‘Oh, thash rich!’ Kylen pointed an accusing finger in their general direction. ‘I’m not allowed to consort with Golmeirans, oh no, but you…’
‘I didn’t know she drank,’ Findar whispered.
‘She doesn’t,’ said Zax. ‘Not usually. I suspect that’s the problem.’
‘How long has she been in this state?’
‘No idea. I’ve, um, been away. When I got back, I found her like this.’
Kylen gestured extravagantly.
‘Thash right. Like everybody else, you couldn’t wait to leave, could you, Zax? But I’m not supposed to… not allowed to care.’
‘Kylen, I think you’ve had enough.’
‘I’ll say when I have had enough,’ she slurred. ‘I’m still your liege lord, aren’t I? Unless someone else challenged me when I wasn’t looking?’
Findar bolted the door and secured the shutters.
‘You’re right. We need to make sure no one sees this.’
Kylen tried to rise, but her legs folded beneath her. She crashed back to the ground and curled her arm around the barrel protectively, glaring at Findar.
‘Don’t try and stop me. Not with your mindfogging.’
‘I wouldn’t waste my time,’ Findar said mildly. He pointed behind Kylen’s shoulder. ‘But she might.’
‘What? Is Zastra—?’ Kylen turned her head and Findar made a grab for the barrel. He rolled it out of Kylen’s reach and sat on it. Kylen swung back round so violently the remaining wine in her cup flew across the room.
‘Hey!’ she protested. ‘That’s mine!’
But Findar only folded his arms. Zax joined him and their combined weight was too much for Kylen to move, even if she hadn’t been drunk.
‘Fine!’ she said, swaying. ‘I’ll fight you for it. I’ll show you how a Sendoran fights.’
Her eyeballs rolled upwards and she crashed senseless to the floor.
‘If that’s how Sendorans fight, no wonder we’re losing,’ Findar remarked.
Chapter Fourteen
Zastra and her companions travelled for three days and still the Smoking Mountains appeared no closer. The heat intensified as they moved inland, radiating from the rocks and causing the air above to shimmer. They walked along the edge of the forest, dipping into its shade whenever they could to fill their waterskins and bottles from the springs that fed it. The terrain reminded Zastra of the Border Mountains, where she had lived in exile in the years after her uncle’s ascension. There was plenty to forage. Nuts, berries and thick layers of a mottled tree fungus that Ithgol bit into and deemed safe to eat. Morvain protested at the blandness of this type of food. He had already eaten most of the dried meats from his pack, ignoring Zastra’s advice to keep them back in case forage became scarce.
‘I am yet to observe your much-vaunted shooting skill, Lady Zastra,’ he said one evening, after grimacing his way through a bowl of nut paste. ‘A juicy woodfowl would improve this no end.’
‘We’d have to go deeper into the forest,’ Zastra said shortly, ‘and that would take us out of our way.’
‘What about those? They look meaty enough.’ He pointed at a pair of large-winged birds of prey gliding high above them.
Zastra’s reply was blunt. ‘Out of range.’
Urbek looked at them both in horror.
‘Xho! You cannot be thinking to be eating birds! It is repulsing. I am having one in my family.’
‘Surely you’ve eaten woodfowl?’ Morvain said with a snort.
‘Surely you have not! I forbid it.’
‘You do not give the orders here, my good man,’ said Morvain. ‘I refuse to starve because you have some ridiculous notion that birds are your friends.’
‘It is only right that we respect Urbek’s wishes,’ Zastra said, moved by the Aliterran’s obvious distress. ‘We will kill no birds on this journey.’
‘Yes, my good man,’ Urbek said, with a final glare at Morvain.
‘I disagree,’ said Lorzan. ‘A soldier is stronger with meat in his belly.’ A fine moment for Lorzan to find his tongue.
‘I am going no further until you are promising.’ Urbek sat down and folded his arms. Zastra took Lorzan and Hylaz to one side.
‘Disregarding Urbek’s wishes will not endear us to the Aliterrans. We should respect their customs.’
Lorzan folded his arms.
