Forks of lightning tongued the sky in the mountains ahead, making stark black silhouettes of the peaks. Another storm rode in on the back of the last one, spawned by black clouds and the black mood of mountain gods. They galloped through cloying stretches of low cloud and winced beneath the blows of hailstones the size of eyeballs. A sharp one had slashed open Janu’s cheek, and the blood kept washing into his mouth.

Fraidun was saying something, arguing with Galnai now she had jumped back to her horse, but Janu couldn’t make it out. He angled the cart to get closer and winced when it bounced over a rock.

‘—need to stop,’ he was shouting. ‘Stop!’

Galnai shook her head at him, but Fraidun lunged forwards and grabbed her reins, bringing both their horses stamping and snorting to a halt.

Swearing, Janu pulled back on his own horse. Galnai had pulled her arm back and looked all set to knock Fraidun from his saddle.

‘What’s going on?’ Janu asked before anyone could get violent.

Galnai turned to look at him, her teeth bared, and grabbed hold of Fraidun by his shirt. 'This idiot wants us to let the princess go.'

Fraidun slapped her hand away. His horse whinnied, the whites of its eyes showing in the half light.

'Well, we should,' he said. 'We hand her over and who knows what they'll do with her. She'll be a slave! Or worse!'

'That's not what Ilarion told us,' Janu said.

'Oh what, and you believe him?'

'I believe he'll pay us!' He thought of those fifty promised bezin. 'That's what we're here for. And you! You love sticking it to the empire. That's who she is.' He gestured to the cart behind him. 'Imperial through and through.'

Fraidun's face contorted. 'She's a child!'

'So you'd be fine shipping her off to an unknown fate if she was only a few years older? Come on, man!'

In the distance, trumpets sounded. The soldiers must have woken their horses and begun pursuit. Janu whipped his horse back into motion without waiting for Fraidun to respond.

Fraidun caught up alongside a moment later, slamming his foot into the side of the cart and apparently not noticing. His face held too much anger for pain to register.

'Just drop her, Janu,' he said. 'Leave her behind. This isn't right!'

Janu snarled and half turned to him, one eye fixed on the way ahead. 'Blast your sense of right and wrong, Fraidun! The dragon's worthless without her. You know that. And you really think they'll stop looking for us and the dragon? No! They won't want to waste the bond.'

Instead of arguing, Fraidun leaned over to the rattling cart and grabbed for the princess. Janu reached back to stop him, but just then there was a thud and the whole cart lurched to the left. Galnai had jumped from her horse and stood now in a half crouch, poised over the sleeping girl.

Hoofbeats thundered through the storm. Janu couldn't tell if it was from their pursuers or their own steps echoing from the rocks around them. He couldn't see far enough back through the gloom to tell. He dare not urge the horse any faster for fear the unstable cart would tip. In the cage, the hatchling reared its head, blinking in groggy confusion.

'Keep your hands to yourself, Fraidun,' Galnai said. Her teeth gleamed in the next flash of lightning.

Fraidun stood in his stirrups, staring her down, and snarled at her. 'I'll follow my own gut. Heartless bitch.'

He reached for the princess again. Screaming a Khunuchanian curse that was all phlegm and rolling Rs, Galnai drew her dagger and struck like the lightning around them. Fraidun yelled and reeled back, clutching his hand. His eyes bulged, as wide and crazy as his panicked horse's, which danced off to the right.

Whatever Fraidun shouted back was lost to the wind. When he galloped forwards again, only his right hand held the reins. He held his left to his chest, weeping blood.

'I'll have no part of this!' he said to Janu.

Soaked, tired, and done with Fraidun's theatrics, Janu shook his head. 'Then you'll have no part of the reward. You'd have spent it all whoring, anyway.'

Fraidun spat in the wind, gave them all one last glare, then hauled his horse around. He was lost to the gloom in an instant.

Peace fell upon the cart, or as near to it as the storm would allow. Galnai made her way to the front of the cart and sat down beside Janu with a groan. Her horse ran dutifully alongside her – Janu would never expect the same of his, but Galnai had always been the better horsewoman.

He breathed a sigh of relief. 'You didn't have to stab him like that, you know.'

She snorted. 'Most men understand a sharp blade better than any number of stern words.'

'Certainly doesn't leave much room for interpretation.'

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He kept his ears peeled for the sound of pursuit. Fragments of Fraidun's hoofbeats came in fits and starts on the wind, and once far off the distant trumpets blew.

'He could lead them right to us,' Galnai said.

'He wouldn't. They'd punish him just as much for being involved. They wouldn't spare him.'

'Have you always had such faith in his intelligence?'

Janu stayed silent. The new concern wound its way around his brain and nerves tightened his chest.

'Drive the cart for me, will you?' he asked, handing Galnai the reins, then reached beneath his cloak and brought out the map Ilarion had given them. He desperately tried to match the landmarks on the map to their current route, but he could barely make out the other side of the valley. Only in moments when lightning flashed could he make out their surroundings, and the sudden change in light left him blinded in the seconds afterwards.

'The first landmark's a leaning rock over the river,' Galnai said. The cart juddered and shook. Much more of this and the axle might break. 'Look, over there.'

Janu followed Galnai's outstretched hand to the centre of the valley, where a river glistened beneath the scant light. If he squinted, he could just make out a black mass cutting it in two. How Galnai could tell that was their rock, he had no idea.

