The Sword and The Mountain (Kathardra book 1)

“Kaven said the city has been on edge for weeks. Apparently, the Vandels have been pushing further and further into Bridgetown. More and more Vandels have been taking up residence. With them came their own peacekeepers. The problem lies with the differences between Vandel customs and law, and Kathardrean customs and law.

“Even a few farming licenses were granted to Vandels by their chancellor…. On our side of the river. It’s clearly a violation of Kathardrean domain.”

They had put over two hours between themselves and Bridgetown. It was a relief to be traveling on a road, the open sky above them. Actually feeling the sun on her face at ground level where she wasn’t also battling the wind in her eyes was a welcome relief to Lessa. “Do you think Golathar is okay with that?” She asked him.

“I doubt it. He can either deal with the Vandels diplomatically. Send an ambassador, and let them negotiate terms. Allow the Vandels farmers to swear Kathardrean oaths and absorb them into the citizenry, or make it clear this violation of borders will not be tolerated and deport them back to Vandels alternatively,-”

“Dragon fire,” Lessa cut him off with her new favorite Kathadrean swear, “Storm sees an entire regiment of soldiers marching in this direction.”

“Alternatively he can do that. He is going to escalate.”

“How many?” Worran asked as he sat further back in his saddle, pushing his feet slightly forward, cueing his horse to stop, with his usual display of disregard for his reins.

“Uhhh… “ She tried to count the heads in the image Storm was sending her. Five abreast, there were easily twenty columns… “Over one hundred?”

This time Zar asked, “Mounted?”

“Only a few.”

“It’s probably best if we get off the road. How far?”

That was even harder to estimate. “Storm thinks we’d run into them in about twenty minutes if we continue.”

“Right, let’s get to that forest.”

He pushed them to the side of the road, a thick stand of trees was a couple hundred yards off. They kicked the horses into a canter, quickly closing the distance between themselves and the trees.

They stashed the horses behind some thick bushes, picketing them with enough room to forage, It would keep them in one place, out of sight.

With deft fingers, Worran nocked an arrow and picked his way through the underbrush quietly after Zar. With a frown, Lessa followed. She thought she could be quiet in the woods, but Worran made her sound like a bumbling oaf.

How did he make no sound?

She tried to step exactly where he stepped, picking over twigs, keeping to moss. But his legs were impossibly long. She found herself taking leaping strides that threw her off balance.

Going back to her normal way of walking, ‘stalking’ as Worran called it, she tried to find the softest places to walk.

Her attention snapped back up when Zar hissed “Get down.”

At once Lessa dropped to her hands and knees. On his belly, Zar had shimmied up a knoll where he could see the road the soldiers were marching down.

“This is bad.” His voice was so low Lessa could hardly hear him.

The garrison was kicking up dust on the road around them, marching in step, each draped in the dark orange tunic emblazoned with the black bear. Over a hundred feet hitting the ground in time could be heard echoing in front of the troops. It could be felt in the ground under Lessa’s hands.

Mounted soldiers, likely officers, rode out in front of the group, and a few along the sides.

“Golathar is going to lead Kathardra to war. He has grown the military, but not enough to fight a war.” His fingers ran through his hair.

“Is there anything we can do?” Lessa asked.

They both stared at her.

“What?” She hissed at them.

“We’re doing what we can do,” Worran said.

“Lessa, the best we can do is depose Golathar. The king is the only one who has the power, militarily, to put an end to this and negotiate a peaceful resolution.”

Suddenly, Lessa felt very small.

Her eyes were glued to the force marching down the road in front of her. “Zar…” her voice was meek.

“Don’t worry about them Lessa,” that was a little hypocritical, considering the fact that he was clearly worried about this. “There is only one person you need to be concerned with is Golathar.”

Zar pulled away from the knoll they were lying on, Worran followed without a word.

Lessa stayed glued to the spot just a moment longer. How many soldiers would stand between her and the king?

“How am I supposed to fight a king?” She demanded of Zar the moment she was able to pull herself away.

Stance loose, Zar turned, his blue eyes fixed on her, a wide grassy distance was spread between them.

“How am I supposed to fight someone who has all that?” Her finger pointed wildly behind her to encompass the entirety of the army, the entirety of Kathardra.

“Zar, no amount of sword fighting is going to make me capable of walking through an army to fight a king. And for that matter, do you expect me to kill him?”

Worran opened his mouth but Zar held up his hand to silence him.

“I can’t kill anyone! I’m just one girl! That is an army!”

“Golathar won’t have an army between you and him.”

“How can you know that?”

“Because we don’t need to fight an army. We need to fight one man.”

She threw up her hands in exasperation. He was way too calm. “One man who has the power of a country behind him! How many soldiers, how many mages for that matter are going to be in the way? Do you want me to kill all of them too?”

“You’re wrong.” His tone was dangerously low. “He doesn’t have the power of a country behind him. The people are the power. The people would rally behind a new king without hesitation. Kathardra is suffering. They want someone to blame their problems on and it’s easy to blame a king who has been taxing them into oblivion. When the crops start growing again they will be happy to follow me.

“I can’t do this. I can’t be the one all of Kathardra is relying on.”

“Yes, you can!” Zar’s voice raised a modicum. Lessa had never once heard him raise his voice at anyone. And it had never been less than patient with her.

“What makes you so sure!” Lessa nearly yelled the words.

“Because Lessa, I was born with the ability to see magical power. Your’s is more than I’ve ever seen. You have no idea what you are capable of. And you mastered the sword faster than humanly possible. You can deny it, but I can see it clearly even if you can’t.” He was very nearly glaring at her now, his intense blue eyes boring into her.

