Chapter 12:

An hour and a half later, just before noon, the carriage reached the last switchback turn and pushed on towards the final stretch to the top of the pass. Taylor was busy sliding back and forth across her seat attempting to see the two peaks of the Teeth from both carriage windows. She was antsy because the seed inside her was actively regenerating. The up-till-now dormant seed had been stimulated by magic spillage when Peter had cast a shielding spell on the woman to mask her from any potential battle wizard scrying.

After the spell had been cast and Taylor had reported sensing movement in her belly, Peter quickly examined her. His conclusion was that the woman should be okay as long as they got the seed out of her tonight. Thankfully the seed was expending the new magical energy by beginning to form rootlets instead of regrowing its feeding teeth. The rootlets were also, fortunately, growing towards the woman’s cervix and not deeper into her belly. By his best guess, they would have grown through her inner ring and well into her vagina by the time they were in the lowlands this afternoon. This assumed that nothing unexpected came up during the journey down the west side of the pass.

The shielding spell he’d used would only screen the presence of the seed from the wizard’s scrying. The downside was that while the wizard would not be able to sense the dangerous organism, he or she would likely be able to sense the presence of Peter’s shielding spell itself. He only hoped that if this happened, the wizard was not curious enough to hunt them down trying to find out why they were traveling while shielding themselves.

“I think I saw something fly behind the closer peak!” Taylor exclaimed suddenly.

Peter slid over to the right side of the carriage and looked where she was pointing. The north Devil’s tooth was the closer of the two peaks hemming the pass but was over a thousand feet away and towered over them at least twice that distance. Peter looked but did not see any sign of motion.

“I know I saw something!” Taylor added after almost a minute.

“Let me know if you see it again,” he said, returning to his normal seating position.

Just to be sure, he turned around to look out the left, forward-angled carriage window. The taller southern peak was just coming into view as the carriage turned due west at the start of the saddle. Peter stared at the more distant peak for a few seconds until he was nearly blinded by the sun’s glare. As it was nearly noon, the late-winter sun was almost directly south of the carriage and its elevation was low enough to be nearly behind the peak.

Peter felt the carriage slow as it pulled into the passing lane at the start of the saddle. Outside, the snow on either side of the roadway was almost as high as the carriage windows. Torl was driving the coach for this section due to the very-slippery conditions. He needed both his years of experience driving a team and the liberal amounts of traction sand that had been applied by the Order roadmen to keep them safely moving.

When they approached the midpoint of the saddle, Torl stopped the carriage to rest the horses and also to inspect them for the coming descent. Taylor and Peter bundled up against the cold and exited the carriage in order to stretch and do a bit of sightseeing. They were still on the eastern half of the top of the pass so the view forward into the western realm was still barred. But behind them, from this high vantage point, they could see back over fifty miles, all the way to the eastern horizon.

Peter pointed out various features of the rift valley which contained Mirror Lake. He then explained about the plateau just visible beyond the lake’s eastern shoreline. Paralleling the lake at an average distance of ten to twelve miles rose the Plains of Ryzeelund, a long, flat swath of land conducive to growing crops. Scattered across the plateau were many independent steads and numerous smaller communal farming hamlets. He explained that the main crop raised on the Ryzeelund was Hyseeth, a drought-tolerant grain similar to wheat. Cattle and sheep were also raised on the less-tillable fringes of the plateau.

The crops, wool, and livestock were transported by wagon from the farmsteads to the lake where barges then carried it south down to Port Barth. There, everything was loaded back onto wagons and formed into enormous caravans. These then merged with similar caravans coming from the Sunsets carrying metal ore, coal, and timber. Leaving Port Barth, the great caravans traveled south down the appropriately named Great Caravan Road to Port Helm. At that seaport city, the goods were shipped via large ocean freighters to other ports around the Turquoise Sea and beyond.

“My long-term goal,” Peter explained, “is to replace the great caravans with train cars rolling on steel rails,” He whispered to Taylor, not wanting his words to carry to Torl or Carth still at the carriage.

“That sounds like a lot of work, Lord Peter,” Taylor replied, looking impressed.