‘He should be grateful, not making demands. We journey to help him protect his homeland.’
‘Zastra is right. It is not wise to visit a strange country and deliberately give offence,’ Hylaz argued.
‘But making its people into slaves is fine?’ Lorzan said bitterly.
‘That’s not fair. Zastra is not the one—’
‘Life isn’t fair, Hylaz, or hadn’t you noticed?’ Lorzan turned away and returned to the others.
‘What’s going on between you two?’ Zastra asked as Hylaz stared at Lorzan’s retreating back.
‘Nothing I can’t deal with.’
‘Can I trust him to abide by my rules?’
Hylaz shrugged wordlessly. That’s hardly reassuring, thought Zastra, resolving to keep a close eye on Lorzan.
Zastra assured Urbek that they would not hunt any birds and he brightened up instantly. Lorzan reverted to his usual silence. The next day, Zastra stayed close to the Sendoran. Luckily, they saw no birds within range. In the late afternoon, they reached a high plateau, criss-crossed with crevices, some so deep that it was impossible to make out the bottom. They picked their way across the cracked landscape until they reached a gap too wide to merely step across. Lorzan leapt it with ease. Everyone followed except Gwylla and Morvain, who both hesitated.
‘Come, my good man,’ Urbek remarked sarcastically. ‘Not scared, are you?’
Morvain glowered at him. ‘I am merely being circumspect.’
He took a step back and cleared the gap with room to spare. That left Gwylla alone on the other side.
‘Come now, Gwylla,’ Morvain said. ‘There is nothing to fear. It is but a small gap.’
Gwylla was breathing shallowly, her expression pained. Zastra jumped back across.
‘This has happened before, hasn’t it?’
Gwylla nodded. ‘Heights.’ Her voice was strained and squeaky. Zastra took Gwylla’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
‘Then you know it will pass.’
Gwylla nodded again.
‘Let’s breathe together, slowly.’ Zastra waited patiently until the girl’s breathing steadied and her hand stopped shaking.
‘Give me your bag. Here’s what we’re going to do. The gap is not more than two paces. To prove you can do it, we are going to practise.’ She placed her own bag and Gwylla’s on the ground, so that the distance between them was the same as the width of the crevice.
‘That doesn’t look so bad.’ Gwylla managed a shallow laugh. She took two steps forward and jumped, landing easily clear of the second bag.
‘Good.’ Zastra took Gwylla’s bag and slung it across the gap.
‘Don’t think about it. Just do it.’ Gwylla nodded her head three times, gritted her teeth and ran toward the gap. She put so much force into her leap that her legs buckled as she landed. Hylaz grabbed her before she fell.
‘Well done, lass.’
The plateau rose toward a flat ridge that ended against the azure sky. There were more cracks to be negotiated, but none as wide as the one that had frightened Gwylla. Hylaz stayed close to her, giving assistance whenever it was needed. Without warning a dark shape burst out of one of the cracks, almost hitting Polina in the face. She screamed in shock as the shadow beat furiously into the air. Zastra reached instinctively for the crossbow that was slung across her back as another creature flew out of the crevice and joined its mate. They had disturbed a brace of nesting birds, their mottled feathers mimicking the colours of the plateau. Lorzan too, had drawn his bow. The birds began to screech at them.
‘Do not shoot!’ Urbek pleaded. ‘They are giving warning.’
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Zastra lowered her weapon and rested her hand on Lorzan’s arm to stop him firing.
‘What kind of warning?’ she asked.
‘I cannot be telling, but we should be looking for danger.’
‘That’s all right. Looking for danger is Ithgol’s favourite past-time,’ Zastra said, trying to lighten the mood. The sudden appearance of the birds had spooked everyone. They proceeded cautiously and the reason for the warning of the birds became clear as they reached the lip of the plateau. Gwylla let out a gasp and hid her head in Hylaz’s broad chest. The ground dropped sickeningly away into a deep gorge of layered rock. The other side rose just as steep, several stone’s throws away. The canyon split the land in both directions.
‘No way to jump across that,’ Justyn remarked.
Chapter Fifteen
They stepped back from the edge and debated how to proceed.
