Page 19 of Dragonbound

She laid her hand on it and counted – the little that was exposed was probably six hands high and four across. But who knew how much of it was buried in the snow. She removed her gloves and prodded the inscription with her little finger.

The stone, surprisingly, wasn’t cold under her touch, and she was amazed to discover her entire fingernail fitted inside the pattern. She began tracing the curling image with her finger.

She’d never seen such intricate carvings among her people. She’d seen many, many examples of scripts and sculptures, but nothing like this before, aside from in the cave Arrow had found them that first night.

Abruptly, Erann gasped and Sereh understood his attention was once more on the here and now. She desperately wanted to ask him questions and find out what he saw when his gaze seemed to drift off. Instead, she drew his attention back to the stone.

‘Yes, I’ve seen this pattern before,’ she repeated.

Erann looked at her with his unfathomable green eyes.

‘Where, where have you seen this?’ he demanded, urgency to his voice.

‘It was on the walls of the cave I sheltered in on my first night free from Rankil. I think it’s the same stone. Have you noticed how it doesn’t reflect the light, even though its surface is shimmering?’

Erann hadn’t taken his eyes from the stone. He raised his head and appraised her.

‘That’s a strange observation to make.’

Frustrated, Sereh shrugged. Who was he to talk about strangeness?

Erann traced his finger through the swirls of the inscription with a troubled expression. There was silence for a few moments apart from Arrow’s panting. She’d stopped digging in the snow and had returned to them, as though trying to hurry them along. Sereh noticed Arrow was practically salivating in Erann’s face. She couldn’t imagine the smell was pleasant. Erann didn’t notice, even as a large string of slobber slipped from Arrow’s mouth and landed on his gloved hand. Sereh grinned, despite herself. Erann distractedly wiped his glove in the snow, his focus on the marker stone.

Sereh stood once more and studied her surroundings. The snow-capped mountains encircling Snaefell were amazing, the scope of their soaring majesty impossible to comprehend. She imagined what it would be like to climb to the very top of those huge mountains and see the land stretched before her, like a giant patchwork quilt of white, and during the middle of the Long Day, green and brown of crops.

She was snapped from her reverie by Erann’s low voice. ‘I think we should go to your cave. We need to look at these inscriptions. Would you be able to take me back there?’

Sereh hesitated.

‘The cave’s close to Rankil’s home. With the weather improving, there’ll be more people about. I can’t risk being seen,’ she said, aware of the intensity in Erann’s eyes. She swallowed heavily but nodded. He offered her a quick smile, and it lit his face once more. But he remained crouching down beside the stone marker. Sereh shuddered at the thought of going anywhere near Rankil’s steading again. Erann couldn’t protect her from him if she was discovered.

With a soft sigh, Erann tore himself away from the marker stone and stood. He looked at where they were.

‘Come we should walk further before we seek shelter for the night. The closer we get towards Vatna Jokull today the closer we’ll be to the cave tomorrow.’

Nodding in agreement, Sereh walked beside him, watching Arrow dart out in front, sniffing out creatures that had left their Long Night hibernation. She wished she could be as carefree as her wolf-dog, but worry hounded her every step.

12

SEREH

Dawn came early the following day. They packed up their belongings quickly and stepped from their cave, eating a peat cake each.

Arrow loped along, untroubled by anything, her paws leaving indents in the snow because the night had been noticeably less cold. Sereh wished she could forget her problems as easily as Arrow. Arrow didn’t worry about where her next meal was coming from, or about where she would sleep. Still, Sereh smiled to see her wolf-dog so free, but inside she was overwhelmed by growing dread. She hadn’t been able to shake a feeling of imminent disaster. Erann had picked up on her dark mood and lapsed into silence, their brief camaraderie of the day before disappearing as though ice beneath the sun’s heat.

She couldn’t bring herself to tell him she was angry with him. But it was his fault they were heading in this direction and had returned to Vatna Jokull’s unforgiving surface, and were following it towards the cave she’d slept in all those days ago. They were supposed to be going to the Library to deposit the priceless scripts, not venturing ever closer to Rankil’s steading. It would be his fault if she were discovered and had to return to a life of perpetual toil.

They walked in silence, broken only by their heavy breathing and Arrow’s occasional yips and barks as she frightened some small creature emerging from its hibernation. She never gave chase, happy to stay close by Sereh’s side as the surface became icier and icier, and the threat of crevasses beneath their feet grew.

Sereh was pleased to realise even more small animals were starting to wake from their long sleep. She wondered what they were eating. There’d been no hint of a green shoot anywhere poking up between the snow away from the glacier. What few trees and bushes she’d seen on her travels were stunted and hugged low to the ground, with no new growth to speak of, most weighed down by snow or ice that was yet to thaw. She reminded herself it had only been nine days since the Long Day had risen, but it didn’t feel right. Not when she suspected the Long Night had been so many weeks longer than usual.

They walked below one of the largest mountains enclosing Vatna Jokull, its peak too far away for her to glimpse from where she stood. She could only see so far above her head. She couldn’t remember its name and was loath to ask Erann because then she’d be the one starting the conversation, and really what she wanted was for him to apologise again for taking her in this direction. Instead, as she walked, she invented names for the mountain in the hope one of them would feel ‘right’. It was stupid, but passed the time as she followed the path Erann was taking around the glacier, keeping close to its edges. In spite of herself, she couldn’t help but like the sure way he stepped out in his snowshoes, and the way he occasionally tossed his head to sweep back the lock of blond hair escaping his hood.

Suddenly, the solid ground seemed to shiver beneath their feet and a deep, growing rumble rolled downwards. She looked to Erann ahead, who’d stopped in his tracks, eyes fixed on hers. Her horror was reflected on his face.

Somewhere up above them, out of sight, a field of snow had ripped itself away from the mountain and was hurtling towards them.

She glanced up, hoping she’d see the avalanche tipping down one of the other mountains. But, near the edge of her vision, she could already see a trickle of loose snow lifting in tiny eddies, as if the mountain itself had sighed.