The Silver Mist: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 6 Page 14

  “I’m not sure, but we have snowshoes. I just have the feeling that we should take this turnoff and we better make it quick.” Herne forged onto the side road and we lumbered through the snow, quickly entering an even thicker patch of woods. A few moments later, he stopped, turning off the engine, and opened the window. He held his fingers to his lips.

  Sure enough, we could hear some sort of vehicle back on the main road. I held my breath, hoping they wouldn’t see us from the hidden access road, but they continued along and soon the sound of the engine vanished. We couldn’t see who they were from here, or what kind of car they were driving, but it had to be some sort of all-wheel drive to make it through the storm.

  Herne closed the window, then turned back to us.

  “I’m hoping they didn’t hear us earlier. I think we may have gotten away with it, but I’m not sure. But that just confirms that we should make camp along this road somewhere, then scout our way back to see what we’re dealing with.”

  Yutani groaned. “I know what the word ‘scout’ means,” he said. “You’re going to send me in coyote form, aren’t you?”

  Herne grinned, then shrugged. “It makes the most sense. But I’ll go with you. I can change into my stag form.” He glanced back at Kipa and Viktor. “The two of you should stay here with Ember and Raven.”

  “It makes more sense for me to go,” Kipa said. “I can go in as a wolf. Most people can’t tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf, which means they might think we’re just a couple of wolves out for a run.”

  Herne frowned, then nodded. “Yeah, that does make sense. All right, the two of you get ready to go. Try to remember where we’re at.” He paused, then added, “Hold on a moment. Let me pull ahead a little farther. I think there’s a clearing ahead.”

  He pulled ahead, easing the Expedition forward. Sure enough, a moment later we pulled into a clearing. There appeared to be a ranger’s cabin there, but it looked abandoned. I breathed a sigh of relief. This meant we wouldn’t have to camp outside in the snow.

  We got out of the car, and Herne approached the cabin. He opened the door and peeked inside, then waved us in. We joined him and looked around. The cabin itself was a sturdy, two-room affair. The main room held a bunk, a sofa, a table and chairs, and a fireplace. There was also a smaller woodstove that looked like it’d been used to cook on. The second room had a composting toilet in it, and a sink that ran only cold water.

  “At least we’ll be able to heat up some water,” I said.

  “Think again,” Herne said. “We don’t want any smoke rising from the chimney to indicate we’re here. We want to take them by complete surprise.”

  I let out a grunt. “Wonderful. Well, at least we’re protected from the storm itself. It’s cold, though, so what do you suggest we do to keep warm?”

  “Jumping jacks?” Herne asked, a half-assed grin on his face.

  “I can help,” Raven said. “I can heat up rocks with my hands to a degree. They won’t be warm enough to start a fire, but they should be hot enough to heat the air some. If you can find enough pebbles, I can turn them into handwarmers for your pockets. I can also start fires, but Herne vetoed that idea.”

  “I didn’t know you worked with fire,” I said.

  “I have a number of secrets you don’t know about,” she said, smiling. “Yes, I do work with fire, as well as death magic. They often go hand in hand. Fire is a cleanser, it purges and destroys, and it comes under the control of bone witches.”

  “Cool. Good to know,” I said. “I’ll go outside and start gathering rocks. I’ll stay near the cabin, though.” As I headed toward the door, Yutani started to strip.

  Kipa shook his head. “I’m so glad that the gods don’t need to strip in order to shift form.”

  “I’m not,” Raven said, giving him a suggestive look.

  Yutani shot her a quick look, then turned and finished taking off his clothes. I paused, admiring his form. He was gorgeous, with a runner’s body, muscled and taut.

  Kipa arched his eyebrows at Raven, then winked. In the blink of an eye, he changed into a wolf. Yutani changed into his coyote form, and Herne opened the door.

  “Don’t take any unnecessary chances,” he said. “Scout around, see what you can find. But don’t give yourselves away. Get back here before dark.”

