Eirik’s wish for stress-free travel was granted and they had no difficulties ascending the gradually steepening road through the forest. A subtle change in the climate made itself felt as they climbed higher into the hills, and Eirik was reminded of his travels in the jungle regions of the coast. From the sound of all the cursing and slapping, Ruefin was also reliving those same memories. For some irritating reason Hataya remained unmolested by the swarming, biting insects, and sat in her saddle without mimicking Ruefin’s flailing. She’s been quieter since they’d left the village and had an air of introspection about her, perhaps contemplating the possible occupation of the shrine.

  If he was honest with himself, Eirik was also worrying about the same problem and how best to deal with it. Given the lack of knowledge about the shrine and the potential number of adversaries therein, any attempt at scouting would be a high-risk endeavour. True, he would know if there were eyes upon them, but by then alarms would be sounded and they would be swarmed. A quiet, stealthy approach to remove the guards one by one would be the best course of action, but that woulde depend of the layout of the shrine.

  Another worry was Hataya’s attitude towards their intentions. As a peaceable woman – a healer – her opinion on the wholesale taking of life would most likely be vehement disapproval. So far, she’d said nothing about the prospect of wiping out the shrine’s usurpers, but Eirik worried that she would balk at the reality of their task. Maybe he was wrong. It could be that the violence already evident was enough to justify their response, but there was no way of knowing. Eirik sighed quietly and admitted that it was unlikely to be as cut and dried for her as it was for him, and a conversation needed to happen before they arrived at their destination.

  A break in the forest gave Eirik his first view of the mountains, and he paused his camel in her tracks to take in the view. Layers of peaks filled the southern horizon, some cloaked in green and others, taller than their neighbours, wreathed in clouds. He imagined them covered in snow and was transported back to the mountains of his homeland.

  “So which one are we climbing? Please tell me it isn’t the highest,” Ruefin said, his brow wrinkled and his eyes pleading.

  “Oh no, we don’t have to go that far,” Hataya replied with laughter in her voice. “The road turns east just over the rise and the mountain road continues south. The Shrine of Tsumaqui is halfway up that peak there.” She pointed at a mountain with a flattened top and its slopes a mix of grey stone and patches of greenery.

  “Is the trail visible from the shrine?” Eirik squinted into the distance.

  “I don’t know. The vision I had was from above so it’s hard to tell. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  The party crested the rise and immediately saw where the road split in two. A clearing in the trees held the remains of a campfire and Eirik assumed that this was where traders would rest before tackling the mountain trail. The path he saw was too narrow and rocky for carts and wagons, and he presumed that goods intended for the priests would be transferred to beasts of burden. He glanced at the camels and wondered how much further it would be safe to take them.

  “You said it was a couple of days to the shrine, right?” he asked, standing up in his stirrups in an attempts to see the path or even the trail itself.

  “More or less, depending on the state of the trail,”

  “Unless anyone has a better idea, I suggest we camp here for the night, start out at dawn, and move as fast as the path allows until dusk. We camp, find a spot to corral the camels, then head for the shrine the following morning. Any thoughts?” Eirik glanced from Ruefin to Hataya and back, his eyebrows raised.

  “As long as we keep our wits about us, I don’t see why not. I’d be worried about being spotted from the shrine if we were riding, especially since we don’t know where it is,” Ruefin replied whilst chewing on a strip of meat and badgering his camel to sit down.

  “I’ll know it when I see it,” Hataya said, settling her mount with ease, “and besides, the Court of the Winds has brought us this far. I have faith that they’ll show us what we need to see.”

  The campfire burned low and Hataya had fallen asleep before Ruefin cleared his throat and turned to Eirik.

  “Do you think it’s weird that we haven’t met anyone on the road? This is supposed to be a trade road, so where are the traders?”

