Kalo laughed at Serenity’s joke. That was probably more than it deserved; Serenity didn’t think it was a very good joke. His grin only widened as he continued. “If they can manage a duchy, surely they can manage a city?”

That was actually a serious question, even if Duke Lowpeak asked it like a joke. Serenity decided to answer if he’d asked the question more straightforwardly. “We can help; that’s why we’re here. I don’t want to get too involved in your concerns, but helping is the fastest way to get portals open to send my people home.” Serenity remembered telling the Duke about the people he was trying to rescue, so that shouldn’t be a surprise. “I can tell you that the invaders aren’t going to get any support from home. They were behind the abductions as we thought, and well…” Serenity shrugged as he trailed off. Kalo could fill in the rest.

The Duke chuckled. “Never underestimate an irritated Hand. I learned that years ago. The Voice chooses you for a reason. Does that mean you finished your Quest?”

Quest?

Serenity blanked for a moment then wanted to facepalm. He hadn’t checked the quest! He hadn’t even thought about it.

[Path Quest Stage 4: Path Quest Choice]

[Tutorial Trouble: There is a problem in the Tutorial. Students are being directed to incorrect locations at the end of the first Phase. Assist the Voice’s investigations, find the responsible parties, and arrange for appropriate punishment]

[Step 1: Find out how it’s happening in the Tutorial] [COMPLETE]

[Step 2: Investigate on Zon] [COMPLETE]

[Step 3]: Investigate the Eternal Church’s involvement] [COMPLETE]

[Step 4]: Punish those responsible or arrange for an alternate method of discouraging repetition] [COMPLETE]

[Optional Goal: Put measures in place that will prevent the same scheme from working in the future] [COMPLETE]

[Optional Goal: Recover the lost Earthlings and return them to Earth (if desired)]

[Quest Completion held pending completion of Optional Goal]

[Declare Quest Complete?]

Serenity declined the offer to close out the Quest and looked back up at Kalo. “It’s done except for rescuing everyone I can find and sending them to Earth. That’s why I need the portals open.”

“You’re not even going to pretend it’s to help your old friend Kalo?” The Duke’s grin took a lot of the sting out of the question.

Serenity wasn’t sure how to answer so he said the first thing that came to mind. “Well, I could have waited, but I have enough help now that I think we can take care of the problem and hurry things up, so shouldn’t we do that? I mean, it gets my people home sooner and it gets your problem dealt with, it’s a win for everyone. Well, everyone except the invaders, but they don’t really deserve a win anyway. Plus I think I still have some stuff that belongs to Ceney so maybe this will give me a chance to return them.”

Serenity paused and wrinkled his forehead. “By the way, where’s Andarit? I was expecting to see her by now.”

Kalo suddenly lost his grin and looked serious, almost grim. “She’s acting as a messenger. I was expecting her back by now; this trip was one of the shortest, she was just headed to Iron Mountain. I know she’s safe, physically at least; she’s my Heir and that means I’m aware of her condition if I concentrate on it, just like I’m aware of the land.”

Well, that knocked all the fun out of the meeting. “You haven’t gone after her?”

Duke Lowpeak shook his head. “I can’t, not with Zenith in question. There’s a clause in the treaty that allowed us to join the Kingdom of Zenith; the ruler of Lowpeak can’t leave the duchy without the permission of the King on penalty of forfeit of the land. There’s more to it than that, and under the normal succession rules it wouldn’t be a problem, but now that I know the kingship is contested I have to treat it as if I don’t have permission. It was intended to avoid Lowpeak from trying to take over, I think. I have some people looking into it, but she was the messenger for a reason; I was hoping to ask you to look for her as well, since the easiest route to Zenith is through Iron Mountain.”

Serenity remembered that from his original trip to Lowpeak with Andarit. They’d detoured around Iron Mountain, through the Dead Swamp, to avoid the delay of waiting in quarantine. It seemed like he was going to get to see the faster route this time; there was no worry about quarantine since they wouldn’t be getting close to the swamp.

Serenity didn’t like the fact that Lowpeak couldn’t leave his land; that also meant he’d be without a powerful ally when he reached Zenith. He also didn’t like the Duke choosing his land over his daughter, but he couldn’t even say for certain that was happening yet; it was clearly a balancing act the Duke was trying to handle the best he could. He didn’t know what the Duke would decide if he thought his daughter was truly in danger. Hopefully it wouldn’t come up.

Serenity nodded. “I’ll look for her. Do you have any way to find her if she’s not obvious? Perhaps an item that’s important to her?” Ita could probably track her down if she had a starting point.

The Duke nodded. “Nothing already enchanted, but if all you need is some of her belongings, I’ll make sure you have them before you leave. Let’s go over the political and military situation first; you will need to know that both in the Mountain’s Crest Estate and when you reach Celestials’ Rest; that’s where we’re gathering our forces for the assault on Zenith.”

