by Ashley Capes
“Now we have an explanation for the skeletons,” Tsolde said softly.
“We do.”
Luis glanced at him. “Your lonesome friend?”
“The fellow who spoke to me last night, yes. He is lonely, it seems. There’s an empty riverbed that likely drove the villagers to abandon this place. The man suggested a way around the avalanche, if we want to try it.” He added the warning the survivor of Garmedl offered, about the man seen around the mountain caves.
“Ah.” Luis paused. “Then do you think we can take his word about the path?”
“He didn’t strike me as one for guile,” Never said. He moved around some of the markers and knelt beside the tiny stream, no more than a trickle within another dry bed. “And the Iron Pass is, essentially, northward. The snake trail heads in the same direction. I think we can trust his word for now.”
Luis nodded as he joined Never and handed over a flask. “From the kitchen,” he said.
Never filled it. “Good.”
Then it was back to the trail, climbing through the wooded snake-path until the vista opened up around mid-morning. The trail swung around an outcropping, offering a view down to the King’s Road.
Far below, steel reflected off the still-rising sun as figures marched the twisting road. Vadiya. Even from a distance, the sheer bulk of their armour was clear. The line of soldiers would soon be lost to sight, heading beneath an arch that served as a gate to the higher peaks and eventually the silver mines.
“There’s someone Jenisan should be more concerned by,” he said.
“Have they taken the mines then?”
“Hard to say. If Jenisan hasn’t caught all the traitors, the Vadiya might have it already.”
Tsolde was glaring down at them. “So are they leaving or arriving?”
“Hard to say. They might have been sent down but the avalanche stopped them. If so, they’ll be back with tools, that’s for sure.”
“If Elina’s party has the same thought, that will put them in each other’s path,” Luis said.
He was right. And there was little chance her small force would survive such an encounter. And she didn’t deserve that. But there was no way to help her. Never rubbed his neck. No way to warn them either. His fear was not only for the knowledge he might lose if Elina were killed. Despite all the promises he’d made to himself about letting others grow close, he didn’t want to be responsible, however indirectly, for yet another death – he simply didn’t want her to die.
Not in any circumstances.
“Don’t underestimate her, Never,” Luis said. “I doubt she’d let herself be surprised.”
He nodded slowly. “True enough. We keep climbing then.”
Each step had the dull thud of betrayal... but he strode on anyway. Luis was right; she’d take care of herself. And if he tried to find a way down, she’d only try and clap him in chains for His Royal Majesty the Fool.
Although, the man was only a fool if he was wrong about the Amouni.
And Never didn’t know enough to truly agree or disagree with the man yet. Jenisan was only trying to protect his people and seek vengeance for the death of his father. Mistaken, but understandable.
“Still, you’re not having my head,” he muttered.
Noon came and passed when the trail sharpened into a set of steps leading up to a huge carving of dark stone. A snake’s head at rest. It looked as if it were protruding from the very mountain. Fangs peeked from its mouth and the eyes were sealed shut, moss crawling across the surface and grey pine needles caught in the ridges of brow and the slits of the nose.
Never paused to stare, circling the base of the steps. “Magnificent,” he said.
“Must be fifteen feet easily,” Luis said.
“See here,” Never pointed. The body curled along the mountain, darker ridges of stone almost like stripes. It followed the bends of the King’s Road far below. From that vantage point, doubtless few would be able to discern what lay high above them, obscured by trees or mist.
“I think there are gaps in the stone,” Luis said.
Tsolde snapped her fingers. “I know what this is. It’s the Serpent’s Tail; the old mountain kings made it as an escape from their keep. You can reach the ruins but I don’t know if anyone has found the way down the tail.”
Never frowned up at the closed mouth. “And it looks like we’re going to have some trouble with the head.”
“Didn’t the man from Garmedl say this was a path?”
“Maybe he hasn’t used it in the last hundred years,” Never said. “And that’s why he didn’t realise it was closed.”
“Very funny.”
“There’s the man he warned us about too,” Luis said.
Never hefted his makeshift pack. “Let’s eat first. These berries and nuts we found are just the thing I need to solve this problem.”
“Whatever closes your mouth,” Tsolde said sweetly.
Chapter 9.
“Well, I’m out of ideas,” Never said, slapping one of the snake’s fangs.
He did his best to unclench his jaw. Nothing had worked – no hidden levers or buttons, no false stones, no trick with weights or pressure that he or Luis could discern, nothing to do with blood either.
The slithering stone bastard had beaten them.
“Do we turn back?” Tsolde asked. Her expression was no less frustrated as she kicked at a rock. It tumbled down the steps.
Never glanced to the sky. The sun was dipping between distant peaks, golden light crossing the gorges to splash against the snake, creeping along the body toward the head. Hours! All afternoon struggling with it. A waste of time in the end. “I don’t know. We’ll lose time – days even, if we do. And that might not matter in the short term, but one bad storm and who knows, we might be in serious trouble.”
“Have we tried everything?” Luis asked.
Never sighed. “Boost me up again, I’ll take one more look on top.”
