Lesaa was in awe, and she wasn’t the only one. They stood in the foothills of the mountains, just visible was The Mountain. The name of the castle, and capital of Kathardra.
A chuckle came from Cinder as the three youths stood shoulder to shoulder staring at The Mountain. “It’s quite the sight, isn’t it? Despite having seen it many times, it still strikes amazement.”
The Mountain was a slate gray, and it towered over the foothills that marched north of it. Even the wall surrounding the castle was stories tall. And it had to be miles around.
“How is that even possible?” Lessa was finally able to ask.
“It was built with magic,” Zar said. “When Kathardra was founded. It is said that it took all of the magic in the country to pull it from the earth.“
“Just think,” Worran clapped Zar’s back, “that’s our new home.”
“Our new home?” Zar scoffed lightheartedly.
“We both know you’re putting me on your council.”
“Am I now?”
“You certainly are.”
“What makes you so sure you can sit alongside aristocrats?” Zar’s eyes narrowed, but his expression mirrored Worran’s amusement. There was no true objection here, apparently, Zar was already planning on having Worran sit on his council.
“Because, you need at least one person who will tell you the truth. Do you think a single politician is going to do that?”
Lessa stood staring at The Mountain for a moment longer, as the other three turned away.
“Come on, Lessa,” Zar called over his shoulder.
The castle had to be the size of a city, how would they be able to find a single person in it?
“Lessa, I need to have a word with Storm. Would you mind asking her to land?” Zar almost seemed nervous.
“Um, of course.”
Storm landed just moments later.
“Storm, we’re going to need you to stay behind in the mountains while we travel into Geldur,” Zar said, speaking directly to Storm, with his head tilted back.
“No,” Storm said simply.
“Storm-”
“Tell him I said no.”
“She said no,” Lessa spoke out loud to Zar.
“Storm, I have been trying to think of a way around this, but I can’t.” Zar’s eyes remained fixed on Storm, despite her leaning in close and putting her face very close to Zar’s.
“She said I will stay with her.” Lessa again spoke Storm’s words.
“We need Lessa with us so that she can communicate with you.”
Storm’s scales rippled, and she shook her head.
“What if we turn Storm invisible?” Lessa asked, “Cinder, I know you said it’s a bad idea to make objects invisible, but I’m not going to lose Storm.”
“My scales would never hold the spell.”
“Oh…..”
Storm’s wings flared out to the sides and she started pacing between the trees.
“Storm,” Lessa spoke out loud so the whole party could hear where the conversation was going. “We need to make a plan to get into the castle, that means getting close to it. If I’m going to have any say in the plan I need to go with them.”
Abruptly Storm stopped her pacing. A jet of fire blasted from her nostrils at the leaf-covered ground. Lessa shot a shield up around the fire so that it wouldn’t spread, and to contain the heat.
All of Storm’s muscular bulk launched at Zar but he didn’t even blink, she stopped inches from his face.
“Do not let her get hurt.”
“Storm-”
“You tell him!” Her face snapped to Lessa and she growled like a thunderblast.
“Do not let her get hurt,” Lessa translated, eyes on the ground.
And so, they left the mountains and Storm behind. They swung out from the mountains along a long ark, Geldur lying at the pinnacle of the ark.
Geldur was only three days away. Moving through empty towns surrounded by shriveled and pathetic crops. Passing dozens of other travelers. Most of them seemed to be refugees, fleeing their hometowns and taxes, hoping for support and safety in numbers.
“Zar, this is a lot of people. How do you plan on helping them?” Lessa asked when they were nearing Geldur.
“It won’t be hard,” he said through the side of his mouth so they wouldn’t be overheard. “Kathardra is not happy with Golathar, the natural magic of the land is attacking farms. When he is no longer on the throne I can right it.”
“You can see the magic doing that?”
He nodded grimly. “It didn’t happen in Haven, but I see it happening everywhere else.”
“What does it look like?”
“Magic?”
“Yeah, what does it look like?”
He thought for a moment. “Almost like a fog, but blue. It’s all over Kathardra, it comes up from the ground.”
Lessa’s head tilted, “What about people?”
“Do you mean, what does yours look like?”
Lessa dipped her head, abashed. “Yes?”
Zar grinned, “It’s like a light shining out of your skin, but it doesn’t illuminate. Yours and Storms are identical.”
“You hear that, we’re magic twins.”
“Lessa, something is wrong. You’re quiet… Hard to hear.”
Panic raced through Lessa like an icy blast. She wrenched on her reins, hard, and Leo reared, he swiveled on his hind legs and came to a stop facing the mountains.
“I’m too far.” If someone could shout in their mind, Lessa was, but it didn’t make a difference. She could hear Storm no better, and Storm was struggling to hear her.
“What is it?” Zar was at her side in a moment, looking around wildly.
“I can’t hear Storm. I have to go back.”
“You can’t go back now. It would raise too many questions.”
“Zar, I can’t hear Storm!”
His tone switched to placating at once. “Lessa, we turned back now it would immediately raise suspicions. We’re already drawing too much attention.”
It only took a glance to see that Zar was right.
A family was passing, heading toward Geldur, they looked up at Lessa with annoyed frowns as they passed.
“Lessa, turn around, we have to go.”
She didn’t move.
“Storm. I’ll… I don’t know. You can fly over at night and check in…”
“I love you Lessa. Be safe.”
“I love you too Storm.”
“Lessa,” Zar was no longer asking.
She did not respond. Her eyes were glued to the hills where Storm was hiding. Zar took the reins from her hands and turned her horse back toward town.
“Everything alright?” Worran asked when they found them again.
