Winter Be My Shield Read Free Page A

He’d do anything to find her and avert Kell’s rage.
    You have no food, no shelter and no one to take you in. You don’t even know where you are, Little Crow. Come back and beg Kell for mercy and he’ll grant it, I promise. There’s no life for you without us, Sierra.
    She pushed his words from her mind — he was probably right, but at this point she didn’t care if she survived the storm, so long as she diedfree of her chains. The Black Sun claimed everyone in the end and it would be a kinder fate than the one Kell had in store for her.
    The wind eased, and Sierra glanced up to see dark shapes looming ahead. Trees, their branches sweeping low beneath their burden of ice and snow. Her blind flight had taken her into woodland, where the huddled trees gave some defence against the wind. It was an unwelcome sight — in the shelter of those trees, the snow would hold her tracks longer. Visibility was greater, too, and once inside she would be unable to move quickly amid the powdery drifts.
    Sierra had turned away from the woods, aiming to lose herself in the driving snow, when she heard a horse snort behind her. She hurried for a clump of small trees buried beneath a mound of ice and ducked behind them just as a figure on a horse emerged from the swirling snow, skirting along the edge of the forest and heading in her direction.
    Hunching down until she was a shapeless white lump against the snow, Sierra shuffled to a denser stand of trees, hoping they would be enough to block the light if she had to resort to her power.
    The horse was a Ricalani pony, a small, shaggy beast, and it trotted along in the peculiar shuffling gait the ponies adopted with the willow and rawhide snowshoes buckled around their hooves. The rider, crouched low in the saddle, had his hood thrown back and was looking around keenly as he rode.
    Sierra felt her stomach tighten. He was Ricalani, one of her own people. She should have expected it — Rasten would spare no effort in the search and the native-born scouts were the best in the army, trained since childhood for hunting in the snow. Hooded and shrouded in white as she was, a Mesentreian soldier might walk right past her, but a Ricalani would almost certainly spot her here where the snowfall was lighter. She had no choice but to kill him.
    Slowly she backed away from the tree that concealed her, moving with care to keep the snowshoes’ long tails from digging into the snow. A moment’s clumsiness would finish her here.
    The rider, still some distance away, turned his head in her direction and Sierra held her breath. He would have been told it was too dangerous to approach her, that once she was spotted he must retreat and report the sighting. She waited for him to turn and ride away but though he slowed the horse momentarily, he nudged it on again, still scanning thewoods around her. With the barest sigh of relief, Sierra ducked back behind a young pine where she pulled off her mittens and her gloves and tucked them into the sash binding her coat. It was too cold for anyone but a mage to leave skin bare for long, but her power would keep frostbite at bay for a few moments. With her heart pounding, Sierra tried not to think about the pain the punishment bands would bring, the searing flash of heat that would come with her rising power.
    The horse slowed to a walk as it approached. Sierra pictured the rider peering between the trees, uncertain now that he’d seen anything at all. She heard him rein in and turn the horse, its snowshoes crunching over ice as he moved towards her.
    Black Sun forgive me. I wouldn’t do this if there was another way. Sierra closed her eyes and loosed the beast within her.

Chapter 2
    The snow beneath the snare was churned and scuffed where the hare had struggled, but the dangling thread of wire was empty. Cam jammed his fists against his belt and glared at it in disgust. ‘Son of a bitch.’
    One stiff and