Kingdom's Fall

The High Pass

The following short story is set immediately after the events of Kingdom's Fall, and precedes the sequel, Empire's End. 

The treacherous ground underfoot would have scared Ana if her father had not made a game of it. He always knew what to say to make things better, how to paint even the hardest tasks as beneath her notice. He'd done it since she was small, and only stopped when she got old enough to find his games embarrassing. When they'd left the city, she'd lost all reason to be embarrassed. Instead, it was a comfort; a reminder of a time when things had been better. So they jumped and scrambled, laughter echoing off of the rocks, her father's long stride stop-start as he stooped to offer her a hand or catch her if her pack pulled her off-balance.

They'd had no choice but to leave. The high council's grip had tightened enough that even Ana and her friends noticed the changes in their city. The shops that had closed, their doors shuttered or barred with the council's seal marked across them; the loud cries of speech-makers and news-hawkers in the market square rendered mute, and the dais they had made their podium - the relic of a long-demolished statue that her father said had stood higher than any building in the city - smashed with hammers until it lay flush with the cobble-stones. None of the men and women who'd stood on top of it had been seen since, nor had their families had any word of them. As the hot days of summer stretched out tense and silent, it seemed as though the whole city was holding its breath. Slogans against the council were painted on walls, and the whispered echoes of what they said passed round long after they were scrubbed clean again. Gathering after dark was forbidden. Rumour spread of a curfew, of secret raids and executions. The Carelian army had come, citing an invasion - an invasion, of all things - as the reason their soldiers lined the streets, wore their arms at all times. And even though her father shielded her from all that he could, Ana could feel the change that was coming.

And then the army was defeated. The invasion of the tiny kingdom to the north should have been a simple thing, the final drawing-in of the last fragment of land not under the high council's direct control. Instead it was a rout. The soldiers that made it back, tattered and half-mad, spoke of coming up against not an army but a swarm. What the Kingdom lacked in weapons or tactical nous they more than made up for in sheer frenzy. Nothing could stop them or break them, save for killing, and when they made it to the Carelian lines it was as though their panic was infectious, spreading through the ranks like a fever.

And then, when the Carelians had made it back to the marshes, they found a flood waiting for them. Word spread of a dam in the Veil mountains, of Carelian citizens taken prisoner and used as labour to build it. That those same Carelians had risen up, and destroyed it.

It was the sign that many had been waiting for. The murmurs of discontent became a roar, and overnight the city had become a battleground.

Her father had seen it coming. He was not a martial man, nor was he particularly brave or strong, but when it came to his family he was a force to be reckoned with. They'd come knocking that first night of rioting, three young men armed with billhooks and cleavers and a single musket, to find out which side he was on. Crammed into the hallway of their house, he'd knocked all three of them out with a billy, a hand's length of stitched leather tube stuffed with lead shot. They'd stayed long enough to pack food and put on good travelling clothes, and set off that night.

"Watch yourself, Ana." Her father's voice brought her back to herself, just as the rock she had stepped on tilted beneath her weight. She barely had time to cry out as she pitched forward, off-balance, and he caught the back of her jacket to pull her right.

"Thanks, Dad."

"You're all right, Ana." She guessed he said it more for himself than her. "Just be sure to check the ground below stones like that. This is all fresh rockfall."