by Ashley Capes
“They’re after me,” Tsolde said, her mouth set. “Bastards; they don’t give up, do they?”
Never nodded. “They’re quite disciplined.” He stood, brushing leaves from his tunic and pants before striking a parallel course to the road, keeping within the treeline. Luis and Tsolde followed. “What makes you think they were for you?” he asked her as they resumed walking.
“Floriak met with them. I told you; they want the port. It saves them a long overland journey.” She kicked at a stone. “I told him I didn’t want them staying in my inn and he hit me, Never.”
He stopped. “What? You didn’t say that before.”
“The bruise is gone.” She shrugged. “He tried to lock me up but Augim...” she trailed off. Tsolde had offered little about her escape but Augim hadn’t survived, Never knew that much.
But it hadn’t been without a cost to Floriak either; somehow she’d stolen his purse and then his horse on the way out.
“And you think he wants you that badly?”
She met his gaze. “When he looked at me it was clear what he wanted.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. If that was the case... then what trouble was it truly, for the man to tell Steelhawks – men who were already heading to Marlosa – to keep an eye out for Tsolde? “I’m proud of what you did.”
“I had no choice.”
“Well, you do now,” he said. He glanced at Luis. Both had a choice now. “And you, Luis.” Was it right? Could he really take them both into whatever danger lay ahead? Snow would use them as leverage; Never knew that. And of course there was Jenisan too, who would punish them for travelling with Never.
And his curse... he had more control of his blood now but accidents were accidents for a reason; they disdained the illusion of control.
The treasure-hunter shook his head. “I’m staying, Never. You’ve tried this before, on Ferne’s ship and at the Silver Bell – you’re stuck with me.”
Never had to smile, even as a twinge of fear tugged at his heart. Could he truly protect Luis? And Tsolde both? Or was it vanity that let him believe it?
“What about you, My Lady?”
Tsolde folded her arms. “You’re not leaving me in some mountain village in the middle of nowhere. I can handle myself.”
“Then it’s settled; we’d better keep going,” he said. “The way my luck has been changing of late, Jenisan will be the next one up the trail.”
Chapter 2.
The dark, purple mass of mountain peaks roared up to the sky; the rising autumn wind trapped there, moans hidden within. It whipped at Never’s cloak and cast hair into his eyes. He’d cut it when they stopped for the evening; if the mountain decided to let them survive.
A deep chasm plummeted down one side of the winding road. Though it was wide enough for wagonloads of iron and silver to run down to City-Sedrin, he fancied the wind was trying to pull him toward the drop.
Naught but a fancy; yet it seemed the kind of trick the Gods would play.
He shook his head. Even if Snow believed the Gods were gone... who else would revel in such misfortune? Perhaps it was Never’s own bitterness that sought something to blame. A familiar routine.
“We need to find shelter,” Luis shouted. He pointed to their back trail. Black clouds massed – an autumn storm. Grand. Never nodded, and pushed into the air current, squinting at the dust. Tsolde walked beside him, using his bigger frame as a partial shield. Even so, she soon had to fight for every step.
He steered her nearer the rockface and continued climbing. There was a cave somewhere ahead, yet what if the Steelhawks had already taken it? If luck held; the Vadiya would have already ridden beyond now that the storm had hit.
And if they turned back to seek shelter...
“Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it?” he murmured to the Gods. Pacela should be watching out for him. But then, the Steelhawks would have prayed for exactly the same thing from Osya. Maybe the dice would know? He could roll them, high for the cave, low to pass, but the storm would devour them if they risked pressing on.
When the cave mouth finally did come into view he signalled for Luis to watch Tsolde while he scouted. She frowned at him, saying something, but the wind snatched her words. Luis nodded and Never slunk around the bend. He kept himself close to rock but if anyone lurked within the darkness of the cave mouth, they’d see him approach.
The cave rested beneath an overhang where the mountain road widened. There was little to stop the gale when it blew across the face of the range, striking down from the east as now, but inside the cave lay a half-screen of wood and brush. A new feature. Whoever had built it knew their business.
Never slowed as he neared the opening. He drew a knife and let the blade hover over the back of his hand. His blood wouldn’t help if there were Steelhawks within. Or ten men of any country for that matter. At the best, he could draw them out and head away from Luis and Tsolde. Find a way back later.
He crept within; raising the dagger as his eyes adjusted.
Blackness resolved to grey, a stony floor underfoot. Further in lay a wide space with shelves cut into the stone. A ring of brick encircled years of ash and soot but there was no store of fuel for a fire.
Nor were there any people.
He sighed. Finally, some luck. He returned to the mouth of the cave and waved Luis and Tsolde into shelter.
*
Out of the storm, screen raised, it was possible to at least hear one another, even when the rain started. It slashed across the face of the opening, but could not reach them. They’d lined their packs before one wall. With no fuel for the fire, the best they could do was use bedrolls and cloaks as blankets and sit close together.
Tsolde put her water flask down. “You haven’t told me what you’re looking for in the mountains above Marlosa.”
“Something to help with my curse,” Never said.
“I know that. But what is this thing exactly? How will it help?”
Never shrugged. “The Altar of Stars is the something I need to locate by the night of the new moon. It will help; that’s all I know.” Snow had no reason to lie; but doubtless there would have been reasons he held back.
Luis looked up from where he was cleaning his nails with a belt knife. “That’s all? The library had nothing else?”
Time for another half-truth – how many had that been? And when would they all add up to a lie? Yet, to protect them it was still the best way. “I was interrupted; but I did learn something else from the Amouni books – I can read some runes, after a fashion.”
“Like on the river?” Luis asked.
“More like being given images in my mind when I see them.”
“So what did you see?” Tsolde asked. Her curiosity had not warn off since first learning of his curse as a child.
“Nothing good.”
“You don’t have to hold back, Never. I thought we’d agreed.”
Luis was grinning.
Never sighed. “It’s not pleasant – but I’m not telling you only because there’s no reason to believe we’ll ever encounter what I saw.” And yet, only a fool didn’t expect the worst. Such an attitude had saved him a great deal of disappointment over the years – not to mention keeping one step ahead of death. Always a nice side-effect to such pessimism.
Or realism.
“You’re trying to spare us,” she said. She pointed. “I saw your expression; you’re not sure.”
“You don’t give up, do you?” He shook his head. “I saw a... creature in a cave. Like a skeleton with grey skin stretched over its bones. It faced off against one of my ancestors, who held two globes of blood, but there was no attack. I could tell that it wanted the man’s organs – but I don’t know what for, truly.”
Her face had paled. “In a cave?”
“Yes.” He gave her a smile. “But there’s no way to know which cave – or how old the vision was. You’ve lived in Hanik all your life – have you ever heard of such creatures in the Folhan Ranges?”<
br />
A frown. “No.”
“And neither have I.”
Luis nodded to himself. “Who’s to say such creatures didn’t die off centuries ago?”
“Exactly,” Never said.
Tsolde still bore a furrow in her brow. “But people have always been afraid of the Iron Pass. They say it’s haunted.”
Never shrugged. “It didn’t seem to be the last time I passed through.”
She didn’t answer but Luis had another question. “What can you tell us of the Pass? There’s a way through the collapse?”
“There is. The avalanches blocked most of it but Mal showed me and my brother the way, when we were young. Some passages within the mine are intact.”
“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 no
t, 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.”
