Vengeance (The Captive #6)(49)
He pulled the feedbag from Achilles and gave his neck a solid pat before giving him the water. “We’ll get there.”
Tempest glanced over the snowy landscape again; she saw nothing out there, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. William finished with Achilles and came to stand by her side. “I want to give him a little more time to relax and regain some of his strength.”
She nodded, she knew the animal needed time to rest, but she felt unbelievably exposed out here. William walked to the front of the horse and searched the horizon. Tempest folded her hands before her as she walked around behind Achilles. They spent the next half an hour circling the horse, and searching the horizon for any hint of menace.
Finally, William turned back toward her. “Ready?”
“Yes.” She was more than eager to get out of here. “I can walk and give Achilles more of a break. I’ve been in worse snow than this before.”
He grabbed hold of her waist. “I’d prefer you not to be in the snow. Besides, you have a better view of the landscape from his back.”
Before she could respond, he lifted her as if she weighed no more than Achilles’ feedbag, and placed her onto the horse’s back. She settled the cloak around her, gathered the reins, and held them within her hand. Arguing with him would be pointless. She kept her back ramrod straight as she constantly searched the horizon.
The day dragged onward in an endless sea of white snow and incessant dread that something would launch itself at them in an attempt to destroy them. When she needed a break, she convinced William to let her down from the saddle, but she kept her attention riveted on the world around them. Her entire body had become as tense as a scared cat. If she so much as heard a twig crack, she was convinced she’d scream her head off.
Her legs grew tired from trudging through the snow, but every muscle and bone in her body ached from sitting so rigidly in the saddle. They were still a good seven miles away from the mountains when pinks and reds began to stretch across the sky. The closer they got to the massive cliffs looming over them, the more the wind howled down around them. The snow danced with rainbow prisms of color as it spun around them.
The sun had slipped beyond the horizon; both of them were covered in snow when they finally made it to the shelter of the looming cliffs. She tilted her head back to look at the mountains before them. Lowering her head, she searched the rock face but didn’t see any hint of the crevice she’d crawled out of a couple days ago.
Her fingers remained curved into a claw position when she released Achilles’ reins. She stretched her knuckles out, flexing them as she tried to get feeling back into her extremities. William glanced back from where he’d been studying the rock walls with a critical eye.
The light slipped further away, the cold crept in to brush over her flesh beneath the cloak when she walked forward to join him. “I’m not entirely sure where I came out,” she told him. “It all looks the same from this side, and I only came out this way a couple of times before the other day.”
“Take your time,” he said.
They didn’t have much time. Once the sun slipped away, they would be left out here, exposed to the elements and anything lurking out there. They walked along the cliff wall together searching for her original exit point. William found a crevice in the wall, she stuck her head in to inspect it, but the rock formations and small size let her know immediately that this wasn’t what they were looking for.
The sun had completely set; stars were beginning to dot the sky when the first lonely howl echoed across the land. Tempest froze, her head turned to take in the sea of white surrounding them. “Wolf?” William inquired.
“I’ve never seen a wolf up here. Bears yes, but not a wolf.” From somewhere across the vast, empty landscape another howl sounded. A rock settled in the pit of her stomach when she realized it wasn’t the cry of a wolf echoing around them, but the cry of one of those demented vampires wandering the night.
William took hold of her arm; he pressed her closer against his chest and the rock wall of the mountain. He didn’t say she had to find the way soon, he didn’t have to; they both already knew it. “Keep moving,” he urged.
She trudged forward through the snow. Her hands ran over the mountain, searching for the entry point she knew was there, somewhere. They could be miles away from it still; she had no idea how far she’d roamed once she had exited the cave.
Helplessness began to swarm her. Stay calm, she told herself. For all she knew they were going in the complete opposite direction from where she’d originally exited.
“You are going to find it,” William said from beside her. “Relax.”
Throwing her shoulders back, she closed her eyes and took a minute to steady herself before continuing onward. Another lonely howl rang out, this one sounding much closer than the last two. She turned her head toward the noise, William stiffened beside her. He pulled his bow around and slipped an arrow from his quiver.
“Do you seen anything?” she whispered.
“No, not yet,” he murmured.
That not yet spurred her into motion again. She lost track of where they were between the gloom and the endless white. The rough and jagged formations of the rock scraped against her palms, creating nicks and cuts that healed almost instantly. The cold had seeped into her bones when she discovered an entrance into the mountain.