It was an unusually clear day from the Olympic Tower. Normally the rain shadow that the mighty Eisenberge Range created left thick, low hanging clouds which obscured Finsternis Tal below and the Shachor River beyond to Alkilion. But not today. Today the mid-spring sun had melted the fog away giving the two women standing on the Olympic Tower an unrestricted view all the way to the Alkite city of Schwarz Tor.

“What do you see, my apprentice,” the elder of the two women questioned the other with a sweeping gesture. She was a remarkably tall woman, almost the height of a full grown knight, and hypnotically beautiful. The woman’s age was difficult to guess as it seemed to shift; she could be anywhere from 25 to 45 depending on how one looked at her. Her features were smooth and unforgiving, like polished marble. Long blond draped loosely down her back while on her brow, an iron crown of thorns.

“Alkilion, Mistress,” the younger woman, a lithe redhead, quietly responded. Standing a few inches shorter than her companion, she was clearly still in her teens. Unlike her more voluptuous mistress, this woman’s body was tight and athletic, belying her rigorous lifestyle. Her fiery hair was doing in a single long braid down her back.

“Is that all you see, Athena apprentice?” the blond woman pressed her apprentice.

Athena squinted as she studied the site that lay before her. Dropping away hundreds of feet beneath was the Immer Pool. She could barely make out the faint roar of the Black Falls crashing into the pool. Slowly Athena pushed her gaze further along the densely forested Finsternis Tal that served as the gateway to her mistress’s domain.

From there, the mountains and the valley gave way to broad Plains of Alkilion that stretched beyond the horizon. Thick forests, rich fields, and lush plains filled Athena’s vision as she scanned the view before. It seemed that every shade of green was represented in her view. In her mind’s eye, Athena could imagine the bountiful harvests of rice, with wheat and barley being grown further to the south. Orchards of virtually every conceivable fruit were down there among the trees, she was sure. And grazing peacefully on the fields were sleek, Green Kine providing milk and meat to an entire nation.

“It’s a picture of wealth and beauty, Mistress Katrina,” Athena concluded.

“Wealth and beauty indeed,” snorted Katrina. “Do you know what I see?” she asked her apprentice.

“No, Mistress,” Athena dared not guess.

“I see injustice,” she explained. “I see a land drowning in wealth and luxury while we sit here in the mountains, scraping a living off the rocks. They reap a harvest a hundred fold without even sowing. We cultivate, plant, and tirelessly strive to tend and keep our little gardens only to see a surprise frost wipe it all out. Tell me apprentice, is that fair?”

“No, Mistress, it isn’t,” Athena demurely agreed.

“I’ll tell you what else I see,” Katrina’s eyes crinkled in a cruel smile. “I see our destiny, our birthright. All we have to do is reach out and take it.”

“But what of King Sennacheriv?” Athena reminded cautiously. “Did he not defeat you last time?”

“Do not speak his name!” hissed Katrina, her sapphire irises turning red for a brief, terrifying moment.

“Forgive me, Mistress,” Athena said in a quaky voice, dropping her head.

“For now,” Katrina allowed, returning her gaze to Alkilion’s plains. “It is true that flower humiliated me 17 years ago,” she spat out the epitaph. “But he and his people have grown fat and lazy in the last 17 years of peace and ease. They are ripe for the plucking and very soon, my apprentice, we will make them ours.”

2: Chapter 1

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

“I think you’ve killed the post,” an elderly voice cut into my work out.

“Not quite yet,” I returned my supervisor a smile before returning to my drills.

Twirling my short sword in my hand, I resumed my merciless assault on the olive tree stump. Woodchips sprayed everywhere as I repeated a set of stabs, parries, and slashes with increasing speed. All the while, I envisioned an armored opponent striking back at me, trying to take off my head as I valiantly defended the kingdom and my princess from his villainous offensives. After several moments, my already weary muscles began to complain at the overuse but I ignored them and continued on doggedly.

“You know that’s not really what that sword is designed for,” Judah, my supervisor and King Sennacheriv’s chief shepherd, pointed out.

“I know,” I replied as I continued the drills, “but you don’t have a knight’s scimitar lying around, do you?”

“No,” Judah admitted.

“Well, neither do I and so I’ve got to go with what I’ve got,” I told him.

“But you’re never going to use a scimitar,” protested Judah with a groan, triggering one of our oldest arguments. “What’s the point of practicing a style of fighting that only works with weapons you don’t have? That’s a good way to get killed if you ever have to go to war against the Desert Tribes or, gods forbid, the Sorceress.”

“They’re not my weapons yet,” I corrected him, giving the stump a few more solid whacks. “They will be when I’m a knight.”

“But you can’t be a knight,” Judah growled at me.

“Why not?” I asked, knowing full well the answer.

“You damn well know why,” Judah groused. “You’re not of noble birth. In fact, you’re not of any birth. You’re an orphan with unknown parents taken into the service of the king as a foot soldier. You are the most unqualified knight to ever walk the earth.”

“But I can fight,” I pointed out.

“No one cares about that,” Judah’s tone was reaching one of total exasperation. “Do realize how little actual warfare a knight does? We haven’t had a war in almost twenty years! Being a knight is more about appearances: banquets, balls, occasional tournaments, marrying noble women to make alliances between lords, entertaining ambassadors, and that sort of thing. A common soldier with no name, no land, and no family does not fit into that picture.”

“If we go to war and I prove myself, then I’ll at least get a name,” I explained.

“A) never hope for war,” Judah admonished. “There is no real glory in war; it is a horrific, bloody, messy affair where nobodies like you and me pay the price for the sins of the kings and lords. B) even if you survive a war, which fighting like that with that sword you won’t, do you understand how rare it is for the king to elevate someone from the ranks of the soldiers to nobility and knighthood?”

That forced me to pause for a moment. It was rare, I knew. Few people in the history of Alkilion had ever been so blessed. Omri, the current Lord-General of the army was one but he had a family that, while not nobility, at least had a name and owned their own land. I, on the other hand, was an orphan from an unknown family in the north that ended up in the king’s personal army. Someone like me had never been made a knight.

“Why you can’t just accept your place in life is beyond me?” Judah went on tiredly. “Just serve out your term of service and then go get a job somewhere like I did. You might even make a good shepherd if your head wasn’t constantly in the clouds.”

“Me? A shepherd?” I shook my head in disgust. “I hate sheep. They’re filthy creatures that are too stupid to get up when they fall on their backs.”

“Okay, so not a shepherd,” Judah acknowledged. “But something nice and quiet. Look at me,” he drew my attention away from the devastated stump to him. “I was like you: an orphan without a family name that ended up in the service of the king. I served my term in his army; even fought in the war with the Sorceress 17 years ago. I got a good, respectable job as the king’s shepherd, got a wife, a home, and even a daughter not much younger than you, if you want to meet her.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I told him.

“Come on Zimri,” Judah pushed the issue. “You’d like Tamar if you gave her a chance, I know it. She’s your age, pretty, and available.”

“Sorry,” I repeated. “But I’m in love with someone else.”

“By the Trinity boy, not the princess again,” groaned Judah, facepalming. “That’s even more ridiculous than becoming a knight!”

“Why?” I demanded. “If I become a knight, then I’d be eligible to marry the princess and we’re already friends, sort of.”

“Courtesy hellos and brief, passing conversations in the courtyard of the castle do not constitute a relationship,” Judah reproved. “Why can’t you just be normal and focus on your job?”

“Why would I want to be normal?” I wondered. “Normal sounds boring. Besides, who says I can’t do both?”

“Your missing sheep says so,” Judah deadpanned.

My sword arm froze midair and I straightened up to look around. I did a brief count of the sheep I was responsible for.

46…47…48…48…49…DAMMIT!

“How long has she been missing?” I sighed as I returned my sword to its sheath.

“I don’t know,” Judah shrugged. “I have you out here helping precisely so that I don’t have to keep track of all the sheep. But I’m guessing long enough you shouldn’t dawdle in finding her.”

“Now?” I guessed.

“The fact you even thought there might be a better time than now to go looking for a missing sheep I find appalling,” Judah shook his head.

With a sigh, I pulled my cloak off a nearby tree and used it to dry off my skin before donning my tunic. After briefly stretching my tired muscles, I gave a sharp whistle. Immediately a furry black and white head popped up from amidst the tall grass about 50 yards away.

“Come on Molly,” I called the dog, arguably my best friend, “we got work to do.”

With plenty of enthusiasm for the both of us, she bounded through the tall grass towards me. The knee-high black and white collie came to an abrupt stop at my feet and immediately scanned her sheep. Instantly she knew something was wrong, as if she had done the mental arithmetic and realized that one of her sheep was AWOL. She looked at me questioningly and gave a sharp bark.

“Yeah, one of them is missing,” I told her with a resigned sigh. “Let’s go find her.”

As if she understood (she probably did), the dog immediately turned and started running off through the tall grass as if she knew where she was going (again, she probably did). With significantly less energy and more than a few choice words about sheep, I followed after her.

It didn’t take long for me to confirm that indeed Molly knew where she was going. Even in the green, resilient young grass I could see the faint marks of bending indicating that an animal had recently passed through here, my guess was the wayward sheep. The set of droppings I stepped in merely confirmed it.

I hate sheep.

After a couple of minutes of following Molly’s sensitive nose and wondering how far a sheep could possibly have wandered, an ear-splitting scream broke the relatively quiet spring afternoon. Both Molly and I looked in the direction of the scream and took off at a dead run. It’s amazing the energy boost a scream can give you.

Less than 30 seconds later we crested a hill to see our lost sheep standing over a young woman, licking or trying to chew on her face. The woman was batting at the sheep and laughing as it harmlessly and idiotically tried to graze her. For a moment I felt relief that the screamer was okay until I saw who she was: the girl of my dreams.

Or as everyone else calls her, Her Royal Highness Princess Ariadne.

And she was out here, on the Shepherd’s Fields, alone with one of my sheep trying quite unsuccessfully to eat her face.

Needless to say I couldn’t move.

Thankfully Molly, who does not share my rather amorous feelings for the princess, had no such compunctions about sauntering up to the sheep, whom she was far more interested in anyway, and barking at her. The sheep stopped slobbering over the princess and looked at the collie, blinking stupidly as its pathetic brain tried to process the stimuli. Another couple of barks and a nip from Molly encouraged the sheep to back off Ariadne.

Laughing, Ariadne sat up to the astonishment of the sheep and scratched Molly appreciatively behind the ears, much to Molly’s joy. It was then that she looked back up the hill to where I was standing, gawking like a complete moron.

“Oh, hey,” she called to me. “This your sheep?”

“Uh,” my brain started short circuiting. “Yeah. Well, I mean, technically they’re yours, or your father’s anyway.”

“My father?” she arched an eyebrow out me. “You mean the king?”

“Right, of course,” I stammered. “His highness, the king, your father, your highness. This is his sheep. And his dog too, I think. Your highness,” I remembered my manners and bowed low, forming a fist with my right hand placing it under my left, upright palm.

She gave a lilting laugh that made my heart to backflips. “I’m just giving you a hard time,” she told me. “You don’t have to be all formal with me, at least not out here. Out here, it’s Ariadne, Zimri.”

“You know my name?” I blurted out.

“Of course I know your name,” she gave me a warm smile. “I’ve seen you around the castle and this isn’t the first time we’ve talked.”

“Well, I guess,” I lamely replied. “But I didn’t think…” I trailed off, not thinking it wise to finish my thought.

“Didn’t think what?” she raised a questioning eyebrow at me. “Think that a princess like me would remember you? And why not?”

“I guess because I’m nothing but an orphy,” I answered in a moment of absolute truthfulness. “Apologies for my language, your highness,” I hastily added, feeling my face flush.

“It’s alright,” Ariadne waved off, “And remember, it’s Ariadne out here. I enjoy the occasional informal conversation. We’re much more real that way and one gets tired of the court-speak nonsense. As for you being ‘nothing but an orphy,’ that’s up to you.”

“What do you mean?” I cocked my head and studied her for a moment.

“I figure whether we are someone or no one depends on us,” Ariadne explained, picking at a tall stalk of grass. “I mean, the Trinity has given us a life; we decide what to do with it regardless of where society puts us.”

“That’s easy for a princess to say,” I pointed out before my brain could stop me.

“Perhaps,” she acknowledged. “Although sometimes being a princess can make you feel like the least important person in the world.”

“I don’t understand,” I furrowed my eyebrows. “Everyone wants your life. You’re rich, powerful, could have any guy in the kingdom you wanted, not to mention beautiful.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” she smiled sweetly at me. “Even like this?”

Her black hair was messed up, her cinnamon skin covered in grass, dirt, and sheep-drool but her almond eyes were smiling. In other words, she was heart-stopping gorgeous.

“Absolutely,” I answered automatically.

She laughed again. “You’re sweet,” she told me. “Sit down,” she patted the ground next to her.

“I should get the sheep back,” I mumbled as my legs obeyed her command.

“Oh come, sit,” she repeated her request. “Besides, as you so astutely pointed out, this is my sheep anyway.”

“That’s a good point,” I allowed a grin as I sat down on the grass beside her.

“So what’s it like tending sheep all day?” she inquired as soon as I sat down. “And I thought you were in my father’s army?”

“I am,” I answered. “But since there’s not a whole lot for us to do with no war at the moment, Lord Omri often lends us out to other parts of the castle. For some reason, I keep getting stuck with being out here with the sheep.”

“Stuck?” Ariadne wondered. “Being a shepherd would be fantastic. Outside all day, able to go just about where ever you want, feeling the breeze and the sun.”

“It’s not quite so romantic,” I told her. “You can only go where the sheep go and after a while the sun can get pretty warm. Plus, there’s the sheep.”

“What’s wrong with sheep?” she reached up and stroked the sheep next to her that had since lost interest in her as a snack and moved on to actual grass. “They’re so adorable.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Sheep are many things but I wouldn’t call them ‘adorable’,” I stated. “They’re stinky, filthy creatures with less intelligence than the grass they eat. You do not want to know where that wool has been. Or more correctly what has been in the wool.”

Ariadne got the message and quickly withdrew her hand and wiped it on the grass. “Still, it must be nice to not be cooped up in a castle all the time.”

“I guess,” I shrugged, having never really thought about it. “Is that what it’s like to be a princess? You said sometimes you felt like the least important person in the world.”

“Yeah,” she nodded as she ripped up some of the grass around us and twirled it in her palm. “It sounds like I would be the freest person in the world but it’s just the opposite. It’s always, ‘Go to this ball,’ ‘Wear this dress,’ ‘Talk to this person.’ I don’t even get to choose who I will marry.”

“You don’t?” I felt hope sink in my chest.

“No,” she shook her head. “Because I’m the only child and not a male, whoever I marry is going to inherit the throne. So my dad has to be very careful who he allows to marry me so that the kingdom will be in good hands. Sure, there are a lot of nobles fighting for their sons to marry me, or to marry me themselves, but no one wants me; they just want my dad’s throne.”

I want you, I thought to myself but dared not voice that out loud. If she thought I was being too forward, it could mean my head. Aloud, I concurred, “That sounds rough.”

“It is,” she sighed. “It doesn’t help that since my mom died when I was young, my dad’s been overprotective of me all the more. Do you know how rare a treat it was for me to come out here alone today?” she asked me. “This is a once-a-year birthday gift from my dad. I almost never get to leave the castle otherwise and even then it’s with an armed escort.”

I sat there silently for a moment. Ariadne’s birth story was one of the most tragic in the kingdom. Her father, King Sennacheriv III, had a Caphtorim queen named Lydia whom he loved deeply. After several unsuccessful tries, she became pregnant with Ariadne shortly before the Sorceress War. She went into labor while the king was near the Schwarz Wald, nearly a hundred miles away, trying to repel a sudden invasion by the Sorceress of the Eisenberge. The labor was especially difficult and worry over her husband complicated things to the point that Lydia died, although Ariadne made it out okay. The king was heartbroken.

There was speculation that maybe the Sorceress had somehow cursed Lydia, killing her and almost killing her child but no one was able to confirm that. The king seemed to believe it though and went into a rage, sparking a three year war with the Sorceress that ended in driving her back up the Finsternis Tal into the mountains. It was a total victory but that did little to assuage the king’s grief or his protectiveness of Ariadne.

“It sounds like your life is more like a prison,” I observed.

“It is,” she nodded. “I guess I shouldn’t complain. I have plenty of clothes, clean water, constant food, a roof over my head, and servants to attend whatever needs I have. Which is more than commoners have. My life must seem pretty good from their point of view but there’s more to life than the basics, you know?”

“The grass is always greener,” I mused.

“Huh?”

“Oh, it’s a saying that Judah is always saying,” I explained. “It means that someone else’s life always looks better than our own until we have their life. Then the other life looks better.”

“Want what’s not yours,” Ariadne nodded her understanding. “Pretty smart.”

“He has his moments,” I acknowledged.

We sat in silence for a moment, considering life. “What is it that you want?” I wondered. “If it isn’t being a princess, what would you want?”

“I’m not sure it matters what I want,” Ariadne replied, leaning back on her hands. “I guess I would want to meet a man that wasn’t intimidated by my title or rank and just saw the real me and would love me for just that; me being me. But like I said, it doesn’t matter. Whether I like it or not, I’m a pawn in a bigger game. What about you? I guess you don’t want to be a soldier all your life? Or I shepherd, judging by your opinion of sheep.”

“No, not a shepherd,” I allowed a small smirk to crease my face. “I want to be a knight.”

“A knight?” she raised her eyebrows. “Really? Why that?”

“I guess because I want to be in a position to make a real difference, you know?” I answered, concealing the more direct reason I wanted to be a knight feeling that a bit inappropriate to share. “I want to protect people.”

“And that’s what you think knights do?” she sounded dubious. “Okay then.”

“You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?” I narrowed my dark brown eyes at her.

“I would never make fun of a knight,” she gave me a mischievous smile, drawing even a laugh from me. “But seriously,” she sobered slightly, “I think it’s really cool that you want to protect people. I just hope you know that you don’t have to be a knight to do it.”

“I suppose,” I sighed. “But that’s what I want to do and it seems like being a knight is the best way to do it.”

“Well I’d make you a knight if I could,” she gave me an appreciative smile. “You certainly did a brave thing rescuing me from the sheep.”

I started to laugh again. “Except it wasn’t me,” I pointed out. “Molly’s the one that rescued you.”

“That’s true,” she laughed. “In that case, I shall have to make Molly a knight. Come here Molly,” she called to the dog.

Molly, who was investigating an interesting hole, perked her head up and trotted over to the princess.

“Sit,” Ariadne commanded her and Molly sat. Picking up a long piece of grass, Ariadne gently tapped Molly on either shoulder, pronouncing, “I dub thee Lady Molly, Rescuer of Princesses and Vanquisher of Sheep.”

Molly just licked the princess in the face.

“I think she approves,” I laughed, unable to control myself.

“Of course she approves,” Ariadne replied with mock-haughtiness as she gently pushed the dog back down. “She couldn’t refuse her princess, now could she?”

“I suppose not,” I shook my head before glancing at the sky. “Oh no,” I groaned. “I’ve spent almost all afternoon here. Judah’s going to kill me.”

“Don’t worry,” Ariadne told me with a smile. “I’ll just tell him that you were with me. Being friends with a princess has to have some benefits, right?”

“That works for me,” I felt relieved for a brief moment.

Just then I heard the thunder of hooves and looked up to see a huge black horse with an armored knight barreling towards us. Beside me, Ariadne sighed angrily.

“It looks like you’re not the only one in trouble,” she grumbled as the knight came closer.

A moment later, he reined his horse to a stop in front of us and lifted his helmet to reveal the last person I wanted to see: Sir Baasha, son of Pekah, Lord of the Gadol Province, Knight to the King, and all around pain in my rear.

“I thought I’d find you here,” he glared triumphantly at me. “Judah will be furious to find out that you left him alone with the sheep all afternoon while you were sitting here talking.”

“Baasha, he stayed because I told him to,” Ariadne attempted to intervene.

“Do not defend him princess,” Baasha cut her off. “This scoundrel has shirked his duties to the king and lost a sheep and will be punished accordingly.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Ariadne promised. “Besides, he didn’t lose the sheep. She’s right here.”

True enough, the sheep in question was calmly munching grass under Molly’s watchful eye. Baasha glared at it.

“Very well,” he allowed grudgingly. “You still left your post. Know that I’m watching you.”

“I hope you like the view,” I barked back impertinently. This guy got under my skin like no one else.

“Watch your mouth, soldier, and remember who you’re talking to,” he snarled as his hands noticeably hovered over the hilt of his scimitar.

“Please, Baasha,” Ariadne stepped between us. “Surely you didn’t ride all the way out here for one simple foot soldier.”

“No, of course not, your highness,” Baasha’s hand moved away from his blade and he straightened up. “You are late in returning to the castle and your father was getting worried.”

“And he sent you to fetch me,” Ariadne finished with an exaggerated sigh. “Predictable. Very well, take me home.” She expectantly held out her hand for Baasha to help her onto the horse.

“Expect to be hearing from me later for your insolence of fraternizing with the princess and abandoning your duty, Zimri,” Baasha threatened again as soon as Ariadne was secured in the saddle.

“Insolence?” Ariadne barked at Baasha. “Zimri spent the afternoon watching over me while I was out in the fields alone. He should be rewarded, not punished. In fact, I’m going to reward him now,” she turned to me. “Next week is my birthday celebration Zimri and I am personally inviting you to be my guest at the celebration. Just come to the door of the dining hall and the guard will let you in.”

I blinked in shock at the invitation. Judging from his expression, I could tell that Baasha was just as stunned. Commoners such as myself did not get invited to these celebrations except as help-staff.

“I, uh, yes, I’ll be there, your highness,” I stammered out a reply while Baasha glared daggers at me.

“Good,” Ariadne smiled. “Now Baasha, be a dear and take me home. Father’s sure to be furious. And take care of my sheep for me, Zimri,” she called after me as they galloped off.

I think that Judah gave me the tongue-lashing of the ages when I got back to the herd, but honestly I don’t remember. I was floating the rest of the day.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

KA-BOOM!

Smoke, dust, sparks, and spasmodic coughs filled the underground laboratory as Athena picked herself up from the far wall. Dust and ash covered her face and her hair was standing out on the ends.

“That looks like it worked out brilliantly,” a male voice entered the room, waving the dust away.

The man in question was about Athena’s age, late teens, a few inches taller than Katrina or so, and muscular. His features were sharp and chiseled, similar to Katrina’s. Like Katrina, he had blond hair although his was short and spiky. He would’ve been considered handsome except for the angry, almost feral look in his pale blue eyes.

“For your information, Aiden,” Athena growled at the young man, “it did. I wanted to know what would happen if I put pure sodium in water and now I know. That’s the point of these experiments: to figure out how things work.”

“Whatever,” Aiden dismissed with a wave of his hand. “If you spent half the time practicing your sorcery as you did playing with your potions, you’re powers would rival the Mistress.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Athena nervously ordered.

“She’s not here, so don’t panic,” Aiden point out.

“She was not too long ago,” Athena answered gathering her wits. “I guess I’m still a little jumpy.”

“Regardless,” Aiden moved on, “you spend too much time with your potions and not enough on your sorcery.”

“I’m plenty good,” Athena snapped at him.

“Oh really?” Aiden challenged her. “Then why did the Mistress entrust me with a secret mission that will topple Sennacheriv and give her Alkilion?”

Athena glared at him as she tried to determine if he was lying or not. They were always being played off each other by Katrina both to keep them sharp and also to keep them focused on biting each other rather than trying to take her out. This could be just another ploy by Aiden to get an inside track on her somehow, although she didn’t quite know how.

“I don’t believe you,” she finally decided. “The Mistress wouldn’t trust you with something like that and not tell me. She was just here after all.”

“Maybe she doesn’t value you as much as you think she does,” Aiden goaded.

“That can’t possibly be true,” Athena growled back one of her weakest retorts.

“Why else would I come to your pathetic excuse for a castle if I wasn’t going to Alkilion?” Aiden asked her. “I’d certainly not come here by choice.”

“You’re going to need more proof than that before I toss you out on your ass,” Athena snarled at him.

“Temper, temper, flower,” Aiden smiled smugly at her. “You wouldn’t want to do something that’ll get you hurt, now would you?”

“That’s it,” Athena snapped as she raised her hand. “Brennt ihm!”

Flame erupted out of her hand and raced towards Aiden. With a smirk, Aiden raised his hand to block the flame.

“Blass,” he spoke calmly, blasting a wind that dissipated the flames around him. “Hab ihr inne!”

Athena felt herself lifted up and pinned against the wall while Aiden laughed at her.

“Like I said,” he taunted, “I spend more time practicing magic than you thus I’m more powerful than you.”

“Sure about that?” Athena grunted out as she struggled against the invisible restraints. “Frei schweben!”

Athena reached her hand past Aiden, grasping a glass vial filled with a greenish gas and swung it at Aiden’s head, cracking it on him. Instantly the glass shattered, expanding a green cloud around him. The combination of the blow to the head and the burning gas reduced the wizard to a spasmodic, teary-eyed, coughing mess.

Dropping to the ground, Athena grabbed a knife and leveled it at Aiden’s neck, her blue eyes dancing with almost sadistic glee. “As you were saying, flower?” she taunted.

“You…can’t…kill…me,” Aiden gasped through the burning in his lungs as his hand fished in his tunic, producing a piece of paper.

Athena took it and scanned it. In short, it told Athena exactly the same that Aiden had told her. He was on a secret mission for Katrina and she ordered Athena to extend Aiden every assistance and hospitality. And just before she could pass it off as a forgery, she saw Katrina’s enchanted, impossible to forge signature at the bottom.

“Fine,” Athena relented with a growl. “Why didn’t you just show this to me to begin with?”

“I wanted…” Aiden gasped, still on the floor, “…to give you a…hard time. Air.”

“You’ll be fine in a couple of hours,” Athena dismissed. “It’s just a touch of chlorine. Stop being a baby.”

“And…my…head?” he asked.

“At worst a mild concussion, probably just a bump on the head,” she snorted. “Seriously, toughen up. Now what’s this secret mission you’re on?”

“Don’t…you understand the meaning…of the word…‘secret’?” Aiden tried to be smart which lost its effect with him sounding like an asthmatic.

“If you need my help, you’d better do better than that,” Athena stood over Aiden, crossing her arms and glaring down at him.

“I…need…to change…my skin,” Aiden wheezed.

“Your skin?” Athena cocked her right eyebrow. “How?”

“I…need…to look like…an Alkite,” Aiden informed her. “I’m going to be living in Alkilion for a while and we’re too white to go unnoticed for long.”

Athena considered this new information for a moment. Aiden was planning on going to Alkilion, which in of itself wasn’t unusual. Both of them, along with other of Katrina’s agents, had taken trips into Alkilion on fact-finding missions. But Aiden needed his skin tinted to match the brown-skinned Alkites in order to pass as an Alkite. That was unusual. Obviously he was up to something more than checking up on their economy.

The question that Athena was asking herself was what. What was Aiden really up to that could topple the Kingdom of Alkilion and why would he need to be an Alkite to do it? An assassination attempt, maybe?

No, she shook her head as she studied the laboring Aiden. That wasn’t Katrina’s style. After her humiliating defeat at his hands 17 years ago, Katrina reserved the right for killing Sennacheriv to herself. Besides, simply killing Sennacheriv wouldn’t topple Alkilion. It would significantly weaken Alkilion and cause confusion for a year at most, but wouldn’t destroy Alkilion, at least not enough for Katrina to roll through, would it? Unlikely unless Katrina had something else up her sleeve.

But even for an Alkite, Sennacheriv couldn’t be easy to get to. From what she understood about Alkilion politics, only the king had a standing army, measuring about 500 strong which in and of itself made getting to him difficult. Then there were the king’s personal knights, who were supposed to be the best of the best in the kingdom. Undoubtedly they would have a diligent personal guard around the king at all times.

So no, Aiden couldn’t be going after Sennacheriv. So what was he up to? Athena asked herself again while her guest worked to recover his wind.

“Are you going…to help me or not?” Aiden questioned, clearly getting better.

“Hmm?” Athena snapped out of her thought-process. “Oh, of course. It wasn’t like the Mistress gave me a choice, did she?”

“No,” Aiden agreed.

“Very well,” Athena sighed and went over near the door and pulled a string dangling by the door. Somewhere in the distance there was the faint ringing of a bell followed by rapidly approaching footsteps. A minute later, a young blonde-haired girl poked her head in the doorway to the lab.

“You rang, my lady?” the girl breathlessly asked.

“Yes Katherine,” Athena didn’t turn to face her servant. “I need a quart of oil, gallon of water, and three dozen carrots immediately.”

“Immediately, my lady,” Katherine turned and dashed up the stairs.

“You have her trained well,” Aiden observed scratchily. “Did you break her mind?”

“No,” Athena replied as she swept off one of her stone oven-tables. Reaching around, she grasped a large iron pot and placed it on one of the burners. “I don’t do that unless I absolutely have to,” she explained while fussing to light the burner.

“You’re soft,” Aiden mocked.

“Says the man who nearly choked to death on some green gas,” Athena retorted. “Breaking people’s mind I’ve found to be counter-productive except for common soldiers and the Mistress doesn’t allow us to do that. Mindless servants I’ve found to be more work than those who can think and take initiative.”

“Aren’t you worried that they’ll turn on you?” Aiden wondered.

“Now who’s soft to be scared of his servants?” Athena taunted.

“Your supplies, my lady,” Katherine reappeared with the oil, water, and the carrots.

“Place them on the table,” Athena gestured. Katherine immediately fulfilled the order. “Leave us,” Athena shooed the young girl with her hand and gratefully Katherine scampered away.

Athena immediately set to work, heating up the oil and water while she shredded the carrots into the mixture. She then took out a block of solid iron and started to grind it into powder.

“So why exactly do you need to look like an Alkite?” Athena inquired innocently as she continued pounding the iron into dust while the concoction was being heated up towards a boil.

“I’m under orders of secrecy,” Aiden drew himself up with the table and leaned against it as he blinked the lingering cobwebs out. “Nice try, though.”

“Can’t blame me,” Athena answered as she poured the iron powder into the cauldron.

“I suppose,” Aiden shrugged brushing his hair back down. “What is that?”

“This,” Athena ladled some up to check the consistency, “is going to turn you into an Alkite.”

“How?” Aiden sniffed the air. “It smells horrible. Am I supposed to bathe in that?”

Athena’s mouth creased into a shrewd smile. “Oh no,” her eyes gleamed wickedly at him. “You’re going to drink it.”

“What?!” Aiden yelled. “I’m not drinking that poison.”

“It’s not poison,” Athena growled defensively. “Do you really think I’d poison the Mistress’s favorite? Although,” she added in a mocking tone, “how long do you think you’d remain her favorite if you refused my assistance and got busted doing whatever it is you’re doing?”

Aiden went paler than usual. “Give me the ladle,” he decided.

“Not now, dumbass,” Athena barked at him, slapping his hand away. “Let it cool.”

She pulled the pot off the stove and placed it on the stone counter, absently blowing away the excess steam with her hand. After about five minutes, she grabbed a clay cup and ladled it in.

“Here you are,” she handed the chalice to Aiden. “Drink up.”

“This will turn me into an Alkite?” Aiden stared at the concoction suspiciously.

“Into an Alkite? No,” Athena laughed. “That takes actual magic that neither of us possess. What this will do is turn your skin a rusty orange that is a rough approximation of Alkite brown. Not perfect, but it should work long enough until you get your skin tanned.”

Aiden took a deep breath and swallowed the drink in one gulp.

“Dragon’s breath!” he gagged, struggling to keep the bile rising in his throat down.

Athena laughed maliciously as her rival hacked and heaved. “I never said it would taste good,” she commented calmly.

“I wasn’t expecting good but this is revolting!” he exclaimed, checking his arms. “It didn’t even work. I’m still white.”

“Why do you think I made all this?” Athena gestured to the pot.

“I’m going to have to drink all of that?” Aiden turned green instead of brown.

“Eventually,” Athena smirked at him. “Of course drinking it all at once wouldn’t have the desired effect and it would make you sick. Although I wouldn’t mind that, the Mistress would probably kill me slowly and painfully while you rot in an Alkite prison.”

“So how does this work and do you have some water?” Aiden’s voice was still a bit dry.

“This works by you drinking half of this over the next two days and no, you can’t drink water,” Athena added. “That would dilute the solution and it wouldn’t work.” That part wasn’t strictly true but Athena was having too much fun with this. “Keep drinking the rest while you’re in Alkilion until it is gone to maintain your glossy tone.”

“How long will it last?” Aiden studied the pot as if he wasn’t sure it would be enough.

“A week or so after you’re done,” Athena informed. “This batch should give you enough to last for about two weeks in Alkilion during which time I strongly suggest you spend out in their famous sun soaking up as much of it as you can. Give yourself a natural and extensively dark tan and you should pass well enough for an Alkite.”

“I hate you,” he snarled at her as he took another glass.

“The feeling is mutual,” Athena replied with a broad, dramatic sweep of her arm. “Ring this bell for Katherine and she’ll set you up with your room and take care of your hair.”

“My hair?” Aiden cocked his head. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

“There are no blonds in Alkilion, dumbass,” Athena rolled her eyes at the door. “She’ll dye it black for you.”

“And where are you going?” Aiden demanded.

“That much is none of your damn business,” Athena snapped and walked briskly out of the lab.

A couple of minutes later she was standing on the top of the Olympic Tower, the tallest building in her castle that overlooked the Finsternis Tal at the edge of the Eisenberge. Unlike that day less than a week ago, the usual clouds hung about half a thousand feet below her 4000 foot elevation.

But her mind wasn’t on the clouds or the Dark Valley below. It wasn’t really on Aiden who was being little different that his typical whiny, annoying self. It was on Castle Zahav, the Golden Castle, hundreds of miles away where Sennacheriv lived and undoubtedly Aiden was going. The question Athena had running laps in her mind was what was Aiden up to?

She’d already established that he wasn’t going directly after the king. Katrina was more subtle than that and while it might topple Alkilion, at least temporarily, it wouldn’t hand the country to her. Additionally Sennacheriv was too well protected and too well guarded for that. But aside from the king, she pondered, what other weak spot did Alkilion have?

“The princess,” she realized so suddenly that she said it aloud.

Of course, Athena berated herself. She was far from an expert on Alkite politics but she did know that Sennacheriv had only one child, a daughter about three years older than herself. During the war with Katrina, the girl’s mother had been killed. That was possibly the spark of the war, Athena wasn’t entirely sure. In any event, Katrina had suffered a humiliating defeat at Sennacheriv’s hands which was the source of her particular hatred for the Alkite monarch.

In any event, the princess was the king’s only child and therefore only heir. Take her out of the equation and that could bring Alkilion to its knees. That, Athena decided, must be what Katrina was sending Aiden after.

But why him and not her? Athena wondered. She knew more about Alkilion than Aiden did. After all, her castle sat on the border of the two lands. She had more interaction, albeit still little, with her darker-skinned neighbors than did Aiden who lived in the center of the Hidden Valley. Did Katrina really trust him more than her? Was she being pushed out by him? Or was this a test?

Yes, Athena decided, this had to be some kind of test or competition set up by Katrina. She was always doing something like that; it was one of the many things Athena hated about that woman. She was always testing her two apprentices with deadly challenges that pitted them against each other. Katrina said that it was to keep them sharp and hone their magical skills but Athena suspected that it was to keep the apprentices at each other’s throats and away from Katrina’s. Not that Athena had much choice in the matter; it was win or suffer miserably the consequences of failure.

That’s what it had to be. The ultimate test with the ultimate prize: Alkilion. Both had heard Katrina expound viciously on her disdain for Alkilion and her special hatred of Sennacheriv. What could better gain a place of honor in the witch’s eyes than to deliver Alkilion to her on a silver platter? Was that why she was here earlier? Athena wondered. To discuss Alkilion to place seeds in Athena’s mind? Yes, that had to be it.

But Aiden had the advantage. He had Katrina’s permission and plan and was already executing it. Athena had to work fast to catch up. The princess, Ariadne? Was that her name? Anyway, the princess had to be the key to all of this. She had to get to her before Aiden could. Athena needed a plan.

Near one of the battlements was another string connected to the bell-system of the castle and Athena rang it. A couple of minutes later, a breathless Katherine emerged from the door in the center of the round tower and hustled over to her mistress.

“Yes, my lady?” she panted.

“Get me my Alkilion informants,” she ordered her servant. “I want to know everything there is about Princess Ariadne.”

3: Chapter 2

I sniffed my shirt to make sure it was clean; it smelled like soap, which was good. I had diligently washed it this morning, after all. Checking my shaggy black hair in my warped mirror one last time, I took a deep breath and headed out of the barracks to join the throng heading to the Golden Keep.

Immediately I felt horribly out of place. All around me were nobles decked out in rich, colorful robes that would dazzle a rainbow. Gem-encrusted jewelry dangled off their ears, hands, necks, and arms. And I was just standing there in an unadorned black shirt and loose dark brown trousers. Their servants were better dressed than me. Needless to say, I felt awkward.

I felt even more awkward when I got to the Golden Keep, which shone like a giant candle in the night. The gold-leafed dome was lit up with multi-colored lanterns to honor Princess Ariadne 20^th birthday. Banners and floral arches greeted us as we came up to the massive doubled doors of an affair that would make our religious festivals blush in its opulence.

“Hey! What are you doing here? Nobles only,” barked a gratingly familiar voice as I approached the gate.

“Sir Baasha,” I sighed my greeting, placing my right fist under my left palm. He returned with a smirk, his left fist under his right palm.

“I have an invitation Baasha,” I reminded him. “You should know; you were there.”

“Funny, I don’t remember,” the burly knight scratched his chin thoughtfully. “And its Lord Baasha to you, soldier.”

“Fine, Lord Baasha,” I gritted my teeth trying not to anger someone who could at the least toss me in the stocks for a night, “but as you know, I was personally invited by Princess Ariadne herself less than a week ago.”

“I have not been informed of this invitation,” Baasha played dumb as he continued to bar my way. “If you want in, you’ll have to declare your noble heritage.”

He was trying to get under my skin and I knew it. What really infuriated me was that it was working. I balled my fists and began considering exactly how much trouble I would get in for decking the son of one of the Seven Great Lords.

“Oh wait, you can’t, can you boy?” Baasha’s dark eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure as he extended the goad. “That’s because you don’t know who daddy is, do you orphy?” he snarled out the epitaph.

My muscles tensed but before I could deck the far more powerfully built Baasha, he grabbed me by my collar and slammed me against one of the marble pillars surrounding the portico entrance to the Golden Keep.

“Listen here,” he rasped. “I’ve seen how you look at her but the princess is mine, do you hear me? Mine. She is mine and her throne is mine and I’ll be damned if some nameless whelp like you gets in the way of that.”

“You don’t even care about her, do you?” I defiantly barked back from my helpless position. “All you care about is becoming king. You don’t deserve her.”

“And you think you do, orphy?” demanded Baasha. “What can you offer her? You have no name, no property, and no prospects. You are nothing.”

“I can offer her my love,” I pointed out.

Baasha just laughed. “Your love?” he roared. “What is love compared with being married into the most powerful province in the kingdom?” He dropped me to the ground and towered over me. “If you know what’s good for you boy, you’ll turn around and get your sorry ass back to the barracks.”

“BAASHA!” a sharp yet distinctly feminine voice cut in. “What are you doing?”

“Merely keeping out the trash, your majesty,” the knight assumed an innocent expression, as we both bowed low.

“The trash?” Ariadne strode up to Baasha. Despite being a good eight inches shorter than the knight, she placed her hands on her hips and glared him down. “Did you call my friend Zimri, who is here by my personal invitation, trash? I would watch your words very carefully if I were you, sir knight.”

With no small satisfaction I watched Baasha’s jowls work as he struggled to maintain composure. Unlike losing his temper with me, snapping at the king’s only child, especially when marrying her would make you the heir to the throne, wouldn’t be advisable. So Baasha kept his mouth shut and merely took the rebuke.

“Forgive me, your highness,” he finally apologized. “I didn’t know that he was your guest.”

Ariadne regarded him for a moment before snorting. “I’m certain,” she decided to let it go for the moment although I doubted she would forget his lie. “You were only there when I made it,” she added with subtle indictment. “I hope your memory on the battlefield is better than this.”

“Of course, your highness,” Baasha was too well disciplined to turn red but I could tell he was humiliated being berated by the princess in front of his “rival.”

“Come on Zimri,” Ariadne gestured to me, “I’ll take you in.”

“Yes, your highness,” I said as I stood and dusted myself off.

