Wintermoon Ice (2010) by Suzanne Francis Page B

to pieces... She closed her eyes, hoping it would be over quickly.
    Strong arms seized her from above and jerked, hard. Hard enough to pull her free from the Poly's grasp. Tessa shot straight through the trapdoor, fighting all the way.
    "Stop it! It's me, all right? I have you." His words made no impression. Only the warmth of his body stopped her struggling.
    She went limp in Jakob's arms and he held her while she babbled. "They came to the window. I couldn't get away. I ran and ran..."
    He didn't say anything, just gathered her up and climbed the ladder that continued straight up the wall. As they reached the top, a white fist smashed through the boathouse doors and began to work the barrel latch loose.
    Once they were in the attic, Jakob lowered her gently next to the bed. She clutched at him frantically, teetering on the ragged edge of panic. "They will come up here next. How can we stop them?"
    He reached behind her and pulled a blanket from the bed. "Wrap yourself in this, you must be freezing." This prosaic advice somehow helped her to get a grip. She drew the blanket around her and sank on the bed. Jakob crossed the room, and Tessa noted somewhat dizzily that he must have been asleep until very recently, for he still wore a pair of tatty flannel pajama bottoms and no shirt. His naked shoulders became a solid, reassuring bulwark between her and the Polys.
    "Jakob," she asked, in a very small voice. "What are you going to do?"
    "Kill them."
    An equally tattered bathrobe hung on the door and he threw it aside, revealing a sword and scabbard. Jakob drew the sword with a ringing whine and casually examined the blade.
    Panic returned. Tessa couldn't suppress a horrified giggle. "You are going after them with a
sword
? Don't you have anything else?"
    He turned to face her, the sword by his side, his hand clenched on the grip. Somehow, his quiet calm radiated far more ferocity than if he had screamed the answer. "I don't need anything else. Stay in here." He went through the door, shutting it firmly behind him.
    Tessa dug through the cutlery drawer until she found the knife he had used to cut the apple pie. They sat together and ate it, once upon a time, as if all had been right with the world. She had, she now remembered, been appalled at his table manners. And then he had frightened her, but not nearly enough. Not enough to make her believe.
    Why hadn't she believed?
    She waited for a long while, until the silence hummed with her hammering heartbeat and the tension grew too much for her to bear. Then, hating herself, hating what she knew she would find, Tessa wrapped the bathrobe around her still-soaking nightgown and stepped into the night, the knife clutched in her hand.
    The moon had come out, throwing the shacks into sharp relief. She stood on the top landing of the stair, peering downwards for any sign of movement. The silence seemed magnified by the regular shush of the waves. A Poly appeared, moving stealthily along the stone path. Tessa gave a sharp intake of breath and shrank back against the wall. It stopped and then slowly turned towards her, as if it had some sort of radar.
    "No..." she whispered.
    As the Poly began to move forwards, gliding silently over the sand, Jakob stepped from the shadow like an avenging angel, with his sword held high. Though he did not look in her direction he seemed to know she was there. He kept his voice absolutely level. "Go back inside."
    She did not obey. Couldn't. Terror had cut Tessa's nerves into frayed bits of wire. She watched as the sword flashed, heard the dull thunk as the Poly's head hit the sand, heard Jakob's grunt of agony as the smoking blood splashed his bare shoulder. He staggered backwards until his back pressed against the boathouse wall and then he fell to his knees. Tessa started down the stairs, and saw the other Poly long before Jakob did.
    It moved very, very quickly. Tessa took the last stairs in a leap and threw herself between Jakob and his assailant. "Go