The Lions in the Snow, a Crowned series short story
By Joseph Wolfe
3,120 words, Approx 13 minute read.
“You know this is treason, right?” Deltra said, pulling his cloak tighter over his red skin. “Not only that, but it is freezing up here. What kind of fey would live in the mountains?”
Deltra had a point. The cold was making Kadin regret his signature short blue hair. The wind picked up and gusted through his cloak, taking much of his body heat with it. Kadin wished he had the fur his mount had; the wolf seemed as if it was enjoying the respite from the warmth of the goldenleaf forests. Another gust like that last one, and Kadin was going to start walking, just to get his black blood flowing again.
“Which one of those two things worries you more, Deltra? The cold or the treason?”
Deltra let out a guffaw. “Right now, the cold. When we return, the treason. How do you know we will find him here? A fey living in the mountains–I would sooner think to see a human living in the ocean.”
The Kaldaran mountains were known for being especially dangerous to outsiders. Sometimes to the locals as well. The brutal jagged peaks of the ridge line looked menacing, an omen for everyone to be ready to face death if they continued further.
“The Lion Clan needs a strong king, or we will be conquered.” Kadin’s head hung low. “There is not a feynar in all of our lands worthy of the crown.”
“What about Vinson?” Deltra asked.
“Dalakhan,” Kadin said, stopping his great wolf and turning to look at Deltra, who also commanded his wolf to stop. There was a chilling stare between the two of them, then Kadin cracked a smile. “If you thought Vinson would make a good king, you would not be here with me.”
“True. But I know he has aspirations, and some wealth. Would he really be worse off than…a feynar from the mountains?”
“There is royal blood in these mountains, that I know.” Kadin said, then ordered his wolf onward. His great wolf let out a whimper; Kadin reached down and gave him a rub on his side. “Just a bit further, Quinn.”
“Well, if nothing else…it is quite the view.”
Kadin looked up to the jagged peaks and winced, but then turned and saw where Deltra was looking. Dadock’s Capitol was barely visible to the north, and the sea beyond that. To take in the entirety of a kingdom’s seat of power in one vista was something most fey would never experience.
“We might get a view of Velmar if our journey takes us that far, though I hope we find them sooner than that.”
“Are we close? What does your map say?”
Kadin looked over and eyed Deltra, then grinned.
Deltra glared back at him. “You never had a map.”
“You would have never come if I told you that.”
“Yes, because I am a rational feynar, and I do not travel into dangerous places without a map, especially the mountains. If the cold doesn’t kill us, what about the Kaldarans? You think they will let us live? This is holy ground to them.”
“It is still holy ground, map or no.”
“Yes, but if we had a map, we would know exactly how long we would need to be here. Now we have to wander, and it is more of a risk.”
“There is no map to the home of an exiled family, Deltra,” Kadin nearly shouted. “That is just nonsense. You were a fool for believing me and now you get to pay the price of being in my company.”
In spite of himself, Deltra laughed. “Alright, fine. You win this round. But you owe me a night of heavy drinking when we get back to Fallavon.”
“If we find a suitable heir, I will gladly pay for us all to drink together.”
They rode for another hour, and the sun was going to set soon. Deltra started to wander off the trail to the left, then he would come back and go the other way. Kadin stopped and watched him for a few minutes.
When he came back to the trail, he locked eyes with Kadin.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a place to make camp,” he answered.
“I know of a place, and it is farther ahead still.”
Deltra huffed. “Is this a place on your map?”
Kadin smiled. “No; you just need to trust me on this one.”
Deltra narrowed his eyes, incredulous.
“My life is also on the line, you know. I do not intend to wander in the dark until some animal finds us. You can trust me.”
Deltra shrugged. “Fine. Lead on.”
Kadin did just that, and as the darkness closed in, Deltra looked more and more worried. The feynar was a bit soft; he had grown up more in the political traditions, while Kadin grew up amongst the soldiers. He enjoyed making the younger feynar squirm a little, but the truth was, Deltra understood the politics of the fey far better than Kadin did, and he had some influence with the noblefey back in Fallavon. Kadin’s idea of politics was punching your opponent until he came around to your point of view. That did not work so well with the nobles. Kadin needed Deltra’s political acumen to make this happen.
But right now, Deltra needed Kadin, and he rather enjoyed that.
“Here,” Kadin said, catching Deltra off guard.
“Where?” he said as he looked around. “There is no shelter here.”
“You are new to the mountains,” Kadin said as he reached down, brushing snow off the ground they stood on. “Do you know what this is?”
“The ground? A rock?”
“Limestone. Our shelter is beneath us. Follow me.”
Deltra looked more confused now, but followed Kadin off the trail, down an embankment. They rounded the corner of a rock and there it was, a mouth in the mountain.
“What if there are wild animals taking shelter in there?”
“Then our food will come to us,” Kadin answered as he dismounted and led Quinn inside the mouth of the cave. He moved his cloak aside and untied a bundle of small, dry sticks. “Look under the trees for the driest wood you can find and bring it back. I will get everything else ready for the fire.”
“Me? I would not know what to look for. The trees out here are so strange.”
