VIRAN

  It smelled almost like home, when Viran was rocked awake.

  The little things were wrong, though.

  Rushing water had its own feel in his nose, like a smell, and that feel was different, down by Eastwatch. The dead plants in the water had their own smell too, especially the fresh ones. His back was pressed on flat wooden crates that still smelled like dye and rocked with every bump in the road, so he wasn't inside familiar walls or even on a familiar road.

  Even the pine sap smelled a little wrong, so he knew he wasn't home by the time their wagon finished clacking across the bridge over the flooding tributary.

  But he could almost pretend, for a second, with his eyes closed. Or maybe it was a minute.

  "Wake up. Viran. Viran wake up and look ready." Dovin said. "We're almost at the cross, and we didn't beat the thaw."

  Viran stretched and wiggled his hips. Some of the chitin on his back clacked a little as the plates got used to sliding past one another again. They had started to do that around the time he got a little taller than Dovin. He was supposed to fix it by standing up straight more, but that made people look at him a lot.

  Especially when they were in the city.

  Rolling over might count as looking ready, and it let him keep his back straight, which was kind of like standing up. Viran even managed to avoid breaking any of the boxes, this time.

  He lifted his chin off the crates to ask Dovin why the thaw mattered.

  "What does that mean? For us. I know it lets people use the pass, and planting can start."

  Viran was sure Dovin didn't want him to get ready to plant crops. Auntie said Eastwatch wasn't a good place for that.

  Dovin didn't turn around, too busy holding the reins and watching the road. The Aurochs had given up trying to eat the grass by the side of the road a few markers outside Second Bend.

  Now the land off to the side of the Roads didn't look good for grazing at all. It was mostly the prickly kind of shrubbery that tugged at your scales and poked you with sticks when you tried to walk in it, and dead needles from the pines mixed in with little pebbles from the mountain.

  "It means put a helmet on, because the pass is open." Dovin said.

  Viran waited a little more. Dovin turned his head, sighed, and said the rest.

  "There could be trouble, and a whole lot of the people who might cause them think things would be easier if your skull was in a few more pieces."

  That sounded important enough to Viran to be worth covering his ears for a while.

  Viran pushed himself up on his elbows to read the labels, and peel at the lid of the crate below him. Whoever had packed the cart had made a little person laying down below him, out of the armors being moved. Boots near the back of the cart, helmets near the front, and the rest in the middle.

  The pine box crackled a little, but the nails keeping it shut bent and pulled out before Viran damaged any of the parts that made it stay being a box.

  All of the helmets inside looked like a 'ram's fit', but Viran needed one for males, with the horn gaps further forwards. Mirri could have worn these, but he would have to ruin them to put one on, and it wouldn't work very well anyway.

  "Shouldn't I have a weapon too?" He asked, poking through the box anyways. Just in case someone had mixed one up.

  They hadn't.

  "You'll need one soon, that's for sure. Yarrun has been busy at the forge for just that reason." Dovin said. "There might be a spare something-or-other at one of the watchtowers, but you'll get something he made for you, at Eastwatch."

  Viran tilted his head to make sure he had heard that right as he cracked the second crate and found a helmet that almost fit him.

  "We're going to the watchtowers first then? Not Eastwatch?" He asked, pressing some of the bronze between his palms.

  It only needed to bend a little at the bottom to fit without digging into the sides of his neck.

  "The pass just thawed, and the scouts relieving the shift are a bit... irregular. Not technically your Auntie's, except Mirri. So we're making sure everything goes smoothly." Dovin said firmly. "Nothing you need to worry about, we're just going to see Mirri, replenish some supplies, and help them with the garrison. You're going to put a shirt on, and make nice with the Venatrix after your Auntie decides what to do with the mess she's made of the sky."

