The Way of Things: Upper Kingdom Boxed Set: Books 1, 2 and 3 in the Tails of the Upper Kingdom (16 page)

Behind
them, Ursa narrowed her pale eyes and grinned. “Some long lost relative,
perhaps?”

“First
cousin on my mother’s side.”

The
Captain tried to smile. “Very well. We are making good time. If you recall
anything, at any time during the journey, tell me at once.”

He
spurred alMassay forward, taking his place in the winding river once again. He
noticed Quiz trotting next to the Scholar’s poky beast, and their riders seemed
to be engaged in animated conversation.
Too bad she wasn’t a lioness,
he
thought wryly. Kerris might actually have stumbled on a good one in her.

Then
again, perhaps his brother was more tiger than lion, himself.

“You’re in quite the mood this
morning,
sidala,”
Kerris was saying.
“It really doesn’t suit you, I must say. Makes your eyes all scrunchy, and does
nasty things to your nostrils.”

“Let
me ask you something, Kerris your name was. Something just for clarification.
If you don’t mind.”

“Ask
away,
sidala.”

“You
say there was never any snake yesterday, is that right?”

“Sorry,
sidala.
There was never any snake.”

“Well,
did we get caught in the snow yesterday on the way back from the bluff? Did
that really happen?”

Kerris
grinned. “Yes, I seem to recall something like that.”

“And
did we exchange our clothing for monk’s robes and have hot tea and stew in the
dining hall?”

“Yes,
sidala.
We did.”

“And
did you snag a loaf of bread from a passing monk? And did I comment on your
manners? And did you say that it was something you learned at the Palace? And
did I ask you what else you learned? Did it go something like that, Kerris your
name was?”

“My,
but you have a good memory,
sidala,”
he
laughed. “Yes, that’s exactly how it happened.”

“I
know, ‘cause I was there. So, what was your answer then? What else did say you
learned at the Palace?”

 
“Snake charming,” he said, smile fading.
“I said snake charming.”

“Exactly.
Why? Why would you say that, if there had never been any snake?”

 
He scratched his chin
and sat back, putting pressure on Quiz’s spine and easing the pony into a slow
jog.

“Well,
you just stop to think about that one, Kerris your name was. Take just a scrap
of time and use that little mind of yours for something other than walking,
eating and sleeping for a change. Can you do that for me?”

That said, she tossed her head once
again, and tightened the laces on her cloak.

Kerris,
for his part, continued to puzzle for some time afterwards.

Behind
them, rode the Alchemist, humming to herself in strange, exotic keys.

The
water on the road was growing worse, rushing in torrents now from the
snow-heavy mountain slopes. It seemed to be taking the road away with it, stone
by stone, as it poured headlong down the sharp incline and Kirin noticed alMassay
struggling to keep even footing. He also noticed his brother, frequently
glancing up at the sheer expanse of deadly white, glistening in the
mid-afternoon sun above them. He set his jaw, shook his head but before he
could make a decision, the Major’s voice snarled from behind.

“Move,”
she hissed. “Get going.”

The
Seer had stopped his horse, his eyes focused yet far away. Kirin remembered the
look from the kitchens the night before. He held up a hand and the rear guard
shouted orders to the group in the fore. The winding river of horses ground to
a halt.

“I
said
move!”

“Major, that’s enough.”

The Imperial stallion performed a
tight turn-on-haunches to draw up in front of the Seer.

“
Sidi?”

Sireth
blinked, refocused. “Captain, we must turn around—”

“Kirin!”

Kerris
and Quiz were scrambling back up the path toward him.
“Kirin!”

It
was then that they heard the boom, the faint and distant thunder of ice sheets
giving way. High above them, a white spray arose from the mountainside,
reaching into the blue sky like the birth of a cloud and it began to shake the
very earth beneath them as easily as a child shakes a stalk of bamboo.

“Back!”
shouted Kerris. “We must go back! Now!”

“Back!”
echoed Kirin, and with great effort, alMassay dug his hoofs into the sloppy,
vibrating ground, propelling himself back up the path and forcing the others to
do likewise. The Captain threw a glance over his shoulder. The snow was almost
upon them.

