A Hollow Mountain (The Brightest Shadow Book 2) Page 2

  "Then wake him up!"

  Laeri flinched and shook her head. "He, ah, he's taken a great deal of the substance. It could be dangerous to do too much to him, and you don't want him to die, right? It might take me a long time..."

  Since Melal folded his arms to wait, Laeri nodded several times to no one in particular and then set about her work. Tani was about to ask whether that was a wise decision, given the risk of their presence, but at that moment Veron turned toward them.

  "If we're going to be stuck here, I suggest the two of you go and buy supplies. I have a feeling we're going off on another journey."

  "Are you sure?" Tani asked. She looked past Veron to Melal, but the Hero only continued to stare down at the unconscious man. Eventually she nodded and turned away, patting the pouch at her belt as she considered what they would need.

  Like every other aspect of their journey, money came and went sporadically. Melal tended to waste what they had, but every time the situation had become desperate, he'd come through with more. Sometimes villagers feted him as the Hero, sometimes they raided mansthein patrols, and once he literally tripped over a bag of money. She'd tried to hold back funds for emergencies, yet somehow they always ended up used. They were fortunate that they had enough to prepare for a mountain expedition.

  Though some parts of their journey went smoothly, and Laeri believed they were blessed by the Legend, Tani continued her mental arts and tried to maintain focus. The remaining veterans from the battle had been killed or simply slipped away, one by one. Now it was only the five of them again.

  Tani glanced over at Slaten as he kept pace beside her, his eyes sweeping the small town for threats. With Veron drinking more often and Laeri swept up in Melal's heroic purpose, he was the only confidant she had. Though that was hardly a complaint, as Slaten had been a good friend and a reliable ally, increasingly so now that he'd learned Jaer's mental arts as well.

  "Is something wrong?" He caught her gaze and returned it, so Tani merely shook her head.

  "Do you think that man is really the sage?"

  "Given that only Melal seems to know what that means, it's hard to say." Slaten continued walking for a time before he spoke up again. "But according to the rumors, he declared himself a sage in the same way Melal declared himself the Hero. Maybe there's something to it."

  "This would be easier if Melal knew what he was actually looking for. Hopefully this will be a start."

  "Hopefully." His lips twisted ironically at the word.

  Tani inclined her head for them to take a side street, moving toward the markets they had passed earlier. "I doubt that this will answer all our questions, though, so I have a bad feeling that Melal will want to keep going north. And if this isn't far enough north..."

  "Then we'll have to cross the Sotunn Mountains."

  Though he was only saying what she already knew, Tani still shivered. Not in apprehension, but anticipating the temperatures to come. The air had already become much cooler as they traveled into the hills and Laeri said that this was nothing compared to truly colder regions. Laeri often exaggerated such things, but in this case Tani was afraid that she might be right.

  On their way north, Tani had spoken with Nelee warriors from her tribe who had journeyed outside the Chorhan Expanse. They emphasized how cold it could be, apparently so cold that rain fell as snow. Tani tried to prepare herself for such a climate, but suspected that she was just imagining a slightly cooler version of the long rainy season instead of true cold.

  When they reached the pit between hills that served as a market, Tani set about buying clothes first. Her master had given her new pants and a jacket with beautiful designs on the armored plates, but those might not be enough. She found a dark blue cloak that struck her as much too warm and hoped that would be sufficient.

  Once she'd finished haggling, she looked over to where Slaten was buying food. It seemed he was simply buying large amounts of aurochs jerky and dried fruit again, but they needed food that would last a trip through the mountains. With his layered Oken robes he was surely warm enough. Since he was still making purchases, Tani returned to the shop owner and purchased the other two cloaks the woman had available, just in case Veron and Laeri became cold.

  They met at the side of the street, in the shade of one of the awnings. Slaten hefted his pack and frowned. "I still have money, but I don't know how much food we can realistically carry."

  "We'll need more than food," Tani said. She started to say more, but at that moment her eyes wandered over Slaten's shoulder and she froze.

  The figures wore hooded robes, but she caught a glimpse of red eyes and mottled skin. It looked like they were heavily armed, too. In an instant she was certain that they were no mansthein travelers, but Deathspawn warriors. No matter what they were doing in Kanalgan, their presence meant nothing good.

  Tani hissed a wordless warning and jerked her head toward the gap between two slanting buildings. Slaten followed automatically until the shadows shrouded them, then peered out cautiously. The moment had passed, but when he saw the cloaked group he understood.

  "Mansthein?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  "Hunting us?"

  "I'm not sure, but why else would they hide themselves like that?"

  Slaten frowned thoughtfully. "They don't control the forests north of the Expanse. It could be that they want to avoid a show of force."

  "That could be true, but is it worth the risk?" She asked the question, but there was no need for an answer. Every time Melal encountered mansthein forces, it ended in blood. "Do you think we should tell the others immediately?"

  "I don't think they're going to the sage's house." They watched in silence for a while longer, but the group of mansthein soldiers stepped into a tavern. When they didn't emerge for some time, Slaten nodded to himself. "Telling Melal will only bring trouble sooner. Let's finish buying supplies in case we need to run again."