“Just find fallen sticks at least as thick as your thumb; larger branches if you can. Need a good pile to survive the night.”
“Alright, I can do that.” Deltra clicked his tongue and his great wolf was at heel, following him outside of the cave.
Quinn whimpered and looked at Kadin.
“I know, Quinn. I will go make sure he is alright if he does not come back soon. But I cannot just follow him around all the time. He has to learn.”
Quinn cocked his head.
Kadin sighed and started working on the fire. It wasn’t common for fey to know how to make fire, only the wealthy noblefey had fireplaces. But Kadin was a soldier, and soldiers needed to know how to take care of themselves. Some very religious fey considered making fire a grave heresy. Kadin knew very little of the god of the fey, and that was more than enough for him.
“How about this?” Deltra’s voice sounded from the mouth of the cave.
Kadin snapped his head up. “That was…” his voice trailed off when he saw Deltra had returned with a bundle of small logs, enough to fill up his arms. “Where did you find that?”
“Not far from here, sitting on a rock. Pretty lucky, but I was not going to question a gift from the gods.”
Kadin’s eyes widened. “That gift is not from our gods.”
“What do you mean?” Deltra said with a grunt as he set the lumber down. “Did I do something–” he froze.
They both heard it. Voices speaking the common tongue, coming closer.
“You idiot!” Kadin hissed. “You stole firewood from the Kaldarans, and now they are tracking your footprints back to us!”
“How was I supposed to know? What do we do now? We could outrun them on our wolves.”
“And blindly race through the cold mountains at night?” Kadin reached for his swords, two broadswords crafted out of strengthened goldenleaf wood, sharpened at the ends.
Deltra did the same. Kadin knew that Deltra wasn’t much a soldier, but he had practiced dueling. He was about to get some soldiering experience, but it might be too late.
“We stand and fight?” Deltra asked.
“Us and our wolves,” Kadin growled. “Follow me to the dark of the cave so we can lure them in. Strike when I do.”
The two fey and their wolves went further back into the cave, but didn’t get very far before their passage was blocked. Enough darkness back there to conceal them for now.
Three Kaldaran men appeared at the mouth of the cave. Kadin was relieved at first, until he saw more and more of them approaching.
“It was a man and a dog, dontcha know?” one of the Kaldarans said. “Tracks go in here.”
“How do ya know if anyone is still in here?” another one asked.
The first Kaldaran pointed to the other side of the cave opening. “Look, two sets of tracks in. One set out and back in. Two men, two dogs.”
There were ten of them now. Kadin readied himself.
“I hear tell of fey up here in the mountains, dontcha know?”
“If it be fey, then we must punish them for entering holy ground.” A third man spoke. He was wearing a robe made of feathers, a gold amulet with a serpent eye in the center. The robe had smatterings of blood. “It’s not the first time I encountered their kind.”
“Well, be it so, but where are they now?”
The robed man looked up, right into Kadin’s eyes. The robed man seemed to sense his presence.
“Pass me yer torch,” the robed man said, taking a torch in one hand and drawing his sword in the other. The twelve Kaldaran men slowly entered the cave, weapons drawn.
Deltra tugged at his shoulder, but Kadin brushed it off and waited. Just a little bit longer. The torch light crept closer to them, the rocks just a few paces away slowly illuminated in the light. In a moment, he would be dead.
The robed man locked eyes with Kadin again.
“Tallion Kah!” Kadin shouted and rushed forward, Quinn at his side obeying the kill command. The robed Kaldaran was ready for Kadin’s strike and parried, the human steel biting into the fey hard wood. Two more Kaldarans came up to the robed man’s side, but they did not expect the great wolf. Quinn dove at one of them and came away with the man’s throat.
Deltra was at Kadin’s side, along with his great wolf. Their surprise attack had netted them two kills, but two Kaldarans in the back pulled out crossbows, shooting for the wolves. Quinn took a bolt in his side, but kept on fighting.
Deltra cried out. Kadin spared a quick glance to see him writhing in agony as the end of the metal bolt stuck out from his arm. The iron would hurt worse than the wound itself, and would kill Deltra if not removed before morning.
Kadin twisted his sword, and disarmed the robed man, who stepped back and let his friends move in. Deltra’s great wolf was protecting his master, which was good for Deltra but not so much for Kadin, who needed the help.
A Kaldaran with an iron mace came in for Kadin and took a swing. Kadin correctly judged the distance and leaned back, the mace missing his face by a mere finger, then he brought one sword around, smacking the side of the Kaldaran’s head. He followed up with his other blade, cutting the man’s throat open.
The winding sound of crossbows reloading was the countdown for Kadin’s doom. He pressed forward, forced to defend himself as two more Kaldarans came on him with swords. One of them got a shallow cut on a knuckle, and the iron burned his skin. He stepped to the side, trying to put one Kaldaran between him and the other, so he could deal with just one. That one took a swing at him but Kadin jammed up his sword arm with one blade, then thrust his other through the man’s gut. He pulled back to let the body drop, but hit the wall of the cave. The Kaldaran he gutted, still alive, got his sword arm free enough to smack Kadin in the head with the pommel. Kadin crumpled back, unable to stay standing as his head swam from the blow.