She tried to see to where Port Barth should be located but while she was able to see where the water ended, the actual city Peter had described was too far away to detect, even from this height. If she had understood his description properly, the railroad Peter intended to construct would have stretched three times further than the distance from this pass to the lake’s end.

“Yes, but I’ve only to secure a few more land easements to ensure a viable route. I will then finance the construction of a blast furnace near Port Barth. Once I can produce steel rails cheaply, the rest will fall into place.”

At her questioning look he continued. “The timber, coal and, iron ore are already being shipped through Port Barth. I plan on tapping those supplies to make steel rails and ties locally. Once I can demonstrate the ability to cheaply supply the rails, the shippers in Port Helm will bend over backward financing the bulk of the construction.”

He then chuckled, “The caravan masters in Port Barth will probably try to assassinate me once things reach that point, however. Come; let’s take a short walk over the hump.”

Peter supported Taylor on the slippery road as they left the vicinity of the parked carriage and headed west. The terrain of the top of Hale Pass formed a natural crown and as they neared the center, they were able to make out glimpses of the vastness of the western realm.

“Oh, my Lord!” Taylor gasped as the panorama slowly revealed itself.

Peter felt her awe anew and remembered his own first time seeing the incredible views from the top of the pass. He pointed to the dark green band at the far horizon.

“That is the Great Forest of Asbaddica,” he explained. “It stretches over two hundred miles from the far northern horizon to the south where it terminates at the Turquoise Sea, just past the southern end of the Sunsets.”

“Will we be traveling through this forest?” Taylor asked.

“No, the nearest part of the forest is still thirty miles west of the pass. We will be remaining near the western foothills of the Sunsets for this entire trip.”

“Even from this distance the forest looks so dark and dense,” Taylor exclaimed. “Does anyone live there?”

“Asbaddica is the ancestral home of the Elves,” Peter replied. “The northern stretches are the homelands of the dark elves, while the larger southern forest from just about straight west of here all the way to the Turquoise Sea is the domain of the light elves. The light elves also have enclaves scattered across the other four Kreven continents. But as far as I know, only in the northern Asbaddica can one find dark elves.”

“And your dark-elf ward, Tevi, is from there?” Taylor asked.

“She is only half dark-elf,” Peter replied. “Tevi is originally from a Kreven-human village northwest of Rumble Mountain, in the hill country between the Sunsets and the eastern edges of the forest.”

“So, the dark and light elves live in the same forest. Do they get along?”

“Not really,” he replied. “They fight when they come across each other in bands, but they try to avoid one another if possible. The middle section of the forest, straight ahead, is their border. It’s a neutral ground known as the Wildelands and is home only to bandits and forest trolls. It is mostly avoided by all elves, dwarves, and Kreven-humans.”

They continued on, nearing the topmost point of the saddle. More of the western vista became visible between the two peaks and over the crown of the road.

“Speaking of Rumble Mountain,” Peter said still walking but gesturing towards the new landmark now emerging past the northern Tooth. “Behold!”

“Wow! Is that a volcano?!” Taylor asked excitedly.

“A mostly dormant one, yes,” Peter replied. “Old Rumbly has not erupted for at least three hundred years, though.”

Peter went on to explain how the mountain occasionally still belched smoke, ash, and steam and that there were three calderas inside the wide cone forming its peak with two of these being deep enough to retain fresh lava. The lava level inside never rose, however, and Peter was not sure where the outflow went.

“And Rumble Mountain is our destination?” Taylor asked.

“Almost,” he replied. “We are headed for a town just this side of the base of the old volcano, down the western section of the pass and then a dozen miles north by northwest. We will be traveling mostly in the Sunset foothills.”

They finally reached the western edge of the saddle where the road turned south as it descended down to the first switchback. There was a stone railing here to guard the edge and both Peter and Taylor leaned over to look down at the western slopes. Below them, they could make out over a dozen heavy wagons and a few carriages climbing the western pass. Like theirs, the carriages were in the lead but the nearest was still three switchbacks below the saddle.

“There’s another whole forest below us next to these mountains!” Taylor commented, pointing beyond the wagons. “And what’s that black strip between here and the distant elf forest?”

