The Sword and The Mountain (Kathardra book 1)

Their pace slowed significantly once they hit the foothills of the mountains. Their path grew immediately steeper, though the trail was clearer. It was rocky and jagged, full of switchbacks and footing often treacherous for the horses.

In more than one place Lessa and Zar had to clear a path through rock slides that had fallen over the ancient path.

There were so few people around, and nowhere to hide that Storm had stopped trying. She would glide from peak to peak, watching their travel progress like a sentient gargoyle. In the evenings she would pluck an oblivious mountain goat from the cliff face. Worran would carve meat from it before Storm devoured it. Cinder would cook the meat while Lessa and Zar sparred, after dinner she would fight both of them. After Lessa was defeated, and generally exhausted, Cinder and Zar would devolve into political discussions.

“If I remember right, we will be coming up on a mining settlement,” Cinder said several days into the mountains.

“Storm can see it,” Lessa said, looking through Storm’s eyes. “But it's bigger than a settlement… Maybe not a city, but fairly large… And it looks like there are soldiers.”

Zar sighed audibly. “How many?”

“Ummm a couple hundred?”

He nodded grimly.

“Are you going to pull another stunt like last time?” Worran verbalized the unspoken.

Lessa glared at him.

“What happened last time?” Cinder asked.

Nobody answered him.

“Can we go around?” Zar asked, “I don’t think there is anything we need.”

Lessa reined Leo to a halt and looked around, orienting herself with Storm’s images as they both tried to look for a path through the mountains around the town.

Cinder answered, “We could go around if we wanted to add weeks to our journey. This settlement, well town, is the end of the road in the mountains. Which means it is the beginning of our road out.”

Lessa shook her head, “He's right. There is a road once we drop into this valley. There aren’t any other major paths, game trails maybe. But as far as Storm can tell, there would be a lot of climbing involved.”

Grimly, Zar heeled his horse forward.

“I could give myself a disguise now,” Lessa said.

Zar raised an eyebrow at her.

“Lessa,” Worran pushed his horse to ride at her side, a smirk on his lips. “The worry isn’t what you look like. The worry is what you will do.”

She eyed Zar, looking for confirmation. He didn’t look at her, but that was confirmation enough.

“Really, Zar. It must be concerning, you created a champion you have no control of,” Worran pushed.

Very studiously, Zar stared straight ahead.

Lessa drummed her fingers on her saddle.

“What happened last time?” Cinder asked again.

Shaking her hair back, Lessa raised her chin. “I intervened.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess. You saw an… injustice… It had to have something to do with soldiers. And someone who couldn’t stand up for themselves, probably being abused. So a young girl. And you just couldn’t help ‘intervening’. Probably without a plan.”

Heat raced up Lessa’s cheeks and she clenched her teeth, refusing to change her posture.

Worran threw back his head and laughed, “That's exactly what happened.”

“Maybe there won’t be any trouble here,” Lessa said, trying, unsuccessfully, to push down her shame.

Again, Worran laughed.

“What?” she snapped at him.

“Well. You tend to take the trouble with you.”

“I… resent that.”

“That’s enough.” Zar interrupted before they could take it any further. “Lessa, what do you mean disguise?”

“I can probably figure out how to change what I look like with magic.”

“Or you can just put on these.” All eyes turned on Cinder who was digging in his saddle bags.

He found what he was looking for and threw a bundle of fabric at Lessa, it was a long full skirt.

“And this.” He threw a necklace over to her.

“The skirt, I understand. Swordmaidens aren’t going to wear full skirts. But what’s this?” Lessa could feel a tiny buzz of magic coming from the simple necklace. It was a gold chain, with a tiny triangle pendant. “What is this?”

“If you put it on it will change how you look, just enough.”

Lessa shrugged and clipped the necklace around her neck.

“So?” she asked, gesturing to her face. “I don’t feel any different. Do I look different?”

Cinder responded with a shrug. Confusion covered Worran’s face, and he tilted his head. Zar stared blankly back at her.

“You look… Well, that’s weird. Maybe your nose is bigger?.. No, your eyes have a different shape,” Worran said.

“Well. You don’t look like yourself,” Zar said flatly.

Worran was still staring. “Your eyes are normal now! You actually have Kathardrean eyes!”

“Really?” she asked, “What color are they?”

“Brown. A perfectly normal brown.”

Even though it was awkward, Lessa was able to tie the skirt around her waist without dismounting. She ruffled up the fabric until it was sitting naturally.

“Cinder, do you know any spells to make my sword invisible?”

He answered with a considering frown, “To make something invisible is a bad idea. But you can make it overlooked. It is just as effective, but you aren’t likely to lose it. Touch it with both hands and say Iriginay. Include the sheath.”

With both of the sword and sheath in her hands, Lessa repeated the word. “Iriginay.” She could feel the magic work but didn’t notice any difference.

“Are you sure-”

“It’s because you already know it's there. As do all of us,” Cinder bounced a hand between the three men, “but eyes who haven’t seen it will just slide over.”

Not much later they dropped into a valley that had been stripped of most trees. Their small trail very suddenly turned into a gravelly road that the horses' hooves crunched into.

Staring eyes made it difficult to not stare back. Clearly, this town did not get many visitors, or at least not any that appeared from the mountains.

“Remember,” Zar said quietly, “We’re just passing through.”

He might have been speaking to all of them, but Lessa knew his words were directed at her.

Passing through would be hard when it seemed that half the town had already taken notice of them.