“Careful orphy,” Baasha hissed in my ear as I brushed passed. “One of these days she’s not going to be here to save your ass.”

“Who’s saving who?” I snapped back rhetorically. Bravado’s easy when you have nothing to be afraid of at the moment.

“Sorry about that,” Ariadne apologized as we slipped past the mob into the throne room that had been converted into a decked-out dining hall.

“It’s not your fault that Baasha’s a jerk, Ari—, uh, your highness,” I amended.

“I guess you need to call me ‘your highness’ here,” the princess sighed. “But I can still call you Zimri,” she gave me a smile.

“This is quite a celebration,” I commented looking around at the people and the decorations. In the well-lit dome, it was even more opulent than it looked on the outside.

Ariadne stuck out her bottom lip in a pouty-pensive look. “If I had my way, it would be a small, private thing with my dad and a few friends,” she told me. “But my father wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted on this being the biggest celebration of the year, even bigger than the Rain Festival for Shama’im, which I find borderline blasphemous. But dad insisted on nothing but the absolute biggest and best for ‘his little girl.’ Dads, right?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I mumbled awkwardly.

Ariadne’s cinnamon skin suddenly flamed red. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I forgot that you were, well, an orphan.”

“It’s alright,” I tried to shrug it off. One did not embarrass the princess, especially on her birthday. “So the king didn’t listen to your simple party idea?”

“No,” she sighed. “Instead I have this,” she swept her hand around the decorations. “And them,” she gestured to the people crowding the huge room. “I don’t even know most of them and I like even less than that. Of course I’m supposed to greet everyone, shake hands, kiss cheeks, and be a gracious hostess like a good princess while people who don’t even know me give fake platitudes.

“I know why they’re really here,” she went on, “and it has nothing to do with wishing me well. They’re here to scope me out and see if they can set me up with their sons to get their grubby hands on the throne. As if any of them deserve it.”

“You never know,” I said, trying to sound upbeat, “your Prince Charming could be in this crowd.” He might even be standing right next to you I was tempted to add but controlled myself.

“Think so?” Ariadne had an almost hopeful look in her eyes as she turned to me.

“It’s a distinct possibility,” I replied, not sure if I should be hopeful or crushed that I didn’t immediately come to mind, not that I should’ve been surprised. After all, who was I in this room?

“I hope you’re right,” she said. “I’m already 20 and my dad isn’t getting any younger. We’ll have to find an heir soon.”

That did crush me. Even if Ariadne would consider me a potential suitor, there is no way her father Sennacheriv would. But now would not be a good time to bring that up.

“I guess I’d better go mingle with the high-brows,” Ariadne sighed as we both briefly scanned the crowds. I noticed several rather well-dressed people giving us curious looks, probably wondering what the princess was doing with someone like me or how I got in to begin with. “Thanks for coming,” she added gratefully. “It’s nice to know that I have one friend here.”

“Truly my pleasure,” I told her. “Oh, before you go, I made you this,” I pulled out a strip of woven wool from my pocket. “It probably isn’t as glamorous or fancy as the other gifts people have for you, but it’s from a mutual friend.”

Ariadne took it and studied the woolen bracelet for a moment before her face lit up. “My sheep!” she exclaimed. “Thank you, Zimri,” she broke protocol for a brief moment and gave me a quick hug before controlling herself. “It’s the best present I’ll get all night,” she added, tying it around her wrist.

We stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before she said, “I’d better get going. Thanks again for coming.”

“No problem,” I forced a smile. “You look beautiful, your highness.”

“Thanks Zimri,” she smiled at me and my heart melted. Before I could recover, she was gone in the crowd.

For the rest of the evening, I sneaked drinks and food while having to convince various staff members and nobles that I was actually an invitee and not the help, which was decidedly uncomfortable. No one was interested in talking to me so I stood by myself against one of the pillars and watched Ariadne flit from aristocrat to aristocrat, thanking them for coming and receiving their birthday wishes. Various lords or ladies would introduce their son to her, who would stare awkwardly at the ground while she politely smiled at them. The food was good at least.

I get that that sounds creepy but I had literally had nothing else to do and she did look stunning in her loose, light green silk top and matching skirt that exposed her toned midriff. An elegant white cape hung from her shoulders. Her black hair had gold strands braided in while her silver and emerald tiara sat proudly on her head. She was a vision and my heart would not slow down as I watched her.

After a while, I began debating whether or not I should leave. Ariadne wasn’t going to come back, probably, as it would be socially unwise of her to do so. There would probably be going to be some kind of speech and dancing later but I wasn’t going to be participating in that. Besides, I was getting bored and there was no real point in me being there.

“Attention, lords and ladies,” a booming voice suddenly rang out over the throng, arresting my attention. “The King, Sennacheriv III, Lord of Alkilion.” Trumpets blared and appearing on the dais in front of his throne was the king himself.

Imagine “king” and the image that pops into your head is Sennacheriv III. A tall, powerful build with regal posture he had a commanding bearing that made you want to follow him. Creases on his face betrayed the stress his nearly three-decade reign had taken on him but did not lessen the confident demeanor that his dark eyes exuded. His white linen robes tied with a golden sash, a white and gold cloak, and high golden crown completed the picture of a king.

“Thank you my lords and ladies for making the journey to celebrate the birth of my daughter, your Princess Ariadne,” his rich voice boomed over the crowd. “Please, Ariadne, come up here,” he called. “Where is my daughter?”

“Here, your highness,” Ariadne’s voice called from the crowd as it parted for her. A moment later she joined her father on the dais.

“Ah, there you are,” Sennacheriv beamed with only the pride that a father could exude. “My lords and ladies, your Princess Ariadne,” he displayed her and everyone applauded. Even Ariadne seemed to be pleased, although that smile very well could’ve been out of awkwardness.

“Today she has completed her second decade,” he started the typical parental birthday speeches you hear everyone give.

And that is when it happened.

It was almost imperceptible at first, merely a subtle darkening of the air behind Sennacheriv and Ariadne. Even after the mysterious black hole was clear, the king and princess didn’t notice until the horrified gasps of the audience. They turned just in time to see a figure emerge from the rift and grasp Ariadne and press a wicked-looking dagger to her neck.

Time seemed to stop as we all stared in shock at the strange woman holding an edge against the princess’s neck. She was tall maybe a couple of inches shorter than myself, and strikingly beautiful. But no one noticed that. Instead we all focused on her copper hair, pale skin, and cruel sky blue eyes.

An Eisenbergian.

One of the King’s Guard was the first to recover, drawing his scimitar and charging the Eisenbergian woman.

“Brenn ihm,” she calmly called out, looking him in the eye and extending her hand.

Instantly a gout of flame erupted from her fingertips and engulfed the charging knight. His screech of agony echoed off the stone walls of the throne room as she held him in the inferno, roasting him alive. After several seconds, she released the flame and a charred, smoking corpse clanked to the floor.

“Anyone else care to try?” she asked, her voice tinted with a sharp accent.

Needless to say, no one moved.

“I am Athena, Apprentice to Katrina, Sorceress of the Eisenberge,” she declared. “My Mistress sends her regards.”

That’s when I snapped out of my stupor and I charged. It was a fantastically stupid idea as I had to cross half of the throne room and push my way through a dense crowd of fat nobles to reach a woman with unknown intentions holding a knife to the neck of the princess. Only a million things could have gone wrong.

And none of the possible worst-case scenarios happened; instead something far worse.

The woman, Athena, saw me out of the corner of her eye and turned to face me. We locked eyes for a moment and I felt my heart quail as I looked into those heartless crystal eyes. They smiled humorlessly at me as if she knew what I was trying to do and knew that I had no hope.

She dropped the knife to Ariadne’s arm and slashed it the length of her forearm. Ariadne let out a scream of pain as red blood squirted out of the wound, which the Eisenbergian sprayed in front of them.

“Bahn heim,” she spoke, eyeing me as I kept running towards them.

The blood began to turn into a black mist in the air, coalescing into another black hole. Realizing what was happening, I kicked into another gear reaching the dais just as the black hole solidified. Once again I locked eyes with the Eisenbergian woman, her eyes dancing victoriously, knowing that she had won. She wrapped an arm around Ariadne and leapt into the void just as I extended my arm to grab Ariadne a split-second too late. The rift vanished and I grasped nothing but air, stumbling helplessly into the throne. My eyes glanced up to King Sennacheriv and we exchanged the same helpless thought.

Ariadne was gone.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Two hundred miles away, Ariadne collapsed the cold, hard stone at the peak of the Olympic Tower, her mind utterly disoriented from the teleportation. Futilely she tried to stand, only for her legs to give way and drop her unceremoniously back on the ground. Bile rose in her throat and before she could react, the Princess of Alkilion wretched her guts out.

“Get control of yourself and stop puking on my tower or more than dinner will be coming out of you,” snapped a cold feminine voice from behind. Ariadne turned to see the redheaded Eisenbergian standing over her, hard blue eyes glaring down at her.

“Help,” Ariadne managed to squeak out.

“You’ll get over it soon enough,” the woman icily remarked. “The first time is always disorienting.”

Ariadne couldn’t think as her mind spun around in circles. She tried to focus on her captor, but all she could see was a blurry white face framed with a shock of auburn-red. The figure reached out and pulled something. Off in the distance, like listening to something underwater, she heard a bell ring.

“What do you want with me?” Ariadne finally asked. “Who are you?”

“You’ll remember who I am once your brain clears and as for what I want with you,” the voice smirked. “You’re a smart girl; you’ll figure it out.”

There was a snap of the fingers and Ariadne felt strong arms grab her and drag her to her feet.

“Take her to the dungeon,” the woman barked.

Ariadne’s world swirled and then went black.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

“Wake her,” Athena ordered her servant an hour later.

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Katherine observed, gesturing to the blood pooled underneath her right arm.

“I can see that, Katherine,” Athena replied through gritted teeth. “Now wake her.”

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Katherine wondered.

“Do you think I give a fuck?” snarled Athena. “Now get in there and wake her before I have you sitting in a pool of your own blood.”

Katherine jumped and scrambled to unlock the cell door. Quickly she hustled over to Ariadne’s figure, dipped a rag in the briny solution she was carrying, and held it under her nose. A moment later, Ariadne’s eyes fluttered open and she started coughing. Immediately Katherine retreated out of the way while Athena strode in and stood over her, arms crossed and icy eyes boring into her. The princess stared at her for several moments as her dark eyes tried to focus on the figure over her.

“You’re the Sorceress,” Ariadne finally exclaimed.

“That entirely depends on what you mean by ‘the Sorceress’,” Athena answered with a glare. “I am a sorceress but I assume by the Sorceress, you are referring to my Mistress. No, I am not her.”

“What do you want with me?” Ariadne repeated her earlier question.

“At the moment, your arm,” Athena brusquely replied.

“What?” Ariadne blinked in confusion.

“Did I fucking stutter?” growled Athena. “Give me your arm.”

Deciding it was a good idea to go along, Ariadne held out her right arm for Athena. The sorceress took hold of it and examined it for a moment.

“What’s this?” she asked, indicating the wool bracelet.

“It was the birthday present from a friend,” Ariadne answered.

“Interesting gift,” Athena observed fingering the wool. “Not exactly the gift of royalty, is it?”

“It’s the thought behind it,” Ariadne answered. “Although sentimentality isn’t something I imagine you would understand.”

“No, it isn’t,” Athena emotionlessly answered as she withdrew a knife from her belt and slashed the bracelet off, dropping the blood soaked wool to the ground. Ariadne cried out and grasped at it but Athena held her arm still in a steel-like grip.

“Hold still,” she sternly admonished the princess.

Athena snapped her fingers and Katherine raced in with a kit that she placed next to the apprentice before retreating again. Without acknowledging her, Athena withdrew a vial of clear liquid and popped the stopper. She then poured the strong smelling liquid into the gaping wound. Ariadne howled in pain as the alcohol burned her nerve endings. Reflexively she began thrashing around but Athena held her arm steady and began wiping her arm down with a clean rag.

“Stop being such a flower,” she ordered. “This will keep your arm from getting infected. Now, if you don’t want this to hurt anymore, then hold bloody still.”

“What are you doing?” Ariadne gasped as the burning subsided.

“I’m stitching your arm so that you don’t bleed out,” Athena answered as she threaded the curved needle. Taking a hold of Ariadne’s arm again, she punctured the skin and began sewing it back together.

“You’re not going to kill me?” questioned a surprised Ariadne.

“Brilliant deduction,” sniped Athena as she focused on getting the stitches right. “If I wanted you dead, do you really think that I would’ve gone through all the trouble of bringing you back here? Clearly, I need you alive.”

“What for?” Ariadne wondered.

“Use that pretty little head of yours people are always prattling about and figure it out,” Athena barked.

Ariadne, Athena reluctantly admitted to herself, quietly, and bravely bore the stitching while gnawing on her bottom lip. Over the years Athena had gotten a fair amount of practice from stitching herself and the few others she needed to preserve and so she sewed up the long slice rather quickly and efficiently. Upon finishing, she pulled a roll of fresh gauze from her bag and wrapped it tightly around Ariadne’s arm.

“That should keep you from bleeding out,” she announced. “I’ll be back in a day or so to change your dressing and check for infection.” Athena turned to leave.

“You’re not going to torture me or something?” Ariadne asked, confused.

“Why on earth would I do that?” Athena demanded sharply, whirling on the princess. “Torture is only useful for extracting information and even then, I have better, more reliable ways of getting what I want out of peoples’ heads. Aside from that, torture is a messy, boring, and pointless exercise. Is there some reason I should be torturing you?”

“No,” Ariadne answered. “It’s just, if you weren’t going to torture me, why cut my arm?”

Athena put her hands on her hips and stared at the stone ceiling, letting out a long sigh of exasperation. “If you must know, I needed your blood to work the teleportation spell,” she explained as if that ought to be the most obvious thing in the world.

“Why?”

“Well I wasn’t going to use my blood,” Athena retorted.

“No, I mean, why must you use blood for the spell? How does that work?” Ariadne pressed.

“Do you really want to know the inner workings of magic?” growled the redheaded sorceress.

“Not really,” Ariadne gave a weak shrug.

“To answer your question,” Athena decided to give a brief explanation, “Spells, particularly powerful spells such as a teleportation spell require the spilling of blood. More powerful spells require a life. Some spells, like the one I used on your imbecile of a guard, draw blood on their own and thus do not require blood to work.”

“He was merely doing his job,” Ariadne defended the man who had given his life in a futile attempt to save her.

“And he clearly failed,” Athena smirked coldly. “I suppose it is only fair that he paid for it with his life.”

“But you just killed him,” Ariadne protested. “You never gave him a chance to defend himself.”

“Would he have accorded me the same courtesy?” Athena arched an eyebrow. Ariadne said nothing. “I thought not,” she went on. “I killed him before he killed me, simple as that.”

“Simple as that,” Ariadne shook her head. “How can killing ever be simple?”

“Because getting killed is simple,” Athena answered coldly. “I live in a different world than your precious Alkilion where everything is soft and comfortable. I live in a world that you cannot possibly understand; a world where it is kill or be killed. So yes, I’ve killed people and I will continue to kill as long as I have to. I don’t expect you to understand or care.”

“I know,” came Ariadne’s quiet reply.

Athena stared at her in shock, looking hard into the princess’s dark brown eyes. She had expected to see anger, hate, or revulsion there like she had seen in so many other victims. Instead Athena saw reflected a quiet dignity and something else that she had never seen before: pity.

“I don’t think you’re a monster,” the princess added. “I feel sorry for you; truly.”

Athena felt a hot rage build up in her. “You feel sorry for me?” she roared. “I could end you with a word! I can make your life a living hell if I wanted to.”

“But you won’t, will you?” Ariadne perceived sadly. “Because for all your threats, for all your power, deep down all you are is simply scared.”

“Brenn ihr!” Athena thundered, extending her right arm.

A jet of white flame exploded from her fingertips, scorching just to the left of Ariadne’s face. The princess felt the heat blister her skin and singe her hair, but strike the wall behind her.

“You may not fear me, princess,” Athena snarled in an almost feral voice, her irises gleaming red. “But soon you will meet someone you will fear. And when that day comes, you will have no time to pity me.”

Turning on her heel, Athena swept out of the cell.

4: Chapter 3

“Are you alright?”

The voice sounded far away, look through a long tunnel. Everything else around me blurred like time itself had slowed down almost to a stop as my mind tried process what had just happened.

I just couldn’t believe what I had just seen. The woman, that Eisenbergian, had appeared out of thin air, grabbed Ariadne, and vanished into a shadow. That wasn’t supposed to be possible.

But it had happened and she was gone whether or not my mind could accept it. A human being had transported herself hundreds of miles and then vanished in the blink of an eye. And if she was only the apprentice…I shuddered to think of what the real Sorceress would do.

“Are you alright, son?” the voice intoned again and slowly I came back to reality.

I blinked my eyes and forced myself to focus on the source. Slowly the blurry image resolved into the concerned face of the king.

“I’m sorry, your majesty,” I gasped out, “I failed you.”

“You tried, which is more than I can say for the rest of us,” he said in a remarkably calm voice. Yet in his dark eyes I could see a terrifying combination of rage and grief that was barely restrained.

“My lord!” a familiar voice called out.

Turning my head, I saw my commander, Lord-General Omri dashing up. He was dressed in party regalia like everyone else except that he wore his scimitar on his hip.

“My lord,” he repeated as he ascended the dais and gave a quick bow to King Sennacheriv. “We’ve searched the keep.”

“Already?” Sennacheriv looked dubious.

“Only the keep my lord,” Omri explained. “And it was admittedly a brief search but there is no sign of either the Eisenbergian or her highness.”

“I expect not,” Sennacheriv sighed. “She wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble to get here if she were only to be stuck. While it has been awhile, I have seen this particular spell before.”

“You have, my lord?” Omri looked quizzical.

“Yes,” the king nodded. “About 17 years ago at the end of the Sorceress War. The Sorceress used it to escape my grasp,” he rolled up the sleeve of the robe on his right arm, revealing a long scar, “I had knocked her to the ground and was about to run her through when she drew a dagger and sliced my arm open. She then said those same words that the Eisenbergian used, ‘Bahn heim’ I believe, and then a black hole appeared in front of me. Before I could react or finish her, she leapt through and was gone. Shortly afterwards her army crumbled and she hasn’t been seen since.

“The point is,” Sennacheriv sighed rolling back down his sleeve, “that she has taken my daughter far from here. I don’t know how far the teleportation spell works, but given what we saw, it must work from as far as the Eisenberge to here.”

“So it must work all the way back,” I interjected without thinking. “Forgive me, sire,” I immediately added, feeling my face flush.

“Zimri!” Omri exclaimed, noticing me for the first time. For some reason, I was still on the floor. “What are you doing here?”

“I sort of tripped,” I answered lamely.

“You know what I mean,” the general glared at me.

“Her highness personally invited me,” I replied, getting raised eyebrows from both the king and the general. “I couldn’t refuse.”

“He nearly saved Ariadne too,” Sennacheriv came to my defense. “Just missed her by inches. Help him up, Omri.”

General Omri grasped my hand and pulled me to my feet. Instantly I felt a woozy from standing up too fast and my head began to pound.

“Are you alright?” Omri questioned as I teetered back and forth slightly, reaching out a hand to steady me.

“Yeah, just give me a moment,” I blinked away the black splotches and my vision began to return to normal. “I must’ve hit my head harder than I thought.”

“You’ll need your strength,” Sennacheriv told me solemnly, “for when we march on the Eisenberge. I’ll need soldiers like you.”

“Pardon me sire,” Omri turned the king. “But marching on the Eisenberge would be suicide.”

“We outnumber them 10-1,” Sennacheriv pointed out. “And I’ve let that damned witch sit in her mountains long enough. I’ve already paid the price of my daughter.”

“And if we march on the Eisenberge in force, you will be paying the price of thousands of people’s sons,” Omri countered. “I know that you are angry sire, but do not let that cloud your judgment. While it is true that we would probably win a war with the Sorceress, it would cost us thousands of lives. Our army is not built to fight in that terrain.”

“So what would you have me do General?” demanded Sennacheriv, allowing some of that anger to bleed through the kingly veneer. “Sit on my throne while my daughter is being held in some mountain dungeon having the gods-know-what done to her? Is that what you want from me?”

“No sire,” Omri calmly replied. “I am not suggesting anything of the sort. I am simply stating that we need to strategize before we rush into the Eisenberge.”

“Katrina will pay for this,” Sennacheriv snarled in a low voice. “She took my wife from me but she will not have my daughter. I swear to you Omri I will not rest until Ariadne is safe and Katrina’s head decorates my throne. I will tear down the Eisenberge itself if I have to but I will see her destroyed like I should’ve done 17 years ago.”

“Yes sire,” Omri’s eyes flickered to me. “Zimri, if you’re feeling alright, could you help down there?” he gestured to main hall. “I need you on crowd control to keep people from panicking and also, I believe, some women have fainted, as has Lord Ham. If you could be of assistance?”

Judging by the look in Omri’s eyes, I gathered that my presence was no longer needed and therefore I should exit posthaste. I bowed to the king, who didn’t even notice me, and hurried off the dais.

Most of the crowd was still in shock. There were several veterans of the Sorceress War in the crowd but they had seen little in the way of magic, often fighting from a far. Those who saw it up close…well the charbroiled guard still on the dais was evidence of what happened then. Sennacheriv must possess a potent combination of skill and luck to have gotten so close to the Sorceress and survived.

But even for those who had seen and survived spells this was an unparalleled shock. All those events had happened in the Finsternis Tal or the Schwarz Wald under the Eisenberge shadow and those were hundreds of miles away. Those places were wild and unpredictable anyway.

But this was Castle Zahav, the heart and soul of our kingdom. This was supposed to be our sanctuary, our refuge where our king sat and judged the Seven Provinces. For that woman to come in here and take Ariadne just like that was a violation of the worst kind. It was like our soul had been violated and we were left bare, exposed, and vulnerable. It left us wondering if any place was safe.

I could see that sense of violation etched on the faces of the nobles all around me who just stared or sat in quiet shock. Some I knew supported the king and others, like Pekah of the Gadol Province were always angling for something, and even others downright hated him (privately, of course). But to all, this place was sacred. For nearly 1200 years, 9 Dynasties of kings had ruled from this castle, forging together tribes and clans from all over the Alkilion plains into a single, thriving nation greater than any on earth.

And then this had happened. It shook us on more than a personal level, although it shook me there pretty bad. It shook us on a spiritual level. This castle and its sanctity were central symbols to our identity. To see it violated so easily, so trivially was something that shook to the core of who we were. That had nothing to do with politics.

As my shock slowly faded, I began to feel Sennacheriv’s outrage at what had just happened. What had Ariadne ever done to anyone except be awesome? Why bring her into all of this? The quarrel was between the Sorceress and Sennacheriv, wasn’t it? And that had been over for 17 years. Why do something now?

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I wanted to take the Sorceress and her apprentice on myself and rip them limb from limb. What she had done was beyond wrong; it was despicable. She targeted an innocent young woman and taken her off to hell instead of the king. And she had done it from behind at a celebration when Ariadne had no chance to defend herself. She had then murdered a knight before he could take three steps. There was no honor, no dignity in any of it and I wanted to make them pay dearly for what they had done.

Remembering Omri’s instructions, I paused to look around the throne room. Everything seemed to be under control. The Knights of the Guard, the king’s personal guard, had taken control of the situation and so there was no need for me any longer. King Sennacheriv and Omri were no longer in sight, having most likely retreated to a back room where Sennacheriv could unleash all the pent-up emotion he was feeling. That explained Omri hurrying me off the dais.

In any event, my work, such as it was, was over for the evening. I stepped out into the cool, evening air and began to trudge across the long courtyard towards the barracks in the far wall of Castle Zahav. I had gotten about halfway across when a sharp shove sent me sprawling. Picking myself up, I saw Baasha glowering over me.

“Like that, little hero?” he hissed at me.

“I did far more to save her than you did,” I stood back up and shook off the dust. “You were thirty feet away and didn’t even move from your spot, coward.”

“What did you call me?” Baasha grabbed a handful of my shirt.

“A coward,” I repeated. “One who lacks the ability to deal with fear or stress; a coward.”

It was probably the wrong thing to say to someone who has a good four inches and forty pounds of muscle on you, but I was angry and tired and confused. In any event, the next thing I knew I was sailing across the courtyard, slamming shoulder first into the packed dirt, lancing pain racing from by elbow to my back.

Baasha pounced again in a minute. “Care to call me that again, orphy?” he snarled as he kneeled over me, both hands digging into my shoulders.

That was enough for me. I had just watched the love of my life get abducted by some psychopathic teenager; I was not going to let that epitaph slide any more. Grabbing his biceps for leverage, I drove my knee towards his groin only to pull short at the last second.

What am I thinking? I demanded of myself. I have more honor than this.

Baasha noticed the falter and laughed. “Who’s the coward now?” he taunted. “You don’t have the courage to finish an honorless strike, orphy. Don’t worry though,” he gleamed at me. “I do.”

He struck his fist against the side of my skull, sending sparks dancing before my eyes.

“The princess isn’t going to save you this time,” he sneered, drawing his arm up for another strike.

This time I didn’t hesitate. To punch me, he had released my left shoulder. Now I reflexively shot my arm straight up, the back of my forearm catching a glancing blow from his fist. It was enough to redirect his blow straight down into the earth.

There was a loud thump followed by a spray of dirt and shower of cursing as Baasha jumped back and off of me in pain.

Not wasting an opportunity, I rocked my torso forward, twisting my hips to build momentum and swung my right fist around, connecting with Baasha’s unsuspecting jaw. It wasn’t a powerful blow by any stretch of the imagination. But it caught him enough by surprise to knock him completely off of me and send him sprawling on the courtyard dirt.

“I don’t need the princess,” I told him as I stumbled to my feet, my body aching.

I was too tired and too sore to care what Baasha might say or do so before he could respond, cradling my arm I shuffled off to the barracks.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day the castle was still in shock. None of the party guests had left, opting to fill up all of the spare rooms in the keep and the surrounding apartments. Some of my fellow soldiers had been forced to give up their rooms and sleep in the courtyard to accommodate the stranded nobility.

Even Baasha seemed out of it. At least I assume he was because he didn’t have me thrown in the stocks for decking him the previous night which was decidedly out of character for the knight. Either that or he didn’t want to admit getting cold-cocked by a lowly foot soldier.

In any event, around noon all of the lords and foreign dignitaries were recalled to the throne room. Apparently Sennacheriv and Omri had been up all night planning what course to take aside from marshalling the army and marching into the Eisenberge and now they had some sort of big announcement. Since I had been there and was one of the more coherent soldiers left after last night, Omri roped me into standing watch at the back of the throne room.

“Thank you all for coming my lords and ladies,” Sennacheriv began in a solemn voice. “Admittedly, the circumstances today are quite a bit different from those last night and a lot more sobering. I don’t need to go over what happened as all of you were there for the abduction. The issue at hand is getting her back.

“The most obvious solution would be to marshal the army and march on the Eisenberge,” he went on. I could see the dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. “However this would be a foolish idea for several reasons.”

“Excuse me King Sennacheriv,” interrupted a pale, portly man with dark hair and a wreath of some kind stuck in his hair. “But how does this concern us? This seems like an issue between you and the Sorceress.”

“This affects us all, King Joktan,” Sennacheriv’s eyes flashed. “Do you think that the Sorceress will be content simply harassing my people?”

“Why not,” King Joktan replied. “She seems to have a special hatred of Alkilion. She’s left the Flussen Reich alone for the most part. Besides, I have the Saline Sea sitting between me and the Eisenberge. Why should I get involved?”

“Because she is a threat to us all,” Sennacheriv answered sharply. “Or do I need to remind you what happened last night? One of her apprentices transported herself nearly 200 miles in the blink of an eye and then disappeared equally quickly. And that was just her apprentice. The gods know how many more she’s got and if that is the power of her apprentice, imagine what she herself must be capable of. Are you sure you feel safe, King Joktan, in your Caphtorim palace now?”

The portly king swallowed hard. “If she’s as dangerous as you say, then why should I do anything to arrest her attention?”

“Because you will receive it whether you do anything or not,” Sennacheriv’s voice dropped to a low, gravely tone. “None of you have ever faced Katrina; I have. She craves power and control above all else. It is no accident that she has targeted Alkilion first among us. We have the largest population, the most resources, and the most direct access to the rest of the world. If she were to gain control of Alkilion, think my lords of what it would mean for you.”

The foreign rulers and ambassadors shifted their feet uncomfortably at the thought of the Sorceress, whom we’d all heard about but never actually seen, gaining control of Alkilion with all her vast resources. It was not a pleasant thought, especially for us Alkites.

“But why now?” someone else spoke up. “She hasn’t made a move since you defeated her?”

“I confess to you Lord Pekah, I do not know,” Sennacheriv admitted heavily. “Her timing is as much a mystery to me as what she intends to accomplish by kidnapping my daughter. However, that she has made a move is more significant than her timing. It means that whatever she’s been brooding on these 17 years has come to fruition and she’s moving. Rest assured that whatever it is, it won’t stop with us.”

“You have our attention,” King Joktan allowed. “What is it that you propose?”

“As I said earlier, we cannot march an army to the Eisenberge,” Sennacheriv explained. “We could, I suppose, but this would be most unwise. The rugged, sharp terrain of the Eisenberge would become death traps for our armies. On sheer numbers alone, we could overwhelm whatever defenses the Sorceress has in place, assuming that she hasn’t turned the whole country into sorcerers, but it would be extremely costly.

“So instead I have a more covert tactic in mind,” Sennacheriv paused and carefully studied each of the gathered lords. “Send our best knights to infiltrate the Eisenberge, find Princess Ariadne, rescue her, and kill the Sorceress.”

No one spoke for a long minute.

“Forgive me King Sennacheriv,” a dusky man, King Anselm of Ashkenaz, breeched the silence, “but that is insane. The Eisenberge is a death trap to all who walk there. Nature itself conspires against you. It is a land built above the sky where what little air there is to breathe is nothing but snow and ice. The animals are terrifying; they even have dragons lurking in the crags. And then there is the Sorceress herself. Do you really think that she will let one of your knights walk into her lair and take her most important captive out? Do you really think that any of us here can kill her?”

“If we don’t and soon, she will kill us all,” Sennacheriv promised.

“It is impossible,” another lord, Alkite if I judged my accents correctly, said.

“There is one more thing,” Sennacheriv added. “Whoever rescues my daughter and brings me the Sorceress’s head will be worthy of her hand and my throne.”

Up to this point, I had been only half paying attention. I was still tired from the emotional rollercoaster of the previous night but this got my attention. If someone rescued Ariadne, they’d get to marry her? It was a dream come true. All I had to do was sneak into the most dangerous place on earth and kill the deadliest person in the world. But for me, that wasn’t a problem; for Ariadne, I’d jump into a river of fire.

“So my lords, will any of you take up the challenge to rescue my daughter?” Sennacheriv asked them.

No one said a word.

“Very well,” Sennacheriv sighed. “I will give you three days. Remember what’s at stake here, my lords.”

On that note, the meeting ended. The lords dissolved into some sort of heated discussion about the insanity of the whole thing and simultaneously which of them was going to try it. I don’t really know; I wasn’t really paying attention. My own mind was whirling.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

“Wake up!” Athena barked at her sleeping captive the following morning.

“Hmm?” Ariadne blinked and rolled over to face her captor.

“Give me your arm,” Athena ordered.

“What?” Ariadne asked dumbly.

With a growl of frustration Athena roughly grabbed the princesses arm and began unwrapping the dirty gauze, examining the wound. From Ariadne’s point of view it looked rather ugly; greasy and discolored from the trauma it had sustained but Athena seemed pleased. Or at least as pleased as the apprentice ever seemed.

“Will I live?” Ariadne asked with a hint of a smile.

“For now,” Athena humorlessly replied. “Although I wouldn’t be happy about that if I was you.”

“I thought you weren’t going to torture me,” Ariadne tilted her head questioningly.

“Don’t tempt me,” Athena snapped back.

Athena was annoyed at this young woman. She ought to be quaking in her cell, whimpering for her father, and cowering in fear every time Athena looked at her. Instead she was relaxing on the cold, stone floor like it was one of her feather beds back in Alkilion. Either she was a complete idiot who didn’t really understand the danger she was in or she was the bravest person Athena had ever met. In either case, the princess was starting to grate on her.

“I think I know why you’re keeping me alive,” Ariadne calmly announced while Athena cleaned her arm.

“Oh?” Athena half-heartedly replied.

“Yes,” the princess nodded her head. “It kept me up a good part of last night to figure it out.”

“And what did you come up with?” Athena asked, not really caring about the answer.

“You’re trying to bait my father into a war with Eisenberge,” Ariadne deduced.

“Why wouldn’t I just lead an army and save myself the trouble of your company?” Athena proposed, not wanting to admit that Ariadne was dead-on.

“Because then you would be fighting on Alkite ground and Alkite terms,” Ariadne explained. “But, if I remember my geography correctly, if you could draw the Alkite army into the mountains, you could tear them apart.”

“What makes you say that?” Ariadne now had Athena’s full attention.

“The primary weapon of the Alkite army is our knights, or heavy cavalry, which would be useless in the Finsternis Tal or anywhere else in these rugged mountains,” Ariadne elucidated.

“But surely you have infantry as well,” Athena countered.

“Oh we do,” Ariadne confirmed. “There is a small standing army of about 500 soldiers at Castle Zahav. The rest are conscripts from the general population. But for the most part our soldiers are basically an untrained mob that fights by sheer force of numbers, which wouldn’t be of much use in the narrow defiles of your land.”

“How do you know all of this?” Athena couldn’t help asking, more than a little impressed with the princess’s knowledge of military tactics and strategy.

“I didn’t have many girlfriends growing up,” Ariadne shrugged. “After what happened with my mother, my dad was more than a little overprotective of me. I had bodyguards with me wherever I went and so I ended up spending a lot of time around soldiers. I picked up a few things.”

“Pity,” Athena grunted as she began rewrapping Ariadne’s arm in fresh bandages.

“It won’t work, you know,” Ariadne pointed out.

“What makes you say that?”

“If I can figure out what you’re up to, so can my father or Lord Omri,” Ariadne told her. “They won’t be foolish enough to fall for your trap.”

“Oh I think they will,” Athena gave her a cold, humorless smile.

“You underestimate my father,” Ariadne answered.

“And you underestimate a parent’s love,” Athena retorted sharply. “After what happened to your mother, your father would throw away his kingdom to get you back.”

Ariadne considered that for a moment. “Do you understand how a parent’s love works? Do you know what it is like?” she asked softly.

“I understand it well enough to exploit it,” Athena growled.

“Did your parents love you?” Ariadne looked sadly at Athena.

For a moment, Athena’s crystal eyes flashed red as her countenance darkened. “I have been merciful so far but speak of my parents once more and I will make your stay with us most painful,” she warned in a venomous tone.

“Forgive me,” Ariadne apologized.

“Your arm should be fine for now,” Athena abruptly stood to go. “I’ll check back this evening. I suggest, princess, you get some rest. My Mistress will be here in a couple of days and then you will need every ounce of strength you have to survive.”

“Wait, may I ask you something?” Ariadne called to Athena as she reached the cell door. “Your mistress is the Sorceress so you must work closely with her, yes?”

“As closely as anyone does,” Athena admitted.

“Do you know…was she the one who killed my mother?” Ariadne stammered out. “I’ve always been told that she killed her but I want to know for sure.”

A cruel smile creased Athena’s lips. This was a mystery that she did know the answer to; Katrina had talked long and often about it.

“Think about it, princess,” Athena answered coolly. “Your mother had a difficulty getting pregnant and had already miscarried twice before she became pregnant with you. Her pregnancy with you was a difficult one. And then, at the end, there was the added stress of an impending war with the Eisenberge. You’re a smart girl; you put the facts together.”

Ariadne stared blankly at her for a moment as her mind tried to process Athena’s line of reasoning. “What?” she finally gasped out. “Are you saying that the Sorceress didn’t kill my mother?”

“No,” Athena’s shook her head, a triumphant gleam in her bright blue eyes. “I’m saying you did.”

With a cruel laugh, Athena strode out of the cell, leaving a broken Ariadne in her wake.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

WOOF!

The sharp bark made me freeze in my steps. Slowly turning my head in the direction of the sound, I heard the approaching click of claws on the hard cobbling of the courtyard. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have noticed them but in the dead of night, they sounded like thunderclaps.

WOOF! The bark sounded again as the culprit came into range of night vision.

“Molly! Shh!” I hissed at the dog. “I’m sneaking here.”

The dog recognized her name and came up to me, panting and wagging her tail enthusiastically. I had no idea what she was doing here as dogs, this one in particular, were usually out with the sheep.

“Does Judah know you’re here?” I asked leaning down to scratch behind her ears.

Molly didn’t answer but instead leaned up against my leg appreciatively as I gave her a good scratching.

“I’m sorry girl, but I have to get going,” I told her as I started again for the gate.

To my mild annoyance, Molly pattered along right behind me. “Stay here!” I sternly commanded. “This is one adventure I can’t take you with me on this adventure.”

Molly sat for about three steps before she got up and started trotting beside me.

“Molly,” I groaned as quietly as I could, “stay here. You’re going to get us both in trouble.”

Obstinately Molly ignored my wishes and kept right up with me as I got closer to the gate.

“I told you to stay,” I growled at her. She merely cocked her black and white head quizzically. I snorted and decided just to ignore her.

I made it almost to the gate, which was closed except for a small postern door beside it for foot traffic at night when I got busted.

“Zimri, what are you doing?” a familiar voice called out to me.

“Uh, Lord Omri, I’m, uh, going out for a walk,” I stammered, greeting him with a short bow.. “What are you doing?”

“Not answering questions from my subordinates for one,” Lord Omri stepped into the light of a nearby torch. “Now do you want to try that again or are going to stick to your story of going for a walk with all of your gear strapped to your back?”

My face felt hot as I knew I had been thoroughly busted. Omri gave me a knowing look as he studied me for a moment. “You wouldn’t be going after the princess, now would you?”

“I, uh,” I stammered. “I have to.”

“Have to is a strong phrase,” Omri observed. “Come with me, Zimri,” he beckoned in a voice that left me little option.

“My lord, I have to go,” I repeated.

“That we shall see,” he said. “Let us find a better place to talk. And bring the dog; I have a feeling she’ll need to hear this.” I have no idea what that meant.

With no other option, I followed Omri to a lean-to built into the side of the wall near the gate where his office and quarters were. Not the most luxurious for the commander of Alkilion’s armies but Omri never complained. We stepped inside to where his Spartan office was and he lit a lamp, inviting me to sit.

“Tell me Zimri,” he began, “why is rescuing the princess so important to you that you are willing to risk imprisonment or even death for abandoning your post to get her?”

In a sense it was a stupid question. There was only one real reason that anyone would go after her. But I knew that there was no point in lying to my commander so I decided to come clean.

“Because I love her, my lord,” I confessed.

Omri said nothing but merely raised his eyebrows at my answer. I took that as a sign to go on.

“I’ve been in love with her for years,” I continued. “Since I first saw her, really. But I knew deep down that there was no real future for me and her because she’s the princess and I’m, well, me. But if I could rescue her, then the king would have to let us be together.”

“Does she feel the same way?” Omri questioned.

“I don’t know,” I acknowledged. “I don’t think she’s ever thought of me like that. I mean, why would she? She’s a princes and I’m, well—”

“You,” Omri cut me off. “I think we’ve been over that point.”

“She’s always been nice to me and we’ve had a few nice conversations,” I continued, knowing that my reasoning was foolish. “She even invited me to her party.”

“I remember,” Omri interjected with a nod. “So what you’re saying is that if you gave her a chance to think of you like that, she would fall in love with you?”

“Maybe, yeah,” I answered sheepishly. “I know that I could make her happy; I just want a chance to prove it and this is it.”

“Is your ‘love’ for Ariadne the only reason you are willing to risk everything to get her back or is there something else driving you?” Omri questioned

 “My lord?” I cocked my head.

“The crown perhaps?” Omri suggested.

“Oh,” I had forgotten about that part.

“Do you expect me to believe that you have no interest in the crown of Alkilion?” Omri sounded dubious. “That is the sole reason anyone will risk the Eisenberge.”

“To be honest, my lord, no,” I replied. “I’ve never had any interest in power. What could power give me that I don’t already have? Besides, I’ve seen what power does to people like Baasha. I don’t want to become that. All I want is to be with Ariadne.

“I know you probably don’t believe me,” I sighed heavily getting the distinct feeling that I was talking to a brick wall. “But that’s the truth, my lord.”

