Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 61

The journey to Thijs' mountain base was as long and boring as Cole feared it would be. The intense heat of the mornings made limited the time they could travel in daylight, and most of their walking was done at night as they yawned and fought off sleep. Their pace was slowed by Tanwyn's shoulder and her mother's fragile condition, and they ended up taking another whole day. This meant that they arrive at the base of the mountains at night, with only the half-moon and stars to light their way.

Tanwyn looked up at the rocky pass that criss-crossed its way up the first mountain in the range. They had already spent hours going through the foothills, and even Cole was winded and tired. But they were close now. So close that they could hear the sound of machines roaring and see the orange glow and curls of smoke coming from massive fires high on the mountain side.

Tanwyn stopped and hunkered down behind a large boulder. "We should wait here for a few hours. We need to give Meegan's message some time to reach us here," he whispered.

"She would have already sent a reply?" Cole asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Of course. She's eager to fulfill her duty. Unlike someone else who was a poor excuse for a handmaiden." He gave her a sidelong glance and twisted his lips to one side.

Cole grumbled to herself about how Meegan had more experience in the field, but didn't try to argue directly with Tanwyn. He would never let her live down anything, and she didn't have the energy to waste in useless bantering with him.

Instead, she leaned against the boulder and closed her eyes. Her mother hunkered down at her side, half in the state of madness as she had been since the night before. She spoke only a few words to Tanwyn or Cole, and mostly muttered nonsense to herself. Cole supposed she was grateful for what brief glimpses of sanity she got, but she also wished she would just return to normal and let Cole confide in her the fears she had about descending once more in a mine.

A few minutes later, Tanwyn suddenly sat up straight and peered out into the darkness down the mountain path toward the foothills. Cole followed his gaze, her blood pounding in her veins as she thought of Baerghast's black cloak materializing from the shadows. But there was nothing to be seen beyond the gently stirring tree branches.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"Meegan's message is coming," Tanwyn whispered back, and he placed a finger to the bottom of his ear to signal her to listen.

She held her breath as she strained her ears, and there on the backs of the cool breeze she heard the faintest owl's hoot. It did not sound anything like a message, and she looked at Tanwyn with her eyebrow raised.

Tanwyn ignored her as he pulled a small contraption out of his pocket. He placed it between his lips and suddenly a similar sounding owl hoot filled the air around them. It was a whistle of some sort, meant to sound like a real animal to hopefully fool anyone not meant to know that it was a signal. But Cole still glanced with apprehension up the path toward Thijs' camp.

A moment later, the further owl hoot came again, but this time a bit closer. They traded hoots for a while, until the person was close enough that Cole thought she might be able to see them if it wasn't so dark.

"Greyor?" a voice said.

"Here," Tanwyn called back.

A man appeared from the gloom, his shoulders drawn close and his eyes constantly darting toward the fires above them on the mountain. He was thin and only had a small set of leather armor. "I was told to bring you this," he said, offering a skein of hide. Tanwyn took it and nodded to the man.

"Thank you. You can leave. There won't be any need for a reply."

The man sighed in relief and quickly took his leave, not even pausing to say goodbye or look once more at the disturbingly close camp filled with soldiers.

"What's with Greyor?" Cole asked, sitting next to Tanwyn as he pulled open the hide.

"The name of Tanwyn is dangerous to bare and say," he replied. "Best to be someone else to protect us and the one who was delivering the message."

"What does it say?"

"She says that Thijs arrived home a few hours after we had left. He locked down the castle so no one in the city knew what was going on beyond finding the bodies of some guards and servants discarded in the back streets."

"That's horrible," Cole said, her heart beating faster as she imagined the guards and servants she had passed every day in her time in that castle. Had she known the people Thijs had killed? Had she known their lives and families? 

Tanwyn stared at the bottom line of wiggling lines on the hide. His eyes swept back and forth across the words feverishly, coming back and back again to read the same thing. Cole watched him, waiting for him to tell her the rest of the message, but he placed it on the ground and scrapped it across the dirt and rocks to wipe away the charcoal.

"Wait, what else did she say?" Cole asked, trying to grab the hide away from him even though she knew she would never be able to read his and Meegan's code.

"That was it," Tanwyn said, letting the hide go and nearly sending Cole tumbling to the ground as she suddenly had it in her hand.

She flipped the hide over and looked at the lines of code, but even if she had been able to decipher them she would no longer be able to read it. Dirt had obscured the charcoal, and the rocks had ripped holes into the hide. Cole frowned and dropped it onto the ground. "That was not it. You were reading more. What did it say?" When Tanwyn didn't immediately answer, she pressed him further. "If it's something bad then I need to know about it. For as long as we're together, I'm part of this whole messed up power struggle. If I don't know what's going on then I won't be prepared for what is going to happen."