Evanlyn groaned softly. 'Oh my aching arms and shoulders.'
'You'll be okay once we get going,' Alyss told her. 'The kinks will ease out when you're working the muscles and you get warmed up.'
Evanlyn began to gather up their breakfast utensils. She felt a little encouraged by Alyss's comment. 'Well, that's something, at least.'
'Of course,' Alyss added, a trifle maliciously, 'once you cool down tonight, and they stiffen up again, they're going to hurt like merry hell.'
Evanlyn paused in the act of strapping her travel pack shut. 'Well, thank you for those kind words of encouragement,' she said. 'It's nice to know I have that to look forward to.'
They packed their supplies into the kayak and pushed it clear of the beach. Once again, Evanlyn climbed in first, still a little clumsily, while Alyss held the boat steady. Then Alyss boarded as well. This time, when the boat rocked suddenly under her weight, Evanlyn didn't tense up. The previous day had seen her grow accustomed to the fact that their little craft moved on the water. It rocked and plunged from time to time. But she'd learned that such movements didn't presage sudden disaster. Once she managed to relax, she found that she could counteract the kayak's motion with a loose-muscled response, balancing her weight without panic or tension.
Her paddling still left a little to be desired and from time to time she miscued a stroke, sending a shower of near-freezing water splashing back over her companion. The first few times this happened, Alyss had responded, with icy politeness, 'Thank you for that, your majesty.'
After that, her comments were less audible, consisting of indecipherable mutterings.
Each time, Evanlyn gritted her teeth and resolved not to make the same mistake again. Inevitably, she did and had to endure more of the almost, but not quite, inaudible comments from the rear seat – comments that she knew were unladylike and uncomplimentary in the extreme.
But there was nothing she could do about it, as she realised that she was in the wrong each time she unwittingly threw a faceful of water at Alyss.
They paused every thirty minutes or so to rest. When the sun passed the midday mark, Alyss announced that they could take a break to eat and drink. They sat drifting on the lake, lulled by the now familiar pok-pok-pok of the wavelets against their hull. There was little wind and no current, so they tended to stay pretty much in one position. When they had rested, but before Evanlyn's muscles had time to cool and stiffen, Alyss called a start again. She had a Northseeker needle with her and she turned the kayak to face west of north-west, then began to paddle once more. As the little boat moved off, Evanlyn glanced back over her shoulder to get the timing of the stroke and joined in. The kayak surged forward under the increased thrust, then yawed as Evanlyn missed a stroke and threw more spray onto Alyss.
'Thank you so much,' Alyss said.
Evanlyn said nothing. She had apologised so many times that the words now seemed meaningless. Besides, Alyss should know by now that she wasn't doing it on purpose. Grimly, she concentrated on her paddling, digging the blade deep into the water, and finishing the stroke before she raised it again. This time, a good forty minutes passed before Alyss caught another bladeful of water in the face.
'Thank you so much,' she said mechanically.
Evanlyn wished her companion would come up with something new to say, or revert to her bad-tempered muttering.
In the midafternoon, the wind rose, blowing sharply across their course from the south-west. Alyss had to consult the Northseeker more frequently to keep them on course. The wind also raised a spiteful little cross-swell and larger waves than they had previously encountered began to slap against the left-hand side and bow of the kayak. Spray sloshed over the gunwales and into the boat.
At first, it was no more than an inconvenience and a discomfort as the icy cold water swirled around their feet. But as more and more water slopped in, the little boat became heavier.
'I'll keep paddling. You bale her out for a while,' Alyss ordered. They both leaned to the side as Evanlyn stowed her paddle down the inside of the little boat, then took the baling bucket that Alyss passed forward to her.
'Mind the skin of the boat,' Alyss warned her, as she scooped water out of the bottom of the kayak and tossed it overboard. Unthinkingly, she threw the first bucketful over the left, or windward, side. A good proportion of it was caught by the wind and flung back over the two of them.
'Thank you for that,' Alyss said.
'Sorry,' Evanlyn said. Next time, she threw the water to the right.
It was a wet and cold and exhausting afternoon. Evanlyn's arm muscles, shoulders and elbows were aching from the alternate actions of paddling and baling. Alyss stayed doggedly to her task of paddling throughout and, in spite of the acid comments when Evanlyn accidentally soaked her, Evanlyn felt a growing admiration for the tall girl's strength and endurance. Alyss never flagged, keeping the narrow craft driving forward through the waves.
