Averik woke with Evelyn’s mouth brushing his. She kissed him again before sleep had fully let go, slow and familiar, silver hair unbound across the pillow and brushing his shoulder. Pale morning light had already reached the wall. When he opened his eyes, she smiled into the next kiss.
He caught her by the nape and pulled her closer. His free hand went under the blanket and closed over her ass through her sleep shorts. A pleased little sound caught in her throat.
"Morning~ Sleep well?" Evelyn murmured, still close enough that her breath warmed his mouth.
Averik kept his hand where it was. "You seem determined to make sure I’m awake."
"I was~" Her voice still had sleep in it. "I thought this would be nicer than calling your name until you opened your eyes."
Averik squeezed her ass, slow enough to catch the change in her breathing. "You chose well."
Her smile widened. "I know. I like this way better too."
At the foot of the bed, Snow lifted her head and stared at them with the patient look of a wolf who had been awake long enough to judge both humans. Averik looked past Evelyn. "Don’t start." Snow yawned in his face.
A soft laugh slipped out of Evelyn, and she stole another kiss before slipping from the blanket. They dressed without wasting time. She tied her hair back, took the refitted spear from the wall, and checked its balance once. Averik strapped Roderic’s revolver to his thigh. Snow stretched until her claws rasped over the floorboards, then followed them into the common room.
Breakfast was already waiting. Hot broth steamed beside browned meat and a thick grain porridge that held heat better than it looked. Caedren sat near one end of the table with Bram and Tovan. The young Shaper ate quietly, her attention wandering every so often toward the passage that led to the isolation room. The Breaker wasn’t there.
Caedren noticed where Averik looked. "Made the night. Still looks like hell."
Averik reached for the broth. "He’ll travel."
"For the trip, maybe." Caedren tore a piece of bread in half. "For the wound? No. We get him to Vardel and put a Restorer on him."
Averik sat beside Evelyn and ate. The man was still breathing, which was all the morning required of him. Averik had already gotten what he wanted from keeping him alive.
Sunlight had finally broken through the weather that trapped them overnight. Wind still shaved loose powder along the outer wall, but the route markers beyond the camp were visible again. By the time Averik finished eating, Tovan had drained his cup and was glancing toward the yard.
Averik put his spoon down. "Get the crawler ready. We’re leaving when I get back."
Caedren looked up from his plate. "Where are you going?"
Averik pushed his chair back. "Outside for a bit."
A beat passed. Caedren rubbed his thumb across his jaw. "Right. Very informative."
Averik looked at him without warmth. "You understood the important part." Bram snorted into his cup.
Evelyn rose before he did, settling the spear along one shoulder. "May I come with you? I’d rather go with you than stay here wondering what you found."
Averik stood. "You’re coming."
The warmth in her eyes answered first. "Thank you." Snow had reached the door before either of them.
***
The morning beyond the camp wall had the hard brightness that followed a storm. Fresh snow rounded the old drifts, and the cleared sky let Averik see across a broad stretch of white country instead of into yesterday’s blowing gray.
He walked far enough from the gate that nobody inside would have to step around them, then stopped beside Snow. "Down."
The wolf lowered herself. Evelyn glanced from Snow to him and smiled. "You’re going to ride her?"
Averik ran a hand once over Snow’s shoulder. "I’m going to see how she handles it."
Snow turned her head far enough to look offended by the discussion. Averik buried one hand in the fur behind her shoulders and swung onto her back. She shifted under the unfamiliar weight, forepaws spreading slightly against the crust before she rose again.
Her first two steps rolled under him differently from the crawler, and there was no saddle to hold him where he wanted to sit. The first sway nudged him off-center. He corrected before Snow’s next paw landed, adjusted again when her shoulders rolled beneath him, and stopped fighting the motion by the third step.
Evelyn watched him for another heartbeat. "She still looks offended."
Averik shifted forward enough to leave Evelyn room. "She’s carrying me anyway. Get on."
