[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

incessantly until both of them were drenched by the water splashing over
them. Shadow alternated between lending her weight to the rudder oar,
and slipping over the logs to calm her half-crazed horses. Then the current
became too strong even for that small choice, and she and Blade struggled
with the rudder with all their strength, trying to exert at least some small
control over the swaying raft. It seemed hours since they had left the
island behind.
A huge, multiforked log crashed resoundingly into the side of the raft,
and for a moment the platform angled sharply upward. Shadow clung to
the rudder oar, feeling her feet leave the slick logs for a moment as the
force spun her through the air.
Then she was back on the logs, but only briefly, as the swirling water
snapped the oar out of Blade's hands. The thick limb slammed into
Shadow and flung her, breathless, into the flood.
This time there was no time to take a breath. She snorted helplessly,
swallowing muddy water. Tree limbs and other floating debris buffeted
her; out of the corner of her eye she saw the bloated carcass of a deer
speed past.
I'll look like that in a bit, she thought.
The water was icy cold, sapping her strength even further, and she
could only paddle weakly to stay afloat as best she could. A heavy log
thumped her painfully in the ribs, and Shadow seized at it, only to be
knocked away as another branch smacked dizzily into the side of her head.
Blood ran into her eyes. She opened her mouth to call out and water
immediately rushed in.
Something cold and hard was suddenly under her, rising toward the
surface. Shadow wrapped her legs around it desperately, and abruptly her
head was above water. Wet air rushed into her lungs.
"Stay where you are!" Blade's voice came over the roar of the river. "I
cannot leave the rudder to pull you aboard!"
"All right!" Shadow croaked back. Stay where she was? Where was she?
Her head reeling, Shadow wiped water and blood out of her eyes and
looked down. She was sitting astride a scaled black back. The
daggertooth's back. Shadow laughed, choked, and coughed up water; she
choked and laughed again.
Thankfully the shore was not far ahead; the daggertooth's back was
painfully knobby and icy cold, and its movements too violent to draw her
legs up out of the chilling water.
No one could have been happier than Shadow at the moment when the
daggertooth's pushing legs met the bottom of the river; Shadow, however,
was too chilled and weak to do more than slide limply from its back and
crawl the few feet to land, where she collapsed on the muddy grass.
Blade slogged through the shallow water and pulled the raft up, with
the daggertooth's help, onto the bank, tying it to a tree. Daggertooth
became dagger. Blade pulled the wretched horses from the raft by main
force and tethered them to the same tree. She pulled Shadow's cloak from
the saddlebag and threw it over her.
"Stay here," Blade said. "I will find a higher place to camp. We are
obviously going no farther today."
Shadow nodded and huddled in her cloak, watching Blade move catlike
into the low river scrub. It seemed like hours before she returned astride
her demon horse.
"I have found a place," she said. "It is not far, but I think your horses
are too shy and you too weak to ride. You will ride with me and we will
lead your horses."
"If you like," Shadow said dubiously. She did not want to touch that
thing again; horse or daggertooth, the touch of it chilled her with a cold
that was not truly physical. She looked at her roan, however, and saw the
sense of Blade's argument. Blade had to lift her onto the demon's back, but
once there she was able to sit, her arms clasped around Blade's waist.
"Be flattered," Blade said without feeling. "I have allowed no other at
my back for some time."
"You have nothing to fear from me," Shadow chuckled tiredly. "Even if I
had the inclination, I'm afraid a two-season babe could best me in combat
at the moment."
Blade was correct; the campsite was not far, but it was high enough
that should the river rise, they would be safe. For once, Shadow sat idle
while Blackfell hunted and a disgusted Blade set up camp, this time
setting up the tent as well as making a firepit. As soon as there was a fire,
Shadow quickly took off her wet clothes, laying them by the fire to dry,
and sat down in her blanket as close to the flames as she dared get. She
had cleaned the wound on her head and inspected the heavy bruises on
her ribs, and felt disinclined to be helpful.
"On the way back," she vowed, "we'll take the Sun Road and sleep
comfortably in inns and trail shelters."
"Perhaps you will," Blade shrugged. "I will travel alone."
"You can't be serious," Shadow protested. "Why in the world should the
two of us take the risks of riding back to Allanmere alone when we could
travel together?"
Blade turned a cold eye to her companion.
"If I do not succeed in killing Baloran," she said, "you would be ill
advised to seek my company. Blackfell begins to hunger."
Shadow shuddered, her eyes darting involuntarily to the dagger. "Well,
we'll succeed," she said quickly. "So then you won't need to travel alone." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]