Possessing the Grimstone - By John Grover Page 0,39

King of the South’s remarks. He’d seen him in action, had heard his harsh words to others. He was not the most regal of people.

Miles passed like a blur, and before Pim realized it, they were roaming about the slopes of the mountains. The air was cooler and the skies were brighter, but they remained layered with gray tones.

“Hark, a path,” Tolan pointed his sword at a rocky, dirt road that twisted up into the mountains to a notch circled with trees.

“That’s the only one?” Drith asked.

“I see no other.”

“It seems that a single path out in plain sight would be a dangerous one to take.”

“It’s either this, or we climb the mountains on foot,” Tolan said to him.

Drith thought about it for a moment. “Path, it is.”

Pim grinned at Tolan, who winked back at him.

The six riders drove their horses onto the path, and started up. The Cardoon warriors took the lead; then Tolan followed with Pim. Drith and his guardian brought up the rear.

It was not long before stone and brush swallowed them. The path twisted and climbed, getting steeper and steeper. In the dirt beneath them, Pim thought he recognized the mark of wagon wheels. It seemed that the mountains weren’t as desolate or unvisited as Tolan’s people believed. Someone had made the same trip into the mountains that they were making now.

The trees grew smaller and thinner the higher they went. Winged creatures fluttered from the trees at their approach. Something scuttled across the ground. Pim listened to everything intently.

At one point, the group had to dismount, and they led their horses by their reins as the path grew narrower. They crossed great ledges with steep drops.

From here, Pim could see a panorama of the lands. The black spires of Cardoon stood out in the distance. Further from them, dark clouds swirled in the sky, their insides crackling with dark green light. They were moving closer to Cardoon.

Pim saw the outer edges of the Salt Lands; they looked like they were in flames. Beyond that, a hint of the Fifling Sea winked at him.

The situation seemed so dire. The scourge now known as the Neshing was knocking at everyone’s doors. No one was safe. What if he and the others couldn’t find the other pieces of the stone? What if the Neshing destroyed every city in Athora? What if no one could stop them? What of Gonnish and his mother, his father, and Tal?

It was too much to think of. The questions never stopped entering his mind. Doubt, fear, guilt: they were there constantly, nagging at him, confusing him. Now was not the time to second guess. Now was not the time to give up.

He pulled himself from the view and continued to follow Tolan, who remained strong and silent. He listened to the rhythm of his horse’s hooves, and felt his breath on his arm. Pim realized then he was on this treacherous journey for this animal, too; for all animals. Every living thing in these lands was at risk of extinction. They had to succeed. They just had to.

They came to a notch in the mountains and decided to stop for a rest. Grass surrounded them on all sides; a deadfall stretched across their path. A cluster of boulders provided a hiding place.

Pim tore into his bread and ripped at his cheese. He gulped at his water.

“Pim,” Tolan said. “Slow down. Ration your food. Our journey has just begun, and we do not know how long it will last.”

Pim froze, pulling his water skin away from his lips. “Will we not come by more food and water through the lands?”

“We may or we may not. We cannot depend on the kindness of strangers.”

“We know that first hand,” Drith said after taking a small sip of water. “My people have learned to evolve through the centuries, and we store the water in our bodies for long trips. We have become one with our hot, dry desolation. A kingdom of sand passed down to me through my father, and his father, and his…”

“So you can go a long time with no water?” Pim dared to ask.

“Indeed, but were it not for the people in the port towns, and the ships that sail on the Baltha Sea, we would have starved. Not even all of the water in Athora could have prevented that.”

Pim didn’t know how to respond. Coming from a people that had always been farmers and knew nothing else, he didn’t know what it was