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He nearly bit his tongue to keep from snapping at her in frustration. He held up the map. “The mapmaker I purchased this from is reliable and renowned. There's supposed to be a beam bridge here as well as the footbridge.”
“Maybe we took a wrong path after the village or the forest.” Erostis turned his mount in a circle as if to search for some hidden road whose markers they'd missed.
Serovek shook his head. “No, we're traveling in the right direction.” He coaxed Magas toward the footbridge, buffeted by the ravine's chilly gusts as they rode parallel to its edge. As he got closer to the footbridge, the discrepancy between map and reality revealed itself.
The map was correct, as was their direction. A beam bridge had once spanned the ravine, but no longer. Someone had destroyed it, tearing the anchor bolts from the cliff walls. Bits and pieces of spandrels and parapets not fallen to the river far below, hung on narrow outcroppings, providing sanctuary for bird's nests. The bits of stone looked like broken teeth against the cliff's dark rock.
“Well, that explains why there aren't two bridges,” Anhuset said behind him, her remark snatched away by the spiraling wind.
“Aye,” he replied as they rode back to where Klanek waited with the wagon. “I'll wager those who destroyed all the other water crossings we've seen had a hand in its collapse.”
“But why not take out the footbridge as well? A quick swipe with a scythe on the ropes, and it's done. Much easier than the beam bridge.”
He'd questioned the oversight as well for a moment until he gave the footbridge more than a passing glance. “Whoever it was, they were wise not to cut that one. It's an escape route. Someone fleeing thegallacan still cross the ravine, and the demons can't follow.” He gestured toward the bridge. “Gaps between the boards. Too narrow to trip a person, but enough space between them that you see water. The demons can't cross.”
Klanek's face wrinkled into deeper worry lines when Serovek relayed the news about the collapsed bridge to him. “If we can't cross here, we'll be forced to take the round-about way to reach the valley, and that means going through what's left of Chamtivos's territory.”
Serovek was about to tell the driver he'd love to hear any alternative options when Anhuset straightened from her casual slouch and pointed to a spot behind him. “It seems your map missed a third bridge, margrave.”
He twisted in the saddle, then wheeled Magas around for a better look at this newest surprise. While the spot where they stood had cleared of morning fog hours earlier, dissipated by sun and wind, it still clung to a part of the cliffs in the distance—a gray shroud whose folds now parted in ripples and folds to expose a magnificent beam bridge of swooping arches, decorative spandrels, and graceful parapets constructed of ivory stone.
“That one isn't on the map, is it?”
Startled by the unexpected discovery but hopeful the gods had just bestowed a mercy upon them, Serovek bit back a smile at Erostis's almost forlorn question. “No, it isn't, but that doesn't mean it can't be crossed. We might as well scout it before we decide to take the longer route.” He didn't relish traveling through Chamtivos's territory, and if this new bridge offered a way to avoid that, he'd gladly take it.
They set off toward the bridge, and Serovek felt a splinter of unease the closer they came to it. How a map maker could capture the details of a footbridge but miss a beam bridge of this size and majesty made no sense. Judging by the depressions in the cliff walls where the other beam bridge had been anchored, it was wide enough to accommodate all types of traffic, with a lane dedicated to each side crossing instead of having to wait for clearance.
This bridge dwarfed the collapsed one, easily three times its size and wide enough to allow full battalions and cavalry to cross, along with wagons of every size. Tendrils of fog wound through the parapets and floated just above a bridge deck partially covered by a carpet of tightly twisted ivy. The greenery wrapped pilasters and spilled over the deck's edge in long garlands. More of it draped statues twice the height of a man that lined the bridge on both sides.
Where bridge deck met cliff edge, a set of pavers carved in arcane runes marked the transition from ground to bridge. Their party halted, and Serovek dismounted for a closer look at the carvings. He stretched out a hand to trace one of the symbols in the air. The abrupt change in temperature made him step back before reaching out a second time to test the air.
“What is it?” Anhuset had dismounted as well and came to stand beside him and Magas.
“Put out your hand,” he instructed her. “Just over the line where the bridge starts.
She hesitated for a breath before doing as he asked. Like him, she yanked her hand back. Unlike him, she didn't try a second time, electing instead to wipe her hand on her leg. “It's warm. Summer-warm compared to where we're standing.”
Serovek had assumed the runes carved in the pavers were either wards or a greeting and was inclined to believe the former rather than the latter. Therefore he wasn't overly startled when his hand slipped across an invisible barrier that separated the hard cold of a lingering winter still gripping the land from the heat of a day in high summer. No wonder the ivy draping the bridge was so lush and green. An enchantment protected it from the elements.
What made him pause was Anhuset's lack of awareness of or sensitivity to the sorcery. The Kai he'd known, blessed with a heritage of magic, could sniff it out when it was nearby. She'd said nothing nor given any indication she'd felt its presence, even when they stood at the bridge's entrance.
“Did you not sense the magic as we got closer?” he asked her in a low voice, keeping his tone light and conversational.
Her entire body stiffened, an infinitesimal tensing. If one wasn't watching her closely, they'd have missed it, but Serovek had been watching, and the reaction told him his question had touched a raw spot.
Her expression as well told him more than she realized. Studied. Distant. An indifferent mask. “It's human magic,” she said in a bland voice. “The Kai don't always sense the sorcery your kind wield.”
Your kind.
Had she slammed her shield down between them, her message couldn't have been clearer. He trod where he wasn't welcomed with his question, and she warned him with those two words that he'd be wise to back off from any more inquiries.
He held up both hands, palms out, in a gesture of surrender before turning his attention to Erostis and Klanek. “We don't know what these wards do or if the bridge's apparent stability is just an illusion. I'll walk it first...” Three sets of protests went up so that he had to raise his voice above them. “Then come back so we'll go as a group.” He scowled at Anhuset and the two men as they all readied to launch into another spate of argument. “I'm not asking you. I'm telling you.”
“I'm going with you,” Anhuset returned his scowl. “My magic might have missed the first ward, but it may catch something else before you stumble into it.”
Her suggestion gained an enthusiastic nod from Erostis. “It's a good idea, margrave. Better than you going alone or me and Klanek with you. Theshawould know what to avoid if there's anything unseen lurking on the bridge.”
Serovek's faith in Anhuset's sorcerous senses had been tested one too many times now. It was no longer as strong as Erostis's, but he didn't argue the point. He passed Magas's reins to him instead and motioned to Anhuset to do the same. “Leave your horse. We'll keep the risk to a minimum.”
