Trinity Rising: Book Two of the Wild Hunt (Wild Hunt Trilogy 2) (35 page)

‘I’m sorry, Speaker. My concentration slipped. I will do better next time.’

‘See that you do.’ Ytha’s lip curled. ‘I agreed to teach you, not sit weaving my thumbs whilst you daydream.’

Another fire took hold, this time inside. ‘Perhaps I would pay closer attention if you were actually teaching me something!’ Teia flung the flame aside and it winked out. The Speaker blinked.

‘I have sat here for an hour every day for two weeks since I tried to warn you about treating with the Raven and you have shown me
nothing
! You make me repeat exercises I mastered a month ago, reprimand me for no good reason, and I’ve had my fill of it.’

She had barely a flicker of warning before Ytha’s magic lashed out and caught her around the throat. It was not tight enough to choke her, but she certainly could not swallow. Teia felt as if she was about to be lifted off the cushion, bloated belly and all. A shiver of fear chased over her skin.

Ytha’s cat-green eyes narrowed. ‘I think you forget your place, child,’ she said. ‘You are my apprentice and you will study as I direct you. If that means you sit here and call flames until the heavens crack and the stars fall down, you will do so. I will not tolerate disobedience.’

‘Yes, Speaker,’ Teia managed. The band of air around her neck unwound and she sagged.

‘Now, a flame.’

Resigned, she called on the power again. The new flame flickered and jumped like a lamp in a draught and she had neither the will nor the energy to steady it. There was no point. No matter how perfect she made it, Ytha would only slice through her magic and send it back into the dark.

One of Drwyn’s warriors scratched at the door-curtain then pushed his head inside. It was Harl, and he looked uneasy. ‘Forgive me intruding, Speaker,’ he said diffidently.

‘Yes, man, what is it?’

He swallowed and dropped his gaze from the Speaker’s ire then looked back at her, and Teia realised it was the first time she had ever seen him afraid.

‘They are coming.’ He stepped back, holding the curtain aside.

Ytha rose, straightening her skirts. Green eyes glinted. ‘How far?’

‘The other side of the valley and running fast. Less than an hour away.’

A cold, cold smile lifted the corners of Ytha’s mouth. ‘I see.’

She picked up her staff and settled her snow-fox robe across her shoulders. ‘Ask the chief to attend me at the lookout to receive our guests, then assemble the clan at the meeting place. We must give our guests a fitting welcome.’

‘Yes, Speaker.’

Harl ducked out and Ytha followed him. She paused on the threshold, one raw-boned hand holding the curtain as she looked back at Teia, still cross-legged on the floor. ‘We are not done, you and I,’ she said. ‘You will obey me, or I will snuff you out.’

Then she was gone.

Teia waited until she could no longer hear footsteps, then pushed herself to her feet as fast as her belly would allow. She had hoped to be long gone by now, but between tending to her chief and her lessons from the Speaker, there had been so little time to make things ready. Now it might be too late. The Hounds were nearly here.

In the sleeping chamber, hidden under the bed-furs, she had concealed the last few pieces of clothing she needed. Her sealskin jerkin. A leather tunic lined with fur, somewhat moth-eaten but still serviceable. An old shirt of Drwyn’s that she had carefully altered. Good boots, which she changed into from her kidskin house-shoes – her skirts were long enough that no one should notice – and a few other things.

Hastily she pushed everything into a basket and tucked a provisions sack over the top. There. She’d used this subterfuge a dozen times now, and never been challenged; women with baskets on their hips walked to the stores so often each day it was unremarkable, yet each time she was afraid the hammering of her heart would give her away before she got halfway across the meeting place.

She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to calm the frantic knocking on her ribs. Time had finally run out. She couldn’t even spare a few minutes to say goodbye to her parents. She had to be well away before Ytha came back.