  Viran looked up, saw the mess Dovin was talking about, and pulled his vest tighter, not that the chill bothered him. The air felt a little more like home right now, with so much water in the air. The wind felt nice too, when it blew the right way. He didn't really want to put a shirt on and ruin it, or get too warm again.

  Besides, there was a lot of rain above them. Once it fell, the shirt would just get wet, unless he waited to be inside to put it on.

  "Are we going to be in the south tower?" Viran asked. "Mirri is relieving the north one, right? With a Venatrix's team. Won't they be fine?"

  Thunder rumbled, and Dovin shook his head while Viran finished bending the other side of the helmet.

  "Some of the other Wards will take the south tower. Mirri's with some unvetted Waster who talks like trouble at best, and showed up right before the bodies started dropping. Mahira's actual team is dead, except the Seraph, who doesn't care a whit about our borders." Dovin snorted. "Certainly not enough to spend the next fourteen hours sitting still, or babysitting any Arrivals they've found."

  Viran glanced at the deep gray sky. It was almost dark enough to match his scales. Auntie had moved the storm in from the sea fast, if it was already up this close to Eastwatch.

  "Is that why Auntie's blocking the sun right now? In case the knights try something before my Proving?" Viran asked. "The Bessos elder looked like a tomato that ate a lemon when he saw me in the city. Auntie said she thought he was going to go argue with Saah, when he walked out."

  Dovin chuffed, the real kind of laugh that meant he was surprised.

  "You're getting it now. It won't just be you they're out for, Mahira moved through human territories to get to the city. The smart ones will know what she's here for, know your cousin is out in the field somewhere."

  "Because they hate Mirri." Viran said.

  "Because they're scared of her." Dovin said in his teaching voice. "Maybe more scared of her than your Auntie, because she's been nice about things for a few decades. Isha's readier for trouble than I've ever seen her, and that makes me nervous, because the best thing it can mean is that she doesn't know what's going on."

  Viran wasn't really sure how to feel about Auntie not knowing anything being the good version of the story. She usually knew exactly what kind of Immortal Games were being played. Mirri was training to scare monsters on purpose, but Auntie said that she had spent a few centuries learning not to scare people by accident.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  They were both technically Immortals, but Mirri was a Young Immortal. It would be silly for people to be more afraid of Mirri than Auntie, even if she was nice on purpose a lot of the time.

  "Are these things I'm allowed to know?" He blurted out. "If people ask?"

  The helmet didn't dig out any of Viran's scales when he put it on this time. It just squeezed his head, and made hearing hard, like he was only a little bit underwater. The leather strap didn't fit all the way under his chin without choking him, so he let it dangle while Dovin decided on his answer.

  "They're things you should know, to make your own decisions. Don't go yelling them to anyone other than me, or your Auntie Isha. Definitely not your other 'Auntie', if she's got the stones to cross the Fang any time soon." Dovin added darkly.

  "Even if Amita— I mean Aemilia offers to help?" Viran corrected himself.

  The little name was supposed to be just for them, when she was visiting home.

  This road wasn't home. Home didn't exist anymore, and they were the only two people left who remembered every step of it.

  Amita had liked to say she knew every speck of dirt under their feet, and even used some mana to show him a 'map' of the Highlands made out of the ground one time. Every mountain and stream and hill and divot. All of the Roads too.

  She had gotten rid of it when they were done, but Viran still kept it in his head, so he could know too. His house had been there, and helping her fill the rivers without getting the rest muddy had been useful last autumn, when he was navigating on his own. He had just needed to get far enough north to find one he recognized, and he knew where he was, and where to go next.

  "Especially if The Houndmistress offers to help." Dovin said, using her title like they were still talking about Immortal Games. "And don't make her any promises either. Even little ones, like favors."

  "But I'm not an Immortal yet." Viran's brow furrowed itself. "Not even a young one."

  Everyone knew children were immune to fae-bound promises. Viran couldn't even own property yet.

  Dovin sighed, the one that meant Viran was missing the point. Again.

