The Stormbringer's Mate

about it f

first light. I said it might be a trap and we would both be gone by first light. She said I had been on the mountain one day and I did not get to decide what her station did. I said she had

stopp

with my back against the wall and my arms folded. The lamp on the hook swung a little

nd a letter from the pack house, and for all I knew you were the traitor. For all I knew you were the one who put a light on my ridge tonight. So I kept my mouth shut and I watched

years," I said. "That's not

n wh

d have told me your readings were off the hour I walked through the door. Instead you gave me tea and

you would crack

m working it out yourself. You let me do it because you wanted to see how I thought." I pushed o

off one shoulder and her hands were at her

to apologize fo

't ask

going to

n coat off the hook and put it on. "First light. I go out with you, we take the lamp and the knife and my nose, and we do not go past the third marker

dn't know

fin

der and something moved in her face that was not anger.

arrying the lamp, because I'm not walking be

d listened to her move around at the other end of the corridor. A door opened. A doo

the kitchen to make tea and found her already there, sitting at the table

sleep eith

e pushed the pot toward me. "There's enough

e. She gave me a look that said

of her hands. The way her hair stuck up on one side where she had been lying on it. The smell of her, which was paraff

the mu

ls

M

ne. When you touched my sle

t was cold and that you were warm and that I had

not what

t now. Not on a morning when there's a light on my ridge and a dead man in my cold room. You want a conversation about

this i

both sti

watery yellow and we put on our c

l away behind us and the ridge rose up in front of us, and the wind came off the top of it and cut at my face. Elsie walked

ut half a mile

," sh

the wind. It ran straight across our path, a shallow furrow about a hand's widt

rints,"

ed hand in the furrow. "Someone walked this way and dragged a pine branch be

ing you have said a hundred times, and then she heard

ather,"

n dead eleven years.

ls

de in the wind." She walked on. I followed. I did not press it, bu

der. It was a cairn of flat stones with a wide capstone on top, and the capstone had been m

f boot prints leading away to the north, and a s

one and he stood here long enough for the grass to burn." She

t of a stone and dark against the lichen, there was a mark. A wolf's

s a death mark. That's a mark that

se c

y this time, and she had not been able to hide it. She turned away from me and bent to p

ned, she was still turned away a

ls

t do the thing where you're kind t

k in her belt. She

," I said.

f and so am I. When it swings, I get the shakes and my wolf goes quiet and I can't feel the pull o

moon's co

hands are shaking and there's a death mark on my cairn and I don't know what any of it means, Callum, and

ith my fists at my sides and did not reach for her, a

o in her ruck

ther end was young and cheerful and q

here's a dead man in your cold room and a chopper in your hangar. Any