The Shadowhand Covenant by Brian Farrey Page B

followed!” he said.
    He pointed behind us to where a distant pair of figures was stepping out from behind a grove of whistlebirch. Maloch scowled. “It’s those two naff-nuts from the Sarosan camp.”
    I assumed he meant Reena and Holm. They’d probably noticed we were gone before the rest of the Sarosans. And Reena was so eager to prove herself, she probably hadn’t told anyone that she and Holm were after us. She wanted the glory of capturing us for herself. Which meant we weren’t in too much danger. As long as they were far away—
    Shhkk! Something whizzed past my ear. A thin wooden needle with a small feather on the back buried itself in the trunk of the tree we’d hidden behind. Just inches from my face.
    â€œMake that naff-nuts with blowguns!” I said.
    We ran helter-skelter, darts whizzing by, each onlynarrowly missing. Maloch expertly dodged back and forth, faking one direction while diving in the opposite. My strategy was far less graceful. It involved gripping my belt and pouches, whimpering, and keeping my head low.
    As we ran, the trees, bushes, and boulders gave way to a wide, snow-covered clearing, stretching long from side to side for as far as I could see.
    â€œI don’t like the look of this,” I said, remembering the traps near the Sarosan camp.
    â€œWe don’t have a choice. Keep going.” Maloch stumbled across the clearing toward the thicket of trees on the far side. It was the only place to hide.
    Reluctantly, I followed, taking slower, more cautious steps. About halfway across the clearing, I heard a small cracking sound with each footfall. I paused, then took another step. Another crack, this one louder.
    Looking down, I saw dark fissures under my feet, as though I’d opened up the earth simply by walking on it.
    â€œUm, Maloch . . . ,” I said, freezing to the spot.
    â€œJaxter,” Maloch spun around, “we don’t have time for this.”
    He stomped his foot. And the earth shattered.
    Because it wasn’t earth. We were standing on a frozen river. Cracks like black lightning shot out all around us. Great chunks of ice submerged into rushing water. Maloch and I fell to our knees, each clinging desperately to separate ice floes that now moved swiftly downstream, bits breaking away every time they crashed into another floe.
    â€œThere they are!”
    Reena’s voice sounded from the riverbank we’d just come from. I turned to see her and Holm, blowguns in hand. They stepped from the woods and raised the reeds to their lips.
    Maloch was on his feet. Nimbly, he jumped from floe to floe, leapfrogging his way over the racing water until landing safely on the far bank. He walked along the river, motioning for me to follow.
    â€œJump, Jaxter!”
    More and more chunks of ice disappeared into the water, making the slippery path across even harder to navigate. I stayed on all fours, gripping the ice with the knowledge that if I tried to follow Maloch, I’d end up drowning in the increasingly violent river.
    Shhhk! A wooden blowgun dart stuck out in the ice, a hair’s width from my little finger.
    These people were obsessed with my little fingers!
    With no choice, I sprang to my feet and tried to hopscotch toward the far bank.
    I deftly traversed two floes. The third splintered the instant I landed. Acting quickly, I blindly threw myself forward as the third floe disintegrated and sank. I fell face-first onto a sheet of ice that wobbled under my weight. Wearily, I stood and tried to spot a path to the far side.
    There was now more river than ice between Maloch and me. He was jogging along the bank to keep up with me as the floe carried me faster and faster downstream. Unfortunately, Reena and Holm were also keeping pace.
    â€œRock!” Maloch shouted.
    I followed his pointing finger and saw a large piece of stone sticking out of the river like a starshark fin. Before I could react, my ice floe