City of Steel (Chaos Awakens Book 3) (25 page)

“Haley, could you go up and help Crow and Tilda reach the top?”  He gestured up the wall.  Haley nodded her reply and stepped forward.  She stepped on Xan’s knee, then on his shoulder, and hopped up the ledge.  They both knew she could have scaled that gap without any difficulty, but Haley was perceptive.  She could tell that Xandrith wasn’t doing this for her benefit and she played along without complaining.  Crow was next.  He seemed less certain of what they were doing, but he followed Haley’s example except that he used Haley’s offered hand to pull himself up the last bit of the ledge. 

Tilda came next.  She smiled at Xan and squeezed his shoulder as he helped her get up to his knee, and then to his shoulder.  He stood up once she was securely on his shoulder and lifted her easily into the waiting hands of Crow who had taken Haley’s place atop the wall.  Xandrith turned back to the wall and climbed quickly to the top of the ledge, falling in behind Tilda.  The last of the Unth came up behind him in short order.  Xandrith slowed his pace a bit and let the others move forward. 

“Is that the worst of the road?”  Xandrith asked the Unth behind him once the others had traveled a bit further ahead. 

“No, it gets far worse once this tunnel leads back out into the snow.” 

“I’m not sure we can all make that climb.”  Xandrith didn’t look at Tilda. 

“There is no other way up the mountain, and we will not be turning back.”  The Unth’s reply was cold and direct. 

“Have the Unth no compassion?”  Xandrith asked, finding it difficult to hide the anger in his voice. 

The Unth did not reply.  Xandrith picked up his pace and rejoined the rest of the group, his mind troubled.  What would they do when they reached the more difficult stretch of road ahead?  They might find a place that Tilda wouldn’t be able to cross.  There was only so much they could do without proper climbing equipment, and what little Xan had in his pack had been damaged during the plummet into the Forge earlier.  He had a half a set of climbing cleats, and his rope was gone.  That wouldn’t help anyone.

An hour later the ribbon through the darkness opened up into a wide flat area that had a pit for a fire and some rudimentary walls at its edges.  It looked like it had been built as a campsite.  Xandrith found himself convinced that the whole area, the winding ribbon of rock and the campsite, had been crafted by the Unth.  It seemed unlikely that such a long and narrow pathway would remain so neatly intact on its own. 

The Unth stopped without warning and immediately went to work on lighting a fire.  Tilda nearly collapsed by the fireside, and Crow joined her quickly.  Haley fell in with them, opening her pack to draw out rations.   Xandrith stood away from the others however, keeping near the short wall of the apparent campsite.  He was deeply troubled.  Even with a break, and Xandrith had no idea how long the Unth intended to rest, Tilda wasn’t going to make it once they were back outside in the weather.  Xan could only guess how much further up the mountain they’d come, but he knew it would be getting colder and more difficult to breathe with every inch of progress they made towards the sky shrouded peaks. 

“This must have been difficult to build.”  Xandrith commented as he let his mind gnaw over the problem at hand. 

The Unth didn’t reply.  They had gathered into a group and seemed to be preparing some sort of food over the fire.  Xandrith guessed that they had no intention of sharing whatever it was.  None of them so much as looked at him. 

“How much further does this trail go?”  Xandrith asked, looking for some way of opening a dialogue with the Unth. 

“Another hour and we will be on the outward trail.”  The male that had led the way so far spoke, though he didn’t make eye contact with Xan. 

That meant they had one more hour until Tilda’s life was going to become much more difficult. “And this is the only way to get to the wall?” Xan asked again.

“Yes, we have told you that before.”  The Unth Xan had talked to while walking answered.  This one did meet Xan’s gaze, and the assassin could feel the hostility as their glances crossed. 

“How often do your people travel these roads?”  Xandrith pressed, still looking for a path into a less hostile conversation. 

There was no reply from the Unth.

“In our lands it’s considered friendly to converse over the sharing of food.”  The assassin wasn’t giving up so easily. 

“We are not your friends, and we are not sharing food.”  The female Unth spoke, no eye contact. 

“You guys probably don’t have many friends.”  Xan commented idly.  This didn’t receive a response.  He gave up with a sigh and sat down amongst his companions.  He gestured for them all to lean in close. 

