Beyond the Pale: The Chronicles of Tralia, #4

By Anita K. Mills

 

Possible Assassins: One with a wound in his hand, one with a scar across his cheek and one who wore a hood over his face.

Kathryn and Macaith take the north trail following the clues in Michael's journal hoping it held the names of his killers. They had learnt in Ral Printer, a small town north of Centra, of men that had also ridden north on the morning of Michael's death. One with a wound in his hand, one with a scar across his cheek and one who wore a hood over his face, but they were not in Tralia now. Were these the assassins? So, the parents of the Tralian Ambassador continued to follow their son's trail as they head into the Northern Mountains to find more answers.

Is there still a threat to Tralia!? Kathryn must find out, not only to find her son's killers, but to find out what was behind all the attacks. In order to do that, she would go beyond the Pale to get answers. Who will survive the clues they follow? Who will they find Beyond the Pale?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anita K. Mills
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215564509

Anita K. Mills

Anita started writing back in the early 1990s when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and her first novels have taken over twenty years to write. She loves writing and hopes it continues long into the future with plenty more adventures for her characters. She says, Fibromyalgia does not hold me back; if I can, I will. Anita lives in Nottingham, Great Britain, and enjoys visiting new places, meeting new people and visiting family. Follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/anita.mills.33 Website: https://blakemanbooks.weebly.com https://YouTube.be/F4KtPER25oQ

Book preview

Chapter One

Beyond the Pass

Kathryn lay awake most of the night, her mind too full of memories of Michael to let her sleep, but as dawn approached, the others awoke, so she got up and re-lit the fire.

They ate their fill of breakfast, then slowly got ready to leave, packing up the camp. Soon, they set off again into the unknown.

They followed the river as Michael had requested and stopped only as the sun went down. The dark hours surpassed the light this time of year. As they moved through the pass, strange sounds came to them.

They tried to ignore them, after all, it could just be the wind as Macaith suggested. Though everyone wasn’t convinced.

Kathryn looked up to see if the two peaks that Michael had told her to keep in view as she followed the river, were still high above her. However, they were too far inside the great monoliths now to see the high peaks and tomorrow they would be almost half-way. She wondered what was on the other side.

That morning they had awoken to snow. It was colder now than it had ever been and for the next three days, they travelled through the white rocky land. They stopped early to build a fire and make their warming tea as the dark came upon them quickly.

At the jagged crossroads, they were half-way through, and they took extra care as the river had broken its bank, though long ago. It now followed an alternative route, but it had caused the rocks they had to cross to become very slippy. They kept going, but they slowed to a cautious pace, till they came to a ford. A small eastern stream flowed into the river and they crossed after filling their water skins. Just past the stream, there was a large crevasse, almost cave like, and as the sun was almost gone, they set up camp. Kerwyn made a fire as Jon got out the pot to fill with water. Their supper was needed, and they all felt its warmth, not long after the fire glowed red. After eating, they settled down. The ride had been hard, especially on Kathryn. Exhaustion swamped her weary body as her eyes closed moments after lying down.

Over the next few days, they noticed the temperature rose, the more they got through the now southern mountains of Raabaal and the following morning. Kathryn as she rode, unpinned the clip holding her cloak around her, allowing the heat out and cooler air in. But she found out later, the sun did not last long, and the nights were even colder. At sundown, they found another cave and made camp.

That night, the wind howled too much for them to talk or read. So, after supper and a wash, they settled down. Thanks to Kathryn's fire, they had a hot tea to keep them warm through the night and those not on watch bedded down as soon as they could go get warm. Delor and Trevis sat huddled up in a sitting position in their blankets, near the end of the cave.

They rode out of the mountain pass many days later and entered a large icy plain that stretched as far as the eyes could see.

Macaith and Cadraith caught fish for supper. Both elves flicked the cord into the water at exactly the same time. Everyone had turned to watch but Delor. He was looking at Dakk's friend. He was curious about the man who always stayed close to the animals. A quick getaway fancied the old blacksmith. And he knew nothing of smithy work, he was sure. Jobkin was brushing down the horses, and Delor wondered, would he ever take off his gloves. What was he hiding?

Then he saw something that shocked him to the core. He saw him look at Kathryn, while she was watching the elves, with such malice on the man's face, a hatred so strong that Delor remembered the old saying, ‘if looks could kill,’ they would all be dead, he thought, but was it a trick of the light? He wasn’t sure, so vowed to watch him more closely. Cadraith had seen Delor’s shocked expression, but by the time he looked at Jobkin to find out why, the malice had gone, but he knew something had happened.

It was lighter, longer in the day now, so the going will get better, Kathryn thought. Hopefully, it would also get warmer.

Morale seemed to get better with this prospect. Jon made a fire and soon supper was ready. Trevis sat there, looking around. I remember being here, he told them. But only here! This is strange. I have no memory of going forward or even going back. He scooped up a mouthful of fish on his spoon and, after placing it in his mouth, he chewed thoughtfully.

Kathryn nodded. You will remember it all by the time we get back here. Anything you can tell us about this place, let us know? 

He nodded.

Kathryn pulled Michael’s second journal from her cloak pocket and, as the others settled down, and she read.

"My strange journey, part two.

If you are reading this, then you have now met Dakk, a good man. He is the old king’s cousin, and brother-in-law of Lewis Hakorn and, therefore, of course, Talaya’s uncle.

I sent him this, if I did not make it and as you are reading it, so, I didn’t. This, of course, is only a short version of what truly happened, so I wrote a fuller account in a larger book and left it in a secure place, and you will find it on your travels. Things got awful mother, not only for myself and Trevis, who won’t remember our journey until he arrives there. A spell to protect him. I hope he thinks kindly of me, but also for Brandrith. There were three more attempts on our lives before we got through the pass, yet we fought them off. The last four men, we hoped, finally got the message. Hopefully, they won't bother us again. Now we're keeping a watch on all sides at the moment in case they had friends.

As our evening meal was over with, and we had cleaned the dirty dishes, I began reading more of Brandrith’s journal and followed it to the letter. I copied the relevant parts into this book so it would be easier to read and hid the other deep in my saddle bags. I will give it to Uncle Cadraith once I got back. There is a lot, so I only wrote what was necessary.

This is what he wrote:

Once through the pass, we travelled on until we arrived at another abandoned village. This was slightly smaller than the last one, but as I looked around, I got the feeling there was something wrong here. There was scat all over and large footprints, but though they looked like bears, I felt these prints were of a much bigger animal. I was told to stay with the horses while they searched the largest of the two main buildings. They were gone for most of the day.

I walked the horses over to a broken-down house and then I sat down.

Most of the buildings were made of mud bricks yet looked as though they’d been put up in a hurry.

I sat in the sun, drinking in its warmth, and watched again as the two men searched for this book. What did this book hold that was so important?

Nothing happened that first day. They did not find the book, and, unlike Medrith, they did not take it out on each other and, gratefully, me. We moved into the only mostly intact building and set up camp. We kept near the fire as the sun went down, and I prepared supper. I watched them without them knowing, but I still could not see the other’s face. They sat together; I was on the other side. The other was as crafty as a ferret and tried to outdo the other at every chance he got, and though it did not cause problems with them, their petty rivalry did not interest me. My anger at them, ordering me about had dissipated long ago, and I had gotten use to them telling me to wait for them, or to hurry, or for them to tell me when to ride, eat, or to sleep. Yet I could not help noticing the amount of dust they had on their clothes. Even the Tralian's face was dusty. What had they been doing?

Though we heard many strange growls during the night, nothing attempted to break in.

Then, just before dusk on