The ingress of the box canyon loomed before her, and Brenna sighed heavily. Her journey had thus far taken her across the Welkon at Miller’s crossing, passed the idyllic valleys of the Trine, and into the steppes of Vermain. She had travelled constantly for half a moon, taking food and rest when she could. To do otherwise would be… unpleasant for her at the very least. Coalheart and Raven were of little consequence, but if Steyr Seven-Slayer or Stonearms or Madoc, or gods, even Steyr’s half-wit cousin Deroth were set on her trail, it might not end so predictably.
So here she was. The Redcliffs lay just beyond here, and it was the spire at the top of the Redcliffs that she sought.
The stories told that the crumbling fastness atop the ridge had once been a great city of the Oldlings, in a long-dead age before the Great Schism. There had been but one race of them, it was told, before the age of man. But like a handful of similar fallen fortresses that dotted the steppes of Vermain, this one had been abandoned by the Oldlings when they had retreated in some long-forgotten war with men.
The great stone arch, or better said what remained of it, marked the entrance of the fastness. The ascent would have knocked the breath out of lesser women, but Brenna was made of sterner stuff. She mused at the ancient beauty of the thing, and marveled that it still stood.
Beyond the arch, the vast, sweeping stone stairs remained relatively intact. Brenna remained alert. In their pidgin of Vermaini and broken Coltoni, the simple folk of the steppe had warned her about places like this, spinning stories of the ghosts of the Oldlings and of shades and spirits that haunted the ruined cities. With the sun high in the sky, this worried her little; the stories about the bandits and cutthroats who hid in the ruined cities concerned her more.
Her concern was not unfounded. As she topped the enormous stair, she saw that the square was already occupied by two strangely garbed women.
The woman who stood on the left was similar in build to Brenna herself. Her attire was made entirely of some great hunting cat, and she gripped a heavy warhammer. She said nothing, merely glowering at Brenna.
It was the woman on the right who held her attention. Of similar height but a more slender build, she wore an elaborate headdress and leveled her spear with a familiarity that let Brenna know that she knew well how to use it. It was she who spoke.
“Hold!” She bellowed, in passing fair Coltoni.
“I hold. We have no quarrel. Let me pass.”
“I am Ekita, of the Saltcreek. You intrude on our hunting ground. If you turn around now, and go back the way you came, you’ll live to see another day. If you take another step, you will not.”
Turning around wasn’t an option. Brenna had counted on crossing into the Redcliffs here, where the passage was easy and straightforward. If not here, she’d have to travel southeast another tenday or more, across the Great Sand Sea, to reach the gentle foothills on the other side.
“I cannot turn around. This Oldling city is the only passage into the Redcliffs for fifty leagues or more. How do you intend to stop me?”
Ekita gestured slightly with her head. Poised well above the common at the top of another stone staircase, she saw the archer. The woman was shaven bald, with a whip-taught body, and the bow that she held was already nocked. She smiled wickedly, as if all that she waited for was Ekita’s word.
“My sister Ursa will feather you before you’ve moved two paces.” Ekita explained unnecessarily.
Unworried, Brenna responded. “Are you sure she’s that good? Nevermind. Jeena of the Blackwren is my blood-sister. I claim the right to challenge.”
“You lie! You do not know our ways!”
“I care not. Accept or don’t. If you refuse my challenge, the world knows that Ekita of the Saltcreek is a liar and a coward. It would be a shame to take the ears of such beautiful women, but you leave me little choice.”
The muscular woman spoke for the first time, her voice a sultry rumble, and her Coltoni much more forced. “You! You insult the Saltcreek! Kasha will crush you! Kasha accepts, Blackwren whore!”
“It is settled, then.” Ekita announced. “You will fight Kasha. No weapons, no killing. The challenge lasts until one submits. Ekita has spoken.”
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