Veyra Flintstep's Arc

Chapter 6 of 14

Veyra ran downhill through the pines with her axe at her side. The small beast had a head start and a slope of packed snow to carry it. The moss beds lay below. Past the moss beds lay the pens, and past the pens, the houses. She could not let it reach any of them. "Cut left," Giloa called behind her. "The gully forces it left. We can meet it at the deadfall." He knew this slope. She trusted him. She cut left across the grade, her soft-soled boots biting into the crust. Shahndiin ran past her on the right, faster than Veyra had thought possible, blue tattoos bright against her bare arms. The raptor tore ahead of them all, low to the ground, feathers flat. "Turn it," Shahndiin said. "I will hold the ground." Shahndiin stopped and knelt. She pressed both palms into the snow. Veyra kept running. She did not look back. They came out above the deadfall, a spill of old pine trunks across the gully. The beast was already there, limping hard, dragging its back leg. It saw the raptor and turned uphill to break past. Its feet skidded. The snow under it slid sideways, as if the slope itself had shifted a hand's breadth. The beast stumbled. Giloa threw his small spear. It went into the side of the neck. The beast screamed and lunged at him. Veyra swung her axe two-handed into the base of its skull. The scream cut off. The body went down against the deadfall and stopped moving. They stood over it, breathing hard. Below them, through the trees, Veyra could see the smoke from the village hearths. Close. Too close. "Half a bowshot more," Giloa said. He pulled his spear free and wiped it on the beast's flank. "It would have been in the pens." Shahndiin came down through the pines. She looked tired now. "The ground is quiet again," she said. "All four." They dragged the body down on the blue sled behind the raptor. Veyra wanted the village to see it. She wanted the chieftain to see it. The hall stood at the center of the village, its bone tusks curved above the doorway, its dyed cloths hanging still in the cold air. Barren Meadow came out onto the stone step. He looked at the beast on the sled. He looked at Veyra. "Four?" he said. "Four," Veyra said. "This one came for the pens." Barren Meadow was quiet a long moment. His hand rested on the beaded belt at his waist. "You did what I would not," he said. "The grove is yours to work. Take the poles. Take the dye. Mark your road." He turned and went back inside. The door shut behind him. Giloa looked at Veyra. "He gave you the western ridge," he said. "He gave me the supplies," Veyra said. "The ridge I still have to earn." Then she turned to Shahndiin. “How quickly will the moss patches recover with this blight cleansed?”