Dawn of the Ice Bear Read Free Page A

Khemi, isn’t it?” Mikelo said, when Kral closed the door.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI told you!” Mikelo exclaimed.
    â€œMy first view of Stygia, and I can see nothing,” Donial said.
    â€œWhich is as much as you want to see,” Mikelo offered. “Trust me. There is nothing there but sand and snakes and sorcery.”
    Alanya shuddered visibly in the moonlight streaming in through the porthole. “I care little for snakes. Or sorcery.”
    â€œSorcery is responsible for our being here,” Kral pointed out. “If not for Gorian’s magic . . .”
    â€œI know,” she said. “But I still don’t like it.”
    â€œI hate snakes,” Mikelo said, making a face. Revulsion was evident in his voice as well. “Snakes are the worst.”
    â€œI’ve never minded snakes,” Donial said.
    â€œYou’ve never seen snakes such as they have in Stygia,” Mikelo reminded him. “They grow them huge here and make no attempt to control them. It is an awful thing.”
    Kral had heard the same thing in stories. “With any luck, we search for a man, not a snake. I doubt that any snake has stolen my people’s crown.”
    â€œIn any other place, I would agree with you,” Mikelo put in. “But here . . . it could be either. Or both, working in concert.” He shivered, wrapped his arms around his skinny frame. “Snakes. Brrr!”
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    THE NEXT HOUR found the group assembled on the deck, preparing to venture into night-shrouded Stygia. It had been decided that Alanya, the only female, and Mikelo, the youngest, would go over in the boat along with a single mercenary to help row and all the supplies, weapons, and so on that would be needed on shore. Donial didn’t mind swimming, and it was obvious, from the gear the mercenaries loaded onto the small craft, that they expected serious trouble.
    The little boat pushed away from the Restless Heart, and the rest of the men dove into the water to swim with it. A single mercenary remained on board with the Heart sailors, to make sure they didn’t just abandon those on the shore. If the ship was spotted, they were to take evasive actions, then return to the same place two nights later to check for the onshore party. Donial watched the boat cast off, then the mercenaries splashing into the sea around it. He stood on the deck with Kral, who tossed him a relaxed grin and a nod. Together, they dove over the side.
    Donial had no fear of getting lost in this sea. The water was relatively calm, and the mercenaries all swam around the boat, headed for the dark patch of shoreline ahead. He had taken Mikelo’s warnings about snakes to heart and wondered if there were water snakes in the shallows. But the sheer number of swimmers and the thunder their progress made in the water would doubtless scare away any aquatic predators.
    During the swim, Donial wondered what they would find in Stygia. He knew what Kral was after, but didn’t know how the Pict could expect to find it in such a vast and secretive country. So far, since leaving Tarantia, they had experienced nothing but danger and disappointment. The battle against the Argossean pirates had promised excitement, at first. It proved bloody and horrifying, instead. Donial had—with his sister’s aid—killed a man. His first killing. There had been nothing glamorous or exciting about it. Instead it was brutal, ugly. When the task was done, Donial had felt sick. He had wanted to rush down to the water and bathe in it, as if he could cleanse the action from his memory.
    That had been followed by days of captivity. Never knowing which day would be his last, when the pirate captain might decide his hostages were useless after all. The anxiety of attempted escape had added to his discomfort. Finally, with magical assistance from the mercenary leader Gorian, the surviving sailors and mercenaries rose up against Kunios and his