  "In case? When do we do otherwise?" Tani cast him a wry smile. "That actually relates to something I was going to say earlier: we're not going to have many chances to buy equipment in the mountains. If we have excess money..."

  He nodded in agreement and they emerged from the gap between houses. The market pit didn't include any metalworking shops, as these towns were ordered according to a strange pattern Tani wasn't entirely sure she understood. It seemed familiar to Slaten, however, and so she followed his lead to another street.

  There she discovered a number of shops. The majority were dedicated to practical tools, not weapons, which was actually what she needed. She had cared well for her knives, but a broken ring was cutting through one of the straps holding her knives in place and she needed a proper whetstone for them. Fortunately, one of the shop owners said he could supply both.

  As she waited, her hand rested on the sickle knife at her belt. Though she associated it with her master, the steel and forging technique had hailed from the far north. She didn't know if their path would take them all the way across the Sotunn mountains, yet part of her hoped that it would. Difficult as the journey might be, she would like to see such distant lands and better understand the arts that made her new sickle knife so sharp and durable.

  Yet to travel north would be to leave lands the Rhen wandered, likely for a long time. Thousands of steps in foreign nations without any kin or even familiar enemies. Though she tried to tell herself it was another Farwalk, gathering wisdom she could carry back to the Chorhan Expanse, she needed time to swallow the realization that she would be stepping away from what she knew.

  Once she felt prepared, she followed Slaten and found him in a small smithy, staring at the three swords that had been placed on the table before him. None were as well-crafted as his Oken blade... except when she looked to find the strangely curved blade, she discovered that he only had a single straight Coran sword at his side.

  "Didn't you carry an Oken blade?"

  He looked up at her and nodded, something like guilt in his eyes. "It was lost in one of our escapes. I... struggle to remember exactly when."

  "You don't need to act like that was your fault, Slaten." Tani paused, examining him more carefully. He was always somber, but this was something else. After glancing toward the man running the shop, she stepped closer and spoke in a low voice. "Are you alright?"

  "I'm only apprehensive about what this sage will mean for us."

  "I... don't think that's true. If you ever want to talk, Slaten, I hope you know that you can talk to me."

  For several moments Slaten examined the swords in front of him, then he answered quietly. "Returning Teren to our home was more difficult for me than I thought. For so long, my goal was to save her from... all this. But now that she's safe, I... it's clear that I'm just following in the Hero's wake. It feels empty."

  "That's not true, Slaten. If we're ever going to understand what the Legend really is, what it actually means, then we'll need your help. And without you, we'd have died when that patrol caught us outside Hunalan."

  "And another Hero would have appeared somewhere else."

  His words brought silence down over both of them. Though Tani accepted the grim truth, she wouldn't let it master her so easily. In the wake of the victory against Aryabaus, Melal had shone so brightly that it was difficult to think about the Legend logically, much less speak of it. But as the glory faded over the following days, she'd come to grips with the impossibilities wrapped up in the Hero.

  "We're making a difference, Slaten." Tani smiled at him and reached out to touch his hand, grateful that he no longer flinched away as if the contact meant too much. "Killing Aryabaus helped the Chorhan Expanse become more peaceful and Melal hasn't... done anything like what happened in Bundlin. Even if we don't have a true solution, we're saving lives."

  "Perhaps." His smile appeared only briefly before submerging again. "But even if we figured out what to do about the Legend, I feel... I tried to be a healer and I failed. The Hero cannot be killed, even if killing it would solve our problem. I don't have anything to offer. Beyond following, I don't know what I would do."

  Tani shook her head sadly. "Do you truly feel that way? If there was no Legend... we could do so much. We have our whole lives yet to walk, Slaten. You don't need to hold any significance beyond what you mean to others, and our world needs warriors. You can't tell me that you wouldn't enjoy training for its own sake, instead of constantly risking our lives."

  He nodded reluctantly. "That might be enough for me. I don't know if it would be enough for others." After a long pause, Slaten picked up one of the swords and went to negotiate with the owner of the shop. Tani stared down at the remaining blades for a time.

  She could understand Slaten's frustration with the Legend, but not his despair toward life. Despite everything, she enjoyed their lifestyle: running to scout ahead, letting sein flow through her, sparring in the evenings. There was more happiness laid before her than she could possibly grasp in one lifetime.

  Yet she only felt more certain that the Legend needed to be resolved for that happiness to be safe. Melal might seem lazy and nonthreatening at most times, but she remembered his predecessors. She remembered the terrible light that had burned around him in the wake of the battle. That light would destroy everything she cared about unless she understood it.

  Stepping outside the shop, Tani scouted carefully for the mansthein soldiers. Judging from the townspeople's concerned looks, they mansthein remained within the tavern. Since their errands had taken less time than expected, Tani decided that it would be safe to search for something much more important: information.

  She considered asking the locals about the mansthein troops, but decided against it. There was a chance they would report the questions to the soldiers, and no matter how many times their group met local collaborators, they always threw Melal into a murderous rage. Instead, she needed to find information about the sage, not to mention the path north, that was untainted by the Legend.

