Winterfinding by Daniel Casey

about
twelve people including herself and the staff she had seen. Jena
reasoned that there’d be some folk in the kitchen she hadn’t met,
maybe a cook and a prep. No more than fifteen people in the
building.
    She could handle this, she told herself. She
hadn’t expected any of this but, of course, what she didn’t do was
expect anything at all. Jena cursed herself for not planning. She
could hear Roth in the back of her mind telling her she needed to
get out of there, just get away. She also knew that Roth wouldn’t
have left, that he’d be doing exactly what she was doing. Or, at
least, doing some version of it.
    She hadn’t thought of him, had deliberately
driven the thoughts away, since she had returned to the Cruor. Was
he in the taiga now or still traveling down the river? Would Colm
be able to handle the cold? Would he come back, would he want her
to come to him? Jena was angry with Roth more often than not. Yet
she couldn’t get him out of her mind, couldn’t stop thinking about
him and the others.
    She stood abruptly and strode across the
room and out the door. Moria’s gaze had snapped away from what she
was doing and fixed on Jena. When she had left, Moria barked for
Jej, who appeared seemingly out of thin air.
    “ That one.” Moria
said.
    “ The lady
adven…”
    “ Yes, yes,” Moria cut her
off, “She keeps her room locked?”
    “ Quite tight. Even now,
the door won’t budge an’ I used the skeleton key.”
    “ Yes, they have tricks.”
Moria let herself relax a bit, “Addison is going to bring Tanner
back soon so make sure to redd-up Colm’s room.”
    Jej smiled and nodded, “And the lady
adven…”
    “ Stop calling her that.”
Moria said exasperated. She shook her head, “Keep an eye on her. I
don’t want trouble here and that one, she reeks of it.”
    “ I donna think she wants
to cause problems.” Jej said innocently enough.
    “ They never do, it just
always seems to find them.” Moria said more to herself than to Jej.
“Well? Go on, then.”
    She shooed Jej on and set a bottle of some
dark amber liquor on the bar. Pouring herself a glass, she watched
as Heston snaked casually out of the shadows and out the door.
    “ No, they never go seeking
it do they.” She whispered.

    Spires Army

    “ No, I’m not calling you
stupid, I’m calling that plan stupid.” Fery said in
exasperation.
    “ You weren’t there. I had
to think on my feet.” Goshen was getting more defensive as the
argument went on.
    “ So then why not have him
do the talking?” Fery pointed at Declan who held up his hands
begging to be kept out of it.
    “ Because I didn’t need
him. He’d already gotten us in a pinch stealing those horses.”
Goshen turned to Declan, “Which, by the way, should have gone
smoother.”
    “ I’m not a thief.” Declan
said dismissively.
    “ Then why did we even
bother!”
    “ Because we were moving
like sad sap. Those horses would’ve double our pace.”
    “ It’s moot now. We’re
here, and we’re not leaving any time soon.” Fery threw up her
hands.
    Just then, Kira entered the tent and the
other three all fell silent. She glared at them, turned, and made
sure that the flap was tightly closed. She let out a heavy
sigh.
    “ So good news then.”
Declan asked.
    Kira moved to the fire pit at the center of
the pavilion and knelt, “Things are going to get complicated.”
    “ Finally.”
    “ Enough with the sarcasm,
Declan.” Goshen said.
    Fery came over to sit next to Kira. She
stoked the coals and waited for Kira to continue. The tent they had
been escorted to when they were first brought into the camp must
have been one of the messes for the soldiers. There had been two
lines of long tables and squat benches. Some greasy looking wooden
bowls were spaced on the tabletops every few feet or so. It was
empty, and the four of them were told to stay put.
    This was when Fery first confronted Goshen
about his lie to the Spires soldiers. She was indignant about being
a