by Ashley Capes
“When did you last take it?” Tsolde asked.
“All was well two years past,” he said.
“And if it isn’t, this time?”
“We try the long way – the Silver Pass, and hope we are swift enough. And that we don’t all freeze to death in an early winter storm.”
“And once we emerge on the Marlosa side of the range? Where is the Altar?”
“I only know that it lies beyond the border. I have a feeling I’ll be able to sense it.”
“That’s all?” Tsolde asked. Her expression was not one of confidence.
He grinned. “You can head back down the mountain and try your luck with Jenisan and Floriak if you like.”
She glowered at him. “No, thank you.”
“Then we’ll worry about the Iron Pass once we reach it. For now, we should rest until the storm grows bored; there are still several days to the pass – including some pretty long climbs. I want us well-rested.”
Chapter 3.
The wind finally died off near dawn. Never woke to the silence – something which had become rather unnatural. No movement or light beyond, only the soft glow of the blue-stone.
“Couldn’t find my flask,” Luis said softly.
He nodded. Tsolde still slept nearby, her face at peace. Good. If she was lucky, they’d stay ahead of Jenisan and Floriak and she could remain that way. Until reaching Marlosa. Then who knew what was in store.
“I might as well take what’s left of your watch,” Never said.
Luis grinned. “Feeling well-rested?”
“Actually yes.” He shrugged. “Which hasn’t been the case lately, not with my leg.” He stood, stretching it out. No pain. Not even a niggle.
“You’ve healed awfully fast.” There was a trace of awe to his voice.
“Agreed.” He moved toward the entrance. “I’m going to stretch it some more while I think.”
A lavender streak crossed the sky at the horizon and misty cloud buried the peaks to cast a diffuse light across the stone. The road was quiet, trees only stirring to let drops of dew fall. He paced before the cave mouth.
Tiny cuts had always healed quickly but this was something new. An injury like the one he’d sustained in the forests should have taken weeks to heal, not days. And yet, here he was, strolling about the mountains now without even a twinge.
He’d not solved anything when it was time to wake the others, but the problem continued to nip at his heels as they climbed the trail.
By mid-morning the wind had risen again, though it was gentle, no longer a force dragging his feet toward the sheer drop. Tsolde had braided her hair to keep it from her eyes, the breeze still strong enough to be a bother. It did little, however, to cloak a persistent sound of stone clinking against stone, somewhere above.
Craning his neck, he spotted an eagle’s nest. Perhaps the bird was cracking one of the stubborn rock-feet, trying to break the large insect’s shell.
“Bird of prey?” Luis asked.
“Probably.”
When the path ahead came to a fork, one side shrouded in light and the other in shadow, Never paused to glance to the sun. It was probably high enough for noon. “Let’s stop to eat,” he said.
Tsolde slumped to the ground and Luis slung his own pack down, kneeling before it.
The earth shook.
Never spun, bracing his legs. Yet the rumbling did not last and a column of dust soon rose from the path in the slopes high above. An avalanche? Or a smaller rockslide?
Neither bode well if debris covered the road.
“We’re going to have to dig our way through that, aren’t we?” Tsolde asked.
“I hope not; I’d hate for you to break a nail,” Never said with a grin.
She rolled her eyes and even Luis’ expression had turned darker, but he said; “It might not have blocked our path. There has to be more than one trail leading to the Pass, right?”
“There might be. I remember only the King’s Road but don’t despair yet.” He removed a parcel of hard-bread and unwrapped it, taking a bite. “Let’s see what we find up there first.”
The sun was setting – simply disappearing beneath the horizon with barely a single blush – when Never reached the slide. He drew in a deep breath and hissed a curse. Rubble covered the road in a great, grey heap, completely blocking their way.
Above, a mighty gouge appeared in the wall, clean, pale rock revealed – as if a giant had cleaved part of the very mountain and below, left shattered stone piled across the road. Never approached, placing a foot on the heap. Rubble shifted and a stone trickled down the heap to plummet into the abyss beside the road.
No way to climb around and no way was he going to try climb over and risk having the whole thing collapse and slide into the chasm.
“What now?” Tsolde asked.
“We turn back and try one of the smaller trails – I marked two as we climbed,” he said.
Luis nodded, shifting his pack on his shoulders and turning from the rubble. Tsolde joined him but Never paused at a faint sound. “I hear something,” he said. The others paused.
A cry for help?
He moved to the rubble and leant close.
“Please,” a voice spoke from within – the word soft but unmistakably Vadiya.
“I hear you,” he answered in kind.
“You have to... save me.”
Never tested a few pieces of stone, shifting one he felt was safe. The slide held. He moved another and paused, a chill falling over him. Steel glinted on the dying light within the slide, a large piece had created some manner of shelf, protecting a man. The Steelhawk was crammed within the slide, his waist buried in darkness and stone, his arm pinned beneath another slab.
