Several times her lips parted, planning to offer a goodbye, only to press into a thin line as the words didn’t come.
Not long after the sun reached its highest point and begun to inch lower in the sky, the travelers encountered the base of a rocky, mountainous slope.
“This is it.” Kahl’s heavy tone sent a landslide of rocks clattering down Emariya’s spine. Her grandfather didn’t expect them to survive this quest.
Emariya straightened, bolstering her resolve. Keeping all traces of nervousness from her face, she dismounted and waited for the others to do the same. “I think it would be best to continue on foot from here.”
Torian took her hand, cradling it secure in his own and squeezed. She hadn’t forgotten their plan and kept her eyes peeled ahead, waiting for the right spot. A tiny nod was her signal that she’d understood his message. The mountain’s steep grade carried them up and it wasn’t long before it presented the perfect opportunity.
The slope narrowed to a thin pass between two rock walls with no way around but through. Beyond the narrow opening, the path curved back behind itself around a bend of rock, leaving Emariya with no idea what awaited them. She’d be going into the unknown blind and with only Torian to help her.
Their eyes met and then simultaneously they dropped their horses’ reins to sprint forward up the trail. A rock tumbled beneath her foot and Emariya expected to find herself sprawling on the mountainside, but Torian’s quick reflexes caught her. Jessa’s startled yelp came from behind, but neither of them stopped until they thought there was a safe barrier of open space. Heeding Torian’s signal, Emariya spun back toward her companions. The hurt in Jessa’s eyes cut through Emariya, making her wince as she clutched Torian’s hand and called forth the flame. A wall of heat rose, separating the two groups to either side. Though it didn’t exactly ignite, the hot translucent barrier was more than enough to deter her friends from advancing.
“Stay back!” Emariya commanded.
“What foolishness is this?” Kahl asked. His words carried a heavy accusation, but it was her grandmother’s eyes that really tore through Emariya’s resolve. She imagined her grandmother was reliving Valencia’s stubborn charge to a hostile land, leaving her behind.
“I’ll be back. I promise. But, just in case... You have to stay here, so we don’t anger The Three any more. And to keep you safe so you can return to finish what we’ve started if we aren’t successful.
Please...try to understand.”
Blaine stepped beside Jessa, cupping his large arms around her slight shoulders. His mouth set into a grim line and he nodded. “If you don’t return, I’ll do my best to stop Reeve and retrieve Terin.”
Emariya lifted her gaze to meet his. “By whatever means necessary. And...take care of Jessa.”
Blaine nodded and then stepped aside, tugging Jessa back with him to give Rink room on the narrow trail.
“Take care of Raina, Rink. I’ll see you soon.”
He stood as tall as a thirteen-year-old boy could, and one tear escaped as he whispered his goodbye.
“Send word...if you can,” her grandfather choked out.
Sadness rose in her chest. “If I can’t, I’ll come to you. Either way, you’ll know as soon as I am able to pass word.”
Torian tugged on her hand and she started up through the pass, heading into an unknown future blind even as she kept her eyes trained on her companions over her shoulder.
Father, look after them. Please. And maybe look after me too.
His response was faint.
I will be waiting for you with them, but I cannot accompany you to The
Cradle. You must find your answers there on your own, without any otherworldly influence. The Three
will not permit me through. They wish to know your heart, in its truest form.
What if I can’t talk to you when we return? If they take our gifts... I’ll lose you. I’m...I’m not ready.
You are, whether you know it or not. And even if you can’t hear me, I will never stop watching over
you. I’ll still be with you.
Emariya swallowed back her tears. “Father says we are truly on our own. The Three won’t permit him through.”
Torian’s thumb stroked the top of her hand. Their pace had slowed once they’d left the barrier between them and their companions, but the bend loomed ahead. “Want me to carry your pack?”
Smiling at his gesture, Emariya handed it over and looked ahead. The rock walls gradually moved closer together, leaving room for only one person to pass through. “I’ll follow you.”
Trying to keep her nerves contained, Emariya trailed her hand against the rock as she stared straight ahead at Torian’s strong shoulders. When they came to the other side of the blind twist, Emariya recoiled involuntarily. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn her hand had floated through the rock instead of over it. She cradled her hand to her chest and glanced down. Everything appeared to be all right; she must have imagined it.
