“Aye, for any fool-hardy enough to climb them,” Enright said. “Those trails are wild and narrow. One foot wrong and you could find your death fast enough.”
“Why would any seek those paths?” Amyu asked.
“Mountain goats,” Enright said. “Their pelts are prized. There’s also a mountain rabbit that lives up there with fur as soft as anything. They’re a bugger to catch, though.”
“And caves?” Amyu said.
“Aye, but there you have to have a care as well. Bears and collapsing rocks and ice can be a problem,” Enright gave her a wide grin. “I used to climb on the rocks with my friends when I was a lad. We’d—”
Horns blew in the distance.
Enright levered himself up from the bench as Amyu stood, and they both went to the wall to look out.
“Wyverns?” Prest called.
“Nah,” Enright said. “Messenger, by the look.”
Amyu shaded her eyes. “With guards, it looks like. Maybe from the border.”
“Word from Liam or Simus then,” Prest said. “About time. The Warlord is out of his mind with worry.” He dropped to his knees, and started crawling toward the trap door. “Best we get back to our duties.”
Amyu gave Enright a shrug, and stepped forward to open the door as Prest slithered over.
“That’s an improvement, that is,” Enright said. “Last time he was on his belly.”
Prest muttered under his breath as he crawled head first through the opening.
Amyu followed behind, shutting the door as she moved down the steps. Prest sat at the bottom, breathing hard, color returning to his skin. “You did not feel the tower move under your feet?” he asked. “As if it shifted in the wind?”
“No,” Amyu said.
“Do not mock me,” he growled.
“I would not, warrior.” Amyu said, moving a few more steps down. “We should find the Warlord.”
“Yes,” Prest stood and took the lead, heading down quickly.
Amyu saved her smile for his back.
“Simus has betrayedyou, Warlord,” Yers said.
Amyu watched him from behind the Warprize’s throne. Yers’s hands were shaking, his eyes not really focused as he held the Warlord’s token.
“Give me your truths, Warrior,” The Warlord’s voice was a deep rumble.
“It started out so well,” Yers spoke of a confrontation with a warrior-priest, of Simus’s reaction and Joden’s intervention. “That night, the pillar of light… did Eloix tell you of it?” Yers asked.
Amyu sucked in a breath. Yers didn’t know, couldn’t know, that Eloix died bringing her message to Keir.
The Warprize glanced at the Warlord, but the Warlord nodded. “She brought us word,” he said firmly.
Yers nodded. “I started to worry when Snowfall appeared. She’s a warrior-priestess, who had been Wild Winds’s apprentice.” Yers shook his head, and rubbed his nose. “Simus took her oath, and allowed her to contest for Token-Bearer.”
Keir took a breath. “A warrior-priestess?”
“Yes,” Yers said. “Well, she only had partial tattoos. But still… Simus allowed it. I couldn’t understand it. He seemed to come under her influence more and more.” He drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Then Joden disappeared.”
Both the Warprize and Warlord jerked in their seats. Keir leaned forward. “What do you mean, disappeared?”