'At least,' she said at one point, her words coming between grunts of exertion, 'this wind is giving me something to steer by. So long as I keep it on our left front quarter, we're heading more or less for the island.'
'Unless it shifts,' Evanlyn said, sending another bucketful overboard.
There was a long silence. Finally, Alyss spoke again. 'Hadn't thought of that. Better check.'
The kayak gradually slowed and sagged off downwind as Alyss stopped paddling and produced her Northseeker. It took a few minutes for the needle to settle, then she grunted in satisfaction.
'No. It's held steady. Let's go.'
Evanlyn had used the brief stop to clear most of the water out of the boat. She took up her paddle again and joined Alyss in driving the boat forward, quickly regaining the distance they had lost as they drifted. Her shoulders were on fire. No more groaning, she told herself grimly, and she bit the side of her mouth to prevent herself from making a sound. Head down, she reached forward with the paddle, placed it in the water and dragged the boat forward. Then she lifted it out, feathering the blade as she did so, and reached forward on the other side. With each stroke, her shoulder muscles and the muscles on the underside of her upper arms sent shafts of pain stabbing through her. But she was determined not to stop before Alyss did. No more groaning. Just keep going. The unspoken words formed a rhythm in her mind and she worked to it, hearing the two phrases like a strange mantra.
At least I'm not cold, she thought. Although her feet and hands were frozen, she could feel perspiration on her body. She paddled on, determined not to stop before Alyss did. The light was fading now as the winter sun sank low to the horizon. Her viewpoint was confined to the sharp prow of the kayak ahead of her and the pewter-coloured water around her.
No more groaning. Just keep going. Over and over again. Stretch, thrust, pull, lift. Stretch, thrust, pull, lift. She hated the lake. Hated the icy water. Hated the paddle. Hated the kayak. Hated everything about this journey. And above all, she hated Alyss.
'We've made it,' Alyss said. 'We're there.'
Evanlyn could have kissed her. She looked up and there was the island, fifty metres away. It was larger than the one they had camped on the previous night and there were trees here, where there had been nothing but low shrubs on the other island.
They dragged the boat up onto a shingle beach, then fell exhausted to the ground, both groaning in agony as they lay there. Alyss gave them a few minutes of rest before she roused Evanlyn, shaking her shoulder.
'Come on,' she said. 'We have to set up camp before we stiffen up.'
As Evanlyn rose wearily to her feet, she decided that she had been too quick to forgive Alyss. She hated her again. But she also knew the tall girl was right. Staggering with weariness, they built a fire and pitched their tent close to it. Then they changed out of their sweat-dampened inner clothing and fell on their bedrolls, pulling their blankets around them, too tired to eat.
The long, mournful howl penetrated through the fog of exhaustion that had wrapped around Evanlyn, bringing her awake.
Had it been close by, or far away? She had no way of telling. She'd been asleep when the cry came. Maybe, she thought, she had dreamed it.
Then it came again and she knew it was real. And it was close. It sounded as if it were only a few metres away from the back of the tent.
'Alyss?' she said uncertainly. Nobody could have slept through that noise, she thought.
'What is it?'
'That's what I want to know. It sounded like a wolf. Are there wolves on these islands?'
'Well, it certainly didn't sound like a kitty cat, did it?' Alyss threw off her blankets and crouched in the low headroom of the tent, fumbling with the gear stowed beside her bed. Outside, the fire they had built up before going to sleep was almost dead. A few yellow flames flickered and cast weird shadows on the tent walls.
Evanlyn heard the quick hiss of a blade being drawn and saw Alyss with her sabre in her hand. 'Where are you going?'
'Out to see what all the noise is,' Alyss told her. Hastily, Evanlyn tossed off her blankets and scrabbled around in the dim light for her own sword. She pulled on her boots, leaving them unlaced, and followed Alyss as she crept on hands and knees out of the tent.
'Oh dear,' Alyss said as she emerged.
Evanlyn joined her a few seconds later and she pointed to the half circle of grey shapes ranged around the camp site, at the edge of the pool of light thrown by the fire.
'Wolves,' Evanlyn said. 'Are they likely to attack?'
Alyss shrugged. 'I don't know. But my guess is they didn't just come here to pass the time of day. At least the fire seems to be keeping them back.'
There was only a handful of firewood left – a few branches that they had left to rekindle the fire in the morning. Evanlyn threw two of them onto the small pile of coals and flame. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the intense heat of the coals asserted itself and the two new branches caught and flared up.