Torian stepped aside as the path widened again, opening up before them. Emariya’s breath caught.
The rocky wall on the left dropped away, leaving them on a ledge against the remaining cliff. In the newly opened space, Thalmas—or what at least looked like Thalmas—spread as far as the eye could see. Snow-capped mountains, made of unrelenting gray rock, sprawled before them. In the distance, just at the edges of her vision, a raging waterfall tumbled from sky-high cliffs. The rushing water became a roar, filling her ears while memory rushed at her. “That can’t be Witch’s Falls.” Emariya’s brow furrowed.
“Look.” Torian pointed to the base of the falls where a tiny but sturdy hovel nestled against the cliff face. “It can’t be, not only because we are far away from the falls, but because no hovel sits there.”
“Then what? Or how?” Emariya couldn’t help the tiny smile that waded through her confusion.
Witch’s Falls had inarguably been the turning part in their relationship. After she’d nearly dived into the falls by accident in the dead of night, she and Torian had shared their first kiss.
“I don’t know. It looks like the Thalmas I’ve always known, but yet it isn’t. I can see the differences, as small as they are. We should keep moving.”
She nodded and pressed onward. “The Cradle is the only part of The Three Corners that isn’t any one land, but all of the lands. Do you think it has something to do with that?”
“Perhaps.” His eyes traveled toward the hovel again.
While they both watched, the door opened and a woman spilled out, chasing a small child. The peal of carefree laughter floated over the rumble of the waterfall, tickling Emariya’s ears. By squinting, she picked out the apple clutched in the boy’s palm. He took a juicy bite, then continued his evasive game.
The mother laughed too, in the midst of scolding. “You’ll ruin your dinner,” she called. Tiring of the game of chase, she paused back by the hovel door and smiled. “Don’t stay out too long.”
“They look happy,” Emariya said, taking in the fullness of the woman’s cheeks, and the healthy flush. The tiny family bore no trace of the pale, hungry expressions Emariya had seen in her early travels in Thalmas.
“That is what I want for them.” Hope lifted Torian’s words.
“Do you think the wagons have made it yet?” Emariya took a deep breath, drawing in the crisp scent of snow and rock. It smelled exactly as she remembered. Harsh, but new and unbroken, full of possibility.
“They may have reached the pass, but I doubt they’ve begun distributing yet.” They fell silent, picking their way carefully along the ledge. It spread wide enough that there was no fear of falling, but rocks occasionally fell from above, annoying the pair with showers of dirt, dust and snow. Emariya shivered. “It’s grown colder again.”
Torian smiled. “It always is in Thalmas.”
Heat rose in her cheeks, and she wanted to disagree, but a startling sight ahead distracted her. The ledge forked, leaving them to decide which path to follow. To the right, the ledge remained pressed against the bosom of the cliff, and it looked to be the safer of the two. On the left, not only did the path hover precariously over open air with nothing save a deadly drop to death many many hundreds of feet below them, a hovel perched over the path, blocking the way. Emariya blinked, sure she must be seeing things.
“Does this look a bit too obvious to you?” Torian asked.
Emariya chewed her lip. There must be some reason for the hovel to wait there, as if expecting their arrival, but she couldn’t fathom what that reason might be. “It isn’t natural. No one could build a home in such a fashion.”
“Not some
one.
”
But maybe some
God.
Should they check it out, or stick to the obviously superior route? Before she could wonder over it more, the door opened and a small child darted out.
“Go away!” the boy shouted, tears staining his face. Wind whipped along the ledge, whistling between Emariya’s ears and stealing the child’s words.
“Isn’t that the same boy, the one who had the apple?” Emariya glanced over her shoulder, gazing in the direction where Witch’s Falls had been. Just visible in the distance, the falls sat devoid of any sign of life, nothing other than rocky earth, as if the hovel had never existed.
“We don’t have much time to delay,” Torian said, even as his shoulders angled toward the boy.
