The Empty Crown

by Georgina Makalani

  ‘The lower down the mountain, the darker they are. If we can fool it into thinking it is only tracking us, we might reach the snow before it.’

  ‘The snow?’ She stopped. ‘Can’t you kill it?’

  ‘It is far bigger than me, and to get close enough to drive a sword into it means getting close enough for its very sharp claws to slice through me, or you.’

  Ana’s heart sparked into its high-paced pounding for the second time that morning. She clenched her fists to stop her hands shaking and tried desperately to focus on the path ahead so as not to fall, and to pretend it wasn’t following them.

  As they continued up the mountain, Ana wanted to turn back and look. She could feel it stalking behind them, and with four legs and better grip of the mountain it was moving much faster than she could. Despite her certainty that it was gaining on them, she stopped. Dray turned back at her with a questioning look.

  There was something else on this mountain, and she didn’t know if it was worse than the mountain lion or just an unknown. Either way, she knew it was coming. She could feel it in her bones.

  Dray waved her forward, but she remained where she was. ‘Now,’ he whispered hoarsely through clenched teeth. He looked far less worried than he sounded, and she sidestepped just as the mountain lion landed where she had been standing.

  It growled loudly, but although it was close enough to take Ana’s head from her shoulders, it didn’t move. Dray’s hand was tight around his sword. It wasn’t clear if he was waiting to see if he could move faster than the animal or if it would lose interest first.

  The growl in its throat grew louder, and Ana felt it resonate through her. Instead of stepping forward with his sword drawn, Dray stepped backwards. Ana squeezed her eyes closed. She could feel it coming, moving faster than an avalanche down the mountainside. She looked then, in fear it was an avalanche, to see deep red scales as the large head closed around the mountain lion. She blew out a slow breath.

  She held up her hand, and Dray lowered the sword he’d had ready to drive into the side of the beast. ‘Step back slowly,’ he said.

  ‘I think if it wanted to eat me, it would have,’ Ana said.

  ‘It might be saving you for a treat.’

  ‘What is it?’ she asked, reaching a hand towards its warm face. It turned to look at her with the blackest eyes, and steam blew about her, warming her cold frame.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Dray snapped, and the beast turned its head towards him.

  Whatever the beast was, it was huge. The head alone was the same height as Dray. More steam swirled around her, and she stepped forward to place a hand on its face. Strange images raced through her mind, the world from far above, trees as small dots and villages like toys amongst green fields. Then fighting, swords and men and blood, but she couldn’t see who was fighting whom or what colours they wore.

  She pulled her hand back quickly. The animal pulled back from her and folded in large leathery wings that she hadn’t noticed until they rustled with the movement. It was almost as long as the bridge to Sheer Rock.

  ‘Dragon,’ Dray whispered. It turned back to him again and then back to Ana.

  ‘Do they exist?’ she asked, looking at the bulk before her. It snorted again, and she smiled. Then she frowned. ‘Why is there a dragon here?’

  ‘Maybe it lives in the mountains.’

  ‘Could you carry us up the mountain?’ she asked, and the large black eye blinked.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Dray asked, pushing himself between her and the dragon. ‘Do you want to be food?’

  ‘He seems to like us,’ she said.

  Dray turned to face her so suddenly that she squealed, and as he put his hand to her face, the dragon nudged him away. She could tell it didn’t intend to hurt him, but it was enough to knock him down.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Ana asked, unsure to whom she was asking the question.

  The dragon pulled back. Dray sat amongst the rocks and glared at her. ‘I think you have lost your mind,’ he said.

  ‘He could help,’ she said.

  ‘Help?’

  ‘I saw something,’ she said softly. She hadn’t seen him in the vision she’d had as she touched the dragon, but she knew he was there.

  ‘What did you see?’ Dray asked, as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off.

  She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t very clear. Fighting.’

  ‘Who was fighting?’

  ‘I couldn’t tell that either.’

  ‘We need to keep moving,’ he said.

  She nodded. The dragon slowly turned as she started forward and followed along behind as they moved up the mountainside. Tim had once had a puppy who had followed him wherever he went, and when he grew and the puppy became a dog, it never left his side. They had both cried the day that old dog had died, but as Ana glanced back at the dragon following behind her, she had the same idea. Dray did not appear as happy about their new friend. The dragon made very little noise, other than the trees it pushed over as it walked.

  ‘It came from nowhere,’ Dray said.

  Ana stopped and looked at him. The dragon stopped with her, and its warm breath washed over her.

  ‘I felt him before he arrived,’ Ana said, then took in the look on Dray’s face. ‘I knew there was something else out there, something scarier than the mountain lion, but I didn’t know if it was more dangerous to us.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘He doesn’t seem to be.’

  And then, before she could suggest again that it might help them find a way up the mountain or over it, the dragon took to the air and disappeared.

  ‘You scared him,’ she snapped at Dray. He stopped and sighed as he looked at her with disappointment. She looked back at the ground and kept moving. She had no idea of this supposed skill she had, of seeing what others thought. Or was it their skill? she wondered.

  ‘He scared me,’ Dray murmured, and she smiled.