Ytha’s skirts whipped about her ankles on the raw wind, but the icicles that bearded the cave entrance were dripping in the sunshine. No new snow had fallen for several days and between the sunlit skies and the heavy feet of the hunting parties, the ledge was almost clear of snow and ice. She stepped out to the edge and shaded her eyes against the sun as she looked down the valley.

Two shapes loped from the foothills. She could hardly make them out, but the track they cut through the deep snow ran arrow-straight towards where she stood. Neither rocks nor ridges nor the thousand streams that criss-crossed the ground were enough to divert them and they ran as if they would not miss a stride until they reached their destination.

Yes. Maegern had kept Her word, despite everything that wretched girl had said.

A smile tugged at Ytha’s cheeks. This would hand her the hearts of all the chiefs. When they saw this demonstration of her power they would have no room for doubt, no stomach for scepticism. They would swear to Drwyn at the Scattering, all of them. She glanced at the sky, where the thinnest crescent of the second moon lingered above the pale ghost of the third.
And under a trinity moon
. . . the first victory would be
hers
.

Boots scraped on the stone behind her and she looked around. Drwyn stepped out to join her, squinting against the brightness.

‘So the Hounds come,’ he said.

‘Yes, my chief.’ Ytha dipped him the merest bob of a curtsey and could not keep her smile from widening into a grin.

‘Teia’s prediction came to naught, then.’

‘Apparently so.’ By the Eldest, she would rub the girl’s face in this and enjoy every moment of it.

‘If this weather holds, we should be able to start moving north soon.’

‘You will not wait for the thaw?’ The Speaker schooled her face to composure, but it was a struggle to suppress the fierce excitement that boiled up in her breast.

Drwyn shook his head. ‘No. My father used to tell me: if a job is to be done, it is best done quickly. I’ve already sent out more scouts. It’ll be hard travelling at first, but the sooner we move, the sooner we can call the clans’ war captains together. I have some ideas about our strategy to put to them before the Scattering.’

Do you indeed? You’ll not deviate from the strategy I gave you last winter, my wolf-cub, or you risk repeating Gwlach’s mistakes. But I’ll be interested to see if you hit upon anything I have missed. You might even surprise me
. ‘Very wise,’ Ytha said.

She studied the Hounds again. They were closer now, and she could make out their lolling tongues, see the plumes of snow they raised as they breasted drift after drift. How much ground they had covered in just a few minutes! Each bounding stride consumed six or eight spans of snow-covered earth. She could almost hear their paws breaking the frost crust.

‘You will be the greatest chief the Broken Land has ever seen, Drwyn,’ she said, pulling her snow-fox robe close around her. ‘Your name will sing loud in the histories.’

‘Louder than Gwlach’s?’ he asked.

‘Of course. Gwlach lacked the battle-craft to match the breadth of his ambition. You have seasoned warriors in Eirdubh and the others; if you heed their counsel and strike bravely, I think you will have little to fear.’

He chuckled, dark eyes snapping. ‘And I owe it all to my clan Speaker, Ytha the wise,’ he said.

With the effrontery she had come to expect from the man, he slipped his arm around her waist and pressed a whiskery kiss to her cheek. But not even that could cast much of a shadow over her mood. The Hounds were coming and she would be triumphant. The clans would have a Chief of Chiefs to lead them back to the lands of their ancestors, and she would sit at his right hand. Nothing could prevent that now, no matter what that cursed girl said or saw. Once she’d dropped her calf, Ytha would take great pleasure in burning her out, and if Teia happened to be left mute or drooling in the process, well, so much the better.

A small, tight smile curved her lips. The important thing was that Drwyn knew to whom he owed his coming glories.

She would make sure he did not forget it.

No one spoke to Teia as she made her way to the stores. She had to skirt the meeting place to get there and it was already filling up with people, talking anxiously amongst themselves about the sudden call to attend.

The few who hailed her she acknowledged with a smile and a wave and a harried nod towards the basket on her hip. She had chores to do, it said, or she would be happy to stop. They returned her wave with nods of their own that said they understood, she had a chief to attend, so she could hurry on without worrying about hiding her nervousness from their eyes.

