Cold winds beat at Hump, but these days, he found himself to be the victor when battling the weather. The weather protection of his battle robes and springleaf cloak were enough to keep him warm, even when the cold of essence use steeped through him.

He, Rehk, Tokdaar, and Nishari waited from the base of the rocky outcrop for Celaine to return. The smell of burnt flesh still clung to the air, and Hump could not escape the churning of his stomach. While Celaine had gone out in search of the enemies that had managed to flee, it had been his job to pick over the bodies for loot.

Despite his own woes, he had to admit, it was a good haul. The mercenaries had been no ordinary fighters—they were practitioners, and skilled ones at that. There were a couple of bronze tier weapons amongst them, a shield, two cloaks, and a whole lot more iron equipment. Hump of the past would have been over the moon with the find, but now it was just more gear to sell. He’d found twenty gold in coin, and likely their equipment would sell for a little more. If they ever made it back to civilisation, he’d buy himself something nice, and a hot bath.

Even the thought of smouldering fires heating water was enough to bring back nauseating thoughts. The horrified screams of the burning did not leave him. There was a tug at his cloak as Nishari climbed onto his shoulder and nestled against his neck. Tokdaar came to stand at his side, pressing against him.

Hump was taken aback by the young gnoll’s familiarity.

“They see you are sad,” Rehk said, her voice deep and growled.

“He’s a cute one, isn’t he?” Walt said. It seemed their fight had recharged him. “Met a couple of gnolls back in my day too. Good fighters, but wouldn’t want to cuddle up with one.”

Hump put a hand on Tok’s furry head and smiled. “I’m alright, thanks.”

Tok let out a soft, guttural purr that Hump took to be comfort.

“No need be sad,” Rehk said. “To be strong is to kill. To hunt. These men strong. You stronger, so they die.”

“Got to admit, kid, she’s right,” Walt said. “Some folk just aren’t worth getting torn up over.”

“Killing isn’t what bothers me so much,” Hump said. “It’s how they died and the nature of my magic. An arrow through the heart is far less cruel than what I did to them.”

Back when he’d chosen the path of a lava wizard, he had not truly understood what that meant. It was a brutal, painful way to kill. Causing such suffering did not sit right with him, even if it was life or death.

“Ack!” Rehk barked. “Human problem. Killing is killing. All same. Dead should be stronger if not want to die.”

“You feel pain,” Hump said. “Does it not bother you to imagine another being’s suffering?”

Rehk furrowed her brow inquisitively. “Wolf not care if a deer cries. Is not wolf’s job. All return to nature when dead.”

Hump shrugged. “You may have a point. Dead is dead, after all. And the dead don’t care.”

“I care!” Walt said. “Don’t throw us all into one basket.”

It was interesting to hear the perspective of a gnoll. Hump’s impression so far of their society—if it could be called as such—was of one more attuned to nature than humans. Where people did what they could to distance themselves from the world, hiding away in cities and houses, gnolls lived out in the wild. Hunting, gathering, and roaming the land. They did not value life in the same way. Death was just another part of nature’s cycle. Where humans fought to put it off as long as possible, gnolls lived in the moment.

Celaine returned soon, coming back down from the left of the pass. Hump had no idea how she’d made it there without him noticing, but by this point he was used to such surprises.

“Any luck?” he asked.

She shook her head. “They’re gone. The two that fled from the back of the outcrop left a trail that heads back in the direction we came from. My guess is we scared them off so they’re cutting their losses and heading back to Alveron. The rune warrior though… I couldn’t find any sign of him beyond the trees there. It’s like he vanished.”

“Maybe he did,” Hump said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he shifted into a bird and flew off.”

“That would be bad news for us if he can really sniff out his book. He might have Nisha’s scent now too.”

Hump frowned and tilted his head to the side, pressing up against the dragon perched on his shoulder. He scratched at the side of her head with a finger and she rubbed against it, a quiet rumbling escaping her.

“We could have scared him off,” Hump said.

Celaine scrunched her nose. “He seemed like a madman. And have you ever seen anything like those runes?”

“The runes are new to me.”

“There were some famous warlocks that tattooed runes over their skin where I was from,” Walt said. “Saw one myself once, actually. Maybe two? Type of folk you tell stories to your pub friends on stormy nights for a scare and a laugh.”

“Tattoos for magic aren’t that rare,” Hump said. “A formation is a formation, wherever it is. For a less skilled practitioner, it can drastically improve their spellcasting speed. This was something else though. The way the runes flowed over his body was like they were alive. There are tales of shape shifters that can change into the beings they have killed. I wonder if that’s where his interest lies.”

“I’d get that for the dragon,” Walt said. “But why would he care about your book then? The way that lady described it made it sound like he’d been sniffing that out.”

“Don’t know,” Hump lied. His mind went back to the heartstone that the book had revealed to him back in Sheercliff, and the divine presence he’d sensed within. He wondered if perhaps there was some truth to the tales. Maybe Winston needed heartstones to shape shift. Not that it mattered right now.

“The key point is that he can sniff us out,” Hump said. “In which case, we need to be prepared for another attack.”

“He’d be a fool to try anything alone,” Celaine said.

“He didn’t strike me as the brightest fellow.” Hump remembered that sense of craving when Winston had pounced against his shield. The ravenous need in his eyes.

“I’ll keep an eye out either way,” Celaine said. “At least for now, we’ve got a clear path to the pass. I suggest we keep moving while we can.”

Hump looked up the steep slope ahead and sighed. It would be quite the hike.

***

“Stay close, Nisha,” Hump called.