  She looked back the way they had come to see a clear path in the trees behind them. Then she looked back up the mountain. The trees were thick ahead of them. Although she knew that the ground rose more sharply, she had no idea how far they were from the top. She again longed for the road, but Dray was right; the others would be travelling that way. Would they be able to stay out of their way for long? If the sharp-faced man was as strong as she suspected, he might be able to find them anywhere.

  She stumbled on a rock as she thought of the man and the boy again. Dray’s strong hand closed around her arm, stopping her from hitting the ground. She wanted a minute to gather herself together. She missed the dragon’s warm breath already, and she was tired. But he tugged her along.

  ‘We are going to die out here,’ he said. She tried to catch his eye to see if he was serious, then tried to not fall over as he released his hold and moved ahead.

  ‘Stop,’ she called.

  ‘We don’t have time,’ he said without looking back at her.

  ‘I can’t,’ she whined, wishing she had been able to sound more together.

  ‘We have only been walking a couple of hours.’

  She stared at him, and he sighed before walking back towards her. ‘I understand this is hard,’ he said.

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘There may also be more mountain lions, dragons who might actually want to eat you, or worse—my own men might have worked out the direction we took and decided that waiting for you to catch your breath is not a good way to spend their time.’ He watched the world behind her, as though searching the trees, as he spoke.

  Ana crossed her arms. She wanted to really scowl at him, but he looked away from the trees and behind him to the mountain. They had covered enough ground that the trees knocked about by the dragon were no longer visible.

  She wanted to growl at him, say something clever, but instead she found she was sucking in a sob that was trying to escape and succeeding. He took a step towards her and rested a hand on her shoulder, looking directly at her.

 
‘We have to keep moving,’ he said.

  She nodded, but her legs wouldn’t move.

  ‘Just a bit more, and then we may be able to find somewhere to rest. But if there is any chance they are following us, we are lost if we stay in the open.’

  The trees seemed to close around them. ‘Is this really in the open?’

  He nodded and waited as she started again to move one foot in front of the other. She wrapped the cloak tighter around her and tried to watch where she was walking. She only glanced at him occasionally as they made their way through the trees. He didn’t appear to feel the cold or the long hours of walking.

  But the day didn’t seem to be coming to an end, nor were the trees or the steady incline that continued to get steeper. If only there was a path, Ana thought. She closed her eyes and wished with everything she had that she was somewhere warm and dry. As she tried not to lean into a tree and stay there, a path appeared amongst the trees.

  Ana looked along the worn ground, wondering for a moment if she had wished it into existence. She shivered and pulled the cloak tighter around her. The flashes of fighting she had seen with the dragon returned, and she wondered again just what gift she had that the mage had come so far to find. And why hadn’t she known about it or seen signs of it before?

  She wiped at her face, hoping that Dray hadn’t noticed her tears. He must be regretting running with her even more now. Yet he had stayed with her. Nothing was as it should be. She pushed herself from the tree, determined to keep moving as he had insisted. A little way along the path, she stopped again. In the scrub she was sure she could see a crumbling stone wall.

  Ana stepped closer, brushing at the plants that grew along it and following it into the trees with her eyes. She leaned into the stone wall, hoping it would support her long enough to reach the remains of the house she saw ahead.

  ‘Where did that come from?’ Dray asked as he rested his hand on her shoulder.

  Chapter 8

  Ed watched Phillip from the corner of his eye as he intermittently flicked the reins while the horse continued pushing forward at the same quick pace. The old man grumbled something under his breath, and Ed turned to watch the world pass them by. It wasn’t too different from what he had experienced on his journey so far, except he didn’t have to walk and his feet appreciated the rest.

  Sitting on the cart, he had the chance to see just how different the rest of the kingdom was from the capital. The world seemed to be so much larger than he imagined, although there was so little in it. He could see much further than from his previously high vantage point in the capital.

  ‘So, when was the last time you came this way?’ Phillip asked, his voice surprising Ed in the comfortable silence.

  ‘I haven’t,’ Ed said before he thought about it, then turned to the interested look on the old man’s face.

  ‘My mother told me of her friend, and now that she is gone, I thought it time I search him out.’

  ‘He didn’t come when he learnt of her death?’

  Ed shook his head and turned his attention back to the green fields they passed. The distant mountains didn’t seem to be getting any closer. He didn’t know who had come when his parents had died. He could only clearly remember the days leading up to his mother’s death, although he remembered the acute pain when he knew she was gone. And his father’s death had been too much to deal with. His chest still felt as though it was slicing open when he thought of him.

  When he was a boy, the world had seemed filled with possibility. Now he felt as though he was trying to hold water in his hands while it continued to slip through his fingers. There had always been people around them, people supporting him and his family. And yet when he’d needed help, they had only acted to serve themselves.

  His father’s death had left him not only alone but vulnerable. His uncle had told everyone that he was doing what he could for the poor boy, yet he was like everyone else, doing what he could for himself.

  If Ed had managed to find someone with magic, he might have been able to get what he needed. But those with magic were even less likely to help him. The old mage came to mind, but he shook the image away before it could take hold. He wasn’t the man his father had promised him to be, either. Discovering that had hurt almost as much as losing his father.