“No,” Omri shook his head. “I do believe you and that’s just the thing. I know you well enough to know what you say is true. You’re a terrible liar anyway. How ironic,” he gave a short laugh, “there are hundred knights who would brave the Eisenberge for Ariadne who care only for the crown. Yet the only one who has no power is the only one who really cares about her. But tell me, Zimri,” he turned and examined me carefully, “the crown is part and parcel with Ariadne. You can’t have her and not take the throne too. Can you handle it?”

“My lord?” I wasn’t quite following.

“Assuming the king approves such an arrangement, no guarantee by the way, the nobility wouldn’t like you as king,” he explained. “Most probably won’t accept you unless you force them. Can you force them to accept you as king?”

I thought about that for a minute. “I’m not a fan of forcing people,” I decided. “If I were to rule, I would want people to accept me because I earn it not because I forced them into it.”

“That is how you earn it,” Omri pointed out. “Especially you. You have no name, no heritage to lean on. For you to maintain rule, you will have to maintain through force of will alone. And be warned, if you don’t, this country will fall into civil war and chaos. So again I ask you, do you have the strength to rule Alkilion?”

“If I have the strength to face the Sorceress, then I have the strength to rule if that’s what it takes,” I answered with far more confidence than I felt.

“In many ways, this is far more difficult that defeating the Sorceress,” Omri observed. “She is an enemy that you can see and face; as king, your enemies will be invisible to all but the shrewdest eye. They will be your friends and allies who will try to use you, exploit you, and if they can, supplant you. There will be dangers on every side in all forms except those recognizable. Are you sure you can handle that? Because if not, then I am giving you the chance to walk out that door and return to your barracks.”

I couldn’t do that; I would never forgive myself if I did. I knew that I was getting myself in way over my head but I had to try. Straightening up, I looked Omri square in the eye.

“Yes, my lord, I can and I will,” I told him. “I will do whatever it takes to be with Ariadne and if that means being king, then I will be the best king there is.”

Omri merely raised his eyebrows and shrugged slightly. “Very well,” he finally spoke. “I will grant you the chance if you are sure you want to risk the Eisenberge. I’d certainly rather see you on the throne than any of these other so-called lords.”

“I was there this morning my lord,” I replied. “I know the risks.”

“No you don’t,” snorted Omri. “But to be fair, neither do any the other fools going after her. You can only understand the Eisenberge by going there.”

“Have you, my lord?” I asked.

“Once,” he nodded, “during the Sorceress War and I was lucky to escape with my life. That place is a whole other world, Zimri. By letting you go understand that I am almost certainly sending you to your death.”

“With all due respect my lord, it is my choice,” I pointed out.

“Not entirely,” Omri sighed. “I have the power to stop you which means the choice is mine as well.”

“But you won’t, will you?”

“No,” he shook his. “I understand why, believe it or not. I was once standing where you stood.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Omri’s eyes looked far away sadly for a moment before he came back to the present. “That is a story for when you come back; if you come back alive. You are determined to go then?”

“I am, my lord,” I told him.

“Very well,” he said again. “Take the dog with you; I have a feeling that she’ll come in handy. And take this,” he stood and pulled a scimitar off the rack of weapons behind him. “It’s been awhile since it was used but it still ought to be sharp and strong.”

“Thank you my lord,” I breathed as I stared at the weapon still in its scabbard. “But I’m not a knight.”

“Where you’re going that doesn’t matter,” Omri snorted as he handed me the blade. “All that matters is staying alive and to do that, you’ll need all the help you can get.”

I took the sword and drew it out of its sheath, examining the blade. It was shone clean and strong as the day it was forged. Gently I ran my finger down the length, testing the edge. It was still razor sharp.

“Thank you, my lord,” I whispered again in awe.

“Thank me by bringing her back alive,” Omri answered brusquely. “You’d better get going. I’ll keep the guards busy for you but don’t expect me to go out on a limb too far to cover for you.”

“Right away, my lord,” I stood, slinging my pack over my shoulder. “And thank you, my lord.”

“One last thing Zimri,” Omri called to me as I got to the door. “If you fail to get her first, don’t bother coming back at all.”

I swallowed hard as the implications sunk in. I was breaking my oath to the king by abandoning my post for Ariadne. That was something that might be forgiven if I succeeded in rescuing her. If I failed…well let’s just say that Baasha would be the least of my worries.

On that happy note, I slipped back into the night.

5: Chapter 4

It occurred to me as I approached the walls of Yir-Eliav that beyond getting out of Castle Zahav, I didn’t have much of a plan. The general idea I had was to travel up to the Eisenberge and then find Ariadne, killing the Sorceress in the process. I was so driven by my desire to rescue Princess Ariadne that I hadn’t carefully thought through how I was going to go about it. For that matter, I wasn’t even sure how I was going to get to the Eisenberge in the first place. I knew it was north, more or less, but I had no idea how far.

This realization sunk home as I stared at the walls of Alkilion’s capital. I had been here several times on patrol duty to supplement the city guard but was always impressed by the city’s sheer size. It was built in two parts, one on either side of the King River as it emptied out in to Sargon’s Bay. Castle Zahav sat on Dynast’s Cape which wrapped around the bay, forming the largest natural harbor in the world and the center of trade and commerce.

The walls that wrapped around the southern part of the city were 70 feet high and 30 thick on average with a single, massive arched gateway that was 40 feet wide. There was debate among the soldiers whether the walls were there for actually defense or just for show, a display of the prominence and power of the Alkite kings. The gate, which was ornately decorated with glazed bricks and colorfully painted reliefs depicting scenes from the builder’s rule, King Arad II if I recall my history correctly, didn’t even have doors. The city had never seriously been threatened, let alone attacked in well over a millennium. Not since before the first king of Alkilion, Sargon I had united the land below the Eisenberge.

In any event, I decided that I wasn’t going to get very far that night and so I should probably use Yir-Eliav as my staging point. Maybe I’d find someone in the inn that would help me out or at the very least give me directions to the Eisenberge. So with Molly trotting at my heels, I walked through the massive archway into the relatively quiet streets of midnight Yir-Eliav.

Getting through the gate wasn’t hard. There was a token of four guards standing watch, probably the newest recruits of the city guard who’d drawn the short straws. Being in the heart of Alkilion which had seen one legitimate war in the last three centuries, security was of little concern. They didn’t even look our direction as Molly and I walked in.

Yir-Eliav is certainly a city that never sleeps. Walking down the main thoroughfare, a broad, paved street that was bordered by a three-story colonnade on either side, I passed by hundreds of shops that were closed down for the night, save a couple open here and there. And yet the street was hardly empty. Dozens of people passed me on either side, some heading home after work or drinking at their favorite tavern and others heading out. A few city guards strode by but paid us no mind, instead focusing on the beggars who were tempted to perhaps loot one of the shops. Large lamps dimly lit the street every couple hundred feet or so.

“I wonder if Judah could help us?” I asked Molly as we made our way down the road with no particular destination in mind. I’d clearly not thought this one through very well. But I did know that Judah and his family lived here. So maybe they could help.

Molly merely cocked a black and white head at me.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “That’s probably a bad idea. I have no idea where his house is and by the time I found it, Baasha could probably have made the trip to Eisenberge twice. He’s also not a fan of me pushing my boundaries. He’d haul me back to the barracks before I could blink. Besides, I don’t even know if he’s home. A tavern is probably a better bet.”

Molly just kept walking alongside me.

Musing to myself, I figured that most of the taverns would be down by the docks. Ships were coming in at all hours of the night and so the inns were sure to be always open. There was a good chance that one of the ship captains there would be heading north along King’s River, perhaps as far as Confluence or Forks. Surely one of them could tell us how to get to the Eisenberge. Past that, I didn’t know and I doubted anyone here could tell us either.

“One step at a time, right Molly?” I remarked.

Molly barked her approval, which scared a beggar away from nearby shop.

After nearly an hour of walking I was getting quite worn out. If the last few days hadn’t been emotionally draining enough, it was far past my bedtime and I was severely sleep deprived. Still, as we approached the docks, more and more buildings were lit and the streetlamps were closer together. There were more people too.

“This looks promising,” I suggested to Molly as we came across a decent looking inn. I’d seen a couple of people who looked like sailors go in and thought I’d try my luck. Besides, it didn’t look too expensive and I wasn’t exactly wealthy.

The smell of stale ale and tobacco smoke hit me as I entered, a familiar scent for the lower-end inns and taverns that dotted the streets near the docks. Molly seemed to cringe slightly as the odor struck her more sensitive nose. It was well-lit but hazy with the smoke from sailor’s pipes. There was no music, being well after midnight, and the dozen or so men seated around the common room talked in reserved tones.

 “Who are you and what do you want?” a gruff voice demanded.

“Ah, I take it you are the proprietor here?” I inquired turning to face the man, greeting him with the usual gesture. He was a large man, slightly balding with a long mustache, and a rather impatient look in his dark eyes.

“No, I’m the cook,” he shortly answered. “But the innkeeper and his wife have gone to bed and so I’m responsible for seeing the guests. Now who are you and what do want in this inn?”

It struck me as a rather odd question as there were a fairly limited number of things I could want but I shrugged and went with it.

“My name is Zimri,” I told him, “and I would like a room for the night as well as a meal, if that is not too much trouble.”

“Too much trouble indeed,” snorted the cook, wiping his large hands on his greasy white shirt. “And I supposed you can pay for this?”

I didn’t have much, only five gold Alkite crowns, plus two silver fifths, and a dozen coppers. That was plenty for the night of course and it wasn’t like Alkite currency was going to be any good in the Eisenberge, at least I wasn’t anticipating it. So there was no point in saving.

“Sure,” I confirmed. “How much are we talking?”

“A fifth and five coppers for all that,” the man answered after a moment’s contemplation. “And five more coppers for the mutt.”

I shrugged having no real clue what a fair price for an inn would be and reached for my money pouch. As I did I brushed open my cloak, revealing the silvery hilt of the scimitar that Lord Omri had given me.

“What is that?” the cook barked sharply, pointing at my left hip.

As far as scimitars go, it wasn’t a fancy weapon: a well-polished steel hilt with a long strip of white cloth wound tightly around the handle for grip with a ruby set in the pommel. Certainly not nearly as ornate as the blades I’d seen Baasha or Omri or any of the other lords carry. Still, it was a scimitar, the weapon of a knight, and therefore bound to draw attention.

“That’s a knight’s weapon, boy,” he narrowed his eyes to a glare. “And you’re no knight. Where’d you get that, boy?”

“It was, uh, given to me,” I offered lamely. It was the truth, although the circumstances of why it was given to me were a bit more problematic. I was a technically a deserter, even if it was for a good reason that would benefit the king and kingdom, and therefore an outlaw.

“Given to you?” snorted the cook derisively. “They don’t just go handing out scimitars to street rats like you.”

“I’m no street rat,” I retorted impetuously, feeling my sense of honor violated.

“Cheap wool cloak, stained cotton shirt,” the cook examined, “a cloth pack and worn leather boots; you look like a street rat to me and I’ve seen plenty. If you’re not one, then what are you? Certainly no noble; otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m, uh,” I stammered as my mind raced for a good answer. I could say soldier because that would expose me as a deserter and soldiers weren’t thought much better off than street rats anyway. “I’m a shepherd working for the king’s flocks,” I decided on, hoping that it was the right answer.

Judging from the cold laugh of the cook, I’m guessing not.

“A shepherd with a scimitar?” laughed the cook. “Do you think I’m a fool, boy? The lord of the city would sooner give me that blade of yours before a shepherd. No one gave you that sword; you stole it.”

“I swear I didn’t,” I protested.

“Liar,” snapped the cook. “You might’ve been a shepherd for the king, but you’re clearly a runaway who stole from the king. We’ll have no thieves and runaways under this roof. Yo, guards,” he called to a couple of city guards who were taking a break. “I’ve found a thief and runaway slave for you to haul off. He says that he’s a shepherd for the king and that he was given a scimitar.”

Unfortunately the situation seemed to intrigue the guards. I’d assumed that they were off-duty when I came in and off-duty guards rarely lift a finger to do anything. But these were wearing their full uniform so it was quite likely that they were moonlighting as bouncers for this inn, which meant I was in big trouble.

“Really young lad?” one of the guards questioned with a raised eyebrows. “You were just given a scimitar?”

“Yes sir,” I replied trying to be as respectful as possible, although I subtly took a couple sidesteps towards the door. This was going south fast.

“And you expect us to believe that?” the other guard looked dubious. “We’re members of the city guard and even we don’t have scimitars. Those are for knights only.”

“I swear to you sirs that I have a good reason for having it,” I took another step. Beside me the fur on the back of Molly’s neck began standing up as her lips curled back. I’d learned over the last couple of years working with the pooch that she had an extra sense for trouble and it would be wise to listen to her warnings.

“We’d love to hear it,” the first guard offered sweeping his arms out wide.

“It’s, uh, well, complicated. I really can’t actually tell you,” I replied awkwardly knowing that I couldn’t actually explain it. For some reason, I was hoping they’d just take my word for it and let the matter drop.

No such luck.

“Kid, it’s late,” the second guard sighed heavily. “You can tell us here or down at the barracks from a jail cell. It’s your choice.”

If I tell you, I’ll end up in that cell regardless, I thought to myself. Aloud, I commented, “Well gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure meeting you, but there really is somewhere I have to be,” I retreated another couple of steps back towards the door. “So I’ll see you around,” I told them as I shot out door with Molly at my heels.

As the door shut behind me, I heard a curse followed by the cook shouting, “After them! What do you think we pay you for?” A moment later, the door opened and I turned to see the two guards dashing after me.

Briefly I considered standing and fighting. I could easily defeat them, that much was certain. The city guard was not a trained military unit, indeed they functioned essentially as a police force. I, on the other hand, had been training as a soldier essentially my entire life. And so while these two were bigger and stronger than me, my skills undoubtedly far outstripped theirs.

But I had no desire to kill them. They were only doing their job and killing them would only raise more problems. I might be able to incapacitate them and get away but I was not trained for that. Merely wounding opponents, I’d been taught, was always a risky endeavor that often backfired. In the end, this left me with only one option: run!

It quickly became apparent that this was not a desirable situation. Between my training and chasing sheep all over creation, I was in excellent physical shape. But I was also only 17 and still maturing. Meanwhile my pursuers were both in their mid-20s and at their physical peak. Plus, they had the advantage of knowing where they were going while I was blundering blindly about, randomly choosing side-streets and alleyways, praying that they weren’t dead ends.

As I rounded one of these corners, I slammed straight into another person who was walking to other direction. Completely caught off guard, I bounced off him and crashed to the ground hard.

“What’s your hurry?” he questioned me. His voice wasn’t hard, exactly, although it certainly wasn’t friendly; detached but more curious than anything else.

“Them,” I gestured to the guards closing in.

“Ah, I see,” acknowledged the man. “I believe I can help you out with that.”

He stepped past me into the street and faced the charging guards. They skidded to a stop in front of him, drew their short swords, and brandished them.

“Out of the way, citizen,” demanded the first guard.

“I think not,” replied my new friend.

In the dark, I couldn’t quite see what happened. The guards charged but this other man stopped them cold. He never drew a weapon and instead moved incredibly quick, striking them down with a sharp blow to the neck, I believe. They instantly dropped the ground.

“Are you alright?” he came back over to me, offering a hand.

“I think so,” I took the offered hand and stood back up. “Thanks for the help, although you probably now got yourself in trouble with the guards.”

“You seemed worth it,” the man shrugged. “The name’s Adam.”

“Zimri,” I returned, right hand under left. He gave me a slightly confused look before mimicking the Alkite greeting, which gave me a solid look at him for the first time. He was tall, about four or five inches taller than myself and around my age. His dress was strange with a poncho over his clothes and a wide-brim hat pulled low over his face.

“What did they want with you anyway?” Adam inquired.

“This,” I showed him my scimitar. “They seem to think that I stole it.”

“Did you?”

“No,” I shook my head. “It was a gift from my commander.”

“Your commander?” he cocked his head. “You’re a soldier?”

“Uh, yeah,” I admitted. “Technically I’m a deserter but I am on a mission for the king.”

“If you’re a soldier, surely you could’ve beaten those punks,” Adam sounded confused.

“Most likely,” I shrugged.

“Then why didn’t you?” Adam questioned.

“I didn’t want to kill them,” I answered. “I would suggest that you get going before they come to.”

“I wouldn’t be too concerned about that,” replied Adam with a cold laugh that made me feel queasy. “But you are right; it wouldn’t be wise to dawdle here. Where are you headed?”

“Uh, north,” I vaguely answered. “We’re going north.”

“Excellent,” Adam rubbed his hands together. “As it happens, I’m going that way myself. Might I suggest that we travel together?”

“I’m not sure you want to get mixed up with me,” I cautioned.

“It would seem that I already am,” Adam observed. “And I for one could certainly use someone to watch my back. So could you, from what I’ve seen.”

“What do you say Molly?” I asked the dog.

She sniffed Adam suspiciously and then to my surprise, she started growling, snapping at him slightly. Adam seemed just as startled as I, quickly retreating a step.

“It seems I don’t meet with approval,” he dryly remarked.

“Molly, quiet,” I ordered sharply. I didn’t need her bringing any attention to us and she was just being plain rude. “We owe him,” I told the dog. Molly gave me a confused looked but did as commanded, backing down, although her eyes never left Adam.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized sheepishly. “She’s usually better with meeting new people.”

“It’s alright,” he laughed off. “I have that look, I suppose. Anyway, shall we go? I know where we can get passage north.”

Glancing over to where the guards were still lying, I nodded. “Yeah, let’s head out,” I agreed.

We turned down the street and soon found ourselves on the main road running through the center of town. Adam seemed like he knew the city well, which was a relief for me. Not surprisingly he kept his distance from Molly who never stopped glaring at him, growling if he ever came close. Her behavior confused me because as far as sheep dogs are concerned, Molly was usually easy-going. But since Adam had risked himself to save us from the guards, putting himself in danger, I dismissed Molly’s concerns and pressed on with my new friend.

The streets were much lighter now that it was well past midnight. The adrenaline of the chase had worn off and my weariness returned with a vengeance. My long yawn drew a slight chuckle from Adam.

“Long day?” he questioned lightly.

“You could say that,” I nodded tiredly. “Long few days.”

“I can imagine,” he sympathized. “But not to worry; we’re here.”

Blinking, I looked around and saw that we had wandered down to the docks. Most of the ships moored there were dormant. I resisted the urge to jump when I saw city guards posted nearby, keeping an eye on the merchandise to prevent thieves. A few of the ships, however, had crews working on them, loading up boxes, crates, and jars of commerce.

“I didn’t know ships sailed this late, or early I suppose,” I commented in surprise.

“Some captains like to beat the rush out of the harbor,” Adam supplied. “Others like to time the tide, which sometimes means exceptionally early starts, not that that concerns us. There,” he gestured to a gruff looking seaman a dozen paces off.  He was bald with a thick, black, braided beard and bulging muscles. He was standing off to the side of the gangway, directing a dozen other sailors. “He looks promising,” Adam commented.

“Listen,” Adam whispered to me as we approached him, “let me do the talking. He’ll probably try to charge us some ridiculous price for passage but I can talk him down. I have a bit of a silver tongue, or so I’m told.”

I was tired and way out of my depth so I was more than happy to let Adam do the talking. Standing a few feet off, I watched as he approached the captain and began bargaining with him. At first the captain did not seem particularly interested in helping us out, shaking his head and crossing his arms. I became more nervous as Adam pleaded with him. When the captain turned his head like was going to call for the guards, I steeled myself for another run.

But suddenly Adam put his hand on the captain’s shoulder and the man calmed down. His arms dropped to his side and he nodded slowly. After a few more seconds of conversing, Adam waved me over.

“He said he’ll take us all the way to Schwarz Tor,” Adam enthusiastically informed. “That’s as far north as any ship can go these days and it’s barely a skip from there to the Eisenberge.”

“Not so loud,” I hissed. “I don’t know about where you’re from, but around here we don’t just go tossing that name about.”

“I suppose,” Adam shrugged. “Anyway, let’s get on board. They sail in about ten minutes.”

“What about our fare?” I inquired.

“I’ve got it covered,” Adam waved off.

“You’ve already saved my life,” I protested. “I can’t have you paying my way too.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Adam laughed quietly. “I’ve got money and it wasn’t that much. Besides, I think there are better ways for you to pay me back. We’ve got a couple days to kill. Now let’s get on board.”

I decided not to argue with him and followed him up the gangway with Molly clicking at my heels. She didn’t seem too comfortable with Adam or the boat but dutifully followed me anyway.

The captain had an odd look as I passed him by. He didn’t make eye contact but his brown eyes seemed oddly vacant, like he was almost half asleep. With a grunt, he shook his head and went back to giving a few orders to his sailors, almost completely ignoring me. He was probably tired, I decided; it was a late night after all.

“Over here,” Adam called to me from on deck.

The ship was more of a barge than a proper boat with about a dozen sailors, including the captain. Most of the cargo was stored underneath the deck in the hold while the open deck was mostly used for the crew to stretch out on.

“The captain told us to find a place out on the deck,” Adam informed. “You look like you could use some rest. Let’s crash over here.”

Adam was pointing over to the front corner of the boat. Shrugging I followed, feeling the sleepiness rolling over me like the tide. Finding a good spot, I dropped my pack to the deck and laid out my cloak like a blanket, careful to cover up my sword. Plopping down beside me, Molly placed herself between me and Adam while I lay down. Within moments, I was asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

A painfully sharp bark woke me up the next day. The warm glow of sunlight turned to a splitting headache as I opened my eyes only to be blinded by the fierce shine of the mid-morning spring sun.

“Careful,” Adam’s voice warned me, “and could you call your dog off?”

“Molly, hush,” I commanded her, rubbing my aching eyes and sitting up. Slowly I opened my eyes, blinking them hard to adjust them to the blazing sunlight. Beside me Molly was snarling at Adam who wisely sat a few feet away.

“What’s going on?” I tiredly asked as the rest of my body slowly woke up.

“We’ve docked at Confluence,” Adam informed me. “The captain says that they’re going to be here for about three hours to unload some cargo and take on some new. I’d thought we’d take this chance to grab some lunch.”

“Lunch?” I stretched out my kinked muscles that were not thrilled at being forced to sleep on the hard deck. “What time is it?”

“I’d guess an hour or hour and a half before noon,” Adam supposed. “I would’ve woken you earlier but you seemed to need the sleep. That and your dog wouldn’t let me near you. She really doesn’t like me, does she?”

“Apparently not,” I gave Molly a quizzical stare. She wasn’t barking anymore but her eyes were locked on Adam’s every moment and I could feel the tension coursing through her. “Sorry,” I apologized. “Molly isn’t normally this anti-social.”

“Most animals it seems have an issue with me,” Adam shrugged. “Anyway, we should get some food for lunch and for the rest of the trip. I’m guessing the crew isn’t going to be keen on sharing with us.”

“Can we trust them not to sail without us?” I wondered.

“I think so,” Adam answered while stood to my feet, rolling my cloak into my pack and slinging it over my shoulder. “I would suggest finding a good place to hide that,” he gestured to my scimitar.

There was no good solution to that problem. I ended up sticking it in my pack hilt-first so that bottom tip of the scabbard poked out the top which would largely be unrecognizable. If we ran into trouble, it’d be utterly useless back there but I wasn’t anticipating much trouble. Of course I hadn’t been expecting any last night either.

We disembarked and wandered into the streets of Confluence, which was built as the name suggests at the confluence of three rivers. The Shachor River from the northeast met up with the Aram River and both emptied into King’s River that flowed out to the sea. It was a large city, although not nearly as large as Yir-Eliav.

As I’d never been here before, I followed Adam’s lead as we wound our way through the packed streets. Merchants, beggars, and regular citizens pushed past each other, all in a hurry to get wherever they were trying to go. After about twenty minutes of searching, Adam seemed to find what he was looking for: a two-story tavern sandwiched between an apartment building on one side and a woodworking shop on the other.

We slipped in fairly unnoticed and sat down at a corner, out of the way table which suited me just fine. I’d gotten too much attention already and anonymity was a nice change of pace. Molly curled up underneath the table on my feet and rested her eyes while we waited for a waiter or waitress to show up.

“Travelers!” a perky waitress finally showed up. “Where are you boys from?”

“If you don’t mind miss,” I answered for us, “I’d prefer it if you don’t ask too many questions.”

“Fair enough,” she didn’t bother hiding her disappointment. “What can I get you?”

“I’d like a lamb stew if you’ve got it,” I replied after a moment’s consideration, “and a glass of fruit juice.”

“Certainly,” she gave me a polite smile. “And you sir?”

“Roast chicken on bread with vegetables,” he supplied, “And your name, of course.”

“Oh,” she said in a small voice, a blush coming to her olive cheeks. “Of course,” she stammered as Adam gave her a bright smile. “My name is Anat good sir. What is yours?”

“Adam,” my companion continued his smile.

“I’ll be right back with your orders,” she flashed him a pretty smile and skipped off.

“What was that about?” I asked him. “We’re in a hurry.”

“Not really,” Adam shrugged defensively. “We’ve got three hours or so to kill and she’s quite lovely, don’t you think so?”

“Well yeah, I suppose,” I agreed. “But shouldn’t we be keeping a low profile?”

“Oh relax,” Adam laughed. “We’re miles from Yir-Eliav. Whatever trouble we had back there we’ve left far behind. Anyway, I think it’s time you repaid me.”

“I’m sorry but I don’t have much money,” I apologized in advance reaching for my pouch.

“If I wanted money, I wouldn’t be paying for this,” Adam waived off. “Believe me, I don’t need or want your money. No,” he shook his head, “I want in on whatever it is you’re really up to.”

“What do you mean?” I asked feeling my throat tighten.

“Oh come now,” Adam laughed hoarsely. “You don’t take me for an idiot, do you? You admitted to being a soldier who has deserted. That is not in and of itself surprising; soldiers desert all the time, especially with a potential war impending. Yet you have the sword of a knight, which is stranger. Stranger still you claim that it was given to you.”

“Do you doubt my word?” I growled as he subtly challenged my honor.

“No, no, my friend,” Adam held his hands up plaintively. “I am merely pointing out that it is very strange for a commoner, even a soldier, to be simply given such a weapon. Surely your commander must’ve given it to you for a special reason which tells me that while you may be technically considered a deserter, you are also on a special mission.

“Even if you had stolen it, you have kept it,” Adam went on hypothetically. “I must ask myself why? There are surely dozens of places in Yir-Eliav where such a weapon could be sold for a great deal of money which you need. And yet you’ve kept it, which means that you intend to use it. I am forced to ask for what purpose is that?

“And then there is the question of your direction,” Adam cocked his head and studied me from underneath his hat. “The greatest likelihood of war naturally comes from the north and the Eisenberge. So why would your average deserter head north? He wouldn’t of course. He would head south or better yet try to get passage across the Saline Sea to Caphtor or Ashkenaz. So either you are the most foolish deserter in history or you are up to something beyond running for your life. I want to know what it is.”

For a moment I sat there considering what I ought to do. This man was frighteningly perceptive, there was no doubt about that. Trusting people I knew could be very dangerous and the farther north I went, the more true that became. Until I rescued Ariadne, I was an outlaw wherever I went. Additionally, Molly didn’t seem overly fond of Adam for whatever reason but she was an excellent judge of character herself.

Still, Adam had saved my hide more than once and he’d earned at least some of my trust for that. He had no reason to stop the city guards; nor did he have to bargain and pay for our passage north. Whether I wanted to allow it or not, I knew I was going to need allies for this quest. I couldn’t make it to the Eisenberge, let alone through them on my own. Adam had been a friend and ally so far so I decided that I could trust him. I had to trust him.

“We’re going to the Eisenberge,” I told him after a long silence, eliciting a pair of raised eyebrows.

“Excuse me, your lunch sirs,” the waitress returned with our meals. “Anything else?”

“Just you,” Adam smiled seductively at her, making the waitress blush furiously. “Surely your bosses can spare you for a bit when we’re finished with our meal.”

“I’ll-I’ll see what I can do,” she stammered in a giddy voice and skipped off.

“You’re unbelievable,” I shook my head.

“Just because I got to her first,” Adam gave me a wicked grin before biting down on his sandwich. “So the Eisenberge?” he questioned after swallowing. “Tell me, what could possibly possess you to trek into that godforsaken wasteland?”

“The Princess,” I responded simply.

“Ah, I see,” Adam’s eyes lit up with understanding. “You’re going to try to rescue her from the Lady of the Mountains. No easy task to be sure, but it does answer the mystery surrounding you. I can imagine there is a substantial reward for her rescue?”

“Her hand in marriage,” I nodded.

Adam gave a low whistle as he considered that. “And with the Princess comes the crown of Alkilion,” he shook his head in awe. “That is quite a reward; certainly worth the risk of the Eisenberge if you ask me. But why would the king approve a simple soldier such as you for a quest like this? He can’t want you on the throne, no offense.”

“He didn’t,” I winced.

“Ah, hence the deserter part,” Adam understood. “You’re thinking that if you manage to rescue her, you’ll be a national hero and the king will be forced to accept you as his heir? That actually isn’t crazy and I can certainly understand someone of your status jumping at the chance to become king. It is a dream opportunity.”

“I don’t care about becoming king,” I clarified. “I just want to be with her.”

Adam blinked as he tried to process. “Not interested in becoming king?” he said slowly. “Then why are you risking life and limb to rescue the princess?” He narrowed his eyes to study me carefully. “You love her, don’t you?” he finally deduced. “You’re telling me that you’re doing all of this, risking death in a thousand and one ways, not to mention failure, exile, and other horrible fates for love?”

“It sounds ridiculous I know,” I admitted. “But that’s the truth. I love her and want to be with her and I’ll do whatever I must to make that happen. This might be my only shot.”

“I never said it was ridiculous,” Adam held up a hand. “Remarkable certainly and perhaps a bit crazy, but it isn’t ridiculous. In fact, I’d like to help.”

“You want to help me?” I didn’t mean to sound incredulous but I had a hard time believing what I was hearing. “You do realize that this is suicide, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Adam replied. “Will this be extremely difficult? Unquestionably. Will we be risking life and limb? Absolutely. But if there is ever a cause worth investing in, it is true love. Besides, if it is as difficult as you say, then you will need all the help you can get. I’m from a wealthy family so I can provide supplies. Additionally, I know how to get into the Eisenberge which is not an easy task. On your own, I suspect you would have a difficult time with that.”

“You have a point,” I conceded. “But what do you get out of this? Surely you aren’t going to come along out of the goodness of your heart.”

“A fair point,” Adam allowed, “Although I will get a great deal of enjoyment from the adventure. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

“You and I have very different definitions of ‘fun’,” I commented.

“But you are right, I should be properly compensated for my pains,” Adam allowed ignoring my comment. “I don’t suppose there is any way for you to get the girl and me to get the crown?”

“Not that I know of,” I sighed. I certainly wouldn’t have had any problem making Adam king if I could so long as I didn’t have to.

“How about this,” Adam proposed. “You get the girl and the crown. Whatever treasure we find is mine to claim. In addition, if we get back alive and successful, you make me a lord, preferably one of the Seven but that’s negotiable.”

“Deal,” I stuck out my hand to shake his. I didn’t care that much about the treasure; if we were successful, I’d be king with all the wealth that went with that. Plus Adam would be a good ally to have by my side when I ascended.

Adam grabbed my hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “I look forward to working with you, partner,” he grinned. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a waitress to find.”

6: Chapter 5

WOOF! Molly alerted me to Adam’s approach.

“Chill pooch,” I ordered with a subtle smile. Her persistent disdain for Adam was becoming amusing albeit a bit annoying.

“Still doesn’t like me?” Adam commented as he sidestepped the dog and came up beside me.

“Nope,” I shook my head trying to disguise a grin. “She’ll come around eventually. Perhaps you should try giving her a treat. She’s particularly fond of jerky.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Adam acknowledged as he joined me on the front railing of the barge.

It was mid-morning the following day. We’d sailed without event from Confluence to Forks where we’d spent the night, or most of it, before heading out early the next morning for Schwarz Tor. Adam had provided me with a bit of a scare, barely making it back to the boat in time before we sailed. I asked him where he had been but he just gave me a smirk and left the rest up to my imagination.

“You feeling alright?” I asked my companion.

“Fine,” Adam shrugged. “Why do you ask?”

“You look a little sick,” I pointed to his skin.

Adam was shirtless, exposing a muscled torso. But what caught my attention was his skin, which was almost rust colored, instead of the normal brown like the rest of us.

“Oh, this?” Adam studied his arm for a moment. “I don’t do well with boats.”

“Then why are you sailing instead of taking the road?” I wondered.

“Because this takes two days while taking the roads would take over a week,” Adam grinned in return. “My odd skin color comes from a concoction that I drink to keep my stomach from acting up. It’s a strange side-effect, I’ll grant you but I’ll take that over puking my guts out.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged. “Aren’t you cold, though? I didn’t know that rivers got so cold.”

“Not really,” he replied with a shrug of his own. “It’s a bit colder up there so I’m used to it.”

“I’m freezing,” I wrapped my cloak a bit tighter around me.

“Just wait until you get to the Eisenberge,” Adam laugh. “Speaking of which, look,” he pointed ahead.

I followed his finger and my breath caught in my throat.

“By the Trinity,” I whispered.

Rising out of the earth was a solid black wall that vanished into the clouds. It stretched the length of the northern horizon, completely filling it as if that is where the world came to an end. It was a mighty, impenetrable barrier to whatever might lay beyond.

The Eisenberge.

“Ah yes, there it is,” Adam sounded wistful as he stared at the mountains.

“They’re huge,” I exclaimed. “They seem to go on forever.”

“Not quite,” Adam chuckled at my astonishment, “Although it is a rare day that one can see the tops of them. They’re so big that they create their own weather around them. Some people say that the Lady is the reason that the mountains always have clouds. But it’s the mountains themselves that create them. On a rare clear day you can see their peaks and they still reach to the heavens.”

“The mountains create those?” I gestured to the thick clouds that obscured the peaks.

“Indeed,” Adam nodded. “The mountains are so high that they block any moisture in the air, causing it to condense forming the constant rain shadow over northern Alkilion. Millennia ago people used to believe there was a great goddess that lived in the mountains who caused the rain to come that watered their fields. They worshipped and feared her greatly, daring never to go into the ‘Castle of the Gods’ as they called the mountains then.”

“Harrah,” I recalled the deity’s name. I was a young soldier and therefore not especially religious. I did my token worship of the gods of course, but never paid much attention to the religious rhetoric. But I did know of the gods and remembered hearing something about Harrah, the goddess of the mountains. “Wasn’t she supposed to be the chief of the pantheon?” I asked.

“In the old days, yes,” nodded Adam. “Looking at her supposed home, it’s not hard to see why. Olympia the Eisenbergians called her. It was of course all nonsense.”

“You don’t believe in the gods?” I cocked my head.

“I believe in what I can see, feel, and touch,” Adam responded. “I believe in making your own path and we don’t need the gods for that. Maybe they exist; maybe they don’t. They aren’t worthy of our praise though.”

That was straight blasphemy although I couldn’t entirely disagree with him. The idea of the gods had always bothered me. Supremely powerful beings that no one ever saw and never seemed to do anything; exactly what about them made them worthy of our devotion and praise? I’d been in the opulent temples of the Trinity: Shama’im, god of the sky, Yammah, goddess of the sea, and Adam, god of the earth and the apparent namesake of my companion. I’d seen the priests and priestesses get fat off the offerings of faithful people while they themselves offered only lip service. More than once, I wondered about the realness of the gods.

“I suppose you could say there is a goddess of the mountains now,” Adam went on. “She rules her world with absolute power.”

“The Sorceress,” I guessed. “You call her a goddess?”

“I did not say a good goddess,” Adam amended. “Merely a goddess and in a since, yes, she is. The Lady has powers that we can only dream of and she uses them to maintain her iron grip on the land.”

“You sound like you admire her,” I cautiously observed.

“I admire her power,” admitted Adam. “How can you not? Don’t worry,” he flashed me his bright smile, “doesn’t mean I still don’t want to take her down. It won’t be easy, though.”

“No one said it would,” I remarked as I turned my gaze back to the imposing Eisenberge. “Starting with how do we get in. That looks impassable.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Adam said. “Still, getting into the Eisenberge is no easy task. Much of it is impassable cliffs, impossible heights often in excess of 9000 feet, and treacherous snow fields. Those who call the Eisenberge a death trap are not exaggerating. There are countless ways to die in there.”

“This is most encouraging,” I grumbled.

“But,” Adam held up a hand, “it is not impossible. There are a couple of passes that lead into the Hidden Valley.”

“Hidden Valley?” I questioned.

“Yes,” Adam nodded. “Haven’t you looked at a map?”

“Not recently,” I acknowledged.

“Goodness you do need me,” he shook his head. “The Eisenberge is almost two mountain ranges connected together. Tucked away between them is a long, deep, u-shaped valley appropriately called the Hidden Valley. It covers roughly 300 of the 400 miles between the Towers and is where almost all of the Eisenbergians live.”

“The Towers?” I was feeling dumber by the minute.

“The two peaks that bookend the mountains,” Adam patiently explained. “Generally speaking, the mountains grow taller towards the ends, culminating in what are called the Towers, the two tallest mountains that form the ends of the range. To the west is the Tower of the Sea which is over 18,000 feet high and to the east is the Tower of the Sun, more than 25,000 feet.”

I gave a low whistle as I tried to comprehend the height and failed. Those numbers were so big that I couldn’t scale them against anything.

“And there’s 400 miles in between them?” I clarified.

“Something like that, yes,” Adam confirmed. “I learned the specific number when I was a child but have forgotten it.”

“So where are these passes?” I inquired.

“The one we’ll be taking is actually not far from where we’ll dock,” Adam told me. “In fact, Schwarz Tor was built there because of it. There used to be a highway that led from Schwarz Tor into the Eisenberge but it’s been long since abandoned. Now the Finsternis Tal is a dark, dangerous forest.”

“Finsternis Tal?” I recognized the name. “Isn’t that where King Sennacheriv defeated the Sorceress?”

“Yes, it is,” Adam replied somberly. “It was a horrible battle, or so I’m told. A lot of people ended up dying there. Originally the name referred to the fact that the clouds make it always dark there,” he explained. “But now people remember it as a place of mourning and suffering. Some even say that forest is haunted by the ghosts of the slain.”

“Encouraging,” I remarked. “But it is passable there?”

“Certainly,” Adam nodded. “Like I said, there used to be a highway that ran from the Eisenberge down to Alkilion so it is meant to be traversed.”

“That’s good news,” I was relieved and grateful that I had Adam along. Without him, I might have spent a lot of time sitting in Schwarz Tor staring wistfully at the mountains. “So what’s next?” I questioned.

“We’ll stock up in Schwarz Tor,” Adam decided. “Spend a night or two there and then head out. It shouldn’t be too bad. The real challenge will be when we actually get into the mountains themselves.”

Given how challenging everything had been thus far, I was not looking forward to that prospect.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at Schwarz Tor. The voyage had been thankfully uneventful, which I needed. I spent most of my time musing over the various challenges we might encounter, eventually coming to the conclusion that I simply did not know nearly enough about the Eisenberge to adequately prepare. I knew it would be cold, or at least cooler. And I remembered what one of the lords had said about there being dragons along with other frightening and deadly forms of fauna but what exactly I did not know. So I wound up daydreaming about slaying a dragon.

I would’ve asked Adam a bit more about the Eisenberge and how he knew so much but he seemed busy puzzling over a book of some kind. I think it was a notebook. Whatever it was, it earned his upmost concentration and I judged it wise not to bother him.

The sailors were strangely useless. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t know much about the Eisenberge but rather they seemed to ignore me altogether. Whenever I would ask a question, I would get a grumble and a grunt before the sailor ambled off to do some inane chore. Odd behavior but then again, I’d always heard that sailors were an odd lot anyway. Maybe they didn’t like us taking up space.

 In any event, I was quite glad to get off the barge. I didn’t mind water travel; indeed it struck me as a remarkably convenient way to go and probably saved me a week’s worth of hiking. Unlike Adam, I found the noise of the water on the hull and the gentle rocking rather soothing and didn’t feel the slightest seasick. But it was confining and I found myself quite bored most of the time. I was ready to do something.

“What do we do now?” I questioned my companion as we stepped off the gangplank and planted our feet on solid earth.

“Now we get ourselves geared up for getting into the Eisenberge,” Adam told me. “I was thinking that we’ll take the Shachor up the valley into the mountains. The river flows from a waterfall-fed pool at the valley’s apex. From there it shouldn’t be too much of a hike into the Hidden Valley.”