The little dragon ran between every passing bit of brush, stick, and stone that caught her interest. She was small enough that the scree stone ground didn’t give beneath her. For Hump, it was another matter. Sharp, loose rocks tumbled beneath every footfall. For every three steps forward, he slid one back. It was tough climbing. Not twenty paces to the left was a sharp drop. The horses didn’t like it and Hump couldn’t blame them. They were well trained, but one never knew when a horse might be spooked or get a stone caught in the hoof and risk being lamed. It was one more thing to worry about.

“Weird little creature, isn’t she?” Walt said.

It had been well over an hour since the fight, and he was still going strong, much to Hump’s distress.

“She’s not weird,” Hump grumbled.

“I don’t mean it in a bad way. She’s just sniffing everything. Bit like a dog if you think about it. I knew a guy with a little lizard for a pet once—never seemed to have much interest in anything. You’d think a dragon would be more like a lizard, no?”

Celaine laughed. “You say that where I’m from and you’d quickly learn how not like a lizard dragons are. They’re intelligent. Even lesser dragons are beyond any ordinary animal. Wolf dragons being particularly smart amongst them.”

“Can’t argue the point though,” Walt said smugly.

“She’s just a hatchling,” Celaine said. “Everything’s new to her, so she’s interested. It’ll pass as she gets older.”

Nisha glanced back and looked at them, tilting her head inquisitively. Hump smiled. She knew they were talking about her. Suddenly, she picked up a stick that was twice as long as she was and rushed over, half tumbling down the slope as she did. She raced down the hill past Hump, then strutted back up toward him proudly.

“You’re absolutely right,” Walt said. “Totally not dog-like at all.”

It felt like hours of uphill hiking. The combination of essence use and adrenaline from the earlier fight had left Hump exhausted; now he was running on fumes. With the threat of Winston in the hills though, and anything else that might have caught wind of their battle, Hump wanted to put as much distance between them and the outcrop as he could. They had a quick lunch, mostly so the horses could rest, before venturing on into the afternoon. Walt faded back into unconsciousness some time around then.

As they reached the top, the mountains closed them in once more. Two giant, grey stone monoliths on either side of them, sloping up to the sky. Between them ran a smooth path.

“This must be man-made,” Hump said, stunned.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know,” Celaine said. “There’re old trails like this all across the mountains. Just wait until you see the ruins of old cities. Those are far more interesting.”

“They don’t mention them back home,” Hump said, bewildered.

It made sense of course. A thousand years ago, people had lived here. Traders would have travelled this very route to reach the cities beyond the Charred Heights. He’d just always imagined it a wasteland. He supposed he had the Pantheon’s rhetoric to blame for that. Now… wind, rain, and gods knew what else had eroded much of the path. They followed the stone way between the mountains, steep inclines on either side. It was quiet up here, only the wail of the wind for company.

The lack of visibility made Hump uncomfortable—if they were ambushed, there would be no escape. Well, Celaine might manage something, but not the rest of them. That fact didn’t make her presence any less reassuring. Her senses and instinct had already saved them once today.

They passed a section with a sheer drop to one side. He peeked over—nothing but sharp rocks down below, and even further down than that an expanding grass plain.

A long, long way down. His stomach twisted.

Don’t look. Eyes forward, one step at a time.

Nisha leaned forward from his shoulder, looking downward. He could feel excitement through their bond.

“Nisha, do not jump,” Hump said, indicating caution through their bond. “I repeat, do not jump.”

She shrunk back, looking at him with big, purple eyes. Her tongue flicked out and licked Hump’s nose and he laughed.

As darkness set in, Celaine moved on ahead to find a place to make camp. Where the day had been quiet, they’d descended part way back down the mountain now, and eerie echoes followed them. He didn’t like it.

“You should take a look at this,” Celaine called from atop a tall section of rock to the right. The rockface was almost sheer, rocks and mud forming what might as well have been an impassable wall.

“Not sure if you realise this,” Hump called up, “but there’s no way in this world I can climb that.”

“Like I’d ever expect you to. There’s a route up that way.” Celaine pointed. “Even you could climb that. Tie the horses up to that tree over there and get up here.”

Hump rolled his eyes but did as she said. It was still a steep slope, and after so much exertion over the day, he struggled, though he refused to let it show. He came to stand at the peak beside Celaine. She was staring down into the distance, where the mountains ended and lowlands stretched to the horizon. There, the ruins of a city sprawled out in a vast maze of crumbled walls and broken buildings. He colours had faded into dark stone, weathered by a millennium.

Nisha leaned forward excitedly, awe and curiosity filling her. Hump reflected it, sharing in the sensation. And then a light caught his eye—a bright flash of purple in one of the buildings. In that moment of light, Hump made out the ground around it stirring like a hive of ants. Hump’s instincts warned him of something terrifying. A power that sent a chill down his spine. Death magic.

“Did you see that?” Hump asked.

“There was nothing like that when I passed it before,” Celaine said.

“You didn’t get into another fight, did you?” Walt asked groggily, awoken by the residual essence. “Something’s making me feel weird.”

“That was death magic,” Hump whispered. “You think the Lich Queen Rehk mentioned has made her base there?”

“It’s too far for even my eyes to make anything out, but I don’t know what else it could be. Could she have sensed out fight from there?”

Hump bit his lip. “It depends how powerful she is.”

“So it’s possible.”

Hump nodded. “I used Tier 5 magic. I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“In which case, her forces could already be looking at us.”

“Shit. If they find the pass, we’re screwed.”

“They won’t find the pass though, will they?” Walt asked, worry in his voice.

Hump started back down the slope, heading for the gnolls and horses. “I’ll get my wards up. Have a look around, Celaine. If undead are swarming the mountains, we need to know quickly.”

“On it.”

“Hump, that isn’t an answer!” Walt cried. “I really don’t want to meet a Lich Queen!”