It wasn’t exactly a stable meant for strangers, but money always opened doors so it worked out anyway. I exchanged a glance with Henry as we left our mounts with the family who tended horses at the foot of the mountain, and then started towards the lowest level.
The mountain was split into tiers. Ramshackle houses made of wood and stone and spare bits of metal had been built on the grass before the ground started sloping upwards. At the edge of those were tents belonging to the people who either hadn’t had the time to build a more permanent residence, or who didn’t plan on staying on that level for too long.
After that first settlement, there was a section of the mountain that was uninhabited. Burning torches marked a path up the rocky slope until it reached the second ring of buildings. Just like the first one, it was made up of both permanent houses and tents. Another torchlit path led up to the third level.
In the gathering dark, it was impossible to see the buildings farther up, but I knew that the pattern was repeated several more times.
“Don’t draw attention to yourselves,” I said as we closed in on the settlement. “And don’t use more than one element. You’re going with wind, I assume.” When I had seen Henry nod, I shifted my attention to Paige. “And you?”
“Uhm…” Her eyes flicked back and forth across the buildings and the people before us. “Water.”
“Alright. Then stick to that.” I slid my gaze to Lance. “And you. You will find no help here. So keep your mouth shut.”
He glared back at me but didn’t argue.
The smell of wood smoke and iron hung over the whole area when we reached the settlement. Orange light from torches and fire pits danced over the dark grass and the houses that filled it. And everywhere, people went about their normal lives. Or as normal as their lives could be under the circumstances.
A few older people were tending a fire pit on our left while a group of children chased each other around a wooden house in some kind of game. One woman with brown hair was pulling garments down from a clothing line in front of her house while a man with piercing blue eyes stirred a large pot in front of his.
From the outside, it looked like any other poor neighborhood in any city across the continent of Valda. Misery and despair always hung in the air in places like that. But here, there was an undercurrent of hatred and resentment festering in every part of the settlement as well. In some places we passed, it even seemed to run so deep that I could almost smell the acidic rage in the air.
“Audrey,” I said, and nodded towards where two older women were adding ingredients into a large iron pot.
“Yeah,” she replied as she started towards them.
“Henry.”
“I’ll watch these two,” he filled in while shifting his gaze between Paige and Lance.
I gave him a nod before following Audrey.
Wariness washed over the two women’s faces when they saw us approaching, but they only kept working on whatever soup or stew they were preparing. Both of them were missing their right hand, so the dark-eyed one on the left held the mushroom steady while the one with gray eyes cut it into smaller pieces. Faint plopping sounds came from the pot as the dark-eyed old lady dropped the chopped-up mushroom into the water.
“Evening,” I said as we stopped on the other side of the large pot.
“Yes, it is,” the one on the right said.
The fire underneath the pot cast flickering shadows over their wrinkled faces and painted streaks of orange in their gray hair. They still looked wary, but neither of them appeared to be scared.
“We wanna get up the mountain,” I said.
“Of course you do,” the dark-eyed one said.
“The new arrivals always do,” her friend filled in. She shot a pointed look down at our hands. “Especially when they look like you.”
“Are there any rules?” Audrey asked.
“Are there? Maybe. But I might need a little help jogging my memory.”
Raising my eyebrows, I met her gray eyes that seemed to dance with mischief. “You are aware that we could kill both of you before you can even lift that knife, right?”
“Of course.” Wicked amusement blew across her weathered face. “But then you wouldn’t know about the rules, now would you?”
Audrey narrowed her eyes and forced out a controlled breath. But then she reached into her pack and pulled out a few paper bills. The one not currently holding the knife put down the mushroom she had picked up and instead held out her hand. Audrey placed the money into her waiting palm and then raised her eyebrows expectantly.
The dark-eyed old woman curled her fingers around the paper bills and then slid them into her pocket. Once they were out of sight, she at last looked up and met our gazes again. “There are no rules.”
Anger flashed across Audrey’s features. “You have five seconds to tell me something useful, or I’m going to kill you right now and take that money back from your cold dead hands.”
The two of them exchanged an amused look.
