A Hollow Mountain (The Brightest Shadow Book 2), page 56
None of them could tell him anything about what the Deathspawn wanted, so Mohuno decided to take matters into his own hands. He walked directly out into the valley, ignoring the Deathspawn soldiers as they reacted to him. Instead he merely searched the group, eventually finding one of the giant Deathspawn.
"What do you want?" Mohuno demanded from a safe distance.
The giant blinked in surprise and turned to another, a smaller and older Deathspawn. Both of them rose to meet him, the giant following behind. Clearly not the leader, and he should have known. If the Deathspawn allowed boys to fight, it was no surprise that their leaders might have cold blood as well. As they approached, however, he saw that the older Deathspawn's armor was scarred but well cared for.
"The mansthein will soon begin a military operation in the mountains." The leader had a strange accent, but his voice was strong. "You may have fought us in the past, but we do not seek to fight you now. If you allow us to pass, we will not exterminate you."
"Hah." Mohuno would have scoffed further, but he realized that he had no Steelbones with him. There was no need to posture when finding out what they wanted mattered more. "If you aren't here to fight us, why are you here?"
"We seek another foe beyond your lands. All you need do is let us pass."
"That didn't answer the question."
Most boys would have retreated at Mohuno's tone, but the Deathspawn leader didn't budge, staring back at him. "Those are secrets of our armies and we will not share them with those who might be our enemies. If we wanted to attack you, why would we announce ourselves?"
"Maybe because you wanted us to let you march in before you turned on us."
Abruptly the giant Deathspawn growled, a sound of frustration that struck Mohuno as surprisingly familiar. "We don't care about you. Our leader just wants to kill the Sage of Mount Tmil."
The leader cursed at the giant in the Deathspawn tongue, but it was obviously too late. Unless it was some mad scheme, that must be the truth. Mohuno folded his arms over his chest as he considered just what that meant. It was a worthless excuse for anyone else. If he hadn't heard Tani speak about the Sage, he would have dismissed it. Apparently they sought the same Sage that her "hero" sought.
With a flickering impulse, Mohuno again chose a path and leapt from the mountain. "We don't like the Sage either. Pass if you want. But tell me: do you need assistance through the mountains?"
Both Deathspawn stared at him, then the leader spoke carefully. "What do you mean?"
"If you're blundering around trying to find clan leaders, you won't get far. You obviously don't know enough about clan territories. And how many supplies can you carry once you leave the largest passes? We could provide you with food, or better clothes as spring turns to summer."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because you'd pay us." Mohuno gave both of them his best smile. "We don't trust each other, but we don't need to. We give you what you want in return for something we want. There's nothing simpler."
The leader glanced at his giant companion, then back to him with a strange expression. "We've made contact with three clans so far, and this is the first time we've had any success in negotiations."
"The Steelbones are not like other clans. Do we have a deal?"
Chapter 40
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"Emlioon was the daughter of a merchant and pledged to marry a nobleman. But though the daughter of a merchant, she found her joy on the battlefield. She had defeated all foes before the day she met Emdore on the field of battle, and they fought, halberd against lance. And as lance met halberd, Emlioon felt a joy that she had never felt in the halls of her mother and father."
- excerpt from The Tale of Emdore and Emlioon
-
It had been over half a year since Slaten had traveled through the Sotunn Mountains, though it felt much longer. Since they had first encountered the raiding clans, he had become physically stronger and learned a few tricks, yet much more had changed than he expected. That had been made clear by every encounter so far.
Not that there had been many. Everyone in their group was armed and the errants looked more than a little intimidating. The only ambush attempts had been when he and Tani scouted ahead, as they did now.
Effective methods of moving through the mountains had returned to him quickly, and even more quickly to Tani. He had felt her new awareness of her surroundings before, but in the uneven mountains her talent shone. She often closed her eyes as they ran, trusting him to observe anything not found within sein senses. And in turn...
"Up there." Tani opened her eyes and just briefly pointed toward an upcoming crag with her toe in the middle of a step. "Three raiders, likely with spears."
"Do you want to pull back and allow Melal to handle it?"
"There are only three." Tani smiled and fell into place alongside him as they advanced.
Though it was difficult not to show any tension as they approached the ambush, Slaten managed to pretend they were only walking together. He felt as though it would be more natural for them to talk but couldn't think of anything. Or perhaps a couple traveling in dangerous territory would be nervous and quiet.
Then people began throwing spears at him and he became much more comfortable.
Tani clenched her fist to signal to him the moment she felt their sein begin to move. She could somehow feel the raiders despite their unusual practice of sein, though she had only begun to draw her sickle knife. Alerted by her signal, Slaten was already moving, catching one spear out of the air and knocking another aside as he drew his sword.
He leapt at the crag, barely feeling the branches breaking against him as he closed the distance to the startled ambushers. Two reacted by dropping spears and drawing other weapons, but the third was raising his second spear, eyes only then widening in shock.
Slaten's leaping blow pushed aside the haft of his spear and bit deep into the raider's shoulder. The man was well-built, but he didn't yet have the stamina to fight through such a terrible wound. When Slaten pulled back his blade, the man fell off it with a cry of pain.
