Page 18 of The Silent Mountain
“You can go now,” I tell him. “Ludwig can help me. Three people are too many anyway, and will just stress Constantia unnecessarily. Next time, you can help me, and Ludwig will take a break.”
“Is that really okay?” he asks.
“Of course,” Ludwig smiles at him. “You go and keep Margarete company.”
I smile when I see him beam happily and offer Margarete his arm. The two of them slowly walk towards the castle, while Elio chats happily with her. “She is like his mom, isn’t she?”
“I believe so,” Ludwig admits. “Theodor and she basically raised him.” He pauses. “Poor child. So young, and he already went through so much.”
“You all did,” I say quietly.
Ludwig tosses me a curious look before nodding. “In a way, you are right.” While I show him how to put the saddle away and how to brush a horse, he is lost in his thoughts. Then, however, he looks at me again. “I’ve heard that when war strikes a country, it takes up to three generations to overcome the trauma. Three generations, traumatized.” He shakes his head. “And for what?”
“I don’t know,” I say quietly.
“I just can’t believe the dark witch did it all just for power. For power! That’s such a shallow reason,” he looks frustrated. “If at least it would have been revenge.” He pauses to look at me again. “Why is there no reason I can understand?”
My own kingdom was at war with the human realm, the Everlasting Desert, for centuries under my great-grandfather and later under my grandfather’s reign. Then my father brought peace. I had the luck to grow up in a peaceful country. I can’t even imagine what the dragon shifters are experiencing right now. The anger, the sorrow, the grief… the questions they will never receive an answer to, and the meaninglessness of it all.
“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “I wish I could have an answer, something that makes sense. But it doesn’t. It never makes sense.”
“So, how were the boys doing?” Barbara asks me. I just had lunch with Favian before meeting with them. Ever since last night, I’ve been a lot less awkward around him, and I’m not feeling stupid or guilty for asking questions. So, I basically bombarded him with questions about Margerete, and he happily answered them. It seems like my showing interest in anything concerning his kingdom actually pleases him. I thought I would annoy him, but today he proved to me once more that I was just making assumptions.
“They weren’t too bad,” I tell her.
“Well, thank you,” Ludwig snorts. “Nottoobad, huh? That’s just one step away from having failed completely.”
Barbara laughs at his comment. “Don’t worry, Alana,” she tells me. “It does his confidence some good to realize he isn’t good at everything.”
“So, it means that you think I’m usually good at everything I do?” Ludwig asks.
I can notice how Barbara’s cheeks flush slightly.
Oh yes, she does. I know dragon shifters similarly have fated mates, but with their numbers having declined so much in a short period of time, I don’t think it’s in any way condemnable that they are looking at the possibility of chosen mates.
I’m the last to judge anyway. If Ita had wanted me also, I would have taken her as a chosen mate in a heartbeat.
I still miss her so much. My best friend, my mentor and my shoulder to lean on, yet I feel like the heartache has gotten a bit less recently.
“From here on, we have to be really careful where we step,” Ludwig’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts. Both he and Barbara are fulfilling their promise to show me the seaside. It means we need to climb down the mountain on foot. We could all shift, but we agreed that it would be best for me to learn the path as a human first, to really understand its dangers, before shifting and letting Ros take the lead. I want to know the terrain as well as I can.
Ludwig and Barbara weren’t kidding when they warned me about the path. It’s steep and leads through thick snow, always in danger of setting off an avalanche. Once we pass the thick, snowy area, there is the mountain path to descend, a path so small and narrow I wouldn’t have spotted it if it hadn’t been for my two guides. Barbara and Ludwig know it well, however, so Barbara takes the lead while Ludwig walks behind me to help in case I need it.
The path leads through huge rocks and steep canyons.
“That’s a glacier,” Ludwig explains to me when we pass another snowfield with something shiny sparkling from below. “There is an opening to it close by. It’s endless. Please, no matter what you do, never step into it.”
“I can see now why you like to fly,” I mutter.
“It’s definitely safer,” Barbara agrees. “But we dragon shifters know these paths by heart. Also, for us, it’s important to know the terrain and understand the dangers. I was six years old when my father took me on this walk for the first time.”
“It’s dangerous,” I say, gazing around to take in the white around us, while right behind us, there is the thick, high mountain wall. “But it’s also majestic and beautiful.”
“Wait until you see the shore,” Ludwig says.
It takes us three hours to descend the mountain, and I assume the only reason we are that fast is because my two guides know exactly where to go. Once we reach the bottom of the mountain, I let out a sigh of relief. I made it. My first real trip through the Silent Mountain. Maybe I can convince Favian to show me even more. I feel like he knows the most secret and beautiful paths. I turn around, gazing at the massive mountain behind us, truly impressed by how high it is.
“It’s so high,” I say.
