by PT Hylton
“Walked the Path? What does that mean?”
Tomas sighed. “It’s a test. Our children take it when they come of age, to gain the rights of citizens.”
“What about an outsider who walked the Path?” Abbey asked. “Would they have the rights of citizens? Would they be able to see the council?”
Tomas laughed again. “That would be impossible. The training takes years.”
Abbey knew this was foolish, that they should leave and head toward Ammaas where they could do some actual good, but she couldn’t help herself. The fact that there was an entire society of stone magic users hiding underground while Magnus starved the people of Gren infuriated her. As crazy as it was, she had to try.
Besides, she had the Etheric on her side. She could do this.
“Let me walk the Path.”
Elliot looked at her sharply. “Abbey, no.”
“Shut up. This isn’t your decision.” She turned back to Tomas. “Will you let me walk the Path?”
There was a long silence before he answered. “To fail is to die, but if you wish to walk the Path, I will not stop you.”
She set her jaw. This test was almost certainly created for people with stone magic, but she wouldn’t turn back. “Excellent. Take me there.”
“One moment.” Tomas opened another hole in the wall and asked his questions.
A few moments later Clemens walked through the opening, a wide smile on his face. “Ha, I told you guys. All I had to do to make it to the end was to keep turning right.”
Hekla rolled her eyes.
Tomas touched Abbey’s shoulder. “I will take you to the Path if you’re prepared to die.”
“I’m not prepared to die,” she said. “I’m prepared to win.”
****
The wagons headed toward Ammaas, and the storms followed.
Olaf, Viktor, and Fannar rode in the lead wagon. Dustin and Syd took up position in the rear wagon. If trouble came at them, it would be from that direction, and they wanted to have their leaders face it head on.
Dustin was doing everything he could to ensure that wouldn’t happen. He stood in the back of the wagon, the end of his staff pressed against the boards, and called the storm that followed them. It was strange to be stormcalling in a moving vehicle. He’d become reliant on the connection to the dirt when there was no seawater.
But Dahlia had stormcalled in the back of a wagon in Holdgate, albeit one filled with seawater. If she could do it, so could he.
The biggest challenge so far was keeping his balance while the wagon bounced along the dirt road.
Syd nudged his leg. “Nice work. Anyone who wants to follow us is going to have to get through a hell of a lot of mud.”
“That’s the plan.” It was probably paranoid of him to still be stormcalling five hours after leaving Nuur, since any pursuers would have been caught in the mud long ago. But he wasn’t taking any chances. “So what’s the plan when we get to the city?”
“Plan?” Syd asked, a smile in her voice. “We do plans now? I thought that was Abbey’s department.”
“Maybe ‘plan’ is too formal. Do you have a vague notion?”
“I don’t have plans, but I have vague notions a-plenty.” She paused a moment, and her voice was more serious when she spoke again. “I think our mistake in Nuur was that we struck from a place of weakness. We hoped the element of surprise would be enough, and it clearly wasn’t. We need to be more strategic. I’d like to send a small team to scope out the situation before we move the whole group into the city.”
“Seems like a good approach.”
“The key is to get to The Foggy Day without being spotted by Magnus and his people. If they see us, they’ll want answers.”
Dustin grimaced. “Yeah, especially since we’re showing up with two wagonloads of Tall Grass Raiders.” He turned back to the storm, but before he could focus his attention the wagon pulled to a stop, sending him stumbling. He only just managed to keep his feet.
Olaf called from the first wagon. “Uh, Captain? We’ve got a problem.”
“Sonofabitch!” Syd exclaimed. “How the hell did I forget about those?”
Dustin turned toward the front of the wagon and let out his own curse at what he saw.
Three massive boulders stood in the road, blocking their path, and the ground fell away on either side, forming a massive ditch.
Syd glared at Sigmund. “You couldn’t have reminded me about this? I thought you were supposed to be our Gren expert.”