A huge dent rested in his helm and the man’s head was turned away from the light – Never doubted the fellow could move. He was probably paralysed and certainly dying. Blood pooled beneath his torso, staining the armour.
“I’m here. What happened?”
“Get me out.”
“I will,” Never said.
“We never had a chance... there was a crack and then... I don’t even know what happened next... Screams.” The fellow twitched, a slight scraping of armour on stone.
“You turned back?”
“Yes... we missed them, somehow... commander... ordered...” The man groaned. “Did you get the bastard?”
“Who?”
“The one who caused... the slide.” The Steelhawk’s voice was growing softer. “I saw him... he was up there... he made it happen.”
“Up where?” Never asked, urging the man to hold on.
But the Steelhawk did not answer. Never straightened with a sigh. “Poor bastard.”
“What was it?” Luis asked.
“A Steelhawk,” Never said. “Probably all of them, they’d turned back. They realised they’d missed us,” he said.
Tsolde’s eyes were a little wide. “A man survived that?”
“Caught on the edge of the slide perhaps,” Never said with a shrug. “He did say something else. He claimed he saw a man cause the avalanche.”
“How?”
“He didn’t get a chance to tell me.” Never looked up to the surrounding peaks and outcroppings. Empty, all of them. “Maybe he was confused, maybe not, but it can’t hurt to keep our eyes open.”
Chapter 4.
Never led them down the King’s Road to a blasted tree stump, crumbled to the ground like a broken man, one jagged arm cradling a new shoot of hardy green. The sun had just set when they started up, climbing the narrow trail in the near-dark until he called a halt in a small stand of pine trees.
Dead needles carpeted the stony earth, soft underfoot. “Tsolde, can you find us kindling?”
She nodded and moved around the trees.
Luis stepped closer and lowered his voice, keeping an eye on Tsolde. “So how much stock do we put in the Steelhawk’s words?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m not going to risk ignoring him.”
“I can take the last watch, if you’d like?”
“I’d like a bed with deep pillows, Luis.”
“Maybe once we get home,” he said. A trace of bitterness entered his voice. “If there’s any of it left.”
Never glanced at his friend. “I think there will be. I’ve met the Empress; Crisina will fight tooth and nail.”
He blinked. “You’ve met Empress Crisina?”
“Some years back now. She personally had me thrown from the palace,” he said with a grin.
“Why?”
“Mostly because I was snooping around; looking for clues to my past, that sort of thing. I must say, she seemed more at home in her garden than I imagine on a battlefield but she’s determined.”
Luis sighed. “Is that enough, Never? You know as well as any what the Vadiya are like.”
“I do.”
“I wonder if Peat is still fighting them.”
“He’d smell trouble and avoid it, wouldn’t he?”
“Probably.” Luis smiled, a faint whiteness of his teeth showing in the dying light.
But it quickly faded. He strode to a small boulder and climbed up, shading his eyes. “Never.”
Never joined him and followed the man’s gaze. Far below, where the King’s Road curved around the mountain, lurked the red glow of campfires. Several campfires. “Travellers or something worse, I wonder,” he said.
“Like Jenisan?”
“Exactly.” If it was... well, a curse upon the prince. Or king. And if the ingrate had forced Elina to be part of the chase then two curses upon his head.
“I’d judge them to be two days behind at least.”
“For now.” Never said. “And our path will likely be slower than theirs, so we’ll have trouble staying ahead.”
“What are you looking at?” Tsolde appeared beside him.
He pointed. “Someone follows. My gold is on Jenisan.”
“Then we should keep moving,” she said.
“Not in the dark, we could slip and fall, break something. Or worse.”
“What about your blue-stone?”
“We need rest. We sleep while they sleep and post a watch as before.”
A cold camp and a colder watch; Never paced the perimeter of the trees. He watched the campfires below, but did not let them blind him to other concerns. The night was quiet, the wind had fallen away to reveal only the small sounds of night creatures. An owl overhead – or at least, talons on branches – and creeping things but nothing sinister.
When he woke Luis and sought his rest, sleep was slow to come. He turned often and it wasn’t simply the deep chill to the air.
Something was amiss.
Not like the sea-creatures, not the new unease he’d experienced around Snow – something different yet vaguely familiar. On a whim, he lifted the crystal marble free and held it up to the moon, where a beam slipped through the canopy.
The figure stood with arms spread to each side but the tilt of the head gave no indication of the expression.
“And what are you trying to tell me?” he whispered.
The figure did not move.
He returned the ball to an inner pocket and lay back and closed his eyes. Too bad he couldn’t force himself to fall asleep.
And yet sleep he must have, for his head was heavy and eyes bleary when Luis woke him to darkness. “Never, they’re moving.”
“Who?” Never groaned. By the smeary-stars overhead, only a few hours had passed. He rubbed at his eyes.
“Jenisan. Or whoever it is down there – the lights are climbing the road.”
Never fumbled for a flask, took a drink and started stuffing his bedroll into his pack. “Then so are we. Wake Tsolde, can you?”