"Gladly~ I wanted to try this too." She mounted behind him. One arm settled around his waist; her other hand kept the spear low along Snow’s flank, blade angled away from both riders.
Snow stood still as if reconsidering every choice that had brought her to this morning. Averik scratched behind one ear. "Move." She launched forward hard enough to tug Evelyn against his back.
Evelyn’s arm tightened around him with a startled laugh. Snow found a longer stride over the packed track, then smoothed it once she understood how the second body shifted behind Averik. The added weight mattered enough for her to adjust, not enough to turn the run into labor.
Cold wind dragged at their coats. Averik barely noticed it beyond the sting on exposed skin. Corruption Essence outside Vardel brushed his second Core with the same familiar pull it had carried through the expedition, and he let some of it sink in without slowing. Through the bond, he felt Snow’s Corruption Core draw in the ambient Corruption in faint, steady pulls.
They climbed a low rise. Snow slowed near the top and lifted her head toward the left. Averik followed her attention. Something large hunched over a carcass below them. At first it looked like another frost-caked rock. Then a hooked beak tore free a strip of meat, and the bird raised its head.
It was eagle-shaped, but no ordinary eagle should have been that broad through the chest or that heavy through the shoulders. Dirty white frost ridged the folded wings. Dark feathers showed beneath the ice, and blue-cyan flesh marked torn patches around the base of the beak and one side of the breast.
A Frost Beast. Evelyn loosened her arm from Averik’s waist. "Would you like me beside you?"
Averik watched the bird instead of her. "Stay with Snow. Keep the spear ready."
"Yes, Averik." Evelyn resettled the spear and swept her attention across the bird and the ground around it.
Snow descended the rise at an angle and stopped well short of the carcass. Averik slid off. Evelyn followed with the spear already in hand.
The bird watched all three of them. It stepped over the dead herd animal, spread its wings, and made itself suddenly wider than the carcass beneath it.
The first beat of those wings blew snow outward. Snow sprang sideways before the blast reached her. The Frost Beast opened its beak in a raw scream. A directed surge of Corruption hit a heartbeat later. This was nothing like the ambient pressure filling the land. It had intent behind it. Averik smiled. ’Found you.’
The hostile surge reached him first. His bloodline answered it before he bothered with anything else. Averik caught the Corruption trying to push into him and turned his Corruption Authority against it.
The bird’s cry cut off. Its wings stayed spread, but the next beat never came. Corruption churned through its body against Averik’s pressure. Its talons gouged lines through the frozen ground as it dragged itself backward, fighting the weight of his Authority.
Averik stepped closer as the Frost Beast snapped its beak and forced another wave at him. He crushed the direction out of it. His Authority bore down harder on the Corruption running through the beast.
The eagle shuddered. Its head dipped a fraction, and the moment its resistance stopped being a clean wall, Averik reached for Beast Tamer.
The bond met something that genuinely wanted him gone. The bird lurched backward. One wing hammered down hard enough to fling a sheet of powder across Averik’s boots. The forming claim pulled tight between them, and Corruption twisted through the resistance, trying to tear open a line that Averik’s Authority had already crushed narrow.
He held it there, refusing to give the beast a clean line through either pressure. For a few seconds the Frost Beast fought both pressures. Then the resistance buckled and the bond snapped closed.
::···:::···:::···::
[Target Successfully Tamed]
::···:::···:::···::
The bird stopped trying to retreat. Nothing about it became clean. Frost still armored parts of its wings, blue-cyan flesh still showed around the beak.
Averik gave it simple boundaries through the completed bond. This stretch of western country remained its hunting ground. It was to stay away from the forward camp and the maintained road. Humans were not prey unless they attacked it first or a later command from Averik changed that.
The bird folded its wings while Averik glanced at the half-eaten carcass under its talons. Cyan frost stained the torn meat where the Frost Beast had been feeding.
