I’m directed toward the line for tents, and I grab my gear in silence—a tent bag that seems impossibly small to contain something that’ll truly protect me from the elements; a pack of rations that looks as hard as rock; a case that rattles, presumably containing my army pot and spoon and firestarter.
The waterskins stink of mildew, and I pass over them, preferring to stick with the one I brought.
Back out in the open air, recruits are being directed out a side gate that was locked earlier. I fall in line, and we skirt around the western edge of the castle. The castle looks different from this side; I realize I’ve only seen it from one angle before. From my quarter, most of what we can see is the massive outer wall and two huge guard towers with meager windows and crenelated walls.
From this angle, we can see beyond those fortifications; more graceful turrets pierce the sky, some with walkways between them or massive stone buildings connecting them. The biggesttowers in the center end in pointed roofs, each flying a flag bearing the royal coat of arms. The castle is made from the same gray stone that most of our city is built from, but each wall looks like it’s multiple feet thick.
I smile grimly when I realize what I’m about to see, for the first time:
The famous Bonded City of Sturmfrost.
As we come around the side of the castle, murmurs start as others make the same realization that I have.
In some ways, the area doesn’t look all that different from the city I know so well. The same gray and black stone forms the walls and streets and bridges, the same snow swirls down from the gray sky above.
The snow, though… it’s as if it disappears before it reaches the ground. Nothing’s sticking, no ice, no dirty brown sludge like back home. As if the ground is heated from below, somehow.
And the buildings themselves look strange to me, until I realize—they’re clean, all of them, instead of stained with the soot and dirt that surrounds us in our city. The walls all gleam with countless windows, too; glass so smooth and clear it sparkles like crystal in the early morning sunlight.
Our path doesn’t take us through the Bonded City, just around the side, but I keep my eyes fixed on the place, drinking in the details as I see them; sculpted stone balconies on buildings, some with fancy ironwork rails, some enclosed entirely in glass like giant lanterns.
Statues casually gracing the facades of buildings—the faces of snarling wolves, of impassive men and women, the twisting bodies of other beasts of the forest.
Buildings that look as big as my entire block, but seem to have only one main door—is it possible they house just a single family?
As I stare, a Bonded family comes out the door, wrapped in plush-looking furs. A man is holding a small daughter, who wiggles and laughs, a clear sound like a bell that I can hear from my spot several streets away. Her curtain of brown hair reminds me of Saela and for a moment I stop, transfixed.
The father tosses the daughter into the air, and she screams with delight. Then they both notice us, and soon the daughter is riding on her father’s shoulders as they approach the path we’re on, just on the other side of the low fence dividing the Bonded City from the wilderness. They come toward us until they’re only a block away.
I stare unblinking at the girl. Her face is round, flushed. She watches us with bright curiosity.
She looks like she’s never had to go without a meal, nor fear being snatched by Nabbers.
What makes these people so special, that they get access to all this? Fuck them.
“Move along!” comes a barked order, and I’m shocked into movement again, down the trail as it leads away from the Bonded City and into a dense wall of trees.
The hours pass slowly.I’m at least familiar with the sensation of being on my feet all day, although it’s usually not in the frigid wilderness. But some of the recruits are clearly suffering, either out of shape for a forced march like this one or wearing shoes or clothes that aren’t doing them any favors.
At each gap in the trees, we all squint toward Mount Wolfsbane, but it never seems to be getting much closer.
While we were shopping, Lee mentioned multiple times that it was important to have allies for the Ascent. It was one of thepieces of his advice that I figured I’d ignore. I do just fine on my own, most of the time.
Yet now as I watch Alessandra shiver and stumble, I can’t help but want to help her. I pull a spare sweater from my bag, and encourage her to layer it under her coat.
“Thanks,” she whispers, and smiles at me.
“We have to help each other,” I say, hoping that someone will return the same sort of kindness to me should I need it.
By the time we reach the base of the mountain, my feet are aching from my new boots—which, despite their high quality, still need to be properly worn in. At least they’re warm and dry, which is a big step up from what many of the other recruits are working with. I sling my packs off my shoulders, rubbing my neck with stiff hands.
It takes me a minute to realize that we weren’t the first to arrive.
A group of recruits is already here, tents built. They all seem to know each other, and many are wearing furs just like the ones I saw on the family hours ago, back in the Bonded City.
They’re the children of the Bonded, I realize. The ones who want a Bonding Trial to come, so that they can try for their so-called “birthright,” test their luck against the mountain and the direwolves atop it.
They didn’t have to report to the army recruitment base like the commoners, I guess. Their privileges started before we even arrived.