  "Practice like it's real, starting now." He instructed. "Everyone else can see it coming, so you can't pretend to be prey and expect it to keep you safe."

  "Oh." Viran's brow un-furrowed when Dovin mentioned it was just practice. "It's a... suddenly dead thing. Like sparring. Or hunting. But for Immortal Games."

  "Exactl—"

  Dovin cut off as the wind picked up in a way Viran had only heard Auntie make it behave, making the air scream when it rubbed against itself.

  The gale was centered on a patch of brush near the crossroads, two wagons ahead. Almost near Auntie's chariot.

  A former patch of brush, by the time Viran got himself propped up to look over Dovin's shoulder. The vegetation was half-uprooted in the roaring winds, throwing dirt in the air and shredding leaves away to reveal a lone human, who was stumbling to the ground with his arms raised.

  One knight wouldn't attack the Warden's caravan alone, but he didn't look like he was attacking anything. The human hadn't even drawn his sword, even if there was blood on one of his hands.

  He looked like he was surrendering, facing the half-ring of spears from the Wards guarding the wagons with his open palms up and his beard dangling out of his helmet, the braid thrown over his shoulder by the wind.

  "Take the reins. Keep it on the road. Do not stop unless the caravan circles." Dovin ordered, stepping off the wagon.

  Viran scrambled over the bench to grab the abandoned harness, taking his eyes off the invader for a few moments. Dovin bought him some time when the Aurochs threw its head at him, slapping the tossed horn aside without even looking on his way by, but the bull would soon realize it was free to do whatever it liked, unless someone was holding the bit.

  Auntie hadn't stopped the caravan, but she was busy battering all of the underbrush on either side of the road, almost as far as Viran could see, so the wagons had slowed while the animals panicked.

  The aurochs did not like that, and was pulling at the reins even when Viran tried to be gentle. Dovin had let the knight stand, and only three of the Wards were still pointing spears at him by the time Auntie finished searching the forest with her winds.

  They were talking animatedly, by the time Viran and the aurochs caught up.

  "—so you decided to ambush the garrison at the pass for prisoners, on your way out with the livestock. Greedy idiots." Dovin was saying. "I'm still not hearing a whole lot of reason not to bundle you into the back of a wagon and ransom you at the city in a week."

  The aurochs decided that the wagon in front of them was too slow, and tugged them to the north side of the road, wobbling the wagon as the wheels dipped on softer earth. Luckily they were at the crossroads, so Viran got to keep them on the road, kind of, and circled the conversation behind the Wards.

  Dovin gave him a look, when Viran was done yanking the reins to get the animal to finally stop. Viran shrugged at him, and let them talk. It was better than letting the bull drag the wagon down the road alone, even if they were supposed to be going there with the supplies anyways.

  He was starting to understand why Dovin had made him put a helmet on, and warned him about being hunted, if this was what raiding season was like near Eastwatch.

  The knight with a missing finger was babbling in his own language, almost pleading. Viran finally remembered to thread mana through his ears to listen once he got the cart stopped.

  "—weren't expecting some serpent from the seventh hell to slither out of the woods. We thought it would be too cold for Wyrms this high up!" the man exclaimed.

  "Typical." Dovin snorted, sounding unconvinced. "Your men shouldn't have gotten in bed with Saah's. When you get home, tell your elders angry rhetoric doesn't make cattle thieves into proper soldiers in a season, assuming they let you keep your armor after today."

  Viran noticed the patches sewn on the man's sleeve, inside his arm. He was a Bessos knight then. From the same tribe as his opponent would be in the arena this summer.

  Hopefully Viran's opponent wouldn't be all the way the same, if the molded cannon threaded with copper channels on the man's right forearm was any indication. Sulfur munitions were expensive to import, and only trusted to knights with decades of training, or 'high nobility', which just meant important people's heirs.

  The cannons tended to explode if they were overused without being reforged, but they could be built into bronze gear without risking Wolfsteel.