“I don’t think I can kill anyone, Zar.” Her hands fell to her sides, defeated and empty.

“Then I’ll kill him.”

“Just like that, that easy?”

“No,” he shook his head vehemently, “Never easy. Not that. But if I have to make that choice, if it’s him, or my country, he’s going to die.”

He continued to stare at her.

She stared back. At a loss.

“We should probably move on,” Worran said, effectively cutting the tension. “They might have heard you yelling. I don’t want to be here if they come to investigate.”

Lessa couldn’t bring herself to move. Her feet felt like they had become one with the ground, roots sent deep down.

Zar brought his hand over to the direction of where the horses were, silently saying ‘This way’.

She didn’t move.

He dropped his hand.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” she breathed the word.

“Then trust that I know what I’m doing, Even if you don’t,” his words were full of compassion.

Lessa had been brooding since they had seen the column of soldiers. This was too much responsibility for one girl. It was true, Zar was mentioned in the prophecy that had passed into legend, but Lessa was pivotal to it.

Yes, she trusted that he knew what he was doing.

But he had faith in her. And it was totally misplaced. She could not do what he expected. Despite his trying to transform her into a sword maiden, she wouldn’t become more than that.

She was becoming more and more convinced that any horse that happened to pass through the portal would result in a dragon, bonded to the person riding it.

“No.” Snapped Storm.

“No, what?” Exhaustion dripped from Lessa’s thoughts.

“Our bond is deeper than that. It is more. It is bone deep.”

“How do you know?”

An emotion Lessa struggled to understand stirred within Storm. It felt alien to Lessa. She could feel Storm feeling it, but it was not translating well to Lessa’s own emotions.

“What is th-”

“Ah, flames. Zar?” Worran’s concerned tone snapped Lessa back to where she sat on Leo.

“What?” Zar stood in his stirrups to get a better look at what Worran was pointing at.

Lessa found it at once.

Off the side of the road, many yards ahead, a black post stood alone in an open field. It was easy to see that it was all that was left standing of a structure that must’ve burned to the ground.

“Where is Storm?” Zar asked.

“She didn’t do that,” Lessa’s tone was both defensive and offended.

“I didn’t think she did. I want her close if there is trouble.”

“She’s close enough. But I don’t smell the char, and there isn’t any smoke, this happened at least a rain ago. And it hasn’t rained for… Four days?”

With a small brow rise and tilt of his head, Zar recognized Lessa’s logic. “I’d still like to know she is close. I’m not sure what we are dealing with here. Please keep her out of sight unless absolutely necessary.

With one dip of her chin, Lessa nodded.

They came even with the burned-out farmhouse. A foreboding hanging in the air like fog prevented any of them from approaching. This had been someone’s home. It was diminished to a low pile of gray ash and black charcoal.

Lessa knew what they all stopped to look for.

Bodies.

Thankfully there were none to be seen. Either this fire had taken no lives, or it had been so hot that nothing remained.

“There is nothing we can do here. Let us move on.” darkness clung to Zar’s face as he kicked his horse on.

Just around the next hill, another farmhouse was fully in their view. The fire that had consumed this one had left two walls that looked like they might give in to the next wind that pushed at them. The burn scar extended in a large teardrop around this one, eating up half of the fields that had been cultivated here.

“Zar…” Lessa did not know what to ask.

“I don’t know.” He seemed to answer the questions she could not articulate.

“Occasionally raiders will burn a house down. But they aren’t usually part of a community.” Worran supplied. “The safety of numbers usually prevents that at least.”

They didn’t even pause at this house.

“Lessa…. Look…”

A wave of dizziness washed over Lessa as her attention shifted to Storm’s vision.

Not far from them, nestled between two hills, an entire town lay in ruins. All of it blackened out. There wasn’t a single building left untouched. Something of a pattern remained on the corpse of the town. Squares and rectangles where stone foundations once supported homes, businesses, and lives.

“Lessa!” She nearly fell off Leo, Zar grasped her bicep and held her upright from his own saddle. “What is it?” His voice was sharp with worry.

She buried her face in her hands, it was easier to speak of this atrocity into them than the open air.” An entire town. Everything is gone.”

The boys gave each other one worried glance then kicked at their horses.

Slower, Lessa followed. She had already seen what they would find on the other side of the next hill. She was in no hurry to see it closer.

When she caught up to Worran and Zar they were sitting on their horses at the mouth of the town. Worran’s jaw was slack, making his long face look even longer.

Zar’s jaw was clenched hard enough that Lessa worried he would crack a tooth.

The remains of the town were worse at ground level. Lessa couldn’t help but imagine what it had looked like when the well might have had children drawing water from it. What was now a pile of stone rubble had probably once been a mill, where the farmers would bring their harvests to transform it into wheat.

This building might have been a shop. This one was probably a home.

With nothing but the sound of their horses quietly plodding through ash, they quietly moved through the town.

None of them could speak, even Worran brought to silence by the gravity of what had happened here.

Lessa strayed from the direction Zar and Worran were moving. Her eyes had been transfixed by lumps in the ash.

“There is something here.” Quiet, came the words from Worran.

Lessa slipped from Leo, her unblinking eyes riveted.

“What does it say?” Zar responded to Worran.

At the lump in the ground, Lessa dropped to her knees, scattering a puff of ash as she hit the ground.

“By order of King Golathar, first of his…. On the third…. Traverston was sentenced to burning for the high crime of defiance of the crown.”

“Stars, where is Lessa?”

They jogged up behind her, but Lessa hadn’t moved.

“What is- oh flames.”

Zar’s hand fell to her shoulder. “Lessa,” he gently pulled her away from the blackened bodies she was staring at.