Luis did as instructed. Never gripped the lid of the closed eye and pulled himself the rest of the way up. Atop the snake’s head waited little but scattered needles and the damp remains of what was once a puddle. The body extended along as if emerging from the very cliffs but that was no help. It ended at a sharp angle of walls, swallowed within, and possessing no climbing material, they had little chance of scaling the sheer rock face.
The cracks further along the body, those that gave the appearance of stripes, were too narrow to squeeze between and again, there were no heavy tools on hand to break in, if that were even possible. It left the head or mouth of the serpent itself.
He knocked against the head, kicking at odd-coloured patches of stone as he searched. Nothing new. No hidden switches.
“Any luck?”
“Nothing,” he said. He stamped a boot against the head. “Pacela’s Curse.” He stamped again, hitting harder this time.
A boom echoed and stone cracked against stone, dust rising.
Never fell into a crouch, arms outstretched... but nothing else happened. He looked up to the stone walls before him. Nothing.
“You two hurt?” he called.
Luis laughed. “No, but you should see this.”
Never peered over the edge. The jaw had fallen open – sinking into the ground to reveal steps leading up the throat. A clever mechanical device? No matter – it was open! He climbed down and dusted his hands. “I should have stomped on his head earlier.”
Tsolde snorted. “Look at the snake’s eyes.”
Golden light now covered the serpent’s head and the eyes were open, some manner of onyx set as pupils. “The sunset opened the way?”
“I’d say so,” she said.
Never shook his head but he was smiling. “In we go then.”
“Can we be sure it’s safe?” Luis asked.
“No. But I’m confident neither Jenisan nor the Vadiya will bother us here. And the hermit of Garmedl thought this path could take us to the Iron Pass.”
“And the st
range man he mentioned? The one who doesn’t like visitors?”
“We’ll be watching for him too.”
Never stepped into the mouth and into the body. A broad tunnel stretched before them, thin pillars of golden light cutting across from the sunset. As he walked, his feet stirred dust which climbed into the air to glitter. Beautiful.
Behind him, Luis gave a cough. “Damn dust.”
The snake’s body continued to turn with the mountain, naught but dust on the floor. Orange splashed across the opposite wall and a chill breeze snuck in through the same openings. He knelt once to examine the floor.
“What is it?”
A brass button, tarnished from rain, lay in a small crevice. “Nothing of note,” he said and moved on. “But people have been in here after the old mountain kings.”
Night began to fall, and shadow with it. The tunnel grew dark, but not so dark that he did not see a gaping hole in the floor. Wind stirred up from the mighty drop below, the dark green of pine climbing the crevice. The gap was wide enough to leap across but as the evening darkened, any similar holes might come as a nasty surprise indeed.
“Once we’ve passed this it might be time to consider stopping for the night,” Never said.
Luis nodded. “Agreed.”
“Too bad we can’t start a fire – it’s going to be cold in here,” Tsolde said.
Never backed up. “Better than outside at least.”
He ran forward then leapt across the gap, landing easily. Tsolde followed, then Luis. They moved away from the hole and the cold wind, picking a spot some distance from openings in the wall too, and spread their bedrolls.
More berries and nuts for their cold meal, all of which had been foraged while struggling to open the snake door, along with some of their dwindling water. Never took first watch. It was cold and uneventful, he sought his thin bed, stone eating through the blanket, and wrapped his cloak around his torso.
By dawn he was ready to leave, aching and cold, breath steaming in the air despite having slept close to the others, he and Luis protecting Tsolde. “Onward,” he said, after they’d each sipped from the flask.
“We’ll need more of this soon.” Tsolde passed the flask to Luis.
“If it looks like this path is going to take us nowhere we’ll turn back and resupply,” he said. “We have enough for two days if we’re frugal. I’m hoping this passage climbs to the surface well before then.”
“Can’t hurt to look a little further,” Luis said.
Never led them further along the serpent’s tail until reaching another hole in the path, this one wide enough that it could not be leapt. Instead, he had to cling to the sides of the snake’s body and inch his way across uneven footing. Sometime in the past, someone had bolted hand-holds into the wall, making the task easier. A cruel wind threw his cloak about but he crossed without looking down. Luis followed, leaving Tsolde on the other side.
Her face was pale but she took the first step after a deep breath, gripping the rusted rungs with white knuckles.
“Just a little farther,” Never said when she reached the halfway point.
“Let me concentrate,” she snapped. “Why did they make such a dangerous trail anyway?”
He waited by the edge of the stone. Tsolde reached for the last hand hold, stretching her foot toward firm ground.
Stone cracked.
She screamed, limbs flailing. Never lunged. He snapped his hand over her wrist, jerking her to safety. She gripped him, whole body trembling. His own heart thundered. With her cheek pressed against his chest, it probably deafened her.
“You’re safe,” he told her.
She took a shuddering breath. “Thank you, Never.”
“Need a moment?”
“No, let’s keep going. Get me away from the edge.”
Never led her further along, passing through bars of light where they cut through the wall. Ahead lay only darkness where the mountain swallowed the tail. Too bad the blue-stone was lost. Elina probably had it. Had she avoided the Vadiya? He could only hope.
