Chapter 225: The Starpeak Mountains
Oliver
Month 8, Day 30, Monday 7:00 p.m.
The thunderous pounding of erythrean hooves against the earth shuddered through Oliver’s body as he hunched low over his beast’s neck. Exhaustion etched his face, and those of his companions. Their clothes were wind-whipped and sweat-stained, and dirt had built up into lines of mud on the areas where their skin creased. The relentless pace had taken its toll, but they pressed on desperately.
Magically lightened saddles took much of the weight off the horses, allowing them to maintain their grueling pace. Extra horses were tethered behind, ready to replace any mount that faltered. Oliver’s erythrean was powerful, his eager strides eating up the road below, but he wasn’t Elmira.
A pang of grief that turned to frustrated, exhausted rage shot through Oliver as he thought of Elmira. She had fallen in battle at Knave Knoll against the Architects of Khronos months ago, a senseless waste of an innocent life. For him, the loss of a friend.
Now again, the Architects were the cause of his problems.
His muscles were beyond aching and had started to scream and tremble from the constant tension of maintaining his position in the saddle. The others had taken what recovery potions they could, without building up any toxicities, but of course the potions barely worked on Oliver.
They had been riding for almost two weeks now, trying desperately to catch up with the strike team the Architects of Kronos had sent to Osham. They had long passed the follow-up team of Oliver’s people that he had first sent out, before he realized the severity of the situation.
Kiernan had been away from the University when the team was authorized and sent, and Oliver had learned their purpose too late. Kiernan insisted he hadn’t known about it and did not authorize it. But he wouldn’t say who did, which made Oliver suspect it was someone important. It was possible that one of the Crowns had turned on their the others and was colluding with the Architects, he supposed. He would dig into it when he returned.