by Aaron Hodges
Before Cara could react, movement came from the shadows nearby and Maisie appeared between the boulders. The spy paused when she saw them both on their feet, then her eyes were drawn to the chains lying beside Cara. A frown wrinkled her forehead.
“Well, that seems like a bad idea,” she murmured.
Without saying anything further, she moved to the fire and sat. The cooking pot lay nearby and Maisie reached for it, moving as though to place it over the flames once more, before pausing. Turning, she scowled at the two of them.
“Someone want to explain what happened to my dinner?”
Erika blinked, then glanced at Cara. The Goddess’s eyes widened and she adapted an innocent look. “I think the Archivist ate it,” she said. “Terribly greedy, that one.”
She crossed to the fire and sat herself by the flames. Beyond, the soldiers still sat gaping at her, but Cara ignored them, turning her eyes to Maisie instead.
“If you are going to cook more, though, count me in.” A rumble came from the Goddess’s stomach. “I’m starving.”
19
The Fallen
The light was fading as Yasin directed their ship ashore, the sun dipping towards the mountains towering to the west. Watching the peaks turn scarlet, Romaine couldn’t help but think how strange it was to find himself this side of the mythical mountains. They stretched up overhead, at once the familiar points he had known all his life, yet also different, the stark slopes and escarpments leading to a snowline that was unfamiliar to him.
And how different they were. Where in Calafe, pine and fir trees would have stretched from the river almost to the snow, here in Gemaho the foothills were practically bare, rolling and elongated where those in his homeland were jagged.
Aboard the ship, the sailors hurried to prepare for their disembarking, eager to be rid of Yasin and his soldiers. Throughout the journey, it had become clear their presence did not sit well with all the crew. Romaine couldn’t blame them—just a few days ago, Flumeer had declared war on their kingdom. The queen’s power could only buy so much loyalty. He wondered whether these sailors would report their passage to the king when they reached the next port—or if prudence would win out. After all, every Gemaho sailor on the ship had committed treason by granting them passage. Romaine doubted Nguyen was the kind of king to forgive such a transgression, however hard they might try to redeem themselves.
Shouldering his pack and readjusting the sword on his belt, Romaine followed the others down the gangplank. The weight hung heavy on his shoulders and there was still an ache in his chest, but three days of rest on the ship had helped to ease the pain. His injuries were healing.
Romaine hesitated as he reached the shore, taking a moment to look around. Why had they chosen here to come ashore? There had been no obvious signs of another ship disembarking here, and in the dying light it was impossible to tell whether others had passed this way recently.
He looked up as the crunch of footsteps announced Yasin’s approach. “I won’t be able to track them in the darkness,” Romaine said softly. The moon had been growing larger these last nights, but it would not be enough to find footprints in the rocky earth. “Even if this is the right place…”
Yasin laughed. “Don’t sweat it, Calafe,” he said, slapping Romaine on the shoulder. “I know where we’re going.”
Romaine frowned, but at a gesture from Yasin, the others in their group were already forming up. Anger touched him at being so easily dismissed, but he said nothing. Lorene came alongside him as the leader took his place at the front.
“What do you make of that?” he asked quietly, eyes on the man.
Clenching his fists, one phantom, the other real, Romaine tried to repress his rage. “I told the queen back in camp that Erika would eventually seek out the home of the Gods.” His gaze lifted to the mountains, where the last of the day still lit the icy peaks. “Could she have another copy of the map after all?”
A grimace touched the scout’s face. “You know, I signed up to save a Goddess—not trespass in their homeland.” He hesitated, eyes flickering in Romaine’s direction. “You sure about this, Romaine?”
Romaine sighed. “Amina’s the only one who gives a Fall whether Cara lives,” he said. “I trust her…” He glanced at the smaller man. “I have to.”
The scout hesitated, then gave a quick nod. “Better hurry up then, before they leave us behind.”