‘I think I could climb down,’ said Lorzan, ‘but I can’t speak for the rest of you. Some of these layers look soft and treacherous.’
‘If we had brought Orika, we might have fashioned some rafts of wood and she could have floated us across,’ said Morvain, shaking his head. ‘If only I had been consulted during the planning of this ill-fated expedition.’
‘Is any person having a suggestion that is helping?’ Urbek asked. Zastra examined the gorge, which ran in a meandering line from north to south.
‘Urbek, did your ko-venteela mention anything about this? If he reached the Serene Sea, he must have found a way across.’
Urbek closed his eyes. ‘Let me be remembering. He said something I was not understanding. Ish primus salu kincheyion ish kebanchu laykhina.’
‘What does that mean?’ Despite her best efforts, Zastra had made but poor progress learning Aliterran. She couldn’t seem to catch the subtle differences between the various choking sounds that made up the language.
‘The First Born of the Mother shows the way to the looking glass.’
‘And what does that mean?’
Urbek swept his arm in an expansive arc.
‘The Mother is giving birth to all things. She is being everywhere. But ko-venteela believe she sleeps beneath earth and it rumbles when her stomach is being empty. It is being nonsense, but ko-venteela think she is needing to be fed and so they are casting sacrifices into the mouths of her children.’
‘And this is helpful how, exactly?’ asked Morvain.
‘The First Born could be one of the mountains,’ Zastra mused.
‘Che. Yes.’
Zastra pointed to the tallest of the blunt peaks, whose dark forms rose indistinctly against a lowering curtain of black smoke. ‘The First Born should be the biggest, right?’
‘It is being simple, and ko-venteela are a simple people.’
‘Surely we aren’t choosing our route based on some half-remembered story?’ Morvain protested. ‘We should split up and check in both directions. If there is indeed a way across then at least some of us will find it.’
‘We stay together,’ Zastra said firmly. ‘Let’s make camp. Tomorrow, we head towards that mountain.’
The next day, they proceeded north along the lip of the canyon. Lorzan and Hylaz took turns to walk close to edge, looking for any kind of crossing. At noon they stopped briefly for lunch. Zastra sipped her water sparingly. There were no streams or springs on the plateau and the sky above was cloudless. She had already emptied her first waterskin. There was no telling how long it would take to find a way across the gorge and the rock on the opposite side looked equally parched. Morvain shook his metal flask above his open mouth, seeking every drop. Gwylla too, was squeezing out the last water from her skin.
‘Who has water left?’ Zastra asked. Only Ithgol, Justyn and the two Sendorans held up their hands.
‘I told you we should have brought porters,’ said Morvain.
‘People should carry their own water,’ Lorzan muttered. ‘If you hadn’t the sense to bring a spare skin, you deserve to die of thirst.’
‘Not everyone here has your experience, Lorzan,’ said Hylaz.
‘And less talk of dying,’ Zastra added. ‘It is hardly encouraging. From now on we ration our water. No one drinks except when we stop. We share what we have left.’
They continued. Zastra’s mouth was bone dry by late afternoon. She allowed the group a short break and, to set an example, she didn’t drink herself. Even so, by the time they set off again, her waterskin was empty, as was Justyn’s. If they didn’t find a source of water soon, they would be forced to turn back. As she stepped over a small crack she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A shape that seemed unnaturally straight. She called to the others. The bottom of the crack was shaded, but there was something wedged inside. The crevice was too narrow for anyone to climb down. Lorzan followed it to the edge of the canyon and, without hesitating, disappeared over the edge of the cliff. Gwylla squeaked in horror.
‘Don’t worry. Lorzan is good at this,’ Hylaz reassured her. Lorzan reappeared, bringing with him the frayed end of a black rope. It was attached to something inside the crevice. He jiggled the rope from side to side and pulled up a rusty grapnel.
‘That is how they are getting across,’ exclaimed Urbek. ‘You are having sharpest eyes, Zastra.’
Zastra examined the far side of the gorge.
‘There.’ Part way down the opposite side was a triangular-shaped cave. A matching length of rope hung from its entrance. ‘They must have strung a line across.’
