{"product_id":"9781462002511","title":"The Cold Days: Part One","description":"\u003cp\u003eI will die up here in the high mountains, she thought. And be like Solanda, Mother’s old friend, who vanished as the deer vanish.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(A demon tricked me by looking like a boy).\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“You climb too high,” the hunter said, squatting down on his haunches and leaning against a boulder. “Nothing eat up here.”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMira finally got her voice: “Why are you here?”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“I follow you.” He smiled.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMira stared down the great mountain, knowing she was trapped, that she had climbed too high where monsters are. He had stalked her like a deer. And she had been as foolish as a deer.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“To kill me?”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe gave her a surprised, then puzzled look. “Why I want to kill you?”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“To give the gods their sacrifice.”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe looked at her for a long time, and Mira felt strange. He was handsome, his hair and beard night-black, his blue eyes arrogant, confident. A smile that was very close to a smirk. He was a savage-looking boy, but she saw that he was a boy, not two seasons older than her.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHis deerskin leggings were well-used and torn ragged, made by skillful hands, but not any of the river tribes. Slung over his back was a very ornate spear thrower. A brace of feathered arrows in a wolfskin pouch flared out of his back. His right fist gripped a long spear crowned with a tooth of flint. Rawhide thongs belted his leggings; on his waistbelt a stone hatchet and long stone knife were strapped. His arms and legs rippled with savage muscles.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMira clutched her little pointed stick. She edged down the mountain slope, to see what he would do. “Why did you follow me?”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe was a shadow now, against the boulder, but she could see his white teeth grinning.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“You are very pretty,” he called out of the evening. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe didn’t follow her. He wasn’t going to hurt her. She scuttered down the slope, grinning now, heart pounding and sudden blood in her face.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhat he said to me…!\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“You climb too high, Pretty One!” his voice echoed behind her, making a crazy thrill in her stomach. “Run home before it gets dark.”\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHer face burned red. “Why!” she called, grinning over her shoulder.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Because a knife-tooth has come to this mountain.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"iUniverse, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47129311084784,"sku":"9781462002511","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781462002511_p0.jpg?v=1763675358","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781462002511","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}