Neva Silvermark's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Neva Silvermark crouched behind a snow drift and counted the guards on the trail below. Her clan had lost the sacred peak generations ago. She meant to climb it and take it back. But strangers now held the mountain, and they had posted armed guards on every path up. If they caught her alone, they would turn her back, or worse. She knew the risk. She had walked out of camp before dawn without telling anyone. Her mother would have stopped her. Her father would have called it foolish. Neva watched two guards pace the lower switchback. A third stood at an ice tower near the tree line, tall and dark against the white slope. He did not pace. He watched. Neva chose the far gully, where the snow lay deep and the rocks gave cover. She moved slow, keeping low, testing each step. She reached the second bend before her paw broke through a crust of ice. The crack echoed. The dark guard turned his head. He came down fast. By the time Neva reached the rocks, he blocked her path. A black panther, broad-shouldered, in gray armor with a red cloak. His yellow eyes fixed on her. "You're a long way from the valley," Kaine Shadowpelt said. His voice was low and hard. "These trails are closed. Turn around." Neva did not turn. "This mountain belonged to my clan. I have as much right to walk it as you." Something shifted in his face. He looked at her longer than a guard should. "You're the Silvermark girl." He said it quiet, almost to himself. "I've heard your father speak in the market. Khalan Snowpelt." "Then you know why I'm here." Kaine glanced back up the slope. The other two guards had not seen her. He stepped closer and dropped his voice. "If they find you, they'll drag you to the palace and let the cold hold you a while. I've watched them do it." He paused. "I don't want that for you." Neva studied him. He was the enemy's guard. Yet he had not called out. "Then let me pass." "I can't." His jaw tightened. "But I can look the other way. Tonight the watch changes late. This gully goes dark for an hour after moonrise." He pressed something into her paw. A small iron token, cold and worn. "Show this at the upper gate. The night guard owes me. He won't question it." Her fingers closed around the token. "Why help me?" Kaine was already backing toward the trail. "Ask me when you've climbed higher." Then he turned and walked back to his post, calling out that the gully was clear. Neva slid the token into her coat. The lower trail was no longer a wall. But now she had one hour, a single stranger's word, and a locked upper gate ahead. She looked up at the peak and started planning her climb.