Chapter I
“I’ve been thinking, brother, and I have a
proposition.”
“It’s a dangerous habit to think. And later.
Your newest… gift is nearby.”
Sweat
beaded on her neck and dripped down her brow, but the heat refused to break
even as the sun began its decent in the horizon. It seemed as if the sole
purpose of it was to broil her in her shoes before the day was out. Somehow,
the people of the vast city were laughing and walking about in the narrow
streets without a care. It was incredible that anyone could stand such
insufferable heat!
The
woman gripped at the small dagger in her hand and the cool stone handle
reminded her of home. It was dragonstone; not even the fires of hell could heat
it. The blade still felt as if it had been dipped in a cool pool of crystal
clear water, just like the glistening waters of the river outside her bedroom.
If she returned she would fling herself in the blankets of snow in the far
north and never surface. Even Aru’mat the Baleful wouldn’t argue with her.
But
it was useless to think of her beautiful country, at least now. She had a mission
to do. A proper one, this time. Kya was a military strategist, but as a female
she had never been offered any sort of mission outside of the country. Hell,
she rarely left The Capitol of Elivagar, her home.
In slight trepidation and awe,
Kya looked about the vast city she had only ever read about. The blisteringly
hot city of Beinn was built upon a large mountain in the
middle of a long, scraggly range. Its roads and homes circled around its base
and gradually moved to its peak.
The
bottom tier was filled with thatched little huts and crumbling sections of wall
that used to defend the city. The higher up the mountain you traveled, the
higher the class. At the highest tiers were the wealthiest of members of Beinn
and likely all of the country. Their homes were carved of pure marble and
embossed with shimmering gold. It was a magnificent sight, to the natives and
foreigners alike.
Kya
was quite certain that she was the only foreigner in these walls. The country
of Nibheis was not particularly fond of the pale people to the north, her own
country. Oddly enough, they were fond of conquering it little by little. Her
current status of a northerner would warrant a death sentence. She didn’t like
to think about what would happen if they realized what position she had in
Elivagar’s military.
Instead,
Kya thought about her mission, though it was a suicide mission in its own way.
The
girl glanced around the crowded streets and sucked on a waterstone—a small
polished rock that you plopped in your mouth to encourage the lips and tongue
to create sweet moisture. Everyone here was so tall, so much more than she was.
It was the greatest flaw in her disguise. She had used oils and powders on her
hair and skin to darken them both. Unfortunately, a dozen foot-soldiers lost
their lives to get the uniform she was wearing, but her small stature couldn’t
be helped, and neither could her gender.
Women
were not common in Nibheis’ military, but more so than in her own. She would
just have to hope that her disguise was adequate. She was the only one left who
could do this.
Her
mind wandered back to the inevitable outcome of her mission. Kya was going to
die tonight. She would die just like all the men before her who were sent to
kill the general. More specifically, Third General Noden. Kya was a strategist,
and after watching dozens of knights and soldiers sacrifice themselves to the
mission, she offered her mind and body to the duty. What could throw off the
most feared man in the continent more than sending a woman to kill him—at that,
a woman who was probably half his height?
General
Noden was the sole reason her country had fallen in the past decade and Kya was
determined to enact her revenge for that. The man was the youngest person to
join the ranks of the ‘God Generals’—a band of five men who took their vows to
protect the sanctity of their King, their people and, most importantly, their
religion. They held the most power of anyone besides the King himself.
They
were ranked, with the ‘first’ holding the most power compared to the ‘fifth’,
and the only way to gain the position was to kill the general already sitting
there. There hadn’t been a change in the roster of the Generals for decades
until young Noden came along. He challenged the Third General—an alarming move
as most dueled with the fifth, then attacked the next one up until they finally
became the first general. In the rare occasion they were void of a general, the
King would appoint one.
But
this young Noden, only 16 at the time, completely destroyed his adversary and earned
his right to take the vows of honor and service beneath the giant statues of
their gods. General Noden even earned the macabre nickname of ‘General Hilt’.
It was rumored that the last thing any man saw after they crossed him was the
elaborate hilt of his infamous sword buried in their chest. Hilt had personally
led the armies that decimated much of Kya’s country, encouraging the stories of
his inhuman thirst for blood and chaos.
Kya’s
goal, like the countless men before her, was to kill him. Elivagar was
perfectly aware of how much influence the Third General had with the military.
All of the attacks changed as soon as he was given his title. If he was out of
the picture maybe, just maybe, Elivagar would have a chance.
The
problem was now that Kya had to find him. Beinn was huge. It housed as many
people as Elivagar likely had in the entire country. All of them lived in the
mountains like trolls, as tightly packed as the layers of an onion. Picking out
the General would be seemingly impossible. Fortunately, there was one feature
General Noden had to make him as easy to find as an orange among apples.
General Noden had brilliant, poisonous emerald eyes. No other person in the
world had those eyes.
The
city of Beinn was a maze. Kya was certain that they had no plan to the
construction of it when they started. It was just a mess of houses upon roads
upon caverns into the city. Some of the tunnels went all the way through, while
others were entrances to the mines which supplied the seemingly endless array
of gold, silver and gems that glittered on the fingers of the women and the
armor of the men.
The
pink and tangerine fingers of sunlight were just barely streaming through the
mountains to the west as Kya finally managed to get to the ‘town square’. It was
hardly a square, and Beinn was much bigger than any town. It was a flat stretch
of a plateau on the mountain which housed a large ring of exquisite shops that
wrapped around a raised circular platform with several seemingly superfluous
beams around it.
Most
of Beinn seemed to be congregating here and Kya noted that it would be a
perfect place to scan for the General. She worked her way into the crowds and
tried her best to blend in.
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