Winterskin (Book One of Wrath & Winter)

Magic Does as Magic Will: Part One

This was another chance.

To lose control. To let the darkness win.

Already, the winds were kicking up. The sky, though overshadowed by trees, was growing colder. Stiffer.

Then— "Katell."

Hagen's voice. Her hand on my shoulder. Jagged black fingernails digging into leather and cloth and bone.

"Katell." Her voice deepened. "You're here."

I shivered against the cold and nodded. Her voice brought me back, killed the cold brewing on the silver edges of the sky and blackened trees. Brought a breath of warmth along with it. A confident brush that crept its way along the nape of my neck and down both arms.

She squeezed again, then let her fingers fall. Snapped at Jod, the largest youngling among us, and shoved Noel's weak body toward him.

You're here. You're here. You're okay.

The sheet isn't. With its hawkish eyes and woman's face. It's gone.

That night, we convened around a fire, choosing watch times and biting into day-old sheep jerky. Noel leaned on a bedroll not far from me, awake and alive and well. Thanks to me—his words, not mine. He talked and laughed with Jod as the others ate and stared glassy-eyed into the fire once the watches were picked out. Luckily, I wouldn't be standing watch with Ceadda or the rest of his ilk.

Hagen returned from the darkened brush beyond and crouched down near the fire. Her presence brought respectful silence. Firelight drifted in her crisscrossing scars.

"You all hear that?" she began, settling in. Spreading her gaze around, "Sounds of the night? Crickets, gales, starsong?" we nodded, though the question seemed rhetorical. "Remember this during your crucible: silence is cause for worry." She sprang up. Paced to a nearby flat-faced oak, and dragged her hand down the scarred bark, "Most fiends you'll encounter in these woods are fearful of two things: unnecessary injury and fire."

"Unnecessary?" Noel piped up.

She patted the tree again, "Climbing with a rotten body. What would that result in?" silence told her that we knew the answer. She padded back to the fire and sat, "Remember those and you'll survive. But completing the crucible—showing Montbereau and her jarl that you are worthy of her sigil? Of shield and ax?" her eyes blazed. Ripped into the body right across from her.

Ceadda.

"Reprimanding your own without the leave of your commander is a capital offense." Fire hissed as she spat, "For which the punishment is similar injury dealt. The removal of one's shield and ax. Erasure from the Wall of Honors." Hagen still glowered. Still beat Ceadda down with her gaze. "Maeva," she turned to me, looking me up and down. Eyes lingering on the patches of purple that should be blossoming on my face and body.

Elisedd. I had Elisedd to thank for the lack of.

"Have you got anything to share?"

And what would the Guard do with a rat?

I shake my head, avert my eyes.

A throaty chuckle rasped its way up Hagen's throat, "You three are lucky," she said between slow bouts of laughter, "Extremely." Her laughter died instantly, "You three will be taking first watch. And second. And third."

"But that's the whole night!" Ceadda countered. Then, slapped both hands over his mouth.

"Ah, is it?" Hagen said, practically begging him to speak out of turn again.

He didn't.