Page 40 of Blood Beneath the Snow

We’d walked straight into an ambush.

My father swore. I heard Erik muttering a prayer to the gods under his breath. Jac nudged his horse in front of mine, his bow and arrow drawn.

Frode leaned over the side of his horse and vomited his breakfast into the snow.

My father screamed at his men to charge, and the horses gallopedtoward the ambush, soldiers with their weapons drawn. I watched the Hellbringer stand and tilt his head.

Panic wrapped its cold hands around my throat. In one glance, the Hellbringer could annihilate everyone here. The entire royal family would be gone and Kryllian would have the freedom to waltz in and take Bhorglid, killing anyone who opposed their reign.

“Come on.” Jac pulled the reins of my horse toward a grove of trees lining the edge of the canyon. “Get out of sight. Don’t let him see you.”

But my eyes fell on a body several meters away, lying slack in the snow. A horse snorted unhappily, breath fogging into the air, stomping hooves narrowly avoiding its prone rider. Frode.

“Wait.” I slid off my horse and took off through the chaos toward my brother, discarding my helmet.

The shriek of metal on metal was mostly above Frode on the trail, but a few of the Kryllian soldiers had made their way to his position. One raised his sword, swinging the blade toward my face. Jac swore and I watched as an arrow whizzed from behind me and skewered one of the soldiers through the eye. The man collapsed, another carcass in the snow.

“Thank you, Jac,” I whispered. The dead soldier’s blood stained the white powder, and through the chaos and screaming, a voice hummed a familiar tune—the same lullaby Frode had sung the past few days while he was drunk. I knelt in the snow next to Frode, wondering how he was managing to vocalize while he was unconscious, but forced the thought away as the battlefield noise escalated once more.

Wake up!I rolled him over and slapped him hard across the face.

His eyes flew open, snow matted in his lashes. “Get up, get up,” I muttered, tugging his arm. He pushed himself to his elbows and his eyes widened.

I turned with my sword in time to parry a blow from another Kryllian soldier. Our blades connected and a thrill rushed through me. Finally,finally, I would get to put some of my skills to use.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I lunged for a weak spot in his defenses—but the soldier was too fast, and with a sharp twist of his weapon my blade fell from my hand. I sprawled helpless on the ground next to Frode.

The soldier reached to grab me, and I scrambled backward in time for another arrow to land, this time skewering his neck through a small gap in his armor. He collapsed to the ground in front of us, his warm blood staining the snow. I looked away, refusing to watch the life leave his eyes.

Frode groaned and put his hand over his mouth. I didn’t want to think about hearing a dying man’s last thoughts, so I grabbed him with one hand and my sword with the other as I pulled him to his feet. “Get over here,” I growled, dragging him back toward where Jac waited in the trees.

A glance behind me confirmed we had the upper hand. Björn breathed fire, burning them all to a crisp, and Father’s flames licked over his great axe, charring anyone who came within reach of his blade. Erik crushed skulls in his bare hands.

The Hellbringer, however, had disappeared. I turned to Jac, who had shifted into his alternate form. “Where did the Hellbringer go?”

Jac pushed me aside to peer between the trees. “I don’t know,” he said, panic at the edge of his voice. “I didn’t see him go anywhere.”

Discarding my helmet, I moved over to Frode and pulled a blanket from one of my saddlebags. He was on his knees in the snow, hands over his ears, teeth chattering. I wrapped the blanket around him and patted him on the back.

“We should be safe here,” Jac said. “Frode can warn us if anyone is coming.”

“I don’t think he’s in the best mental state to read minds right now,” I said, glancing at Frode, who curled into the fetal position on the ground. “Climb a tree to give you a vantage point. I’ll stay with Frode. If anyone tries to attack us, it’ll be impossible for you not to hear it.”

Jac shifted his weight in the snow but finally nodded. As he grabbed the bottom branch of the nearest pine, he turned to point a finger at me. “Don’t you dare die,” he ordered.

I smirked as he ascended to the top.

Frode was shivering on the ground. “Are you okay?” I whispered, moving closer to help him sit up.

He shook his head, and I was surprised to see tear tracks on his face.Is it like this every time?

A solemn nod was his only reply.

I put a hand on his shoulder. “It should be over soon,” I murmured, pulling his helmet off to brush the snow out of his hair. He was paler than usual, and the few freckles that had stayed on his nose over the winter stood out. “We’re going to wait it out. Only a few more minutes.”

Hopefully. As long as they weren’t all dead at the Hellbringer’s hand. I shuddered at the thought of everyone lying slack-jawed in the canyon pass.

Frode made a strangled sort of noise and I was pulled back to the present. “What’s wrong?” I asked, examining him for injury.

---