“We need to get moving,” she said in Wrenyi to the others. “The Looming Valley will be at least five days’ walk, if we factor in setting up camp along the way. Once we reach the base, if Ashwood’s people aren’t at the bottom with Wesley, then it’ll be perilous and difficult to climb to the peaks to where the outlook is. I’d say another four days.”

“He could be at the top?” Arjun asked, incredulous. “He better thank me for all this walking.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Karam said.

“There’s no way to get a train up there?” Asees asked. “I thought Uskhanya had the best railway system in the four realms.”

“There are no lines to the Looming Valley,” Karam explained. “And if Nolan was wrong and Wesley isn’t here in Tisvgen, then the mountain range is the only way to cross into Creije unnoticed. If Wesley isn’t here, then he’ll be there.”

“Five days to the base, another four to climb, and then more time to cross into Creije if needed. Not to mention the time it will take to actually save Wesley once we find him,” Asees said, with a long sigh. “Now I wish that I had stolen that bottle of Cloverye from Tavia.”

“Don’t worry,” Arjun said. He pulled a glass bottle out from his backpack. “I took care of that.”

Karam shook her head. “You two have been spending far too much time with buskers,” she said.

Arjun laughed and then looked up to the sky and let out a low whistle.

“Forget about walking for a moment,” he said. “By the Indescribable God, would you look at that eyesore?”

He pointed to the skies with his sword.

Karam looked up.

Above them was a mausoleum, unlike any she had seen. It stretched to over fifty floors and she knew it hosted only the richest of the Uskhanyan people, allowing them to stay in their lofty towers and look down at the less fortunate in death, just as they had done in life.

It was her least favorite thing about the shores.

Karam had never been inside the mausoleum tower before. She much preferred the graves on the beach, caressed by the morning waves, the warm sand, and the pink wildflowers that were enchanted to spring up around them.

She thought she would be more at peace being laid to rest there, closer to the earth, rather than trying to reach a hand out to touch the Indescribable God.

Asees turned to the six Crafters of her Kin they had recruited for this mission.

“Come on,” she said. “Enough staring at the odd architecture of the Uskhanyans. Karam said we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and that means no time to soak up the sun or go for a swim with the spirits.”

Arjun recoiled like the thought made him shiver.