There was no smell of woodsmoke, and the cold was bitter. It had more moisture in it than usual, too, and that made it cut harder and sap the strength more. ?All dead,? Pete said, and spat.?I knew these people here. They were clean. My folks lived a bit east and south, and we traded with ?em. Whoever hit here, they call the Wendigo to themselves on purpose.?
Edain nodded.?Parts of them are… gone. Like it was a rite.?
He looked indignant at that, at the profanation of sacred things as much as the cruelty. ?They?re pinned to the walls, what?s left of them. It went hard for them, even the little ones.?
The younger Mackenzie spat, to show what an honorable warrior thought of such dealings. He also held out a broken bit of arrow, just enough to show the black fletching and neatly made horn nock. ?This was in one of the bodies outside, where they tried to fight.?
Rudi rolled it between his fingers, then made a gesture that brought the core of his questers gathered around him. ?Any fodder left?? he asked. ?No grain,? Edain said.?That was cleared out-oats and rye, it was, from the few kernels left, and spuds. Plenty of hay still, to be sure. No clover in it, looks like marsh grass, but lots of it and well cured.? ?Good. We?ll let the horses gorge; and we?ll have shelter.?
Edain shook his head violently.?I?ll not be sleeping under that roof, Chief.?
Rudi smiled mirthlessly.?I wouldn?t either. No, the houses we?ll burn, to make Earth clean of it. The barn will do for us and our beasts as well.? ?That?ll draw them,? Ritva warned.?It?ll tell them exactly where we are.? ?Sister of mine, I?m counting on it. Pete, what?s the ice like out there?? ?Thicker than it should be. More like Christmas, or even Janvier, maybe. But it?s spotty and don?t go too far out. Still too thin to carry any weight in some places, foot or better thick in others, so you could drive a sled or even ride horses over it.?
Ingolf nodded.?Some places hard as rock, and then you hear a crackle. Seemed to me it?s thicker eastwards. Piled up by the current, maybe. Snow?s wind-packed on the surface, not too deep except drifts here and there. Like Pete says, it?s way, way ahead of time.?
Rudi looked out over the lake, out to where white ice faded into the white-gray sky without a perceptible horizon. The surface wasn?t table smooth, as he?d imagined it would be; it was more as if waves themselves had frozen, with lumps like congealed porridge here and there, and it was covered with hard-packed snow driven by the wind into rippled patterns. The rocky islet was visible on the edge of sight, topped by a few twisted pines; only the shipwreck made it easy to spot now. Wisps of snow or ice crystal scudded over the surface, gusting up man-high now and then, ankle deep most of the time.
He thought for a moment longer, then held up the stub of arrow:?I think this was done by our un-friends,? he said.?Not just the Sword of the Prophet-say what you like of the Cutters, they aren?t Eaters. They?ve picked up local allies, such as our friend Walks Quiet warned they might have.?
Everyone nodded. The Indian?s hand fell unconsciously to the hilt of his bowie knife with its beaded sheath. ?And it?s also my thought that they?ve gotten ahead of us and are planning on an ambush, the creatures.?
Jake sunna Jake grunted.?Bad,? he said succinctly.?Don?t like trap-inside.? Then he grinned.?Like when you and the Archer see us first, eh, Rudi-man??
Everyone nodded. Fred said thoughtfully: ?Dad always said that you should force a fight when the enemy?s got the jump on you and can make you give battle anyway. Force it on your own terms.?
Victoria pursed her lips thoughtfully.? My Dad always said if you know it?s a trap, it?s still a trap-for the other guy. You can bust it from the inside. He wrecked the Cutters good a couple of times that way,?fore they wore us Powder River folks down.?
Rudi nodded respectfully.?That?s my thought exactly. The enemy will outnumber us, so we need to seize advantage. This will require careful scouting, but we have that heavy little surprise in the last sled of the four-?
The pillar of smoke on the horizon turned to a tiny thread as Major Graber lowered his binoculars. ?That is the hamlet the Bekwa destroyed,? he said, his voice freighted with disgust.?Allowing that was… unwise. Bad tactics.? ?They are savages,? Dalan said, with a shrug.?Besides, it matters little what happens to the bodies of the soulless. They are as animals anyway.?
Graber grunted noncommittally. That was perilously close to making apologies for abomination; the Dictations were clear that the form of humanity was sacred, even among the merely physical who lacked true men?s atman and who it was fully lawful to kill. In any case… ?It gave us away,? he said.
What was that ancient saying? Worse than a crime, a mistake. ?We cannot wait for them, then, if they are likely to be too wary,? Dalan said.?There are less than forty of them in all. Your troopers of the Sword of the Prophet alone outnumber them, and we have more than a hundred of the Bekwa and their allies.?
Reluctantly, Graber nodded.
I do not like to give battle when an enemy invites it, he thought. Even when I have the advantage of numbers. Especially with this enemy. Still, we do have the numbers, and there are no extraneous factors here. It?s a flat plain, in effect; hell for quartermasters, but a tactician?s paradise. I need only hit them with a hammer heavier than any they can lift.
A brief brightness: And then… home? ?They?re coming in straight from the east,? Ritva panted.?About forty mounted men, the rest on foot.? ?How many of those?? ?Better than one hundred of them, less than two.? ?Ready, then,? Rudi said; he ignored the arrow standing in the cantle of her saddle, as did she.?Fall in.?
Now, let?s either all get killed, or do something I?d be calling truly spectacular, he thought with a taut grin. Lady Morrigu, cover me with Your wings. Lugh of the Many Skills, be with me now!
The little island and its wreck were not far to their rear; the shore was a line of gray and dark green off to the left. It had begun to snow again, a slow light drift of large fluffy flakes. He suppressed an impulse to catch one on his tongue, as he?d liked to do as a child. He?d been praying for a little extra snow, not too much, just enough to cover everything better than careful brushwork could do. And there were worse things to do than catch a snowflake, on what might be your last day in this turn of the Wheel of Life…
Instead he looked behind himself and made sure that the guide marks were plainly visible but inconspicuous; he?d made himself unpopular by taking everyone through it over and over again. Even though they?d all known that more likely than not the plan would go south, or change unpredictably. A few crows went by overhead from the shore woods to the island, or perhaps ravens. Somehow they always knew when men were about to lay a feast for them. ?Forward, my friends,? he said quietly.?The Lord and Lady keep Their hand over you.?
The seven of them sent their horses to the east; besides Rudi, there were Ignatius, Odard, Fred, Victoria and the twins. Most of the rest of their party were spread out on the rear slope of a long low dune, standing in scooped-out firing positions that left only head and shoulders visible, with spare arrows sticking in the hard snow point down by their hands. It all looked like the best possible disposition of an inferior force.