By the time she reached the store-caves and ducked into the shadows to catch her breath, her heart was stumbling like a three-legged deer. Anxiety pressed down so hard on her breastbone that she could barely fill her lungs. Under her clothes, her skin prickled with sweat.

Please let everything still be there
. The child kicked sullenly.
Macha look kindly upon me, mother to mother
.

She had hidden saddlebags in the furthest store-chamber, transporting them by the same ruse she had just used. Quickly she emptied her things from the basket and carried them through to where – praise Macha! – the saddlebags were still tucked out of sight behind the dung-sacks. She had been desperately afraid that someone would stumble across them when they came seeking fuel, but the stores had lasted well. Teia dragged the bags out and stuffed her last few things into them wherever she could. The buckles had to be forced closed when she was done.

She had been secreting stores for weeks, things that would keep, like salt fish and dried berries, oatmeal and flour, as well as her warmest clothes; the bags were so bulky she could scarcely carry them. Only with some puffing and cursing did she manage to get her shoulder under them. Now she would have to be quick. She had to fetch her horse from the corral, saddle him up, then make her way outside.

It sounded simple enough, but there was one problem she had been trying not to think about until the time came because it made her bowels turn to water. There was only one way out of the caves: to reach it she would have to cross the meeting place under the eyes of the whole clan.

When she reached the horse-pen her back was near to breaking from the weight of the saddlebags and her own swollen belly. Panting, taking short, quick strides so she could keep herself moving smoothly, she turned towards the saddle rails and there was her horse, already tied up and waiting. Not the pretty grey mare Drwyn had given her, but her own slab-shouldered dun gelding Finn, with a saddle blanket already over his back.

She almost swallowed her tongue when she saw her father with Finn’s saddle on his hip.

‘What are you doing here, Da?’

His pepper and salt moustaches twitched. ‘I could ask the same of you, my Daughter, but I already know.’ He heaved the saddle onto the horse’s back and cinched it tight. ‘I know what Ytha’s about, Teisha. I saw her go up to the lookout and went straight to warn you but you’d already left your quarters. I guessed I’d either find Finn gone, or you here.’

He lifted the bulging saddlebags from her shoulder and slung them behind the saddle, tying them on securely. Finn bared his teeth at him, but without any real malice.

‘I have to go,’ she said miserably. Tears stung her eyes and she held out her arms to him.

He gathered her up as if she were still a small child and held her close. ‘I know, Teisha. I wish I could have done more to help you.’ He kissed her forehead and wiped her eyes with his hard thumbs. ‘There now, don’t cry, sweetling.’

‘She knows, Da, I’m sure of it. She’s treated me with nothing but contempt since I tried to warn her.’

‘I heard you used your powers against her,’ he said.

‘Only to stop her when she turned hers against me.’ She hugged her father tight one last time and stepped back. ‘I have to go now, Da. It’s the only chance I’ll have. While she has the whole clan watching her, she’ll be too drunk on her triumph to notice me.’

Her father looked doubtful. ‘It’s risky, Teisha. You’re wagering it all on one throw of the bones.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s all I can do.’

He squeezed her shoulders fiercely and kissed her on both cheeks.

‘Then go quickly and may Macha watch over you.’ His voice was even gruffer than usual as he pushed Finn’s reins into her hands.

‘Da, please get away if you can, before it’s too late. Promise me.’

‘My word on it. Now go!’

Clansfolk crowded the meeting place when she reached it. Every one of them, from the smallest child in its mother’s arms to the most grizzled ancient, faced the raised platform near the entrance where Ytha stood with Drwyn. The Speaker held herself upright, her cheeks flushed from the cold outside. Her right hand rested on the waist-high shoulder of one of two massive Hounds. The other lay at her feet.

‘Mother preserve us,’ Teia breathed.

She felt herself falling, tumbling headlong into a whirling vortex of light and darkness. This was her dream, her vision, exactly as she had seen it.