Mars slides his hands into the pockets of his black jacket, rolls back on his heels. “It seems word of your encounter at High Pass made it all the way to the Port of Glas. Jymy made a full report himself and now the Majority would like a word. They have great use for a rig driver who can bend Winter to her will.”
“I can’t—”
“The kol in your eyes says you can. I think it’s time you told us what happened at High Pass, Miss Quine.”
CHAPTER 3
Mars Dresden, Kerce smuggler and murderer of lawmen, wants to know what happened at High Pass. He wants to know what happened with the girl.
Winter showed up. That’s what happened. And the girl’s lucky she did. The kid shouldn’t have been out in that weather. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near the road.
But I shouldn’t have been out there either. It was a reckless decision, taking the route through High Pass on my way home from Kasebyrg. The highway through Hex Landing was safer, but I’d spent the first five years of my life in that rattrap and that was more than enough to scar me. It was careless, but I’d already dropped my haul, and after my fight with Lenore, I was ready for a little challenge.
And Winter delivered. The storm was raging when I reached the summit of the Kol Mountains. It was all noise and bluster and the terrifying kind of beautiful only Winter can be. It took all my skill to keep the Dragon on the road.
The girl was just a slip of a thing—all legs and arms, little more than a dishrag draped around her body. I was caught up in the sights and sounds of the season and it’s a miracle I even saw her astride the snowmobile.
For a terror-stricken moment, I didn’t know if I could stop the rig. If it was any other truck . . . but it was the Dragon, and so, with my foot pushing hard on the brake, I slipped and skidded to a choppy halt just feet from disaster.
Every muscle in my body was pulled taut—horror at what could have happened and anger at this stupid, stupid girl for underestimating Winter.
I kicked the door open and dropped to the snow. It was only then that I caught a clear look at her pale face. Half of it was made of stone, a crescent of amber rock bending from her left temple to her chin. After a quick glance around, I realized I was closer to the turnout than I’d thought. Her home was likely up on the rise. I craned my neck to the mountains above me. The Shiv are fiercely protective of High Pass and, outside the Dragon, I had no protection.
I backed toward my rig, but the mountaintops were absent any movement, the cave openings empty except for the flickering of firelight deep inside. She really was out here alone, and my anger dimmed. She was in shock, frozen where she sat, one hand on the handlebars, the other halfway to her mouth.
I thought perhaps I should ask her if she was OK, but I never got the chance.
Headlamps flashed over the rise, two beams on the snow beyond the girl. And then a pickup thundered into view, bouncing around the corner, metal barrels in the bed slamming around, the harpoon gun on the roof of the cab threatening.
I never did find out what Jymy Leff was doing out there.
The girl’s hair flew wide as she turned to face the oncoming danger, his headlamps capturing her, turning her to silhouette.
Jymy’s brakes squealed but he was going too fast. He was going to hit her. There was no way to stop in time. Even if he cranked the wheel . . . there was just no way . . .
I ran toward the girl, screams tearing at my throat.
A gust of wind slammed through the pass then, so fierce it sent me sprawling. Before I could pull myself upright, a wall of snow shot up from the ground between Jymy’s truck and the girl. She turned toward me again, her stone face freckled with powder. I blinked at her and she blinked back.
And Jymy’s pickup slammed into the wall with a crunch I can still feel at the base of my skull.
For a moment all was quiet. And then the girl jumped off the snowmobile and ran on tiptoes across the road, sliding down the bank and disappearing from sight.
I didn’t see the Shiv man until later. Not until after I confirmed Jymy was well enough to start his pickup. I didn’t see him until I’d climbed into the cab of the Dragon and navigated around the debacle in the middle of the road.
He was standing on the shoulder, not far from the turnout that led down to the ancient Kerce Memorial. One wizened hand held a walking stick and the other rested lightly on the girl’s head. She waved up at me and it was all I could do not to pull the Dragon over, climb out, and slap her.
CHAPTER 4
Mars wants to know what happened with the girl, but there’s too much there. Too much I don’t understand. And the Kerce collect stories to use as weapons.
“Jymy’s a liar,” I say, “but you’ll have to make do with his version. A detailed history of my comings and goings was not part of our deal.”
His nose flares. “Very well, Miss Quine. But the past always demands a reckoning. Denying what happened will not save you from the aftermath.”
“Duly noted,” I say, but my voice cracks and I can’t help wondering what Jymy told him. What Jymy saw that night.
Mars turns on his heel, but Hyla steps in front of him, blocks his path.
“We can’t leave the Ranger like this,” she says. “He was a keeper of the law. Ignoble, but appointed by a higher authority. He deserves better.”
“We don’t have time for a funeral, Hy,” Kyn says.
“They’ll find him soon enough.” I jam my hands in my pockets, fight to keep my eyes off Jymy. “There were plenty of witnesses.”
Out on the road traffic is already starting to back up, the drivers gawking and craning to see what’s going on in the lot. Hex Landing is a busy thoroughfare, even during the Flux. The south fork leads toward the Stack where raw kol is taken and processed, while the north fork climbs higher into the mountains, leading to a string of twyl farms in constant need of supplies. Past the farms, the highway dead-ends at the Shiv Road. The farther north we go, the fewer rigs we’ll see. But this knot of traffic is going to have to be navigated first.
“I don’t like leaving him out here any more than you do,” I tell Hyla, “but we have to go. Jymy’s squad isn’t going to be happy when they see what’s happened. We need to be long past Hex Landing when they find out.”
“What does it say about us if we show this man no honor? Mars?”
For a long moment, they stare at each other, their eyes speaking a language I’ve not been taught. And then Mars nods, a simple dip of his chin. “It’ll be faster if I do it,” he says.
“Mars, really. We can’t afford—”
“Go, Miss Quine. Take Kyn and the Dragon and get in that line of rigs out there. We’ll meet you at the fork.”
I curse and turn away, and that’s when I get my first look at Mars’s trailer, hitched to the Dragon while I slept. Despite the tangle of emotions twisting my gut, I stand impressed. It has a storm-gray body with studded snow tires and a modern design that won’t look nearly so sleek after it’s trucked the Shiv Road.
And on top—
“Is that a turret gun?” I ask, climbing into the driver’s seat.
“It’s Hyla’s,” Kyn says. “She has access to all sorts of Paradyian gadgetry.”