Free Path of Bones by Steven Montano

thin to begin with, and though she was athletic she certainly didn’t seem up to the excessively arduous schedule she insisted they keep.  Kath, on the other hand, was used to extensive marches – he and his fellow members of the City Watch used to joke that they seemed to do little else – but even he was beginning to grow weary from the endless days of trudging across inhospitable ground. 
    They were finally leaving the Razortooth behind.  For a time they’d been so close they could have pushed into the range’s outer rim, but the very thought of entering those mountains chilled his heart.  Hundreds had died there just a few years before, his mother among them.  Some said that if you traveled through the thick mountain forests you could still hear the screams of the Bloodspeakers who’d perished in the Dawn Knight’s death camps. 
    By mid-day Ijanna was exhausted, and Kath wasn’t faring much better.  A week of hard travel was finally catching up with them, and Kath insisted they rest.  Ijanna finally relented, and they stopped at the top of a craggy hill covered with thorn oak and deep ravines.  The clouds turned blue, and Kath was grateful for the chill breeze coming at them from the River Black.  They’d kept hiking further and further from the shore to avoid the sea traffic moving in and out of Kaldrak Iyres, and while the ground was rougher and more difficult to traverse the air was much cooler.  Game and forage remained scarce, but they had no trouble finding mountain creeks and shallow streams, even if the quality of the water was sometimes dubious.
    They ate oat cakes and nuts.  It seemed an eternity since they’d had meat, and Kath was surprised by how much he craved it.  At his size he’d always had a healthy appetite, and when he was an active member of the City Watch he’d consumed eggs by the dozen.  His eating habits had been curtailed somewhat in the past few months, but he was still used to several healthy portions per day, so he wasn’t surprised when his stomach rumbled so loud he was sure every predator within a league would hear it.
    They took a short rest and pressed on, and after a few more hours of hard travel they came to the top of a steep rise from which they could see Kaldrak Iyres, the City of Thieves.  It was a rabid and ugly place even from a distance, a cluster of jagged towers and spiky round buildings.  The city sprawled across the harsh stone landscape and led right to the briny shores of Thorn Lake. 
    Kaldrak Iyres was almost entirely controlled by criminals, and it was known to be a place of decadence and filth.  That last living Galladorian city had stayed free of any significant influence or control from Jlantria and Den’nar, though from what Kath had heard there were still no more Drage to be found there than in the cities further to the south.  The mercenary soldiers of Kaldrak Iyres didn’t enforce the law so much as protect the rich criminals who held the populace in a stranglehold of fear. 
    It wasn’t quite dusk.  Kath cleared a stone ledge of its debris and motioned for Ijanna to sit, which she did without hesitation.  The flat clearing sat in the shadow of a half-toppled cedar that would hopefully keep them hidden from prying eyes.  Kath sat down across from Ijanna and rummaged through his pack for some trail mix, a blend of nuts, dried berries and figs.  He bit into his portion, trying his best to ignore the painful molar he wished would just fall out on its own so he wouldn’t have to pull it.  The icy wind made him shiver in place, but he recalled the heat of the days before and decided he’d relish the cold while he could.
    The food had little flavor, but it was better than nothing.  If only they’d been close to any place but Kaldrak Iyres he could have convinced Ijanna to enter so they could get a good meal and stock up on supplies, maybe even sleep in a real bed for a change, but she’d already made clear that there were