“He looks like he needs our help.” Her heart ached as the wind increased, and the boy shivered as his teeth chattered. She pulled her cloak tighter around herself.
“I know.” Torian squeezed her hand. “Whether he wants it or not.” He moved in front of Emariya, taking a slow step toward the child. “It’s all right. We want to help.”
“It’s too late! You should have come before. There’s no help for my mum, and we don’t want your stinkin’ help.”
Keeping her voice low, Emariya leaned toward Torian. “Does he remind you of anyone?”
Torian sucked in a hard breath. “Are you Rink?” The boy turned tail and ran back inside his home.
“He isn’t real. We
know
he isn’t real. We can’t waste time helping an apparition that isn’t real and doesn’t want our help.”
Emariya ducked around Torian’s form and headed toward the hovel. “Go on if you want. I’m going to make sure he...whatever he is...is all right first.” Torian’s footsteps behind her told her he’d followed. Thoughts of the narrow path, combined with the wind whipping her hair around her nearly made her turn back several times, but she kept her fear tucked inside and it only took a few moments to reach the doorway. She tugged and it opened before her.
The boy lay on a pallet bed, stilled under the calm wave of death. “But he was just outside, fine!”
Emariya cried out.
Torian’s arm’s circled her shoulders. “It looks as if his entire family died of starvation.”
Her prince’s hollow voice touched an ache deep inside her. How long had his people suffered like this? It had to end. This could have been Rink’s fate.
“I don’t understand,” Emariya whispered. “I don’t want to see this.” She couldn’t help glancing around the tiny home, barren of all food, covered in filth and grime. The heavy, sour stench of sickness hung in the air. A tear pooled beneath her lashes. Somewhere, the people of Thalmas, her people, were suffering just like this without enough food. “We have to help them. We have to do more.”
“We will.” Torian pulled her to him. “Look.” He pointed out the small window facing the cliff and the other path. Before their eyes, the other path crumbled, hugging the wall no more.
Emariya swallowed. “If we’d gone that way...”
“The Three wanted us to see this. I guess we chose well. There are no easy paths. To look the other way while others suffer, justifying it by saying there’s nothing we can do, would be folly.”
“So it was a test?” Dread bubbled, thick in her throat. What other tests would The Three have in store?
Torian nodded. “So it would seem.”
The remnants of the hovel dissipated around them. Emariya blinked and then gaped as they found themselves back on one solid, non-forked path, secure against the rocky wall.
The mountain path stretched endlessly before Emariya. Her legs shook, overwhelmed by the enormity of what they were doing. She’d never felt quite so vulnerable or at the mercy of others are she did at that moment. The Three were moving her and Torian around like pawns, with no warning and no explanations. She sought solace in the fact that if they’d wanted her dead, she already would be.
The well of emotion inside her had run itself dry at the thought of Rink suffering the same fate as the apparitions. She allowed herself to sag against Torian.
“Do you want to pause here to rest? Perhaps for the night?”
Emariya glanced toward the sky. Since they’d sealed their companions away, the sky hadn’t changed. Ominous clouds hung overhead, looking as if they were prepared to drop either a very potent snowstorm or the fury of hell itself upon their heads. But despite the constant cloud cover, weak light shone through, making it appear as if it were nearly midday. Except it had appeared as if it were nearly midday for several hours now. Was it actually nighttime? After taking inventory of her exhaustion, Emariya shook her head. “We should press onward.”
Silence dropped around them like a cloak, warding against the chill of unpleasant conversation about what The Three might have in store. The ledge grew steeper and the wind whined between the rocks. “I don’t think it is growing any darker. I have no idea how much time has actually passed.”
Torian tossed a longing glance toward the mountains and rocks in the distance.
A rock slipped from beneath her foot, and she barely kept herself from stumbling. “It’s funny, my legs are as tired as if we’d been walking for days, but I don’t feel the urge for sleep, either.”
“Same here. Why don’t we pause for a meal, and then continue until either of us becomes sleepy.”
Emariya chewed her cornbread without tasting, leaning against the cliff behind her. She closed her eyes, allowing the comfort of Torian’s unmistakable presence to soothe her. Would she lose the innate comfort he offered if The Three granted their requests?