Free Path of Bones by Steven Montano Page B

is…unfortunate.”  She leaned back and looked out over the darkening landscape.  The sun was setting fast, and the world looked like a black sea.  Kaldrak Iyres’ ghostly fires reflected off the surface of the massive lake.  For a moment Ijanna’s eyes strayed to the twin blades she carried, the weapons she called the thar’koon , which he knew were somehow leading her to the women they sought.
    “ What’s wrong?” Kath asked.
    “ Nothing,” she said.
    “ Ijanna…”
    “ We’re going to Corinth,” she said, and she looked at him.  “That’s…not good.”
    “ Did the blades tell you that?” he asked.  “Just now?  Is Corinth where the other Skullborn is?”
    “ Yes.”
    Kath swallowed. 
    “Corinth is supposed to be haunted, isn’t it?”
    “ Yes,” Ijanna said with a nod. 
    Kath tried to suppress a shudder.  There would be no avoiding it, not if that was where the blades told her to go.
    “We’ll be okay,” Kath said.  Ijanna gave him a questioning look.  “I promise,” he said. 
    I don’t know if you’re crazy or not , he thought, but I’ll give you this, Ijanna – you’ve certainly made life more interesting.
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
    Eight
     
    That night, Ijanna slept worse than any other since leaving Ebonmark.  She had no nightmares or visions, but her slumber was fretful and uneasy.  On several occasions she woke in a panic, her eyes darting about, convinced she’d been woken by some threat coming at them from out of the night.  Kath was always ready with his axe in hand to go and inspect whenever she thought she sensed something in the darkness, but they were alone.
    She’d never been more grateful for her turn to take watch, even if Kath had been reluctant to let her have one since he knew how little she’d rested.  Eventually exhaustion forced him to sleep, leaving Ijanna up alone, nervous and on edge.  All through that next morning she moved as if half-asleep, barely registering their position as they stayed in the shallow valleys and crested buttes west of Kaldrak Iyres, avoiding the roads and watchtowers scattered across the countryside. 
    She stumbled a few times, and she was grateful Kath was there to catch her.  The chill of the early morning air was all that kept her awake, and she regretted the fact that very soon the atmosphere would be scorching.   
    Kaldrak Iyres faded from sight.  They followed the western trails, which eventually cut to the north.  It was a long day’s walk through scrub oak and blasted stone, and they passed clefts in the earth that looked deep enough to swallow ships, but they managed to side-step those rifts with relative ease and make their way down to the wide trade roads.  They camped around mid-day in the shadow of a dead oak.
    After Kath acquired some hard provisions and salted beef from a traveling merchant with a mule-driven cart and a burly man-at-arms as his protection – Ijanna remained hidden in case those men knew of the bounty Mez’zah Chorg had put on her head – they headed northeast, away from the road and into the flatlands. 
    Gallador’s unnaturally hot weather, especially for such a northerly place, was only one of its many curses.  The regions to the west were arid and cold and received snow, but the northern wastes were all desert.  The atmosphere was so dry it seemed ready to combust, and the heat they’d trudged through along the River Black was nothing compared to what they felt as they entered the Bonelands. 
    The rocky terrain gradually gave way to smoother and softer ground, dark soil filled with sediment and bone.  The air grew stale and murky and the sky was dark, peppered with black clouds Ijanna knew were toxic to the unprotected, which was why she shielded the two of them the moment the first one came into view.  Low hills seemed to move in the distance, and long-blasted roads sank into the black sand.  The ruins of collapsed towers and shattered buildings littered the