Page 27 of The Alien Noble's Little Human

“And it’ll be sundown soon.”

I don’t know what I would have done if Taurek had let me go into the mountains alone. I would have likely died on the first day, just from the icefalls sliding off the trees. I thought I was used to mountains, but these ones are not like anything I’ve seen.

The Ice-Charred Peaks feel more like a living organism than slabs of rock. I’ve been to practically every Kingdom on Kiphia, and I’ve heard stories from generations of Earth lore, but I’ve never heard of a place like this. The force of the winds can snap a person’s neck. The snow is known to fall thirty feet, and even higher with wind shear.

“Ice-Charred Peaks actually became the name because of a mistake,” Ryland says gravely.

“A mistake?”

“It was ‘shard.’ Like glass, because of how steep it is, because of how brutal it is, and because of the shards of ice coming from all directions. But it became ‘charred’ and it stuck”

“When was the first time anyone came up here?”

“That’s been lost to the ages. But the first time someone went up who actually was documented to come back?” Taurek looks at Rylan, who’s frowning.

“Within my lifetime,” Rylan pronounces solemnly. Taurek told me that no one’s quite certain of his age. His lifetime might span five hundred years. No one knows.

“An expedition that included my grandfather. And Rylan’s father. There’s a long history there.”

“What was the expedition for?”

“We were going through a famine. Crop failures. Animals dying. This was a long time ago. Long before I was born. They thought maybe they could invoke the Divine Ones if they went to the highest peak in the Kingdom.”

“And did they?”

“I don’t know. But in the Ice-Charred Peaks, they found substances that helped things grow. Maybe it was the Divine Ones. Maybe it was the mountains revealing secrets and Kiphians being resourceful. But they took on special significance. They took some of the minerals back, mined in a different part of these mountains. It was called mirconium. And when they constructed the new palaces, we used it for insulation.”

“Do you think it made a difference?”

“I’m not sure. We’ve had mostly good fortune. The clans maintain peace. We still have one of the more democratic setups in Kiphia. But, I don’t know. It’s not capable of performing miracles. Hanai’s illness is proof. And…”

Taurek grows silent and looks off in the distance. Rylan looks downward at the accumulating snow. He must be talking about the death of his previous mate, and I think about the heartbreak he must have endured. A personal tragedy for a royal becomes a collective tragedy, which must make it so much more painful.

After moving forward for a little while in silence, we find a cavern protected from the elements to make camp for the night, large enough for the chordata to fit, although they were slightly spooked by the small space.

In the morning after our rest, we see the effects of the shard storm – broken guideposts split in two, boulders smashed apart like snowballs, and trees dashed into splinters.

In the distance, we see a yawning chasm. I study Taurek’s face to get a read on what to make of it, trying to notice the subtle signs. His brows knit together, and I’m not sure if it’s a small annoyance or a looming disaster.

Rylan looks back at the two of us on our chordatas. “Looks like we’ll have some work ahead of us, Prince Taurek.”

“We’ll see once we get closer. It doesn’t look like it’s in great shape. Hopefully it’s not completely wiped away, or else we’ll have to go all the way around.”

I’m continually stunned by Taurek’s understated reactions to setbacks, although I suppose he may have learned it by necessity. Or perhaps royals are trained to never show emotion. Or to never feel it.

Once we get to the bridge, the wooden planks and rocky girders are covered in ice and pockmarked from the shards, but fortunately, they’re still there, just precariously hung. And liable to crumble from the water seeping in.

“There’s a technique I learned from the nomads, years and years ago when I was adventuring with them. It involves a certain type of maneuver with the pickaxe to shear the ice without damaging the structure.”

Rylan and I look at each other, then at Taurek. This Prince is full of surprises.

13

TAUREK

Thank the Divine Ones for those years I lived with the nomads. While the bridge is absolutely frozen over, some quick hacking with Rylan’s extra pickaxe and careful maneuvering of the chordatas do the trick.

Chordatas are strong draft creatures. One of their hooves could take this whole bridge down. Luckily, I know from living with the nomads that Chordatas have peripheral vision even more powerful than their stereoscopic sight.

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