Verena's Whistle: Varangian Descendants Book I by K. Panikian (essential reading txt) 📗

“Right,” I said, thinking and kicking myself for not anticipating that we’d need to track them.

“Theo and Julian, go back to the house and grab the camping gear Theo and I picked up in Chelyabinsk. Should be a few tents and more emergency blankets. Get the MREs too, and the water canteens. A couple of extra pairs of wool socks for each of us, if you can manage it. Get back to this clearing as fast as you can and start following us.

“Owen and I will start tracking the besy from here. We’ll mark the trail with tree etches, but you should be able to follow our tracks in the snow too.

“The priority is the bes cohort. Right now, the Varangians are heading in the same direction, but if they split off, we’re following the besy.”

Finally, I turned specifically to Theo. “Send an email to the family letting them know we’re going to be out of touch for a little while. Ask Uncle Alex to try and See us. I don’t know, once we’re away from the impact zone, if his vision will clear. But he knows how to reach you, if he can, if he has any information for us. The gate research is important; I can feel it.”

Theo nodded and gave me a quick hug. Julian hugged me too, and gave Owen a fist pump. They both headed back the way we came.

Owen and I were alone in the snowy clearing.

I said to him, “I think we can track them in the snow pretty easily, for now at least. It probably makes sense to change back and conserve your energy. But it’s your decision.

“I have your clothes if you turn back now, but if you shapeshift later in a hurry, they may get ripped apart. Just a couple of things to consider.”

Owen dropped his sword and the wolf vanished. I seized his shoulders as he dropped to the snow and then helped him get dressed again.

“Let’s rest a minute here before we start,” I said. I offered him a granola bar and sipped some water from my backpack. He slumped beside me for a few minutes, chewing slowly, before he straightened.

When he was on his feet again, I grabbed his hand. I told him seriously, “You have to tell me if you need a break, if something is too much, if you’re too tired, if you’re feeling homicidal… Whatever you’re thinking and feeling, I need to know. We’re total partners right now. I’m relying on you. I will share everything about me because I want us both to be safe. Please do the same?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Good. Then, to start, you’re on guard duty because I’m going to duck behind that pine to pee.”

Owen smiled at me and I stepped away. When I got back, he had my pack on his shoulders. At my disapproving look he said, “It’s light. We’ll trade it back and forth.”

We started following the tracks north. Every time the trail changed angles, I marked a tree with a hash with my knife. The sun, which started on our right side, slowly rose to a bright ball overhead, and then started to drop to the west. Still, we headed north. My legs got tired and my feet got cold. We stopped periodically to drink water and eat energy bars. The forest around us was quiet and still. We climbed for a while and then went downhill again.

Finally, when the sun was almost gone over our left shoulders, I stopped.

“We’re not any closer than we started. They’re moving fast. We need to wait for Theo and Julian to catch up with the tents and the food. I think we should stop here for the night.”

Owen nodded. He looked exhausted. I’m sure I looked no better. My eyes felt permanently squinted after staring all day at the snowy trail. Our steps were dragging. I drew a hash mark on the tree closest to where we stepped off the trail.

I walked off the trail for a few yards in every direction before settling on the westward side. There was a circle of spruce trees that were tall enough that their lower boughs formed a sort of shelter over the ground. I picked one of the trees and pulled the folding shovel from my backpack. I dug for a few minutes and created a deep well at the base of the tree, all the way down to the bare earth. I left a sloping access point at one corner. I patted down the walls so they felt firm and left my backpack inside.

I climbed back out of the well and handed Owen the shovel. I showed him where to dig and left him making an indentation in the snow in the center of the small copse. I wandered for a few minutes around the area, gathering small fallen branches for kindling. There were some larger logs, and I dragged them to Owen’s fire pit. I made a teepee of the kindling and some of the smaller branches in the fire pit and then pulled Owen down to sit next to me on a log.

I lit the small stack with a spark from my fingertips and we huddled next to it, blowing the smoke away from our faces with long exhales. The smoke floated up, through the branches of the spruce trees, and drifted in the winter breeze. I felt exhilerated and exhausted at the same time. The stars were already out and bright in the clear sky. It was bitingly cold, but I told Owen my idea.

“You take off your boots and socks and lay the socks across this stick here,” I gestured to a pronged stick I’d stuck in the snow, angled over the fire. “You get 30 minutes to dry your socks while I hold your feet against my skin, under my coat. Then we switch.”

“Okay,” Owen said, “but we do your socks first.”

I bent and untied my frozen laces, my fingers fumbling in the cold.