The crossbowmen fired again. Quinn whimpered and went down. Deltra’s great wolf collapsed, a bolt stuck in its eye. It was over.
The robed man laughed and held up a hand. “Keep them alive! And praise Kaldar for the sacrifices he has given us!”
Kadin knew enough about Kaldaran sacrifices; he was better off dying then and there. Adrenicka roared in his veins, and he felt his head clearing. He stood, now with only one sword as his other was still in the gut of the Kaldaran.
The robed man had a look of knowing; Kadin’s eyes must have been glowing with adrenicka’s power. “Actually; kill that one.”
Before they could execute that command, one of the Kaldaran crossbowman in the back suddenly dropped. The Kaldarans turned; four feynars entered the cave, cutting down three more Kaldarans before they knew what was happening.
Kadin saw his chance. He roared and moved for the robed man. The Kaldaran pulled out a curved blade, the hilt glittering with the same eye as his necklace. Kadin caught the dagger with his wooden sword, then used his free hand to grab the man by the neck. With the strength of adrenicka in his veins, he pulled the man up by the neck and threw him against the cave wall. His bones cracked and he crumpled.
Kadin fought his way through the rest of the Kaldarans, cutting them down as they struggled to battle opponents from both sides. Within seconds, the fight was over, Kaldaran blood pooling in the rocky dips of the cave.
From the four feynars, one stepped forward, a feynar with red skin, violet hair, and a yellow sarta, the birthmark of all fey. It was shaped like a ribbon and ran down from thigh to calf before tapering off to a sliver on both ends. “I never thought I would see fey outside of my own tribe here in the Kaldaran mountains. You are fools to come here.”
“We are not outside your tribe,” Kadin said. “We are from Fallavon, the seat of the Dragon Clan.”
The feynar sneered. “You would call an exile your brother?”
“The time for your exile has come to an end. You are fifth generation, are you not? Please, let me see to my friend, then we have much to discuss.”
“Not yet. I do not know what I am going to do with you.” The three other fey lined up next to the red-skinned one, swords at the ready.
Kadin hadn’t considered that. Was there still old hatred in the exile’s blood? Were the Kaldarans not the only threat?
“My name is Beldon, and yes, I am part of the fifth generation of the Lion Tribe. You speak of my exile coming to an end. While it is true that my generation is the first that would be allowed to return to the Dragon Clan, I see no reason to. Why should I abandon my family to return to a people who exiled my ancestors?”
“Because the Dragon Clan has need of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“We need a king.”
Beldon’s stony expression cracked in surprise. “What is your name?”
“Kadin, and this is Deltra. As you can probably guess, we are desperate for a king for our people. The royal blood has died out, and there is chaos and confusion in our clan. But you–your ancestors carried royal blood, and your generation is not bound by the exile. You can return, to lead us. You are already leading your own people.”
The three fey with Beldon chuckled at that.
“These are my cousins,” Beldon said. “I am no leader.”
“And yet they follow you.”
Beldon looked over at his cousins, who nodded back at him.
“Tend to their wounds,” Beldon ordered.
One of the cousins, a blue-skinned feynar, moved forward and pulled the bolt from Deltra’s arm. Deltra roared out a grunt of pain, but his protest died out into a gasp when the feynar placed a hand on him and a blue glow enveloped the wound. The pain ripped tears from Deltra’s eyes, but was over in two seconds.
Kadin looked to Quinn. The wolf was still alive. He looked over to the feynar mender.
“Control your ferlon, this will hurt,” the mender said.
Kadin whispered calming commands to Quinn as the mender did his work. As the bolts came loose, Quinn nipped at his healer, but Kadin quickly soothed him. The mending was last, Quinn whining in a high-pitched tone before looking relieved.
“Now then,” Beldon announced. “What you have said is…interesting, to me. You will have my answer in three months.”
“Three months?” Deltra asked, looking to Kadin for direction.
“Should we expect you to visit us in Fallavon then?” Kadin asked.
“I will not need to, because you will still be here, living with me and my tribe.”
Deltra and Kadin looked at each, then back at Beldon.
“You only have one mount between the two of you now, and the Kaldarans will be looking for you. Even if you ride double, you will be too slow to avoid them.”
“And what will change in three months?” Deltra asked.
“Winter will end, and the ice will thaw. Then another way out of the mountains will be open to us.”
Deltra swallowed hard. “And you will shelter us?”
“My tribe will take you in, but you will work, you will hunt, you will carry your own burden plus one. That is our way.”
“Kadin, we might not have a clan to return to in three months,” Deltra warned.
Kadin let out a sigh. “Deltra, we came seeking a king. No sense in disobeying his orders now.”
Beldon gave them a slight smile. “Then come with me, and be guests of the exiled Lion Tribe.”
Author’s notes: Thank you for reading and for supporting an indie author like me! If you are interested in more from the Crowned universe, the first book in the series is available now. Details can be found by clicking here.
Also, this isn’t the first Crowned short story available. Have you read The Whisperer yet? If not, click here!