  As the pair raced off into the snow, it was hard to believe they were actually our friends. They looked very much like a large fluffy wolf, and a smaller, younger wolf. I knew the difference between coyotes and wolves, but Kipa was right—a lot of people didn’t. And whether or not the brotherhood knew the difference, it probably wouldn’t matter unless they were pegged as shifters.

  I motioned to Viktor. “Come on, help me find some rocks so that Raven can warm us up.” As we stepped out into the storm, I felt a presence lurking on the wind. It was the Cailleach. And she was just beginning to vent her rage.

  VIKTOR and I managed to find a good amount of stones. Some were smooth and flat, obviously left behind in the great alluvial deposits scattered throughout the Cascades as the glaciers had receded during the last ice age. Other rocks were chunky, broken off from some mountainside.

  Raven selected the smooth stones and settled down by the fireplace, placing them inside of it. “It will be easier for me to heat them all at once. This is going to take me a little while, so please don’t disturb me.”

  Herne was sorting through his pack and brought out a map, which he spread out on the table. He began to study it as Viktor unpacked food, piling the sandwiches on a plate that he found in the cupboard. He set out the packages of chips and cookies, and cans of soda that we had brought with us. Pulling out several boxes of ramen cups, he turned to Raven.

  “Can you heat up water in a cup?”

  “I can,” she said.

  He filled a teapot that was sitting on the woodstove with water from the sink, and Raven cupped her hands around it. A few moments later, it was steaming and he poured the water into four of the ramen cups, sealing the lids back over them to cook the noodles.

  Raven went back to the stones, and by the time the soup was ready, she stood up and arched her back. “They’re about as warm as they’re going to get for now, without me building a flame to immerse them in. They’re pretty toasty, though. I recommend putting them in your pockets.” She glanced around. “Soup and sandwiches! Yum.”

  I slid four of the smaller rocks into my pocket and was surprised by how warm they were. I wrapped my hands around them, almost burning my fingers.

  “How long will these stay hot?”

  “At least three or four hours. I can trap the heat inside them for quite some time. I do that often when I go out camping. I heat up rocks and take them to bed with me.” She scooted over so I could sit next to her and handed me a cup of ramen.

  Accepting it, I selected a ham and Swiss sandwich to go with it. “At least we have food and shelter. I wonder how Yutani and Kipa are doing.”

  Herne glanced up from the map. “I hope they’re all right. Not only are we facing the icy weather, but I have a nagging feeling that there are spies in the woods.” He shook his head, sitting back in his chair. “Why do I feel like we’re walking into a trap?”

  “How would anybody know we were coming? Nalcops didn’t have a chance to warn anybody, did he?” I finished my sandwich, and spooned the noodle soup into my mouth, shivering as the warmth hit my bloodstream.

  “They could have seen us coming in. Maybe they have cameras posted along the way, for all I know. I have a nagging feeling we missed something, or overlooked something, and that they know we’re here.” Herne was looking concerned enough now that I began to worry. He ran on the cautious side, but he wasn’t quick to imagine trouble where there wasn’t any.

  “I suppose they could have planted cameras around the hidden road.” I finished my soup and tapped Herne on the arm. “Eat. Who knows when we might get another chance to.”

  As he accepted a cup of soup and a sandwich, I though
t about the possibilities. Suddenly, a thought sprang to mind that was about as discomforting as it could get.

  “Crap, do you think they had a trigger spell set on the illusion that would warn them if it was breached?” The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Illusions were usually used for deception. If someone broke the illusion, the spell caster would want to know about it.

  Herne paled and set his spoon down. He looked sick to his stomach.

  “You may be right,” he said. “Considering that shortly after we turned onto the hidden road, they sent a car down it. They were probably expecting to find us. That means, they may have watched us the entire way, they probably know we’re here, and…I wonder if this cabin is bugged. Oh hell, I could have sent Yutani and Kipa right into a trap.”

  Viktor immediately began poking through Yutani’s bag and pulled out the device Yutani used for detecting magical and electronic bugs. He flipped it on and began slowly skirting through the cabin, staring at the meter on it. Five minutes later, he shook his head.