The homes of this town seemed to be uniformly wood, they were built tall, to smash the population into the tight valley. Gravel roads united the structures, people walked busily along them. Interspersed with the people were soldiers, in the same burnt orange tunics, a black bear plastered on the chest of each.

As Lessa watched, a soldier leaned over to a young boy and the young boy darted away. She looked to see if Zar had seen; his eyes were on the little boy's back.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to pass through easily,” Worran mumbled.

Lessa could feel her hackles rise as they continued. Any soldiers that they passed followed at a distance, trying and failing to be inconspicuous.

They were nearly through the town when a man in a cape, flanked by five other men, marched down the road directly to them.

“And here comes the trouble,” said Worran.

“This is not my fault,” hissed Lessa.

They all reigned their horses to a halt, Zar and Cinder directly ahead of Lessa and Worran.

“Hello, captain.” Zar managed to sound cheerful and innocent, speaking the moment the man reached them.

“Good afternoon,” the caped man said. He had to be as tall as Zar, his hair was dark, just starting to streak with gray, and his helm was under his arm. “Not often we get visitors in Andorra.”

“We’re just passing through,” Zar replied, just as calm.

The man studied all of them a little too closely, Lessa kept her eyes on the ground even though her distinct eyes were disguised.

“It is protocol to log all visitors, along with their business. If you will, dismount and follow me.”

Somehow, Zar didn’t even stiffen, Lessa forced her body to stay relaxed. Zar looked around at all of them and tilted his head. When he met Lessa’s eyes his expression was easy enough to read, it said don’t do anything stupid.

She kept her head down and followed Cinder’s white horse.

The captain and his guards led them the rest of the way through the town to a neat cluster of tents just on the outskirts.

Each tent was aligned on a grid pattern, looking like they were staked down with a ruler. There were soldiers everywhere. Not one loitering, they were sharpening weapons, washing laundry, cooking or at least walking with a purpose. Just as the townspeople had, these men stared as Lessa’s group passed them.

Just at the center of the camp was a tent larger than the others. At its peak was an orange flag, the black bear marching through its middle.

“You may hitch your horses here,” the captain said, pointing to a post by a water trough. “The three of you can wait outside,” his finger slid from Lessa to Worran and Cinder, “and you will follow me inside.” He waved Zar forward as he walked into the tent.

Zar didn’t even look back as he followed the man inside.

“What are we going to do?” Lessa whispered to Cinder and Worran, she eyed the soldiers who had stayed outside to watch them.

“Nothing,” Cinder whispered back. “Generally waiting and watching a situation works better than immediately trying to make it worse.”

“You’d be surprised what Zar can talk his way out of. And honestly, we haven’t done anything wrong.” Worran said, keeping his voice low.

“My being here is what I’ve done wrong,” Lessa told Storm.

“But you aren’t you right now, you look different, right?”

“I think so.” She looked down at her hands, they looked as they always did. She very consciously kept her hands away from her sword, not wanting to bring attention to it.

“Don’t pace,” Worran said without moving his mouth. Lessa froze mid-step.

Lessa looked over the five soldiers who were standing watch, two had taken position at the entrance to the tent, and the other three were milling about just a couple yards away. No matter how friendly it appeared, they were surrounded.

Lessa folded her arms and kicked at the dusty ground. “We’re going to have to fight our way out of this. What do you think our best move is?”

“I could burn the entire camp down.”

It only took a moment to consider. “That’s probably not for the best. Too many people might be hurt who don’t need to be. And the fire might spread to the town.”

“How many do you think you can handle?”

Lessa raised her eyes to the camp and tried to count soldiers. There had to be well over one hundred, not to mention those who were currently walking the town.

“Not enough. Even between the four of us, Worran doesn’t count, we’re outnumbered. We have to take out just enough to run.”

The flap of the tent opened, and the captain’s head emerged just enough to talk to one of the soldiers standing guard. Lessa’s spine went rigid as the guard came straight to her.

“Miss, the captain requests your presence.”

Worry was clear on Worran’s face as Lessa passed him. The soldier held the tent flap aside for Lessa and she ducked around his arm.

Zar was seated in a small chair, quite relaxed and managing to take up all the space in the room, despite the roomy tent.

The captain stood behind the desk, his hands splayed on the wooden surface, staring at Lessa expectantly.

Lessa looked to Zar for an explanation, he didn’t meet her eye but was smirking behind his hand.

“Lessa, the good captain would like to meet you,” Zar said.

Her eyes shot from Zar, to the captain, and back. He couldn’t be serious.

Zar nodded, just slightly.

Unsure where this was headed Lessa found the clasp under her hair and released the necklace. She felt a tiny stream of magic from the enchanted pendant leak away, she would look normal again. Her eyes flashed up and locked with the captain’s.

He slowly sank into his chair, “By all the stars…” he mumbled, unable to look away.

“We need to be moving on.” Zar stood smoothly from his chair. “I’m sure we have your assurance none of your men will remember we were here?”

The captain nodded, his mouth slightly ajar. “Of course, please, all I ask is that when… Don’t forget the people of Andorra.”

Lessa quickly clipped the necklace around her neck once more, Zar held the tent flap aside and she slid around him, back into the sun.

“These people are free to go.” The captain said as he followed Zar from the tent.

“Get the horses, let's be on our way.” Zar started unhitching his own horse.

“What just happened?” Lessa hissed at Zar, using the pretense of unhitching Leo to ask her question.

“I need allies, Lessa,” he whispered back. “I need to build a kingdom back up. When I can, I need to find the people who I can rely on to help me.”