“Okay,” I say cautiously. “I’ll listen.”
“Thank you.”
He leads me around the garden while Tamra follows behind us.
“I came out here when I turned sixteen,” he says. “Until then, Milena had me making weapons for the humans in the west. It was a task I relished, figuring out the mechanisms needed for warriors to manipulate the form of metal without magic. I saw it as a challenge.
“What’s more, I could prove my loyalty. I was not my father. I would not turn to darkness like he did. I would help humans, not hurt them. But I came to regret it.”
“What happened?”
“I saw my weapons in action,” he says. “There was a fight on the border. It was one of the first fae attacks after they fled their homes in the east. Lysander was my dragon. We were patrolling nearby, and what I saw?—”
He clears his throat, and I let him take his time.
“I had created blades that could kill cleanly,” he says, his voice now rasping a little. “You wear them as gloves. With a punch to the heart, the blade will extend for a near-instant death. But that wasn’t how the human army was using them.”
He falls silent again for a long moment and again, I let him take his time as we continue toward the edge of the garden.
“I understand that there’s chaos in battle,” he says. “It’s a fight for survival. There are no perfect strikes. But the humans had somehow figured out that if they cut off a fae’s arms, they could stop them from using their power. Very similar to Blacksmiths. It was horrifying.” He shakes his head, his lips twisting. “I will never forget their screams as long as I live.”
We reach the edge of the garden, where the path continues, and I catch a glimpse of a much larger village beyond it. It seems that the clearing we’re standing within is more elevated than the rest because the path slopes downward.
But Thaden gestures to the side of the rock instead.
As I step closer, I make out a platform wide enough for several people to stand on, which is positioned hard up against the side of the rock, and a length of metal extends all the way up the cliff face next to it.
“What did you do?” I ask. “After that fight?”
“I refused to make another weapon,” he says. “Milena was angry with me, but I was old enough by then to stand up to her, so I did. I convinced Lysander that there had to be a better way, and I came out here. I wanted to know what was causing the fae to flee their home.”
“We’re in the east?” I ask, taking an educated guess.
Tamra nods. “You need to see it. This pulley system will take you up, but you can’t stay up there for long. Even without your hammer, the darkness will seek you out.”
I can’t stop my shiver. I haven’t even seen what she wants me to see, but the scent I caught earlier has put me on edge.
“Tamra will show you,” Thaden says.
“You don’t want to go up with her?” Tamra asks him quietly.
He gives her a wry smile. “I don’t think Asha would appreciate being in a confined space with me.”
“True.” My sister reaches for me before she steps onto the platform, and I step on it beside her, uncertain what to expect.
Thaden pulls up a section at the front of the platform, multiple flat pieces that click into place to form a railing on all three exposed sides. Then he reaches for a winch set into the rock and begins winding the handle.
The platform rises rapidly into the air.
The higher we go, the heavier the air feels. Somehow, the light seems to fade until the platform stops several feet from the top of a rock ledge, high enough for me to see over it but low enough that I can’t step out.
The landscape beyond this mountain is a garish mix of blood red, black, and white.
Dark clouds fill the sky for as far into the east as I can see.
An ash-filled plain spreads across the distance, dust storms swirling across it. Tornados, just like the ones that whipped snow across the mountain in the east.
Within the storm down on the plain, shapes form, crashing against each other, countless beasts tearing each other apart.