He paused at the limits of the light. Barely visible was a series of steps – leading up. Hope? Or a fool’s hope? “If there’s no change by nightfall, we turn back. We’ll still have enough water to reach that mountain pool back beneath the entrance,” he said. “Objections? Ideas? Anything?”
“You could roll those lucky dice of yours,” Luis said.
Never patted an inner pocket of his vest – drawing out die and the marble figurine. “Hold this a moment, will you?” He asked Tsolde. She accepted the crystal, glad of the distraction it seemed by the way she examined the figure within.
“Think this will help?” he asked Luis.
The spearman shrugged. “Why not? I seem to remember them getting you out of a few shifts at the oar back on the Carene.”
Never grinned. “Very well.” He turned back and held the Amouni die up to the faint light and pointed to one side. “See this symbol – like three fingers on a hand? It’s lucky. The coil is too, if you’re playing Houses.”
“What about that one? Looks like a lightning bolt hitting a V,” Luis said.
“In some games if you roll that you lose your hand.”
“Ah.”
Never crouched across from Luis and tossed the die. It rattled over the stone and bounced from Luis’ boot.
Luis bent and paused, hand hovering over the die a moment.
“Well?”
“Maybe you should roll again,” he said, lifting it to show the side with the lightning bolt.
Never scratched at his beard. Whenever he and Snow had rolled the bolt in the past, the outcome had been trouble. Like the first time they’d attempted to scale the walls of the palace in Isacina. Or when the scum took Zia into the tar pits, he and Snow had used it to decide who would try follow and who would return to ask Mal for help. Never had been the loser that time and Snow the eventual hero, but at a cost...
Hard to imagine a poorer omen.
“Never, something’s happening.” A hint of concern filled Tsolde’s voice. “Is the little man supposed to move?”
“At times.”
She placed the marble into his palm. In the dim light the fellow cowered, hands over his head. Something in the air changed – a tightness, a sense of indrawn breath. And heat. Heat? He turned to the stair. Nothing but darkness.
“Something is happening,” he said. “Be ready.”
“For what?” Tsolde asked.
“Anything. Everything.”
Luis set his tied blanket aside and flipped his spear into both hands, holding it across his chest. Tsolde lifted her dagger. Never drew his own blades. He nearly swore when his blood pulsed in his veins, as if eager to meet whatever danger was coming.
The sense of warmth grew – the change in air came from their back-trail. Never swallowed. Something wrong approached. There was no sound, no light but it was clear enough; his very blood was responding.
Silvery light flashed. A heavy thud followed, vibrations running along the tunnel. Never took a step forward. “Be ready to run. Up the stair.”
Light faded, revealing a black figure glimmering with an iridescence that seemed to lurk beneath oily skin. Heat surged from it, buffeting Never’s face, even from a distance. The thing was stout, round and bore no visible eyes. Its legs and arms seemed to burst from random points in the body, striking the stone and heaving the thing forward. It quickly gathered speed, the heat pouring forth as it approached.
Never hurled a dagger at the bulk.
The steel slipped into the body with barely a pause, as if swallowed whole. The creature did not so much as flinch. “Go,” he cried.
Chapter 10.
Never spun as Luis dragged Tsolde up the first few steps. The faint silver light offered enough help that they did not stumble. Never leapt after them, glancing over his shoulder. Could the thing fit in the stairway?
“Damn.” Easily.
How to slow it? The heat seared his back as he
charged up the stairs – only to ease suddenly. He spun. The dark, seething creature of silver and shadow had come to a halt and was turning, legs slapping the walls as it shifted its bulk.
Something... someone stood behind it!
Never held his breath.
The newcomer stood tall and dark, yet the whites of his eyes were clear and his expression was one of determination in the silvery glow. How was he withstanding the heat? The ball of death surged forward and the man threw himself against the wall – but not to evade. His legs and arms, his chest even, sank into the rock as he side-stepped then swung them at the creature, as if pulling a curtain down.
Stone followed.
It flashed down from the very roof, smashing the thing into motionlessness. Steam hissed and silver pooled around a huge column of stone which now blocked half the Serpent’s Trail. The stranger emerged from the stone wall, chest heaving where he stood a moment, before shuddering and collapsing to the ground.
Never ran back. “Can you hear me?”
The man offered no response.
Never knelt. Beneath a dark grey tunic, the man’s skin was hot to the touch, like a wall of stone blasted by sun all afternoon. Never gave the fellow a shake. Nothing. He took the man by the shoulders and braced himself, straining and failing to move their saviour. Like dragging a stone!
The hissing silver was spreading and the man lay in its path.
“Luis!” he called.
The echo of footsteps followed and Luis appeared, eyes wide as he took in the scene. “Never?”
“Help me roll him over.”
Luis knelt beside him. “What happened?”
“He’s heavier than he looks, so we go together, right? Roll him toward the stairs, I doubt we could carry this guy.”
Luis nodded, then took a firm grip on the man. He grunted when Never gave a nod, pushing as Luis pulled, leaning his body weight back. The stone-man rose and teetered, then thumped down as Luis jumped back.