  “Maybe there’s no-one to trade with. If Umriah soldiers have been through here, the people could be daed of fled,”

  “Yeah, but the road doesn’t just serve this area. It goes hundreds of miles in both directions and there are plenty of towns elsewhere. There must be places that are best served by this route, so where are the caravans?”

  Ruefin had a point. Even with the local area depopulated, there were inhabited regions in all direction that needed a supply line. So far they had seen little evidence that the area was too dangerous to traverse.

  “The Umriah have definitely been here in the past and we know they’ve killed indiscriminately. I imagine the caravans started taking different routes to stay out of their way. Maybe they’ve been doing it for so long that this road has been forgotten. I don’t know. But you’re right, it shouldn’t be this quiet.”

  Eirik uncorked his canteen and washed down the last of his date bread. The food supply was dwindling and he’d hoped they’d be able to liberate something from the shrine. The original plan of being re-supplied by the priests now seemed unlikely. He broke a strip of dried goat in half and chewed on it, accidentally making eye contact with the ever-watchful Yadiru. The dog stared at the remaining piece and licked his lips.

  “There isn’t much of this left,” Eirik said, holding the jerky out and watching Yadiru take it gently from between his fingers, “so I hope you’re good at hunting.”

  Lady Latrine eyed Eirik reproachfully as he finished hitching the reins to a low branch. She stood with the other camels in an overgrown ravine a short distance from the mountain trail. He reached up and scratched her ears in apology.

  “It won’t be for long,” he said, not sure if it was for her or for him. He’d become fond of her over the course of their travels and loathed leaving her behind, but there would be no sneaking up on anything from the back of a camel. With a final affectionate pat, Eirik made his way back to the trail where his friends waited.

  For the first time, their goal had become visible and they could see how the trail wound its way up to the shrine. Stunted trees and low shrubs filled the spaces between rocky outcrops and loose scree that flanked the path they must follow. At the top of the path, shrouded in mist, lay a dark opening in the mountain.

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  “The shrine is inside the mountain?” Ruefin screwed up his face and turned to Eirik. “That’s so easy to defend against intruders. How the fuck are we going to get in?”

  “Let’s worry about that when we get there,” Eirik replied. He shouldered his pack and tucked his robes in such a way that his weapons were easy to reach. A glance at Ruefin showed that the claymore had finally returned to its place on his back. Hataya had slung the woolen bag holding the flask over her shoulder and stood determined, her head held high and her hand gripping her staff. A sense of assurance and confidence radiated from her once more, as if she’d finally shaken off the ashy residue from the ruined village.

  “I’ll lead the way,” she said, raising a hand in reply to Eirik’s questioning look. “Follow closely behind me and I’ll have our surroundings obscure us.”

  Eirik and Ruefin glanced at one another before shrugging and falling in line behind her. Hataya moved off to the side of the path and picked her way between the boulders, shrubs, and other areas of natural cover. Left in her wake were faintly green footprints, shimmering with a suggestion of the energy that had enveloped her in the village. As he passed through her tracks, Eirik felt a warming presence and saw movements in the shadows around him. Wisps of darkness peeled from his surroundings and clung to his clothes as he moved through the brush, lengthening his shadow. Up ahead, Hataya herself was a vague greenish shape and, glancing over his shoulder, Ruefin’s expression of astonishment was barely visible as he also became enshrouded in penumbra. Of Yadiru, there was no sign.

  Thus they silently crept alongside the path in shadows of Hataya’s making. Drawing ever closer to the shrine with their senses on high alert, the party slowed their pace further out of fear of signalling their presence. At the final turn of the path, Hataya side-stepped into a crevasse out of sight of the shrine entrance and urged her companions to follow. A film of sweat shone on her face and she took along drink from her canteen.

  “I need to rest for a moment.”

  Hataya sank to the ground and rested her head on her knees. The cloak of shadows faded away and Yadiru appeared at her side. Something in the way the Emissary vanished suggested that it was of his own volition and not related to Hataya’s skills.