“How do you know all this?” I questioned curious at his stunningly fortuitous and intimate knowledge of a land that few Alkites had stepped in over the past two decades.

“Oh, well my father fought in the war,” he answered, faltering for the first time. “He told me stories about the Eisenberge and the Finsternis Tal. Besides, I grew up in the north; most everyone knows at least something about the Eisenberge.”

“That makes sense,” I allowed chewing on my bottom lip. It did make sense, sort of, but there were a great deal of oddness surrounding Adam. Things seemed to magically always go his way from the guards to the sailors to the waitress in Confluence to even getting me to spill the beans and accept him as a companion. His odd skin tone and Molly’s persistent disdain for him were two more strikes on the weird scale which ballooned with his fantastic knowledge of the Eisenberge.

“You alright there?” he asked me and I realized that I’d been spacing off.

“Sure, fine,” I brought myself back to the present. “So we are going to sail up the river? How are we going to do that? I thought you said that no one goes into the valley anymore.”

“They don’t,” Adam confirmed. “But there are small single or two person craft that we can buy and pilot ourselves up the river.”

“I’ve never sailed before,” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry about it,” Adam waved off casually. “It’s actually quite easy to figure out. I’m certain whoever sells you the boats can tell you easily enough. Even if not, I’ll show you when we leave. Here,” he pulled out a pouch and handed me two crowns. “These should be enough to buy us each a kayak.”

“A what?” I asked.

“Kayak,” Adam repeated. “It’s what the little boats are called. There ought to be at least a couple of people selling them somewhere around here. I would suggest you check the docks first.”

“Me?” I was still a bit confused as to what was going on.

“Yep,” Adam grinned at me. “I want you to buy the boats while I do some shopping in town. I’ll get us food and myself a weapon or two. One of us should probably have a bow at least.”

“You’ve been unarmed this whole time?” I gaped. “And you took on the city guard?”

“They were hardly a challenge,” Adam waved off. “Besides, until I met you I didn’t really have a need for one and they are quite cumbersome. Anyway, I know an inn here that we can stay a night or two at. There are a few people I think would be a good idea to talk to. Old veterans, you know. They’ll probably have some useful info for us.”

“I should probably come with you then,” I pointed out.

“Nah,” Adam waved off. “I can handle it fine and I’ll tell you what they know. Or don’t you trust me?”

I was asking myself that very question but he hadn’t really done anything suspicious. “Yeah, of course,” I said. “Where do I meet you?”

“I’ll get us a room at the Catfish Inn,” Adam decided. “Meet me there when you’re finished here and we’ll go over some more details then.”

“Sounds good,” I nodded. “How will I find it?”

“It’s the inn with a catfish on it,” Adam gave a slightly condescending look. “Schwarz Tor isn’t nearly as big as Yir-Eliav so you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Someone will give you directions if you ask. Relax,” he clapped me on the shoulder, “we’re far from Yir-Eliav so no one’s going to be looking for us. There’ll be plenty of time to worry once we get into the mountains. I’ll see you tonight,” Adam turned and headed up the hill towards the city.

He did have a point and I let out a long breath to calm myself. I’d been on edge since I packed up to sneak out of Castle Zahav. If we were going to have a prayer of a chance, then I needed to be calm and cool. I was trained for war so being calm in the face of danger shouldn’t be an issue for me. It wasn’t like we were in any real danger, not yet anyway. Still, the last couple of days had definitely put me on edge.

“Excuse me,” I asked someone who looked like they worked there. “I’m looking for someone who sells kayaks. Can you point me in the right direction?”

“What do you want a kayak for?” the man replied with a raised eyebrow, setting down the package he was carrying.

“I and a friend are heading into the Eisenberge,” I told him.

“Into the Eisenberge?” the man laughed. “Do you have a death wish?”

“No,” I answered with a sigh. “But I do have a task to accomplish there and I need to get there. I don’t suppose anyone is sailing up the Finsternis Tal these days?”

“Into that haunted valley? Not on your life,” he snorted. “And if you were smart, neither would you.”

“Advice noted,” I evenly replied, dropping my voice a degree or two. “Now are you going to tell me where to find a kayak seller or not?”

“Fine,” the man grunted. “No need to get upset about it. Your best bet is Tig. He’s the best kayak builder around and has a shop on the north side of the docks. Shouldn’t be too hard to find, though whether he’ll sell to you or not is a different story. He should still be there.”

“Thank you,” I gave him a tight bow and walked off, hearing him mutter something about, “crazy teenagers.”

As promised, Tig’s shop wasn’t difficult to find. Just beyond the last pier next to the river was a small, wall-less workshop with a half dozen strange boat-like craft lying around. They were long tubes that tapered to pointes on either end. Treated leather was stretched tight over a wooden frame with a hole in the center where I assumed the pilot and gear would go.

“Is there something you need, boy, or are you going to stand around gaping all day?” an older, gruff voice spoke up from behind.

I turned to see an older man, mid-50s I’d guess, with a weathered face and scraggly, salt and pepper beard standing there with his arms crossed. His shirt was sleeveless, displaying powerful muscles and a couple of faded tattoos.

“Excuse me, are you Tig?” I inquired, bowing slightly in greeting.

“People call me that,” the man grumbled in reply as he began hobbling over, his left leg stiffly sticking out. “Others call me Tiglath.”

“Okay, Tiglath,” I said slowly as I watched him hobble towards his shop. “I’m here to purchase a couple of kayaks.”

“You’ve come to the right place, as you can see,” Tiglath pulled up a stool and sat down, stretching his left leg out straight. “What are you looking to use it for?”

“We’re going up the Shachor into the Eisenberge,” I answered as I examined the boats, not entirely sure what I was looking for or at.

“Are you insane, boy?” exclaimed Tiglath. “No one goes in there.”

With a sigh I turned to face him. I was getting tired of dealing with this question. “No,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’m quite sane. And yes, I’m well aware of the dangers that the Eisenberge hold. I know that there’s a good chance I don’t survive. But,” I held up a finger, “that doesn’t change the fact that I have to go, regardless of the danger. Someone has to go.”

“And what, pray, is so important that you will risk the horrors of those mountains?” inquired the old man with a raised eyebrow.

“The love of my life,” I answered, “and your princess. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Princess Ariadne was abducted by the apprentice of the Sorceress and I’m going to get her back.”

“Hmph,” he grunted. “You’re crazier than I thought, taking on the Sorceress alone.”

“I don’t recall asking your permission,” I leveled my eyes at him. “Now are you going to help me or should I take my business elsewhere?”

“As you wish,” Tiglath slipped off his stool and hobbled over to the stack of kayaks. “You’ll need this one then.” With surprising nimbleness, he lifted two of the top kayaks off the stack and pulled out a larger craft. It had two holes instead of the single hole I’d seen in the others.

“Don’t let the size intimidate you,” Tiglath told me as he dusted it off. “It actually handles quite well and has extra room for you to stow whatever supplies you’ll have. It’s you, your friend, and the dog?” he gestured to Molly.

“That’s it, yes,” I nodded.

“Okay,” Tig scratched his beard thoughtfully. “Then we’ll give you this one as well,” he pulled a smaller craft from the pile. “It’s smaller and lighter so it’ll handle easier than the other one but doesn’t nearly have enough storage space.”

“Can you fit anything in it?” I inquired.

“You could probably fit your bag in there if you needed to,” Tiglath studied me for a moment. “And your dog could probably fit in the pit with you, although she couldn’t move a lot. Your main gear you’ll want to stow in the bigger kayak.”

“That makes sense,” I nodded as I studied the craft, trying to figure out how to use them. While I studied the boats, Tiglath studied me.

“I take it you’ve never used one before?” he guessed.

“Nope,” I admitted with a shake of my head.

“I suppose I’d better teach you then so you live long enough to get killed by the Sorceress,” Tig sighed. “Grab the smaller one and come down to the pier.”

Following his instructions, I picked up the smaller kayak which I found disturbingly light and carried it down to the river. Tiglath hobbled down a couple of minutes later, caring a strange looking pole that had paddles attached to either end.

“Are you sure this thing is seaworthy?” I asked. “It seems awfully flimsy.”

“They may feel weak, but I assure you, you’ll drown before this does,” he remarked with a grunt. “They’re designed to be durable yet light and easy to handle, as long as you aren’t an idiot. So you’ll probably kill yourself.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I replied.

“You’re the fool going into the Eisenberge,” Tig replied. “Now hop in.”

“Now?” I blinked. “Before I get in the water?”

“Oh I’m sorry,” growled Tiglath, “I thought you wanted to learn how to use one of these?”

“Fair point,” I acknowledged and slid into the hole. “Now what?”

“Take this,” he handed me the stick, “and push yourself into the water.”

I wanted to protest but remembered his previous reply. Not entirely sure what to do, I dug one side of what essentially was a double-sided paddle into the wood of the dock and shoved. The kayak lurched forward towards the water, the front end tipping down as I balanced for a moment. Another tap of the paddle and the kayak, with me in it, dove towards the water.

My breath caught in my throat as I plunged headlong into the quiet water by the dock. There was a splash and I was doused with cold water but to my surprise, I found myself bobbing on the surface as solid as could be.

“Now this won’t tip easy,” Tig informed from the pier, “but don’t tempt fate with a bunch of rocking. The good news for you is that the Shachor isn’t a dangerous river, although it moves a bit faster this time of year. There are no rapids between here and the Immer. It’s a good river for a beginner such as yourself.

“As to paddling,” Tiglath went on with the instruction, “to go straight, alternate paddling either side. To turn, paddle hard on the opposite side you wish to turn.”

“Like this?” I questioned as I began digging each side of the paddle into the water. I started moving forward, the nose of the kayak wavering back and forth while I went in a more or less straight line.

“Good, good,” Tiglath nodded his approval. “Now try coming back.”

Digging my paddle into the water on the right I made slow, wide arc to my left and began working my way back to where Tiglath was waiting. I went too far and had to correct back to the right, for which I overcorrected. Returning to the pier was a bit more of a chore as I fought to get myself back to center. Eventually I managed to get myself back on course and going straight again, just in time to run into the dock.

“How do I stop?” I called out.

“Back paddle on both sides—evenly!” replied Tiglath.

I tried to do as instructed and all I managed to do was to bounce into the dock broadside. Reflexively I leaned out of the way as I hit and leaned too far, flipping myself and the kayak upside down. Thankfully I could swim and managed to eject myself from the kayak and came spluttering to the surface.

“Well, you’re green,” Tiglath said slowly as flipped the kayak right-side up while treading water. “Think you can handle it?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I told him as I hefted my soaking self out of the water and rolled on to the dock. The water was cold and my wool cloak weighed a ton. “The concept is simple enough. It’ll just take some practice to get used to it.”

“Just make sure you don’t wear that cloak in case you take a drink next time,” Tiglath suggested. “Bring the kayak in and we’ll get you dried up and settle a price.”

I took off my cloak and wrung it out before hauling the craft back on to dry land. Tiglath took the paddle from me and began hobbling back up the incline towards where his workshop was. I lifted the kayak on to my shoulders and followed after him at a considerably slower pace while Molly trotted at my heels.

“Set it down outside next to the other one,” Tiglath instructed while he started setting a fire. “Come in here and get your clothes dry.”

Thankfully I did have a spare set and so found an out-of-the-way corner and changed into them. I handed him my wet clothes to set on a line in front of the fire while setting my pack down on a nearby table. As I did, the pack fell open and my scimitar fell out.

“Well, what have we here?” he said as he moved over to the table to where the blade lay. “May I?”

Reluctant as I was to let him handle it, I figured I ought to be courteous to him so I nodded and he picked it up. With surprising dexterity for his old, gnarled hands, the old kayak-builder fluidly drew blade from its scabbard. For a long minute, he silently held it up, admiring it before twirling it around in his hand.

“Remarkable blade, truly,” he said in awe. “Eisenbergian steel, best in the world by far. Light yet incredibly strong and holds an edge like no other metal. I haven’t seen a weapon like this in almost 17 years. Where did you get it?”

“My, uh, father gave it to me,” I fibbed. Lord Omri had looked after me from the moment I’d arrived at Castle Zahav as a retainer of the king. He’d trained me, disciplined me, and inspired me as I grew up and so one could say that he was a father to me or at least the closest thing I’d ever had to a father. From a certain point of view, what I was saying was true.

“Impossible,” Tig snorted as he continued to examine the weapon. “The last person to bear a weapon like this died 17 years ago so unless you were frozen in time, your father couldn’t have given it to you.”

“You could simply be remembering a similar blade,” I suggested.

“Possibly,” Tiglath sheathed the weapon. “But I doubt it. This blade I recall as being quite unique, especially as an Eisenbergian steel weapon. Those are even rarer now than ever. Perhaps whoever gave you this was indeed your father but I’d question where he got this sword.”

“You recognize this scimitar?” I questioned, suddenly very curious as to my sword’s origins.

“If it isn’t that one, then it is nearly identical to the one I saw,” Tiglath sighed as handed it back to me. “I remember it because it was a simple weapon, largely unadorned unlike the other lords and knights who seemed to make having a fancier sword a contest.

“I also remember the wielder was tremendously skilled,” he went on, a faraway look in his eyes. “Perhaps it was the steel of the blade that helped but no steel creates a master swordsman that this lord was.”

“Who was it?” I inquired.

“Isaiah was his name if I recall correctly,” Tiglath answered. “He was a minor noble that owned a castle somewhere in Three River’s Province. He brought with him a group of a dozen knights or so, all equipped with Eisenbergian steel scimitars. They were terrors on the field.”

“What happened to him?” I felt that I ought to have seen this lord or at least heard of him.

“He died, along with the rest of his knights during the Battle of Finsternis Tal,” Tiglath sat himself down a stool, his left leg sticking awkwardly out.

“You were there, weren’t you?” I deduced.

“Yes, I was,” Tig’s brown eyes momentarily met mine before drifting back to the past. “I was living here with my wife and children when the Sorceress attacked. I remember them sweeping through here like animals, burning and destroying everything in their path. They barely took any plunder; just destroyed whatever they could. My wife had taken our kids, a boy and girl, out to the Wald to go mushroom hunting that day; they never had a chance. I was luckier. I happened to be working down at the docks that day and so managed to get on one of the ships escaping south.

“I’ll never forget the first time I saw her,” he shuddered slightly at the memory. “The knights had taken up a position defending the docks to give us as much time as possible so that the most people could escape. At first, they held off the Eisenbergians well until the Sorceress showed up.

“Right in front our eyes, she slaughtered two children and bled them into a bowl. She poured the blood out in some sort of a pattern, enchanted a few words and suddenly a black hole opened up behind the knights and hundreds of possessed Eisenbergians poured out. The knights fought well but what could they do?” he asked. “Nothing, of course. Within minutes, they were slain like sheep and the rest of her mob rushed forward, some to the docks and the others to the city.

“They just started smashing things with no thought as to whether they might have value or not,” Tig’s voice was heavy as he relived that day. “It was as if the only thing they cared about was senseless destruction. And in the middle of it all stood the Sorceress. That face, the face that killed my wife and children, is forever burned into my mind. She stood there in her black armored dress with this iron crown sitting like a crown of thorns on her head. Her face was proud and joyful as if she fed on the misery and chaos she wrought. Hell, maybe she does,” Tiglath suggested. “But that wasn’t the worst of it,” he shook his head. “Oh no, that was yet to come.

“There were a couple boats still at the docks when the knights were broken,” Tig recalled. “They tried to untie and push off as fast as they could, leaving dozens of women and children stranded on the beach. These her soldiers slew in seconds. She stood on the edge of the dock and reached with her hands. I have no idea what she said but all I remember is her eyes glowing red moments before both ships were blown to pieces, right in front of us. She’d killed over 300 people in the blink of an eye.”

“That must’ve been awful,” I breathed as I tried to absorb his story. “I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like.”

“If you keep on your fool’s quest, you will soon enough,” snorted Tig. “It was after we’d escaped that first attack that I volunteered as a foot soldier in the army. I wasn’t the youngest man there but I was so full of anger and hate, I had to do something to get revenge on the monsters that had destroyed my life. I must’ve fought in a dozen battles against the Eisenbergians during the war and rose through the ranks until I was a captain, commanding an entire regiment. And then came that last battle.

“We’d been pushing them back most of the summer and now we had them holed up in the Finsternis Tal,” he said. “One good push and we’d finish them, or so we thought. So we marched into the valley and into her trap.”

“The Eisenbergians warriors were always a little off,” Tig remembered. “They were relatively skilled but none of them could best one of our weakest knights one on one. But what they lacked in skill they made up for in tenacity. They just would not give up, as if it would be better to be massacred than retreat. It made every fight a bloody struggle for survival. After the first year, we completely gave up on the idea of taking prisoners; these would fight until they either died or were in too much pain to move. It was frightening and a little awe-inspiring, the raw courage.

“But for this battle, she did something to them,” Tig shook his head. “They’d been over the top brave before, but now they were unconscionable. It was as if they were completely possessed and reduced to little more than animals. I remember seeing the first wave of Eisenbergians pour down on us as we tried to navigate the woods. Their eyes were completely white as if they could not see. They screamed like beasts and they just tore at us like animals. There was no skill, no finesse, just a berserk charge.

“At first it overwhelmed us,” Tig explained. “We were strung out through the valley and they just raked through us. The insane terror of their attack caught us off guard and before we could counter, hundreds of ours were killed. I managed to pull what was left of my regiment, at it wasn’t much, to a nearby beach so that our backs at least were protected. That’s when the second wave started.

“Now that we were organized, we managed to hold our ground pretty well,” Tig mentioned. “That is until they really started attacking. Suddenly we realized that we weren’t fighting men any more but animals. It was as if she’d completely stripped the humanity from her soldiers and replaced it only with the urge to slay all Alkites. They show no fear, no pain, no matter how many times we stabbed them. Their white eyes were completely blank. They just kept pushing on and on, regardless of how many of their comrades we slew, how many limbs we’d hacked off. They just kept coming.” He shuddered. “You can’t imagine the kind of fear,” he looked at me. “To have a creature determined to kill you keep pushing on no matter what you do to it. Cut off an arm, he just switches weapons hand. Cut off a leg, he keeps crawling at you. Stab him in the chest, he’ll fight until his blood runs out. There is no fear like that, my friend, none.”

 “Things seemed to have gotten worse when the Sorceress showed up,” Tiglath continued his nightmare down memory lane. “Her presence seemed to give them a boost of energy and they fought even harder than before. Meanwhile, she rained down lightning, fire, ice, and a half dozen other bizarre powers on us, slaughtering our troops and hers too at times. She’d transport whole blocks of troops, regardless of flag, to whole new locations that were invariably bad for us. Thankfully we had numbers on our side and were taking down four of them for every one of us. It was a costly battle no doubt, but we were getting the better of them.”

 “What happened? I thought we won the battle?” I was confused. Although rarely discussed among the vets who were there, the Battle of Finsternis Tal was legendary among the rest of us. The king’s great and heroic defeat of the Sorceress that gave us peace for nearly two decades; it was a story that was told over and over again and yet strangely never by those who actually had fought it.

“King Sennacheriv happened,” Tiglath answered. “He managed to get the Sorceress alone and survived a straight duel with her. I wasn’t too far away at the time, having had my leg blown off by one of her lightning attacks. Maybe she was tired from the expense of power but she used little magic against him. But she was, is I suppose, a supremely gifted swordsman. She matched the king blow for blow before he pinned her. But just before he delivered the killing strike, she slashed his arm open and then vanished into the thin air.”

I nodded, having seen that particular trick performed before.

“Without her, it was like her soldiers lost the will to fight,” Tig grunted. “Our superior numbers and stronger will wiped the valley clean of them.

“A victory they called it?” the old ship-builder waxed poetically. “I suppose it ended the war, giving us a cold war for the last 17 years instead. In that sense, one could call it a victory. But those there that day?” he shook his head. “It was anything but a victory. We lost nearly three-quarters of our army. It was so devastating that it was decided to hold the rest of the army back in the valley and send an expedition into the Eisenberge to see what we could do. They lasted nearly two weeks before four of the two hundred made it out alive.”

“So are the stories true?” I had to ask. “Is the forest haunted?”

“Only to those who were there,” answered Tiglath.

“That’s one less thing for me to worry about,” I let myself a subtle smile.

“You still intend to go?” he looked in amazement at me.

“Yes,” I sighed resolutely. “I told you before; I have no choice.”

“You always have a choice,” replied Tig with a vigorous shake of the head. “You can choose to just walk away. Go home to wherever you came from or settle down here or go anywhere else in Alkilion. A handsome young man like you will surely catch a girl’s eye. Get married, find a life here, and enjoy it. Don’t throw your life away on fool’s quest.”

“And what of the Princess?” I demanded of him. “What of her fate? Right now she is in the Sorceress’s dungeons suffering gods know what to her. Am I supposed to just leave her to her fate?”

“Her fate is out of your hands,” implored Tiglath.

“No it isn’t, not yet,” I disagreed, squeezing my hands into fists. “Not as long as I draw breath.”

“Poor fool,” Tiglath exclaimed with a shake of his head. “Haven’t you heard a word I said? Don’t you understand how powerful the Sorceress is? You can’t possibly hope to defeat her. You’re doing nothing more than walking to your death.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “You’re right; I have no idea if I can beat the Sorceress, let alone how. But that cannot stop me from trying nonetheless. Ariadne is my friend and more than that, she’s the woman I love. Of what worth would I be if I didn’t at least try while I still could? None,” I shook my head. “I know very well that it is a suicide mission. I know that my chances of survival, let alone success, are around nil. But I also know from the deepest part of my being that I would rather die trying to save the one I love than live a lifetime knowing that I’d chosen the easy path instead; the coward’s path.”

“I must admit I admire your idealism, boy, if not your courage,” Tiglath sighed heavily. “If I can’t convince you to stay, then allow me to give you this piece of advice: when you reach the Immer Pool, find the Black Gate. That will be your path into the mountains. Beware of the sorceress that lives at the top of the Falls.”

“I don’t really understand,” I cocked my head. “Katrina,” I spoke her name, “lives up there?”

“No, not her,” Tig shook his head. “She lives far to the north and west. But another sorceress, her apprentice I believe. She may not be as powerful as her mistress, but do not underestimate her.”

“I won’t, not this time,” I set my jaw. This had to be the same sorceress that had abducted Ariadne. “But I don’t understand what you mean about a black gate.”

“You will when you get there,” Tiglath stood up on his stool. “It’s hard to describe without seeing it. Just find the Black Gate and you’ll see the rest.”

“Thank you,” I said standing up to check my clothes. They were nice and dry so I took them off the rack and rolled them into my pack. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing here,” Tig held out his hands.

“Surely sir, I must pay you something,” I protested.

“I’ll tell you what,” Tiglath crossed his arms pensively, “You make it back from this fool’s quest alive, we’ll call it even.”

“I’m sorry sir, but that is just unacceptable,” I dug in. “I must compensate you. Honor demands it.”

“If you must,” sighed Tig. “A gold crown ought to cover any debt between us.”

I knew that he was giving me an absurd discount but it was no longer worth debating. My honor was satisfied.

“We’ll come for these sometime tomorrow,” I told him, placing the coin on the table.

“They’ll be out waiting for you,” Tig nodded. “And Zimri, good luck. I pray that you’ll succeed.”

“Thanks,” I smiled at him. “I’m going to need it.”

7: Chapter 6

Fifty miles away to the north, the rattling of her cell door returned Princess Ariadne back to her nightmare reality. Standing in the doorway with her constantly impassive expression was her captor, the sorceress Athena. The young woman strode over to the princess who held out her bandaged arm without even a grunt from Athena.

“You’re learning,” Athena remarked placidly as she unwound the gauze and examined the injured arm.

Athena’s ointment had done the trick quite nicely over the last three days since her unceremonious arrival in the Eisenberge. The wound had closed up around the stitches. It would leave a scar of course, but she wasn’t at risk of reopening it barring significant effort and so Athena’s job was essentially done.

“What are you doing?” Ariadne squeaked when Athena pulled a pair of small, needle-nosed scissors that seemed to have rather sharp blades.

“I’m going to cut your stitches out now,” Athena mechanically answered, grasping the princess’s wrist to ensure she didn’t do anything crazy. “Unless, of course, you’d prefer me to leave them in to be a constant irritant as they rot and infect your arm.”

“No, of course not,” Ariadne attempted futilely to relax while Athena skillfully snipped the knots away. She flexed and winced with every snip of Athena’s scissors. Within moments, the tiny bonds that had held Ariadne’s arm together the last few days were cut and Athena quickly brushed the refuse to the floor. All that remained of her wound was an ugly looking scab that ran most of the length of the princess’s forearm.

“Your arm should be fine now,” Athena prognosticated, wrapping the arm in fresh bandages. “But be careful so you don’t reopen it. The deeper tissue damage still needs more time to heal and so your arm is going to be sore for the next few days still.” Athena stood and started for the cell door.

“Thank you,” Ariadne quietly spoke just as Athena reached the door.

“What did you say?” Athena was frozen in place, her hand extended to open the cell door.

“I said thank you,” Ariadne repeated.

“For what?” Athena turned to stare in awe at the Alkite princess, still trying to comprehend her words. Did the princess just thank her? Athena had been begged, threatened, and cursed but never thanked. She didn’t know how to respond to this.

“For taking care of my arm,” Ariadne answered. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“If I didn’t want you to bleed out, I did,” Athena replied uncomfortably.

“I suppose,” Ariadne acknowledged. “But you’ve taken care of me and kept me alive and for that, I thank you.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Athena asked, dumbfounded. “Do you think I’ve done you a kindness by saving your life? A mercy? Fool,” she shook her head. “When my mistress arrives, you will be cursing my name for saving your life.”

Athena did not give Ariadne the chance to respond, instead turning back to the door and whisking herself out of the cell. Purposefully she strode up the stairs, trying to put the infuriating princess out of her mind.

A moment later she stepped out of the Scion Tower into the courtyard of her personal palace. A light breeze ruffled her robe, tempering the warm spring sun that shone down on her. The beauty of living so high is that one was often above the clouds during spring and summer, although the damp earth beneath her feet attested to a morning shower.

It was a remarkably beautiful day, Athena noted to herself as she walked across the triangular courtyard towards her residence in the Olympic Tower. Yet despite how good the day seemed, Athena was seething. The princess was absolutely maddening! Athena had never met anyone like this woman, certainly no one that got under her skin like Ariadne did. Most of her victims would cower in fear, either pleading desperately for mercy or sitting in a corner crying. Others would try to lash out at her in anger, cursing her or threatening her with all kinds of unsavory ends. Athena had always laughed at that; it wasn’t like those threats carried any actually weight.

But Ariadne was different. She had borne her ordeal with quiet dignity and grace. Athena supposed she should’ve expected it; Ariadne was a princess after all. Yet Athena had been expecting a spoiled daddy’s girl, not this woman.

It was her composure that galled Athena so much, she decided. After all how dare she have the audacity to thank Athena? For what? Abducting her? Keeping her alive which only delayed her inevitable murder? How could she be so calm, so cool sitting in a jail cell knowing that her death was only moments away? Or was she oblivious to what undoubtedly lay in store for her?

Athena could handle the crying, pleading, cursing, and threatening; she was used to that. But the calm dignity? She’d never experienced anything like that and had to admit, she didn’t know how to deal with this. And that, she realized, was the true reason Ariadne got to her.

Heading to her personal laboratory, Athena needed to work on something to get the princess off her mind. Mistress Katrina would be here soon enough, she expected and then Ariadne would no longer be her problem.

Flipping the wooden sign on the outside of her door indicating that she was not to be disturbed, Athena entered her lab, found a project, and got down to work. She loved her lab and playing around with her different potions. Her staff didn’t like it nearly as much as they often ended up as her test subjects if she didn’t have a prisoner or two to use but so far no one had died or been too seriously hurt. Not that she would’ve cared that much; the results were what she cared about.

She was so engrossed in her work that Athena didn’t notice the hours tick by. She nearly didn’t notice the gentle knock on the door until it became a constant rapping.

“What?” Athena finally barked out. “Didn’t you notice the sign? It means I’m not to be disturbed.”

“Excuse me Lady Athena,” Katherine’s timid voice squeaked from the other side of the thick door, “But the Mistress Katrina has arrived and requested your presence.”

Instinctively Athena blanched, nearly dropping the vial in her hand. Swallowing hard, Athena tried to remind herself that she had done well. She had managed to capture the daughter of their hated enemy and now she was dangling Ariadne like a carrot on a string over a pit for Sennacheriv and the rest of his army to fall into. Surely Katrina would be proud of her and reward her for her effort.

But her innate fear of the Sorceress would not stay down. Too many painful memories of vicious, ruthless “discipline” at her mistress’s hand would not allow Athena to breathe easy in her presence. If Katrina were upset in any way…No, Athena steeled herself, she wouldn’t be. She will be proud of me.

“My lady? Are you in there?” Katherine called.

“Yes Katherine,” Athena called back. “I assume you have taken to preparing Katrina’s quarters?”

“She said that she would not be staying the night,” Katherine answered. “Please my lady, hurry. Mistress Katrina does not seem to be happy.”

That news got Athena’s heart racing again. What could the Mistress be upset about? And she wasn’t staying the night? Where else would she be staying unless she was teleporting straight back to the Eisen Palast?

Calm down Athena, the young apprentice told herself. It’ll be alright. You’ve done well; she’ll be proud of you. Maybe it’s with Aiden that she’s upset with. Yes, that must be it. She’s going to punish him and that’s why she’s not staying.

Busily straightening her hair and wiping some of the grime off her face, Athena rushed up the stairs to her throne room on the second floor of the Olympic Tower. Holding up for a second before the large double doors, she took a deep breath and pushed them in.

Her throne room was small as throne rooms go, circular to the shape of the tower, lit by three large windows. Usually empty, this evening the room was filled with a dozen soldiers lining either side of the throne room with blank expressions on their faces. Sitting gracefully on the simple, high-backed chair was Lady Katrina and Athena’s heart froze in her chest.

She did not look happy.

Hurrying forward, Athena bowed to the ground, pressing her forehead against the cold stone in front of the dais.

“My Mistress Katrina,” she spoke in shaky tones, “Forgive our lack of preparation. We were not expecting you so soon.”

“Imagine my surprise,” Katrina spoke in a placid voice that sent shivers from the top of Athena’s head to the tips of her toes, “to discover that you have a princess in your dungeon. Tell me, what is she doing there?”

“Well Mistress,” Athena started to stand up.

“Did I say you could rise?” Katrina sharply barked dropping Athena back down to the ground.

“No Mistress, you did not. I am sorry,” she apologized.

“Now try again and tell me why did you abduct the Alkite Princess?” Katrina demanded coldly. “I don’t recall authorizing you to make such a move.”

 “When you sent Aiden to me after our talk a few weeks ago, I assumed that you were making a move against Alkilion,” Athena tried to explain. “I thought maybe that you were testing Aiden and I, challenging us to who could bring Alkilion down. Since it seemed most likely that he was going after the princess, I decided to capture her for you myself.”

“Ah, I see,” Katrina seemed to understand. “You assumed that this was some sort of contest. And did Aiden discuss with you his mission in Alkilion? Did he tell you what his objective was?”

“Well, no,” Athena admitted. “He said it was a secret mission from you.”

“A secret mission from me, yes,” Katrina sounded thoughtful. “And you seemed to think it was a good idea to create a mission of your own? Without having any clue what Aiden was meant to do?”

“I had a plan, Mistress,” Athena shakily defended as she realized that she’d made a mistake. “I thought that if we could capture the princess, we could use her as bait. I remember how you’ve told us how difficult it was for the Alkites to invade us before. I thought—”

“You thought that if we hung their beloved princess out like a carrot on a stick, the Alkites would throw their army at us in our mountains and we could defeat them just like that?” Katrina finished, her voice rising in clear anger. “Foolish girl!” she roared. “Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve started a war!”

“I thought that’s what you wanted, Mistress,” Athena replied in a tiny voice. “I was trying to take the initiative. I thought you’d be pleased.”

“Pleased?” thundered Katrina. “You thought I’d be pleased that you decided to act against Alkilion on your own while I was working out my own plan against them? You thought I’d be pleased by you undermining Aiden’s mission, a mission I myself sent him on?”

“I thought you were testing us, Mistress,” Athena quietly said.

“Did you really think that I would make something as important to me as Alkilion a game between you two fools?” Katrina demanded acidly.

Athena felt stupid for ever having thought that. “But we have the princess, Mistress,” she offered hopefully. “Isn’t she the reason you sent Aiden into Alkilion?”

“To seduce her, not kidnap her you moron,” Katrina railed. “Do you think I want a war with Alkilion? I had a plan that would’ve taken Alkilion without fighting a single battle.”

“Mistress?”

“It was perfect,” Katrina’s voice calmed slightly as she recounted her master plan for destroying Alkilion. “Alkite law forbids a woman to rule, as you ought to know. Being the only child of King Sennacheriv, Ariadne’s husband would inherit his throne. I sent Aiden to woo her, with a little help from his training of course, and seduce her into becoming his wife. Then he would be next in line for the throne. A few well-timed accidents would put Aiden on the throne as king of Alkilion. Then all he’d have to do is simply surrender to me and I would have the triumph my soul has craved these last 17 years.

“But you,” Katrina turned to glower down on Athena’s prostrate form. “You, you pretentious little quim, have wrecked all of it. In your blind ambition, you have started a war we cannot win!”

“But we can win it, Mistress,” Athena protested. “We have the mountains. They cannot use their knights here. We will cut them to pieces.”

“You think a little geography will save us?” Katrina derided her apprentice. “Are you so foolish as to think that a few hills will overcome the fact that the Alkites outnumber us 10-1? Or that they have an unending supply of food and wealth with which to supply their troops while we scratch our existence off the rocks? Or that the entire world comes together at their feet while we stand alone? How does your battle strategy take that into account?”

Athena had to admit, she hadn’t considered the vast differences in resources. The Alkites had everything and more while they had barely more than nothing.

“Perhaps we could return her,” Athena suggested. “She is unharmed, mostly. If we send her back, perhaps the Alkites will be appeased and you can still carry out your plan for Aiden.”

“Give her back? Have you learned nothing from me?” Katrina snarled at Athena. “You do not know of whom you speak. Sennacheriv is not a lamb but a dragon. Not easily roused but once he is, he will not rest, he will not stop until his prey is crushed beneath his talons and torched by his breath. That is who you have roused, my apprentice. That is whose wrath you have incurred upon all of us. Giving back Princess Ariadne will do nothing. Sennacheriv will not be satisfied until we are nailed to crosses for his birds to enjoy while our cities are nothing but ashes underneath his boots.”

Athena swallowed hard as she realized the enormity of her error. “Please, Mistress, allow me to fix this,” she pleaded with Katrina. “Just give me a little time and I swear that I will solve this. You will have Alkilion Mistress, I swear it.”

“You? Fix this?” Katrina’s tone was mocking. “You are the one who caused it and you would have me rely on you to fix this?”

“I know I have failed you, Mistress, but have mercy on me and I swear you will not regret it,” Athena begged.

“Mercy?” Katrina spat out the word like it was poison. “You ask mercy of me? I have shown you mercy. How many of your countless failures have I overlooked in the past? But you ask me to overlook this betrayal? To merely forgive you and then put our fate in your hands?

“No,” Katrina firmly answered her own question. “I will not, I cannot overlook this. You have failed me for the last time and are no longer worthy to be called my apprentice.”

“Mistress?” Athena was quaking but now dared to raise her head to look Katrina in the eye.

Her mistress’s face was hard like granite. Katrina’s icy blue eyes bore into Athena with a mixture of cold fury and complete contempt, utterly devoid of mercy. All hope for mercy died in Athena in that moment.

“You are hereby stripped of your rank, authority, and freedom,” Katrina coldly announced. “Guards, seize her.”

Panic gripped Athena as she realized that her life was over. Athena had seen what happened to those that had crossed the Sorceress before; she’d even helped in the excruciating torture. Katrina was no sadist but whenever her plans were opposed, she had a burning rage that would not be slaked until all those responsible were viciously punished. And now Athena was the target of the fury. Her life was about to come to a long, slow, painful end.

In desperation, Athena leapt to her feet, determined not to go down without a fight. “Brenn ihnen,” she yelled, extending her hands to the side while feeling power surge through her body.

Fire leapt from her fingertips, wreathing around the nearest guards who approached her. Unlike the solider in Sennacheriv’s court, these uttered no sound as they were incinerated. Instead they attempted to take another few steps towards Athena, determined to fulfill their mistress’s command, before faltering and falling to the ground. They convulsed twice before lying still, flames still eating away at their flesh.

From the throne, Katrina sat impassively, merely raising an amused eyebrow at her former apprentice’s challenge. She flicked a long finger to her guards who charged at Athena.

Extending palms out, Athena kneeled down as she tried to summon every ounce of power she could before exclaiming, “Schlag!”

Around her, the air visibly warped as a wave of pure energy exploded from her. The sudden shift in air pressure shattered the windows while the guards were picked up and tossed as if they were no more than leaves in the wind. They were crushed against the stone wall with a sharp crunch.

Moving before Katrina could counterattack, Athena reached out to strike down her former mistress who still sat unmoved on the throne.

“Brenn ihre,” she commanded as another gout of flame erupted from her fist towards the Sorceress.

For a triumphant moment, Athena watched as her work seemed to consume Katrina. And then the flames were swept away like dust in the wind. Katrina reclined calmly in the throne without so much as a singed hair. A small, cold, hard smile touched her lips as her former apprentice’s attacks fell for nothing.

“Pathetic,” she commented. “To think that you have been my student for all these years and that is the best you can muster. You will have to be much more creative than that.”

Suddenly Katrina’s irises turned blood red. Before Athena had time to panic, she felt herself being picked up and thrown across the throne room. She felt the wind being driven out of her as she slammed into the heavy doors at the back of the room, helplessly pinned.

“Lähmung,” Katrina ordered, rising from her throne and striding elegantly towards her victim. Instantly Athena lost all feeling below her neck and she hung limply against the doors in Katrina’s iron grip.

“Did you really think you had a chance to defeat me?” Katrina whispered to her former student. “Did you really think that I would ever teach you and Aiden enough to challenge me? You were my tool and nothing more. Easily made and just as easily discarded.”

“So what are you waiting for?” Athena gasped out in a last effort of defiance. “Kill me and be done with it. Enslave another apprentice to your will.”

“I should execute you here and now for what you’ve done,” Katrina acknowledged. “But I think not. I’ll leave you here for the Alkites to do with as they please. I’m certain they would love to get their hands on the one who abducted their precious princess. They will punish you in ways that not even I can imagine.”

“And if they don’t come?” Athena asked. “What then?”

“Oh they will, rest easy about that,” Katrina told her. “And if they don’t, then it will be a race between starvation and dehydration as to what gets you first.”

“I’ll get free,” Athena retorted. “I’ll survive and I will end you.”

“No you won’t,” Katrina allowed a cruel smile. She snapped her fingers towards the recovering guards. “Bind her,” she ordered sharply.

Immediately a pair of soldiers hustled forward bearing a set of large iron shackles. Efficiently and silently, they clamped them down on Athena’s forearms, completely encasing them. Once locked, Katrina withdrew her holding spell on Athena and let her drop to the floor in a heap. She couldn’t move and when she tried to tap into her magic to undo the paralyzing spell Katrina had placed on her, it was as if she ran into a wall.

“You might find it hard to use your power with those on,” Katrina told her. “Those cuffs were designed especially for you and Aiden if you were to ever get out of hand. I wove a spell into them that prevent the wearer from using sorcery. You are now completely stripped of your power. Tell me now how you are going to get out of this?”

Athena could barely move her head to make eye contact with the Sorceress. It was over she knew. The paralysis would eventually wear off but it didn’t matter. Without her power, Athena was as helpless as a lamb. She remembered the look of hatred she’d seen in their palace when she’d taken the Alkite princess. They’d show her less mercy than did Katrina. And there was nothing she could do about it.

“Take her to the princess’s cell,” Katrina ordered her guards. “And bring me this princess that everyone is so excited about.”

With a growing rage and despair, Athena felt herself be dragged from the very room where she had once held power over an entire region. She who had held thousands of lives in the palm of her hand was no more able to save herself than a lamb before wolves.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I made my way up the hill to where Schwarz Tor sat. Granted Tiglath’s tale was quite sobering but it was also enlightening. I felt like I had a better idea of what I was up against in the Sorceress. She was extremely powerful, true, but in my short life I had found that knowing what you were up against was a good chunk of the battle. Of course I still had no clue how in the world I was actually going to kill her but I figured I had a while to work on that.

