Lannahi slowed her steps, ignoring the warning growls coming from the wolves’ throats. “For the pack?” she repeated. “Then I’m not looking at a jealous woman now?”
A grimace flashed across Ashkii’s face. “Don’t flatter yourself, witch,” she said in an icy tone. “Amaruk will never lie with a woman who doesn’t have wolf blood in her. You are as much a rival to me as a deer stupefied from poisonous fumes.”
“Why the hostility then? What does it mean that I messed with Amaruk’s head?”
Ashkii clenched her jaw. She must have concluded, however, that Lannahi would end up dead anyway because she eventually said, “You charmed him with sweet words. He seems to think that trading with Goldfrost would benefit the pack as if he forgot that everything we need can be found in the forest.”
“And the thought that he might want something more is so disturbing that you have to drown me to make yourself feel better?”
Ashkii narrowed her eyes. “When you disappear, the landshapers will take your place. Besides hunting, they don’t particularly care about what happens in the forest. Amaruk will start thinking like a wolf again. Stop talking and hurry.”
Lannahi focused on traversing the ice, trying to ignore the wolves that nipped at her heels. Thoughts of a counterattack were running in the back of her head, but Ashkii and Sevii had no weapons or jewelry that she could turn against them. She could enchant the buttons of their cloaks, but she didn’t think they would prove to be an effective weapon against the four wolves… and the landshaping power.
Does Ashared know about Sevii’s power?she thought nonsensically.
Ashkii stopped, followed by Sevii and the wolves. “You will walk the rest of the way on your own.”
Lannahi was relieved that at least the woman wasn’t so cruel as to carry out the threat regarding her fingers, but when she marched across the lake that feeling was choked by fear wrapping tightly around her heart. In theory, her plan was clear and simple: get out of the water, reach the sleigh, enchant it, and return to the palace. In practice, everything was unknown. Lannahi never went into the water in winter. She didn’t know how the freezing water would affect her. She didn’t know how long it would take to escape its cold depths. There was a high probability that she would fail. And failure meant death.
Ashkii tilted her head down and said something to Sevii. Lannahi tensed but kept walking. Maybe she would reach the shore…
A crack resounded through the still air.
Lannahi stopped. Two more loud cracks rang out before she was able to locate them snaking toward her like lightning bolts.
Lannahi broke out into a run.
She heard shouts and barks behind her. She lost her footing, tripping over the hem of her heavy skirt. She fell, hissing as her knees and hands slammed into the hard ice.
Ashkii’s voice.
One crack, then another.
Lannahi rose and moved blindly forward, lifting the fabric of her robes as high as she could.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Crack.
The ice collapsed below her. She cried out and choked on the icy water. She swung her arms, looking for a handhold, but found only slippery chunks of ice. Her clothes felt heavy. Water flooded her lungs.
With growing panic, she swung her arms wildly until she grasped onto the hard edge of the ice. She clutched it desperately, choking and spitting out water. A long moment elapsed before she could breathe freely again, and an even longer one before she realized that she wasn’t safe yet.
She was freezing. Her clothes were heavy and dragging her down into the lake’s depths. She had to get out of the water before the chill killed her.
This thought reminded her of the reason she was there. She jerked her head up, certain that she would meet wolfish eyes.
There was silence all around. She was alone.
Grasping more at instinct than hope, she tried to pull herself up to climb back onto the ice. She wasn’t discouraged when she failed the first time, but with each unsuccessful attempt she felt weaker, and panic rose in her again. She didn’t expect it to be so difficult, but no matter how much she tried, she kept slipping into the water even after she disposed of her waterlogged coat in a flash of reason.
Finally, she could take no more and stopped. Despite the chill, she felt hot. She looked around with irrational hope that there might be someone to help her, but the forest surrounding the lake was like a wall separating her from the rest of the world. She considered crying out for help, but the memory of wolf fangs trapped the scream in her throat. Freezing wasn’t necessarily a better death than being torn apart by wolves, but it was certainly more peaceful.
I don’t want to die, Lannahi thought, looking up at the blue sky.
She shook herself, clearing the drowsiness from her mind as she summoned the last remnants of her strength. It was luck that when she swung her legs, her foot landed solidly on the edge of the ice.
She was exhausted, but the crack that sounded when she was lying on the ice sheet urged her to crawl further. Soon, however, she forgot why she was in a hurry and curled up in a ball. She wanted to sleep.
