Forging Ties (Ties, Book 3) | ✓

Chapter 6

The cold didn't really sink into Duran, but even fully dressed and on the move, Hamish was shivering. Slone led the way to a rocky hill and they clambered up it, Hamish and Slone helping Duran along the way. Duran wished he was as physically fit as they were, but Hamish probably wished he wasn't freezing his ass off just then, so it evened out.

"Look," Slone said when they reached the top, pointing out above the trees towards what sat in the distance. Huge, icy mountains.

"That's... what?" Hamish said. "That can't be the frozen range."

"Can't be anything else, can it?"

"Well, that's... not ideal," Hamish said. "That puts us towards the far north of human territory, and Lainton's to the far south. On foot, over rough terrain, that's at least a two week walk home."

"You got a compass?" Slone asked.

"Oh, yeah." Hamish dug through one of the pockets in his bag and pulled out a compass. He looked at it, frowned, shook it and frowned again. "Wait, what?"

"Mountains got two sides to 'em," Slone said. "We're on the other side."

"That's a problem," Hamish said. "As far as I know, there's only one way through the frozen range: the mountain pass. It's dangerous, but the military just marched an entire army through there, and clearly most of them survived, so..."

"I am not going into human territory," Duran said. "Maybe things are supposed to be different now, supposed to be changing, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. I'd sooner walk home on my own."

"No, of course, you're right," Hamish said. "Didn't you say Kit showed you an icy mountain? Hey, Kit, you know any secret paths through?"

Cookie opened her mouth.

Hamish sighed. "Fine. You can have the rest of the cheese."

Only once the cheese was in Cookie's mouth did Kit appear in front of them.

"No, I don't," Kit said.

"Oh, come on! That was a lot of cheese."

"That'll teach you not to try to talk to me every five minutes," Kit said, staring out over the mountains. "The mountains are a living thing. They grew up out of the ground during the war. We crossed them when they were young. They're much bigger now."

"So can't go through them," Slone said. "Gotta go around. Kit, you know if we're east or west of the humans right now?"

"That I can answer. We're to their east."

"Hamish, Libby gave you a map, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Hamish dug through his bag until he found a rolled-up sheet of paper. He used a rock as a surface to lay it flat. "Half of it makes no sense to me."

"Never been up this way myself, but here." Slone tapped a point on the map marked with a little star that was somewhere on the coastline. "These symbols mean settlements we have contact with. If it's on the coast that far up, that means it's prob'ly by boat. We get there and I bet we can catch a boat back. Makes me seasick, but I'll live."

"Is it far?" Hamish asked.

"Eh." Slone shrugged. "Hard to say. Map's only accurate in a vague sorta way. Closer than walking the whole way, that's for sure."

"Kit, do you..." Hamish looked around, but Kit had already vanished again. Cookie opened her mouth. "Okay, point taken. My question wasn't that important. What do you think, Duran?"

"I've said what I think. I'm not going through human territory. If Slone has an idea that doesn't involve that, I trust him to know what's best."

"Then I guess the decision has been made," Hamish said. "Let's get moving so that I can stay warm. Duran, I hope you like holding hands, because I can't feel mine."