Entering

Towering walls of pitch-black rock rose on either side, leaving only a long, deep passage wide enough for five or six people to walk abreast.

Perhaps an earthquake had torn the mountain apart and formed it.

The gathered torches lit the fissure brightly.

To Aegon's surprise, they encountered no danger as the party ventured deeper into the fissure.

There were bones everywhere, leaving nowhere to put their feet. They could only step directly on them, producing a sound that set their teeth on edge.

Aside from being rather horrifying, there was no danger.

The mercenaries following behind breathed a little easier, too.

Although they had found no danger yet, Aegon kept a firm grip on his sword and remained alert.

"Brother Hayne, why did you hold me back earlier? That blue-lipped bastard went too far. His blade nearly cut your face."

The bones beneath their feet gave way under their weight, snapping and crunching.

Henry walked up beside Aegon and said, "If this keeps up, that bastard will only push us further and further."

"Back home, a bunch of thugs were always coming around to trouble my family. Sometimes those bastards took everything my mother earned from a whole day's work."

Henry clenched his fist as he spoke. "But once I grew as tall as them, I gave their leader a savage beating. No matter how much the others punched and kicked me, I just kept beating their leader within an inch of his life. After that, they never dared trouble me again."

Henry raised his fist and waved it in front of Aegon, as if to insist that his method was right and Aegon should do the same.

Aegon glanced at the fat man, who had grown rather boisterous while recounting his "glorious" past, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Did he think this was a street brawl, where beating one thug hard enough would scare the rest away?

Had he dared draw his sword then, he did not know whether he could have killed Crow's Eye outright. But he knew the Ironborn would have swarmed him and chopped him into mincemeat.

Aegon sighed helplessly and used his blade to gently push aside a curled-up skeleton in front of his feet.

"Henry, if your blue-lipped bastard and his men had the same brains as the thugs you met in the Reach, I'd do exactly what you said right now."

Aegon turned toward the fat man beside him, a trace of seriousness in his purple eyes. "But you need to understand that we're not facing a bunch of thugs who bully the weak and fear the strong. We're facing bloodthirsty pirates."

He kept walking, lowering his voice a little.

"They aren't carrying wooden clubs. Those battle-axes can split you in half, armor and all."

"If I'd attacked then, the best I could have done was take him down with me."

"And then what?"

"You, me, and everyone behind us would become the newest additions to this road of bones."

"That blue-lipped, one-eyed bastard is a pack leader, not a beaten dog. Killing a wolf takes patience and timing, not charging in and getting torn apart by the pack."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind them.

"The boss is right, fat boy."

The mercenary who was always fiddling with a spatula came up to join them.

Her face was furrowed by wind and sun. Her build and movements suggested she was still in her prime, yet she looked old and worn. Keeping a wary eye on their surroundings, she took a shriveled, slightly unripe fruit from inside her clothes and bit into it.

The sourness puckered her entire face. She pulled back her lips, exposing yellowed teeth. "I fucking... ahem."

Remembering something, she swallowed the coarse words on the tip of her tongue, glanced at Aegon out of the corner of her eye, and continued.

"I've spent more than a decade scraping by in the Disputed Lands. The weeds on the graves of people as reckless as you are taller than a man by now."

She patted the blade at her waist and told Henry, "If you want to be a hero, first learn when to duck your head. That's how you stay alive."

Henry faltered, his chubby face flushing. But the cook's old scars made it clear that she had far more experience than a greenhorn like him. He swallowed his retort and muttered, "I... I was just worried..."

The mercenary cook endured the sourness and finished the fruit in a few bites, flicked the pit neatly into a crack in the rock wall, and gave Henry a sidelong look.

"Still, you've got damned good luck, following someone with sense."

"Knowing when to duck your head in front of a wolf pack takes skill. But stepping forward without losing your nerve takes a real master."

"If the boss hadn't pulled you back and stepped up himself, you'd be keeping them company now." As she spoke, she pointedly kicked the bones at her feet.

"Our boss is no ordinary man."

Listening to the conversation behind him, Aegon had a vague idea of what she was trying to do.

But he made no response and continued forward in watchful silence.

The fissure was too dim to judge the time. Aegon only knew that the torch in his hand had burned out and he had replaced it.

He glanced at the people around him, who were all showing signs of fatigue, and beckoned Henry over.

"Henry, go tell the people behind us to stop advancing. We'll take a rest."

"If the Ironborn or our employer's guards ask questions, tell them this."

"Pushing on while exhausted will put us at a disadvantage if we run into danger. Wearing us out too soon won't do them any good."

"And don't forget that enormous shed skin outside. That 'thing' hasn't shown itself yet."

He stepped up to Henry and patted his shoulder.

"Remember, don't show fear."

Henry nodded firmly. "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

He turned, his ill-fitting iron armor clanking like a general about to march to war, lacking only a flourish of the cloak he did not have.

Hoisting his warhammer onto his shoulder, he strode back with steady steps.

Aegon watched Henry walk away as though entrusted with some sacred mission, then shook his head with a chuckle.

He found a relatively clean piece of blackstone, sat down against it, and drew his sword from its scabbard to wipe it.

The sword he had picked up at random during the melee was of ordinary workmanship. After several battles in succession, the edge near its tip had begun to roll.

He sighed helplessly.

Footsteps stopped beside him. Aegon looked up to see the mercenary cook who was always hovering nearby.

"Keeping busy, boss?"

Her voice was quiet enough that only Aegon could hear her.

"Heh... even taking a breath in this damned place leaves you tasting sulfur. It's killing me."

Aegon did not answer. His violet eyes looked especially deep in the firelight as he watched her quietly, waiting for her to continue.

Seemingly uncomfortable under his gaze, she toned down her smile and adopted a more earnest voice.

"Ahem... let's talk seriously."

"I, Carl, have spent more than ten years scraping by in hellholes like the Disputed Lands and the Stepstones. I've served under eight captains, if not ten, and seen too many people die without ever knowing why."

"Some died from stupidity, some from arrogance. More died because the people in charge had no brains and led them into a death trap."

She paused, looking at Aegon, who was still wiping his sword. Her voice dropped, carrying the weariness and gravity of someone who had lived through life and death.

"I can tell you're different from those people. You've got real ability, and..."

She pointed at her own chest.

"You're still warm in here."

"You truly treat the lives of the people around you as lives worth something. That alone earns my respect."

Her tone was sincere.

"I know I seem like a smooth talker, but I'm second to none at escaping death and knowing whom to serve."

"I can't promise to cut down many enemies for you, but these eyes still work well enough. I can watch your back and keep an eye out for arrows coming from the shadows."

"There's something damned wrong with these ruins. One more pair of eyes means a little more safety."

She glanced back at Henry, who was already returning toward them.

"That fat boy... he's honest at heart. He's good material."

"But in this world, good hearts die quickly."

"I want to follow you, boss."

"I don't want anything else. I just know that under you, as long as I don't get myself killed, you won't throw our lives away for nothing."

"From now on, my life is yours."

"Whenever you think I'm no longer useful, you can leave me behind as dead weight."

Leaning against the blackstone, Aegon listened quietly without speaking, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long silence, long enough for Carl to grow uneasy, he slowly stood up.