Lessa was unable to answer. She hadn’t been alone in her mind for months, it felt like her thoughts were bouncing from one side of her skull to the other. An echo across an empty chasm.
Before they could cross into the city proper they had to board the horses at a stable. Zar paid the woman who kept the accounts and they set into the city with saddlebags slung over their shoulders.
Geldur was surrounded by a wall, it was a third as tall as the wall around the castle, even so, Lessa craned her neck back to look toward the top.
“Do not gawk, you will make yourself stand out.” Cinder nudged Lessa with his elbow.
Her chin dropped at once, they were milling in a thick unorganized line that bottlenecked right under the castle.
“What’s the hold-up?” Lessa whispered.
“They’re looking for you,” Worran hissed, even lower.
Lessa jolted with surprise, and looked closer at the soldiers causing the stall, right at the gate.
Each soldier had a piece of paper in his hands and was holding it studiously next to the face of each woman and girl passing into the city.
A slight panic quickened Lessa’s heart, the line stilted forward. Lessa grasped Zar’s arm and touched the pendant at her neck. His eyes followed her fingers and lingered on the necklace for a moment.
“It’ll be alright. They aren’t looking for enchantments. If they stopped every piece of magic moving through the gate nobody would get in.”
She bobbed her head in response but didn’t know if she fully believed him.
After several more minutes, they were next in line, Lessa thought she might throw up as she looked into the eyes of the soldier who held a piece of paper next to her head.
His eyes shifted from Lessa’s to the paper and back. She reached for her magic.
“Go on.” He dismissed her with a wave and Lessa released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
“We’re going to want to head toward the castle,” Cinder said under his breath to Zar. “When I have spent time in Geldur in years passed the taverns close to the castle were where the castle guards liked to spend time. Things change, but soldiers getting drunk isn’t one of them.”
Zar nodded, “Lead the way,” he told Cinder.
“Isn’t that a bad idea?” Lessa asked, “Wouldn’t we want to stay away from them?”
Worran was the one who answered, “Soldiers, yes we want to stay away from. But drunk off-duty soldiers are exactly who we need.”
Confusion was written on Lessa’s face.
“Drunk men talk, Lessa.”
Understanding dawned, if they could get information from the soldiers on the operations on the inside of the castle they would have a better idea of how to get in.
People packed the streets of Geldur, Lessa found that if she didn’t stick close to Zar’s back she was jostled from one side to another. The streets they traveled were slim, lining the way between tall stone buildings. And Lessa had never seen such filth in all of her travels in Kathardra. The roads might have once been cobbled, but now they were thick with a reeking mixture of mud and refuse; both animal and human.
Beggars sat on every corner, collection cups and plates laid out before their miserable forms. Little street urchins darted from person to person, hands cupped before them, looking for food and coin.
An uneasy sickness sprouted in Lessa, not entirely caused by the odor.
“How do people live like this?” she asked as they paused to let a sad mule pulling a cart pass.
“Oh it’s easy,” Cinder said, flippantly. “Hopeless people give up. They have no meaning, no purpose or means to better themselves by.”
“How long has it been like this?” she could hear the shock in her own voice.
Cinder looked thoughtful for a moment. “Likely less than a generation. It wasn’t like this under Irunniel.”
“That is so fast,” she breathed.
“Desolation is always less than a generation away.”
Traveling through the city took a long time, but at least the streets became cleaner, and clearer the closer they got to the castle.
Every few blocks Zar would ask a uniformed man if there was an inn they could recommend. Once the same inn was recommended three times he asked for directions. And so they were guided toward the Bear’s Den tavern and inn.
It was a building sitting right against the castle wall. If the city’s wall had felt tall then this wall felt like it kept the world contained. It went on as far as Lessa could see in each direction, and it looked like it could impede the clouds.
The tavern was three stories tall, but it looked squat against the wall. The interior was dimly lit, but blessedly clean. There were only two patrons, the evening was still young, and two young men and a girl were scrubbing tables and sweeping the floor.
Zar strode directly to the woman standing behind the bar, “How much for a room?” he asked with no pretense.
The woman eyed their group, “It’s a horn a night.”
“That’s robbery!” Worran cut in.
The barmaid’s nose went into the air slightly, becoming stubborn and offended.
“Don’t mind him,” Zar said, moving to block Worran from sight. Lessa smiled, having seen this show many times by now.
Worran grabbed Zar’s shoulder, “I heard the Griffon’s Roost is only an antler a night, and that includes dinner and drinks!”
Zar hesitated. The woman clearly looked annoyed.
“Our costs include dinner! But no respectable inn around these parts includes your drink.”
“Let’s go, Zar.” Worran tugged on Zar’s arm.
“How about five crowns and a horn for the week?” Zar counted out the coins in his palm.
The woman eyed the money and nodded sharply. “Kilee, take these people up to room seven.”
The girl who was sweeping propped her broom against a chair, “Follow me then."
Their group followed the girl, Kilee, up two flights of stairs to a room that had a seven hanging on the door. Kilee opened the door and ushered them inside.
“Supper is served after six, if you need more wood for the fire talk to one of my brothers about it. You can also request a tub and water brought to your room but it’ll cost you extra.”
Lessa slid by Kilee into the room just as she turned to leave. It was plain, nothing more than four beds and a fireplace, but it would work. Lessa regarded the blankets on the bed dubiously, they looked like they might have started as a light tan color, but had changed to something of a murky green. She dropped her bedroll and saddle bags on it and turned to the window.
Their view was that of the street below, and the building across.
“What now?” she asked, turning back to the men.
“Now we make friends, and gather information,” Zar answered.
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