“Don’t trust the Unth.  They may be taking us where we want to go, I hope, but I don’t believe they intend to let us leave.”  Xandrith told the others in as low a voice as he could manage.  He waited until they had all nodded acknowledgement that they’d heard him before going on. 

“The path ahead is worse than what we’ve already passed.  We’re going to have to work together to make sure we all get to where we’re going.  In about an hour we’ll be passing back to the outside of the mountain, and from there on we can expect to have to do a lot more climbing.”  Xan warned. 

Tilda looked calm as she spoke. “I’m not sure I can make the climb, my friends. I can walk for days, but the cold and my age are getting to me. I’m not sure I could have made it up that ledge without your help.

“The Unth refuse to let us go back, and they won’t take us to an easier path.  I don’t believe that this is the only way to get where we’re going, but it’s the only way they’re willing to take us.  I’m sorry Tilda, but we’re going to have to keep going.  We will do what we can to help you up the mountain.”  Xandrith wasn’t happy to have to say those words. 

Tilda just shrugged. “I knew things would be rough when I agreed to go up the mountain with you. I will give it everything I have.”

Crow put an arm around the old woman’s shoulders.  “I’ll make sure you get to the top.”  He said confidently. 

“You’re a good man, Crow.” Xandrith said with a grin. “Sorry I tried to kill you before.”

Crow shrugged. “It’s a hazard of my line of work.”

Xan nodded. “Mine too.”

It was difficult to ascertain exactly how long they rested, but Xandrith would have guessed it wasn’t a full hour. The Unth packed up their few supplies and started moving again without any warning, leaving Xandrith and his crew to hastily ready themselves for travel. Xan considered protesting, but decided against it when he came to the all too obvious realization that their guides wouldn’t care.

The camping site narrowed back out into the same ribbon of rock that it had been before and continued to rise upwards towards the mountain peak.  They walked for some time before a circle of natural light opened up ahead of them, accompanied by the howling of mountain wind.  They were finally approaching the cave exit, and the more difficult stretch of the road ahead. 

Xandrith had intentionally taken up a position directly ahead Tilda.  Crow was behind her, and Haley was following him.  The assassin hoped that between him and the very confident Crow they’d be able to help the older woman past any rough spots ahead.  The Unth didn’t have any climbing equipment with them, and Xan took that as a good sign.  If there was any climbing to be done, at least it wouldn’t entail the need for rope. 

It wasn’t long before Xandrith was stepping through the cave exit and into the howling winds of the mountain top.  The wind had picked up, or at least was stronger higher up the mountain.  It tore across the rocky ground carrying a pounding flurry of white, icy shrapnel with it.  The visibility was poor, but it was good enough for Xan to see that their cave had opened up onto a narrow walkway set against a jagged wall of gray stone.  There were juts in the stone that pushed out almost the whole length of the path.

The Unth had already started their way up the path, leaning into the wall as they crawled around the jutting sections of stone.  Xandrith stepped out after them and immediately noticed that the path was covered in ice and lose stone.  Treacherous may have been too kind a word. 

“The footing is bad here.  Be mindful of where you step.”  Xandrith warned the others as he began to move along the rock wall.  The path was wide enough to walk facing forward, but narrow enough that Xandrith didn’t feel safe doing so.  He walked partially facing the wall, leaning towards it slightly so that if he should lose balance he’d hopefully fall forward.  His left hand he offered to Tilda. 

“Keep your hand in mine.  If you slip, I’ll make sure you don’t go far.”  He told her, though part of that was bravado.  He wasn’t exactly certain he could keep her from falling if she went backwards off the cliff, there was very little to get a solid grip on.  It would be difficult to catch himself, let alone himself and another falling person.

Tilda nodded, but she didn’t speak.  The wind was pelting her skin, turning her cheeks a chapped red color even with her hood up and pulled into place.  Crow looked only a little better.  Xandrith shot an angry look further up the path in the direction the Unth had gone.  He could barely see them.  They didn’t appear to care whether or not Xan and his companions fell behind.  This might have worried the assassin if the third of the Unth party wasn’t at the back of the line. 

