Balanced On the Knife Edge

Chapter 12

From Dragonclaw Rock they made quick progress westward. With the snowstorm gone, they could talk more freely, and Karme filled Nusha in on the history of the Akaviri invasion. It was comforting to recall details from her tutoring, and it excited her to think she was quite literally stepping through history, but at the same time she felt oddly detached. Her past life seemed so innocent, so frivolous, compared to the trials she'd been through in the last few days.

Night was falling as they reached the Sentinel, an ancient statue that acted as the second waypoint to Pale Pass. Karme thought it fascinating that an artist, so long ago, had built a statue in such an obscure location, and that it was still largely intact. She speculated as to who the figure depicted might be. It was too human to be a depiction of an Aedra or Daedra, and had been built before the time of the hero-gods Reman and Talos. Nusha joked that the artist might have been conceited enough to simply carve themselves.

They camped by the statue that night. Karme worried about wolves, who roamed in wild packs in these areas and had bought the author of the diary to an untimely end. But the night passed uneventfully. The two of them huddled together in the sleeping bag provided by the countess, the cold leaving no room for pettiness to separate them.

Karme's wound throbbed with fresh pain in the morning air, and she was sure it was going to leave a nasty scar. For now, she had to be brave.

"Ogres today," she muttered, when she felt Nusha stirring awake behind her.

"Huh?"

"We'll be passing through a cavern, the Serpent's Trail, before entering the valley itself. Both are said to contain ogres."

Nusha crawled out of the sleeping bag and started doing stretches.

"Can't be worse than undead soldiers, Imperial guards, and angry Altmers. Besides, aren't ogres weak to fire? We'll be fine with your magic."

Karme watched Nusha pull out her single arrow and look wistfully at it.

"Where did you get that?" she asked.

The countess, in all her wisdom, hadn't deigned to provide them with weapons.

"Stole it from Meeran."

Nusha had told Karme the full story of how she escaped from the Imperial Prison, but the whole thing still seemed like a dream to her. Meeran's weapons made it realer. She only wished there had been a full quiver of arrows to take, but there was no time for stalling or turning back now.

The statue pointed north, marking the way they needed to take. Within a few hours they reached the entrance to a cave. They left the horses there, tied up to a wispy tree.

"Alright," Nusha whispered. "If we keep quiet, we might be able to sneak past the ogres without any bloodshed."

Karme's heart was pumping fast now. She'd heard many tales of ogres—of their gruesome might, how they ate the bones of those they killed—but she had never seen one.

"Do you think you'll be able to manage without light?" Nusha asked.

Karme's fear must have been evident. She put on a brave face and nodded. Nusha led the way inside, and within a few metres they were in pitch black. The ogres must've had powerful eyesight to be able to live down here.

They crept through the winding corridors of the Serpent's Trail, and the reasoning behind the name of the place quickly became evident. As they turned each corner Karme braced herself to come face-to-face with a great, hulking beast. But each time, they found nothing. Eventually the cave began to fill with light, and the exit was within reach. Karme held her breath, expecting to walk outside to an army of hungry ogres.

What they found scared her even more.

Not far from the exit of the cave, scattered and piled up against each other, was a whole horde of dead ogres. Arrows stuck out of their heads, and fresh blood decorated the ground. There must have been at least twenty of them, each killed in the same, efficient way. Most were piled up near the base of a tall rock, suggesting that the killer had climbed up and picked them off one-by-one. Karme should have been relieved, but she felt an overwhelming sense of dread as they approached the site of the massacre, the coppery scent of blood invading her nostrils.

Karme didn't come too close, worried she would lose her breakfast, but Nusha went right up and examined the bodies.

"Who could've done this?" she murmured.

Nusha didn't respond to her question, but simply looked up at the craggy outcrop where the archer had fired from, and then back at the body.

"We're almost at the fort," Nusha said. "Let's press on."

The air of dread followed them all the way through the valley. They saw no wolves and no ogres, despite the great distance that spread out before them. Death hung thickly in the air, and Karme found herself looking forward to reaching the fort, as if it might be less gloomy inside.

"How are we going to give the amulet back to Mishaxhi?" she said, wishing to break the silence.

Nusha shrugged. "I was hoping you'd have an idea. I mean, he's dead, right? Maybe we'll be able to return it to his body."

Karme fingered the chain of the amulet uneasily. She doubted it would be that simple. Nothing thus far had been.

They crested a hill and the fort came into view in the distance. Nusha picked up the pace, but she was oddly quiet, and Karme struggled to keep stride with her. She supposed Nusha was just as nervous as she was.

When they came nearer to the fort, she thought she saw something moving around inside. She almost stopped Nusha, told her she thought she'd seen an ogre, but it was too dark and small for that. They climbed the path to the entrance of the fort, and the figure stepped out, barring their way to the courtyard. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked like another Argonian, his legs firmly planted and his arms crossed in a defiant stance.

Nusha kept pushing on, so Karme said nothing. Her companion came to an abrupt stop at the top of the path, several metres away from the other Argonian. The one blocking their way was smirking, eyeing Nusha up with triumphant glee.

"Nusha," he spoke. "You finally came."

* * *

So I didn't get the job I was doing the trial period for. Spent a lot of yesterday moping about it and eating copious amounts of pizza. I'm soooo annoyed about the whole thing, but whatever, I'll move on... 😤

What do y'all think is gonna happen next? I hope they kick Tun-Na's ass, extra hard. To make up for me not getting this job. Yes I'm totally blaming one of my own fictional characters deal with it.