The big Barskall shrugged. “You guys just left the city like a week ago. How’s this my fault?”
Dustin remembered how Gideon had used stone magic to create a gap large enough for their wagon to pass through. “They’re really serious about keeping non-Shapers out, aren’t they?”
“They really are,” Syd muttered.
Olaf, Fannar, and a group of Tall Grass Raiders were already out of the wagon, attempting to move one of the boulders. Dustin knew that was a lost cause. The boulders were massive; no way they were budging them.
Syd sighed, then called, “Hey, idiots, save your strength.” She hopped off the wagon. “I was going to send a small group into the city anyway. The rest of you might as well wait here for now. Where are those black sashes? I need six of them.”
She selected Dustin, Olaf, Sigmund, Fannar, and Viktor to accompany her into Ammaas.
Dustin called a hard rain before they left so they could plausibly claim the wagons were stuck in the mud if anyone showed up and started asking questions. Then the six of them put on their sashes, stepped between the boulders, and headed into town.
They reached the city in less than an hour. One moment they were cresting a hill, and the next a spread of stone buildings stretched before them as far as the eye could see.
Dustin let out a whistle. He hadn’t noticed the scope of the place on his initial visit. Ammaas was even larger than Holdgate.
He turned to Sigmund. “You’ve never been here before?”
“Once, long ago. The day they took Ragnar. It was supposed to be a diplomatic meeting to discuss an end to the fighting. We never should have trusted those Stone Shaper bastards.”
“How’d you make it out?” Syd asked.
Sigmund’s face darkened. “When it became clear the meeting was a setup, Ragnar ordered us to run. Then he threw himself at Magnus, knowing the Stone Shapers would focus on protecting their leader, which would allow us a chance to escape. Even so, only Hekla, Elliot and I made it out. We went back, told the others, and decided to go into hiding. Since then, the capital city has sort of been off-limits for us.”
“Damn,” Dustin said.
Sigmund glanced at the strange, misshapen stone buildings all around them. “I didn’t mind the prohibition. This place gives me the creeps.”
Olaf adjusted his sash. “I’m looking forward to finally mixing it up with these Stone Shapers. I mean, their magic tricks look pretty cool, but I’ll bet a bit of Holdgate iron drops them the same as anyone else.”
“If you can get close enough,” Sigmund said. “Any Stone Shaper worth his sash would drive a rock through your skull before you got close enough to swing a sword at him. Why do you think the ekkja use bows so often?”
Olaf chuckled. “Their rocks can’t hit me if they can’t see me coming.”
“Yeah, you’re really known for your stealth,” Dustin said drily. “You can’t walk across a deck without waking every sailor sleeping below.”
They passed a pair of Stone Shapers heading the other direction. The Stone Shapers glanced at their sashes, nodded a quick greeting, and kept walking.
Sigmund increased his pace and moved up next to Fannar. “Tell me, brother, how are things in our homeland?”
Fannar chuckled. “Pretty shitty, actually. The crops won’t grow, the winters are so cold your nuts practically fall off, and every village thinks their neighbors are plotting against them.”
Sigmund’s eyes sparkled. “Ah, so it’s the
same as always. Sea and stone, I miss that place!”
“Let’s see what we can do about getting you back there,” Syd said.
For Viktor’s part, he remained quiet during the walk. Despite all the time Dustin had spent with the Barskall Storm Caller, he still felt he didn’t truly know him. It was clear his brain operated differently than most people’s, but whether that was because of the abuse he’d suffered at King Elias’ and Dahlia’s hands or if he’d always been that way, Dustin did not know.
He’d grown to appreciate Viktor’s unique outlook, especially on storm magic. The Barskall thought about it in a very different way than Dustin. He just wished he’d open up to the group more often.
After a few wrong turns and bit of backtracking, the crew reached the water. As the docks came into sight, Syd stopped short.
“What the hell is all this?”
