Through Ice by Parker Jaysen

Author:Parker Jaysen
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-07-09T04:00:00+00:00

Dorie’s unsure why it’s so, but rider trysts are rarely awkward. Maybe because it feels more like survival than anything messy, like a relationship. You share this small dark space and become a couple, separate from everything outside the journey.

But this time, the morning after does have some weirdness, and it takes Dorie until after Molly and the pack are set up and they’re underway again to realize: it’s not a tryst. They’re deciding how they feel about each other.

Dorie smiles at nothing, and Jane notices.

One of the unwritten rules is that you don’t really talk about the trysts. You’re going to be stuck together a lot longer, and if you argue, it will be very unpleasant.

“Dorie,” Jane says, because she doesn’t seem to know about unwritten rules, “last night was awesome.”

Dorie smiles even bigger.

I like her so much. I’m too distracted.

The dogs are not as fast today. At first Dorie doesn’t think much of it. It’s the middle of the lake, and there won’t be much relief from Uther’s pressure for at least two more days.

But they’ve been so fast.

“Is your shield working the same?” Dorie asks Jane, and looks out through the front port. The dogs look fine. No one’s stride is off.

But Dorie’s resistance, which she knows can make her seem rigid and skeptical in life, really shines now. She can’t trust even her own observations when Uther is working so hard to freeze them in place.

So they stop to check the team.

The dogs pile into their section of the sleigh as soon as Dorie opens the chute. They think it’s lunchtime already. Silly pups. She measures out a morning snack ration, enough to reward them for having their feet checked, and not enough to give them cramps when they’re back out there.

But there is something wrong with one of the dogs. Her gums are not quite white, but they are pale, far too pale. She has something eating her food from within.

Jane follows Dorie’s gaze, then reaches for the tablet with its knowledge base of everything from veterinary first aid to how to rig a litter for an injured rider. If Uther ever learned how to corrupt guild tablets, they’d really be in trouble.

But without clinical tools, all it tells them is what they already knew – the dog has a parasite, and they don’t know what it is.

So they treat everyone, including themselves, with a broad-spectrum pill that has to be jammed down each dog’s throat with bare hands, because they’re so bitter. Jane and Dorie gag at the taste, too.

And to keep the team even, they have to pull a second dog. No one else has any sign of anemia, so they pull the second strongest, saving her in case Molly gets sick.

Four dogs would not be enough without Jane’s shield. It might not be enough anyway. By Dorie’s reckoning, they can try it for one day. With luck by then they’ll be in radio range of Marsh Station and get more medical advice.

Dorie hears Jane through the barrier, crooning at the sick pup.

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