Averik sent the last command with a flick of intent. "Go." The eagle drove itself into the air. Two heavy wingbeats carried it over the rise before it climbed westward, shrinking against the clear morning sky.
Evelyn lowered her spear only after it had gained distance. "That’s another one already."
Averik glanced from the empty sky to her. "You sound surprised."
"Not that you tamed it." She came closer, amusement pulling at her mouth. "I’m starting to think the dangerous part is letting any beast get close enough for you to notice it."
Averik gave the empty sky a brief glance. "That’s their problem."
Her smile turned helplessly fond. "Yes. I suppose it is."
They didn’t hurry back immediately. A slab of exposed rock on the lee side of the rise kept most of the wind off. Averik sat with one knee raised. Evelyn settled beside him and leaned lightly into his side, Snow lay in front of them with her head up, watching the open snow.
For a while Evelyn said nothing. Averik didn’t fill the quiet for her. The question had been sitting behind her eyes since breakfast, and he was content to let her decide whether she wanted it badly enough to ask.
Eventually she looked up. "Averik... may I ask you something about yesterday?"
Averik turned enough to see her properly. "Ask."
"Were you really all right with saving him? The Breaker, I mean." She paused, searching for the wording rather than challenging him. "You’d already decided killing him was easier. Caedren gave you another option, but... it didn’t feel like that was the whole reason you changed your mind."
She knew him too well for mercy to fit cleanly. Averik looked over the white plain. "I put something in him too."
Evelyn went still. Her gaze dipped briefly toward his chest, where she knew the second Core existed, then came back to him. "Something of yours?"
Averik met her eyes. "That’s enough for now."
Suspicion stayed in her eyes, but she only nodded. "All right. I won’t press you."
He caught her chin between two fingers and kissed her. Evelyn leaned into him without hesitation, one hand resting against his coat near the ribs. When he drew back, she stayed close enough that her breath still touched his mouth.
Evelyn stayed close. "You aren’t upset that I asked?" she murmured.
Averik kept his gaze on hers. "If I didn’t want you noticing things, I wouldn’t keep you beside me."
That pleased her more than reassurance would have. Her mouth softened before her eyes lowered. "I’ll keep paying attention, then. I just won’t pry when you tell me to stop."
Averik brushed his thumb once over her chin. "Do that." Snow sneezed into the snow before Evelyn could answer.
Evelyn glanced toward her and laughed softly. "I think she wants to go back."
"She wants breakfast again." Snow’s ears turned toward him as if the accusation deserved review.
Averik got to his feet and offered Snow a dry look. "See?"
They mounted Snow again, and she carried them back faster than she had carried them out.
Averik no longer had to correct every roll of her stride. Evelyn stayed behind him with one arm around his waist. When the forward camp came into view, Snow lengthened her pace again, apparently satisfied that carrying two humans had become a job she understood.
The yard was ready when they came through the gate. The crawler had already been brought around, packs secured, motors checked. Tovan stood near the rear tow points, while Bram and the young woman were finishing the last of the loading. The Breaker was already inside the lined rear casualty compartment, out of the fixed isolation room and ready for transport.
Caedren looked at Snow carrying both of them, then at Averik. "I’m not asking."
Averik slid down from Snow’s back. "Smart."
Evelyn followed him down and kept hold of her spear. "She was very steady once we settled."
Caedren eyed Snow. "Of course she was. Why would anything around you two be normal?" Snow ignored him completely.
No one had anything left to wait for. Tovan took the crawler’s controls. Caedren gave the camp watch a short handoff, and the forward wall began shrinking behind them while the morning was still bright.
Averik and Evelyn rode inside. Snow ran outside beside the crawler.
The return road had changed under the storm, but not enough to erase it. Marker poles rose through fresh snow, then broken pavement and familiar stone cuts returned one after another.
The crawler kept east. Hours passed in the uneven hum of the tracks. The Breaker remained shut in the lined rear section with the young woman nearby. Nobody tried to turn the ride home into conversation for his sake.
