Dawn of the Ice Bear Read Online Free PDF Page B

easily?” she asked, hoping to push the discussion onto less uncomfortable ground. “Did they trust you after they overheard our fight?”
    â€œNot at all,” Mikelo replied. He gave a chuckle, sounding relieved that Alanya had not taken offense at his advance. “No one wanted to tell me anything. But they talked among themselves, and after some time, they stopped working so hard at trying to prevent me from hearing.”
    â€œAnd you are sure about the name?”
    â€œI am as sure of it as I am that the sun is rising, and with it the wind,” he said. As he spoke, he batted at sand as if he could knock it away with his hand. “I feel like I will be tasting sand for the rest of my life.”
    Depending on how powerful this sorcerer is, you might, Alanya thought. But she held her tongue. In fact, the wind blew harder, and she pressed her lips tightly together, closing her eyes but for tiny slits to see through. Sand lashed at her, stinging like the tails of thousands of tiny whips. She felt Kral’s presence beside her, and realized he was moving out in front to block some of the worst of it with his body. She would have said something about it, told him not to bother, but the steady hum of the wind had escalated to something like constant thunder. To speak would have required shouting, and she did not want her mouth open that wide.
    So she kept her mouth shut. Kral’s efforts were for naught; the wind blew too hard, the sand flew everywhere. She felt it caking the corners of her eyes and mouth, felt it snaking beneath her clothing. Head down, buffeted now by the wind, she walked on. It pushed at her, tried to knock her down. Kral leaned into it and Alanya did the same. Her hair broke free of the band that held it together and flew unrestrained. The cloak across her shoulders fluttered and snapped like the sails of the Restless Heart during the storm that had nearly torn the ship apart. The blue of the sky had disappeared, shrouded by sand.
    She was vaguely aware of sudden motion up ahead. She dared to lift her head, to peer through her slitted eyes. Kral was running toward Donial, who had wandered farther from the others than was safe in this—already, she could barely make him out. She glanced to her right to make sure that Mikelo was still there. Having retrieved Alanya’s brother, Kral drew him back toward the other two. He motioned for them to stop where they were.
    â€œThe storm is getting worse!” he shouted when he reached them. “We cannot keep going in this! We need to wait and let it blow over!”
    Alanya nodded her assent. She saw Kral straighten and look about, and a moment later he gestured them all toward a wispy bush, blown almost sideways by the wind. “It will not provide much shelter!” he called. “But better than none at all!”
    He led the way over to the little scrap of brush and dropped to his haunches behind it. The others did likewise. At Kral’s signal, they moved about until they formed a kind of circle, facing each other, backs out. They wrapped cloaks about themselves as best they could. Still, sand bit and insinuated and scoured, but not quite as bad as before. Alanya wondered how long it could last. Every minute they sat here was another minute they would not have to find the Teeth of the Ice Bear before Gorian and his men came looking for it.
    But the wind showed no sign of letting up.
    They waited.

5
    GOVERNOR SHARZEN OF Koronaka heard the drums even in his sleep. He would have sworn that they never stopped, never paused, but perhaps they did. Perhaps it was only in his imagination that they went on hour after hour, all through the night, and were still sounding come morning.
    Or perhaps not.
    Now, standing by his window in the first rays of the sun, the drumming was definitely real. It seemed to fill every valley of the Pictish lands, to echo from every mountain. It sounded as if the forest itself had come to