Three dozen Stone Shapers stood on the docks, staring at The Foggy Day. The ship appeared to be intact and Dustin saw movement on the decks, so what were all the Stone Shapers doing there?
He turned to Syd. “Any vague notions, Captain?”
Syd thought for a moment. “Maybe we can grab one of them. Interrogate him for information.”
Sigmund shook his head sadly. “You lot are pathetic when it comes to clandestine work.”
Olaf turned to Syd and shrugged. “He has a point. We usually just stab everyone.”
“Come with me.” With that, Sigmund marched right over to the nearest Stone Shaper.
He gestured up at The Foggy Day. “The dirty foreigners are still here, I see.”
The Stone Shaper frowned at him. “Congratulations on your astute powers of observation.”
Sigmund spat on the ground. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing something about that? They’ve sullied our waters long enough.”
The Stone Shaper grinned. He spoke in a quiet, conspiratorial tone. “Chief Magnus happens to agree with you. He’s tired of waiting. If their friends don’t return by nightfall, we’re going to destroy their ship.”
Sigmund let out a hearty laugh. “I knew old Magnus would take care of them.”
“Hasn’t he always? Going all the way back to Ragnar.”
Sigmund led the group a block away, then stopped.
“What now?” Fannar asked. “Do we go back for the others?”
Dustin glanced at sun and saw it disappearing below the horizon. “There’s no time.”
“Dustin’s right,” Syd agreed. “We have to take our shot, and we have to do it now. Olaf, you said you wanted to tangle with Stone Shapers. You’re about to get your wish.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tomas led Abbey down a long, narrow tunnel lit by torches mounted in stone holders. “Are you certain you don’t want to wait until morning? We could have some nourishment brought to you and your friends, and you could rest.”
“Nourishment? What does nourishment consist of down here?”
“We have a wide variety of mushrooms. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted a Stone Shaper stew of roasted hare and mushrooms.”
Abbey’s stomach began to growl at the mention of roasted hare, but she ignored it. “Maybe once I’m through. This really can’t wait until morning. We need to speak to the council.”
The old Stone Shaper sighed. “I can’t believe I’m letting you do this. It’s disrespectful to the Way of Stone to walk the Path without the proper training. Stoneshaping isn’t like your storm magic. Wind and water are already moving; you simply learn to direct them. Stone magic is different. We must convince the stone to change the very thing that makes it a stone: its stillness. The Way of the Stone is much more difficult than the other forms of magic.”
Abbey wasn’t so sure. “I’ve been taught that all magic comes from the same place. That it’s all different ways of using the same power.”
Tomas groaned thoughtfully at that. “If that is the case, we certainly use the power best.”
They approached an opening in the stone, and Abbey saw sunlight beyond it.
Tomas stopped and turned to her. “Once you begin, there is no turning back. Your cries for help will be ignored. You must walk the Path alone. Are you absolutely certain you wish to do this?”
Abbey nodded, looking past him toward the light. “Can we get on with it? I’d like to try that stew. You’d better get going on that, because this won’t take me long.”
“The stew will be waiting if you survive. Listen, in order to walk the Path, you must first go past, then go through, then go out.” He stepped aside and gestured toward the opening.
Abbey raised an eyebrow. “Another damn riddle?”
Tomas frowned. “If you were properly trained, it wouldn’t be a riddle at all.”
She clapped him on the arm as she walked past him. “You’re a cheery guy, Tomas. A real beam of sunlight in a dark cave.”
She moved through the opening and came out in another narrow passage. Stone walls stood on either side of her, but above her was nothing but open sky.
“Okay, I can do this. Just need to walk the Path.” A sound behind her made her turn. The opening behind her had closed with a thump, leaving only a solid rock wall. “That was predictable.”
The only direction available was forward. From the dim quality of the light overhead, she guessed it was almost sundown. If she didn’t want to do this in the dark, she had to get moving. She took a deep breath and started down the canyon.