  “The degameter shows no sign of hidden bugs, magical or otherwise. We should be safe with what we talk about inside the cabin, but outside? There may be cameras throughout the woods. There’s no way to detect them, either.”

  “Thank heavens for small favors.” Herne let out a sigh as he paced the length of the cabin. “The question is, what do we do now?”

  Viktor finished off a package of Cheetos and dusted his hands on his jeans. “Do you want me to go after them?”

  Herne shook his head. “Kipa’s a god. He can handle an ambush. I just hope Yutani doesn’t get hurt. Meanwhile, Viktor, you and I will go out to have a look around. Ember, you and Raven stay inside.”

  I started to protest, but Raven shook her head at me. As Herne and Viktor headed outside, she leaned close. “All we’d do by being out there is to dilute Herne’s focus. He and Viktor would be worried about protecting us. I know it doesn’t make sense, but men have that protective nature. Or at least, some of them do. Ulstair did.”

  I bit my lip, but she was right. “I know, but I want to be out there helping.” I paused, then asked, “You’re interested in Kipa, aren’t you?”

  She blushed. “It shows? I don’t know—I didn’t think I’d find anyone so attractive, not this close to losing Ulstair. But there’s something about Kipa that resonates in my core. He feels…familiar. That’s the best way I can put it. Did you see the look Yutani gave me?”

  I nodded. “He’s going to have to learn how to let go. I think he’s just had so many things happen to him lately that he’s not thinking clearly.”

  I paused as a shout echoed from outside. Raven and I rushed to the door, opening it just in time to see Kipa racing through the woods. He bounded inside the cabin, with Herne and Viktor right after him. I glanced out the door, looking for Yutani, but he was nowhere in sight. Quickly, I slammed the cabin door closed, and turned as Kipa shifted form.

  “Where’s Yutani?”

  “We were separated. There’s some sort of creature out there, several of them. I’m not sure what it is, though I know it isn’t Sasquatch, and it’s not a yeti. But it reminds me of both of them. It seems to be guarding the front of the encampment. I sensed a great deal of magic around it before it attacked us.”

  “Was Yutani hurt?” I asked, leaning forward.

  He shook his head. “No, but Yutani ran one way and I ran the other. It started to chase Yutani, but I doubled back and led it away. I know Yutani managed to escape, but I don’t know where he is. I led the creature on a wild chase to draw him off Yutani’s scent, and I didn’t want to bring him here, so I had to play leapfrog through the forest and wait until I managed to ditch him.”

  “Where’s the encampment?” Herne asked.

  Kipa pointed in the direction of the hidden access road. “About a mile and a half down the main road. It’s not very large, not nearly as big as I thought it would be. But it’s fenced off, and there are guards watching the gate. We got that far before the creature startled us.”

  “What does the creature look like?” Raven asked.

  “At first I thought it was a yeti, because it’s large, with white fur and blue eyes. But the yeti doesn’t have a lot of magic, and this creature is rife with it.”

  “I know what it is,” Herne said. “A Saumen Kar. I’m surprised the brotherhood’s managed to convince one to help them out. You said there are more of them out there?”

  “What’s a Saumen Kar?” I asked.

  “He’s a relative of the yeti, but more intelligent. The Saumen Kar are shamanistic in nature. They usually stay out in the wilds, off in the cold lands like Greenland and up in the Arctic.” Herne shook his head. “That there’s at least one of them down here is strange. Regardless of the reason, it doesn’t bode well.”

  “Are they dangerous?” I asked.

  “They can be, especially when angered. My guess is that whoever summoned him—or them—here managed to get some sort of magical control over them. What would it take to do that? I don’t know,” Herne said.

  Raven crossed her arms, shaking her head. “I hate it when people indenture creatures this way. I know a bit about the Saumen Kar, and the only way they would willingly work for someone else is if a loved one was in danger or if they were pressed into servitude.”

  “Which way did Yutani go?” Herne asked.

  “He ran further into the woods. At least he got away. But the snow is falling so steadily that I’ll tell you this right now: there’s no way we can drive out of here this afternoon. I’m afraid we’re stuck,” Kipa said.