  Eirik took a quick mouthful of water and peered around the rocks towards the shrine. Taking in every rock and shrub, he scoured the intervening distance for any sign of movement. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the environment, tuning out the rustle of leaves and fleeting strains of birdsong in an attempt to detect the smallest sign of human presence.

  Nothing. Nothing but silence and stillness.

  “This is weird,” he whispered, retreating into cover with the others. “I don’t think there’s anyone outside keeping watch.”

  “Are you sure? That doesn’t make sense,” Ruefin frowned, one hand resting on the hilt of his claymore.

  “I know,” Eirik replied, scratching his beard and squatting down beside Hataya. “I’m going to get closer and try to take a look inside. If the Emissary cares to come with me, I can send him back to get you if it’s safe.”

  Yadiru didn’t wait for Hataya’s reply. He stretched his long legs and stared at Eirik expectantly.

  “Let’s go.” Eirik slipped noiselessly from hiding and crept from alcove to hollow, making use of every late afternoon shadow that could shield him from sight. Closer and closer, inch by inch, he approached the opening in the mountainside as if it were a sleeping bear. Still no side of life. Finally he crouched beside the entrance, his heart pounding in his chest and beads of sweat forming on his spine. He held his breath and looked inside.

  Daylight revealed about twenty yards of a smooth, if dusty, upward slope. Sconces long since burned out lined the walls to the point where the shadows grew darker. Eirik listened intently, head on one side, until he finally came to the conclusion that there was no-one lurking. He released the breath he’d been holding in a long shuddering sigh and turned to Yadiru crouched at his side.

  “Bring the others here and have them wait for me. I’m going in a little way for a look.”

  The dog stared into the darkness and back at Eirik, seemingly skeptical, but still turned around and trotted back along the path. Eirik drew an axe and stepped inside.

  The passage continued at a gentle slope and Eirik was surprised by the smoothness of the carved walls and floor. The arched roof had the appearance of finely-dressed stone and he couldn’t help but be impressed.

  A thick layer of dust muffled his footsteps and Eirik advanced into the darkness without a sound. He trailed his fingers along the wall to stay oriented in the blackness and kept moving, waiting for the warning that stubbornly refused to come.

  A change in the texture of the darkness suggested the passage opened out into a larger chamber ahead. Eirik paused, uncertain what to do. The others would be waiting outside, but the urge to see what was up ahead demanded he press on. Just a quick look, he told himself, slowly placing one foot in front of the other.

  Fine shafts of light filtered in through cracks in the walls of what appeared to be a natural cavern. At the centre he glimpsed the outline of a towering form and, in the moment it took to dart back into the passage, he felt a presence in the room.

  With his heart hammering and sweat running down his face, Eirik withdrew to the entrance where Ruefin and Hataya huddled together with Yadiru. Relief washed over their faces when he reappeared and dropped into a crouch beside them.

  “How many are in there?” Ruefin asked with his sword already drawn.

  “I didn’t see anyone. There’s no lights burning and no noise. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “How far in did you go?”

  “Just to the end of the passage. It opens out into some kind of chamber at the end and I saw something in there. Something big.”

  “You said there wasn’t anyone in there!” Ruefin snapped.

  “I don’t think it’s a person,” Eirik replied, uncertain how to define what he’d felt. “There’s a presence of some kind, but it’s not like when people are watching or following me. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  “This is the Shrine of Tsumaqui the Water Bringer,” Hataya said, getting to her feet and planting her staff firmly in the dust, “of course there’s a presence here.” She adjusted the strap of the woollen sack and walked towards the passage.

  “Wait a minute. Wait!” Ruefin’s face fell and he scrambled upright, dragging Eirik by the arm and following her inside.

  Now with both axes drawn, Eirik stood at Hataya’s shoulder as she advanced into the darkness of the shrine. The soft dust muffled their footsteps as they advanced into the shrine, and Eirik fervently hoped that his senses hadn’t failed him.