Serenity frowned for a moment, reminded by the mention of military forces. “I meant to ask you about the training camps across the river. Did you know they aren’t setting any guards to warn of hostiles of any sort?”

Kalo closed his eyes for a moment. He looked tired and worn down. “Still? I’ll have to remind them of it. I’d hoped they’d learn after the first demon beast, but I guess that wasn’t enough of a lesson.”

The route to the Mountain’s Crest Estate started with traveling back down part of the mountain Lowpeak was on, but instead of traveling to the base where the swamp was, they headed to a part of the mountain that was essentially joined to another mountain. The route had some vertical portions, but most of it was traveling around the mountain instead of over it.

Late on the third day after leaving the mountain that was the basis for Lowpeak Duchy, they reached the pass from the Duchy of Lowpeak to Iron Mountain March. It was a fairly high pass; while it was below the permanent snowline, it was still snowy at this time of year.

Between the elevation change and the distance they had to travel, it was another two days before they were actually through the pass and definitely within Iron Mountain territory. There was a wall that separated the two areas; it was clearly designed to be continually manned in times of trouble, but it also clearly hadn’t been properly maintained in decades. From the pass, it was less than a day’s travel to the Mountain’s Crest Estate; Iron Mountain was situated at the end of the pass, unlike Lowpeak.

On this side of the mountain, the buildings spilled out well beyond the walls of the Estate, well into the fields surrounding the settlement. The path from the pass actually looked down onto the city itself, which made it far easier to see how large the Mountain’s Crest Estate was, and it was much, much smaller than the series of settlements on Lowpeak. Most of the mountain was wild, rather than farmed, and the structures were clearly clustered around the Estate itself instead of multiple clusters in different places on the mountain. Even the Estate proper was smaller than the central grouping that surrounded Lowpeak Manor.

The gate to the Estate was open but guarded. There was no line, but Serenity was able to see people pass through the gate ahead of his group; most appeared to be selling produce, but a few carried nothing other than themselves. All were dressed in what Serenity thought of as peasants’ clothing, simple and unadorned with no signs of weapons or armor. The clothing was clean and well-maintained, however, which said that the people on the mountain were relatively well off.

The sight made Serenity glad that they had managed to get enough armor and weapons for Legion back on Lyka. It was unfortunate that so much of the armor was battle robes, which were really only suitable for people who trained in them and mages, but that was just the way it was. They’d forgotten tents, somehow, but at least that was something Serenity could buy as he traveled through the more civilized areas of Zon; he’d bought what he could in Lowpeak, but there were only so many already available and he wasn’t in Lowpeak long enough to have many more made.

When they reached the gate, the soldier didn’t seem bored but he also didn’t seem surprised. His words made the reason why clear. “More soldiers from Lowpeak?”

Duke Lowpeak had mentioned that he’d already sent some, but most weren’t supposed to head over the pass for another month. He simply hadn’t had as many people under arms as he wanted to send, which meant he had to keep some back as training cadre. Others were going to stay permanently; the Duke wasn’t about to strip his defenses when the Dead Swamp was still a threat.

“Yes,” Serenity agreed, “and a message for the Margrave as well.” That was the first method Serenity was going to try to use to find Andarit: asking. If it didn’t work, he’d resort to Ita’s magic.

The guard nodded. “Temporary housing for soldiers is set up in the old practice hall; it’s not much but it’s something and you won’t be here long. Head down the street until you get to the second fountain, then turn left; from there, just keep an eye out for other guards, they’ll get you there. The messenger should keep going past the second fountain until he gets to the fountain carved like a fan, then turn right; that road will lead you to the Margrave’s residence.” He paused for a moment, then smiled. “Welcome to Iron Mountain. You probably won’t be here long, but while you are, try to avoid getting in trouble. We’re trained by the Iron Mountain Sect and if you get in trouble or are here long enough for them to take an interest, you’ll find out what that means.”

With that somewhat threatening yet polite warning, the guard waved them into the Mountain’s Crest Estate. Serenity split from the others at the second fountain, which seemed to be carved in the shape of a ram’s head, and headed for the Margrave’s residence. He’d have no trouble finding the others later; Aide was keeping track of his location. If he had to, he could simply head towards the fountain in the shape of a ram’s head and follow the limited directions from there, but Serenity expected he’d be able to get better directions from Rissa or Ita if necessary. Legion also planned to explore the area.

The fountain shaped like a fan was distinctive; instead of one stream of water, it had five. They all came back together in the air, so it wasn’t any different in function, but it was definitely different to look at.

It wasn’t far from there to the building that had to be the Margrave’s residence. It was larger than the Lowpeak manor and seemed more forbidding; the only windows were narrow and there were clear stations for archers and mages, where the Lowpeak manor had broad windows and didn’t have a walkway for guards near the top.