Once night fell, we left the house. Vallan led the way through Olhav, keeping us toward the outskirts while we headed north. The paved streets here were adorned with carriages and nobleblood vampires moseying down the road without a care in the world.
The center of the city—which we hadn’t gotten close to but was impossible to miss due to the countless skyrises reachingto the heavens—was a throng of merchants and tradespeople, just like the bazaars and markets in Nuhav. Except everyone here was finely dressed and the participants less combative and angry.
No one paid me any attention with my hood on. The outskirts were home to smaller buildings less dizzying and imposing. Taverns and brothels lined the steets—dwellings I was used to—all of which were illuminated by red, orange, and even green lanterns.
I wondered how the light was made green—if it was some trick of the eye, or magic, or alchemical effects. I figured if I stayed long enough in this foreign city, I would discover all I wanted to know about it and more.
I was not a patient person. I wanted answers now. The questions I had for these two were more substantive than asking why the lanterns were colorful.
“Skartovius called me important to ‘the cause.’ What cause?” I asked in a low voice.
From the front, Vallan grunted and continued on. My legs were long, but his stride was punishing to keep up with.
“You’ll learn in time, lass,” Garroway answered, reverting to his more amenable, conversational tone now we were ostensibly alone. Vallan got by on grunts and growls and didn’t seem much of a talker.
“Is thereanythingyou can tell me without fearing backlash from your master?” I asked, annoyed.
“Don’t tell her too much,” Vallan grunted from the front. “Don’t trust her.”
I ground my teeth together. “Feeling is mutual, you big asshole.”
Vallan’s shoulders started to shake, and he made a low noise that sounded something like laughter.
“Ask something else and I’ll see what I can tell you,” Garroway said.
I at least appreciated his willingness to humor me. Despite him giving me up to his master, I trusted himfarmore than the other two fullblooded bloodsuckers, because I shared something of a history with him.
That’s not saying much. The bar isquitelow.
“What are the mines?” I asked. “Where is Vallan leading us?”
Garroway glanced ahead to Vallan’s broad back. He looked to be deferring to the larger vampire.
Vallan waited for a full minute before answering. “There’s a whole other world on the other side of the mountain, silverblood.”
I blinked at his gruff voice and his odd name for me. “I know,” I answered dryly. “It’s called Nuhav. You keep us imprisoned there.”
“No,” Vallan continued. “Theotherside.”
We made a quick stop at another safehouse, with only Vallan entering. He came out with a gigantic battle-axe strapped to his back.
My eyes widened as he returned to our group and led us down another winding road, an off-shoot of a larger thoroughfare, less inhabited and maintained.
“Expecting trouble?” I asked.
“Can never be too sure.”
As we reached the northern edge of Olhav, the flat valley sloped down onto winding paths through the mountain. Once we began our descent, and I looked out onto a wide expanse of world I’d never seen or known existed, I finally understood what Vallan meant.
The “other side.” Nuhav is the city south of the Olhavian Peaks, tucked away in its shadow. He means the north end.
It had never occurred to me the world continued past the Peaks. I’d always been relegated to the squalid bubble of Nuhav. It was everything I’d ever known.
But even in the darkness, with the moon beginning to take residence in the sky with a tawny glow, I could see . . . everything beyond. Forests and flatlands, prairies and high grass, rivers and settlements, smoke from little dots that could have been bonfires or chimney fires. More mountains past everything else. It stretched forever, far as I could see, and the sight was marvelous.
It was all I could do to keep my jaw from dropping. Excitement filled me. I felt like I was getting my first taste of what freedom actuallylookedlike.
It’s out there. Beyond these damnable peaks and valleys. Past this world. The unfathomable unknown.
