Read Online Hoarfrost (Whyborne & Griffin Book 6) by Jordan L. Hawk - Free Book Online Page B

washed out to sea. Hauling myself onto the dock, I ran in the
direction of the hotel without looking back.
    By the
time I reached the door, I was half frozen and completely out of breath. The bar
had closed for the night, the saloon empty save for Griffin, who still sat at
one of the tables. As I entered, he shot to his feet. “I was about to come
looking for you,” he said. “Where on earth have you been?”
    My teeth
chattered. “I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk.” God, it sounded stupid
even to me.
    Griffin’s
expression suggested he agreed with my assessment. “You went for a walk?
Whyborne, this isn’t Widdershins. St. Michael is no Skagway, as Jack said, but
it’s not the sort of place to go wandering about alone!”
    “Well…yes.
I couldn’t sleep, and you were busy talking to Jack, and it seemed the thing to
do.” I didn’t want to admit to the extent of my foolishness, but had no real choice.
“Except I was set upon.”
    “Set
upon?” He started to reach for me, then seemed to recall we weren’t in private
surroundings. “Are you hurt?”
    “Only my
pride.” I sighed. “Less than twenty-four hours in Alaska, and already someone
has tried to kill me.”

Chapter 12
     
    Griffin
    I
managed to coax Ival into bed, securing us spaces beside each other by
whispering to one man that my friend had gotten terribly drunk and might vomit
at any moment. It convinced him to stagger to another berth, and allowed poor
Ival to sleep on the outside edge of the bunk, with me as a barrier between him
and the next man.
    Still,
sleep came slowly for us both. Who had attacked him? And why? The words he’d
related sounded like the ravings of a drunkard or a lunatic.
    “Could
it have anything to do with the umbra?” I whispered in Whyborne’s ear, as we
lay together in the crowded bed. “This ‘worm’ he mentioned.”
    “I’ve no
idea,” he whispered back. His breath stirred the small hairs of my ear, and
sent blood rushing to my cock. I wasn’t at all looking forward to the upcoming
days of enforced celibacy. “And ‘break open the mountains?’ None of it makes
sense. The Eltdown Shards were found nowhere near a mountain, or what passes
for a mountain in England, anyway.”
    “Still,
a random lunatic seems unlikely.”
    “Agreed.”
Whyborne sighed.
    Well,
with any luck the fellow had been swept out to ocean and frozen amidst the ice
floes. A callus way of thinking, perhaps, but as he’d tried to kill Ival, I
couldn’t find any pity in my heart for him.
    The next
morning, we gathered around the breakfast table. Iskander declared his desire
to take a photograph of the entire expedition. Crowding in so he could capture
everyone gave me an excuse to fling a comradely arm around Ival’s shoulders. I’d
have to remember to ask Iskander if he would consent to taking a private
portrait when we returned to Widdershins.
    There
was no sign of the sun when we left our hotel. The stars blazed above,
shockingly bright in the cold, clear air. Our guides already waited with the
sleds, busy strapping the howling, barking dogs into their harness. One man
coaxed leather moccasins onto the dogs’ feet. Presumably the dogs were used to
such footgear, as they wore them with good humor.
    “Ordinarily
most of our guides would be Tagish,” Jack said. “Or Russian creoles like Vanya.
But the measles outbreak this summer…it was an awful thing to see. Whole towns
left abandoned, and at least half the aboriginal population of St. Michael
carried off. The Russian creoles died in droves as well. At least I could bring
men from Hoarfrost with me, and I’m an old hand at mushing myself. Otherwise we
might have been in trouble.”
    “I
wouldn’t mind learning how to drive a sled myself,” I said, stopping to pet one
of the enthusiastic dogs. Whyborne stayed well back, regarding them with great
uncertainty.
    “I’d
love to teach you.” Jack looked around. “Speaking of Vanya, where is he? We
need to get