Page 79 of Memory of Ashes

“Stop!” the guard repeated.

They stopped. Ruven shifted slightly in his saddle. She sensed he was subtly preparing to pull out his weapons if need be.

“I’ve told you,” Ruven snarled through gritted teeth. “We have news for the High King. We’ve come from Tiryn’s army. I think he’ll want to hear what we’ve got to say. Now, you can escort us to him, or we can cut you down and continue on our way.”

She could see the guard thinking it through. “What are your names?” he asked.

“I’m Ruven, and this is Danae. I’m sure you’ve heard of us.”

Amelia looked at the guard, who paled slightly. He nodded his assent to his men. She needed no introduction; her round ears gave her away.

“We’ll escort you.”

They didn’t speak on the way to the city. The guards eyed Amelia, and she wondered whether they’d try to kill her before they got there.

The road wound through mountains and climbed higher. As they crested the road and began their descent, the view before them stole her breath.

Perched between mountains that towered into the clouds was the city.

It looked like something out of a fairy tale. The city was built into a caldera in the mountain range. It must have been a volcano at one point, Amelia thought. She assumed it would be extinct for them to build their entire city within it.

Structures protruded from its base, while others were hollowed out of the mountain’s rock face.

As they descended towards the entrance, other guards came to meet them. They were escorted through the city streets towards the towers rising at its centre.

Amelia gazed at the people on the street. Most went about their day, but some stopped to stare. She noticed that none of them wore weapons.

Women walked freely. She’d only seen Danae at the fortress. They were breathtaking. Danae was beautiful herself, but she was hard. She’d been moulded into a weapon, her muscles sculpted onto her frame. She was dangerous. These females appeared softer. Where Danae wore leather trousers and armour and a tight braid, they wore long dresses and cloaks and had their hair down. They were adorned with jewels and accessories like those that women had worn back in Amelia’s world.

A woman standing beneath one of the stone archways caught Amelia’s attention. She wore a cloak of dark green, her hair heavily braided away from her delicately pointed ears. Unlike the others, she watched Amelia not with curiosity, but with something closer to grief.

A strange sensation stirred at the edge of Amelia’s memory.

“What is it?” Danae asked.

“Nothing.” Amelia frowned. “One of them was staring.”

“Everyone is staring,” Danae replied.

She glanced around the street. She must have been a spectacle. When she looked back, the woman had disappeared.

She shook her head.

“What made you abandon Tiryn?” Amelia asked Danae quietly.

“I’ve always been praised for my power and how much devastation I can cause, but it was always in battle against other bloodthirsty warriors. It wasn’t just soldiers I killed in those cities. They didn’t deserve that.”

They continued in silence until they arrived at the heart of the High City.

The city’s core was dominated by rising towers. They were ringed with walls, but the gates stood open.

The guards dismounted, waited for them to do the same and then tried to escort them into the towers by force.

“We come peacefully,” Ruven snarled. “If you don’t want to lose your hands, I’d take them off of us.”

The guards backed off. Ruven had a reputation.

The enormous doors opened, revealing a room of polished stone.