“First go past, then go through, then go out,” she muttered to herself as she walked. Her soft voice bounced off the stone walls, creating an eerie echo.
She spotted something in the canyon ahead. A break in the path. She trotted toward it and stopped at the edge. Looking down, she let out a whistle.
It was a pit. Abbey guessed it was about twenty feet across. The distance to the bottom was more difficult to judge, but it had to be at least a hundred feet. The floor of the pit was dotted with jagged rocks.
“Go past, huh?” she muttered to herself. “Well, he never said it was going to be easy.”
The stone on either side of her groaned, and she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The canyon walls were closing in on either side of her, slowly but steadily. If she kept standing there, she’d be crushed.
What would a young Stone Shaper do to go past this obstacle? There were dozens of possibilities. He could raise the floor of the pit. Or create a bridge of stone across it. Or stop the walls from moving.
But she wasn’t a Stone Shaper, so her options were decidedly more limited, and she didn’t have long to settle on one.
“Okay, I got this,” she said aloud. She took a few steps back and then sprinted forward. Just as her foot planted on the edge of the pit and she launched herself into the air, she reduced her weight.
She risked a look down as she floated over the pit, and her breath caught as she imagined what it would be like to plummet to those rocks down there. Then she looked up again and realized she’d miscalculated.
For a terrible moment, she thought she wasn’t going to make it. She was descending too quickly, and the edge of the path was too far away. She should have made herself even lighter. But it was too late to think about that now.
As she descended, she reached out as far as she could. At the last moment, her fingers touched the edge, and she grabbed it hard. She let herself dangle a moment, catching her breath as she held on with one hand. Then she pulled herself up.
“Ha!” she shouted. “I’ll bet you never thought I’d get past that one, did you? Either your test isn’t as impossible as you thought, or I’m just that good!”
There was no response other than the echo of her voice in the distance, which made the taunt a little unsatisfying.
“Fine, be that way,” she muttered. Then she started down the trail.
She began to trot. The light was fading fast, and she wanted to be done with this nonsense before it was completely gone.
First go past, the old Stone Shaper had told her. Then
go through.
But go through what?
A few minutes later, she found out.
A boulder, twelve feet tall and almost as wide as the canyon, blocked her path.
She gave a little whistle. It was no wonder Tomas assumed a non-Stone Shaper wouldn’t be able to make it through this. The boulder was smooth, and would be impossible to climb.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to.
As she bent down to pick up the boulder, her mind flashed back to the years she’d spent in the near isolation of her father’s blacksmith shop. Now she was in the mythical land of Gren, trying to get help from a secret tribe of stone magic users. It hadn’t been that long since those days in the blacksmith shop, but it sure felt like another life.
She channeled magic to reduce the rock’s weight. She thought, My life has gotten really freaking weird.
Picking up the rock, she had to remind herself to be careful; the moment she let go of it, it would return to its natural weight. She lifted it over her head, turned around, and carefully placed it on the ground. She let go of the rock an inch off the ground, and it crashed to the stone path with a boom.
“Two down, you stony weirdos,” she muttered. “What’s number three?”
“Go out,” the man had said. Sounded easy enough.
She walked two more minutes before she came to the site of her third challenge. She stopped.
“Well, shit.”
A craggy rock wall rose in front of her. It stood fifty feet high, and it looked golden in the last of the sunlight. A groaning sound caused her to turn; the canyon was closing behind her.
Tomas’ words echoed in her ear. “Once you begin, there is no turning back.”
“Looks like I’ll have to go out then.”
Once again, she thought of all the ways a Stone Shaper would get out of this situation. They could transform the stone into a staircase and walk to the top. They could cut a hole right through the wall. They could even have the stone under their feet rise and carry them to the top.
Abbey wasn’t so fortunate. She’d have to improvise.
There were divots in the stone, as well as small cracks that might not be sufficient to use as handholds at her full weight. If she were weightless, she’d be able to pull herself up with no problem.