Welcome to Teaser Tuesday! How it works (on this blog, anyway) is that I share a bit of writing and you tell me how great it is.
This snippet comes from about three-quarters into my first novel.
Teaser: On the Mountain
Lady Fyrhawke was barefoot. She stepped quickly into the frigid water and splashed it against her legs. The burbling water began to steam as it flowed away down the mountain.
While the magician rested, Erik retraced their path and helped Kaizen come up. Like Erik, the blind monk was covered with heavy clothes, and carried a large pack with the supplies for the group.
“She’s waiting in a pool, but doesn’t look good, sir.” Erik held Kaizen’s hand.
“I’m sure my own appearance is less than could be called handsome, right now.”
“You don’t look ready to catch fire, sir.”
From above, Lady Fyrhawke called. “Well, boy, where is it? There’s hardly any ice up here at all! I’ve had more ice in my cup!”
Erik stretched his arm and pointed up the slope. “Look there, my Lady! Do you see how the clouds stream over the pass? Just the other side, and the ice goes halfway down the mountain, they say. Ice with cracks as deep as a pine tree, with a roaring water at the bottom that can crush boulders into sand.”
Lady Fyrhawke looked up at the clouds whistling over the pass. “There’d better be.”
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For the rest of the morning, the three travelers wound back and forth through the boulder fields and barren scree, climbing closer to the ridge between the two peaks that rose on either side. They were far above the tree line, above the last tracks of the mountain goats. Behind them, the world fell away in a spectacular sweep down into the settled valley far below, and the last huts that offered them shelter days ago.
At lunch, they stopped in the lee of the last boulder before the scramble up to the ridge. Erik and Kaizen huddled close to Lady Fyrhawke, and she warmed their food and drink by holding it a few moments in her hands.
Erik watched Lady Fyrhawke carefully. In the last day she had begun to turn inward, needing reminders of when to stop, when to start, when to rest, when to lie down to sleep. The mark of the phoenix on her skin had brightened and reddened, and now it had begun to move. The bird’s mouth stretched across her cheek, and the eye darkened her temple. With a start, he realized the eye was looking at him.
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