Free Snow by Wheeler Scott Page B

When he didn't he took a deep breath, heart hammering in his chest. "What if there was?" he said. "What if there is?"

    Alec gestured up at the sky. "Then everything they say, all the talk about the snow, it would be true." He looked at David. "And it would mean that you--you're--"

    "Yes," David said, and bowed his head. It started to snow.

    Alec was silent for a moment. "We can leave at first light," he finally said. "There's a city over the mountains, the capital of another land. I--I know it, and you'd be safe there."

    "But you know," David said wonderingly. "You know what I can do. Why aren't you--?"

    "Asleep yet? Because you keep talking." Alec lay down, wrapping the blanket around him. "Try not to make it snow so much that I've got to dig us out again in the morning, okay? Because I'm more than willing to teach you how to use the shovel."

    "But--"

    "I know what it's like to be trapped by who--and what--everyone thinks you are," Alec said. "I know it all too well."

    David looked at what he could see of Alec--the top of his head, shining darkly in the dying firelight, the curve of his shoulders under the blanket, his boots with the red fabric stuffed back in them. He lay back down and looked up the sky. He could see stars. It had stopped snowing.

    "Thank you," he whispered softly and smiled up at the stars. He didn't want to float up toward them now, but he was still happy to see them.

    "Sleeping," Alec muttered, but his voice was soft, warm.

Chapter Six
    It was cold in the mountains, so cold even David felt it, the air thin and stinging in his lungs, stealing his breath before it could form. The air became fuller as they crossed down, sweeter and warmer as the land around them shaded from gray to vibrant green again. As they reached the bottom they passed a long curving path carved into the rock, a path that disappeared back inside the mountains. David could see a group of figures standing at the end of it. One of them looked over and moved toward them, raising a hand stained dark and shining in greeting. "Knew you'd come back," he called. "Don't know that the foreman will be so welcoming, though. Everyone remembers what you said to him."

    "I should hope so," Alec said lightly, but his hands were tight on the reins, the cart merely slowing, not stopping.

    David looked over at the man who was talking to Alec. "Hello," he said politely.

    The man's eyes widened and he leered at Alec. "Haven't done so bad for yourself after all then, have you?"

    "Don't suppose that's any of your concern," Alec said tightly.

    "Oh ho," the man said. "So then I guess there's no need to tell you they've moved the digging?"

    Alec stopped the cart. "Moved it?"

    The man nodded. He coughed, fingers moving away from his mouth to drop a pile of shining dark dust on the ground. "We're down on the fourteenth level now. The eleventh collapsed--you remember that vein we found--well, that was all that was holding it up--and the two they dug after that didn't yield anything."

    "And now?"

    The man shrugged. "Well enough. Some of us," he shot a pointed glance at Alec, "are content with things as they are. Don't go dreaming stupid dreams, dreams that lead to trouble and--"

    "I'd say I'd hope to see you soon," Alec said, his voice a snarl, "but you know I hate to lie." He flicked the reins, the horse moving forward.

    "Sure," the man said, and grinned a mean grin. "You'll be back inside with the rest of us soon enough. I know it. You know it. What else is there for you?"

    Alec flicked the reins again, his mouth tight. When David asked him, quietly, "Do you know that man?" Alec looked right at him, right through him, and didn't say a word.

    ***
    The city was enormous, stretching out in all directions and capped with a hill at one end from which a tall white building bloomed.

    "A castle," David breathed.

    "King's palace," Alec said, "King--" his voice trailed off. He stopped the cart. When he spoke again his voice was strained, almost