Stormrider Read Free

sickened him. The remains of the family were scattered there. Finbarr’s head—half the face bitten away—was resting by a tree root. Of Ural there was part of a leg and a ripped and bloody section of skirt. Kaelin had neither the heart nor the stomach to search for signs of the child Feargol.
    He returned to the cabin. There were deep claw marks on the outer, smashed walls. Inside, the table was broken in half and two of the chairs were shattered. Several shelves had been torn from the walls, and the floor was littered with broken crockery. A discharged musket and a pistol lay close to the door of the back bedroom. A broken saber was resting against the far wall, and a bloody kitchen knife had been hurled into the hearth. From what Kaelin could see—and the fact that Basson had scrambled up the tree in his nightshirt—the bear had come upon the cabin at night. It had smashed at the door and the frame, tearing out the timbers. This had not been done quickly. Finbarr and Ural had had time to load and fire the musket and the pistol. As the bear had come through, they had fought it with sword and knife. Spray patterns of blood on the walls showed that they had died there. Basson must have ducked past the bear and run for the trees.
    Kaelin moved to the hearth. Dropping to one knee, he retrieved the bloodstained kitchen knife. Then he pressed his hand to the hearthstones. They were still barely warm.
    The attack had occurred the previous night.
    Rising, Kaelin walked through to the small back bedroom. There was no sign there of disruption. The boys’ bunk beds stood against the far wall, opposite the large double bed shared by Finbarr and Ural. Kaelin sat down on the bed. This was a harsh land, and he had both killed men and seen others die on the battlefield. Nothing like this, though.
    It was unheard of for a bear—even a grizzly—to attack a cabin in this way. Often the beasts would scavenge around for scraps of food, but mostly they would keep away from people. Every highlander knew the two main rules when it came to dealing with such animals. Avoidance came first, especially if it was a mother with cubs or it was feeding or defending a kill. The second rule, if avoidance was not possible, was to remain calm and move slowly away from the beast. Given the choice, bears tended to avoid humans. Most attacks Kaelin had heard of had come when people had blundered upon a feeding bear and surprised it. The rips and tears in the timbers of the cabin showed that this grizzly had launched a frenzied assault in order to reach the people inside.
    He glanced across at the bunk beds and thought of little Feargol in his white cap. Finbarr had been overprotective of both of his sons. He had already lost one child, his oldest boy, to a fever that had been raging in Black Mountain. Finbarr had been determined to keep his other children safe. It was one of the reasons he had moved his family to this high cabin.
    Kaelin shivered, his exhaustion returning. No time now to mourn the dead, he thought.
    The bear would be back to finish his feeding. Kaelin knew he should be long gone when that happened. Cold reality touched his mind. If he left now, he would almost certainly die. He did not have the strength to make it back to the high cave. Kaelin cursed softly. In all likelihood the bear would not come to the cabin. It would eat its fill and return to its lair. Kaelin fetched his pack and carried it back into the main room. Then he prepared a fire. Once the flames caught, he removed his hooded cloak and sheepskin topcoat and squatted down before the blaze. The heat was welcome.
    Outside the light was fading. If the bear
did
come now. . . .
    Fear touched the young Rigante, and he tried to quell it. “If it comes, I’ll kill it,” he said aloud. The strength of the words calmed him, though only momentarily. Finbarr and Ural had discharged weapons at the beast. They had not stopped him.
    Kaelin added more wood to the fire. His Emburley