Krayzor's Arc

Chapter 10 of 16

The sled scraped fresh lines through the dirt behind him, pale gouges any child could read. Krayzor stopped and looked back at the marks. The second party would find the dead hounds soon. Then they would find this. He had to break the trail before they reached it. He unhooked the strap and crouched by the kitsune. Her eyes were half open. The wound at his side had soaked his wrap through, and each drop he left was a word pointing straight at them. He cut a fresh strip of cloth and pressed it hard against the cut until the bleeding slowed to nothing. Then he wrapped it tight and tied it off with his teeth. Far back through the trees, he heard the sound he had been waiting for and dreading. Spears struck earth in a rough line — the second party calling its scouts in. They were close to the kill site. Once they saw the bodies steaming in the cold pools beyond, they would fan out and read every print. He needed the ground to forget him. He dragged the sled sideways off the soft dirt and onto a long shelf of bare stone. Stone took no prints. He hauled her along it for as far as it ran, then lifted the back of the sled and walked it instead of dragging, so only two narrow tracks pressed down instead of one wide scar. His shoulder tore with every step. He kept going. Where the stone ended, he turned the sled into a shallow stream and walked it down the bed. The water took his blood. The water took the scuffmarks. He went a long way before climbing out on the far bank, into thick brush that closed behind them like a door. He listened. No barks. No shouts. Only wind. He sat down hard beside her and put a hand on the golden scale at her throat. The trail was broken. The second party would reach their dead and find nothing pointing onward — only stone and water and a hunt gone cold. He had bought them a night. Maybe two. The kitsune's breath was shallow against his wrist, and he knew the next problem already: she would not last another day on the sled, and the meeting ground was still far away.