And I had Adam who seemed to know a great deal. Considering that brought back my earlier suspicions that I’d pushed to the back of my mind while talking with Tiglath. He hadn’t given me any reason to distrust him; indeed he’d given me plenty of reasons to trust him. And yet there was a lot surrounding him that didn’t quite add up.

It dawned on me that I didn’t really know much about him. He’d talked a lot, sure, but said precious little about himself. He never mentioned what he was doing in Yir-Eliav, nor who his father was, or what his profession was. I didn’t even know what town he was from. All I knew about him was that he was from the north and seemingly had an inexhaustible supply of coin. Needless to say I had a few questions for him.

The sun was still up, although barely, as I approached the gate to Schwarz Tor. It was different than the other cities we’d visited on our trip north. The walls here were built for functionality over opulence, unlike the metropolises of Yir-Eliav, Confluence, or Forks. Made from a hard, rough black stone, the walls were clearly ancient. Moss and lichen could be seen growing in the cracks between the stones that were worn with the passing years. An earthy yet metallic smell filled my nostrils as I got closer to the gate as I noticed faint rusty streaks painting the black walls. There was no polish or shine here.

And yet, they seemed stronger than any of the fortifications I’d seen before. Maybe it was the rough hew of the stone or its foreboding black façade that made the 25 foot walls intimidating. Or maybe it was the shadow of the Eisenberge that hung over this whole land. Whatever it was, there was something innately strong about these walls that wrapped its arms the circumference of the city.

“Hey, you there with the dog, stop!” a stern voice called out to me.

Dutifully I came to a stop just outside the gate and looked to my left to see a man with a steel cap and a spear approaching me. He wore a black surcoat over his clothes that was probably the uniform of the local city guard but it was faded and frayed along the edges. But I noted his helmet and spear were in excellent condition. Clearly function trumped form here.

“Is there a problem sir?” I respectfully responded.

“No, at least I don’t think so,” the guard eyed me suspiciously for a moment. “It’s simply our duty to check people coming into the city from sundown on.”

I glanced up at the sky. It wasn’t technically sundown yet but the sun was burning low in the sky so I shrugged it off. “Very well,” I turned back to the guard. “Do you need to search my bags?”

“No, unless you think I ought to,” he said. The guard was relatively young man, maybe three or four years older than myself.

“Not unless you feel inclined to dig through my undergarments,” I gave him a wry smile.

“I’ll pass, thank you,” he wrinkled his nose. “What is your business in Schwarz Tor and why are you coming in so late?”

“I’m stopping over here before continuing my journey,” I supplied as simply as I could. “I was down at the docks talking with Tiglath the kayak maker.”

“Were you purchasing a kayak from him?” the guard inquired.

“That was the aim of my business with him, yes,” I nodded with a somewhat theatrical sigh.

“And where are you heading after Schwarz Tor?” the guard continued his line of inquiry.

“Do you really need to know that?” I regarded him carefully.

“I’m just asking the questions I’m told to ask,” the guard returned with a sigh of his own.

“As you wish,” I shrugged and figured I’d tell him the truth. “I’m planning on exploring the Eisenberge.”

He blinked twice. “Excuse me, but what did you say?” he spoke.

“I said that I’m going to explore the Eisenberge,” I replied nonchalantly.

“Did you say the Eisenberge?” he was still trying to wrap his head around that.

“I did,” I confirmed. “Is that a problem?”

“Yes, no, well I don’t know,” the guard spluttered. “It’s just that no one has gone into the Eisenberge in nearly twenty years, at least not anyone that’s come back.”

“Well then it’s high time someone braved it,” I declared. “I hear they have excellent iron which we could always use more of.”

“Of course, but the Sorceress,” he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Aren’t you frightened of what she’ll do to you?”

I was frightened of what she might do to me but I couldn’t let him know that so I shrugged casually. “She won’t notice a solitary traveler such as myself. I’m certain that I can examine the metal work of the Eisenbergians without much notice.”

“But they say that she knows all and she won’t like an Alkite in her domain,” the guard licked his lips nervously, still speaking in a whisper as if he feared her overhearing and smiting him for his impertinence.

“Do you believe all the tales told by parents to frighten their children?” I asked him incredulously while hiding the fact that I wondered how true that just might be.

“Well I suppose not,” he started.

“And neither do I,” I brusquely cut off, feeling that this interrogation had gone on long enough. “I need your approval to enter the city, not to go wherever I wish outside it. Do I have your consent?”

The guard considered that for a moment before straightening up and giving me a nod. “You may enter,” he said in a much more formal tone. “But I suggest you keep this business of going into the Eisenberge to yourself. We don’t want you disturbing the peace.”

Don’t worry, I thought to myself as Molly and I walked into the gatehouse. Given how everyone reacted when I told them of where I was going, I had little interest in dealing with those looks anymore. Unless absolutely necessary, I was not going to tell people what I was up to.

I paused for a moment to admire the gate. The massive gatehouse resembled a small castle more than it did a gate, or at least the gates I was used to. In the heartland of Alkilion, gates tended to be designed more as a place for kings to plaster their great deeds for everyone to see rather than as part of the city’s defensive network.

But that was not the case here. There were no reliefs, no statues, and no murals. Instead, four separate gates stood between me and the interior of the city. Massive, steel-reinforced oaken doors were hinged open on the extreme ends of the gatehouse. As I stepped in, hanging over each interior gateway was a portcullis, ready to drop at a moment’s notice. Flanking the street through the gatehouse were six side chambers where a couple beggars sat, holding out for alms.

I shook my head as I considered how difficult it would be to take this city. Clearly Schwarz Tor had been built to endure the most violent of assaults. I wondered if these defenses were in place when the Sorceress attacked twenty years ago. They seemed older than that. But if they had, according to Tiglath’s memory, even these monumental fortifications had done little to slow her onslaught. That thought sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

“Which way now, Molly?” I asked the dog. She merely licked her lips and sat down on her haunches.

The city’s layout struck me as haphazard. Narrow streets, barely wide enough for a large wagon, twisted and turned before us. Built on the crown of a hill, the pathways more or less drove to the center of the city where a small castle stood. Wooden houses and shops rarely peaking above three stories were smashed together in a jumble that seemed utter chaos to me. Somewhere in this mess was the Catfish Inn.

“Lost stranger?” a feminine voice called to me.

Following the voice, I saw a pretty young woman about my age standing off to my left. She was smiling at me, crinkles forming around her dark brown eyes. On her hip was a crate of flowers that appeared to have dusted the pale pink frock she wore.

“Yes, as a matter fact I am,” I responded with a smile of my own. “Sadly my companion is useless with directions,” I gestured to Molly who still sat there, her tail occasionally twitching.

“That is a surprise,” she beamed in response. “He seems rather knowledgeable.”

“She, actually,” I corrected. “And yes, she usually knows more than I do. Perchance could you help us?”

“Where are you going?” she inquired.

“We’re meeting a friend at the Catfish Inn,” I informed her. “As this is our first time in your fair city, I find myself a bit at a loss as where to go.”

“No problem,” she responded. “I happen to know exactly where that is. If you’ll help put away this other box of flowers, I’ll happily take you there.”

“You’ve got a deal,” I answered as Molly and I dashed across the street to where the young woman was standing.

“My name is Delilah,” she greeted when we reached her shop.

“Zimri,” I supplied, “And my sidekick here is Molly.”

“I’d say you were more her sidekick than she yours,” Delilah teased.

“Probably true,” I laughed. “I follow her lead more than anything else.”

Delilah reached down and scratched a pleased Molly behind the ears. Her tail immediately began whipping back and forth as she received the attention.

“Friendly, isn’t she?” Delilah looked back up at me.

“Friendlier to some than others, apparently,” I answered as I considered the night and day difference between Molly’s treatment of Delilah and Adam. “Anyway, you needed these flowers moved?”

“Yes,” she straightened up. “I’m closing up my parents flower shop today. We just need to pull the boxes in and then lock up. With your help, shouldn’t take too long.”

“No problem,” I said as picked up one of the crates. “Certainly less of a hassle than sheep,”

“Sheep?” Delilah cocked her head.

“Never mind,” I shrugged off. “Where do I set this?”

“In the back,” she gestured over her shoulder to the back of the shop. “Find an empty space on a shelf and set it down.”

With a grunt, I carried the box back into the shop and plunked it down in an empty slot. Turning back, I nearly tripped over Molly who had followed me in.

“You really are useless,” I grumbled to the dog. She just cocked her head inquisitively at me. “Yeah, I love you too,” I commented as I ruffled her fur. “Come on.”

With the two of us working together and only slight interruptions by Molly, Delilah and I got the shop closed up in less than fifteen minutes, just after the sun started to sink below the western horizon.

“Alright, the Catfish Inn?” she requested.

“That’s the one Adam said,” I nodded.

“You and your friend must be doing well for yourselves,” she remarked. “That’s one of the fanciest inns in the city.”

She started leading us through the winding streets that were even more dizzying than I anticipated. There were enough landmarks around that I knew which direction the gate was but it would be quite an adventure navigating these streets to get back there.

“How long are you in town for?” Delilah inquired as we worked our way towards the Catfish.

“Probably just the night,” I answered. “I believe the plan is to leave sometime early tomorrow morning.”

“Oh,” she sounded slightly disappointed. “So this is just a stopping off point for you?”

“Something like that,” I replied, hoping that she would stop asking questions.

“Where are you headed next?”

Fantastic. “A sheep farmer northwest of here hired us to take care of his sheep,” I tried to lie. Clearly that isn’t a strength of mine.

“Really?” Delilah leaned her head thoughtfully to the right as she pondered that. “I didn’t know that there were any sheep farmers this far north.”

“There aren’t many,” I commented with a nervous laugh.

“Well, whoever he is, he must be wealthy to pay you enough to stay at the Catfish,” she remarked. “Speaking of which, here we are.”

The Catfish Inn certainly looked rich. Outside there were flowers growing in beds off the street. Its walls were pristinely whitewashed with large, round windows that glowed from the inside light. Hanging on a sign above the door was the image of a large, drunk catfish.

“Thanks,” I nodded to Delilah. “I really appreciate it.”

“Hey, no problem,” she waved off. “We had a deal, right?”

“That we did,” I smiled at her as I stepped towards the door.

As I did, I passed by one of the large windows and happened to look in. Whether by luck or by the hand of the gods, I’ll never know but it saved my life.

The window peered into the common room that served as the dining hall and tavern for the inn. What first caught my attention was Adam, whose orangish skin was naturally going to catch anyone’s eye. At first I was relieved; I was at the right inn after all, which in this city could be a problem. But then I saw who he was sitting with and my heart skipped a beat. Sitting across from Adam was a tall, powerfully built Alkite, richly dressed. On the table between them was the helmet of knight, one that normally sat on an all-too familiar face.

Baasha.

How had he gotten here so fast? I thought for sure that he would’ve waited a couple days before heading out while I had left that night. Did he know I was gone? Did that spur him to move so quickly?

No, that wasn’t possible, I decided. He was only a few hours behind us and he couldn’t have discovered my absence that quickly, could he have? He must’ve intended to leave as soon as possible like I had, proving that he wasn’t a complete fool. Either that or he had sailed directly here.

Either way, if he saw me, I was a dead man. As a knight and a member of the high nobility, he had the legal right to charge and execute me as a deserter and traitor on the spot. While I was a member of King Sennacheriv’s army in good standing, he couldn’t touch me, not legally anyway, although on more than one occasion I’d heard of a noble murdering a peasant and managing to get away with it. But that was rare and nobles still suffered a sharp justice for such crimes, although significantly less sharp than the rest of us.

Realizing that I was standing in a rather precarious place, I jumped back away from the window and retreated into the street.

“Everything alright?” Delilah asked curiously.

For a moment I didn’t respond as my mind raced. It seemed likely that Baasha didn’t know I was here but how long was it going to stay that way? How long until Adam inevitably slipped? I hadn’t told him of my troubles with Baasha so there was no serious reason for him to keep my existence a secret. Granted, he knew I was a deserter but would he take that seriously? I couldn’t count on it.

“Zimri?” Delilah called again.

“I have to get out of here,” I decided aloud, “Tonight.”

“That seems kind of sudden,” Delilah commented, knitting her eyebrows together. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“Not yet,” I replied. “And I’d like to stay that way. But I have to leave, tonight. Do you know of anywhere I can get supplies for a trip? I need food for at least three or four days.”

“Most of the shops close around sundown,” Delilah informed me. “You might find a meal or two at an inn but they aren’t exactly in the business of supplying travelers.”

“There’s no place I can get food?” I had a hard time believing that all the shops would be closed so early.

“I can get you what you need,” Delilah decided after a moment’s consideration. “But you have to tell me the truth first. You’re not a shepherd, are you?”

“Sort of, actually,” I answered with a wince. “But I’m not working for a sheep farmer around here.”

“I guessed that much,” Delilah crossed her arms and stared me down. “So who are you really and what are you really doing?”

“Look, the less you know the better,” I told her. “My name is Zimri and I am a shepherd, at least some of the time I work as a shepherd.”

“Not good enough,” she stubbornly answered.

“Trust me, the less you know the better,” I reiterated. “Will you help me or not?”

“At least tell me where you are really going,” Delilah demanded.

“Fine,” I was not in the mood to deal with this. “I’m going to the Eisenberge. Happy?”

Delilah stared at me open-mouthed. “What would possess you to go into that graveyard?”

“Someone I care very much about was abducted by an Eisenbergian recently and I’m going to get her back,” I told Delilah. “I’m well aware that the Eisenberge isn’t a place one goes for a leisurely stroll but I’ll be damned if I let her suffer up there without at least trying to get her back. The problem is I am also a soldier in King Sennacheriv’s army. I am deserting my post and breaking my oath to go after her but I must. There is a knight of the king in there, one who does not particularly like me. Were he to see that I am here, no doubt he would have me executed on the spot. Satisfied?”

Delilah was clearly in shock but she nodded mutely. “Come on,” she finally spoke after an eternal moment’s pause. “I’ll get you the supplies you need, although I can’t give you divine luck.”

“I appreciate the thought,” I allowed as I followed her back down the street.

After another half hour of winding, we arrived at a two-story house squished between a couple of shops. The windows were mostly dark although in two or three rooms I could barely make out a prick of candle light.

“Wait here,” Delilah instructed which instantly caused my heart to jump into my throat. I didn’t entirely trust her and letting her out of my sight with what she knew could be disastrous. Of course I had no idea where she might’ve gone or who she might’ve told. My fears proved groundless as less than ten minutes later, Delilah reappeared with a large, cloth-wrapped bundle.

“Here,” she handed me the package. “It’s the best I can do but if you’re careful, you can make it last three days. It’s just some bread and cheese, although I did toss in a couple of apples for you.”

“Thank you Delilah,” I truly meant it as I took the bundle and proceeded to fit it into my pack. I had to pull my sword out, which caused the young woman’s eyes to go wide. Despite the relatively warm evening, I had to wrap my cloak over me to conceal the weapon after I strapped it back onto my belt. If I was honest with myself, the cloak offered little concealment as anyone with half a brain could tell I had a scimitar underneath but at least the reflective steel was covered.

“Did you think I’d go into the Eisenberge unarmed?” I asked her with a wry smile.

“No, I guess that makes sense,” she nodded her understanding. “I’ve just never seen one up close before.”

“If you’re lucky, you never will again,” I replied. “This your house?” I guessed, gesturing towards the domicile she’d come from.

“Yeah,” Delilah nodded.

“Which means this is your food,” I deduced and reached into the small money purse at my belt. I pulled out a gold coin and pressed it into her hand. “I owe you this. Thank you.”

“I can’t accept this!” she protested. “The food doesn’t cost nearly this much!”

“It comes with my gratitude for all that you have done, not just the food,” I answered her. “Is the gate still open?”

“The main gate is closed,” she shook her head. “But there is a small side gate that is used for people coming and going after hours. I’ll show you where it is.”

“You’ve done more than enough already,” I countered, not wanting to embroil her any further into my troubles. “I’m certain I can find it on my own.”

“In this town? Not likely,” she laughed. “Come,” she grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the street with Molly tagging along.

I have no idea how long we walked. All I do know is that at this point I resigned myself to another late night. But true to her word, Delilah deposited me in front of a small gate just an inch or two higher than me built into the side of the powerful wall. It was open with two city guards standing watch over it.

“Do you love her?” Delilah suddenly asked.

“What?” I was caught off guard by the random question.

“This girl you are going after, you love her, don’t you?” Delilah rephrased.

“Yeah, I do,” I admitted.

“Well, she’s a lucky girl,” Delilah softly commented.

“I don’t know about that,” I replied. “I’m just a poor orphaned soldier with no family, no land, and no future. I don’t know who would think she is lucky.”

“I would,” Delilah responded. “You’re willing to risk everything by breaking your oath and going into the Eisenberge of all places to rescue her. Most girls would be lucky to have a man like you in their lives.”

Except she barely knows I exist, I bitterly thought to myself. Shaking my head, I put those thoughts out of my mind. At the moment, that didn’t particularly matter.

“I wish you the luck of the gods,” she spontaneously kissed me on the cheek. Before I could respond, she vanished into the night.

“That was interesting,” I rubbed my cheek where Delilah had kissed me and looked at Molly. She cocked her head quizzically.

“Halt there boy, where are you going?” commanded the guards.

“I’m heading down to the docks for a late night departure,” I answered promptly.

“I was unaware that there were any ships leaving tonight,” one of the guards asked his friend.

“It’s more of a personal transport deal,” I amended.

“That sounds fishy to me,” the other guard looked me up and down.

“Look, I just want to go out,” I sighed heavily. “Is this really a big deal?”

“We’re just supposed to ask questions and hold up those that look suspicious,” the first guard told me. “And no offense kid, but you look suspicious.”

“This may not help, but here,” I carefully withdrew my money purse and tossed it to them. “I won’t need it where I’m going.”

“This is a bribe,” the second guard held the bag in his hand and stared at me.

“Consider it a donation,” I sighed. “You can’t tell me you couldn’t use it.”

“That’s not the point,” the other guard replied. “Only criminals give bribes.”

“Your job is to protect the city, correct?” They nodded. “I swear to you by the gods that I am no threat to this city,” I held up my right hand for effect. “In fact, after today, you will never see me here again.” Okay, that part may not have been completely true, at least if everything went the way I was hoping. “Just let me pass with no more questions.”

The guards stared at each other for a moment.

“This is a bad idea,” the first commented.

“But we need the money,” replied the second. “Besides, what’s the worst a single teenager can do? If he wants to go for a midnight stroll to meet up with his lover or whatever mischief teenagers do these days, why should we care?”

“That is a nice sack of money,” the first acknowledge slowly. “Very well, you may pass. But rest assured, this will not happen again.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t make a habit of it,” I replied as I hastily scampered through the gate before they could change their mind.

Thankfully I remembered the path back to Tiglath’s shop and found it easily enough. He was gone of course, but the kayaks were still there. I debated which kayak to take. The smaller one was easier to maneuver but carrying Molly would be a problem. But did I really trust myself to handle the larger boat?

“Which one do you think, girl?” I queried Molly.

Immediately she sauntered over to the larger kayak and hopped in the front hole.

“I guess that settles that,” I laughed. “You keep track of the luggage and don’t eat the food!” I added sternly, dropping the bags in with her.

I didn’t particularly want to carry this one, which was quite a bit heavier than its smaller companion, all the way down to the docks. So instead, after grabbing a paddle I dragged the kayak with the dog sitting calmly inside down to the river’s edge. I was worried for a moment that maybe I’d punctured the bottom as it scraped over the pebbly beach, but the stones were smooth and after a brief inspection in the dark, I deemed it was okay. I am clearly not a sailor.

Regardless, I shoved the boat until it was deep enough to float and thankfully it wasn’t taking on water. At this point I was up to my ankles in freezing cold water. Getting in turned out to be a bit of a delicate task as the kayak had a tendency to rock when the weight wasn’t evenly distributed although it didn’t seem inclined to tip either. After a couple of awkward and nearly disastrous tries, I managed to tumble into the rear hole. We rocked while I got my legs stretched out in front of me and balanced out the weight.

“Okay,” I told Molly who was lying low in the boat, muscles tensed as she tried to steady herself, “I think we’re good.”

By now we’d drifted out a little farther into the river and were now floating downstream. I realized that it was going to be tiring, slow going fighting the current and I didn’t know how long I could go. All I knew was that I had to get a significant distance between me and Baasha. I had to stay ahead.

Digging the paddle into the water, I began propelling us back up the river. It was hard fighting the current which not particularly strong but strong enough to make steering difficult. It took more than a few tries to get into rhythm that worked, albeit with constant course corrections. Finally we began pushing upstream.

For a moment I paused and stared at the Eisenberge rising up before us. Clouds hung low over the Finsternis Tal but here the sky was mostly clear, save for a few scattered clouds here and there. It only served to heighten the monstrous silhouette the Eisenberge imposed.

It almost seemed alive, I thought, staring at towering slopes that vanished into the clouds before I could see the peaks. I understood why people believed that the gods lived there. Hidden behind the clouds, they seemed infinite and eternal. Now we viewed them as the symbol of death and destruction. All our hatreds and all our fears lay bound up behind those walls. They stood as the barrier between order and chaos, reason and madness. And it was into those walls I was going.

“Girl,” I told Molly, “we’re out of our minds.”

8: Chapter 7

A wet, slimy sensation across my face woke me up the next morning. Groaning, I opened my eyes to see Molly eagerly licking me.

“Uh, disgusting,” I grumbled as I wiped dog saliva off my cheeks. “Good morning to you too, sunshine,” I added, rolling my neck around to get the kinks out. It didn’t really work.

Molly hopped off the kayak on to the shore I’d managed to steer us to while in the twilight zone the previous night. She sat on her haunches, looking expectantly at me and whining.

“I guess you’re probably hungry,” I guessed. “So am I for that matter.”

Standing up, I let out another painful groan. I’d managed to get the kayak to the shore before falling asleep, still in the pit. Needless to say, that was not the most comfortable position and now my joints and muscles were violently rebelling against it. I had to take several painful steps along the pebble beach to get them back to feeling remotely normal.

Heading over to the front hole, I pulled out the food pack that Delilah had given me. In the low daylight I examined the contents more thoroughly to find she’d packed us mostly bread and cheese. Luckily for Molly there were a couple of chicken legs, one of which I tossed her. She caught it in the air and began devouring it. Deciding to stand, I put some cheese on a slice of bread and then began munching while I looked around.

I understood the ghost stories told about this place; it was eerie. The “beach” I’d landed us on was essentially a narrow strip of pebbles along the shoreline. A dozen paces away, the Schwarz Wald started up, running the breadth of the valley, up the sides, and disappearing into the low-hanging clouds. Thick underbrush, dense foliage, and an overcast sky made it impossible to see more than a few feet past the first line of trees.

The valley was well-named: Valley of Darkness. It was an accurate physical description of the place. Perhaps that’s what made me uneasy. I was used to the brightly lit rolling hills of Shepherd’s Province around Castle Zahav. The dark trees and low, threatening sky made me feel claustrophobic and even a little cold. Shivering slightly, I pulled my cloak a little tighter around my shoulders.

The quiet didn’t help my discomfort either. I realized that I had always been surrounded by people and noise. The castle was always bustling with servants, soldiers, knights, courtiers, nobles, ambassadors, and others all running around doing whatever it was they were doing. Even when I was out with the sheep, they were there, bleating and making their sheep noises. I was never alone; I always had the people in the castle and my comrades with me. Even Judah was good company from time to time.

But not here. Here, the forest was still as a tomb. On a rare occasion I heard a bird chirp somewhere nearby but other than the rushing of the river, the forest was silent. It dawned on me that I was probably the only human being around for miles. And that thought chilled me to the bone.

“Let’s not dawdle here,” I told Molly, stretching out my legs before the next long, cramped stage of the journey.

Molly didn’t seem to upset by that. She’d been lying on the ground, chewing on her bone and warily glancing into the dark trees. Immediately she jumped to her feet, bone still in her mouth, and trotted over to the kayak, hopping in.

I shoved us off, which was easier than last night. I had more light for one and was getting the hang of how the craft worked for another. This time, only my boots got drenched in the icy Shachor. With a nervous glance over my shoulder back down the river, I dug the paddle in and launched us forward.

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The cold mist clung to me like an icy wet cloak, seeping a chill into my bones. Paddling upstream was the only thing that kept me moderately warm, staving off the brutal chill the surrounding mist enforced on me. Of course, paddling as hard as I was only made me work up a nice sweat, which instantly cooled ruthlessly in the cold, damp air and added to my misery.

My joints ached painfully from the cold and cumulative fatigue that had built up over the last two and a half days of strenuous kayaking. I had slept little, being too cold and too frightened to truly lie down and rest. I knew Baasha wouldn’t be in a huge rush to take off for the mountains, even if he knew that I was ahead of him. But neither would he dawdle and that spurred me forward while forcing nervous glances back down the river, half expecting to see him materialize out of the mist behind me.

Then there was the Schwarz Wald filling the Finsternis Tal. Both were aptly named, as they were black and dark. I hadn’t seen the sun since leaving Schwarz Tor, the thick clouds hanging over the valley blocking out its light. Meanwhile, the thick trees lining the river blocked anyone trying to peer into them. Sitting in the open on the river and being unable to see around made me feel vulnerable and exposed, as if the whole world was watching.

Nights were the worst. Molly and I would beach our craft and try to catch a few hours of badly needed sleep. But the rest was always poor as I had a hard time sleeping, my eyes constantly darting from one black tree to the next, expecting ghosts or predators at any moment to leap out and devour us.

I would’ve preferred a lively forest to the near constant silence. One thing I’d learned as a shepherd was that noise was good. Predators hunting were quiet and that is what one ultimately feared: a quiet field meant that something was very wrong. And outside the occasional wind brushing through the needles, this forest was silent as a sepulcher.

Then came the mist. The river produced a thick fog during the night that soaked Molly and me to the bone, further destroying any hope we had of getting decent sleep. Both of us shivered ourselves to exhaustion before finally drifting off to a restless sleep that left us more tired than before.

But at least the fog burned off by mid-morning, or at least it was supposed to. It did this day, only to return with a vengeance by early afternoon. Now I could barely make out the shoreline, a dark shadow just at the edge of my field of view. I was blinder than ever before, which made me feel even more exposed than I had.

Slowly but surely we had climbed up the valley into the clouds that I’d seen hanging over us the previous day. That explained why the trees were changing as well, growing shorter and stockier with harsher needles. These were very different than the pines and firs that populated the lower part of the Schwarz Wald.

All the warnings and fears I’d heard expressed before leaving came rushing back. One of the lords at Sennacheriv’s meeting had called the Eisenberge a death trap where the very air freezes your lungs. I wasn’t even in the mountains themselves yet and I was already half dead with cold. If it got worse, I was a dead man. How could anyone survive in this place?

Ahead of me, Molly suddenly lifted her head. She’d been quite subdued on our journey, hunkered down in her pit, eyes cautiously looking about for danger. Now her ears twitched as if a new and foreboding sound greeted them.

A moment later, I heard it myself. A loud, dull, thundering roar up ahead, the first noise besides the dipping of my paddle I’d heard in hours. The Black Falls and end of this leg of the journey was just ahead.

What I could see of the shoreline suddenly vanished and the water beneath my boat stilled considerably as we glided into the Immer Pool. Pausing for a moment’s rest, I let us drift forward, no longer fighting much of a current and glanced down.

The water was dark and opaque as water always is on an overcast day. It yawned up at me like a bottomless pit, the only thing visible was my shadowy reflection. On an impulse, I dipped my paddle into it to see how deep the Pool ran.

“By the Trinity,” I breathed as I nearly lost my grip on the paddle, sinking it up to the tip without hinting at the bottom. “It really does go on forever.” As a chill dug into me, I began paddling again, pushing us towards the sound of the falls.

I felt it before I saw it. The mist suddenly thickened as I approached and I felt icy spray blast my face, eliciting a yelp from Molly and a curse from me. Blinking the water out of my eyes, I looked up to see the Black Falls thundering down towards me.

“By the Trinity,” I swore again as I stared in awe.

The Black Falls was really two waterfalls instead of one, two columns of black water cascading out of the cloud ceiling some forty feet over my head. From where I was floating, the roar of the crashing water was deafening. Waves rippling off the impact zone rocked our small craft to the point that I worried about us tipping over. Through my squinted eyes the water looked black on the black stone of the cliff behind it before devolving into a white foam as it reached the climax of its journey.

A pier of stone split the Falls, jutting out into the Pool like the prow of an enormous ship. Spreading out in front of the pier was a large beach or sandbar. Not really knowing what else to do, I turned the kayak and made for the beach.

Perhaps blocked by the cliff, the spray and noise weren’t as intense on the beach as they were out in the pool. I beached the kayak and Molly happily hopped out and pranced several paces from the water, shaking off the excess water. She was in a better mood and so was I; the noise actually helped and didn’t make me feel so exposed.

I stretched and unloaded our stuff: my bag of gear, sword, and what remained of Delilah’s food. We’d need to find some new food soon. After working out a few kinks, I decided to take a moment to look around and get a feel for where we were now.

The opposite shore from the Pool was invisible, lost in the mist. I knew it wasn’t too far from the beach; it’d only taken us a few minutes to cross the length of the Immer. The black water rippled and roiled as it continued to be pounded by the Black Falls behind us. I turned around to examine the beach and nearly jumped out of my skin.

There was a house. Here.

Well, what was left of a house, I realized after catching my breath. Cautiously walking towards it, I saw the roof was gone, caved in taking most of the stone walls with it. Scanning the rest of the beach, I observed that it wasn’t the only one.

Derelict buildings littered the sandbar in front of the stone prow. Most were only a few rooms in size, mostly stone built, and falling apart. Moss and lichen were eating away at the walls, destroying what little mortar held them together. Rot had weakened the roofs, causing them to eventually collapse, usually pulling down a wall or two as well.

Stepping into one of the nearby houses to get a better look at the damage, I saw that not all of it had occurred naturally. Even after all the years, I could still detect the distinct odor of wet charcoal hanging in the air. Lifting up part of the collapsed roof, I saw burned out beams littering the dirt.

Walking back to my kayak, I decided to stow it in one of these houses. That ought to keep it safe from the elements, as well as any adventurous knights who might come along.

My foot struck something hard that gave a loud ping. I looked down to see a rusty scrap of metal sticking out of the sand. Reaching down, I carefully jerked it free, pulling up the rusted remnants of an Alkite helmet, not too unlike the one I used to wear.

A battle must’ve taken place here, I mused as I looked back over the ruins. One that destroyed the town or at least strongly encouraged the inhabitants to leave. Funny, I thought, in all the stories I’d heard about the great battle of Finsternis Tal, there had never been any mention of a town being here.

Shaking my head, I tossed the old helm aside and went back to the boat and dragged it into the nearest house. Clearing a space underneath the rubble, I half-buried it, hoping that its presence wouldn’t be noticed and that nothing more fell on it. That kayak very well might be my ticket home.

“Okay Molly,” I called to the dog who came bounding up from among the buildings, “we’ve got to find this black gate that Tig was talking about.”

One of the mental exercises that I had done the last couple of days to keep me sane was to try to puzzle out what the old boat-maker had been referring to. So far I hadn’t come any closer than when he first mentioned it to me other than it maybe being exactly what Tig said; a black gate. But for some reason, that seemed too easy.

Standing at the entrance to the Eisenberge was daunting to say the least. Vanishing into the mist, the cliff seemed to go on forever. It probably did not, but I had no clue how high the black face went and I didn’t trust myself to attempt to scaling the cold, wet stone, especially given how tired I was. With the waterfalls on either side and a thick, dank, dark forest on steep slopes, the Eisenberge seemed utterly impassable.

But there had to be a way into the mountains. Adam, Tig, and Omri had all suggested if not outright stated that the entrance to the Eisenberge was in the Finsternis Tal. This is where Sennacheriv had attempted to invade. There was a town here at the Immer Pool and there was another at the valley’s exit. That wasn’t a coincidence. Before Katrina, I knew that there was a fair amount of trade between the Eisenberge and Alkilion. It had to come through somewhere, didn’t it? And yet, the more I studied the cliffs, the less convinced I became that it was possible to get into the mountains this way.

Molly scampered off ahead, towards the black cliff while I meandered around the ruins, trying to find something that gave me a clue as to this black gate. There was nothing, of course. The spray from the waterfall continued to pepper me with icy water, freezing my bones now that I wasn’t moving. Looking around, I knew that there was no way I could start a fire. The night was going to be a long one, assuming I survived.

Suddenly Molly’s sharp bark echoed over the roar of the twin falls. She sounded urgent as she yapped again so I sprinted over the firm sand. Molly was standing at the base of the cliff, barking desperately at something.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I called to her as I hurried over. “What is…it?” I slowly stopped as I saw what she was woofing at.

At the point of the ship’s prow, a huge, ornate archway was carved into the face of the cliff. Time had worn much of it away, but the flowing lines, mimicking crashing waves were still visible. Underneath the archway was a massive door, black as a moonless night’s sky.

“So this is the black gate,” I stated staring at the big black doors. “Good find, girl,” I reached down and scratched Molly on the head.

I went up to the gate and examined it. It was clearly ancient, the stone face worn smooth with time and use over centuries, perhaps millennia. There was once an image on the face, the remnants of which I could just make out. A mountain with an eagle or dragon or something like that, I supposed; whatever it was, age and wear had faded it almost to nothing.

Yet though it was older than anything else here save the mountains themselves, it had been recently used. Mud was splattered along the bottom of the right door and the ground around it bore relatively fresh scrape marks along an arc from the door, evidence of someone pushing or pulling the door wide. The arc wasn’t very long, maybe four or five feet so just wide enough for a person or two to pass through.

That I found interesting and more than a little disconcerting. No one had been in the Eisenberge since the war; certainly no Alkite. Yet clearly they had not been so idle; Eisenbergians had been infiltrating Alkilion. I couldn’t imagine that any Eisenbergian who came through that gate was here on peaceful purposes; I doubted that Katrina or her minions would allow that. For how long, I wondered? Months? Years? With their pale skin and hair, they ought to have stood out in Alkilion yet it seemed that no one had noticed, at least that I’d heard of.

I shivered at the thought of Katrina’s agents walking the streets of Forks or Confluence or even Yir-Eliav, invisible to us. How many of them were there? What was their purpose? Sending her apprentice to abduct Ariadne must’ve been the signal to begin…what? It dawned on me as I faced the entrance to the Eisenberge that I might have a lot less time to work with than I thought.

But one problem at a time, I reminded myself. I was a soldier, not a lord; thinking about the big picture was not in my job description. Right now I had to focus on the immediate task of getting into the Eisenberge, specifically opening this huge door.

“It must weigh a ton,” I commented to Molly as I ran my fingers over the stone, “Several tons, in fact. Maybe there’s a lever or something to work this contraption.”

Given the gate’s immense size, I assumed that it would take several men to open and close it. Yet since it seemed it was opened for one or two people to pass through, I figured there must be some way for a few people to open the door. Starting my search at the center of the gate, I saw something that looked like a brass handle inset in a hollow just to the side of the crack where the two doors met. It was about a foot-long bar and after further examination it seemed that I was supposed to twist it. Giving Molly a shrug, I gave the handle a quarter turn to the right.

There was loud click and a hiss as air escaped. I gave the handle a gentle tug and to my surprise, the door began to slide open. It still felt heavy and I grunted as I pulled it back but I could manage by myself. After pulling it open a few feet, I figured Molly and I had enough room and slipped in.

The little light coming through the doorway illuminated what appeared to be a large, empty room. I didn’t feel like exploring about blindly. Instead I set up a small camp next to the door. I was tired from the last two days and wasn’t interested in wearing myself out further, assuming there was in fact anywhere to go from here. If Tig was to be believed, waiting for me at the top of this whatever it was, was the same sorceress that had taken Ariadne. I’d seen her power and I knew that I would need every ounce of strength to defeat her. Besides, I wanted the chance to dry off my clothes which still clung to me like an icy parasite, sapping both my strength and energy.

Once I got a fire going and my clothes strung out to dry with my length of rope doubling as a laundry line, then I took a look around. The fire illuminated most of the room I was standing in, basically a large, open, completely empty entryway. There was nothing in there except the dirt floor I was standing on.

Next to the door was a torch hanging on a hook. Grabbing it, I noticed that it had oil-soaked rags burned at the top, another reminder that this passageway had been recently used. After 17 years, it ought to be as useful as a lump of iron.

Regardless of its origin, it was useful to me at the moment. Lighting it, I went about the business of exploring the artificial cavern I was in. Walking to the far side of the room, I found the walls narrowing to an opening leading to a passageway, though it was wide enough for two carts to run parallel to each other. But this passageway sloped up.

“It’s underground!” I exclaimed as I pieced the puzzle together, staring in awe. “They carved a road through the heart of the mountains.”

I was a soldier, not an engineer, but even I knew that this must’ve been a feat of engineering unlike any other. I marveled both at the astonishing highway sloping up before me and the fact that neither I nor any of my comrades seemed to know anything about this. Surely a feat like the one displayed before me ought to have been commemorated for all time. Yet after only 17 years, it’s very existence had been lost.

For the first time in forever, I felt like I knew where I was going and how I was going to get there. I would take this path to the top and face the sorceress that took the love of my life. Following that…I’d find Katrina and finish this once and for all.

But for now, there was nothing for me to do but get some badly needed rest. I closed the black gate behind me, gladly shutting out the Finsternis Tal with it. As I did so, I let out a sigh of relief. It was still eerie, almost haunted but nothing like the dark forest. I’d long since left Alkilion behind and now there was nothing but to look forward. I had challenges ahead of course, but for tonight, I was safe. Lying down next to the fire, I closed my eyes and for the first time in days, slept; truly slept.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

“I wonder how far this goes,” I questioned Molly as we continued to make our way up the fairly steep slopes of the underground highway. Aside from my torch, it was pitch black around me. The highway itself was wide, large enough for two good sized carts to pass each other with no problem. My torch wasn’t bright enough to illuminate both sides and I dared not walk in the middle lest I accidentally turn myself around, not that there was much chance of that. All I had to do was keep going uphill.

Just in case, however, I hugged the left side of the highway along the wall. Every now and then I’d traverse to the other side on the off chance that another underground path joined up with what I assumed to be a central highway. For all I knew, there was an entire network of underground roads all through this mountain and I’d missed the one to Black Falls Castle. Yet so far, nothing so either I had been insanely unlucky which didn’t seem likely or there was just the one path. I still kept checking just to be sure.

With no sun to give me a sense of time and nothing but a few feet of light for perspective, I had no idea how long or how far I had gone. All I knew was that I’d gone far enough for my legs to scream in agony from the sudden stress after being essentially idle for the past three days. Once I’d tried counting my steps but gave up after a couple thousand.

The road was straight except for two switchbacks I’d encountered, probably keeping the road in the center of the mountain. The distance between the switchbacks was surprisingly long, at least it felt long. When Molly and I reached the third switch back, I decided I needed a break. Molly, who had three days of pent up energy built up sitting idly in the kayak, probably could’ve gone on for just about ever, but I did not have her reserves.

With a groan, I dropped my pack down and slumped against the wall, wiping the sweat from my temples. Molly came over and sniffed my hands expectantly, as if urging me to keep going.

“In a minute, pooch,” I told her tiredly with a smile while driving the torch into the ground. “Let me catch my breath,” I added, scratching her behind the ears.

Abruptly Molly tensed up, eliciting a low growl as she turned her snout to face the wall behind me. Over the years, I’d learned to generally not ignore Molly’s intuition as it was usually spot on. This was no exception, not that I had much time to respond. Behind me, the wall began rumble as it moved outwards.

Suddenly I had all kinds of energy as adrenaline surged through my veins. Instantly I grabbed the torch and flipped upside down, grinding out its flame into the dirt. Grabbing my pack, I scrambled back away from the moving door, half dragging Molly with me.

A microsecond later, a single ball of light emerged from the door as two men in chainmail and armed with broadswords came through. Even in the poor light of their shared torch, I could tell that their faces were pale: Eisenbergian soldiers, the Sorceress’s soldiers. Images from Tiglath’s description of the ferocity of Eisenbergian warrior in that battle so many years ago flashed through my head. I had no desire to face two such fighters.

With my left hand, I held Molly close, fervently praying to all the gods I knew of that she would keep her mouth shut. My right meanwhile grasped the hilt of my scimitar, ready to draw it in case the gods elected not to hear my prayer.