‘Well, that’s the end of that,’ Morvain said with a loud sigh, although he did not look displeased. ‘We will have to turn back. This trip has been a waste of everyone’s time.’
‘Or we can copy the ko-venteela.’ Zastra turned to Hylaz. ‘You brought ropes didn’t you?’
Hylaz pulled two coils of rope from his pack. Zastra took one and threaded it onto the grapnel.
‘It’s too far to throw, surely,’ Justyn observed.
‘I will try.’ Ithgol reached for the grapnel. His biceps bulged as he swung it in a rapid circle, before launching it across the gorge. It fell a long way short.
‘Let me try.’ Lorzan reached for the grapnel. Ithgol gave him a flat stare, but at a nod from Zastra, he stepped away. She doubted Lorzan would do better than Ithgol, but it seemed best to let him find that out for himself. After two failed attempts, the Sendoran threw down the grapnel in frustration. Zastra reached for her crossbow.
‘I have an idea. Ithgol, grab the other end. We don’t want to lose the rope.’ She loaded the grapnel into her bow and fired. It spiralled across the canyon, hitting the wall just below the triangular opening.
‘I thought you were supposed to be a dead shot,’ Morvain scoffed. Zastra didn’t waste breath explaining how difficult it was to predict the flight of such an awkward shape as a grapnel. Ithgol hauled in the line and she tried again. The grapnel flew into the opening and everyone except Morvain cheered. However, when Ithgol tugged on the line, it slipped straight back out. Zastra ground her teeth in frustration. If there was nothing for the grapnel to grab onto, it wasn’t going to work.
‘Now will you see sense?’ Morvain asked. ‘I’ve been right all along. We must turn back. I have a duty of care to my junior mindweavers.’
‘I will climb across and secure the line,’ offered Lorzan.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Hylaz said quickly.
‘There’s no need. I can move quicker alone.’
‘You’ll need a rope on the sheer sections,’ Hylaz insisted. ‘Better safe than sorry.’
Zastra slung their last full waterskin at Hylaz.
‘Take the rest of the water. You’ll need it more than us.’
‘But I’m parched,’ protested Morvain.
‘Then I suggest you be quiet,’ Zastra snapped, finally losing patience. ‘The less you talk, the less chance your mouth will dry out.’
The Sendorans disappeared over the cliff. Zastra did not envy them their task. The sun was beating down and she could feel
the heat of the baking rock through the soles of her boots. She led the others to a patch of shade. All they could do now was wait.
Chapter Sixteen
Kylen woke to the sun streaming in around the edges of her shutters. She sat up and pain jagged up her back. The air in front of her seemed hazy.
‘Steady.’ Her brother placed something in her hand. ‘Drink this, you’ll feel better.’ Kylen waited for her vision to clear. She was in her cabin and as far as she could tell it was empty, except for Zax. Her tongue felt rough and swollen. She took a sip from the cup Zax had given her and nearly gagged.
‘What’s this? It smells like sweaty feet.’
‘Medicine. And stop complaining. You don’t smell much better yourself.’
Kylen looked down at her crumpled clothes. Her shirt was stained and stank of vomit.
‘What…? How?’
‘You’ve been out of it for a few days. The wound Borez gave you opened up and you lost quite a bit of blood. Zalboraz patched it up.’
Kylen sank back onto her mattress, her head throbbing. She remembered now. What had she been thinking? She’d felt so alone with Hylaz gone and had taken a mug of spiced wine to help her sleep. It had dulled the ache in her soul and so she had drunk another. After that, she didn’t remember much. Except…
‘Was Findar here?’
‘You wouldn’t let me take the wine away from you, and I couldn’t ask a Sendoran to help. And yes, I see the irony.’ Zax knelt beside her. He linked his fingers together and stared into his palms. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing. For you as well as for Sendor. If I’d known what sort of man Borez was, I would never have supported him.’
Kylen closed her eyes. Yellow sparks danced behind her eyelids.
‘I only want to understand why you did it.’
Zax bowed his head.
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