  “Wonderful. We were speculating while you were gone. We think that they know we’re here.” Herne told Kipa what we had been discussing.

  “It makes sense,” Kipa said. “We should have thought of it earlier, but regrets are useless. Now we have to figure out what to do.”

  “First, we find Yutani. We can’t have him wandering alone out there.” Herne stared out the window, watching as the snow fell in heavy, thick flakes. It was piling up fast.

  “Well, it’s not like he had a spell cast on him. He knows exactly what is going on, he just may be lost in the woods,” Viktor said.

  “What’s the cell reception like? You know he always keeps his phone with him.” I paused, eyeing the pile of clothes on the table. “Never mind. I keep forgetting he has to take off his clothes in order to shift form.”

  “I’ll go look for him,” Herne said. “I can run through the snow in my stag form easier than Kipa can as a wolf, mostly because of my height. If I don’t find him in half an hour, I’ll return. Meanwhile, keep a close eye out for anything or anyone approaching the cabin. Do what you have to do to stay safe.” Without another word, he opened the door and slipped out into the storm. A moment later, a silver stag went bounding off into the woods.

  While I knew that very little could hurt him, given he was a god, I still worried as I watched him disappear into the forest. There were so many things that could go wrong. And so many things already had. I opened the door, peeking outside. The path to the car was already covered with four more inches of snow. I turned back to the others.

  “We should bring in everything we need from the car. We don’t want to be stuck having to try to make our way out to it.”

  Viktor nodded. “Kipa and I’ll take care of it. I know what Herne said, but we will need heat. Raven, build a fire.”

  Kipa let out a sigh. “I concur. If they were watching as we broke through the illusion, they already know we’re here. And I have a feeling, with the storm, they’re not going to be out traipsing through the woods any more than they need to.”

  Raven glanced at me, and I nodded. We would need the warmth before long. She might be able to heat up rocks, but it wouldn’t keep the air in the cabin warm, and I could see my breath as I spoke.

  I turned to Viktor. “While you’re outside, see if you can find a woodpile. There’s some wood in here, but it’s not going to last long.” I pointed to the m
etal wood box sitting next to the stove. “I suggest we just use the wood stove for now. It’s probably safer than the fireplace.”

  As Raven joined me, I examined the stove, finding the damper and opening it. I peeked inside the belly to find a very thin skiff of ashes on the bottom. The stove had been used, yes, but it had also been cleaned out. I arranged kindling at the bottom, then a series of logs propped around it. I knew how to make a campfire, and I could even spark a flame from two sticks, but I was grateful that Raven could take care of that aspect.

  Kipa and Viktor disappeared out the door. Raven held out her hands, cupping them around part of the kindling. She closed her eyes and murmured something. A second later, sparks flew from her fingertips, catching hold of the wood shavings, where they set the bundle to crackling. A few seconds later the kindling sparked off the larger pieces, and heat began to warm the air. I adjusted the damper, making sure smoke didn’t back into the cabin, and then returned to the table.

  “You’re worried about Yutani, aren’t you?” Raven asked.

  I nodded. “I know he can take care of himself, but he’s been in such a mood lately. I don’t know what to think. I mean, he can fend for himself as a coyote, yes, but can he defend himself against the Saumen Kar? You said you’ve dealt with these creatures before. How dangerous are they?”

  She sat down beside me, opening up another bag of chips and pushing them between us on the table. “The Saumen Kar are considered relatives to the yeti, but they are very different. They may stem from the same mother race, but the Saumen Kar have magic. They can be helpful when they choose to be. It surprises me to find any of them working for the Tuathan Brotherhood. They seldom work for anybody but themselves. They have their own agendas and usually stick to them. I’m convinced that the Tuathan Brotherhood must have a spell caster who can force them into obeying.”

  “Is there a way to communicate with them? To find out if we can help them break away? You said they have magical powers.” I picked up a potato chip and sucked the salt off. It melted in my mouth and I swallowed it and picked up another.