The Forge of the Covenant by Nicholas Kotar

Author:Nicholas Kotar [Kotar, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780998847979
Publisher: Waystone Press

Chapter 6

A Rift in the Realms

The road between the cliffs led into the mountain wall through a cave entrance hardly large enough for two to enter side by side. The cliff walls before the cave were so tall that even before walking into it, Lebía was shrouded in darkness. She managed to hobble on her own up to the cleft, but once within, not being able to see the pebbles on the road, she lost her footing more than once, one time even tearing something inside her right ankle so badly that she had to lean on Cassían. He was not much taller than she, but he was strong. It was a different strength than Mirnían’s, which was youthful and athletic. Cassían was as though carved from rock. It was a strangely comforting thought.

The cave ended up being more like a tunnel. Even as they entered the mouth, she could see the other end not far ahead. Greenery burst into view, even from a distance. As she approached, she thought she was passing from a realm of shadows into a realm that was the source of all colors. The grass was so green that the name for it was meaningless. The bark of the linden trees clumping near the exit had so many hues, each in distinct shades of brown and grey, that it dizzied her vision.

There weren’t many trees, however. It was a totally alien landscape to her. Towers of stacked rocks stood in rows like trees in a massive forest. The largest of them were thick enough to encompass entire houses, while the thinnest could be encircled by two people holding hands. The rocks came in the strangest variety of hues. From a distance, they looked uniformly grey. But when Lebía came near to one, she noticed splashes of pink and red among the browns and greys. Dark purple fungi grew next to lichens of bright orange. The pillars went on for miles, until they began to coalesce into larger and larger stacks. In the far distance, hazy-blue in the morning light, mountains towered.

Lebía breathed in the air on the other side of the cave as though she hadn’t really breathed at all for twenty years. It was so familiar in some way, despite the strangeness of it all. She thought it might be because she, born in a mountain country, had been forced to live on an island for so long. To be back among the giants of rock and earth was like seeing a long-lost grandfather and remembering how he used to hug you and give you secret sweets when you were a child.

“You have not been home for a long time, I think,” said Cassían next to her. Lebía realized they had stopped, and she was gaping. She felt herself go red in the face.

“Where do you live, Cassían?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

He pointed toward a clump of the stone pillars, beyond which she saw a plateau covered in grass, leading to an elevated pine forest that stretched as far as the eye could see.

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