Then I’d start traveling to ayacht. I couldn’t wait to see that baby up close and personal. Ayacht, not just a boat. But first, blood needed to spill…
Time to get shit done again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kimber
The wind and rain hadwhipped the cliff town starting late in the afternoon and all through the night. The little rock house they had us in was secure, but Bel was impatient. He wanted to get to Gwen, and I didn’t blame him.
But the storm was awful, and being stuck out on the high plateaus of the mountains would have gotten us all killed. Lightning would have done us in.
Dawn took its time, but as soon as there was light, we had our packs on and were headed for the platform.
The woman, Ela, assured us the lookouts would be heading up early as well, and we could ride with them. When we arrived, a man was waiting at the bottom.
The platform was descending to us from the field above. It thumped against the ground as it settled, and a woman walked off, waving to the man.
He stepped up, and we followed. He was surprised but quickly appreciated that we were there because we could relieve part of the burden of winding the mechanism.
The two hand cranks were meant to be spun by a single person, so we would have to take turns. With seven people working on the crank, we were to the top in no time. The man locked the platform in place and allowed us to get off.
“You’re going to want to head north-northwest, on the Dead Horse Trail,” he said, pointing across the field.
“The what?” Rilen asked.
“Dead Horse Trail,” he repeated, thinking we just hadn’t heard him. “The caves are all in the Gulaar Valley, and there aren’t a lot of places to hide in these mountains. We all know the jagged rocks like the back of our hands.”
“Thank you,” I said to the man.
“Thank you for lending us your ship. We need those supplies. You can see our land isn’t the most fertile. Sheep and vitanberries are about the only things you can grow up here.”
“Vitanberries?” Roran whispered. “I haven’t had any of those since…” He went bright red. “Never mind.”
Rilen started laughing and headed down the path the watchman had pointed to. Roran looked mortified and ran after him, yelling, “Don’t tell her the story, Ri! Don’t you dare!”
Belshazzar just shook his head and followed them. Aiko trailed behind him, and Dorian and I brought up the rear. As we walked, the wind whipped at us, and the high sun barely did anything to warm the day.
We didn’t want to use our speed—we talked Bel and Dorian out of it—because we didn’t know how quickly we’d be able to locate the queen and Gwen and what we would have to face. Using our speed to get there would wear all of us out, even those two old bastards.
As mid-morning approached, we heard…something in the distance. Something the currents of the wind in the valley swept our way. It sounded like screaming, panic, nervous horses and general confusion.
A while later, several of those panicked, nervous horses shot by us, galloping at top speed. Some were bareback, some had saddles. A few had riders, and a few had… less than complete riders. Two were missing heads. Three were merely the bottom half of the body.
Belshazzar watched half a rider fly by on the back of his horse and looked at Aiko and me. “So, we’re going the right way.”
Aiko watched as a horse bearing a headless rider trotted by. “Yes.”
I watched another saddled, riderless horse trot by. “We’re not grabbing these horses to use because…”
Rilen and Roran turned back to us. “Dead Horse Trail,” they chorused.
I nodded. “Forgot. Sorry.”
“How do you forget something like Dead Horse Trail?” Roran asked.
I jerked my thumb back at the horses that had passed. “They were alive. The riders were dead. I was distracted.”
Belshazzar chuckled. “You mean headless riders—”
