The Black Rose Read Free Page B

work like everyone else. He rolled his eyes and followed Jack to the door.

Chapter III
snow and water
    Lucy had never been so cold. She was trudging across a ridge, knee-deep in settled snow. To her left, an imposing cliff rose, slate grey but with ice clinging in stalactites to the nooks and crevasses. To her right, the ground fell away in a steep slope to a frozen river that reflected the pale sunlight and a sparkling white plain that might once have been agricultural lands. Beyond that, mountains rose from the frosted fog: bleak, pale regents marking the horizon. It was from those regents that the wind sliced, surging like a wave of invisible arrows across the plains towards them.
    They had been here for less than a day, but already she’d had enough. She had changed for the better over the last month—she accepted that—but her body still had its limits. Recovering a childhood knowledge of martial arts to defend a fortress against demons was one thing; hiking through a mountain range with no end in sight was entirely another. One of the first Apollonians she had met, Vince, had arrived from Earth in his dimension ship the day after she had watched Jack depart on
The Golden Turtle.
The journey from Thorin Salr to here—this wasteland was called the Sveta Mountains, according to the others—had, like her first journey from Earth, induced extreme nausea. Now it was the cold, fatigue, and hunger which were taking their toll.
    Vince was in front of her, plowing through so that she could follow in his footsteps. In an arctic jacket, thick boots, and trapper hat, he was far better equipped for the weather than the rest were. She, Adâ, and Hakim had left Thorin Salr with the best attire that could be provided, though it was hardly suitable for this climate. She was mostly wrapped in assorted furs and thick hides, though the wind and damp snow seemed to have found the gaps and slid in to nestle. The two elves were behind her, Hakim’s wooden staff leaving an additional print in the snow every few feet.
    Ahead, the ridge narrowed, and their path took them between two high rocks. Vince clambered up first and disappeared over the top. Lucy followed but slipped down the bank on the other side. Picking herself up and shaking the residual snow off her clothes, she followed Vince’s gaze. The land dropped steadily before them, plateauing into an ivory plain. The river wove like a shimmering ribbon draped across a white sheet. Beyond it, she could make out a cluster of dark shapes, apparently alone in the wilderness.
    â€œAre those… houses?” She gasped, her breath clouding.
    â€œYep,” Vince replied, his eyes still fixed on them. “Well, huts. A settlement, anyway.”
    â€œWho would live
here?”
    â€œGoblins, I believe,” Hakim responded, joining them. “Similar to the ones who live around Thorin Salr, though I’d wager not exactly the same. Life never evolves exactly the same on different worlds.”
    â€œIt’s probably a good thing we don’t have any dwarves here then,” Lucy replied.
    Adâ smirked.
    One of the more surprising developments in the last week had been the uncomfortable peace agreed between the previously opposed dwarf and goblin populations of Thorin Salr. The two had united to fight off the Cult, but that didn’t mean things were neatly parcelled up. Even though Bál, one of the most vocally xenophobic dwarves, had voiced his support for the peace agreement, no one was naïve enough to think all on both sides felt the same way.
    â€œSo is that where we’re going?” Lucy asked.
    â€œIt certainly looks like it,” Hakim replied. “With this few people living here, there’s a good chance those goblins can at least point us towards the Fifth Shard. And, for that matter, the Cult.”
    Vince began down the slope, tilted sideways to avoid falling.
    Pulling her furs tighter to resist the slicing wind,