“Dammit,” Loch said, almost throwing the notebook across the small room.

  He sighed, taking a deep breath. He’d just read Kelly’s last message through their shared notebook. She had run into trouble with the plans of Freyja, forcing her to scramble to come up with a way for her people to all survive the winter. It had sounded like Freyja was trying to get some of the people killed, making the survivors thankful for her saving them come the spring, or later in the winter whenever she got the power to open the portal.

  He really wanted to go to Kelly and bring all her people to Northwood but that wouldn’t help any of them. Clan Brady barely had enough supplies to get themselves through the first winter under the Connected System. They had expected something like this but not to the extent.

  Kelly and her people were going to have a hard winter. He felt horrible. There had to be something he could do.

  Leaning back against the wall, Loch worked to calm down. Getting upset wasn’t going to help anyone, especially Kelly. He hated this, not being able to help her.

  The door opened, Piper walking in, looking worried.

  “Dad, I heard you yell.” she said, coming over to sit next to him on his bed.

  “Sorry honey, just got some bad news.”

  Piper looked at the notebook sitting next to him, recognizing it.

  “Is mom okay?”

  “Yeah honey, just not in the situation we had been hoping for.”

  “She’ll be okay?”

  “Of course. Your mom is tougher than me.”

  Piper leaned against him, Loch putting his arm around her shoulder.

  “What are you doing up here anyways?” he asked. “Isn’t there a concert downstairs?”

  “Yeah, but all my friends were busy tonight,” she said. “And I hadn’t seen you in a while so I came up to see if you wanted to play a game or something.”

  “I’d like that,” Loch said, sitting up.

  He looked around the room. They had some board games and cards in the room, duplicates of the board games downstairs. When the order had been given to the scavengers to collect all the board games they could get, they had ended up with dozens of copies of the same games. At least the same popular ones. There were probably a hundred games kept in one of the storerooms and Loch had taken a couple upstairs to play privately with the girls.

  “What do you want to play?” he asked, moving a stack of milk crates closer to the bed.

  Pulling the piece of plywood that he kept up against the wall, he put it on top of the milk crates, moving everything around so the plywood was flat and not shaky. The plywood wasn’t that big, only a two foot by two foot section, but it served its purpose as a table for the few times the three Bradys were able to find the time to eat privately. It also worked great for board and card games.

  “Want to learn a new game?” Piper asked.

  “Sure, what game?”

  Loch grabbed the deck of cards, tossing them to Piper. She caught the deck, pulling the cards out and started shuffling.

  “It’s called Trash,” she said. “Jake taught me the other day.”

  “Jake huh?” Loch asked, smiling at his youngest daughter.

  “Dad,” she sighed.

  Loch chuckled.

  Piper told him how to play. It seemed like a simple but fun game that could go quick or take a very long time. They played a couple of hands. Piper won most of them.

  “Feeling better?” Piper asked him after an hour or so.

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  She was silent for a minute, dealing out the cards for another round.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Is mom really going to be okay?” she asked, not looking up.

  Loch thought about it, wondering how to answer. Honesty? A little lie? A big lie? He sighed, deciding Piper deserved the truth.

  “For now,” he replied. She looked up sharply. He smiled, trying to put her at ease. “The winter is going to be harsh for her and that caravan of people she’s got. The priestess of Freyja tried to screw her over,” he said, smiling at her trying to get her to feel better. “Your mom is working hard to take care of it all,” he added. “Don’t worry about her.”

  “I won’t,” Piper said, but Loch didn’t believe her.

  They started their next round of the Trash card game.

  ***

  Loch walked down the concrete stairs, nodding to the two guards standing at attention. The night was cold, the wind blowing fiercely across the open front yard. He pulled the cloak tighter around his jacket, watching his breath fogging in the night air. Torches were set in posts pushed into the ground, lighting up the various paths around the yard. Other torches were in scones that had been attached to the bricks of the school and other buildings.

  They created weird pools of bright light that faded as it spread out from the torches, making odd shadows around the yard of the school. He could see some people moving around as he walked out into the yard. There were guards along the walls with their own torches. He could see the bunkhouses and barracks in the side yard, a couple of them having candles visible through the windows and torches in sconces on the outside of the buildings.

  He watched one of the candles get blown out, making the room dark.

  Loch walked down toward the wall. He headed for the ladder up to the walkway along the wall. The ladder bent a bit, shaking as he climbed up. Loch hated ladders. He had no problem with heights, able to stand at the edge of a sloping roof without a care. But ladders? He hated the way they shook under him, having to put his safety into how the ladder was set at the top and the uneven ground at the bottom. He’d had one slip on him once as a teen. It hadn’t fallen to the ground, luckily, but had left him pretty scared.

  He knew he had nothing to worry about. With his Adapted body, falling from the height of the wall would barely hurt him. But he still hated ladders.

  Reaching the top, he looked out over the cleared area beyond the wall. It was empty and silent. The guards said they could sometimes see Mutated Coyotes, Chipmunks and other creatures appearing at the edges but Loch couldn’t see anything. He heard approaching footsteps, turning to see one of the guards.

  “Lord Lochlan,” the guard said, giving a half-hearted salute.

  “Just Loch,” he said with a sigh. “How are things tonight Derek?”

  The guard startled, surprised that Loch had remembered his name. From what Loch had been told, Derek Crowley had done very well in the fight with the Gaunts and then the Giants. He had been asked if he wanted to join an Adventuring team, but he had declined, liking his role as a Guardsman.

  “Pretty quiet,” the guard replied. “Thought we saw some Coyotes out in the woods an hour or so ago, but they never stepped out of the trees.”

  “Full pack?”

  Derek shrugged.

  “I only saw three but Eric said he saw six. It’s hard to tell at night as they move in and out of the trees. As long as they don’t step out or come near the fields, we leave ‘em alone.”

  A burst of wind blew across the yard, past the two on the wall. It was cold, leaving Loch a bit chilled. The temperature seemed to have lowered in the passing of the wind.

  Saying goodbye to Derek, Loch continued down the wall. He passed a couple more guards, stopping to make smalltalk for a bit before continuing. It took almost an hour or so for Loch to go down the wall and around the fields, coming to the pastures. There were more guards near the pastures, watching the woods to the side. They had large fires going in a couple of pits.

  A couple cows came to the fence as Loch walked over. They mooed softly as he petted the large noses. The cold didn’t seem to bother the animals. Their fur was thicker than he was used to seeing. During the winter, horses' fur had grown thicker, it seemed the cows were doing the same. Loch moved on to the horses, Larry and Jarl coming to the fence. He petted them both, reaching into his pocket and bringing out some carrots he had snuck from the kitchen.

  “Sorry no mints,” he told Larry.

  The horse chuffed.

  The girls had always grabbed mints from the bowls at restaurants to give to Larry when they walked home from school. The horse had loved them.

  “Someday we’ll have some to give you,” Loch told the horse.

  He ran his hand down the horse’s nose, feeling something wet hitting his hand. He lifted it, bringing it close to his face, thinking it was rain but stopped as more fell. Thick and wet, the flakes landed on his hand and his face as he looked up into the sky.

  It was starting to snow.