Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

Author:Lena Coakley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, General, Science Fiction, Historical, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Military & Wars
ISBN: 9781442420052
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2011-08-30T01:54:19+00:00

Bo caught them a rabbit—a big one, white and fluffy in its chilling coat. From the blood on the dog’s jaw, it was obvious he’d kept another for himself. Falpian had always made a mess of skinning rabbits, but Ryder laid it on a rock and paunched it with cold expertise, then made a few decisive cuts and peeled its skin off like a jacket. It was still warm, and the purple flesh steamed in the cold air. Falpian gaped, both revolted and impressed.

They were a little less than halfway up the mountain, and the view of the gorge was dizzying and gray. Falpian was bone tired. His lips were chapped, and his face was burned by the wind. They’d stopped their climb in the middle of the afternoon, and Falpian had thought it was because Ryder could see how tired he was. Now he understood it was because everything took so much time: building the shelter, gathering wood and kindling, melting the snowpack so they had a good place to build a fire. All through the afternoon, Ryder kept frowning up at the mountaintop, and Falpian could see that it nearly killed him to stop, could see that what he really wanted to do was carry on all through the night toward his sisters—even if he died trying.

Ryder skewered the purple mass of rabbit on a long stick and handed it to Falpian. “Here. Can you at least roast this?”

Falpian grasped the stick clumsily. His hands were still tied, and he was barely able to move his fingers from the cold. “Where are you going?”

Ryder was already walking away toward a stand of bare zanthias. “More wood,” he grunted. “And don’t get any ideas. There’s nowhere to run.”

Falpian leaned the stick over the crackling fire, enjoying the warmth that was beginning to thaw the front half of his body. Beside him, Bo looked up lovingly, his gray tail sweeping the snow back and forth.

“I don’t suppose you want to chew these ropes so I can get free,” Falpian said. Bo’s tail swept harder, sending a spray of snow hissing into the fire. “I didn’t think so.”

The rabbit was just starting to drip fat, giving off a mouthwatering scent, when Falpian was hit with the revelation of Ryder’s mistake. The pack. Ryder’s leather pack was sitting right there in the snow. And the humming stone was inside it.

Carefully he set down the half-cooked rabbit, eyes darting toward the stand of trees. His fingers were still numb and clumsy, but it wasn’t hard to pull the pack open, even with his hands tied. There it was, the humming stone.

He kneeled down and blew a hurried breath. Nothing—the stone made no sound. Nervously he looked behind him, trying to ignore Bo’s big, staring eyes. He regretted what he had to do. But he’d already determined that Ryder was stronger and faster, and there was no way to put him to sleep for a while, or transport him far away—this wasn’t a nursery tale where magic did exactly what you wanted.

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