“Do you smell something burning?” inquired one of the soldiers to his comrade. His voice sounded wrong; stiff and wooden, like one of the street performing puppets I’d seen in Yir-Eliav. The wooden doll controlled by the puppet master would speak with a voice of his own. When I’d first heard it, I was astounded and a little bit terrified of this strange sorcery until I realized that the puppet master was speaking without moving his lips. I still felt that some kind of magic was involved, but after a while I’d learned to enjoy this fairly harmless trick. But there was no puppet master here, not one that I could see. Yet this man spoke with a voice that seemed foreign to him.

The other soldier sniffed mechanically and nodded. “I do,” he concurred in the same wooden, hollow voice. “I also thought I saw a light go out just as we opened the door. Are you thinking someone else is here?”

“It is possible,” agreed the first. “Should we investigate?”

“The Mistress was not concerned with intruders,” the other replied with what appeared to be a shrug of some sort. “She only tasked us with ensuring the prisoner was secure. I suggest we return to our barracks.”

“As you say,” nodded the first and the flame of light began bobbing up the road, eventually disappearing in the distance.

I released Molly after I was sure they were gone, exhaling in a whoosh. I hadn’t been holding my breath but was certainly not breathing easy either. My heart, on the other hand, was still racing.

The Mistress was only concerned with the prisoner, I replayed the last one’s comments in my head. The Mistress was either Katrina or this other apprentice; that didn’t matter. The prisoner, on the other hand, could only be Ariadne. My goal was on the other side of that door.

Of course meant I had to open the door, which given the fact I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face was a little difficult. Fumbling around, I found the doused torch. I reached into my pack for my flint and steel but realized that after grinding the torch into the dirt added to my lack of sight, there was no way I was going to be able to light the torch. Instead I felt around for the wall. Hoping it was the correct wall, I continued to sense my way across the dusty stone. Finally I felt a seam and followed it, tracing the outline of a door. Finding the center seam, I probed around, looking for some kind of handle. To my surprise, I found one.

From what my touch could tell me, this handle was designed like the one on the gate by the pool. I grasped the smooth metal bar and gave it a quarter turn to the right. On cue, it clicked unlocked and I pulled it open. With much greater ease than the one below, the stone door swung open. Maintaining my hold on the wall, I stepped through the invisible opening.

Again sending up a prayer to the gods, I started up the path. Considering that I had no idea as to the layout of this system of roads, I knew there was a good chance that I was walking past my exit to Ariadne. But as long as I kept pressing uphill, I was bound to come out somewhere on top of the Eisenberge; this road had to lead somewhere.

The going was slow as I stumbled up the steep road. It was hard enough without being completely blind. There were probably torches along the wall that I could use, but even if I could find one, which I doubted, there was no guarantee I could light it in the dark. So instead I pressed on.

After a while, I worked my way towards the wall and started using it as a guide. In addition to walking carefully due to the blindness and fear of breaking my shins on something, I had to step gently as to make as little noise as possible on the off chance that other soldiers happen along. It occurred to me that in this space, there was nowhere for me to hide. I also briefly considered having my sword drawn just in case, but discarded the idea. Stumbling around in pitch black darkness with a razor sharp blade did not strike me as a good idea.

I don’t know how long I stumbled blindly through the dark. It felt like an eternity but was probably only an hour or two. Eventually I felt the ground slowly level out before coming to a dead end.

“There has to be a door around her somewhere,” I commented to Molly, whose panting and clicking nails had kept me sane in the blind hike. Probing along the smooth wall, I soon located the familiar handle and gave it the appropriate twist then pulled. The door glided open and I was immediately blinded.

Powerful sunlight greeted me full force with no warning or chance to prepare. My eyes that had grown accustomed to the dark couldn’t react fast enough to brutal light. Bolts of pain lanced from my retinas through the back of my skull, nearly dropping me to my knees. Even with my eyes screwed shut, the light was painfully bright. When my vision cleared a few minutes later, I took the chance to look around where I was.

I was in a triangle courtyard well paved with smooth black and white flagstones. The door I’d come through was carved in an artificial cliff face that rose another fifty or sixty feet behind me. Two black towers flanked the extremities of the cliff while a pair of low black colonnades ran from them towards a common apex in a third huge, black tower, three times the height of the cliff, directly opposite me. In the center of the otherwise empty courtyard was a well and fountain. This, I decided, must be Black Falls Castle.

For being the stronghold of the Sorceress’s apprentice, I found it surprisingly empty. In fact, aside from Molly and me, no one else seemed to be around. I could hear the twin falls roaring over the edge to my left and right, the wind gently whispering by, and even a few birds chirping around, but nothing that indicated human presence. There were no guards posted at any of the tower entrances, no servants walking around. I didn’t expect a sorceress to keep a busy castle but I expected there to be someone.

Just as I was musing on this, I heard a door coming from the colonnade to my right open and dainty footsteps echo across the stones. I saw a young woman maybe two or three years older than myself make her way carefully across the courtyard towards the fountain. She acted like a mouse trying to sneak some cheese, taking quick, furtive steps and constantly looking about. Judging from her dress, I supposed she must be one the apprentice’s servants and decided to act.

With Molly at my heels I dashed across the courtyard towards her. Hearing my steps, she looked up with terrified eyes and gave a little squeak of terror before fleeing back the way she came. Unfortunately for her, tired as I was from my trek I could still easily outpace her. I reached her just as she arrived at the door. Grabbing her by the collar as she stretched for the knob, I jerked the serving girl around and pinned her against the nearest column.

“You’re an Alkite!” she peeped in horror. “Please don’t kill me.”

She was clearly terrified, which I supposed I could understand. Relaxing my grip on her, I gently let her down and allowed her to straighten her frock. She was a pretty blond I noticed if a bit haggard and looking as frightened as a sheep before the wolves.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I assured as gently as possible. “Just tell me where the prisoner is.”

“The prisoner? Oh yes, the prisoner,” the girl spoke in a rushed voice. “She’s in the Scion Tower. That’s where the dungeons are, down the steps, on your left. The keys should be somewhere around there as well. She’s the only one in there, in the third cell on the left.”

“Whoa, slow down,” I tried to process this girl’s rapid-fire speech. “Which is the Scion Tower? And what about the guards? Do you know how many there are?”

“Nope, no guards,” she answered with a firm shake of her head. “They’re all up in the barracks there,” she pointed behind me up the cliff at the back of the castle. Apparently there were barracks up there.

“No guards?” I scratched my head. “That’s strange.”

“That’s the Mistress’s order,” the servant stated as if that explained everything.

It had to be a trap but it didn’t really matter. So far, the only person I’d met was this servant. Perhaps they were expecting an army, not individual soldiers. Still, I would’ve thought that they would’ve posted a guard around such a valuable prisoner like Ariadne.

“And the Scion Tower?” I prompted.

“East tower,” she replied. “Please don’t kill me; that’s all I know, I swear.”

“I told you I wasn’t going to hurt you,” I shook my head at her timidity. I didn’t want to imagine what must’ve happened to make her like this. “Go on and get out of here. Help yourself to whatever treasure there is here.”

“Oh I couldn’t do that,” the girl shook her head as she squirmed out of my loosing grasp. “The Mistress wouldn’t approve of that at all.”

“Whatever,” I shook my head as she vanished into the hall.

I turned back and trotted across the courtyard towards the Scion Tower, as she called it. It was built out of the cliff face behind it and not nearly as imposing as the southern tower. In less than a minute, I reached it and went inside.

As with the rest of the apparently abandoned castle, there were no guards as promised. That didn’t sit right with me; given how valuable Ariadne is, I would’ve thought the Sorceress would have placed her entire army around the princess. It was almost as if they wanted me to find her. This ought to have made me nervous and far more wary, but the excitement of being this close to Ariadne and actually succeeding blinded me to the obvious.

I raced down the steps to where I guessed the dungeon to be. At the bottom of the staircase I came to room with a thick oaken door and bars across the small window. There was a guardroom entryway with a small table and chairs and a door leading into a side room. Hanging on hook to the right of the oaken door was a large iron ring with a dozen keys. Reaching up, I grabbed the ring and tried the keys until one unlatched the door, swinging open with an ear-grating creak.

Quickly I strode down the row of cells, counting off three, my heart pounding in my chest. I was so close to my ultimate dream; all I had to was grab Ariadne and within an hour, we’d be well on our way to safety, far from the Eisenberge and the Sorceress. Best of all, I’d get to marry the love of my life. In the back of my mind, a warning told me that this was far too easy but I ignored it. Even the Sorceress had to make a mistake every now and then, right?

Arriving at the correct cell, I tried three keys before finding the right one. The lock clicked, the bars swung in soundlessly, and I triumphantly stepped in.

“Your highne—”

My voice suddenly caught in my throat as I saw the lone figure sitting across the cell from me, illuminated by the solitary beam of light shining in through the window. She raised her copper-colored head and locked her sky blue eyes on me with a cold defiance I could never forget.

Instantly Molly snarled and my blade was out, tip leveled at her throat. She didn’t flinch or blink as the instrument of her imminent death hung mere inches from her. Instead her steady eyes continued to glare at me with an almost awe-inspiring combination of anger and acceptance. The burning rage at the whole of the universe was what I recognized most of all; I’d never forget it from that night a little over a week ago.

What stopped me from running her through that moment was the calm, yet defiant acceptance. She knew her death was coming and had accepted that reality. But that did not mean she was going to go quietly in the void; she was going to meet her doom on her terms with her head held high.

“Either kill me or don’t, Alkite,” she finally broke the silence, her voice scratchy and weak as if she’d gone days without water. Yet behind the rasp, I could hear the strength in her spirit. “But I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t keep me in suspense.”

“You!” I snarled as my head at last cleared and the memory of Ariadne’s abduction came flooding back. That combined with the bitter disappointment of not finding Ariadne began exploding out. For her part, Molly barred her teeth with a low, throaty growl.

“Yes, me,” the Sorceress’s Apprentice replied in that tired voice, ignoring Molly. “It would seem that you know me, although I suppose given the week’s events, that can’t be too surprising. And yet, I don’t seem to recall you.”

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” I tightly answered, flexing my grip on the hilt of my blade. “All that matters is that I’m here to rescue the princess. Where is she?”

Instead of answering, the sorceress cocked her head slightly, studying me. “Ah yes,” she exclaimed after a moment’s contemplation, “I remember you now. You’re that foolish boy who charged me in the palace. That was remarkably brave.”

“Thank you,” I narrowed my eyes, studying her in return. “Now where is the princess?”

“You misunderstand me,” she ignored my question completely. “That wasn’t a compliment; bravery like that is nothing more than pure stupidity. What did you think you would accomplish? Get yourself reduced to ash like that fool of a guard?”

“I have no interest in your thoughts on bravery,” I snapped, inching the point closer. “Now tell me where the princess is before I run you through here and now.”

“The princess?” the sorceress seemed to hear the question for the first time. “Oh, she’s probably at the Eisen Palast with the Mistress. She most likely took Ariadne back there with her when she threw me in here.” She lifted up the massive cuffs. “That’s my guess anyway,” she went on. “We aren’t exactly on speaking terms at the moment.”

“What did you do to end up in here?” I inquired unable to resist the curiosity at this strange sight.

“I’m certain you aren’t really interested in the gory details,” she flatly replied. “The short version is that it would seem kidnapping your precious princess wasn’t part of the Mistress’s grand plans. As punishment, she left me here to die either by your hand or dehydration, whichever comes first. It seems you won the prize.”

“How do I know that this isn’t some sort of trap?” I suspiciously regarded her.

“What kind of trap would that be?” she questioned. “I’ve told you where to find Ariadne, something any fool could’ve figured out in a few minutes. She doesn’t need me sitting here to tell you that. There are much more effective traps than this, none of which require me risking my life.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that you’re just sitting here, waiting for someone to come along and kill you?” I dubiously countered. “I’ve seen what you can do; you could’ve easily broken out anytime you wished.”

“You’ve seen only a fraction of what I can do,” she sniffed. “If I could use my power, I would’ve been long gone. But unfortunately, these,” she lifted the iron braces again, “prevent me from using my power.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe that?” I snorted in reply.

“Believe what you will, Alkite,” the sorceress shrugged. “But consider this, Alkite: do you think that I would let you get so close with that,” she nodded to my sword, “if I had access to even a fraction of my power? Or do you think I would’ve turned you into a pile of ash?”

“Fair point,” I conceded, suppressing a shudder. “This seems too easy though.”

“You’re as thickheaded as a dragon,” she let out an exasperated wheeze. “It’s supposed to be easy. You’re supposed to find me here. Don’t you get it? The Mistress left me here for you to find; she’s made you my executioner. Now are you going kill me or leave me for dehydration or one of your other friends to do it?”

Every sinew and fiber of my being ached to slide my sword between her breasts and through her heart; to watch the life drain out of her cruel blue eyes. This witch had broken into our home, violated the heart of our kingdom and culture, and had abducted the woman I loved. I shuddered to think of what other heinous crimes she’d committed on her own people. Death she richly deserved, no question, and I wanted her to die and I wanted to be the one to kill her.

And yet, I wondered as I studied her composed face that barely masked the sea of hate and anger raging behind them, would it be right to slay her like this? I had no doubt that she would’ve run me through already were our places reversed but that did not make this right. Intellectually I knew that whether I slew her in a fight or in chains made no real difference. It wasn’t like she deserved an honorable death. But it just didn’t feel right. So instead of driving the scimitar forward, my hand let it drop.

“Flower,” she scoffed at me. “I thought you of all people would have the courage to slay me, dragon brain.”

I ignored her, partially because trying to bandy words with her would be futile and also because I was still trying to work out if “dragon brain” was an insult or not.

“You said that Ariadne was taken to the Eisen Palast?” I queried.

“That’s my guess,” the sorceress answered. “That’s the Mistress’s personal stronghold where she spends most of her time. Given your princess’s value, the Mistress would want to keep her close and that is the best place. Of course there are a dozen other places that she might choose to hide her. Happy hunting.”

That was a bit deflating. “Where are they?” I demanded, wanting to get as much information out of her and stall having to make a final decision on her fate.

“All over the Eisenberge,” she informed. “I think my favorite is in the Tower of the Sea overlooking the Saline. It doesn’t particularly matter; it isn’t like you have a prayer of a chance anyway.”

“You don’t think I can defeat the Sorceress?” I tried to sound confident.

“Beat the Mistress?” the prisoner barked a short, harsh laugh. “She defeated me in a duel, stripped me of my power, and tossed me in here without so much as getting up from her chair. Literally. So no, I don’t think you would stand a chance against her. But it wouldn’t matter because you wouldn’t get that far,” she added.

“I made it this far,” I pointed out getting a sinking feeling this sorceress was probably right.

“So you paddled up a river and walked through a tunnel,” she shrugged off. “What do you want? A medal? This was the easy part. Assuming you are far more skilled than you appear and have the luck of the gods, you might get within a few miles of the Eisen Palast. But you’d get struck down long before you could step a foot inside those gates.”

“What makes you so sure?” I questioned.

“Because I grew up there, dragon brain,” she retorted. “The fortress is crawling with soldiers under the Mistress’s complete control. She has woven hundreds of protection spells around the Palast at the expense of thousands of lives. There is no way in.”

“Except for another sorcerer,” I commented, an insane idea beginning to form.

“Possibly, although if there is a sorcerer alive that can match the Mistress, I’ve never heard of them,” she replied. “Even then, you’d still have to face her and no one can defeat her. You might as well kill me and go back home.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” I decided, “And I’m not going to go back home either.”

“Oh?” she cocked her head. “So you’re going to leave me here to rot then? You’re crueler than I thought, Alkite.”

“If you stay here and rot, that is your own doing,” I told her. “Instead, I’m going to give you a choice: you can stay here and die or you can come with me.”

What I was suggesting was absolutely ludicrous. I was asking help from a sorceress, the sorceress who kidnaped Ariadne in the first place. More likely than anything else, she’d kill me before we’d left the dungeon and vanish into the world. There was no way I could actually trust her to really help and I was doing it anyway. The worst part was, I wasn’t even sure if this was the dumbest thing I’d done in the last few days.

“I fail to see the choice,” she remarked acidly.

“If you truly are as helpless as you say,” I explained, “then you will certainly die here. There is at least one other Alkite knight behind me and trust me, he will not be so merciful as I. You won’t get a chance to speak with him, assuming you aren’t already dead of dehydration.

“On the other hand,” I offered. “If you were to come with me, help me rescue Ariadne and kill the Sorceress, then you would be free to live in peace wherever you wish; have whatever life you want.”

“I don’t see how my chances improve either way,” she grunted. “In either case, I’ll be dead.”

“I’ll grant you it is a longshot and we’ll probably die anyway,” I allowed. “But if you’re going to die, wouldn’t you rather die fighting the person who did this to you than lying here in a cell like some pathetic sheep?”

“Dead is dead,” she shrugged. “What difference does it make how or where?”

Admittedly, she had a point.

“Coming with me still gives you a chance, however small, to get out of this alive,” I pointed out. “Maybe we don’t make it but we might. You certainly won’t in here.”

“Why?” she looked up at me questioningly. “Assuming I agree, why would you let me go after everything I’ve done to you? What do you get out of it?”

“You make a compelling case,” I acknowledged. “I don’t know this country; you do. I don’t know how to fight the Sorceress. You may not know much, but you know far more than I do. The fact is, to even have a prayer of a chance I’m going to need help. You’re the best option I have. I don’t like it and I certainly don’t like you but I don’t have a choice. I need you.”

“And what’s to keep me from killing or abandoning you once you let me loose?” she questioned.

I smiled. I’d already thought of this one. “Where are you going to go?” I asked her. “The Alkites don’t like you and I’m certain neither do the Eisenbergians. Besides, as long as the Sorceress lives, you’re never going to be free of her, are you? I imagine she isn’t one to let a potential threat like you live long outside of her control.”

“No,” the sorceress admitted with a shake of her head. “She’ll find out I’m alive somehow and hound me for the rest of my days, which I imagine wouldn’t be very many.”

“Face it, you need me as much as I need you,” I told her with a subtle smile. “Up for it?”

Her eyes seemed to darken as she concentrated furiously, processing her options. Finally she looked up, her visage as expressive as a stone.

“This has to be the dumbest decision in my life, but yes,” she finally agreed. “I’ll help you rescue your damn princess.”

9: Chapter 8

“So you’ll help me?” I questioned, not entirely sure of what I just heard. Had I just talked the Sorceress’s Apprentice into helping me? And was that a good thing?

“That’s what I said,” she barked in a scratchy voice. “Don’t make me repeat it.”

“Alright,” I finally put my sword away. “How do we get you out of those? I don’t suppose there’s a key lying around here somewhere.”

“Do you think the Mistress would really be that stupid?” she demanded incredulously. “Besides, these don’t have locks. They aren’t meant to be removed—ever.”

“Not particularly but there’s no need to get snippy,” I remarked. “We’re going to need to work on your people skills.”

“Lock you in a dungeon with no food or water for a day and let’s see how good your people skills are,” she acidly bit out.

“Fair point,” I allowed. “Back to my original question: how do we get you out of those magic cuffs? Could we bash them off with my sword?”

“I doubt your sword would break ordinary iron,” she dismissed. “Besides, I’m certain that the Mistress added in enchantments to protect these from being broken.”

“I suppose I could just cut your wrists off,” I suggested casually.

“Try that and you will die an extremely painful death, you dragon-brained son of a cur,” she warned viciously.

“I’m pretty sure you’re mixing species,” I added with a slight twinkle.

“Touch me with your blade and I will make sure you live just long enough to regret it,” she glowered at me.

“Hey, I was just joking,” I held up my hands, chuckling. “It looks like we’ll have to work on your sense of humor too.”

She glared daggers at me for a second before relaxing her face and giving a little sniff. “My sense of humor is fine; your joke just wasn’t funny.”

“I enjoyed it,” I chuckled again. “Anyway, since brute force is out of the question, do you have any suggestions?”

The apprentice tilted her head pensively, crystal blue eyes staring fixedly at one of the ceiling beams. “In my lab, there is a flask of a clear liquid. Also in my lab is a vial filled with a green gel. Get those two things, some clean rags, and a pitcher of water,” she instructed. “And don’t let the clear stuff touch you!”

“Where’s your lab?” I inquired.

“Bottom of the Olympic Tower,” she informed. “Just follow the steps down until you reach the bottom. It’s the only room down there and it ought to be unlocked. If it isn’t, there is a spare key underneath the bottom left stone of the stairs. The flask should be on the third shelf to your right as you enter. The green gel,” she paused for a moment, eyes distant. “The green gel should still be on the stone table with some clean rags next to it. If it isn’t there, try the shelves next to the window.”

“Shelves next to the window, got it,” I nodded, memorizing the instructions. “Be back in a minute.”

“Remember, don’t let it touch you,” she called out the warning again as I exited the dungeon, wondering what in the name of the Trinity I was doing.

Had the time on the river and in the tunnel driven me mad? This woman, this sorceress, was the very person who had kidnapped Ariadne in the first place. Teaming up with her was absolute idiocy. There was no way I could even remotely trust her. She’d be useless to me chained as she was of course but once those bonds were loosed…I shuddered at the thought. I’d seen enough of her power to know that there was nothing I could do to stop her if she decided she didn’t need me.

And yet, here I was at the entrance to her laboratory, about to free her. I must be mad, I concluded. But I also knew that I had no hope of defeating the Sorceress without the apprentice’s help. Even with it, our chances were barely north of none. So resignedly I tested the door, found it unlocked, and pushed in.

My nostrils were filled with a dizzying array of odors, most of them foul. Acrid fumes burned my nose and throat and instinctively I covered my face with my hand. Molly gave a yelp as her sensitive nose was assaulted and immediately retreated several steps up the stairs. Ignoring the tears welling in my eyes, I looked to my right, counted up three shelves, and found the requested substance. I was about to grab it when I remembered the apprentice’s warning and decided to first wrap it in a cloth. Finding a rag on the nearby stone table, I gingerly took the vial and made a hasty exit from the room, grabbing the strange green gel along the way.

The fresh air of the courtyard soothed my burning lungs and throat, although the sharp breeze bit through my thin Alkite clothes. Taking a moment, I stopped by the fountain that doubled as a well in the courtyard and filled a spare bucket with water.

“Took you long enough,” growled the red haired sorceress as I returned to her cell.

“It couldn’t be helped,” I remarked theatrically. “I had to stop and dance with the fairy.”

“What fairy?” she barked. “There are not fairies here, unless you were foolish enough to mistake Katherine for a fairy. And she’d be a poor dancer anyway.”

I shook my head and laughed, setting the contents down.

“What’s so funny?” she demanded sharply in a voice that might have been intimidating were her throat not so dry.

“I was just joking,” I shook my head. “There were no fairies to dance with.”

She just glared at me for a moment before muttering. “Of course not; everyone knows fairies don’t exist.”

“Yep,” I sighed, stepping back, “we are definitely going to have to work on your sense of humor. Sooner or later, I’m going to get you to smile and laugh.”

“I will when you tell me something funny,” she retorted. “Now take the flask and pour some of it along the joint here,” she gestured with her nose to where the right cuff met the crosspiece that held her arms together. “And here,” she motioned to the other side of her forearm.

 I reached for the dangerous liquid and then stopped. “Hold on,” I paused. “What is this and what’ll it do?”

The apprentice blew out of the side of her mouth in slight exasperation. “It’s an acid that will eat through the cuffs and free me,” she explained with exaggerated patience.

“I thought that the cuffs were magically protected,” I frowned, trying to understand what was going on.

“They probably are, at least against standard ways of getting them off such as picking a lock, bashing them in, or even using a smithy’s forge to break them off,” the apprentice elucidated. “However enchantments have to be made against specific attacks; you can’t make blanket enchantments. If you don’t know about a certain attack, you can’t create a spell to protect against it.”

“And the Sorceress doesn’t know about this acid?” I queried.

“She doesn’t tell me all her secrets so why would I tell her all of mine?” she snorted in reply. “Now get on with it. Carefully!”

Carefully indeed I dribbled out the acid along the lines she had instructed and watched in amazement as the clear liquid began to hiss and bubble, slowly working its way through the iron cuffs.

“If this is so powerful, why didn’t it destroy the flask?” I questioned.

“I’m not entirely sure,” she answered, eyes fixated on the working solution. “It seems to react primarily with iron, which the glass flask has none of.”

“Then why was it such a big deal for me not to touch it?” this was strange to me, and rather interesting.

“Because you have iron in you, or your blood at the very least,” she replied. “I think we have iron in our skin too, but not as much as our blood. Anyway, if it gets on you, it interacts with the iron you have in your body and the results are most painful.”

“We have iron in our blood?” I blinked in astonishment.

“Why do you think it is red?” she retorted, answering my questions but not particularly listening either.

“Wait, I’m rusting?” I put together.

“Sort of,” she absently replied. “Add a little more,” she instructed as the hissing died away. Gently, I dribble a few more drops along the gouge and it began reacting again, eating down further.

“Hold on,” I realized something, “what happens to you when the acid gets through the cuffs?”

“It’s going to hurt like the mother of dragons,” she commented tightly. “Get that water ready.”

It took another twenty seconds or so for the acid to work its way through. To her credit, the apprentice didn’t scream out, as I’m sure I would’ve, when the burning liquid touched her skin. But both her fists suddenly clenched hard and beads of sweat broke out on her paling forehead. Ignoring the pain as best she could, the apprentice gave her right arm a sharp twist and popped the severed part off, freeing her arm.

“Pour the water on my arm. Now!” she commanded through gritted teeth.

Quickly I poured a third of the water from the bucket across her arm. She relaxed slightly as the acid was washed away, but two evil red streaks ran the length of her forearm where the acid had leaked through.

“Now for the other one,” she calmly ordered.

I had to admire her calm as I poured the acid on the left cuff. Despite the quick washing, angry, painful blisters were already forming along the lines. They looked like the blisters I’d seen on people who had been burned with fire. Burns like that had reduced to strongest men to crying babies and yet, despite the excruciating pain I knew she must be in, the apprentice bore it calmly and bravely without so much as a flinch.

The second pair of cuffs was off now. With another sharp twist of her arm, she broke free again. She grasped the broken remnants of her captivity and threw them across to the far side of the cell, a venomous glare in her eyes as she did so.

“Brenn das Eisen!” she roared, her blistering left arm extended and eyes like shimmering blood. Instantly a gout of white-hot flame erupted from her hands, engulfing the broken cuffs. It burned for a minute before winking out, leaving the broken cuffs with no new damage; they weren’t even hot from what I could tell.

“To the peaks with that woman,” she snarled, staring at the cuffs. “I will make her pay for this. I will make her pay dearly for chaining me like this.”

“I guess the enchantments still work,” I commented, looking at the bonds, undamaged save for the acid.

“Of course they do, dragon brain,” she snapped. “Do you think a little acid would break the Mistress’s magic?”

“How should I know?” I shot back, a bit defensively. “It isn’t like they teach us magic and sorcery in the king’s army.”

“I suppose you fools wouldn’t,” she snorted. “Besides, you’d need a sorcerer to do that and those are outlawed in Alkilion as far as I know.”

“They are,” I confirmed. “You might want to use those magic powers of yours to heal your arms.”

“You really know nothing about magic,” she derided. “There is no spell for healing.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe it. “How is there not a spell for healing? That would be literally to first spell I would create or learn.”

“Well, there isn’t,” she flatly stated. “The Towers know I’ve tried; so has Aiden. But all we got for our efforts was a sharp chiding from the Mistress not to waste our time with things magic wasn’t meant for.”

“Who’s Aiden?” I inquired.

“The other apprentice; not important,” she waved off and reached for the bucket. “First, I’ve got to get a drink.” Grasping the bucket with both hands, she tilted her head back and began gulping down water.

“Careful,” I started laughing, grabbing for the wooden pail and attempting to pull it out of her surprisingly strong grip. “If you drink too much too quickly, you’ll make yourself sick. Take it easy.”

She glared at me but did ease up on her drinking, finally depositing the empty bucket on the floor beside her. My concern eased when I noticed that as much of the water was soaking her dark black gown as was drunk. Her arms were still ugly and swollen though.

“Don’t worry,” she told me as if reading my thoughts and it occurred to me that was a distinct possibility. “Just because magic won’t take care of me doesn’t mean I’m without a few tricks.”

She took the green vial and slathered the gel along the acid burns, wincing every now and then as she did so. After finishing, she wrapped the clean rags around her forearms.

“That should do, for now,” she said more to herself than me, standing up. Her voice was much clearer now and stronger, as was her accent. I had noticed it back at Castle Zahav but it was even more noticeable here. It was sharp and strong, with hard, definite vowels.

“What was that?” I asked what felt like my millionth question.

“Arev eola,” she replied. “It’s a small plant that grows on the southern slopes of the Hidden Valley. When you mash it and boil it, it makes this gel that is excellent for burns and pretty good for most other wounds as well. My arms should be fine in a couple of days.”

“Good to know,” I remarked. “Any ideas on how to get out of here?”

“Of course, dragon brain,” she grunted dismissively at me. “But you can’t expect me to traipse around the Eisenberge dressed like this? For that matter, you aren’t dressed appropriately either.”

“What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” I protested.

“First off, you stick out like a sore thumb,” she answered, appraising me coolly. “With your hair and skin, even after changing you’ll still look like an Alkite but that can’t be helped. Yet a change of clothes is certainly in order.”

“I am standing right here, you know,” I pointed out.

“Besides, with this flimsy wool and cotton, you’ll be too busy shivering to be of any use to anyone,” she fingered the sleeve of my shirt. “Plus, we need to get properly armed for the Eisenberge.”

“I’ve got my sword,” I replied.

“That won’t be enough,” she snorted, “Come on,” she started for the door, only to have it bared by a snarling Molly.

“Get this thing out of my sight before I turn it to ash,” the sorceress hissed, locking eyes with the dog.

“Molly, come here,” I commanded her. Molly stopped growling and skittered around the sorceress, dark eyes never leaving her and teeth barred.

“Don’t mind Molly; she’s usually good with meeting new people, although seems to have gotten in a bad habit of disliking everyone she meets now. My name is Zimri, by the way,” I offered a hand to her.

She ignored it, instead merely grunting. “I suppose we should know each other’s names. Mine is—”

“Athena, I know,” I cut off with a slight smile.

“How did you know that?” she blinked, clearly taken off guard.

“All of Alkilion knows your name,” I informed, “as you announced it to the nation right before kidnapping our princess.”

“Ah yes, I did, didn’t I?” she recalled. “I’m surprised you remembered.”

“It was a rather memorable night,” I dryly commented.

“I’m sure it was. Now come on; we don’t have all day,” she started for the door again, casting a wary glance at Molly. “And keep your mutt out of the way.”

The redheaded sorceress strode with the grace of a hunting cat from her cell and up the stairs, casting off all notions that she’d been held a prisoner there an hour before. We exited the Scion Tower and she quickly dashed to the western colonnade, ducking under its roof.

“The Lower Palace is largely empty,” Athena explained, reading my somewhat puzzled expression. “But there is a full complement of soldiers up in the Upper Fortress, waiting for an Alkite Army to come marching through here. It would not be good for me to be seen running around.”

“Seems reasonable, although they’ll have a long wait for the army,” I pointed out as we carefully worked our way back to the Olympic Tower.

“There’s a small armory on the second level of the Olympic Tower where we can arm ourselves, assuming its empty,” Athena told me.

“And if it isn’t empty?” I questioned.

“We’ll see if you’re actually any good with that stick of yours,” she retorted with a snort.

“And how powerful a sorceress you really are,” I added with a smirk.

“Hmph,” she sniffed. “Follow me.”

Thankfully the armory was both unlocked and empty. I noticed that it was indeed small, nothing compared to the massive armory of Castle Zahav. I could only assume that the armory of the Upper Fortress was better stocked. For the sake of the Eisenbergians, I hoped so. Otherwise, we should’ve sent the army; there wasn’t much here.

But what was here was well-made and caringly tended for. The dozen swords carefully stacked on the far side of the room were uniformly made, blades about three feet in length fullered down the middle and straight crosspiece hilts with a round pommel. The breastplates hanging on the wall were simple in design, yet effective, as were the helmets. No ornate crests embossed and neither were there any jewels or gold worked in to the armor. It was just simple steel, like the swords, but oiled, polished, and sharpened to a razor’s edge.

“Find anything yet or just gawking?” a sharp voice interrupted my examination.

“No, not yet,” I turned to see Athena glaring at me impatiently, arms crossed and right foot tapping.

“Well, we haven’t got all day,” she gruffly remarked for the second time. “Let’s get ourselves armed.”

She walked past me and began looking over the swords, testing their balance and weight. Much to my surprise, Athena clearly knew what she was doing.

“I would suggest you use a spear instead of a sword,” I offered, drawing a sharp look.

“Why do you say that?” she demanded.

“You’re tall for a woman,” I explained, “but I assume that the vast majority of the soldiers we’ll be facing are men.” This drew a curt nod and so I continued. “They will have the advantage on you simply because they’ll have a longer reach. A spear will nullify that advantage.”

“Unless, of course, they are using spears themselves,” she pointed out.

“True,” I acknowledged. “But it will still be on much more even ground. Do most Eisenbergian soldiers use spears?”

“It’s mixed,” she responded flatly but set the sword down.

“Do you know how to use a spear?” I cautiously questioned.

“Of course I do,” she retorted. “Do you think I’m one of your pathetic Alkite housewives?”

“I meant no offense,” I held out my hands diplomatically. “I can clearly see that you know how to use a sword. I was just wondering if you had been trained on the spear too. They are very different weapons.”

“I can handle a spear fine,” she plucked one from the rack of spears next to the swords and twirled it expertly to prove her point, although not as elegantly as the sword. “Any thoughts for what I should do if someone were to get inside my reach?”

“A long knife should do the trick,” I suggested. It was not unlike the system we used in the Alkite army, which was primarily spear based with a short sword as a back-up weapon.

“What makes you such an expert?” she flatly asked.

“Being a soldier all my life makes me an expert,” I replied in an equally flat voice.

Athena grunted in annoyance, but set the spear aside and selected a long dagger with an 18-inch blade. It was bordering on a short sword and might be a bit cumbersome, but I elected not to push the issue. She’d probably do fine and I didn’t particularly want to make her any more upset than she already was.

 “We’ll need you to get some clothes,” Athena cut in. “I found these; try them on to see if they fit.” She tossed a bundle of earth-tone clothes at my feet. “If you wear these, at least you won’t freeze to death. And we should probably get you a jerkin too.”

I blinked at the pile of clothes at my feet and then back at her. She was staring back at me, arms folded under her breasts and right foot tapping expectantly.

“Well? We haven’t got all day,” she barked.

“Is there a changing room or something?” I asked in a small voice, getting the uncomfortable feeling that she expected me to change in front of her.

“No,” Athena narrowed her eyes at me, apparently not understanding the dilemma.

“Could you at least turn around?” I requested.

“What? Oh yes, your strange Alkite sensibilities,” she finally understood. “As you wish, you bloody flower.” With a huff, she turned around.

Deciding not to waste any time and ignoring the burning flush in my face, I hurriedly stripped off my Alkite clothes and pulled on the Eisenbergian clothes. The underclothes were weird: a tan, stretchy material that was like a second skin. I expected them to be hard to move in, but to my surprise found that they hardly restricted my movement at all, much less than wearing normal clothes. The light brown tunic was long, reaching just past my knees. At the waist though, the fabric split into four panels, allowing for maximum movement while still providing warmth. The half-sleeves stopped just above my elbow, leaving the tight undergarments exposed, reaching all the way to my wrist.

I pulled up my trousers underneath the tunic and cinched my sword belt over both tunic and pants. The boots Athena had given me were of a white fur with black stripes turned inside out, exposing soft gray leather on the outside. They were tall, going halfway up my shins, with a rather elaborate lacing system that I was unused to. In Alkilion, we often wore simple sandals as it was too hot for anything else. Lords would wear big riding boots when traveling but that was unusual for the rest of us. It felt strange to have my feet so constricted, but the boots felt warm and soft, although I had doubts about their ability to stop anything. Finishing the garb, I draped the heavy brown cloak over my shoulders. It felt a bit like overkill but I decided that she knew how to dress in this environment far better than I did.

“Done,” I announced.

Turning around, Athena appraised me critically. “You’re keeping your scimitar?” she questioned after finishing her examination.

“It’s what I’m used to and it’s a good blade,” I shrugged.

“Hand it over,” she ordered, holding out her right hand expectantly.

I hesitated for a moment, giving her a curious look before shrugging and pulling the weapon from its sheath. Athena took it and ran her fingers along the backside of the blade and gave it a twirl, eyes growing wide in astonishment.

“This is an Eisenbergian blade!” she exclaimed. “Where did you get this?”

“Lord General Omri gave it to me,” I replied. “He had it in his private weapons store and just handed it to me before I left.”

“He handed you an Eisenbergian blade?” she sounded dubious. “Just like that?”

“I guess so, yeah,” I shrugged. “It didn’t seem like that big a deal.”

“Of course it didn’t,” she sniffed, still admiring the scimitar. “You Alkites don’t know how to recognize quality. If it isn’t decked out in gold and jewels, you automatically assume it is of little value.”

I looked at the weapon in her hands. The blade had always felt right, light and well-balanced, remarkably easy to use. But it bore no decorations or crests; just a simple blade with an s-shaped hilt and unadorned save for the ruby inset in the pommel. I certainly hadn’t given it much thought.

“I know its Eisenbergian steel, but it can’t be that big of deal,” I told her. “It clearly never belonged to a High Lord. Even Lord Omri didn’t use it. He just had it hanging in the back of his private office with a bunch of other swords.”

“Then your Lord Omri is a fool,” Athena bit out. “I said this is an Eisenbergian blade, not just Eisenbergian steel. That means it was forged and fashioned here in the Eisenberge. I’m certain that your Alkite smiths are competent in a way, but they are nothing like Eisenbergian smiths. Even by Eisenbergian standards, this is exceptionally crafted. I’d wager that there are very few, if any of your High Lords have a weapon to match this.” She gave it another flourish and handed it back to me. “Guard it well, Alkite and it might just see you through this.”

With a sense of awe, I studied the blade anew. The polished steel reflected my image back only just slightly warped. Cold metal pressed against my fingers as I ran them the flat of the blade, tracing the long groove through its center. Reverently I sheathed the weapon and straightened up to select the rest of my gear from the armory.

I found a small, round shield, about two and a half feet in diameter. It was wooden with a steel rim and iron boss in the center and yet still light enough for easy travel. Leaving a shield behind had been my biggest oversight in this trip, one I was all too happy to rectify. Briefly I considered adding a spear to my armament but elected not to. I already had plenty to carry and I couldn’t wield a shield, spear, and sword all at the same time.

I did, however, select a bow and quiver from the rack. Like the rest of the Eisenbergian gear, it was simply yet well made, a stout recurve bow made of a combination of horn, wood, and sinew. It was small enough to fit in my pack and I attached the quiver to the back of my belt. I found a gauntlet for my right arm which would be exposed in a fight and strapped that on. A knife on my right hip and I was ready to go.

“One last thing for you,” Athena called to me, tossing a leather jerkin. “Won’t stop a direct attack, but should keep you alive against most things.”

With a sigh, I removed my cloak and slipped the leather vest on. It fit snugly, but didn’t restrict my movement too much. Redoing my cloak, I packed up the rest of the clothes Athena had given me, the bow, and with the shield, slung it over my shoulders.

“Ready to go?” I asked her.

“Not quite,” Athena replied as she pulled a jerkin her size from a drawer. Unlike me, she wasn’t wearing any of her gear, instead holding it in a loose pile in her arms. “I have to get my own clothes. And some money wouldn’t hurt either. Follow me.”

Molly and I followed the sorceress up several more floors to an apartment near the top of the tower with an impressive view of the fog covered Finsternis Tal. Athena led us into the large bedroom, complete with a big four-posted bed draped in black and red blankets. Compared to the rest of the castle, this room was swimming in luxury.

“Is this your room?” I inquired, getting a tight nod.

“Was,” she amended. “I suppose it is no one’s now that I’ve been stripped of my authority. Anyway, my stuff is here, as well as the money we should need for our trip.”

She disappeared into the walk-in closet, pulling out a few changes of clothes while I leaned uselessly against the stone wall. After a few minutes of her haphazard sorting, Athena emerged with three sets of clothing slung over her arm. Tossing them on the bed, she immediately began stripping down. I promptly did an about face, studiously examining the masonry. That drew a snort.

“I’m finished; you may look now,” Athena declared a couple minutes later.

What she wore was very similar to me: a beige tunic down to her knees, split at the waist over a tan colored, skin tight undergarments. When I turned around, she was pulling on her leather jerkin, a vest similar to mine, covering both front and back but more feminine and form fitting. She then cinched up her broad leather belt with the long knife on her left hip a quiver on the right. After draping a long, dark brown cloak over her shoulders, Athena tossed on her own rucksack, grabbed her spear and looked at me expectantly.

