Chapter 18
Vienne
W hatever is happening to Raiden, I’m grateful for it.
I haven’t found the perfect opportunity yet to get one over on him, but at least he hasn’t noticed my own ailment. I’m constantly battling roiling nausea with a grimace on my face, and my whole body is sore and aching. I can barely eat, and all food tastes like trash left out in the sun.
This can’t be the same thing as before. No, that sickness was different—it’s what’s happening to Raiden right now, with his body behaving in strange ways. I see him squinting, as if struggling to see what’s ahead of him, leaning forward on his horse to get a better look. He’s tired more often, stopping early at night to make camp because he’s too exhausted. Once, he even lost his balance and nearly fell over.
Embarrassing I haven’t gotten away yet, but I’m distracted, too.
I don’t know how close we are to our destination because he won’t let me see the map, but it’s almost as if I can feel it nearby, like there’s a tether tied around me and someone on the other end is tugging on it, drawing me closer. Perhaps we only have a day left, if that buzzing awareness behind my eyes is any indication.
That night, after Raiden falls asleep next to me, my rope tied around his arm, I stare up at the night sky and dig deep for an answer to my conundrum. I need a way out of this, before Raiden gets what he wants and doesn’t have a use for me any longer.
But no matter how I hope, no matter what solution I think of, nothing changes.
The worst part is the knowing. After this many days, I’m not just ill from undercooked meat. I don’t have to be an idiot to figure out what’s wrong with me. When one of the other members of the Corps found herself pregnant, she also heaved up perfectly good food and felt sick to her stomach constantly, until she had to turn around and head home before she could complete the mission.
I told myself that would never be me. Raiden has always pulled out, and when I was with him, I was careful to drink my purentea. The last thing I wanted was to destroy my reputation with the Corps by having my boss’s kid.
But after I left home, there was no reason to bring tea along with me, and I didn’t even think twice about it when I let Graz fuck me senseless over and over again. Because why would I? He’s trollkin. An orc. A monster. Perhaps our bodies fit together, but that in itself was a miracle. I couldn’t have imagined we were... compatible.
Now I think I might have been wrong. I know exactly whose child I’m carrying now, and it turns my stomach even more sour.
Graz left me. He abandoned me there after everything he said to me. He’s not trustworthy, and he’ll never accept us.
My child will grow up without a father, just like I did.
I finally manage to fall asleep, tormented by an uncertain and increasingly perilous future.
* * *
Graz
I am haunted.
As we get closer to our destination, the dread winds up even stronger in my belly.
I filled up Vienne over and over, making sure she was utterly drenched in me. The chance I’ve left her carrying my whelp is horribly high. Why did I never consider it? Why didn’t I stop myself?
I wish I could reach her somehow, but all my magic is back in the shop. There’s nothing I can do. I just have to hope somehow, we find each other again.
Human settlements grow few and far between as we advance. The landscape begins to slope upward, bringing us ever closer to the massive peak in the distance, where Gusak is convinced we’ll find the final site.
I wonder what he’ll do when we get there. I’ve tried to ask, but for him, it “depends on what’s there.” That’s all I get.
Another day passes, and at last, we’re at the base of the peak.
“It must be inside this mountain,” Gusak says thoughtfully as we study the climb ahead of us, securing our packs. There are no signs of civilization within our immediate vicinity, so I’m inclined to agree. The last site was well-hidden, too. I only hope we can get inside it without Vienne’s help.
Gusak sends Agna and Kal'zan to scout, and we start the climb up, hoping that one of us will stumble across the entrance. But there’s no sign of it, even as they return to the campfire that night. I start to wonder if perhaps the map is incorrect, and we’re looking in the wrong place.
The next morning, we leave the horses and cart behind to ascend the mountain. We fight with heavy boulders and slopes of scree, but as we climb higher, I catch sight of something that gives me hope: a ledge sits above us, clearly carved into the stone by intelligent hands.
“There!” I call out. Gusak follows where I’m pointing, then picks up his pace, climbing on ahead of me with a strength I didn’t realize he possessed while Agna and Kal'zan bring up the rear.
The way is perilous, but at last, we reach the ledge. It is the first of many that seem to lead even higher up the mountain.
Gusak adjusts his pack. “Here we go.” There’s a surprising eagerness on his face. “Ready?”
I nod. “Ready.”
We start the final ascent, climbing from one ledge to the next. Agna nearly falls, but Kal'zan is able to steady her in time.
We’re all out of breath by the time we reach the last ledge, which is more of a platform. And here, recessed into the mountainside, is a doorway.
I could simply collapse with my relief and my exhaustion, but now that we’ve gotten to our destination, there’s still more to go.
Pulling my lamp out of my bag, I light it on the understanding that I’ll go first. I wade into the darkened doorway, holding the lamp up high, while Gusak follows along behind me.
Like the other ruins I’ve visited, carvings line the walls, written in the same ancient language we’ve seen before.