The other two rushed him without hesitation and Slaten stood his ground instead of retreating. Just when they flanked him, knives began flashing out, striking the arm and back of one of them. Tani clenched a fist and her strings of sein pulled the knives back to her, where she neatly arced the string around her hand and caught all three knives, ready to throw again.
Though they could have finished them then, Tani flinched in a strange way, eyes going to the bushes on the other side. Another raider emerged, startled but drawing a weapon. So she had missed one... not that it would matter.
Ignoring the knives spinning around them, Slaten fought smoothly at Tani's back. Now that she could use her knives endlessly, she only rarely needed to defend with her sickle knife. Her defense need only last for one movement before he stepped in and struck the one attacking her. Once she even succeeded in hooking the raider's weapon, making his task even easier.
The last of the raiders charged, so Slaten slipped into position for a strike. Tani threw first, but the raider reached up and grabbed the knife before it reached his face. It drew blood from his fingers when Tani attempted to jerk it back, but he wrenched it away with a roar and then hurled the knife behind him, sein broken.
That put him in position for Slaten's overhead cut. The raider had considerable strength, but he was off balance and only just managed to knock the blade aside. He and Slaten exchanged several blows before Slaten saw his moment and began to flip his sword to grasp it by the blade.
Immediately the raider lunged to take advantage of his weakness, but Slaten's hands were not merely shifting to grasp his blade. He smelled an inferno and a burst of sein shot from his fingers, striking the raider in the face.
Though the weak technique only made the raider stumble, that was enough. Slaten grasped his blade firmly, shifted his sein with memories of Olondris, and slammed the pommel into his opponent's head.
The man cracked backward and lay still. Slaten flipped his blade back into its proper position, ready for more ambushers, but the forest around them was quiet. Tani was smiling at him and at first he didn't understand. As his mind emerged from the battle he began to feel again and smiled back at her. It was good to fight together again.
Yet he was surprised to find how heavy his limbs felt. Even a brief fight at high intensity left him strangely tired: not breathing heavily and far from sore, yet drained of sein. Olondris had urged him to push forward and understand his sein deeper, but he feared there was some greater concern. Perhaps a hole had been opened in his identity and his sein simply drained out...
"I tried to disable instead of kill," Tani said, looking over the fallen. "Do you think the one with the shoulder injury will live?"
"That depends on his strength, or Laeri." Slaten knelt down beside the last of the raiders, examining the growing bruise covering his forehead. "I struck this one harder than I intended. I am... not sure how well they can survive such injuries."
"We aren't very far ahead of the others. It will depend on what Melal says."
They didn't need to wait long. Melal strode at the front of the group, his eyes fixed on the mountains ahead. When he glanced down at the bodies, for a moment it seemed that he would ignore them entirely, then he looked again. He bent down beside one of the fallen raiders nursing a wound and lifted him to his feet.
"What's your name, man?"
The raider stared at him suspiciously, then answered carefully. "I am Bh-"
"It doesn't matter who you were. What matters now is who you will be." Melal drew his sword and held it up so that it reflected the mountains around them. "We go now to fight an enemy stronger than you have ever known and to receive a reward greater than you can imagine. Will you join us?"
Slowly the man nodded. He looked toward the blade fearfully, yet it seemed to capture his gaze. Melal did not repeat his speech with the other raiders, he simply lifted them up and let them gaze into his sword. One by one, they fell into the group alongside the Bloodskin and Earthbreaker men, who accepted them without asking who they were or where they had been.
Melal's touch revived the warrior who had been knocked unconscious, though the man stared blankly at everything around him. The warrior bleeding out from his shoulder injury was left behind to die. Slaten considered the blade that had dealt the injury and returned it to its sheath.
As they entered Bloodskin territory, most of their group grew more relaxed, even the errants. All except Natala, who spent more time shadowing him. Her usual activity faded and she lowered her gaze, as if returning home had leeched everything from her.
When he met her dark gaze, he knew that was false. The deepest currents flowed strongest.
Eventually he decided that remaining silent would be a mistake and spoke to her quietly. "Do you need anything from me when we return to the village?"
"Only allow me to play my expected role." A slight smile appeared on her face. "And perhaps play a game of Yenith. It has been too long."
"Could I join you?" Tani asked. "I may not play Yenith, but I don't want to remain outside with all the Bloodskin men."
Slaten swallowed, unsure how to answer, and Natala took the thread from him. "Though you would be welcome, you do understand what they would assume about you, correct?"
Tani grimaced. "I can imagine, but they will assume many things about me regardless. I suppose the real question..."
Whatever the real question was, it was interrupted as Tani abruptly drew one of her knives. Slaten instantly responded as well, looking for another ambush. This time, Tani lowered her knife and frowned as she peered beyond the next hill toward something he could not see. Behind them, Natala quietly shifted her pack.
"There is another group approaching us," Tani said. "Unless something has gone wrong, it must be Bloodskin warriors."
Soon after, Tani's senses were proven correct when Chief Bufogu and another group of warriors came over the rise. A few of the Bloodskin men let out cries of joy and began to move toward one another, but they were interrupted as their Chieftain bounded forward, towering over all others.