Without another word, the two started up the valley after Yasin’s crew. Now that they were off the ship and deep in enemy territory, Romaine had strapped the queen’s shield to his arm and kept his hand close to the pommel of his sword. Each evening when the ship had pulled ashore, he and Lorene had practiced with the blade, and despite his injuries, he was beginning to feel more confident with the weapon. He might be of use to Cara yet.
Even so, he was surprised by how quickly his body began to ache as they started up the valley. The daylong climb through the mountains around the Illmoor Fortress had been a trial in the extreme, the sheer slopes they had scaled to reach the goat track requiring short, sharp bursts of exertion. Here though, the long valleys of Gemaho provided a different kind of challenge. The ground might be less steep, but the slow, endless rise of the earth beneath their feet was no less draining. And the darkness made it all the worse.
Without vegetation to bind the soil, the loose rocks were a constant threat. Thankfully his leather boots protected him from twisting an ankle, but more than once the treacherous stones almost sent him crashing to the ground. Lighter on his feet, Lorene seemed to be having a better time of it, but several amongst Yasin’s men were even larger than Romaine. Their grunts of discomfort kept the two company through the night, but otherwise the soldiers paid them little attention.
Romaine was happy with the silence. He had grown to enjoy it over the last ten years, to welcome the whistling of the wind through branches, to cherish the gentle bubbling of a stream, the hoot of a distant owl. The Perfugians had offered him companionship, a break from the stillness, but in truth he enjoyed it.
Eventually, however, the silence led his mind to thoughts of Cara. If they were truly on her trail, the Goddess could be as little as a day ahead of them. His heart raced at the thought and for the next half hour, the way felt a little easier.
They continued up the valley, shadowing the stream as it wound its way between the stones. Their quarry had no doubt followed its path for the ready source of water—it must be scarce in these parched hills. Just breathing the air this side of the mountains left Romaine’s mouth as dry as the dusty stones.
Yasin led them on through the night, undaunted by the gloom. After three days on the ship, his men were reckless, eager to be on their way. Like their dark-eyed leader, these were fighting men, killers in search of prey.
Romaine still couldn’t understand how they were able to track Cara and her captors in the darkness. The moonlight was enough to pick out the largest of the rocks on the valley floor, but Romaine struggled to make out the footprints of even his companions. How could Yasin track the passage of those who had passed hours, or even days, before?
Picking up his pace, Romaine overtook several of his companions, leaving Lorene to trail behind as he sought Yasin. He found the man still in the lead, picking his way up a slope dotted by ragged boulders the size of small dogs. Coming alongside the man in the gloom, he nodded a greeting.
“How far behind are we?” he asked, trying to find some clue as to how they were tracking their quarry.
“What am I, Calafe, a magician?” Yasin asked with a laugh.
Romaine scowled. “You seem to know where they’re heading.”
Yasin grinned at that. “Curious about Amina’s secret, are you?” he murmured. Then he flicked Romaine a glance, and his eyes narrowed in the moonlight. “Or is it the Goddess that’s got you so worked up?”
“Just professional curiosity,” Romaine said with a shrug. “I grew up near these mountains, though on the other side. Even in daylight I woul
d have struggled to follow a trail on these stones.”
“You Calafe are far too practical, you know that?” Yasin replied with a shake of his head. “So focused on what’s in front of your face that you miss the bigger picture.” He snorted. “Maybe that’s why you’re basically extinct.”
Romaine scowled, grinding his teeth together in an effort to keep the curses from tumbling from his mouth. Instead, he swallowed his anger and shrugged. Let the brute mock, so long as he led them to Cara.
“Perhaps you can show me the error of my ways,” he replied, though he failed to keep the hard note from his voice.
Yasin only grinned. “Nah, where’s the fun in that?” he chuckled, then returning his eyes to the path, he strode ahead. “Relax, big man. We can’t be more than half a day behind the bastards.”