On a long open stretch, Snow suddenly drifted several paces away from the crawler.
Averik noticed the change before anyone called her back. Her head had come up, ears fixed on a shallow basin beyond the roadside drift.
Movement flashed between low brush. A pale winter deer broke into the open and bounded across the snow.
There was no cyan flesh, no frost armor, no corrupted pressure. Just meat running away. Snow looked back at Averik.
Averik nodded toward the deer. "Go. Hunt it." Snow exploded forward before the last word had fully left him.
The deer had a head start and almost nothing else. Snow crossed the first stretch in a white blur. When the animal cut downslope, she changed angle before the turn had finished. It cleared one drift, landed badly in soft powder, and tried to climb the opposite side.
Snow caught it before the second stride. Her jaws closed high over the neck and shoulder. The deer crashed onto its side, kicked twice, and went still.
Bram leaned far enough toward the opening to watch the end of it. "Remind me never to run from your wolf."
Averik looked his way. "You’d lose."
Bram leaned back inside. "Yeah. That was the part I noticed."
Snow dragged the carcass back by the neck and shoulder, carving a broad furrow through the snow. Tovan stopped the crawler just long enough for Bram and young woman to secure the deer with rope to the rear tow points. The carcass stayed outside, nowhere near the lined compartment holding the Breaker.
Snow licked blood from her muzzle and fell into stride beside the crawler again.
Averik watched the carcass bounce behind them, satisfied, then settled back as the crawler picked up speed.
***
Vardel’s wall rose out of the white in early afternoon. The primary gate had barely swallowed the crawler before Caedren jumped down. "Restorer down here," he called toward the receiving crew. "West-team Corruption wound. Isolation room."
The receiving side moved at once. A wheeled litter came to the rear compartment while another guard disappeared through the inner door to fetch the specialists. When the hatch opened, the Breaker tried to rise and managed only one step before his wounded side folded under him.
"Don’t be stupid," Tovan said, catching his shoulder long enough to stop the fall. "You’ve been trying that since yesterday. It still isn’t working."
The Breaker glared at him through clenched teeth and let the receiving crew move him onto the litter. The young woman went with him. Caedren followed as far as the isolation-room door, spoke briefly to the first specialist coming through, then turned back toward the crawler.
Averik stayed where he was. The man was alive, inside containment, and still carried exactly what Averik had left in him. That was enough.
The deer came off on the clean side of the crawler, away from the quarantine movement. Two non-awakened workers stopped beside the carcass and looked toward Caedren for direction.
Averik gave it first. "Take it to the stores. Clean it and cut it. Keep the hide if the Unit wants it."
One worker glanced between the carcass and him. "Most of the meat stays with the Unit?"
Averik was still studying the carcass when he answered. "No."
Caedren returned in time to hear that. He stopped by the rear track. "Of course not."
Averik faced him. "I want most of it. Have the servants bring the cleaned share to my house in District 2."
Caedren looked from him to the wolf sitting beside Evelyn with dried blood still dark on her muzzle. "How generous of you to leave us any."
Averik nodded toward the rear tow points. "Your contribution was rope."
Bram laughed from beside the crawler. Caedren stared at Averik for a moment, then waved the workers on. "You heard him. Majority goes to his place after it’s cleaned. Put the rest in Unit stores."
The workers started dragging the carcass toward the warehouse side. Evelyn stepped closer to Averik, "I’ll cook some when it arrives, if you’d like. Something hot at home sounds better than another camp meal."
Averik glanced toward the wolf. "Make enough for Snow to."
Her expression softened. "Yes, Averik."
Snow’s ears lifted at her name. Averik looked at her. "You already ate half the road." Snow stood anyway.
The noise of Unit 1 fell behind them as they left the gate yard: the crawler’s engine, the rattle of the litter, workers dragging the deer toward the stores.
Evelyn slipped her free hand around Averik’s arm. Snow paced at their side as they headed for District 2.