“That is hardened lava,” Peter explained. “It’s from some ancient eruption on Rumble Mountain.”

He then slowly pointed to the flow and followed it toward the southern horizon where it blurred into the dark green of the distant forest.

“The lava flow widens to about ten miles near the horizon. It also extends almost to the sea, over a hundred and forty miles to the south of this pass.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” she said, again with awe. “Will the carriage go near the lava? I’d like to see it up close.”

“I’m afraid not, my dear. The nearest edge of the flow is still almost twenty miles away.”

Taylor sighed, but then perked up. “What are those thin green lines extending into the black lava? Rivers?”

“Good eyes!” Peter replied. “Yes, those are rivers and streams dying into the flow.”

Taylor looked at him confused so he continued, “Dozens of melt rivers from this very range run into the lava flow, along with as many rivers flowing out of the Asbaddica. The rock there is mostly porous, so the rivers seep into the rock until they disappear completely. Somewhere under the hardened lava is an underground river that extends all the way to the sea,”

“You mean there is a river under that lava that is over a hundred miles long.?”

Peter nodded. “Closer to two hundred miles, if it follows the curving terrain.”

“What a view milord!” Carth said, coming up from behind them and causing Taylor to jump.

“Mister Torl says that he will bring the carriage here to meet you shortly, milord,” the excited young man said.

Peter nodded. He noticed the same look of awe on the young man’s face as was on Taylor’s.

“I take it you’ve never traveled the pass?” he asked the stableman.

“Actually, I have, milord. Twice, but both times in heavy fog or drizzle. This is the first time I’ve crossed the Sunsets in clear weather.”

The young man moved up to the stone railing to also look over the edge. “A good number of wagons.”

Peter nodded and then turned back to Taylor.

“Taylor,” Peter continued. “You mentioned the nearer forest below. We actually call it the Near Forest because it’s closer than the Great Asbaddica. The trees grow taller and faster on the western face of the Sunsets because they receive more rain here than on the eastern side. The tree line below us extends ten miles west to the scrub lands which begin half-way to the lava flow.

“Humans, dwarves, and even the occasional smarter mountain troll harvest timber in the Near Forest. The dwarves use the timber for their mines while the humans ship it to Port Barth like the folks east of the Sunsets do their ore and grain.”

Peter went on to explain how, while the timber trade formed the third, more distant component of the Mirror Lake local economy, most of it did not cross the Sunsets to use barges on the lake. Instead, the bulk of the timber went south by wagon along the Western Road, a heavy wagon trail on this side that paralleled the Sunsets the same way that the Metal Highway did on the east.

“In the summer,” he continued, “ ... when this pass is much safer and easier to navigate, some timber does make its way over the Sunsets for use in the eastern mines and also to Priam’s cove for distribution around fringes of the lake.”

Behind them, Torl approached with the carriage, signaling an end to their sightseeing break. Peter caught the look Taylor gave him and told Carth to climb up and wait next to Torl while he helped the lady relieve herself.

“Of course, milord!” the flustered young man stammered.

She did her business leaning on the back of the carriage. While Peter helped support, he caught a glimpse of movement near the northern Tooth’s peak. There was something up there. Was it just an eagle or an actual ice drake as the roadman had reported?

“Lord Bent!” Taylor wailed, “Something hurts inside me!”

“It’s the damned seed,” he replied. “As I said, it’s my fault for magically shielding you.”

He helped her wipe and noticed blood on the paper.

“I’m so sorry, Taylor. When we get back in the carriage, I will make you a pad and give you something for the pain.”

“No!” she hissed, “No drugs!”

“It will be a numbing cream for your insides. No drugs.”

He helped her back aboard and then climbed up next to Torl.

“Is something wrong with the missus?” Torl asked, having heard her cry out.

“We need to get down and to our destination as fast as possible, Torl,” he said quietly. “Use all your skills to achieve a rapid descent. Don’t spare the horses or the carriage as long as we reach the Vent well before nightfall!”

“Aye, milord! “Torl replied warily. “Carth, climb down and cinch the holdbacks extra tight. Also, pour some water on the brake blocks. Quickly now!”