It was not the first time Talia had killed a man. She had practically grown up on a battlefield after all, and her skill with a bow was known far and wide. However, it was the first time she'd killed an unarmed man and in such an underhand manner.
Feynor opened and closed his mouth several times as he bled out, but only made a wet, gargling sort of sound. He looked like a fish surprised to find itself on land. He slumped forward as he lost consciousness but continued to bleed for quite a while after.
Talia swallowed the bile which had risen in her throat and wiped her dagger clean on the man's pant leg. She did not look at him. She did not think about what she had done to him or what he had planned on doing to her. Oddly enough, it was Prince Mikhail she thought of-- that night almost a decade ago when he had also been sitting with his back against a tree. He had stared at her for a moment and then smiled faintly and in that slow deep voice he'd said: ""The small and weak... must use every advantage they can. Fair is relative."
"Fair is relative," she whispered, as though trying to convince herself.
At any rate, the other members of the gang could wake up at any time, she had to hurry.
She retrieved her other dagger from Feynor's horse and then found her pack among the supplies. She then cut the leads on the horses and waved her arms frantically, but they did not run. They stood where they had been tethered and stared at her as though she were crazy. She tried slapping the hind quarters of the one closest to her, but it merely side-stepped in annoyance and neighed loudly.
She had thought to buy time by scaring off their horses, but the horses refused to be scared or to leave. She considered stealing one of them to make her escape, but she had never ridden bareback before, and a horse would leave easy to follow tracks in the snow. Instead, Talia snapped a long pine bough off a nearby tree and then began to run, heading in the direction she thought led back to the southern road.
When she had gone some distance, she stopped, turned east, and then began to walk backwards, sweeping across her footprints with the pine bough. It did not hide her trail perfectly, but a little snowfall, and they would be completely undetectable.
She went on this way, walking backwards and sweeping her footprints for quite some time. With any luck the men would follow her trail which led to the southern road, and when it disappeared, they would keep going. No one would assume she'd gone in the opposite direction farther into the wilds.
She also knew something that they might not know. Ilya had taken her outside of the city just a few days before to show her the rainbow ponds. The steaming, colored pools of water were not only frequented by local sightseers. As Ilya had explained, there was also a very small community of herbalists and apothecaries who lived just beyond the rainbow pools. They made medicines that were famous all over the Empire. It was not a place anyone chasing her would expect her to go, but if they sent their goods all across the land, they must have transportation.
At long last, Talia turned around and tossed the pine bough aside. She had covered her trail for long enough. Now she ran in the direction which she hoped was east, stopping every so often to sniff the wind, hoping to detect even a faint whiff of sulphur.
By the time, the sun began to rise, Talia had slowed down a great deal. She was exhausted, and very, very cold. The trees blocked a good amount of the wind, but her feet were starting to feel numb. She could not risk a fire, but perhaps she might find a sheltered spot to curl up in for a little while so that she could conserve heat and rest.
There were no rocks or groupings of trees for her to shelter behind, so she determined to build one. She cut a few long pine branches and leaned them against the thickest trunk she could find. A fallen, rotten tree provided some decent sized pieces of bark which she laid against the branches to construct a rough sort of shelter.
She crawled inside and curled up pulling her cloak tightly around herself. It was not much warmer, but at least she could rest. She opened her pack and found a few pieces of jerky. She chewed it quickly and closed her eyes, determined only to rest a short while.
When she opened her eyes again, it was late in the afternoon. She could tell by the light. She held very still and listened, straining to hear the sound of voices or footsteps crunching across the snow, but hearing nothing, she crawled out of her shelter and glanced around. Nothing. She was also disappointed to see that the snow the gang leader had promised did not fall. It would make her far easier to track.
Working quickly, she took apart her shelter and scattered the branches and the bark haphazardly, and then took off again heading east, away from the sun as it set. Just before evening, she came to came to the edge of the woods and gazed out at a wide-open field. It was her first sign that she was headed in the right direction. The rainbow pools were reached after crossing a wide, gently rolling and open plain. Though she could not smell the offensive scent yet, she had to be close.
However, once she stepped out of the woods, she would be very exposed and easily seen should anyone happen to be lurking nearby. She decided to wait until it was full dark.
As a crescent moon began to rise in the sky, Talia cautiously left the woods and began walking in a northeast direction. She was still cold, and she worried about her toes as she had not been able to feel them for some time, but once she reached the little village, she would surely find help.
As the tree line behind her grew smaller and smaller, Talia began to feel quite nervous. She could still not smell the rainbow pools, and she worried that she had perhaps come out of the woods too far to the north. There were large rocks and barren jagged outcroppings around the pools, and yet no matter how far she walked she only saw the same open slighly rolling land.