  ‘What is it, lad?’ Phillip asked.

  Ed turned to see the old man’s soft face creased with concern. ‘Have you seen something?’ he asked, looking around with more focus.

  ‘You are huffing and sighing away over there. Is it too slow a journey for you?’

  Ed shook his head and looked back over the green fields that stretched away from the dusty road. ‘I just hoped I would be closer to the mountains. I know the kingdom is vast, but I don’t think I realised just how far away the rest of the world was when I started out.’

  The old man chuckled. ‘Most folks never want to leave their little part of the world, thinking it enough. I would imagine there is a much larger world out there beyond the shores of Ilia.’

  ‘Do you mean Sheer Rock?’

  ‘Why anyone would want to live so high up is beyond me,’ Phillip muttered. ‘But different or no, the people of Sheer Rock are still part of the kingdom. Their lord is like that of any other province.’

  Ed nodded. He knew the histories of the land at least, although he didn’t know who was the lord of each seat. Or region. He wasn’t even sure of what he should be calling them. ‘Are they the Lord of the Seat, or is it the Seat of the Lord?’ he asked Phillip.

  ‘You are asking an old farmer?’ he asked with a chuckle.

  ‘But you know how the kingdom works; I’m not sure I do.’

  The old man nodded and flicked the reins, and the horse continued racing along the road. Ed wondered just how long it could keep it up.

  ‘Where the lord for each region lives is called the Seat of the Lord. It is like the capital, but a much smaller version for the region. I imagine they are all a bit different. I went to the Seat of the Lord of the Grasslands when my girl was taken.’

  ‘What did the lord say?’ Ed asked, giving the old man his full attention.

  ‘Not very much—or at least he would have said not very much, if I had been given the chance to see him.’

  ‘He wouldn’t see you?’

  ‘Those who would show you in said that he wouldn’t see me.’

  ‘But that is what the lords do. Isn’t it?’ Ed asked, not quite sure what they were meant to do. ‘They look after the people.’ At least that was what he had been told as a child.

  ‘Well, they look after those they want to.’ Phillip stared ahead of him and flicked the reins once more. Despite the constant speed, Ed thought the horse danced along the road even faster.

  When Phillip didn’t continue, Ed asked, ‘Do you think you can get her back?’

  ‘I’m sure I can.’

  Ed nodded. Maybe other girls had been taken as well. Why would the lord not want to help the man get her back? Or did he know the men who had taken her? ‘When you do get her back,’ Ed started, and the old man turned a crooked smile on him, ‘you should take her to the lord and tell him that you did what he should have.’

  ‘Might be that we go somewhere else,’ Phillip said. ‘No good ruffling feathers of those you might one day need.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Ed said softly, turning back to the world around him. He wondered if his father would have given him similar advice. He didn’t really know how to behave in the world as he would want. ‘Do you know what we are going to do when we find these men?’

  ‘Whatever we need to,’ Phillip said softly, and with another flick of the reins the horse moved into a pace that rattled the cart so much Ed thought he would be shaken from the seat.

  Chapter 9

  Dray looked over the old building and tried not to sigh. He wanted to keep moving, but there was no way Ana was going to be able to. It was going to take them twice as long as he hoped to make it over the mountains, and the delay only mean
t an increasing chance of being found.

  He had been careful to stay off any pathway, to slow any chance of them being caught. Although between her unhurried walk, a mountain lion and a giant dragon, they had very nearly lost before they had begun.

  The building, although he wasn’t quite sure what it had been before, was larger than he thought as they moved through the ruins. The stone looked as though it had been collected from the mountainside. All of them rough and different sizes. A thick moss covered most of them, giving it a soft green appearance that helped it blend into the trees, which he was sure were denser around the building.

  There were several complete rooms, although the roof had caved in on two of them. Other rooms were large, but the walls had crumbled, the mountain claiming them back. There was no furniture and no flooring. As he moved through the crumbling stone walls, he wondered just how long ago it had been built and how long since anyone else had been there.

  There were no signs of fire, nor human habitation. Not even hunters appeared to have used it, and he wondered for a moment if there was a reason for that. The one remaining room had a single door on one side, and he worried that if he tried to open it the structure would disintegrate. On the opposite wall was a small opening that would have been a door frame, but the door had long since rotted away.

  Ana stood outside the open doorway and peered into the darkness.

  ‘I’ve been inside, and it is dry and safe,’ he said, standing behind her.

  She looked again but wouldn’t go in.

  ‘Would you rather camp out here in the cold again?’ he asked.

  She tugged his cloak around her tighter and then looked up at him seriously. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured.

  ‘Don’t start that again,’ he said, pushing her into the room.

  She sucked in a wobbly breath and pushed back against him.

  ‘What do you see?’ he asked as she turned and buried her face in his chest.

  ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘You must be cold.’

  He blew out a long, slow breath. He couldn’t get frustrated with her. He had dragged her into the mountains without anything to keep her warm. An image flashed though his mind of her standing on the walkway over the empty sky. The pure fear that had gripped her whole body.