“Faster!
Move!”

With a surge of speed brought only
by panic, the horses galloped up the slippery slope, racing to keep ahead of
the death that was plummeting toward them. It was the sting of a thousand wasps
as tiny crystals of ice cut into Kirin’s neck. He ducked low in the saddle and
urged his horse forward.

And
then he heard the screams.

First
one leopard, then another, crying out for only an instant as their horses were
swept from under them, and they themselves were sucked into the charging wall
of snow. Arms and legs and finally the Royal Banner carried on above the bank
until they too were swallowed up in sheer, blinding white. The Alchemist’s
black mare was at full gallop at alMassay’s flank but far behind, the Scholar’s
horse was losing ground. The third leopard plunged forward, the roar of the
avalanche licking at his horse’s heels and snow cascaded downwards all around
him. He reached out to catch the Scholar, scooping her into his saddle just as
her horse stumbled and went down. As it fell, it collided with the soldier’s
horse and it too lost footing. The snow obliterated sight of them both in an
instant.

The
thunder was deafening now, as Quiz the mountain pony scaled the mountainside,
back up and over the near vertical slope like a monkey, sending shale and bits
of snow onto the road. Both pony and rider disappeared into the sleet that
preceded the crushing snow.

“Kerris!”

For the first time, alMassay
disobeyed his rider, steeling his mouth as the Captain hauled on the reins. For
in a flash, Quiz was back on the path, wild-eyed and frantic, with Kerris
almost twisted in half, one hand clutching the pony’s mane, the other hand
clutching an orange one. Fallon was in mid-air, swinging out from under the
blizzard and for the briefest of moments, it looked like Kerris would have her,
until the mountain boomed again. Kerris lost his grip and both tigress and lion
were sucked into the speeding front, Quiz scuttling off alone.

Without thinking, the Captain leapt
from his stallion’s back, hitting the wet, rumbling ground. He flattened his
arms and legs to brace himself and still, he slid. When he finally scrambled to
his feet, he was just in time to see the body of the avalanche carry on past
them, hurling itself off the edge of the mountain and sending a cloud of white
raining down to the valleys below. Slowly, the thunder subsided, leaving
unnatural silence in its wake and for a long moment, all he could hear was the
sound of his own breathing, heavy and hurting in the afternoon sun.

Behind
him, he heard voices, calling voices, arguing voices, voices snapping orders
and voices hotly disobeying. He ignored them all.

Suddenly,
someone was beside him, grabbing at his arm.

It
was the Seer.

“They’re
alive, Captain. They’re alive. Hurry.”

Kirin
needed nothing more and with the Major at their heels, the pair of them dove
into the deep bank of snow.

***

For a long moment, all Kerris could
hear was the sound of his own breathing, heavy and hurting in the afternoon
sun. He could feel the cold empty howl of wind on his face and the cold empty
expanse of air around his legs as he swung high above nothingness. But what he
was waiting to feel - the sickening, sucking sensation of free fall or the
sudden, harsh smack of ribs on rock - these he did not feel. He gradually got
up the courage to open his eyes, hoping against hope that the last thing he
would see would
not
be the Mother’s Arms, rushing up to give him a
bone-crushing hug.

It
was not. Rather, what he did see was cliff face, dark and stony, closer then
further away, closer, then further away. He was swinging less than an arm’s
length away from sheer mountain rock. His hands were aching and he looked up at
them. They were twisted around a double strand of thick, braided leather.
Reins,
he realized. He was hanging on to
a strange pair of reins that disappeared up and over the edge of the cliff. It
seemed very likely that it was attached to a bridle and equally likely to the
head of some horse, dead and buried under a shroud of cold, heavy snow. And
finally, with a deep breath, he looked down, way down, to see the bottom of the
mountain fall away as if forever, swaying and spinning in dizzying circles
below.

And
the tigress.

She
had her eyes squeezed tightly closed, her arms wrapped around his legs as in a
death grip, her face pressed into the back of his knees, squishing his tail
with her forehead.
Perfectly sensible
, he thought dully. He had pulled
her out of the snow so she had pulled him back into it.