Xandrith double checked to be certain he was still there, and he was, trailing behind Haley with a disinterested look on his face.  If the cold was bothering him at all, he wasn’t showing it.  For some reason this made Xandrith angry.  He ran a litany of curses under his breath as he made his cautious way up the mountain with Tilda’s hand held firmly in his own.  Cursing wasn’t exactly making things easier, but it did raise his spirits a bit. 

“That’s a colorful vocabulary.”  Tilda noted, a tired smile on her face. 

Xan returned the smile.  “Thank you.  I’ve had many occasions to practice.” 

They lapsed back into semi silence, though Xandrith kept up his mantra of swearing.  It distracted him from thinking too much about how shitty their situation had become.  He was just managing to piece together a brand new way to imply someone’s mother would sleep with horses when Tilda gave a sharp yelp of alarm. 

Xan impulsively tightened his grip, but it took him only a second to realize that she wasn’t falling.  Why had she screamed, then?  Xandrith’s eyes whipped back over her, looking for the source of her distress.  A streak of blood was trickling down her face. 

He was about to open his mouth and ask what had happened when a massive weight slammed into his right shoulder and staggered him.  He fell into the wall, and so didn’t lose his balance, but the moment of shock disoriented him.  He looked up just in time to see a shower of rocks falling down from above. 

“Rockslide!”  He called out, and leaned into the mountain side, holding tight to Tilda’s hand.  The rain of rock from above hit hard as the main mass of the slide came down.  A rock slammed into his head, and for a moment he thought he might be dead.  His senses fled and bright lights flashed before his eyes.  When his senses began to clear up again he found himself toppling backwards towards the side of the ledge.  He staggered forward trying to recoup his balance, and it was at that moment he realized that the hand that had been holding Tilda was empty.  The rest of reality came back to him and he could hear screaming.  Tilda was screaming.  He turned and looked down to see the old woman hanging from the edge of the ledge, her fingertips bleeding as she struggled to claw her way back up. 

Xandrith twisted and fell to his knees, reaching for her, but it was too late.  Tilda’s grip slipped and she began to plummet.  The assassin reached out as far as he dared and snagged the cloth of her cloak, his troll-like claws hooking into the fabric with a grip that could sunder flesh.  For a moment, a brief moment, Xan managed to stop Tilda’s plummet to the ground that was so far away they couldn’t even see it.  His right hand was latched into solid rock, his claws digging into the mountain side.  He hung suspended between the two points, staring into the old woman’s face as the look of terror filled her eyes. 

“I’ve got you.”  Xandrith told her, and then she slipped out of her cloak.  Suddenly Xandrith was staring at an empty piece of cloth and Tilda was falling away from him.  That moment froze in time.  Her look of horror etched itself into his mind as she tumbled away beyond his grip.  He had failed her. 

A dark streak swept past him and Haley screamed from above him.  “No!” 

Xandrith caught a momentary glimpse of Crow as the young man fell past him and vanished into the swirling chaos of snow and wind below, following Tilda into the darkness.  It had all happened so fast.  In a span of time shorter than a few breaths both of them were gone forever, swallowed by the vast hunger of the jagged mountain peaks. It didn’t seem fair, he hadn’t even noticed Crow was in trouble and now he was gone too.

Xan was stunned.  He stared after them, his eyes trying to make some sense of the chaos of snow and darkness. There was no pattern to be found.  They were gone. 

Chapter 7

Where is My Mind

“No!”  Haley screamed again, falling to her knees on the narrow ledge of rock.  Xandrith worried for a moment that she might give in to her despair and topple after her friends into the abyss, but she leaned into the mountainside instead. 

Xandrith looked up into the expressionless features of the Unth that had been behind Haley.  He was watching the tragedy unfold before him, curious, but apparently oblivious to the pain of those under his care.  The assassin stood, locking eyes with the passionless mask that met his own grief stricken features. 

“Their deaths are on your people. We both know this path wasn’t the only one that would have taken us to the wall, but your damned Wellspring was more important than the lives of our friends.”  The words slipped from between Xan’s lips unchecked.  He had to let something out, and it was either speak his mind or shove his knife into the Unth’s emotionless face over and over again until the loss of his companions was paid for in full.  He’d never owned a knife that would hold an edge for that long.