.:Chapter 23:.

If Bernard thought she was going to sit there in the carriage while she depended on him to kill a bear and a wolf, he was crazy. Amy knew the odds of his surviving a fight like that, and they were not good. It was time to escape, and that meant somehow getting through miles of snow undetected, without suffering delusions from the snow. She’d gotten as far as opening the door and peeking outside when Bernard let out a horrible scream and fell to the ground.

Blood stained a corner of his robe, and he’d turned a ghastly shade of white as Schreber stood over him, about to retrieve the dagger buried in Bernard’s shoulder.

Fear squeezed her heart at the sight. Not from the goliath bear that rumbled at her from behind Schreber, or from the assassin himself, but from what she was about to do. She gripped the weapon she had found in her sack, a small knife basted in a hallucinogenic, and stepped into the snow.

The ground was too frozen and hard for her to dig through. She felt uncomfortable on the surface, so close to time for other predators, bigger ones, to be out and about. If she tunneled under the snow, perhaps she could find a way where nothing big would snap her up in one bite. An owl was hooting overhead. It was time to find a place for sleep.

She knew the dreams by heart now, and made an effort to push it aside. There were things she had to do now. Surviving her own little battle was one of them.

“That’s my invoker,” she whispered. She had meant for it to be a shout, a loud voice that carried confidence, but somehow she could only squeak. She bent to examine Bernard, and found to her relief he was still breathing.

She tapped his cheek once, glanced over her shoulder, then hauled off and slapped him as hard as she could. He groaned under the sting of her fingers, but otherwise didn’t move.

“Worried he won’t live long enough to pay you?” Schreber purred, leaning up against the carriage as if to enjoy the view.

The bear eyed Schreber, as if to make sure he had a handle on things, and then lumbered to join the Wolf. The horse wouldn’t have much longer if she couldn’t get Bernard moving. Pity.

Bernard moaned again and touched the small, bright knife in his shoulder. “There’s so much power in it,” he mumbled. His voice held surprise, almost wonder. It disturbed her more than the moaning.

Schreber watched him go, and Amy took advantage of his momentary lapse in attention to lunge forward and strike at him with her dagger. It cut through the red cloth visible between his plated armor, and she felt it just graze flesh before he stepped aside and kicked her away.

“You couldn’t just—couldn’t’—“

She smiled. He was looking the same way she did when she first touched snow.

Schreber shook himself, and lurched until he was facing the Wolf. “Kill this girl,” he said, waving in Amy’s general direction. “She’s the one we want.”