“Do I meet your approval?” she demanded in an acerbic voice.

“Sure, I guess,” I shrugged. I hadn’t really thought about her appearance much; frankly between her being Ariadne’s kidnapper, a sorceress, and someone who could kill me with a word and a flick of the wrist, how she looked was just not high on priority list.

She was striking, I had to admit. Tall and lithe, with smooth alabaster skin contrasted sharply by fiery red hair and balanced by piercing sky blue eyes, Athena possessed a hard, yet sculpted quality. Combined with commanding presence and firm, almost glaring expression, her beauty was like that of the mountains themselves: cold, hard, awe-inspiring, aloof, and more than just a touch frightening, very different than Ariadne’s warm, kind, and friendly beauty.

Shaking myself out of those thoughts, I brought my mind back to the present. “Yeah, you look fine,” I nodded. “Ready to go?”

“Just about,” she replied, going over to a cabinet next the bed. She put her hand over the lock, muttered something in that strange language, and it popped open. Athena then retrieved half a dozen bags. “Here, take half,” she tossed three of them to me. They were heavy and full of coins; it took me a second to juggle them before corralling them in my arms.

“There is a lot more in the treasury,” she commented. “Unfortunately it’s heavily guarded in the Upper Fortress. But lucky for us, I made sure I had my own private stash in case things ever went bad. Besides, this should be plenty to get us to Masada and the Eisen Palast, at least if we’re careful.”

I looked down at my arms and mutely nodded. I must’ve been carrying a couple pounds of coins which was more money than I’d ever seen in my life. Unslinging my backpack, I stuffed the sacks in wherever I could, filling up my money pouch in the process.

“What’s this?” I held up an emerald disk an inch across.

“An emmy,” Athena answered promptly. “Oh right, you wouldn’t know how our monetary system works. We have three tiers, like you do, except we use stones, not metals. Emeralds are the highest denomination; we call them ‘emmies.’ Next are amethysts, which are about three-quarters that size that we call ‘purples.’ The lowest denomination is carnelians, ‘carnies’ for short, which are half the size of purples. Ten carnies equal a purple and five purples equal an emmy.”

“That’s actually a lot like our system,” I comprehended. “That’s a relief. With this, we should be able to get to the Eisen Palast on a golden barge.”

“A golden barge would sink and would be highly impractical. Why would we possibly want to take a golden barge to the Eisen Palast?” Athena furrowed her eyebrows.

“We are really going to have to work on your sense of humor,” I sighed and shook my head. “My point is that this is a lot of money!”

“I suppose,” Athena looked at the bag. “It doesn’t seem like that much to me.”

“Those outside your walls might disagree,” I mumbled. “Anyway, it seems like we shouldn’t lack for funds.”

“So long as we’re careful, probably not,” she replied. “Those aren’t all emmies.”

“Good to know you’re not obscenely rich, just absurdly rich,” I grumbled. “Are we ready to go now?”

“I have all that I need here,” Athena commented placidly. “But I will need some potions from my lab. Let’s go.”

My stomach rebelled at the rather unpleasant memory of her laboratory. “How about I wait by the fountain or something?” I offered instead. “There’s no one in the Lower Palace so that should be fine, right?”

“Splitting up seems like an unnecessary risk,” she crossed her arms and glared at me.

“Trying to breathe in your lab seems like an unnecessary risk,” I retorted.

“Fine, flower, go wait by the Scion Tower or wherever for me,” Athena rolled her eyes. “I don’t feel like spending all day arguing with you. Just don’t get spotted.” She grabbed her spear and stalked quickly off.

Molly and I skipped down the steps and back out into the courtyard. Quickly I ducked underneath the western colonnade, glancing warily up at the Upper Fortress across the courtyard from me. The sun was starting its descent, a reminder that we had spent all day getting ready to leave. In the light I couldn’t tell if there were soldiers watching us from up there. Probably, I concluded, especially if the Sorceress was planning to use this place as a trap. At this point, there was little I could do about it. If they were going to do anything, they probably would’ve done it already.

Leaning against Scion Tower, I had to admit it was a well-conceived plan were King Sennacheriv actually sending the army. With conscripts and knights, we would eventually take the Upper Fortress; our numbers and expertise would prove to be too much in the end. But in the meantime, I acknowledged as my eyes swept the courtyard with a shudder, this place would turn into a killing field. A line of archers along the wall…I shook off those unpleasant thoughts, glad that Lord Omri’s wisdom had prevailed in the end.

The sun continued to slowly sink along the western horizon, making me wonder what was taking Athena so long. A sudden fear of betrayal surged through me but I discounted it. Assuming her story was true, and I had no real reason to doubt it other than she was a diabolical sorceress, Athena was a far bigger fugitive than myself. I was a solitary orphaned soldier while she was the outlawed former apprentice of the Sorceress.

Still, I couldn’t exactly trust her. Athena had her own motives for assisting me, motives that had little to do with rescuing the princess. Were she to decide that I was a liability or that what was in her best interest was different than mine, I could find myself in very deep trouble. Her powers made her essentially untouchable and I didn’t like that. I needed a wild card up my sleeve in case Athena ever decided to go rogue.

I considered the cuffs lying in Athena’s cell. True they had been broken but the magic still seemed to be working. Of course I had no clue as to how they actually worked, much less how to use them, but I figured a smith could repair them or make them into something useable against her just in case. It was worth a try, certainly.

Casting a wary glance over to the Olympic Tower to ensure my partner didn’t seeme go, I slipped into the Scion Tower and made my way quickly down to Athena’s cell. It took a moment of searching but I found discarded bonds where Athena had tossed them in the corner. Grabbing them and stuffing them into bag, I ran back up the stairs.

I made it back just in time. A moment later, Athena emerged from the Olympic Tower and, with a wary glance up at the Fortress, scuttled underneath the colonnade and came towards me.

“Dance with fairies?” I questioned with a wry smile.

“What? No,” Athena frowned. “There are no such things as fairies. Oh,” she cocked her head. “That was a joke. Pathetic. Perhaps it is your sense of humor that needs work.”

That made me smile slightly. “So she can joke after all,” I retorted with a light laugh.

“That wasn’t a joke; you’re not very funny,” she deadpanned in response.

“Fair enough,” I shrugged, deciding not to debate the point. “Since this is, was your castle, I’m guessing you know a good, private way out of here?”

“Without alerting the soldiers you mean?” Athena clarified. “I have an idea or two that might work. But it won’t be easy.”

“If I cared about easy, I wouldn’t have come here,” I rebutted.

“My lady?” A voice suddenly gasped behind us.

Both Athena and I whirled around to see Katherine standing in the colonnade, mouth agape. “You were supposed to kill her,” the servant looked horrified at me.

Athena recovered quicker than me from the ambush. Her irises turned blood red and she raised her hands. Katherine squeaked in terror as she recognized the maneuver and began backpedaling as fast as she could.

“Blass ihr!” Athena hissed out. The air around us warped as an energy wave exploded out from Athena racing to a focal point in the center of Katherine’s chest. The unfortunate servant let out a gasp of pain as air was expelled from her lungs and she was tossed back a dozen feet, slamming into the stone wall.

Athena was on her in an instant, pouncing like a cat with dagger drawn. Thankfully for Katherine’s sake, I had recovered enough to sprint forward and grab Athena’s arm before she could plunge the knife into Katherine’s heart.

“What are you doing?” the surprisingly strong sorceress hissed as she struggled against my own iron grip.

“I’m not going to let you kill her,” I replied. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

“She’s a loose end,” Athena countered, finally surrendering and relaxing. “If we leave her, she’ll raise the alarm and we’ll end up having to fight our way through a couple hundred of soldiers, something I don’t think either of us can pull off. We have to silence her, permanently.”

 “We’re not killing some innocent girl. There’s no honor in that,” I stood firm.

“Who gives a flying snowflake about honor?” she snapped, “Especially when we’re dead.”

“There has to be a better option than killing her,” I rebutted. “We could lock her in your cell or something.”

“And leave her to either starve to death or at the mercy of your Alkite friends?” scoffed Athena. “Yes, I can see how your way is so much more humane and honorable. Better just to kill her now and get it over with.”

“Surely you can put some kind of spell on her that will keep her from talking until we’re far from here,” I suggested.

Athena paused for a moment. “I could do something to lock her in her room for 24 hours,” she allowed. “But that will take time and energy we don’t have. We’ve wasted far too much time as it is.”

“We’re not killing her,” I repeated finally.

“You know I don’t need your permission,” Athena pointed out.

“And I don’t have to let you live either,” I added, my own knife out and pressed against her throat. “Believe me, if there is one person I want dead as much as the Sorceress, it’s you. You kill her, you join her. Got it?”

“This is ridiculous,” groused Athena, “But as you wish. We’ll lock her up. Katherine, on your feet,” she barked at the servant.

Katherine was still a little stunned but staggered to her feet obediently, flashing me a grateful look. “Get to your room,” Athena ordered sharply, prodding Katherine back with her knife. Dutifully, the servant backed along the stone wall to the room I had seen her go into earlier.

“Hold out your arms,” Athena commanded. Before I could react, Athena drew her blade across Katherine’s pale arms, staining them deep red immediately.

“What was that for?” I exclaimed.

“Hush,” Athena brushed off. “You wanted her alive, correct? Well, I need the blood for the ritual that will keep her alive and quiet.”

“It’s alright, my lord,” Katherine quietly spoke up. “This is how the magic works. It’s not the worst I’ve endured.”

That made me shudder but Athena was already working. Using a rag like a paint brush, the sorceress dabbed up the blood from Katherine’s arms and streaked it across the doorframe of the servant’s room. It took about fifteen minutes, and a great deal of Katherine’s blood, for Athena to be finished to her own satisfaction. Then Athena closed her eyes and began to chant in a soft, low voice that I could barely hear in words that I did not understand.

“Are you alright?” I asked Katherine, who had paled even more and looked slightly woozy. She shook her head, indicating that I should not distract Athena from her task and went about bandaging her arms with torn pieces of her dress.

The incantation went on for another twenty painfully long minutes. As the time continued to stretch out, I found myself looking over my shoulder towards the Fortress, expecting soldiers to come pouring down at any moment. None did and before Athena finished, the sun finished its daily cycle, dropping below the horizon.

“There,” Athena finally declared, rising shakily. Sweat drenched her face, plastering red hair to her forehead and cheeks.

“Are you okay, Katherine?” I called quietly to the servant inside but she didn’t respond.

“She can’t hear us,” Athena told me.

“What did you do?”

“I sealed her in her room for the next 24 hours,” Athena explained. “She cannot see, hear, or feel anything that goes on outside the seal until the spell wears off. Neither can she leave, call out to or in any way communicate with anyone on the outside.”

“Whoa,” I blinked as Katherine’s door shut, locking the servant in. “That’s intense.”

“Extremely,” acknowledged Athena. “Thankfully the spell doesn’t require a life, but it is very intricate that demands precise wording and a lot of energy.” To punctuate her point, the sorceress took a long drink from her water skin and wiped her face with the edge of her cloak. “And it is rather time-consuming.”

“I noticed,” I couldn’t resist another worried look up at the Fortress. “I still can’t believe they haven’t seen us yet.”

“They probably have,” Athena shrugged. “We’ve taken too much time and haven’t exactly been the picture of stealth.”

“Then why were you so concerned about Katherine blabbing about us, if they already know we’re here?” I growled in frustration.

“I didn’t want her explaining to the Fortress commander what is going on,” Athena said as if that should explain everything. Seeing the blank look on my face, she gave a sigh and went into more detail.

“Soldiers have had their minds broken by the Mistress,” she told me. “They are completely stripped of self-identity, thought, and will. They’re essentially drones that are then trained to fight. They follow their master’s orders completely, immediately, and without question. This makes them particularly useful tools in war as they lack fear or any sense of self-preservation, willing to fight to the death unrelentingly while still actually possessing a reasonable amount of skill. The drawback is that they also completely lack creative thought, which often gets them massacred, one of the reasons we lost the last war with Alkilion. Additionally they are completely dependent on the controlling mind, the Mistress, to function. The more minds she controls, the more she is spread out, limiting how many soldiers she can effectively have.”

“Why not just conscript people without breaking their minds?” I suggested.

“The Mistress isn’t exactly popular and there is always a great deal of danger in placing a weapon in the hands of an independent mind,” Athena pointed out. “The last thing the Mistress would do is create an army of people able to think for themselves. Neither has she been willing to allow Aiden or I to create armies to supplement hers.”

“Sounds like she doesn’t trust you,” I commented.

“Of course she doesn’t trust us,” Athena snapped. “We are her replacements, her rivals. She uses us to enforce her power but we are a threat to her. She will not give us any more power than she can control. Instead what she has done is appoint non-broken, at least not completely broken individuals as commanders. She has six generals, 24 captains, and 240 lieutenants. They provide the creative thinking and take the pressure off of having to control all 6000 troops at once. Of course, she maintains ultimate control over them, so were any of her officers to get cute, she could have him killed by his own soldiers in a heartbeat.”

“This woman strikes me as just a touch paranoid,” I commented.

“Is it paranoia if the threats are real?” mused Athena.

“Anyway, what does any of this have to do with us?” I inquired.

“There are maybe eleven or twelve officers up there, none of which are likely to be on watch. They prefer to leave that to their underlings. The soldiers, on the other hand, have been ordered to be on the lookout for an Alkite army,” Athena went on.

“And because they haven’t seen one, they’ll ignore me because I don’t fit the parameters of their orders,” I understood.

“Precisely,” Athena nodded, “The drawback of no creative thinking. That said, even a lieutenant or captain probably would ignore a single Alkite roaming around. He might order a patrol to investigate and when he sees that you’re alone, he’d pass you off as a random outlier.”

“And what about you?” I questioned. “If you’re spotted, then they’d certainly rain down hell on us.”

“If they could identify me, probably,” Athena shrugged. “But there is no way they can pick me out from that height.”

“And your hair?” I gestured to her fiery locks.

“What of it?” she shrugged again. “Red hair isn’t uncommon here like it is in Alkilion. That won’t make me stand out. Besides, I’ve been in the line of sight of the Fortress for maybe a couple of minutes; it would take the right person looking at the precise right time to spot and identify me; a soldier isn’t going to do it.”

“Point made,” I conceded. “Let’s get out of here.”

“For once, I agree,” Athena nodded. “Follow me.”

10: Chapter 9

Molly and I followed our sorceress guide along the colonnade back to the Scion Tower. Pressing against the tower, we edged our way to the cliff face directly underneath the Fortress. Even though night had fallen, the moon was still bright enough for us to be exposed were someone to look in the wrong direction. Carefully we worked our way along the cliff, cautiously glancing upwards, to the eastern tower, the same one I had entered the Lower Palace through.

“You might want to draw your sword,” Athena suggested as she placed her left hand on the door. The spear in her right was poised to strike. Nodding, I silently drew my scimitar free. Athena pressed the door open and we stepped inside.

The first thing I noticed was a lamp hanging in midair greeting us. The second thing I noticed were the three very confused soldiers behind the lamp.

“You are not supposed to be out of your cell,” observed one of them.

Neither Athena or I bothered to respond. Training and adrenaline kicked and I jumped forward, shield raised. Instinctively I drove the steel boss into the center of the nearest soldier’s chest as he reached for his blade. He staggered back a couple of steps, leaving himself open to the slash across the chest I gave him. To his credit, he didn’t cry out or scream, merely fell to the ground and gurgled out his last breath.

I whirled around to face a second soldier who drove his spear at my exposed back. Just in time I managed to get my shield up, deflecting the blow high and left. Stepping in, I plunged my blade into his chest.

“Good to see you’re not completely useless,” Athena remarked as she withdrew her spear from her victim’s chest.

“Likewise,” I panted out, cleaning my blade off and sheathing it. “I hope there isn’t too much more of that.”

“More than either of us will like, I can assure you of that,” Athena flatly told me. “Grab the lamp.”

Fetching the discarded lamp from the ground, I followed Athena back down the road I’d come up that morning, what felt like an eternity previous. Going down with light was much faster than getting up. Quickly we reached the door leading to the main road. Athena opened and we hopped through.

The road was empty, much to our relief.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We head up,” Athena gestured with her spear upslope. “This branch of the road exits in the Fortress near the gate.”

“This is your idea of sneaking out?” I exploded. “That’s walking into the dragon’s den!”

“The only way into the Hidden Valley is through the Fortress, unless you want to try climbing across 500 foot cliff,” Athena explained. “Yeah, neither do I. The other two routes are through the two towers abutting the Fortress. Both would deposit us on the far side of the Fortress and in the middle of the barracks. I’ll grant you that this isn’t an enviable option but it’s the best one we’ve got. If you can’t handle it, then feel free to head down and back to Alkilion.”

“I’m not going back,” I flatly replied, glancing up the hill. “Is it a straight shot to the top from here?”

“No,” Athena shook her head, barely visible in the lamp light. “There’s one more switchback about 200 yards up.”

“How many troops will be at the top?”

“I’m not sure,” Athena shrugged. “Ten to fifteen; probably not more.”

“I’d have more, personally,” I commented, “but I’ll take your word for it. I have an idea that might put things in our favor. Get your bow out and douse the lamp.”

“What?” Athena exclaimed incredulously. “How are we going to see?”

“We don’t need to,” I replied. “There are no turn offs, correct?”

“Turn offs to where?” Athena dimly raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll take that as a no,” I went on. “If there are no turn offs, then as long as we are going up, then we know we are going in the right direction. A lamp isn’t going to help us here; all it will do is give away our position. If we don’t have the light, we’ll be able to sneak up on them.”

“And how are we going to shoot them?” Athena incredulously demanded.

“I presume they’re going to have lamps?” I inquired.

“Three or four, of course,” Athena snorted. “They aren’t idiots.”

“That’s debatable,” I dryly remarked. “Here’s the thing: with their lamps, we’ll be able to see them but they won’t be able to see us. All we have to do is shoot at the lamps and will take some of them out.”

“Three or four lamps are not going to give off enough light for us to shoot clearly,” Athena pointed out.

“For precise targeting, no,” I acknowledged. “But it’ll be good enough for us to have a workable estimate and that’s all we need. With ten to fifteen of them, chances are pretty good we’ll still hit someone.”

“Be hard to get a kill shot,” Athena countered, although she was much less dubious.

“True, but the way I see it, we don’t have to,” I rebutted. “I get that your brainwashed soldiers ignore pain but it’s going to be a lot harder for them to fight with an arrow sticking out of their arm. If we can slow them down enough, then we should be able to defeat them.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, your plan is actually pretty good,” Athena begrudgingly admitted. “Just one thing: we take no prisoners. I don’t care what your honor says, we kill everyone. Believe me we’ll be doing them a mercy.”

That was a jarring thought for me. I was taught to follow a certain code of honor when it comes to battle. We were never to strike an unarmed or downed opponent. We were to always accept surrenders. And we were never to kill everyone. That was just wrong.

And yet, Athena was right. Given everything I’d heard about the Sorceress’s troops, they weren’t going to surrender anyway. They would keep fighting with both legs chopped off. Additionally, we couldn’t afford prisoners or “loose ends”, as Athena undoubtedly would call them. It dawned on me as Athena extinguished the lamp that I was entering a new world with completely new rules that would take some getting used to.

We slowly made our way up the hill in the pitch blackness. After spending most of the day in the sun, it was rather depressing to be back here. Both of us had our bows strung and an arrow already nocked.

We found the back wall of the final switchback about twenty minutes later. Even though we knew that all we had to do was keep going up and there wasn’t much for us to run into down here, walking blindly is still sluggish work. Following along the back wall, we found the turn and continued up. As we made the turn, off in the distance we could make out the small pinpoints of light of the soldier’s lamps.

“How far is this leg?” I whispered to Athena. Sound seemed to die in the stuffy tunnel but I didn’t feel like risking it.

“Another 500 yards, give or take,” she replied. “We’ve got a ways to go yet.”

Quietly we stalked up the steep slope, eyes fixed on the points of light ahead. I focused on steadying my breathing as each step brought me closer to combat. In the previous fight, everything had happened so fast that I hadn’t had time to think about what was going on. But now, as each slow, plodding step brought me closer to the inevitable, I had plenty of time to think. Thinking, I had always been taught, was a soldier’s worst enemy. Thinking made you consider all that could go wrong; thinking paralyzed you in a fight. Now I understood why we were taught to act on reflex and instinct, rather than plan out each step in a fight; thinking was paralyzing.

Distances were hard to judge and we were shooting uphill, but now were close enough to make out some of the individual shapes of the Eisenbergian soldiers and still be in the shadows. I guess we were between 30 and 40 paces out; a long shot still but within killing power of these bows. Reaching out, I grabbed Athena’s hip, stopping her. We couldn’t see each other in the dark and relied on the other understanding what the other was thinking.

Silently, I shrugged the buckler to the ground and took my stance, drawing the string to my cheek. Next to me I heard the familiar sound of bowstring being drawn, Athena having read my mind well enough. We were shooting in the dark toward vague shapes up a hill in a tunnel whose dimensions we couldn’t quite be sure of; what could possibly go wrong?

I closed my eyes for a moment, exhaling slowly hoping to breathe out all thought. When I opened my eyes, all I knew were the shadowy targets ahead. With a steady hand, I released.

I was already reloading, not bothering to see if my arrow struck home. In this light, I couldn’t have seen anyway. A half moment later, I heard a sharp twang as Athena loosed her projectile. Retargeting, I selected the clearest shape I could and fired again.

Vaguely I heard muffled grunts as one of our shots hit home. I loosed a third arrow, aiming this one essentially at the lamp. Someone had to be holding it I figured so shooting around that had my best chance of striking home. I was rewarded with another grunt and the lamp fell to the ground.

By now the soldiers had recovered from their surprise, or what passed for surprise among them. I heard swords being drawn and boots stomping towards us. I fired one last arrow into the mass before dropping my bow and picking my shield.

“Looks like time’s up,” I remarked to Athena as I drew my sword. She didn’t answer but I heard her shifting her shield into place.

“Let’s go,” she flatly replied and we began running up the hill towards the soldiers.

Fighting in the dark is a surreal experience. I could barely tell who and where my opponents were. The light of the lanterns was poor, made all the more so when Athena struck down one of the bearers, depositing the light on the floor. It still burned, but illuminated even less now than it did before.

I had to rely solely on instinct and training to survive. I held my shield up high, every now and then feeling a hard thunk as a sword or spear whacked against it. I had to keep my head on swivel, ensuring that no one somehow got behind me. Whenever someone struck my shield, I pushed up and left, trying open them up and strike at an exposed chest. Sometimes I felt my blade sink in, other times I swung at air.

It seemed that the poor lighting and confusion had as much an effect on the Eisenbergians as it did Athena and I. At least for us, we simply had to avoid killing each other; everything else that moved was fair game. For the Eisenbergians, most of what moved was their comrades, whom they killed as frequently as we did.

To their credit, the Eisenbergians refused to go down. I saw one out of the corner of my eye, pivoted to face him, and slashed at his thigh. My scimitar bit deep, cutting almost all the way to the femur in a blow that should have brought him to his knees. Instead the soldier managed to balance himself on a single leg and hobble towards me. I ducked his weak strike and slammed my buckler into his good leg. He toppled onto his back and I turned to face the next one. To my astonishment, he drug himself back to his knees and continued to futilely swing his blade at me. I caught his sword in mine and slammed my shield into his head, hoping that would still him but he kept on fighting until I finally swept off his head.

The sounds of battle slowly died down as one by one, the Eisenbergians met their doom at my sword, Athena’s spear, or each other. Even Molly got in on the action, running among the Eisenbergians, snapping heels and on occasion, leaping for a throat.

I stepped back from a spear thrust before leaping forward. Using my shield as a weapon, I slammed it into the soldier’s head, stunning him momentarily and driving him back a couple of paces. Capitalizing on the moment, I brought my scimitar whistling down, striking him where the shoulder and neck met, splitting him open.

Hearing a step behind me, I whirled around in time to catch a spear thrust on my shield. Wrenching the weapon to my left, I stepped in deal the killing strike only to have my sword blocked by another shield. I brought my scimitar back for a side thrust when I caught a flash of red.

“Athena?” I called to my opponent.

“Zimri?” She responded, slowly lowering her shield, revealing a sweat-soaked face.

“I guess that’s it,” I sighed heavily, taking a deep breath.

“For this stage anyway,” Athena nodded. “Better make sure they’re all dead.”

“You go ahead and do that,” I told her. “I’ll go fetch our bows.”

“Whatever, flower,” she scoffed, picking a fallen lamp and examining the strewn bodies.

Grabbing my own lamp, I hustled back to where we’d dropped the bows and retrieved them. I heard a couple of grunts preceded by the sickening sound of a spear being driven into someone’s flesh. I understood the rationale behind what Athena was doing; I didn’t like it though. It went against everything I’d been taught.

“Ready?” she called.

“Yeah,” I responded, coming up to her and handing her bow back. “Finished here?”

“Yep,” she nodded. “Looks like there were about twenty of them. Good call with the bow ambush; it looks like we killed four of them and pretty badly wounded four others. I’m not sure if we would’ve made it without that.”

“I do have my moments,” I conceded with an impish grin. “How are you doing?”

“A couple of scratches, nothing serious,” she shrugged off.

“I’m fine, in case you were wondering,” I replied when she didn’t inquire.

“I wasn’t,” she flatly answered. “Let’s go.”

“We are seriously going to have to work on your people skills,” I muttered under my breath.

About twenty paces beyond the battlefield was a set of massive doors that mirrored the ones down by the pool. Athena reached into the handle and turned it open, leading us into a large, dark building.

 To my surprise, the building was empty. I would’ve expected there to be another contingent of soldiers guarding this too, but apparently not. Their focus was instead on watching over the Lower Palace.

We were in a large, open room with old desks strewn around. Most of them were upright, but a few were overturned. There were several side rooms lining this one, a couple of them had doors open. In the dim moonlight coming through the open windows, I saw heavy books littering the floors of the side rooms.

“What is this place?” I whispered to Athena, my voice sounding huge in the empty stone room.

“It used to be a custom’s house for caravans going to and from Alkilion via the Mountain Bahn,” Athena gave me a sharp look. “Obviously it hasn’t been used for that in quite some time.”

Quiet as mice, we crept through the rest of the abandoned custom’s house, which felt quite eerie, towards the exit. Slipping out, we found ourselves in the grassy courtyard of the Upper Fortress.

To the south, towards Alkilion and the Lower Palace, I could see to the tops of the two towers that abutted the Upper Fortress. True to her word, running from the towers towards us along the edge of the east and west walls were two long, low buildings that I presumed to be the barracks. The customs house itself seemed to stand in the center of the egg shaped castle. To the northwest was another long low building and north and slightly east was a derelict multi-story building, perhaps an inn when travelers had come through here. Beyond them was the wall, with its gate and our freedom.

“The gate is going to be surely guarded,” I pointed out the Athena.

“The main gate, yes,” nodded the sorceress. “But not the postern gate, at least with no more than a couple guards. We have enough light for shooting here.”

As quietly and as inconspicuously as we could, we scuttled across the courtyard, heading towards Athena’s postern gate, which was to the east of the main gate. We were about a third of the way there when Molly suddenly let out a low growl.

“Quiet your dog before she gets us killed,” Athena acidly hissed.

I was much more reluctant to dismiss Molly’s concern. She wasn’t growling at Athena, at least not this time. “I think we should get out of sight,” I cautioned Athena.

“What? Why? I don’t hear anything,” the sorceress rebutted.

“She does,” I nodded towards Molly, who growled again. “We should really get out of sight.”

“Whatever, dragon brain,” Athena rolled her eyes.

We made a beeline for the abandoned inn, ducking inside the old common room.

“See, I told you there’s—”

“Quiet,” I hissed harshly. “Look.”

Peering out through the broken windows, we saw a patrol of soldiers coming around the customs house, about a dozen. They marched along the same path we’d gone, heading straight for us. Athena and I sat still against the rickety walls, hoping they hid us well enough. Absently I stroked Molly’s fur, hoping to keep her quiet and to let her know she did well. It was a struggle not to sigh heavily when the soldiers went past the inn without so much as a glance towards it.

“It looks like they’re heading to the main gate,” Athena observed.

“And we’re not fighting for our lives because?” I prodded.

“Because what? We got lucky,” Athena shrugged. “Now come on.”

Shaking my head, I followed Athena back out into the courtyard. We dashed to the wall and followed it around towards the postern gate.

“There it is,” Athena whispered to me, holding us up. “Get your bow ready.”

I nodded, drawing my bow from my pack and stringing it. Nocking an arrow, I stepped out from the wall four paces to my left, drew the fletching to my ear, and fired at the far soldier. A half second later, Athena fired her bolt.

My shot struck the soldier between the eyes, killing him instantly. Athena had aimed for the chest, striking a bullseye. But it wasn’t an instant kill shot; the soldier had just enough life in him to cry out as he slumped to the ground.

“Aim for the head,” I snapped at Athena.

“You might be a perfect shot, but I’m going to ensure a kill first and foremost,” Athena shot back. “Stop whining and get moving.”

With a growl, I sprinted towards the gate, grabbed the handle and jerked.

It was locked.

“Great call, do you have a key?” I snapped at Athena.

“I have my power,” Athena bit her bottom lip. “Now cover me.”

Holding out my shield, I stood behind Athena with sword drawn while Athena began working. Footsteps began pounding towards us, although there were none of the usual shouts. From the main gate to my right, a dozen soldiers came running towards us. There was more commotion from the barracks but that was too far away to be of any concern.

Two of the soldiers pulled up and fired a pair of arrows at us. Raising my shield, I intercepted them with a solid plunk. The rest kept coming with swords drawn.

“Any moment now,” I barked at her as I blocked two more bolts.

“Hold on,” she rebutted acidly. “Almost there.”

There was a loud hissing sound behind me as the first couple of soldiers came down on us. Using my sword as a shield, I stood firm, warding off blow after blow. I wanted to counterattack but knew that any move I made would leave Athena completely exposed. Finally I couldn’t hold back any longer as two soldiers struck at me.

Gathering all my strength, I shoved the soldier on my left with my shield, driving him back three steps. That left me one on one with the other. Going on the offensive, I slashed high, getting my sword caught by my opponents. Relaxing my wrist, I whipped my scimitar around and slashed open his chest.

Pivoting around, I brought my shield up to catch the sword blow of my previous opponent. A third soldier quickly filled the place of his fallen comrade, striking at my exposed side with a spear. I batted that a way with my sword. Holding off the soldier on my left with my shield, I reversed my grip on my blade and swung up, dragging the tip through his face.

Before a fourth soldier could attack me, I turned to finish of the soldier to my left. Swinging my shield hard to the left, I blew the soldier’s sword away, opening him up and then driving my scimitar through his chest.

“ATHENA!” I called, backing up to protect her.

“Ready,” she responded. “Blass!”

There was a muffled boom as explosion of energy blew the gate off its hinges. “Coming?” she demanded.

“Right behind you,” I didn’t need to be told twice.

I gave the nearest soldier a shove and began backpedalling as fast as I could through the gate before turning and sprinting after Athena. She was heading towards to a stone bridge up to our right. That was the only obstacle between us and freedom. Five minutes later, we stamped over the bridge and I nearly ran into Athena who skidded to a stop.

“What are you doing?” I demanded through pants.

“Finishing them off,” she replied icily.

The remaining soldiers came charging after us. Athena calmly stood her ground, irises turning red. My heart began pounding more and more as their feet hit the far side of the bridge. And still Athena stood immobile as she coolly watched them come and come. Only when they reached the center of the bridge did she react, raising her hands.

“Explodiert!” she spoke calmly, directing all of her focus to the stone bridge under their feet.

There was an incredible flash of light followed by a deafening boom as the bridge was blown apart. Instinctively I brought my buckler up, shielding us from the raining debris. Molly was on the ground, shuddering and yelping while my ears felt full of cotton. When the dust settled, the bridge was in shambles and the soldiers were gone. It was going to be a long time before anyone crossed that river to us. We were in the clear.

“What was that?” I asked, yawning to clear my ears.

“That, Alkite, was my power,” Athena replied with a flat voice.

11: Chapter 10

A sharp barking woke me the next morning. With a groan, I slowly sat up, my joints and muscles rebelling against the abuse of the nights “sleep” on the cold, wet, and uneven ground. Off to my left, I heard Athena grumbling as she woke up.

“Will you shut your damn dog up?” the sorceress snarled, holding her head.

“Molly, hush,” I groaned, my own head ringing with each yap. She ignored me and continued yapping.

Somehow that cleared the fog from my brain and I realized that something must be very wrong. Molly wasn’t much for barking and she always quieted down when I ordered her.

“Get up,” I ordered Athena. “Get up; we need to get out of here.”

“What? Why?” Athena grumbled as she gently shook her head to clear the cobwebs. I guess she was even less used to sleeping outdoors than I.

“Soldiers,” I answered succinctly, pointed in the direction of Molly’s barking. About three-quarters of a mile distant, I could make out bright flashes, tell-tale signs of armor reflecting in sunlight.

“Icicles,” Athena swore, squinting to see pick out the reflections. “Come on,” she grabbed her pack and started running.

“Wait, where?” I called after her but she was already a dozen paces away. Growling under my breath, I grabbed my pack and shield a half moment before I began sprinting after her, giving Molly a sharp whistle. She stopped barking, perked up her ears, and then began dashing after me.

Athena was remarkably fast and nimble as she ran over the tough, uneven Eisenbergian turf. I nearly rolled my ankles half a dozen times trying to catch up to her, something I never quite did. Suddenly she vanished in front of me. A second later, so did the ground underneath my feet.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed as I started falling.

A hand reached out and grabbed me, pulling me down to the ground.

“OOF!” I gasped as the air was driven from my lungs. “What the hell?” I yelled at Athena, who was leaning against the bowl of a hollow we were in.

“Shh,” she hissed, turning her head to glance over the edge of the hollow. Following her lead, I crept to the edge, ignoring the complaining bruises, and peaked over. We were maybe 500 yards from where we had slept. We hadn’t lit a fire, being far too tired from our pell-mell escape, but there were still enough signs of occupation for even a poor tracker to notice.

Sure enough, the soldiers slowed to a stop when they reached our camp. I could see them well enough to count, roughly 25 or so. They stood around, examining the camp, conversing among themselves or whatever it was drones do.

“We’d better have our bows ready,” I whispered to Athena but she was already stringing her weapon.

We sat there, tense with fingers on the fletching ready to draw and fire at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t like our hasty retreat hadn’t left tracks. But either the soldiers were uninterested or unable to follow our tracks. Stepping into a marching formation, they hurried off to the north.

“That was too close,” I breathed out a massive sigh of relief. “At least they didn’t come over here.”

“I wouldn’t celebrate just yet,” Athena’s cold blue eyes followed them. “They’re going to Glacier.”

“How do you know?” I looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s the nearest city to the north,” Athena answered. “It’s also where we’re going.”

“We’re going to where they’re going? Shouldn’t we be avoiding places like that? There is going to be a trap, you have to know that,” I exploded.

“Probably,” Athena shrugged as she stood up, stretching out her muscles. “But Glacier is a big city, easy to get lost in so long as we don’t do anything to stand out.”

“Stand out? How much will being an Alkite make us stand out?” I wondered.

That caused Athena to freeze. “That will be a problem as you are literally the only Alkite here,” she admitted. Athena turned to study me, scratching her chin. “With your dark hair and skin, you’ll stick out like a dragon with the hiccups.”

A truly terrifying idea popped into my head but I decided to go with it. “Could you perform some sort of transformation spell on me?” I questioned, wondering how good of an idea it might be let her do any of her voodoo on me.

Athena crossed her arms and tapped her right foot as she examined me before shaking her head. “No,” she said. “There are transformation spells but I don’t know them; the Mistress never taught me or Aiden. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had to cook up that concoction for the pretentious bastard.”

“Cook up what now?” I was confused.

“Nothing,” she waved off. “The point is I don’t know the spell. Although,” her eyes started staring at me greedily and her right foot began tapping more furiously, “I’ve always wanted to try. Perhaps with some experimentation, I could figure it out. We just need someone to copy and a sacrifice.”

“Whoa, wait? Experimentation? What could go wrong?” I asked, holding up my hands.

“I don’t know, you could end up as a frog or something,” Athena shrugged. “Who cares? I’ll learn something and answer a whole lot of questions I’ve had about transformation.”

“I care!” I exclaimed. “I’d rather enjoy being human.”

“Think of all you could learn being a frog or whatever,” Athena proposed. “Think of all I could learn. Of course, if I couldn’t change you back, I couldn’t really glean anything and that would be unfortunate.”

“Along with me being a frog!” I nearly shouted. “Forget I mentioned, please.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she let out a disappointed sigh. “Besides, we need someone to copy and transformation spells require a great deal of life force that we just don’t have and we won’t until we get to Glacier, at which point transforming you would be moot.”

“Life force?” I questioned with a cocked head.

“Yes, life force,” Athena looked bored and annoyed that she had to explain an apparently obvious concept to me. “Sorcery isn’t just words that we say. First, we have to be connected to the Source. Secondly, sorcery requires energy to work. We can’t just pull stuff out of thin air. Sorcery draws its power from life force, either the sorcerer’s own life force or, more ideally, the life force of someone else.”

“Someone else? How and, more importantly, why?” A sick feeling developing in the pit of my stomach.

“I’m not going to kill myself for a spell,” Athena snorted derisively.

“Kill yourself? Spells require that much life force?” I was astounded.

“More powerful or complicated spells do, yes,” Athena nodded. “Something as complicated as morphing you into someone else certainly requires a person’s full life force, maybe more than one if they aren’t pure enough.”

“What does purity matter?”

“I don’t know; I’ve never been able to figure that out. For some reason, the younger and purer a person is, the more powerful their life force,” Athena answered.

“How do you use someone’s life force?” I spoke, not entirely sure I wanted to know the answer.

“Without killing them?” she raised an eyebrow. “The easiest way is to use their blood. The life is in the blood; drain some blood from a person and that usually gives enough life force to power simpler spells.”

“Like when you cut Ariadne’s arm to transport or used Katherine’s blood to paint your spell,” I guessed, earning a nod. “But hold on, you’re telling me that transporting you across Alkilion was a simple spell?”

“Relatively, surprisingly enough, although it did require some of my own life force, which I was able to recover,” Athena acknowledged.

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense,” I allowed, trying not to think of how horrifying what Athena was describing was. “Wait, what did you use last night for life force when you blew up the bridge? There was no blood then? That spell has to be incredibly powerful.”

“It is but I had all the life force I needed,” she answered.

It clicked after a moment. “You took it from the soldiers!” I pieced together.

“Precisely,” she confirmed. “Granted, soldiers mind broken by the Mistress don’t possess much life force, or the cleanest for that matter. But when it comes to sorcery and life force, quantity seems to rule over quality. Twenty of them was plenty. Impressive and powerful as they are, killing spells are the easiest,” she went on. “They automatically draw their life force energy from my targets. In fact the very first spell I learned was the kill spell.”

“The kill spell?”

“Yes, tod and a person drops dead,” Athena explained, “Remarkably easy.”

“That was the first spell you learned?” I gasped, staring at her in horror. “How old were you?”

“Four, I think,” she told me nonchalantly.

“You killed someone when you were four years old?” I was floored.

“I believe that’s what I said, yes,” she shrugged. “I don’t see what the big deal is. I’ve killed many more since in my studies and in maintaining control for my Mistress.”

“How many?” I asked, cringing at the expected answer.

“Hundreds, I think,” Athena responded with a cock of her head. “I’m not really sure; I never bothered to keep track.”

I was speechless at this point. She was a murdering psychopath and she was my partner? Shaking my head, I questioned my sanity for thousandth time in the last 24 hours.

“Is that a problem?” she asked me flatly.

“It is what it is,” I told both her and myself, accepting my fate. As much of a monster as she was, I still needed her. “But I would prefer it if we avoided using magic as much as possible. While you might not care, I don’t want the blood of innocents on my hands if I can avoid it.”

“Whatever, flower,” she waved off dismissively. “I think we’ve given them enough time; let’s get going.”

I nodded, deciding not to concern myself too much about Athena’s past crimes. But, I resolved picking up my pack I would not let her drag me down the same path. I would not become her or the Sorceress; I would keep my honor intact.