'You're sure that's it?' he asked. When she nodded, he said, 'You're blessed with better eyes than mine, then.'

'Younger eyes.'

'Ha ha.'

A scrabbling noise came from behind him. He turned to see the dragon clawing at the bars of its cage and trying to stick its nose through the gaps towards the princess. Attached, even with its bonded asleep. It had to be, really. If that was all it took for the bond to loosen, a lot more of the nobility would have been eaten in their sleep by now. In any case, the bars were strong iron. It wouldn't be getting through them any time soon.

They followed the course of the river, rattling and leaping over every bump and divot. Galnai had tucked one of the tents beneath the princess' head, but the sleeping powder must have had a strong hold on her indeed for her not to have woken up yet.

'We should ditch the cart,' Galnai said as they approached the rock – obviously the right landmark, now they were closer, leaning over the entrance to a small lake.

'Hmm. It'll be easy enough for them to spot. They'll track us from it.' Janu's spine and tailbone ached, though. He longed to be riding his horse instead.

'Not if we ditch it in the lake.' She sat upright, scanning the path ahead. 'Stop the cart here. We'll transfer everything to our horses, then drive the cart off the end of the rock so it sinks in the deep part. We'll go faster without it, and less obvious, too.'

Janu nodded and slowed to a halt, their horses' hooves clopping against hard stone. Galnai took charge of the princess, leaving Janu to wrangle the dragon. Given how sharp he knew their claws to be, he didn't bother attempting to tie its legs until he had shoved its nose in the remnants of the sleeping powder. Then he tied it to the back of his horse and unharnessed his horse from the cart shafts.

They transferred everything else from the cart to their saddlebags, throwing what they didn't need into the dark embrace of the lake. Only when it was completely empty did they line the cart up with the landmark stone and begin heaving. It was heavy, sweaty work, at an angle that felt far steeper than it had first appeared. Step by step, they pushed. Perhaps a full minute later the load suddenly lightened and the cart tipped over the edge of the rock, scraping its bottom loudly on the way down and hitting the lake with a gigantic splash.

Janu bent over and wheezed. His clothes stuck to him. If he had been made of iron, he would have rusted solid by now.

'Come on, old man.' Galnai slapped his back, though she was out of breath herself.

To the sound of more trumpets in the distance, they mounted and rode off. Galnai led the way, taking them along the shore of the lake where the water would mask their footprints. From there they turned right towards the shadow of another valley. There the ground grew rougher, a shifting scree that constantly threatened to trip the horses. They had to pick their path with care. With the light fading still further, the best way they could do so was on foot. Every other step they took sent flat stones clattering and hissing over each other. Their feet shifted so often that they might as well have been walking through sand.

By the time they reached more stable ground, the storm was easing, but Janu's whole body ached. His legs weighted him like lead, and it was all he could do to put one foot after the other. Even the horses were tired, foam flecking their mouths, heads downcast, half-heartedly tugging against their reins.

In the absence of sliding scree and the quietening of the wind, they entered a world of eerie calm. The mountains to either side of them grew closer. The clouds flitted with luminous contours, and Janu even caught sight of the moon once or twice in the growing gaps.

On the back of Galnai's horse, the princess shifted and muttered something in her sleep, though the gag muffled her words. Janu hadn't her trumpets for a while, so the thought of removing the gag tempted him – she would wake terribly uncomfortable having worn it all night. But he couldn't guarantee they wouldn't meet imperial soldiers around the next corner, and they couldn't have her crying out to them.

'How far until the handover?' he asked.

Galnai paused to examine the map, checking the landscape every so often for reference. The more she did so, the more worried Janu became.

'It's hard to tell,' she said at length. 'We're still heading in the right direction, don't worry. But as for our destination... it's another half day's ride, I'd say. But it'll be very easy to miss in the dark.'

'Ilarion said—'

She snorted. 'Yes, I'm sure he was telling the truth about the old stones. But we'll have to pick out all the right paths to get to it. That's the hard part.'

Janu sighed and eyed a nearby rock, resisting the temptation to sit down. He would never be able to leave again. Instead he examined the surrounding mountainside. A lot of them became sheer here, like many pillars of rocks pressed together to form one mass. He nodded to a section further up the path, just at the edge of his vision, where a dark void sat beneath an outcrop.

'Is that a cave?' he asked.

Galnai looked over and folded the map away. 'Could be.'

Needing no discussion, they headed for the void. Janu wanted to cry when it proved to be exactly what he had thought – a cave tall enough for them and their horses, deep enough that they might be able to risk a fire to get warm again. Warmth! He had forgotten what it felt like. Galnai left him to settle and unburden the horses while she she ventured outside for whatever firewood could reasonably be called 'dry'.

Once he had arranged the princess and the dragon side-by side at the back of the cave, behind the horses, Janu took the few dry logs and pieces of kindling they had stowed in their saddlebags and started a fire going. He huddled as close to it as he could, in part to hide its light, in part to dry his clothes and warm his trembling fingers.

By the time steam was boiling from his clothes in great swathes, he considered the fire hot and stable enough for cooking. Though all he wanted to do was sleep, he set a pot of porridge over the fire with water from his water skin and sat there watching it. The smell wafted up to him, making his mouth water. Behind him, someone's stomach gurgled.

He turned around. The princess was wriggling on the floor and had somehow managed to loosen her gag. She looked past him at the fire, its light reflecting from her eyes.

'Can I have some of that?' she asked. 'Please. I'm hungry.'