\u201cI wish it was,\u201d I said, pulling the smithy door shut behind me. \u201cVasily and his party saw something in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComing up through the ice,\u201d he said. \u201cBroken ice, all along the shore. I don\u2019t think the water\u2019s very deep where we saw the cracks, either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt frowned, setting down his hammer and cleaning his hands with a soot-stained rag. \u201cHow far out?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasily shrugged, his gaze drifting away from my brother and homing in on Thordin. \u201cWe thought that you and Lady Sif might be able to help us identify it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally,\u201d Thordin said, his expression darkening as his voice dropped to a rumble. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only heard tales of serpents like what I think we saw,\u201d Vasily said, his accent thickening as he spoke, as if fear was having more of an effect on him than he was trying to let on, bleeding into his voice. \u201cWe didn\u2019t see much, only that it was big and it had eyes like ice, big and crystal and blue-white, like sun on a glacier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thordin sat quietly for a long moment, his eyes growing distant.<\/p>\n
Without a word, he stood up, handed J.T. the axe head he\u2019d been honing, and slipped past Vasily and I. I watched his retreating back as he headed for the bridge, bile pooling deep in my belly.<\/p>\n
He was scared<\/em>, and that was enough to terrify me.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll find Phelan,\u201d Thom said, abandoning the bellows. He pecked me on the cheek on his way out the door. \u201cMaybe he\u2019ll be able to shed some light on this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow close to camp?\u201d Matt asked Vasily, frowning. I could see the wheels turning behind my brother\u2019s eyes. He\u2019d been majoring in geology before the end of everything, and his classes had resulted in at least a passing understanding of the underwater geography of Lake Michigan. He was trying to figure out how big thing could be based on its proximity to where we were standing now.<\/p>\n Vasily shrugged. \u201cHard to say. A few miles.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the ice?\u201d J.T. asked, eyes gleaming in the forge\u2019s glow.<\/p>\n Vasily nodded. \u201cAye. We rode out onto the pack to see what we could. Our orders were to see if we could still cross the lake on horseback to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m guessing we can\u2019t,\u201d I said, stomach sinking. We knew that there was another settlement on the far side of Lake Michigan from where we were standing thanks to a report from a friendly werewolf pack. Some of them had stayed behind in that settlement for the winter, while a few had braved the frozen lake to return to us on its eastern shore.<\/p>\n \u201cNot unless you want to get eaten by the creature beneath the ice,\u201d Vasily said quietly. \u201cDon\u2019t go dance where angels fear to tread, koldun\u2019ya<\/em>. It\u2019s the very best way to get yourself killed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrust me,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI wish it was,\u201d I said, pulling the smithy door shut behind me. \u201cVasily and his party saw something in the water.\u201d \u201cComing up through the ice,\u201d he said. \u201cBroken ice, all along the shore. I don\u2019t think the water\u2019s … Continue reading