Athena was already several steps away and I had to hurry to catch up to her. As loathe as I was to admit it, I was glad that Athena had made me change my wardrobe. Cold air bit at my lungs, despite the painfully bright sun cresting over the mountains to the east, which did little to warm me. A sharp wind whistled across the open tundra broken up by the occasional hill. Had I been wearing my Alkite garb, I would’ve been frozen solid; as it was, my face felt like it was going to fall off. The skin-tight undergarments seemed to effectively block the wind, keeping the rest of me if not warm, at least tolerably cool.

The sorceress kept a brisk pace, forcing Molly and I to hurry to keep pace with her as she hiked north and a little west. In terms of geography, I was way out of my depth and was thus completely dependent on Athena to guide us. I vaguely remembered in our flight the previous night of running up a hill as we went away from the river and now saw that we were on the far side of a ridge we must’ve crossed in the night. To the west was the hill and four or five miles to the east was the beginning of a wood that Athena seemed determined to avoid. North and south of us rose towering peaks that more often than not vanished into clouds hugging them like a halo. To someone used to the wide-open Alkite plains, this was a bit claustrophobic.

Underneath my soft boots, the turf felt squishy as I stepped quickly to keep pace with the determined sorceress. It was cold and damp, as opposed to the hard, dry Alkite fields. Clumps of tough, prickly grass made the ground perilously uneven. If we had to run again, turning an ankle was a serious concern. Sleeping on the cold, rough, and damp turf the previous night hadn’t ensured a restful sleep. It had left me cold and sore but thankfully the Eisenbergian undergarments seemed to wick moisture away, leaving me at least dry if not rested.

Other than the patchy grass that seemed to go on forever, there was little else in terms of life. A few purple flowers broke up the monotony; unlike the flower gardens of Castle Zahav, these flowers were tiny and hugged the ground as if trying to get out of the wind. Once I think I saw an eagle or hawk wheeling high overhead, but he disappeared before I could get a good look and I had to pay attention to where I was stepping.

The Eisenberge lived up to its reputation as a desolate wasteland. Although there was certainly life here, it felt far more lifeless than Alkilion. Perhaps it was unfair to compare the two but it was natural for me to do so. I recalled the warnings from the lords that gathered in King Sennacheriv’s throne room when he announced this challenge. A wasteland, they had said. There is little air to breathe and what there is bites your lungs.

That last part I certainly found to be true. Athena must’ve been in incredible shape to maintain her pace with such ease. Molly and I were gulping down air and each breath felt woefully inadequate. I wondered how long I could keep up this pace before I blacked out as the sorceress led us uphill towards the ridgeline.

After twenty minutes of hiking that felt like four hours, we reached the top of the ridge and what little breath I had was taken away.

“By the Trinity,” I exclaimed. “This is the Castle of the Gods.”

“The what?” Athena raised an eyebrow.

“An old Alkite legend,” I answered. “Long ago, they used to worship the goddess of the mountains, Harrah if I recall correctly. They regarded the mountains as the home of the gods, the Castle of the Gods they called it. Look at this,” I swept my hand expansively, “I can see why.”

The view I beheld was truly awe-inspiring. We were standing on the edge of a rise that gave way to a small, narrow valley where the river that we had crossed the previous night ran. North and west of us, a massive, broad valley was carved out of the heart of the mountains. On either side, rising like impenetrable walls stood the Eisenberge peaks, most hidden behind permanent clouds. Between them was a large alpine meadow that ran as far as my eyes could see like a great, green carpet. It was cut in the center by a large river that flowed into a lake about seven miles away.

The lake was large, about ten miles across if my eyes judged right, and round as if a giant hand had reached down and scooped it out. It was a deep, dark blue that looked bottomless. Out of its southern border flowed another river that ran past us to Black Falls Castle, over the Black Falls, and into Alkilion as the Shachor River. On the far side of the lake, where it met with the river running through the center of the valley, I could barely make out what looked like a city.

“Castle of the Gods, whatever,” Athena snorted after a moment, arms crossed and foot tapping. “We just call it the Hidden Valley. Are you done gawking or shall we stay here until we’re buried in snow?”

“What, oh, yes I suppose we should continue,” I acknowledge, secretly wishing for a few more moments to catch my breath. I simply could not get enough air here. “Is that where we’re headed?” I pointed to the city.

Athena squinted her eyes for a moment before nodding. “Yes, that’s Glacier,” she confirmed.

“Why is it called Glacier?” I inquired.

“That,” Athena gestured to the east as she began to deftly make her way down the steep slope.

Following her finger, I blinked again. Beyond the thick forest that covered the southern slopes and the valley east of the lake was a monstrous sheet of snow and ice. At least I guessed it was snow and ice, having only rarely seen the later and never seen the former. But it had been described to me that I could recognize it when I saw it.

“What is that?” I exclaimed in awe and terror.

“A glacier,” Athena answered with a shrug. “What’s the big deal? It won’t hurt you.”

“I’m glad you’re so confident,” I shuddered. That much snow and ice in one place and in summer no less could not possibly be a good thing. “That ought to be impossible.”

“Hardly,” Athena scoffed. “Above a certain elevation, the snow doesn’t melt. Over there, it’s built up over millennia and compressed into the mass you see and pushes its way down and west. There’s too much for it to melt, at least melt quickly. I suppose it’s slowly melting, feeding streams and rivers that in turn feed the lake. Once, this entire valley was a glacier like that but it eventually melted until that is all that is left.”

I shuddered at the thought of this whole area being buried under that much snow and ice. No wonder the lords were hesitant to come here. This place really was a death trap. “I guess I’ve never seen anything like it before,” I tried to wave off. “This is a strange place for me.”

“Yeah, well get over it dragon brain,” Athena snorted.

“I’ll work on that,” I grunted in reply as we continued on down the hill. “What can you tell me about Glacier?”

“It’s a city, the second largest in Eisenberge behind Masada,” Athena shrugged. “The population is roughly 60,000. It used to be the main hub connecting Eisenberge and Alkilion until the cold war. Recently, it was the main city under my jurisdiction, essentially serving as my personal capital, although I handled most of my business at Black Falls. I appointed a sort of mayor, Penrod to run the day-to-day business of the city itself. I wonder if he’s still in power or if he too has been deposed.”

“If he’s still in power, do you think he’ll help us?” I inquired. Another ally would certainly be a welcome thing.

“No chance,” Athena shook her head. “Penrod is like any other servant of ours; greedy and self-centered. When one has power, such men and women are easy to manipulate. Penrod gave me his allegiance because doing so served him. Now that I am anathema to the Mistress, he’ll kill me and send my head to the Mistress as a gift.”

“It seems your grip on power is tenuous at best,” I observed.

“In a sense, I suppose,” she agreed somewhat reluctantly. “But when you have the powers I do, rare is the situation when you don’t have the ability to bribe or bully people into doing what you wish.”

“So long as someone else doesn’t come by with a stronger offer,” I dryly commented.

“Think you have a better way, dragon brain?” Athena snapped.

“I wouldn’t want to force people to follow me if I could help it,” I fixed my eyes on the mountains ahead. “Loyalty out of fear is no loyalty at all. I would rather earn their loyalty by who I am and what I do; I want their loyalty because they believe in me, not fear me. I would want loyalty out of,” I paused, searching for the right word, “love, I guess. That kind of loyalty is the kind that lasts through good and bad.”

“Loyalty out of love?” Athena scoffed. “Those of us who live in the real world know that’s nothing more than a pipedream.”

“Why? Why can’t a leader gain his people’s loyalty through love and respect rather than browbeating? If you could, those people would follow you off the ends of the earth if you led them,” I protested.

“Because love is a myth, for one,” Athena rebutted. “No one really loves someone else. At best, people are nice to each other just long enough to manipulate them into giving them what they want. Everyone is out for themselves first and foremost. The idea of self-sacrificing love is a myth to keep fools like you in naïve impotence.”

“I’m living proof that love exists,” I countered. “I’m here, risking everything to rescue Ariadne.”

“Are you so deluded to think you’re doing this out of love?” Athena stared me down.

“Of course I am,” I confidently replied.

“You really are a dragon brain,” Athena derisively sniffed.

“If not out of love, why would I be here, risking my life to save her?” I demanded, feeling irritation build up inside of me.

“Oh, I’m certain for some reward or another,” Athena answered with a shrug. “King Sennacherib is a rich and powerful man and his daughter only slightly less so. I’m certain he promised some great reward to whoever returned his daughter safely to Alkilion. Perhaps even her hand and his crown, although I doubt that. At any rate, you are not doing this for free.”

“So?”

“So can you honestly tell me that you would be here, right now, facing near certain death if no reward of any kind waited for you?” Athena regarded me from behind her diamond-hard, crystal blue eyes. “Perhaps you fancy yourself truly in love with this woman. Would you still risk all to save her if you were to return her to another? Or to never see her again? Would you still be here?”

Briefly I wondered if Athena was using her power on me. Her perceptions were chillingly precise and disturbingly revealing, even to me. Her questions cut deep into my soul, forcing me to question why I really was here. Was I walking through this wasteland for Ariadne or myself? Would I be so eager to endanger myself if her hand was not waiting at the other end? Who was I really here for?

“I thought not,” Athena interpreted my internal confusion as proof of her point, which it very well may have been. “And even if you were, have you ever seen anyone inspire such loyalty? I certainly never have. At their core, people care only about themselves. The only way to successfully maintain power is through fear and greed.”

“Is that how you maintain power?” I questioned, another potential roadblock forming in my mind.

“Of course,” Athena indignantly replied.

“And would I be correct in assuming that you’ve killed more than a few people from Glacier?” I went on. “And that a good many of those people were your test subjects?”

“That would be correct. Is there a point somewhere in there?” Athena glowered at me.

“The point is that as their ruler, I’m guessing the majority of the people in Glacier will know what you look like,” I explained, “And now that you don’t have your authority, I’m guessing that they’re going to want to get some payback for all you’ve done to them.”

That caused Athena to falter a step. “This could be a complication,” she slowly admitted. “That’s probably why the soldiers didn’t bother trying to search for us after they found our camp. All they would have to do is go to Glacier and tell them that I’ve been deposed and simply let the mob do the rest.”

“Still think my way is inferior?” I challenged with a grin.

“This is not a laughing matter,” Athena snapped. “I guess it can’t be helped,” she added with a sigh. “I wasn’t planning on us staying long in Glacier anyway. Between your Alkite complexion and my familiarity, we won’t stay anonymous for long.”

“Do we need to go to Glacier?” I questioned.

“Unless you want to walk all the way to Masada, yes. Although,” she corrected herself, “I suppose we could just go to Wiese. Still, that is a long walk with few villages between here and there and not much in the way of roads.”

“If we could find some horses, that would help,” I offered although I myself wasn’t much of a rider.

“There are very few horses in the Eisenberge,” Athena snorted. “They don’t do well in our air and climate for the most part and we have little use for them anyway. We’re buried under snow for eight to nine months a year which makes traveling by horseback difficult. Of course it’s generally so cold that traveling at all is inadvisable.”

“If you don’t have horses and roads, how do people get around?” I wondered.

“When people travel, rare enough of itself, they use the Branden Fluss primarily,” she gestured towards the broad river running through the middle of the Hidden Valley. “Or they walk, if they must. But people don’t often travel far beyond their villages. Some of us have horses for summer travel and they can be used in the winter as well. But like I said, they are few and far between. The river is generally the best form of transport.”

“Is that what we’ll be using?” I guessed.

“That’s my plan,” Athena nodded. “Masada is four days by boat. If we were to walk, that would take us a couple of months, at least.”

I nodded, knowing we couldn’t wait that long. Ariadne certainly couldn’t, assuming she wasn’t dead already. Athena didn’t seem to think so, but I wasn’t willing to trust the mercy of the Sorceress.

“Besides, we need food,” Athena added. “We could try scavenging but there isn’t much aside from what we could hunt to eat. I, for one, would prefer a more balanced diet if at all possible.”

“I’d prefer not getting my head chopped off,” I rebutted.

“They wouldn’t behead us,” Athena assured. “They’re much more likely to burn us at the stake.”

“Infinitely better,” I rolled my eyes. “Look, if we must go to Glacier, is there any way we can reduce our visibility?”

Athena pursed her lips as she thought. “Glacier is a busy town,” she spoke her thoughts aloud. “The first thing we must do is avoid interacting with people who live there as much as possible.”

“How are we to do that?” I interrupted. “I doubt you know the face of every person in Glacier and I certainly don’t.”

“I do know all the ships and captains,” Athena returned. “Out of town crews might know me as well, of course, but I can find one that won’t recognize me on sight. As for buying food and supplies…” she trailed off. “I guess that’s why we have hoods.”

“Encouraging,” I groused.

“Something else that will help is getting out of Glacier as soon as possible,” Athena ignored me. “We won’t be able to spend the night, so the first ship that won’t burn us alive going we take.”

“And if it doesn’t leave until tomorrow, we probably should avoid inns,” I offered.

Athena grimaced but nodded agreement. “I don’t intend to let it come to that,” she declared.

“No magic,” I sternly admonished her.

“It won’t kill them,” she rolled her eyes, “Or maim,” she cut off the expected protest. “I’ll just ‘influence’ them to do as we bid.”

“Don’t break their minds either,” I warned.

“I’m not going to break their minds, although that would make things significantly easier now that you mention it,” Athena eyes flashed with a mischievous light. “I was merely planning on, ‘influencing’ their minds to do as I ask. Don’t worry,” she held up a hand, “that won’t do any permanent damage, I swear.”

“Yeah, because the word of sorceress is trustworthy,” I groused.

“Take it or leave it, I don’t care,” Athena shrugged indifferently. “The reality is that if we are going to rescue your precious princess and kill the Mistress, you’re going to have trust me a little bit. Besides, it isn’t like there is much you can do to stop me.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t try,” I muttered. Squinting my eyes, I focused in on the city still several miles distant. It was going to be a longer walk even than that as we would have to circumvent the lake, which seemed no small distance. “How long until we get there?” I inquired.

“Another five or six hours, if we hurry and have no complications,” Athena answered.

Glancing up at the sun, I winced. That would take us to late afternoon and finding a ship to sail then would be problematic, even with Athena’s “influence.” Unfortunately stopping for the night wasn’t an option either as we both needed food.

“I don’t suppose you ate anything before we left, did you?” I asked Athena.

“No, there wasn’t much in the way of time,” she answered, involuntarily rubbing her belly.

“How long has it been since you last ate?” I questioned.

“Awhile,” she replied. “Three days, I think. Why?”

“I was thinking how much time we have,” I glanced back up the sun. “If we aren’t going to get into Glacier until late afternoon, I don’t see how we are going to have time to eat, get supplies, and find a ship before dark. And since neither of us has eaten in at least a day, spending the night out here isn’t an option either. We need food.”

Athena chewed her bottom lip as she thought. “It is a problem,” she admitted. “If we stop for a quick bite beforehand, we should be okay on time if we split up. I’ll secure us the ship and you get the groceries.”

“Hold on,” I challenged. “If you think I’m going to leave you alone to do your voodoo on those poor sailors, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“I promised I wouldn’t harm them permanently,” Athena replied evenly. “If that isn’t enough for you, that’s your problem. Our problem is that we have a very limited amount of time to do a tremendous amount of errands. Or would you rather stay overnight and run the colossal risk of facing an Eisenberge mob?”

“How about I arrange passage for us and you get the groceries?” I offered.

“Because I can pick out captains that won’t recognize me on sight whereas everyone in the markets will know who I am,” Athena pointed out.

“And I won’t?” I rebutted.

“You’ll stand out no matter where you are,” Athena countered, a touch of annoyance creeping into her voice. “If you’re alone in the markets, maybe they’ll ignore you.”

“And if they don’t? If they start asking questions?” I prodded, irritation growing in myself as well.

“Then bluff your way out,” Athena shrugged. “I have to trust you to not be a complete dragon brain.”

“That’s not exactly how trust works but I’ll take it as progress,” I shook my head. Unfortunately Athena’s plan made sense. But letting her out of my sight to do the Trinity knows what made me uncomfortable. I thought of the cuffs stuffed at the bottom of my pack and considered using them. There was no way for me to slip them on the sorceress without her knowing and they were broken besides. She was right: if we had any hope of success, we had to trust each other. This was as good a place as any to start.

“Very well,” I sighed after a minute’s contemplation. “I’ll trust you, for now.”

“Thank you, my lord,” she gave a mock bow with an annoyed sneer. “Now if my lord is willing to listen to his humble servant’s wisdom, we ought to pick up the pace a little.”

“Perhaps you do have a sense of humor,” I gave a resigned sigh and began walking faster.

12: Chapter 11

“That’s 13 carnies,” the young woman informed me, handing me the strange packet. She was in her early twenties, I would guess, with golden hair, pale skin, and the Eisenbergian sky blue eyes. Like most everyone I saw in the city, the young woman struck me as unhealthily thin, almost gaunt.

Reaching into my money pouch, I fished out the correct coins, handing them over to the vendor. She took them and gasped when she saw my dark fingers, looking up into my face which was obscured but not hidden under the hood I had up.

“An Alkite? Here? Are you the Alkite the soldiers were telling us about earlier?” she asked rapidly, the hard Eisenbergian accent thick.

I opened my mouth to speak, trying desperately to come up with an answer that would get us killed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” barked an old woman from behind the vendor. “Alkites are hairy beasts and this one is as smooth as an apple. He’s probably just spent too much time in the Flussen Reich.”

“Exactly,” I nodded, frowning under my hood. Hairy beasts? There were maybe three or four Alkites I knew that wore beards, King Sennacheriv being one. Generally speaking it was just too hot.

Shaking my head, I took the two packets wrapped in wax paper over to where Athena was standing underneath a wooden archway connecting two buildings. Handing of them to her, I commented on the strange stereotype.

“Hairy beasts?” I asked her as Athena began unwrapping the paper.

“Huh?” Athena cocked her head as she held up the odd food, black bread with meat, a pale lettuce, and some sauces.

“The woman who sold me these said that I couldn’t be an Alkite because I wasn’t a ‘hairy beast’,” I explained. “Is that what people think? That Alkites are hairy people?”

Athena paused briefly before biting down; I could feel her crystal blue eyes firing daggers at me. “You didn’t correct her, did you?”

“Of course not,” I snorted, not wanting to admit that I was tempted. “I’m not a complete fool.”

“That has yet to be determined,” she dryly remarked around a mouthful. “Yes, it is a bit of a stereotype here, albeit unfairly. Remember that 17 years ago was the last time anyone saw Alkites and that was an expedition force after the Mistress’s defeat in the Finsternis Tal. It was a disaster as the Mistress tells it. They made it as far as Wiese before getting driven back. They managed to get themselves completely lost and forced to make a pell-mell retreat. Apparently they didn’t have much time to shave and hence the stereotype was born.”

“Someone should fix that,” I muttered, staring at my lunch. “What is this?”

“We call it a sandwich,” Athena answered, taking another massive bite. “You don’t have these in Alkilion?”

“No,” I shook my head. It seemed so…so common. I couldn’t imagine King Sennacheriv or Ariadne eating something like this if it was the last thing on earth. Even the peasants of Yir Eliav wouldn’t have eaten this. Taking a deep breath, I took out a giant bite.

And immediately started coughing, trying not to choke. The dark bread was night and day different than the light and sweet Alkite bread I was used to. This was heavy and sort of bitter, as well as being a touch dry. The “lettuce” was had a leathery texture as it crunched in my mouth and no taste. There were no tomatoes or cucumbers to add flavor; in fact there was really no flavorings of any kind. Even the white sauce had little taste, seeming to just be there make the bread moister.

Fighting the coughing, I forced myself to swallow hard, quickly chasing it down with a long draught of water from my canvass. I looked up at Athena, expecting her to at the very least be smirking, if not laughing outright. But instead she mere stood there impassively staring at me.

“Stop spluttering,” she remarked flatly after a moment. “You’re making a scene and we can ill-afford the attention. It isn’t that bad.”

“Speak for yourself,” I retorted sharply, taking a significantly more circumspect bite. If I weren’t so hungry, I doubt I would’ve been able to finish it. “It needs a lot of spice. Some oregano or basil would go nicely with the meat.” I had to admit, the meat wasn’t terrible. A bit chewy perhaps and a taste I wasn’t entirely familiar with, but not bad none the less.

“Now he’s a food critic,” I could hear Athena rolling her eyes. “I had no idea you were such a fancy chef.”

“I’m not,” I scrunched my face sourly at the…sandwich did she call it? “Not even peasants would eat this.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Athena snorted. “Not even Alkilion is that rich.”

“I never thought of it as being rich,” I frowned, taking another reluctant bite. “Spices are everywhere, as are fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. It’s just normal life.”

Cold as it was, I swear the temperature dropped a few more degrees. “And you wonder why we don’t like you guys,” she coldly snarled. “Well, my apologies, my lord that we can’t live up to your lofty standards.”

Still frowning, I continued to work my way through the strange food. It wasn’t bad, I reluctantly admitted as I finished it off. The heavy bread would certainly keep me full for a while yet. But it just didn’t measure up to the rich Alkite dishes I was used to.

Athena remained silent as she chewed on her sandwich, regarding me icily. I got the sense that I had somehow offended. I didn’t mean to; I was just giving my honest opinion. Perhaps I shouldn’t have.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to offend,” I told her as she finished.

“Whatever,” she brushed off coldly. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to bicker over your people’s obscene opulence. A word of caution as you go through the markets: we are not blessed with the same resources as you. Do not expect much and do not complain. The last thing we need is you getting us both killed.”

Gritting my teeth I nodded. Offended or not, I do not appreciate her condescension. “As my lady commands,” I grated back with a full Alkite bow, left palm upraised over my right fist. She merely crossed her arms and began tapping her right foot.

“Whatever,” she sniffed. “Meet me at the docks as soon as you’re done, preferably within the hour. Remember, you’re only getting food for a couple of days; we can restock in Wiese.”

“Does my lady require anything else?” I sarcastically shot back.

“No, that should be all,” she gave a casual, dismissing flick of the wrist. “Don’t take more than one hour.”

“As my lady wishes,” I growled, turning to find the markets. “Come on Molly.”

It struck me after four steps that I had no idea where the markets actually were but I’d be a lion’s jaw if I was going to ask her now, that pretentious brat. I suppose her attitude, complete with that aristocratic wave, could’ve been Athena just goading me but I didn’t think so. She had been a ruler, a lady and her demeanor was just too natural to have been a joke. Well, if she thought I was her servant to boss around at will, she had another thing coming.

Meandering through the haphazard streets, I began looking for some kind of market place. I considered asking someone, but decided that the less I interacted with people, the better. The city confused me as I walked through it. It was much smaller than Forks or Confluence; Yir-Eliav dwarfed it in terms of area and population. Yet it felt more cramped and crowded than any of those. Maybe it was the narrow, randomly laid out streets; maybe it was all the people crammed into such a small space, but this city made me feel claustrophobic.

The people I saw didn’t help the feel of the town either. Their cloth was poor, even compared to what I was wearing, which I assumed to be cheap. Apparently that was incorrect. What I was wearing, which except for the stretchy undergarments would’ve been peasant clothes, was high quality cloth in this world.

Additionally, they struck me as much too thin. I wondered how much Athena had to do with that. My mind flicked to the money in pack and pouch, remembering how the sorceress had mentioned this was her emergency stash. It was a fortune, especially when compared to what these people had.

Shaking my head absently, I continued to wind my way through the streets, Molly trotting at my heels. After twenty minutes of being essentially lost, I suddenly found myself in a large, open square with wooden and canvas booths set up around it. There seemed to be no reason for the market to be there: it wasn’t particularly close to the gate or the port and had no main roads leading up to it. Of course, there didn’t seem to be anything resembling a main road; even the road that we entered the city on split a half dozen different ways immediately beyond the gate. While the layout made sense to the residents, I was totally confused.

Looking around, I examined the marketplace, trying to find the best quality food I could. It wasn’t easy; most of what I saw reflected the people: pale, scrawny, and tasteless. I doubted the nutritional value of it. Sighing, I went up to the most promising booth and began poking around.

“Can I help you find something?” a middle-aged woman, forties I would guess, inquired.

“I and a companion are going on a journey that’ll take a couple of days,” I replied in as even a voice as I could. I couldn’t mimic the Eisenbergian accent but I hoped that I could at least cover up my own. “Do you have any suggestions?”

“It depends: are you traveling by boat or foot?” she requested.

“Boat, at least that’s the plan,” I told her.

“I figured,” she nodded, scanning her produce. “Well, if you’re going by boat up the Branden Fluss, you can at least take a wider variety. Here,” she grabbed a handful of the tiniest, hardest looking apples I had ever seen and dropped them into a bag. “Fruit is always good. And take this cabbage,” she plopped in a leathery-looking head of lettuce into the bag. “Besides that, there are always the staples: bread, cheese, and meat.” She tossed in a loaf of the bitter black bread, a wheel of cheese that was only slightly moldy, and several stripes of raw fish.

“This is good enough for two people for two days?” I questioned. It didn’t seem like much to me and that was assuming that everything was edible, something I was not entirely convinced of.

“Up here it is, Alkite,” she answered, her lips forming a slight smile when my head involuntarily jerked up. “Your hood does a good job hiding your complexion from afar, but up close is another matter,” she answered wryly. “Besides, your accent gives you away. It has been a long time since Alkites traded with us in Glacier, not since I was a girl, but I still remember the sound.

“Don’t worry,” she gave out a short laugh, apparently reading the concern on my face from underneath the hood. “I won’t report you or anything. Whatever your reasons for breaking the 17-year silence, I can’t imagine to help the Mistress of the Mountains. Anything that harms her I’m okay with.”

“I appreciate that,” I returned as evenly as I could. I didn’t know whether or not I actually could trust her. I had no doubt that the Sorceress was as popular as wolf in a sheep pen, but she was also a wolf in a sheep pen. The sheep tend to cower. As Athena had pointed out, dawdling was not a good idea. “I’d best be going,” I told her as politely as I could. “I don’t want to keep my companion waiting.”

“May you find warm hearths, Alkite,” she gave me a subtle smile. “And this is for your friend,” she added, tossing two strips of jerky to Molly who promptly devoured them.

Giving the woman a short nod, I turned to exit the market, having only a vague idea where the docks were. I had what I needed and the market place was making me nervous. While this vendor had been kind, I wasn’t will to bet on the others. Since everyone I saw was armed with at least a wicked-looking belt knife, I wasn’t a fan of my odds. Besides, I didn’t want to keep the temperamental Athena waiting any longer than was absolutely necessary.

“Come on, Molly,” I clicked to the dog who started lagging behind as I rounded the corner to the closest thing to a main thoroughfare I’d seen. Instead she started hanging back, tail tucking underneath her legs. That made me nervous.

Suddenly I heard a dull roar coming from down the street. Moments later, the roar resolved itself into a shouting, angry mob racing towards me. Reflexively my hand went to the hilt of my sword before reason prevailed and I stepped back into the side street as the riot roared past.

“Make her suffer!” I heard one voice ring out.

“Burn her like she’s burned our children!” another voice shouted above the din.

A pit formed in my stomach as I heard the shouts. There was only one “she” that would cause this explosion. Somehow Athena had been discovered and now the mob was understandably out for blood. And she’d been worried about me giving us up!

I hesitated for a long minute after the mob swept past, debating whether or not to go after her. There was no doubt that Athena richly deserved whatever gruesome fate the mob had in store for her. The atrocities she had so glibly mentioned to me were only the tip of the spear I was sure. Besides, how much did I really need her? I could get a ship to Masada and from there take on the Eisen Palast and Sorceress myself. Granted, my odds were astronomically long but did Athena with all her knowledge of the Sorceress and sorcery significantly help? Probably not.

On the other hand, we had made a pact, an alliance. I had given her my word that I would do whatever I could to help her escape this hell so she could start her life over. Despite how rational it seemed, I just could not walk away. I had to go rescue her. I had given my word and that was that.

“Come on, Molly,” I called to the dog. “Time to do something really stupid.”

xxxxxxxxxxxx

 It didn’t take us long to find the mob back in the market square. To me it seemed the only logical place for a crowd of this size to gather. Of course, thousands of screaming people made them easy to find too.

The mob had grown in size since they had swept past us just a few minutes prior, picking up more furious people as they rushed along the streets. It was hard for me to believe than any one person could make this many people so angry at her that they wanted her to die in as painful a way as possible. Yet from what Athena had so casually mentioned to me, I couldn’t say I was surprised. Neither did I doubt that every last person here had been horribly wronged by her, myself included.

Getting to her was not going to be easy, I realized as I came up against an impenetrable wall of human flesh. It was as if the entire city had come out, packing the square as tightly as possible, all wanting to see their tormentor meet her end.

Deciding that politeness wasn’t going to get me very far, I reared back my shoulder and slammed it between two individuals, rather burly looking men. Unconsciously they parted just enough for me to squeeze through, continuing to scream their obscenities at Athena. Repeating the violent process, I continued pressing my way forward. Idly I wondered how on earth I was going to get us out of this once I got to her. One problem at a time, I remonstrated as pushed through another couple of people.

Finally I managed to shove my way past the last couple of people, finding myself on the front row. The mob had moved fast, already having Athena, unconscious, tied to a wooden pole set against the back stone wall of the market with kindling gathered at her feet. Someone was pouring oil on the firewood while another held a lit torch, ready to ignite an inferno. I was out of time.

The crowd ignored me for a moment as I dashed for the torch-bearer, screaming out their rage at the vile sorceress. They ceased to ignore me as I tackled the man, driving both of us away from the flammable stack.

“STOP!” I cried to the crowd, rolling to my feet holding up the torch.

Suddenly it was the mob was silent as a graveyard.

“What are you people doing?” I asked the crowd, capitalizing on having their undivided attention. “Why are you men acting like animals?”

“She deserves this!” someone in the crowd shouted.

“She took my farm!” someone else accused.

“She murdered my children!” another chimed in.

“And butchered my husband like an animal!” yet one more yelled.

“What would you know about her, Alkite?” demanded another person in the crowd.

“What would I know about her?” I glared at the crowd. “I know that she came into the heart of my home, burned to ash a comrade, and stole the love of life from under me. I’ve come here to get her back and take revenge.”

“Then take it! Burn her!” the mob answered. “Like she burned your friend!”

“Burn her?” I glanced back at Athena, desperately stalling for time and praying that she’d wake up soon. Maybe if Athena were awake, she could do some kind of magic and get us out of there. I didn’t want her to kill anyone but I wasn’t too keen on dying myself.

“Who is she to me?” I went on with my sudden speech. “She is just the apprentice. Kill her and the Sorceress will just send another. You money will be stolen, your loved ones will still be murdered, and yourselves will still be slaves. Nothing will change.

“But she is not that different than you,” I went on, trying to mimic the grand tone I’d heard King Sennacheriv use. “Her enemy is our enemy. Don’t waste your time on her; she is nothing. Help us take down you real enemy: the Sorceress. Give her a chance; give yourselves a chance to take back your country for yourselves. Don’t you want to be free again? Free from fear and oppression? Free to make your own fate and not leave it in the hands of a power-hungry madwoman?”

I have to admit, I felt pretty good about that speech; I almost half-believed it. And for a sweet, relieving moment, the crowd seemed to buy it too.

And then they didn’t.

“Burn her! Burn her like she burned our children!” The mob shrieked and surged forward.

Fear leapt into my throat as I saw the mob bearing down on me. I had fought the Sorceress’s soldiers, but those were essentially emotionless automatons and no more than a few of them at a time. Not thousands of screaming, angry rioters, which were now rushing me and the still-unconscious Athena.

With a sharp shrug, I brought the shield around to bear on my attackers. For a brief moment I contemplated tossing the torch but decided against it; someone might have the wherewithal to pick it up and hurl it at the oil-drenched wood pile I was standing on. So instead I brandished it as a weapon, leaving my lethal sword sheathed. I wasn’t interested in hurting people who had legitimate reasons to incinerate Athena.

“Now would be a really good time for you to wake up,” I growled to Athena. I couldn’t see her, but my guess from the lack of noise, she was still out cold. Thankfully Molly came to my rescue. The black and white dog shot from the crowd, darting up the woodpile and apparently sank her teeth into the sorceress’s calf.

“Son of a witch’s brew!” Athena shrieked, coming alive.

That shriek had a stunningly quick effect. The front line of the mob stopped cold, visages changing instantly from rage and hatred to terror. At the rear of the crowd, people already began backing away.

“What in the Towers is going on?” she demanded coldly coming up beside me, glaring down at the crowd, forcing the mob back a few more paces.

“Short story,” I supplied quickly, “They want to burn you alive.”

“I’d like to see them try,” she snorted. “Bricht Tau ab!”

 “I’ll take care of this,” she snarled raising her hands and her irises turning blood red.

Those at the rear didn’t bother backing away now; instead they just turned and ran. Those at the front began pushing each other out of the way in their efforts to escape the sorceress’s vicious wrath. They knew what that look meant; fortunately for them, so did I.

“No!” I intervened, grabbing her arm. “We are not killing them.”

“Then they kill us,” she retorted fiercely.

“Think of something else,” I returned.

“I already thought of something,” she barked at me. “Why don’t you think of something?”

“Because I’m just a soldier,” I answered. “You’re supposed to be smart.”

By now, the mob that was left was beginning to realize two things: they couldn’t get out fast enough to survive an attack from Athena and she wasn’t going light them up just yet. They were beginning to realize that their one chance for survival was to strike us before we changed our minds. They began moving towards us.

“I am smart,” she growled. “And the smart thing is to kill them.”

“Think of something else,” I fired back. “And you’d better hurry.”

“Fine,” she went silent for a moment. “Give me the torch. NOW!”

Gritting my teeth, I handed the brand off to her, drawing my sword which for the moment halted the first few reluctant souls moving cautiously towards us. But the moment Athena turned her back to do whatever it was she was going to do, the mob was emboldened and rushed me. Apparently they considered a fire-wielding sorceress a significantly greater threat than a kid with a sword. In retrospect, they might have had a point.

It took them roughly three seconds to close the distance between us. Lucky for me, they were still fundamentally an unorganized mob which gave me the momentary advantage of only taking on two or three at a time. That wasn’t going to last long.

A man lunged at me first but I batted him away with my shield, wincing inwardly as he hit the stone pavement head first. I was not going to kill innocent people, at least not intentionally.

A hand grabbed my sword arm. Instinctively I raised my shield to drive the rim down hard on whoever my assailant was. I froze when I saw an exceedingly upset woman trying to wrench the weapon out of my hand. For a brief moment I wrestled with my conscience about striking a woman. Meanwhile, a man grabbed my shield and began wrenching that away.

Molly came to the rescue of my moral dilemma, launching herself at the woman and sinking her teeth into her arm. She howled in pain but relinquished her grip on my arm.

Reflexively I swung my scimitar around, driving the dull edge across my second assailant’s wrists. Satisfactorily, they snapped and he dropped the shield.

By now the mob was getting the idea that I was very reluctant to kill any of them which only served to embolden them further. Two men rushed me. I tucked myself behind my shield and bashed them with a full-body thrust. They staggered back a couple of steps before I cold-cocked them with the flat of my blade.

“Any time now!” I called back anxiously as Molly and I fended off another rush.

“Patience is a virtue,” she retorted.

“Virtue is not your forte,” I shot back, encouraging a very determined woman to stay away with the deadly point of my sword. I found that if I kept sweeping that back and forth, people found rushing me a rather discouraging proposition.

Well, mostly.

I still had to shield-bash another brave soul and broke the arm of another. Painful as what I was doing was, I was pretty sure they’d make a full recovery. Plus I hadn’t killed anyone, to my knowledge that is, yet. But I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out without killing and that was something I would not, could not do. These people were innocent. The only truly guilty person here was the same person I was trying to save. The moral contradictions of this whole mess were making my stomach turn.

I accidentally grazed a woman’s neck with the tip as I swung the scimitar around to crack the back of another’s neck. My heart jumped into my throat until I realized that it was nothing more than a scratch. Still, it was too close.

That momentary pause was nearly fatal as three large men pounced on me, driving back into the woodpile, hands gripping my shield. For a moment, my sword was knocked out of my hand and I realized I was done for. Reaching wildly, my hand miraculously closed around the hilt. I brought it whistling up only to pause for a whisper of a moment, realizing that I was executing a kill strike and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Once again, Molly came to my aid, latching on to the back of one of the gentlemen’s neck. He turned to toss the dog off, which unbalanced them on the shield enough for me to roll one of them off. With the weight slanted to one side, I was able to tilt the shield that way and scramble out from underneath and get to my feet, facing the woodpile and Athena.

Only to have a dozen hands latching on me like cuffs of iron. I was done.

“Close your eyes and plug your ears!” She called to me, hopping off the pile, flicking the torch towards it in the same smooth motion. Her fingers were already in her ears.

I got my eyes closed barely in time but as my hands were occupied with my shield and sword, my ears were left unprotected for the boom that followed.

Even with my eyes screwed as tightly shut as they could be, I was still nearly blinded by the sudden flash of light. It was as if I was staring directly into the sun and this was with my eyes closed. I cringed to think of the flash did to the mob around us.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Accompanying the flash was a deafening boom, literally. My ears felt like knives had been driven into them, leaving my head ringing and any sense of balance gone. I’m certain there was blood trickling from them. My head felt like an anvil had bashed into.

As the stars dissipated, I blinked my eyes open to see utter pandemonium breaking loose around us. The people who’d been grabbing at me were now writhing on the ground, holding their ears or eyes. More than one had blood trickling out of their eyes and their eyes were blank as a corpse. Those who hadn’t been in the immediate blast area were panicking, trampling over each other on their way out of the market square, which was in complete disarray now. Yet what struck me the most about the scene before me wasn’t what I saw, but what I heard.

Nothing.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion and in silence. At first I wondered how no one could be screaming or shouting before I realized that I was the one who couldn’t hear. I prayed to the gods that it wasn’t permanent.

A sharp grab at my cloak brought me back to the present. I turned to see Athena shouting something at me but I couldn’t hear a word she said. Instead I tried to read her lips but her accent made it hard to follow.

“I can’t hear!” I shouted, shuddering at the feeling of speaking without being able to hear the words. “I can’t hear!” I repeated with a gesture to my aching ears.

Giving me an exasperated look, I could tell she was resisting the overpowering urge to unleash the lecture of my life. Instead she just rolled her eyes and mouthed for me to follow her and grabbing my wrist for good measure as we started to blend into the chaos.

We had gone maybe five steps when I realized that Molly was missing. Unlike me, she had no warning about whatever it was that Athena did. And with her sensitive dog-ears…I shuddered to think of what might have become of my friend.

Digging my heels in, I jerked us to a stop. Athena whipped around and gave me an icy glare.

“Molly!” I told her and began scanning the mess for her. Panic began to rise in me as I couldn’t find her after a full minute of searching before I spied a black and white furry bundle twitching at the base of the pile.

I pointed her to Athena, who just shook her head and mouthed something like, “leave her.” That I knew I could never do. Wrenching free of Athena’s surprisingly strong grasp, I raced over to the pile as quickly as I could in my still-dazed condition.

I assume she was whimpering as she writhed on the ground, pawing desperately at her ears. I was glad I couldn’t hear her as I might have broken down. Gently I scooped her up into my arms, holding her tight and dashed after Athena who was already moving on.

As we exited the market, it became readily apparent that Athena’s little show had affect more than just the market. Panic was spreading throughout all of Glacier. In desperate efforts to find safety, people were breaking into homes, smashing windows, and crashing doors. Others willfully trampled over each other in an effort to get away.

Athena’s presence didn’t help. I don’t know if it was a power of hers, but the crowds parted before us once they saw striding through the streets. Most ran in fear, willing to assault each other to get out of her reach. Other simply fainted.

Raising her hands, Athena added to the insanity, unleashing gouts of flame from her fingertips. For a terrified moment, I thought she finally had decided to go rouge and massacre the city anyway. But instead I realized that she’d instead targeted the old wood of the upper stories of some houses. The fire was enough to fuel the panic to new heights. By now we were completely invisible.

We made it to the gates almost unopposed by people who were more than happy to get out of our way. By now my hearing was coming back a little bit. It sound like I was listening to a terrible concert underwater; noises were there but nothing distinct.

Barring our way out were four black cloaked soldiers, swords already drawn. I reached for my scimitar but Athena was already ahead of me. Reaching out her hands, she called forth some command and all four dropped the ground. For a moment Athena paused, eyes closed and inhaling deeply as if she were breathing in a fresh rose. What that meant, I didn’t want to know.

With freedom this close, both of us bolted for the open gates, racing down the rampart and out of the city. Turning back, I saw the fire spreading throughout and imagined the sounds of chaos and panic coursing through Glacier like a poison.

A jerk at my sleeve forced me to turn to Athena who mouthed one clear word to me.

“Run!”