In the Second Punic War, the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca surprised the Romans by marching through the Alps with his massive army to invade Italy. He brought with him a contingent of war elephants, most of whom died during the perilous journey, according to the historian Livy. Yet, despite the difficult journey where he was harassed by Roman allied tribes and had to fight through the terrible terrain, Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps would become one of the most famous military maneuvers of all time. Hannibal would go on to defeat the Romans many times, bringing the nascent republic to its knees. Purportedly, the presence of his elephants had been an important factor in his early victories.

Take a moment to think about an elephant from the perspective of someone who has never seen or heard of one before. A massive beast that can be as heavy as eight thousand pounds, with a trunk larger than your body and tusks that seem like they could skewer multiple people like a kebab. Have you heard an elephant’s cry? It shakes one’s ears like thunder, making your body shiver and stunning anyone without the discipline to ignore what is essentially a pre-industrial tank. Hannibal had been right to take his elephants across the Alps, even if he only managed to get a few across. And I knew I was right to bring Paris across The Dragon’s Maw, even if it meant I had to use a ton of magic to get her across safely.

The path through The Dragon’s Maw was narrow and dangerous. The path went up the side of the mountains, hugging perilous cliffs and crumbling overhangs, before dipping down to the valleys below. The path wasn’t well defined, looking more like a game trail cobbled together from monster paths and dried up stream and river beds. There were cracks and crevasses all along the way, with sharp rocks barely visible at the bottom.

The wind never stopped. It whistled through the mountains, at times screeching like a banshee, or making a garbled sound in our ears that sounded like devilish whispers. I could imagine someone hearing the sounds of the wind and convincing themselves these mountains were haunted. Certainly, we saw a few skeletons down the mountainsides and some mossy graves on the few green meadows or flat spaces we stopped at to take a breather. When I saw a corpse high up near the peaks, perfectly preserved by the snow, I made a grim face and did not point it out. If anybody else saw it, they did not point it out either.

Since there was a decent chance that the United Army might send reinforcements after us if they ended up fighting the Horde’s army after all, I decided to make the path behind us less dangerous. I had to make a lot of adjustments to help Paris cross, anyway, so it made sense either way. I widened a few paths, shored up some places that might have been prone to landslides, and fixed up some of the weaker overhangs. I set up some flat areas for rest stops at places where Taoc had gotten tired and asked for a breather. Taoc was the least physically fit person in our party, so it made sense to use her as a benchmark.

There wasn’t much I could do about the wind. I shielded our party from the worst of it, making sure Taoc wasn’t blown away or Kelser wouldn’t be blinded by a snowy breeze while crossing a narrow gorge. But anybody coming up behind us would have to endure the wind. I did fix up a few places that created powerful gusts of wind due to the shape of the geography, but it wouldn’t be enough. I still hoped nobody would come after us.

Even though Taoc was the weakest and Kelser the most inexperienced, it was Kol who complained the most during our journey. Since I was spending most of my energy making sure Paris was safe, I couldn’t make this journey as comfortable as I could have. The cold was biting, and Kol was not used to it. She also scraped her knee at one point and although it wasn’t very serious, it was one of those nagging pains that makes one irritable and annoyed all the time. I also suspected Kol’s ability to resist the Simurgh’s emotional manipulation magic was the weakest. If she was put under too much constant pressure, she would definitely do something stupid. I made a mental note to make sure she was always in the back of our fights, as I’d planned.

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There wasn’t enough time to rest and make food. The wind was terrible anyway so making and then protecting a fire would have been a challenge. Besides, we only had a couple of days to cross The Dragon’s Maw. Actually, I’d like to get there in one day, since there was no telling how much time it would take us to fight through all the defenders of the ceremony, including the Ikons Noel and Alek.

That was why we were stuck sipping spring-water and eating dried and cured meats. We also ate some pieces of bread that we’d swiped from the Horde’s supplies at the entrance to The Dragon’s Maw. Most of the food on Paris’ back was for her own needs, since there was no way we were going to be able to find enough food for her in these craggy and lifeless mountains and valleys.

Paris was surprisingly docile during the journey. She never got spooked and always moved where I led her. I wondered if she knew her survival depended on her listening to me and following the paths I created for her with magic. The wind didn’t even faze her, but it was clear she was not happy about the cold.

It was the sort of cold that bites into your skin, poking into your bones and forcing your teeth to chatter. Fire was useless and my air magic could only do so much. The thick monster fur clothes that we had swiped from the Horde’s army did come in handy, but with the magic I was using to make us go faster, the wind whipped past our bodies even faster, making us feel colder than ever. And as the sun began to set, and there was no sign of Mount Smoke, it became clear we would have to tough out a very cold night halfway down a mountainside. Below us, we could see a little lake with navy blue water, hugging two sides of a narrow v-shaped valley.

The sun hid behind a large mountain and The Dragon’s Maw fell into darkness. The night had come so suddenly, it had caught me completely by surprise. We had no choice but to stop where we were and set up camp. Thankfully, there was a little rocky overhang nearby, which helped shield us from the chilly breeze. We were low enough that there wasn’t any snow, but it was still chilly and the air was thin.

I had to use earth magic to make the area more stable. The overhang could’ve collapsed on us with a little weight up top, so I had to strengthen that too. I had to fix some places that could’ve fallen down in a landslide, and Paris needed more room to rest in, but after everything was done, I returned to the camp. Kelser returned soon after, telling me that he had set up the detection magic as I had requested. Taoc set up the fire with her magic and Kol used her magic to stop the light from leaking out from under our little rocky overhang.

I stood on the edge of the cliff. The path continued winding down the side of the mountain to my left, and the way we had come was to my right. In front of me, was the cliff leading down directly into the dark lake in the valley.

The lake’s water was even darker now that the sun was gone. It was almost indistinguishable from the dark rocks of the mountain behind it, as if the lake was filled with ash not water. The water was still and although it was far below us at an altitude that was probably not much higher than sea level, I knew that the water would be bone-chillingly cold.

In the last light of dusk, I had seen that the lake did not reflect the light very well. And when the stars came out, I could not see their reflections in the mountain. There was no moon out tonight. No red star either.

The wind blew. It whispered in my ear. I stared down at the lake. The wind carried a sound to my ear, the sound of something dropping into the water. I saw, despite the darkness, ripples going across the surface of the lake. Ripples that crashed against the black rocks of the valley. Rocks that had once been lava, flowing out of the top of an active volcano.