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Fidelias twisted hiry river, frozen fingers clutching hard against the branch of the tree he had crafted within his reach He felt nuainst the shock of the cold water The cold beckoned hi him to simply sink into the waters, relax, let his troubles slip away into the darkness

Instead, he secured a hold on the next higher branch and hauled his body up out of the water He huddled there for a few ain, while the furystor at his sodden clothes

The one good thing about the flood, he decided, about the freezing water, was that he could no longer feel the cuts on his feet He&039;d done his best to ignore the the horses, but the rocks and brush had been merciless to his skin The wo, he decided Clever, getting his shoes like that She&039;d been planning on the boy running, and on haainst the trunk and waited for the waters to subside

They did, in rapid order, provingelse that the flood had been a deliberate crafting rather than a natural event He shook his head Odiana should have given the-but perhaps she had been over and had lived with the local furies for years They would know them, be able to use them more effectively than even a crafter of Fidelias&039;s own level of skill The Steadholder, for example-he had been formidable In a direct, fair confrontation, Fidelias was uncertain whether or not he could simply overcome the man Best then, to ensure that any future contact with the fellow discounted the possibility of a fair fight

But then, that was in general Fidelias&039;s policy

Once the waters had receded back down into the river&039;s original bed, Fidelias slipped down froround The pitch of the winds had only increased since the stor in it had to be his first priority He knelt by the trunk of the tree, resting a hand lightly on the sodden ground, reaching out for Va into the deep earth for severalback up toward hi what it had been sent to retrieve-a handful of salt crystals and a flint

Fidelias pocketed the flint and swept the salt into a pouch, keeping a few pieces in hand Then he rose, noting holy his body responded, and shook his head, shivering The cold could kill hi, he dispatched Etan to look for signs of his co earth, for signs of movement If the locals, either the Bernardholters or those they had been fighting, were still at hand, theythe job the watercrafter had started

Fidelias had to hurl salt at a swooping windmane, while he waited for his furies to return to hi Etan appeared within a fewstor the path of the river

Several hundred yards downstrearound, uners still locked around the hilt of his sword, buried to its hilts in the trunk of a tree He had apparentlyhim away entirely, but had not taken

into account the threat the elements represented Fidelias checked the pulse at the , if slow His lips were blue The cold If the swordsman was not warmed, and quickly, he would die

Fidelias debated allowing it to happen for aas she had Aldrick with her, she would be difficult to ainst Without the swordsman, Fidelias could remove her at leisure, and if Fidelias was fortunate, perhaps Aldrick&039;s death would unhinge her entirely

Fidelias griant, insubordinate, but his loyalty to Aquitaine was unquestioned, and he was a valuable resource Besides which, Fidelias liked working with the man He was a professional and understood the priorities of operating in the field Fidelias, as his commander, owed him a certain aht be to hi terrief

Fidelias took ainto him in a sudden flood He jerked the sword from the tree&039;s trunk, and peeled Aldrick&039;s hand fro hierously, and he took aup the naked sword and turning, with Aldrick, to round of the river&039;s course

Vamma shaped out a shelter from a rocky hillside, and Fidelias ducked into it and out of the stored to coax a pile of shavings into flarees, he built up the fire, until the inside of the furycrafted shelter began to groarainst the wall, his eyes closed, and dispatched Vaain As tired as he was, there was still a job to do Fidelias reather information about those who still moved in the wild storain, Aldrick ake and watching him

"You found me," the swordsman said

"Yes"

"Blade isn&039;t ainst a river"

"Mmmm"

Aldrick sat up and rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand, wincing,

gathering hiether with the resilience of his craft-and of co anymore "Where&039;s Odiana?"

"I don&039;t know yet," Fidelias said "The storroups, so far, and I think there&039;s at least one more that I can&039;t pinpoint"

"Which one is Odiana in?"

Fidelias shrugged "One is heading to the northeast, and one to the southeast I thought I felt so more directly east of here, but I can&039;t be certain"

"Northeast isn&039;t anything," Aldrick said "Maybe one of the steadholts Southeast of here, there isn&039;t even that Turns into the Wax Forest and the plains beyond it"

"And east is Garrison," Fidelias said "I know"

"She&039;s been taken, or she&039;d have stayed close to me"