The Calia was certainly impressive. Perched on the jagged cliffs and looming over raging waters that could swallow an army whole. It was a feat of engineering. Sothing it had in common with the capital, a great city that spread across three islands in the midst of the Still Water. Stone cities connected into one by bridges that seed to defy the rock itself to remain standing.
la Verer was impressed despite herself. The towering spires of the castle walls stood out against the horizon for miles. It was smaller than Aontacht, but not by much. It was the largest military fortification on the rock.
Or at least, they all thought it was. There was another, one that far eclipsed it, but that one was hidden deep within the spine of the world, and the people of the lower lands had never seen it.
But to la Verer and her sister, Tayla, and even earlier, for their baby brother, Finn, it was an indomitable fortress that belonged in the fairytales.
Miles and miles of black stone and tufts of vibrant green set among the white and blue of the rapids below. And beyond it, the endless expanse of burnt fields that had once been a sea of glittering gold under the noonday sun.
la and Tayla had heard stories about the estate, but this was the first ti either of them had seen it in person.
“How dramatic,” Tayla muttered, wrapping her cloak tighter around her. The autumn wind carried a chill they didn’t often experience in the capital.
“I’m sure it’s fitting,” la returned, a scowl etched into her face. It had been there since the letter arrived informing them of Finn’s death. It had thrown the whole family into disarray, but la and Tayla, who’d always been closest with Finn, had taken it the hardest. They’d been riding out the gate, headed for the estate, within the hour, and managed to make the journey in ten days. The rest of the family had remained behind in the capital, awaiting more details about whatever the hell had happened to cause gentle Finn’s death.
Finn had struggled to fit in with their family, la knew that. He was far too gentle and far too trusting to be a Verer, but he was still one of them.
And no one hard a Verer and lived to tell about it.
Not even a Princess.
la hadn’t had many dealings with the Soliel princess, though Tayla had moved in her circles for a while. la had been focused on her career with the Imperial Guard, but Tayla had gone through a period of husband searching that she’d eventually given up on.
Apparently, two seasons on the party circuit of high society were enough to convince her to spend the rest of her life alone, which just reinforced la’s own decision to focus on other things.
No one in the family had been happy about Finn’s decision to join the Crimson Army instead of the Imperial Army or the Imperial Guards, but their parents had decided he was allowed to try his own path. They’d been expecting him to co back and change his mind, and he probably would have if he hadn’t died.
There were too many questions about the circumstances of it all for la’s sanity. Finn hadn’t even been part of the major fighting of whatever little war they’d just fought. It had been over so quickly that most of the capital hadn’t even realized there was a war. Even la wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been privy to the fatality count. Nearly forty thousand soldiers were a lot to lose in such a short ti fra.
What the hell was Lord Ye doing?
Things like this were why la didn’t agree with leaving estates so far from the capital without oversight from the throne.
“We should head down before we lose the light,” Tayla said, eyeing the steep path that would take them down to the gate and bridge. Sohow, she was the less sentintal of the two of them.
la urged her horse into a trot to follow her sister, and they returned to the trail leading to the estate. They weren’t more than an hour from the gate and not even that far by distance, but the last mile of the route was steep and narrow, and no horse liked going down it after dark.
“Lord Ye had better be there to et us,” la growled. “We are owed answers.”
Tayla snorted in that delicate way she had that made people think that wasn’t what she was doing. “We are two days early. Unless he sent out spies to watch us, he has no idea we’re arriving today.”
“If he were a competent lord, he would have,” la muttered, unwilling to extend any courtesy to the man who was responsible for her little brother’s death.
Tayla rely humd. Annoyingly confident when it ca to keeping her opinion to herself.
She pulled up her horse suddenly, and la’s mare balked when she walked into the other horse.
la was instantly on guard, reaching for her sword. “What? What is it?”
“Good day,” Tayla said pleasantly. Not to la.
It took the Imperial Guard captain a mont to look around and see who her sister was talking to.
When she finally did, she had to swuint in the fading afternoon light to make out the figure hidden among the rocks on the other side of the path. “What the fuck are you doing overthere? Waiting to ambush us?” She drew her sword over Tayla’s sigh.
“la, really? He’s a child.”
“I’m not a child!” The voice was high and sharp on the wind, but when he urged his horse forward, la realized Tayla was right. He was a teenager at most. With red hair made wild by the wind and bright gold eyes, she knew so nobles in the capital would kill for.
Where the hell was he from with coloring like that?
“What the hell, kid. Are you on this road alone?” la put her sword away.
He scowled at them, cheeks red from the wind, but otherwise wrapped warmly in thick furs and leather. “I’m fine. I made it here by myself.”
And he’d just told two ard strangers he was alone. la shared a look with Tayla, both of them struggling to hide smiles.
Teenagers.
“We could use the company the rest of the way.” Tayla offered, smiling warmly. “Ride down with us. We’d like to be inside before dark sets in, and it gets even colder.” She even shivered for effect.
The boy scowled, but he had enough manly pride that he nodded and urged his horse onto the path.
“I’m Tayla, this is my sister, la.”
The boy glanced between them, finally hesitating to share information, but he ended up doing it anyway. “Ran Orlo.”
la blinked. “Interesting na. Where are you from?”
The boy pointed, beyond the Calia, to the burnt land on the horizon.
The sisters shared a startled look. Neither of them had ever t soone from the tribes in the borderlands, but the stories about them prevailed even in the capital. Sorrow had been at war with them so long that there was no one in the kingdom who hadn’t heard of them.
And this boy was one of them?
What the hell was he doing here?
~ tbc
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