She glanced up at the sky, trying to set her direction again from the stars, and noticed for the first time, a line of smoke rising from the horizon. She gasped, for a moment worried that it came from a campfire, and that she was walking toward the outlaws she'd been trying to escape. She noticed quite quickly that it did not behave the way smoke from a campfire would. It was not dark enough, and it seemed to billow and puff... exactly like steam did rising from a hot spring!
She was going the right way after all! Perhaps she could not smell the pools because she was upwind. Excited now, Talia doubled her pace, at times, even running toward the column of steam. It was much farther away than it had appeared, but as the moon rose higher, she could also see that the horizon had become more jagged and uneven. It was much rockier terrain to the east, exactly as it was around the rainbow pools.
She flagged her exhausted and frozen limbs with thoughts of a warm welcome at the little village. She had gold, after all. Perhaps she could buy a meal and a warm drink. There would be a fire, and maybe they even had a small inn.
Talia rubbed her hands together to try and warm them and then slapped her arms and chest as she walked. Her breath formed great clouds of moist warm air that quickly cooled against her face. Damn the north and all of Unaria! Why would anyone make their home in such a frozen wasteland?
She continued walking and though the clouds of steam were larger now, she could still not smell the sulphur. Perhaps she'd missed the pools entirely and come out near the village. At any rate, steam meant heat, and she would not stop until she found some sort of warmth for her frozen body.
The night was almost over by the time she reached the source of the steam clouds. She stopped and glanced around in confusion. The land had grown rocky and was full of jagged outcroppings and dips, and it was hard to walk as the snow hid all sorts of pitfalls, but there were no rainbow pools. The steam came from the narrow opening in a rock, that as she approached, she realized was a small cave.
She cautiously approached and ducked down to look inside. It was a shallow sort of hole, not a true cave by any means, and it was damp as well, but it was quite warm. The steam rose from small cracks in the rock wall and in the ground, and the snow had melted all around the entrance to the niche.
At least it was warmth, she thought. She could rest, and when the sun came up, she could climb one of the higher rocks and get a better look at the land.
Talia crawled inside and rested her head against the rock wall. In a short while, her toes and fingers went from feeling numb to burning as though they'd been plunged into a fire!
"Ahh!" Talia cried, ripping of her mitts. Her fingers were red and swollen looking. She rubbed them together, but that made them hurt and burn even worse. She tried blowing on them, but it did nothing to make the pain stop. She moaned and stuffed her hands under her arms and closed her eyes, hoping it would stop.
When she opened her eyes again, it was daylight and snowing quite heavily. Her hands and feet felt normal again, but her clothing felt damp against her skin.
Crawling out of the shallow cave she blinked, and then gave a painful cry as the wind blew hard against her damp clothes. Damn but she was stupid! Now she had wet clothes and no idea how far she had to travel yet. She crawled back into the cave and waited for the snow to stop.
Talia had no way of knowing how much time had passed. She drank cold water from her bottle and ate another piece of jerky. It was still snowing when a sound came from outside that caused her to hold her breath. She listened intently, hoping that she had only imagined it. For a long time she heard nothing, and then it came again.
A shout! A man's voice calling out! A voice she had hoped to never hear again so long as she lived. The leader of the outlaws called out again.
"She had to come this way. She'll try to get back to Pirchburg from the other side!" he yelled.
"Which is why I say we're too far to the south. The ground is unstable in these parts, it's not safe!" An answering voice shouted. Talia took a deep, calming breath and ducked out of the cave, crawling quickly away from the direction of the voices.
The wind stung bitterly as it chilled her damp cloak and clothing, and her hands, which had only just started to feel normal burned again. It did not matter! She had to get away from there!
Talia stood, but crouched down as she ran, keeping low so as to stay below the rocks and boulders. She did not know which direction she ran in, only that it was the opposite way of where she heard the leader's voice. Her entire body was chilled now, and she could not keep her teeth from chattering as she ran.
At last, her legs began to seize up. They did not move the way she wanted them to. She stumbled and fell, and then got up and stumbled and fell again. Her hands and feet, which had burned as though they were on fire, were now, curiously warm, almost comfortably so.
The third time she fell, she considered staying down. It had stopped snowing. Perhaps, tired as she was, she could close her eyes and sleep for just a short while.
No. No, the men were still too close. She had to keep going. Talia got up slowly, leaning on a boulder for support. She began to stagger forward.
Suddenly her body slammed hard against the rocky outcropping, and she could not breath. Talia blinked a few times and realized that she was being choked. The leader clenched his hand firmly around her neck and grinned at her.
"Well, well," he growled. "What do we have here?"