Luis did as instructed and Never moved back to the edge of the road. The red glow moved slowly up one of the ridges. Soon they’d be lost as the King’s Road curved with the mountain but something had to be driving them on to take the road at night. They were well-provisioned. By the line of lights, he estimated a score of men.
Disagreeable odds.
“Will they find our trail?” Tsolde asked when she moved to stand beside him.
“Possibly.” He glanced back up at the night sky. “They’ll pass this point during daylight hours and may see some evidence. Whenever they hit the avalanche, I expect they’ll turn back for a thorough search in any event.”
“We’ll be long gone by then,” Luis said.
“Let’s hope so,” Never replied. “Who knows what waits ahead; I’ve not had much occasion to leave the King’s Road often on this side of the ranges.”
Tsolde put her hands on her hips as she turned to face the shadowy trail beside the stand of trees. “Whatever it is we’ll deal with it.”
“Hold on to that stubbornness,” Never said. “I fear we’ll need it soon enough.”
Leading with his blue-stone, which he periodically rubbed between his hands, Never took them up the winding trail. In places, the looming ghosts of calf-high fern lined the path. Rough-cut steps climbed in a long zig-zag. At each landing he paused a moment to catch his breath as the air gradually thinned.
When dawn lightened the sky, they stopped where a mountain stream flowed from the very rock-face. Deep and quite wide, it was also short, the current slow. It soon disappeared beneath stone again. But he bent to drink and refill his flask. The water chilled his teeth and banished the slight haze he’d been walking under. How quickly sleepiness had crept up on him.
“We should rest here,” Luis said. “While there’s no wind or rain.”
Never paused. A moment to ease the ache in his limbs would be welcome... and yet, best not to tempt fate. “Let’s push a little further.”
He appraised Never a moment. “You look more tired than I feel.”
“Now, now, Luis. Mother-Hen doesn’t suit you.”
Luis laughed. “Well, I’m keeping an eye on you just the same.”
He climbed higher. The path was old, disused it seemed, yet it did have the look of something that had once been important. He’d never travelled it before, but there was a chance it would run parallel with the King’s Road long enough to see them safely beyond the slide.
And it seemed likely all the way until noon, when the path ended.
A huge door of stone and steel blocked the wall. The trail had narrowed into a passage, walls surging up around them, but in the shadows with the sickly green and white lichen lay only the great door. Pebbles and shards of stone lay before it. A broken haft of some tool rested beneath it too. Never frowned at the door as he ran fingers over the rough marks on the surface. “Shall I knock?” Nothing about it gave the impression that it had been opened recently and the axe or whatever tool someone tried in the past had certainly failed.
Tsolde exhaled. “Try something.”
He placed a hand against the cold surface. Unyielding. He knelt by one of the large hinges – buried in lichen. There were no symbols carved across the face of the door, no handle either.
He gave it a thump.
A deep boom rang out but the door did not open.
“Something better,” Tsolde said.
“Sound advice, Lady Tsolde,” he replied.
Luis was prodding different parts of the wall and the door itself with the butt of his spear, but there were no hidden switches or levers. Despite the absence of the five-pointed leaf, Never pricked his finger with a dagger point and pressed against the door.
Nothing.
He drew the symbol – and nothing again.
“Why did you do that?” Tsolde asked.
“Just in ca
se. It worked often enough on the Isle.”
She glanced over their back-trail. “If this is useless, shouldn’t we hurry and take that other path you mentioned?”
“If we can reach it.”
He led them back down, unease growing within his gut. The closer they came to the King’s Road, the greater chance they had of running into pursuit. It all depended on whether Jenisan had reached the avalanche and turned back. Who knew when or even whether they’d stopped to rest?
The sun began to set as they neared the rush of the stream, where he paused to drink the cold water – the chill once again waking him a little.
“I’m going to scout ahead again,” Luis said, dumping his pack.
Never waved a hand as he sat against a stone and unhooked his own pack. Tsolde continued to pace, one hand on the dagger her father had left her.
“You’ll wear it out,” he said.
“What?”
“The mountain,” he replied. “Why don’t you stop the pacing and take a moment.”
At first she seemed to be about to retort, but she only shook her head. “I cannot go back, Never. I won’t. We have to stay ahead of them somehow.”
“We’ll find a way.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then pretend we captured you. You’ve never met Jenisan, have you?”
She shook her head.
“Then the new King won’t know any different. Simply tell him we took you from some village and he’ll have you returned.”
“Good plan, Never but there’s a flaw. You’d be captured. Or worse.”
He grinned up at her. “True, and I’d hate that – we’ll have to avoid it.”
Footsteps approached – someone moving swiftly. Never stood and Tsolde narrowed her eyes in the growing darkness but it was only Luis. His eyes were wide and his chest heaved.
Trouble – hardly surprising, really.
“We have royal company I take it?” Never asked.
Luis shook his head, sucking in a breath of air. “Worse. It’s Elina, Never. She’s the one leading the hunting party.”