“Do you know what any of this means?” Gusak asks, pausing to examine them.
I shake my head. “Not a clue.” I wonder if Vienne’s mother ever discovered their meanings, and my chest tightens painfully.
He hmm s as we continue on, deeper into the mountain. I shudder as we progress, wondering what would happen if it collapsed around us. It’s already happened once, and I barely got out with my life. I feel like I’m being squeezed in from all sides, and my breathing speeds up.
A hand lands on my shoulder. “Keep it together, bookworm,” Gusak growls.
I swallow and nod, then continue on.
Soon, to my great satisfaction, I catch sight of purple light up ahead. The idea of Gusak getting his hands on some magic of his own is a terrifying thought, but that fear is momentarily overwhelmed by the thrill of finding what I set out to find.
I pick up my pace and so does Gusak, until we’re jogging toward it. At last, the hallway ends. I step out from under the low overhang to find a rather small room carved into the rock. Purple magic lights up carvings all along the walls, every last surface decorated with them.
Gusak freezes, inhaling sharply at the sight of it.
“It’s just like you said, bookworm.” He grins, approaching one of the carvings with a hand outstretched. He examines the same image I’ve seen in every ruin I’ve visited: the human and the trollkin faces staring into one another’s eyes. “I wonder if it’s dangerous just standing here at all.” He snorts. “Too late now.”
But the engraving is all there is. The room is too small to hide much, and I see nothing that would indicate another door or passageway.
Then I spot it: the two pairs of handprints on the wall.
“Fuck.” I beeline toward them, kneeling to get a better look. “We can’t open it.” I hang my head, putting my hands on both handprints. “I need Vienne.”
Gusak says nothing as he takes off his pack. He fishes around in it, then withdraws something I’d never thought I’d see: a few sticks of dynamite.
“Maybe we can force our way through.”
* * *
Vienne
Today, we’re ascending. The map appears to be guiding us toward a huge peak in the distance. There aren’t others around it—it’s simply a lone mountain among the hills.
I wonder if, once upon a time, it was a volcano. The top appears as if someone sliced the tip right off.
Raiden’s illness is getting worse. By the time the sun sets, he’s shivering all over though the weather is anything but cold. When we bed down that night in silence, he ties my rope around his hand—but fails to double-knot it.
My heart speeds up. Not noticing what he’s done, Raiden lies down beside me and rolls over, showing me his back.
When I’m certain that he’s fallen asleep, I ever-so-gently tug on my rope. Raiden grunts, but doesn’t wake up, as the knot loosens. I tug again, hoping against hope he’s conked out enough not to notice.
The rope falls free and tumbles to the ground. Raiden snorts, staying asleep.
I suck in a breath. I don’t have long, and I need to get as far ahead of him as possible. But I also don’t want to risk waking him up by taking his supplies, so I simply grab my own pack off the ground, put it over my back, and step away from the campsite. The horses watch me curiously, but if I’m heading up the mountainside, I don’t need a horse.
I have to find the magic before Graz or Raiden do. That’s my only goal now.
Taking a deep breath, I square my shoulders, turn toward the peak, and take off at a run.
* * *
I keep going as long as I can, trying to put distance between us. Eventually my run slows to a jog, and then a walk as I recover my breath. Raiden hasn’t allowed me to eat much, so I don’t have a lot of fuel to go on.
I stop briefly to devour some rations and drink water. I still have the skin full of magic, and briefly I wonder if I should use it. I want to make sure I’m going the right direction.
Pulling out the water skin, I open the lid and pour some glowing purple magic into my hand.
“Show me where to go,” I murmur to it. “Where is the site?”
The magic glows brighter, rising up off my palm. It spreads and flattens, until it ceases to glow, and a map falls into my hands. When I peer down at it, a bright purple marker appears, then another one.
As I start climbing, one of the markers begins to move. That must be me—and the other marker, up ahead, is my destination. I follow the path with my eyes, and sure enough, it’s taking me up the side of the mountain.
I put the water skin away and tuck the map under my arm. It’s going to be a tough climb, but I know I can do it. I have to do it. I have to reach the last location and secure its treasure, so no one else can find it.
Especially not the trollkin.
Putting my head down, I start the ascent. I’m still sick to my stomach, but I push through, climbing over one rock and then another. Eventually, the map disappears.
I will make it to the top, and resolve this once and for all.
But by the time I’m halfway up, I’m panting and sweating in the full heat of the morning. No—I have to keep going. I can’t let Raiden catch up to me.
I climb and climb, irritated at how weak my body has become. Then, up above, I spot an outcropping in the rock. It’s high, but I think I can get to it without falling.
Creeping up the sheer cliffside, I finally reach it and pull myself up and over the top. I lie there, desperately trying to bring air back into my lungs.
Wait. Up ahead there’s another ledge like this one. Excitement rushes through me as I peer up, finding more ledges.
I’ve made it. But I don’t have time to rest, not until I find the last clue.