"The long lost warriors return!" Chief Bufogu stepped past Melal to strike Patule on the shoulder instead. "You arrived at exactly the right time. With your help, we should be able to overtake the Whitebone clan and claim their lands, once and for all!"
"Who?" Melal moved to stand in front of Bufogu, ignoring the difference in their height. "I care not for the squabbles of a few clans. We have returned to wage war!"
"The Bloodskins are already at war. And if you have not forgotten, you were welcomed as one of us." Bufogu turned and spread his arms wide, ignoring the errants to embrace his clan. "The Whitebones thought that we would be weak with all of you gone, but we proved them wrong. Already we have struck down some of their strongest men, and now we need only press on to defeat them!"
"We did you a favor last time before you took us to Mount Tmil. This time, I need the Bloodskins to follow me first."
"You think the debt falls on our side? Have you forgotten that you took so many of my men off on some fool venture? Now is the perfect time to strike our enemies!"
"Now is the only time to fight the Deathspawn." Melal ignored everyone around him, yet they all hung on his words. "They have finally come for you, to cleanse the mountains of all human life. If we do not stop them now, in their first strike, it will be too late."
Chief Bufogu's eyes passed over the group, then his mouth emitted something like a laugh. "We can fight over this as men once we return to the village! Your war will wait for a feast, will it not?"
Melal's stare finally became a smile. "We could all use a long rest after our travels in the north."
"Then let us go!" Slinging an arm around the smaller man's shoulders, Bufogu led them all back the direction they had come. It seemed unlikely that the two of them would actually fight: the Bloodskin Chief was confident in his strength but also no fool. The two of them would squabble over their varying goals and no doubt settle upon something in the middle.
Slaten left Natala with Tani to walk close to the chieftain, listening for new information. Though Bufogu did not say it explicitly, between his words Slaten came to understand that he had not been idle. In their absence, he had made it clear that the Bloodskins were the Hero's clan, which had swelled their ranks. Some even viewed him as the Hero, a view that Bufogu did nothing to contradict. That belief would not last long in the presence of the real thing.
Unless Bufogu became the next Hero. Imagining what the Bloodskins might do with that power, Slaten resolved to guard Melal's back while they remained in the mountains.
The Bloodskin men who had stayed behind had many tales to tell of local skirmishes. More importantly, the strongest of them laid out a new picture of the mountains. Since Melal intended to simply march directly to Mount Tmil and slay anyone who stood in his path, Slaten did his best to capture that picture.
As always, the Stormpeaks posed a lethal threat over the entire central region. The Steelbones had grown in their absence and Slaten resolved to ask Tani more about them. A clan known as the Skullcrushers had acquired a fearsome reputation and currently struck out against others. Otherwise, the only clan relevant to the mansthein attack would be the other Earthbreakers, which made Slaten again wish that Veron had joined them.
When they reached the Bloodskin village, Slaten turned back and noted the reactions of the others. The Bloodskins were elated while the errants stared around them in helmed disapproval. Tani appeared immediately uncomfortable, especially after Natala vanished into the crowd of women who had come to greet them. Laeri also appeared discouraged by their return, every emotion clear in her large eyes.
Searching for a response within himself, Slaten found nothing but fragmentary thoughts and plans.
The first night after their return was consumed by a feast. Slaten ate his fill and then returned to his chambers with Natala. Though he easily ignored her false moans, she defeated him even more soundly than before, as if she had been playing Yenith during their travels. When he slept, he slept deeply.
In the morning, however, all woke to the question of their path onward. Bufogu and Melal argued loudly in the great hall, broken chairs and mugs the casualties of their battle. Because he knew he had no weight in such conflicts of passion, Slaten instead wandered through the village.
He found Tani soon, or rather she found him. Though he opened his mouth to ask her about her night, she shook her head and fell to walking alongside him. "How long do you think Melal will argue with their chieftain?"
"I do not know. But I do not think it will be long."
"Resting here would be a death of a thousand pebbles, and I don't want to train around the Bloodskins." Tani wrapped her arms around her torso as she led them past the errant camp by the entrance to the village. "But all signs suggest that the mansthein truly are preparing for war. There must be something that we can do to prepare."
Before he could find an answer, Slaten saw a cluster of boys from the village. Some lifted stones, some wrestled with one another, others smashed their heads together. He would have thought it drunken games if not for the early hour and the fact that Hogowo stood watching over them.
The older Bloodskin man regularly shouted at one boy or another, always mockery or scorn. Yet Slaten quickly realized that his shouts pointed out their shortcomings or sent them on a new path. There was a method to the mockery, a rough form of guidance. Though Slaten would not have expected such a method could produce results, he couldn't deny that it did.
"You there!" Hogowo leapt from his position to land beside a boy attempting to lift a stone much too large for him. "Stop bleeding over everyone! Your blood might be hot enough, but you need to feed it to your wolf, not throw it to the mountains!"
He struck the boy across the face, knocking him to the ground. In the absence of literal blood or wolves, Slaten had no choice but to take the words as metaphor, and they immediately struck something in him. He began to walk closer and Tani caught his sleeve.
