Silvain Ironleaf's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

By dusk the pass had changed. Silvain stood at the top and stared. Fresh rock now choked the gap they had cleared. Boulders sat where the trail had run open that morning. Below, the lynx cub hissed at something in the trees. The mountain's owner had learned their direction. He had sealed the road again before a single caravan could cross. "He works fast," Thaelis said. He crouched beside Silvain, the scar pale on his cheek. "This wasn't hands and picks. He moved the mountain itself." He pulled the worn ledger from his cloak and spread it on his knee. His finger traced a line of careful marks. "But he doesn't watch every path. Here. A smuggler's cut, below the sealed gap. It comes out past his fill." Silvain studied the marks. The route wound low and narrow, skipping the watchers. "Then we don't clear his rocks," Silvain said. "We go under them." A caravan that reached the far side would prove the road still lived. That was the point. Not the stone. The crossing. They climbed down toward the hidden cut. Halfway, the lynx froze and flattened its ears. Silvain heard it too. A high, thin cry. Something scrambled among the loose rock ahead. A white wolf cub struggled against a fallen slab, one leg pinned. Bold black marks streaked its fur. It snapped and thrashed, eyes wide with fear. The sealed pass had crushed its den and scattered the pack. "Leave it," Thaelis said. "His agents may be close." Silvain did not leave it. Silvain knelt, braced the staff under the slab, and heaved. The rock lifted an inch. The cub yanked its leg free and bolted, then stopped at a safe distance, watching. Silvain met its eyes. "His work did this," Silvain said. "Everything on this mountain pays for his greed." The cub did not run far. It trailed them down to the smuggler's cut, keeping to the shadows. The path was there, just as the ledger promised. A narrow throat of stone below the fresh fill. Silvain sent the lynx ahead. It padded through and came back calm. No ambush. No watcher. Silvain marked the cut on the ledger with a firm stroke. "This is the new road," Silvain said. "The first caravan comes through here." The sealed pass no longer mattered. The owner had spent his strength to block a door that Silvain had already walked around. But Thaelis stared back up the slope. His hand rested near a blade. "He'll know within a day," he said. "And he won't send bandits next. He'll send the ones who taught me." The wolf cub pressed close against Silvain's leg. The mountain had a fresh scar across it, and its owner now had a reason to come down himself.