Heir of Iron

Chapter 15

(The image above is an original artwork by Robh Ruppel. Original here: http://www.robhruppel.com/gallery-3-concept/gallery-3/3453519.)

Gocam stood abruptly to his feet, cutting off Navran's tale. He cocked his head slightly, like a dog listening to a far-off howl, then strode to the mouth of the cave.

"What?" Navran said.

Gocam disappeared out the front of the cave. For a moment Navran heard the crunch of his footsteps in the snowy gravel. Then he reappeared and said with perfect serenity, "Ruyam is coming."

Navran felt as if a manacle tightened around his throat. The burn on his chest flared with heat. "What? Where?"

"Here, of course. To Ternas."

"How do you know that?"

"I heard his heart beating. From the door of the cave, I can see him approaching across the plain."

Navran's gut began to twist. His hands curled into fists, and a delirious memory of fetid water and beer and incense washed over him. "How can you tell? How far is he?"

"He won't arrive until tomorrow morning at the earliest. But we should go down to Ternas. We will leave before he arrives."

"I can't go down. Did you forget that I'm injured?"

"You were frozen, but only bruised. Get up."

"Are you serious?"

Gocam stalked over to him and extended a bony hand. "Get up."

His bones ached, and the chill still pinched his hands and feet. Sure Gocam didn't expect him to get up and walk down the mountain now.

He looked up. Gocam watched him with black eyes, inscrutable and pitiless. Navran realized that indeed, Gocam did expect him to walk down the mountain, and that arguing was not going to help.

Gocam's hand was wiry with tendons and bore sharp nails, like a bird's foot. Navran grabbed it. Gocam yanked him up with shocking force, and he came to his feet, rocking. Navran's toes tingled as if needles pricked them, and he leaned against the wall of the cave for support. Gocam let go of his hand. He staggered back, nearly fell into the fire, and caught himself on his knees. Gocam watched him, unmoving and unblinking.

"I'm up," he said. "Are you happy?"

"Let's go."

Gocam marched to the front of the cave and exited. Navran staggered after, wiggling his toes to restore the flow of blood to them and attempting to ignore the pain in his joints. When they reached the door of the cave he saw that it was mid-morning. The sun lingered in the east, casting long shadows over the rills of the plain below. The snow-frosted pines shivered down the mountain, with wisps of snow drifting up where the wind twisted. Folded into a crease at the bottom of the mountain were the green roofs of Ternas. Beneath Ternas the hills gradually flattened into the yellow-green plain, scratched with roads and pocked here and there with brown villages.

"Where is Ruyam?" Navran said. "I don't see anyone on the plain."

Gocam pointed to the horizon. "Further than you can see. He comes swiftly."

"Is this a matter of farsight? I thought you had given up that power."

"Farsight is not a power. I have cast away my mastery, but I have not forgotten how to see." He started down the path with impossibly nimble steps on his short, thin legs.

Navran scrambled after him. The needles were gradually withdrawing from his toes, but the soles of his feet groaned every time they slapped against the stones. His muscles felt like clay.