  Viran felt his lips creeping up over his teeth, scanning the man's kit. He only saw two waxed shells slotted into the man's belt, but he didn't know what they would be loaded with. Iron shot sucking mana out of your flesh was dangerous enough, but Mirri's Proving had demonstrated there were other options.

  Continuing to beg while holding a weapon like that was bold, but this human was apparently bold.

  Or desperate, Viran realized as he listened in.

  "Blame the rest of us all you want, but the boys are the ones missing. Squires. Neither of them past their Proving. You know what it's like, wet-eared fools." The human begged. "One of them's technically my uncle. Main line. You'd have a valuable enough hostage to get most of the garrison back in trade."

  Dovin chuffed like he didn't care, crossing his arms. Viran tilted his head askance, and almost opened his mouth to ask why.

  Dovin's eyes flicked, and his hand pressed down on the air near his waist. Telling Viran to sit, to be quiet. To watch and wait.

  "So that's your bet." Dovin said. "I'm soft-hearted enough to wander a few more Wards your way if there are children being eaten by monsters? Children you brought here in the first place. And we're just expected to assume it's not an ambush."

  The human was picking at his wrist, and threw the bracer with his cannon on it at Dovin's feet, glove and all. It was dripping with the man's own blood, Viran saw.

  No one would spend a season having to regrow a finger like that on purpose, and the wound looked jagged. Like an actual monster had torn it off.

  His story might actually be true. Which meant Mirri and the Venatrix might run into the other knights the man had been separated from, and the monster.

  So why was Dovin waiting?

  "I'd be a fool to try that with the storm the Warden's got in the sky right now, and nowhere to run since you've got that force waiting up north. The pass was our only way out." The human said. "If there's a chance your scouts can find them, it's worth getting my gauntlets melted."

  Dovin's brow furrowed, and Viran worried for a second that the plan was going to change. That they might leave Mirri alone to deal with the problem.

  "What force up north?" Dovin asked.

  "Oh please, we saw them on our way back. Near a dozen fires, all your people surrounding them." The human scoffed. "You're gathering irregulars to clear sections of the north, strengthen Isha's claim."

  Dovin shook his head and leaned in. Viran barely caught what he was asking, and couldn't hear any of what the knight said in reply.

  "Those aren't our people. What were they wearing? The parts you could see."

  The fuzzy parts of the knight's face above his eyes scrunched together before he replied.

  What Viran could hear after that was more cursing than Dovin had ever done at once. A lot of it about the Venatrix. Some of it about the Lords of the Teeth. A little about a Seraph, too, for some reason.

  Viran sat quietly and listened, hoping Dovin wasn't about to send him away. Some of the Wards at the tailing end of the caravan had walked over to help, while the rest of the wagons moved on. His seat rocked, and a Ranger with seafoam green scales took the far side of the bench from Viran, but not the reins. They were waiting to hear what Dovin wanted to do.

  "ISHA!"

  Dovin yelled Auntie's name towards the front of the caravan at the end of the rapid discussion. The gale died off around them right afterwards, and Dovin cupped his hands at the end of his snout to speak to the wind.

  When he finished, the sky rumbled angrily, and rain started to fall. Just a few drops, for now, but they felt like more with the way the wind picked up.

  Auntie was driving the storm north, towards the watchtowers at the pass.

  Dovin's teeth were showing, but he didn't look mad at the knight anymore. He even gave back the gauntlet, and waved him towards the wagon.

  They both just looked scared, now.

  Helmets, often overlooked by Hollywood producers looking to ensure actors are immediately recognizable on screen, have been used by soldiers looking to keep their brains securely inside of their skulls since at least 2300 BCE, when the protective gear was commonly made of leather, brass, or bronze. The Meskalamdug is a relatively famous exception, being a ceremonial helmet made of 15-karat gold found in the royal tomb at Ur.