Romaine frowned and was about to press the matter further when they topped the rise and found themselves on the shores of a small lake. Yasin hesitated, his eyes sweeping their surroundings, and the faint scent of smoke carried to Romaine’s nostrils. The breath caught in his throat and his hand dropped to the hilt of his blade, but there was no sign of movement in the nearby boulders.
Yasin was still searching for something, but focusing on the ashen smell. Though the wind was only blowing lightly at that moment, he knew how violent mountain gales could turn. If he’d been making camp on these shores, those boulders would have provided the perfect shelter.
The stench of smoke grew stronger with each step, and fist tensed, Romaine entered the cluster of rocks. Lorene found him there a few minutes later, crouched alongside the remains of a fire.
“So we’re on the right track,” the scout said as he approached, looking grim. “Suppose that almost makes the trespassing acceptable, right?”
Romaine only grunted, his mind on the discovery. Whoever was accompanying Cara obviously had not suspected they were being followed, for they’d made no attempt to hide their campsite. What were they doing here anyway? Why would Nguyen have taken Cara hostage, only to send her into these mountains with his soldiers?
It had to be the Archivist’s doing. Had she promised the king God magic, as she had all those weeks ago to Queen Amina? Perhaps that was why the man had so easily yielded the gauntlet—if Nguyen thought he would soon have the full power of the Gods at his back, its magic must seem trivial.
But no, it still made no sense that he would surrender it to an enemy. And it left unexplained how Erika planned to win the magic of the Gods. Did she expect them to greet her with open arms when she turned up on their doorstep with one of their own in chains?
He touched a palm to the ashes. They were cold, and given their quarry’s apparent lack of concern for their pursuit, it seemed unlikely they would have marched through the night.
“More than a day,” he muttered to Lorene.
“What?” the scout asked with a frown.
Romaine shook his head and rose as Yasin stepped into the ring of boulders. “They’re further ahead than you thought.”
A scowl crossed the man’s face, though he shrugged off the criticism. “It’ll be less by the time the sun rises,” he countered.
A few grumbles came from the shadows behind the man, but they cut off as Yasin flashed a glare over his shoulder. Romaine made to join them, when a glint of moonlight reflected off something lying amongst the boulders nearby. Turning from Lorene and the others, he crossed to the gap between the stones and lifted a pair of shackles.
“What have you got there, Calafe?” Yasin questioned. When Romaine did not immediately reply, he shouldered past Lorene to get a closer look.
Romaine’s attention was fixed on the chains, and he ignored Yasin as the warrior stepped up alongside him. Unless Erika had dragged more than one prisoner into these remote mountains, they could only have belonged to Cara. But there was no sign of a breakage in the steel. Someone had unlocked them, had freed the Goddess. What did that mean?
He passed a quick eye over the campsite, seeking signs of disturbance, for some indication that Cara had fought her way to freedom. There was nothing. Finally he shook his head and handed the shackles to the queen’s man.
“What do you make of this?” he asked, eyeing Yasin closely.
He turned the shackles in his hands, but the night’s gloom hid whatever reaction his eyes might have revealed.
“So your little Goddess got loose,” Yasin said finally. A smile tugged at his lips as he glanced around the campsite. “No bodies though. I wonder how Nguyen’s soldiers regained control of Her Divinity.”
Romaine raised an eyebrow. From what he’d seen of Cara in action, he doubted any number of human soldiers would be able to contain her. But at least the shackles finally confirmed once and for all that the Archivist had taken Cara against her will. He clenched his fist at the thought of the hateful woman. Erika would pay for what she’d done.
True to Yasin’s word, they pushed hard through the rest of the night, pausing only to pull fresh food from their packs. Weighed down by his injuries, Romaine found himself dropping to the back of the line once more, though Lorene kept him company. His mind continued to return to the chains he’d found, to the Goddess and Erika and the king’s soldiers. Was Cara still a prisoner, or had she somehow gained the Archivist’s trust?
But there would be no answers, not until they finally caught their adversaries. Only then would the truth be revealed.
