and chuckled at the white powder settling on the sparse beard that had grown around his gaunt cheeks.

She’d almost cried when he woke up three days after her return from the mountainside with Saelix. He was disorientated for several hours and at one point, Pipit voiced that his brain might be addled forever, but he came round in the evening and was ravenously hungry. The volg that Saelix had killed stank out the room, but nothing in their arduous journey had tasted better than the meat grilled over the fire of the hunting cabin, the fibres marbled with fat that dripped from the sharpened wood skewers that Aydana had crafted. But the volg and the cabin were long gone.

Cali nipped forward to the side of the sled to brush the snow from Dwynwen’s face, warm inside that he stirred when she touched him and that the Carline had worked, but she was cold everywhere else. She hung back to walk by Aydana, who was struggling with the chill as much as she was, even under her new cloak. She had skinned the dead volg as soon as she found out Cali had brought it back and seemed to have no problem trussing up the carcass and stretching the hide between two trees and keeping it in place with wire.

As Cali glanced across at the older woman now, she daren’t ask how she knew that skill, especially after the gruesome procedure she’d performed on Saelix’s torn face.

“How are you feeling, Calitha?” she croaked, and Cali found it strange that only she and her father called her that. The black nightdress…urgh…

“Cold and my bones ache. You?”

“The same. Oh, to be under the baking desert sun…”

“And how are your hands?”

Aydana pulled them from beneath her sleeves and the skin remained taut and pink. “Sore, but I still live.”

“Your tattoos…have they gone forever?”

Aydana frowned, showing the backs of her hands where burnt red replaced the black swirling lines. “Yes, such is the power.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“The power. It must come from somewhere. A sandstorm takes a great deal. A sacrifice was made.” She patted her rib, revealing a rectangular outline. “But no doubt this little book helped.”

Cali shuddered at the thought of it. “So, if that helped, why did you take the log?”

“Wood burns to ash and ash to dust. I cannot conjure it from nothing in a place like this. There is no dust here.”

Is that why I don’t feel the call of the sea? Cali thought as she rubbed the iridescent scars on her cold palm.

“And your hands, Calitha? How are they?”

Cali frowned, glancing at the opaline scales. “Fine.” She

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