“Well, you’ve at least got some spunk, girl,” the gray-eyed one said. “Maybe you will make it up there after all.”
“Three seconds,” Audrey said.
“You just walk up the path, and before you reach the next level, someone will come down and try to stop you.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know. Whoever they want. But they usually match the number, so if there are two of you coming, there’ll be two of them going down to stop you. If you’ve got kids with you, they still count towards the total number.” She shrugged. “But there are no rules, so you can do whatever you want to make it past them. And if you’re strong enough to win, you get to stay on that level. Or try your luck at the next one.”
“Anything else?”
She spun the knife in her hand. “If you see a guy called Ben, with a broken nose and brown hair, up on level four, would you mind killing him for me?”
A surprised laugh tore from Audrey’s throat. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Much obliged.”
After giving the strange old ladies a nod, we wandered back to where Henry and the others were waiting. The mirth that usually sparkled in Paige’s eyes had been replaced by sadness as she watched the group of children play a short distance from us. Next to her, Henry just scanned the area for any potential threats. I was pretty sure that there wasn’t anyone on this particular level who actually posed much of a threat to us, but I appreciated his alertness nonetheless.
On Henry’s other side, Lance was openly staring at the people around us. Confusion and horror swirled in his eyes. I followed his gaze even though I already knew why he was staring. Almost everyone, except for the children of course, were missing their right hand.
“What is this place?” Lance asked, his voice hoarse.
Locking hard eyes on him, I spread my arms to indicate the rocky slopes above us. “This is the dark mage mountain of Castlebourne. It’s where all of them are banished to create that clean city you were praising earlier.”
“But what about their… hands?”
“I thought you were a student of history. When Castlebourne started their campaign to purify their city and get rid of the dark mages, they cut off the right hand of every dark mage they captured before sending them out here. They still do. After all, it’s an excellent scare tactic.”
Hesitation flickered across his face. “I…”
“Though, nowadays, most dark mages in Castlebourne flee to the mountain voluntarily to avoid getting caught. No right hand means no magic, and then what’s the point of being a dark mage?”
“But what about the children?”
“What about the children?”
“Why are there children here? They’re not dark mages.”
“No, but their parents are.”
“But… But…” Shaking his head, he stared out at the miserable settlement around us. “This is no place for innocent children to grow up in. They should be in school or at an academy, learning things and making friends.”
“Yes, they should.”
“So why don’t their parents just take them back to Castlebourne?”
“Because they can’t return. Their missing right hand marks them as dark mages.”
“But the children won’t be punished for that!”
“No, they won’t.” I leveled a hard stare at him. “But do you really expect people to send their kids off to a city on their own and hope that some random strangers will look after them?”
“Well, I…”
Another bout of hesitation washed over his features as he trailed off.
Shaking my head, I turned my back on the self-righteous hero and instead shifted my attention to the others.
“We’re gonna have to fight our way up the mountain,” I said.
“Fight?” Paige said. Embarrassment colored her cheeks. “I’m afraid I don’t really have much experience with that.”
“It’s okay,” Audrey said, and gave her a reassuring nod. “We’ll handle it.”
“Yeah, Audrey, Henry, and I will do the heavy lifting,” I filled in. “But we need someone to watch Lance.”
Her gaze turned sharp as she shot the still bewildered Binder a glance. “That I can do.”
“Good. Then let’s set up camp. We’ll head for the next level at first light.”
After exchanging a nod, we started towards an unoccupied spot on the grass at the edge of the settlement.
From here on out, our mission would only keep getting increasingly difficult. I could fight seamlessly with Henry because I trusted him with my life. But Audrey… I still wasn’t sure what her endgame was.
Why had she really volunteered to go on this mission with me?
After all the betrayal and all the violence and threats and battles between us, there was no logical reason for why she would simply do it to help me. And her excuses about not trusting me with both Lance and the Enhancer didn’t hold up since she could have stayed with Lance while I left for the mountain. There had to be something else to it. Some kind of plan to double-cross me. Again. And with every step closer to the Enhancer, we also got closer to her revealing what her hidden agenda was.
She would need me to get up the mountain at least. But after that… I had a feeling that I was going to have to watch my back.