  How best to learn that information? Slaten emerged from the shop, but they agreed to meet back at the sage's house and then split up. She began wandering, considering the simple stalls. In theory she might buy information from any of them, but she had relatively little money left and they would no doubt tell any lies they thought might be profitable. Here, far from home and with no social connections, it would be difficult to find truth.

  Abruptly Tani spotted something she hadn't seen in some time: an ashweed hut. Her tribe of Nelee rarely smoked ashweed and Corans always smoked it beneath the sky, so the sight was almost confusing despite the symbols beside the doors. They were symbols of welcoming and connections between Rhen tribes, so Tani took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  Within the smokey interior, she made out the few figures currently smoking ashweed. There were a few warriors with ashweed bowls and a woman bearing a mother's pouch who looked like she desperately needed a rest. However, there was an old man holding a pipe who gave her a friendly nod, so she smiled back and sank down onto the cushion beside him.

  Some Rhen in the region had adopted Coran or Oken dress, but the old man remained defiantly Rhen with his blue jacket and headband. Judging from the embroidery and his raven hair, he was Lanoo. Normally that might be little grounds for a connection, but here it was enough.

  "Khenor of the Lanoo." He extended his palm as if the formality didn't matter to him, so Tani only briefly put her hand over his and inclined her head.

  "Tani of the Nelee. I do not smoke ashweed, but I would partake of your wisdom."

  That got a chuckle from Khenor. "I thought you looked like a young woman with many things on her mind. Keep me company for a time and I will consider the debt paid."

  "Thank you, elder." Since he had been so polite, she did her best not to cough when he puffed on his pipe and released a long stream of smoke. Tani quickly gathered her doubts together and discovered questions within them. "I fear that my companions may soon need to cross the Sotunn mountains, but we are unprepared for such a journey. Can you guide us?"

  "For a start, now is a poor time. Not the worst, but the most fearsome ice has yet to melt. A wise warrior would wait." Khenor sucked on the lip of his pipe, eyes twinkling at her. "But I think that you do not have that choice, child. Am I right?"

  "You are, elder. It may be a hurried journey, but I hope to prepare as well as I can."

  With a slow nod, the Lanoo elder began to tell her what he knew. He had not journeyed over the Sotunn mountains himself, and she felt no awareness of sein from him, but he still had a lifetime of experience speaking to merchants and traveling warriors. Many of his suggestions regarded which passes were the safest to take, though in the end he shook his head.

  "But I am told that little is safe these days, thanks to the raiders." Khenor toyed with the pipe between his lips, watching the smoke instead of breathing in. "Your choices are to bring a large number of guards or to travel lightly and pray you pass safely."

  "Is it not possible to fight these raiders?"

  Her question earned her a surprised blink, and Tani realized that the life of sein-trained warriors was far from this man's mind. Soon enough he went back to shaking his head. "They are so dangerous that even the town guards fear them. Some warriors have set out into the mountains to defeat them, but those who survived came back with few trophies. The mountains themselves are dangerous and the raiders know them too well."

  "Who are these raiders? What do they fight for?"

  "For themselves, child. They are the castoffs of many nations, surviving in the Sotunn mountains only by stealing from those who create. In my father's time there were fewer of them and the crossing was threatened only by ice and rock, but I have seen their numbers increase and increase."

  Tani chewed on her lip, considering what he had said. Bandits were common enough, but generally not a major threat: most who had training in sein could find other work, with Veron proving one of the few exceptions. Yet if a group of raiders was spoken of as such a significant problem, then they must be a larger threat than the inevitable bandits.

  "Do they attack lone travelers?" Tani asked. "I imagine they must target mostly merchant caravans."

  "Just so, child, just so. Still, many of their tribes are said to seek out combat, so you should be careful. The Redbranches are a local scourge. The Bonewalkers have been known to threaten entire villages. And the Stormpeaks are a terrible threat no matter where you travel."

  "What about the Deathspawn?" The name came surprisingly easy to her lips, after using it so often with Melal. That made her think of Kolanin, and her heart ached, but Tani wrestled those feelings under control to listen to the old man's answer.

  "Those filth lurk near, and they are growing more active. They claim they will do something about the raiders." Khenor shook his pipe toward the door to show what he thought of that. "No one likes them here, but they will enact vengeance on our families if anyone raises a hand against them."

  "I saw a group in town today and it worried me."

  "That, at least, you do not need to fear. No doubt they are just passing through as part of their new deception. They only made false claims about stopping the raiders, but it is true enough that they are bringing in soldiers."

  "So there will be Deathspawn in the mountains as well as raiders? Do you know anything else about them?"

  "Very little, child. It seems to be small groups of soldiers with special commanders. We saw them thirty days back, coming through town... one of them was even a woman! A Deathspawn woman! She did not look as filthy as the others, and she had long silver hair, but there was evil in her eyes. Believe me, I have never seen such pure evil."

  Tani's breath caught in her throat. She immediately tried to swallow her reaction, telling herself that it couldn't possibly be Celivia - even if the old man was correct, that description could match many Deathspawn women. It didn't matter. Despite all her mental training, Tani found herself spiraling back to the moment when Celivia had betrayed her and the rest of the Coran resistance...