“Hello
down there,” he called out, his voice cracking from the strain. “Hello,
sidalady
tigress. Can you look up a
moment? Please?”

Slowly, she did look up, eyes wide.

“That’s
better, isn’t it? See, we’re fine. Really. Quite fine.” He tried to sound
nonchalant, as if he often found himself swinging off the edges of cliffs by
reins and dead horses. “Um, do you think you can climb?”

“No.
No, I don’t think so. I think I’m fine right here, thanks, if it’s all the same
to you.”

“Well,
actually, it’s not. We’re in rather a bit of a predicament right now and I
don’t think I can haul the both of us back up this cliff without a little bit
of help.”

“Oh.
Okay.”

She
clung to him the way a small child clings to its mother.

The
reins gave a small jerk and Kerris swallowed. He could imagine it all well
enough. The reins were braided Imperial leather, the finest in all the Kingdom,
and the body of the horse itself was a worthy anchor, crushed and pinned by the
weight of snow covering it. But the snow was still melting, moving in its
inexorable slide to the valley, bringing the dead animal along for the ride.

The reins jerked again.

“Use
your claws! Now! Climb!”

She did. Her claws were fine and black
and she began to scale him like a tree house, sinking them into cloak and tunic
as easily as old bark. As she pulled herself up to his shoulders, she felt them
dig into flesh.

“Sorry! Oh, sorry!”

Kerris
gritted his teeth. “Keep going.”

And
the reins slipped some more, bringing with them a rush of snow. It struck her
and sent her toppling from her perch. Purely by instinct, she lashed out,
snagging his shoulders once again and dragging her claws down his back like
razors. They were swinging wildly now, spinning high above the chasm, and she
felt her fingers, then her hands, then her arms grow warm and sticky.

“...oh...
mother...”

“...just...
climb...”

She
began again, hand over hand, trying desperately to avoid the slices in his
pelt. Higher, just a little bit higher, she climbed up until, with one boot
balanced on his shoulder, she pushed herself upward, sending a searching hand
past the reins, to the very edge of the cliff.

And
suddenly her weight was gone from Kerris’ shoulders, leaving the coolness of
space in its place. He briefly wondered if she had indeed fallen once again and
this time been thoughtful enough not to take half his pelt with her.

Above
the howl of the cold empty wind, he could hear voices and soon there was the
face of his brother, reaching out over the edge, grabbing his arms in a
powerful grip. Kirin was using his own claws now and this time Kerris felt his
arms grow warm as blood flowed down into his sleeves.

“Hello,
Kirin,” he said weakly.

Kirin
said nothing, but gritted his teeth, hanging on as if nothing in the Kingdom
could make him let go. A silver set of claws flashed into view, as both Captain
and Major hauled the grey coat up and over the cliff edge, into the welcome
cold of the snow. Kerris glanced up to see the tigress trembling in arms of the
Seer. The man was speaking softly to her, stroking her thick, silky hair. He
felt hands on his shoulders, his back, and he let his brother hold him as he
sank to his knees.

“I
need a very big drink,” he grumbled.

And he closed his eyes under his
brother’s soothing hand.

***

Hands on hips, Kirin Wynegarde-Grey
oversaw the excavation of snow. It was not a pleasant task, nor a particularly
useful one, for the avalanche had buried the narrow, winding road for a great
distance beyond.
They had been fortunate,
he thought darkly. If they had
been further along, they could not possibly have outrun the falling ice and all
thirteen of them would have been buried along with it. As it was, the four
surviving leopards had unearthed two of the dead guards and three of the four
horses that had fed their Mother, the Great Mountains. Hopefully it would sate
her appetite for a long time to come.

Ursa
Laenskaya stood beside him.

“We
should be able to clear a path, sir,” she was saying. “The snow is not that
heavy.”

“No,
Major. The snow is very heavy. We shall succeed only in exhausting our men.”

Kirin glanced up at the sun, now
high in its afternoon arc through the sky. He shook his head.

“We shall not see
Pol’Lhasa
tonight.”

“Perhaps
if we enlist the aid of the civilians?“