Throughout the night, Romaine found no more hint of their quarry’s passage, though Yasin still seemed confident in his ability to track Erika and the Gemaho soldiers. Only as the first hint of light appeared on the distant horizon did the man begin to slow. Reaching the top of another slope, he squinted, scanning the rocky ground ahead before finally choosing a direction.
Romaine paused as he reached the spot where Yasin had hesitated, feigning the need to catch his breath—though after the slope they’d just traversed, it wasn’t much of an act. Ahead, the others continued along a ridge where the way was gentler, while Lorene came to a stop nearby, a grin breaking through the unkept beard that had appeared on his face over the last weeks.
“Getting old, Romaine?” he asked.
Grunting, Romaine ignored the jibe, his eyes turning instead to the east. Looking back across the plains of Gemaho, he was again reminded of the strangeness of where he found himself. Flat land, perfect for farming, stretched out as far as the eye could see, to that distant rising sun.
Even the sight of the sun on the eastern horizon was a novel sensation. In Calafe, the sun’s glow appeared behind the Mountains of the Gods hours before it broke their twisted peaks, leaving the land in shadow for much of the dawn. But here the light was already racing across the land towards them, casting back the last of the dark. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the trail…
…and caught a glint of something amidst the rocks. He frowned, hesitating in place, even as Lorene started to move off. The forbidden mountains rose ahead of them, capped by glacial peaks, but it was not those mountains that had drawn his attention.
Stepping from the trail, he knelt beside a boulder. A small X marked the rock, glowing with some phosphorescence in the shadow. But even as he leaned closer, there was a flash as the sun finally reached them, and the X vanished.
“You alright, Romaine?” Lorene called back to him.
Romaine remained kneeling for a moment, staring at the spot where the X had disappeared. Blood thumped in his ears as he turned the discovery over in his mind. It might have been created by some natural phenomenon, an algae or fungus that grew here in the mountains, yet…then surely it would have been elsewhere?
No, it had been no natural marking. This was the same spot where Yasin had hesitated, as though looking for something. Something to mark the way for them, perhaps?
Swallowing, Romaine returned to his feet and waved a hand to Lorene that he was okay. Ahead, the light of the rising sun had reached Yasin and the others, who appeared to be downing packs and setting camp for the day.
>
The sight confirmed Romaine’s suspicions. Someone was leaving markers for them to follow, ones that could only be seen in darkness. They couldn’t continue now, for Yasin would not be able to track their quarry. There was a spy in Erika’s party.
20
The Soldier
Stepping from the darkness of the basilica, Lukys squinted as the sudden brilliance of sunlight greeted his freedom. After so long beneath the ground it was all but blinding. Within moments, tears were streaming down his face. He embraced them.
A warm breeze touched his cheeks. Though winter had hardly just past, it was warmer in the south and the taste of spring was already in the air.
Finally his vision began to clear and he found himself staring across the plaza, empty now, his companions long since taken to their new…homes? He glanced sidelong at Sophia, wondering what had become of his friends, where he was to be taken now. Another day had passed before the Matriarch had granted his freedom and Lukys had spent much of that time wondering at his decision, whether he’d made the right choice. His acceptance had come quickly after the long silence—though of course, he hadn’t truly sworn himself to Sophia.
Had he?
Sophia said nothing, only stood watching him, a look of concern creasing her forehead, as though even now she worried what he might do.
But Lukys had made his decision, down there in the darkness. He had resolved to trust the strange Tangata with her earnest expression, and that was what he would do. For better or worse.
So he offered Sophia a smile and nodded for her to lead the way. A smile of her own appeared on Sophia’s face and she started off across the plaza without looking back. Drawing in a deep breath, Lukys followed her into the city.
It was still early, but dozens of Tangata already thronged the streets, moving about their business in the graceful manner in which they completed all tasks. Morning mist clung to the city, making it difficult to spot the humans amongst the wanderers, though if Lukys paid attention he saw them. Assigned humans apparently made up some ten percent of New Nihelm’s population.
