chapter 7: The road to karenthel

The journey to Karenthel in winter is not something I would recommend to anyone, and I say this having actually survived it. The path winds down from the mountains through increasingly deeper snow, and the wind that funnels through the high passes is the kind that cuts right through layers of clothing and makes you question every life decision that brought you to the moment of being outside in it.

But Vex knew the route, and she pushed us hard.

"If we're going to make a difference in Karenthel, we need to arrive before the Scourge does," she kept saying. "Which means we need to move faster than we think we can."

We left the keep with what few supplies we could carry—weapons, food, water in flasks that froze solid every night. Corvin had given us letters to present to the city authorities, explaining who we were and what we were offering. I wasn't sure how much good a letter would do in the face of an attack, but it was something.

The first day was almost beautiful, in a terrible kind of way. The mountains opened up before us, revealing vistas of endless white, of peaks that seemed to touch the sky. Dovette walked beside me for most of it, and we didn't talk much, just moved through the landscape like we were part of it.

By the second day, beautiful had given way to brutal. We were out of the mountains now, moving through foothills and then into a landscape of forests and open meadows, all of it buried under snow. The temperature had dropped below the point where it felt real anymore—it was just an abstract concept of cold, something that existed outside of normal human experience.

We lost our first person on the third day. A woman named Penna, one of the refugees who'd volunteered, simply sat down beside the road during our afternoon rest and refused to get back up. Mira tried to convince her to keep going, but she just shook her head.

"I'm done," she said. "I'm tired. I was tired before we left, and I'm more tired now, and I just don't see the point in continuing."

"The point is Karenthel," Solace said, not unkindly. "The point is fighting."

"The point is I'm going to freeze to death anyway, so I might as well do it here where I don't have to keep moving to get there," Penna said.

No one had a good argument against that, so we left her beside the road with enough food and water for maybe a day, and a promise that if any of us survived and made it back to the keep, we'd send help. It was a lie, and everyone knew it, but it was a kind lie.

By the fifth day, Vex estimated we were a day's march from Karenthel. The landscape had opened up, the forests giving way to more rolling hills, and in the distance, we could see smoke rising from what we assumed was the city.

"That wasn't there this morning," Vex said, pointing. "Something's happening."

We pushed harder, the last reserves of energy burning away in the effort. Dovette stumbled beside me, and I caught her arm. She was shaking with cold and exhaustion.

"Almost there," I said, though I had no idea if that was true.

We came over a rise at sunset on the fifth day and saw Karenthel spread out before us.

It was bigger than Millbrook, much bigger. From our vantage point, it looked like it went on for miles, a proper city with walls and towers and buildings that rose several stories high. But the smoke we'd seen was coming from the eastern edge of the city, and as we watched, we saw flashes of light that might have been fire, or might have been something worse.

"They're attacking," Vex said, and there was a kind of grim satisfaction in her voice. "They're attacking right now."

"Which means we might be too late," Solace said.

"Or we might be perfectly on time," Vex replied. She started moving faster down the hill. "Come on. All of you. We need to reach the city before the gates close, before they decide we're too risky to let in."

We moved faster, our exhaustion temporarily overridden by the urgency of the situation. The sounds of battle grew clearer as we approached—screaming, the clash of metal on metal, and beneath it all, that psychic pressure that I'd learned to recognize as the presence of the Scourge.

The main gates of Karenthel were still open when we reached them, but barely. A squad of guards was already moving to close them, and the gates groaned under their weight.

"Wait!" Vex shouted, and sprinted the last hundred yards toward the gates.

One of the guards turned to stop her, saw that she was human, and hesitated long enough for Vex to reach the gates. The rest of us followed, thirteen of us struggling through exhaustion and cold to make it to safety.

As soon as the last of us cleared the gates, the guards completed the closure. The heavy wooden gates swung shut with a finality that felt almost ceremonial, and I heard the sound of the locking mechanisms engaging.

We were in Karenthel.

On the other side of the walls, the sounds of battle continued, but they felt distant now, separated from us by stone and iron. Vex collapsed to her knees, coughing, and Mira immediately moved to her side.

"Vex! What happened? Your arm—"

"I'm fine," Vex gasped. "We made it. We actually made it."

An older man approached us, dressed in the armor of a city guard captain. He studied us with sharp, intelligent eyes.

"Vex," he said, his voice carrying an accent that was different from the one I was used to hearing in the south. "You're a long way from home. And you've brought refugees?"

"Fighters," Vex said, still catching her breath. "And supplies. We came from the Reaching Mountains with volunteers willing to fight."

The captain's eyes shifted to us, and I saw him take in what we actually looked like—a bedraggled group of survivors, most of us thin, many of us still bearing the marks of the initial attack on Millbrook. I could see him trying to decide whether we were an asset or a liability.

"I'm Captain Thorne," he said finally. "Welcome to Karenthel. I'll have people get you sorted and fed. But Vex, I need to talk to you about what's happening on the eastern side. Now."

Vex nodded and stood, though it clearly took effort. She shot us an apologetic look.

"Stay with the guards," she said. "They'll take care of you. I'll catch up when I can."

As she walked away with Captain Thorne, I looked at my companions. We were alive. We'd made it to Karenthel. But through the walls of the city, I could still hear the sounds of the Scourge attacking.

Tomorrow, I would probably have to fight them.

Tonight, I would try not to think about that too hard.