“Four hours before dawn.”
“Perfect.” Miro smiled. “I thank you for your hospitality. A warm bed and a good Halrana meal in my belly. A solid night’s rest for once. We’ll leave at dawn, and I’ll see you in Sarostar.”
Ella and Jehral drew up as they reached the heights just below Wondhip Pass. Behind them, harnesses jingled and the swarthy men who made up Jehral’s guard called out to one another.
The air was dry and cool up here, high in the mountains, and the view, all encompassing. In the north, Ella could now see glimpses of the forests and farmland of Altura. Behind the company of guards, to the south, the rugged red land of Petrya gave way to the yellow expanse of the Hazara desert. To the east, the peaks of the Elmas formed an indomitable barrier, stretching as far as the eye could see. Looking westward, the blue ocean filled her vision, as unbroken and unchanging as the sky.
“We’re nearly there,” Ella said. “It’s not much farther.”
Jehral grunted as he kicked his gelding forward, but this final leg to Wondhip Pass, the precarious route connecting Altura and Halaran to Petrya and the Hazara Desert, was treacherous and strewn with loose rubble.
“I’m going to have to dismount,” Jehral said. “Your horse might be able to keep going, but Burin here does not like carrying my weight while rolling around on the rocks.”
“Yet another thing women are better at,” Ella said, grinning. “We’re lighter and make better riders.”
“You sound like my sister,” Jehral said. “She also insists on riding like a man.” Jehral slipped off his horse as he called back to the company of desert men. “Dismount!”
As she waited for the Hazarans, Ella looked back the way they’d come. They’d covered an incredible distance in the past weeks; horses gave the Hazarans a decisive advantage when it came to travel. Ella had now built her towers in a long line from Agira Lahsa through the desert, keeping each in sight of the next but able to space them far apart because of the lack of intervening trees and mountains.
Making a detour east, she’d also connected the Petryan capital, Tlaxor, to the chain, and when she built this final station high in the Elmas, at Wondhip Pass, Jehral would return home, having escorted Ella to Altura’s border. Ella’s task with the reflectors was nearly done.
Ella wished she could have spent longer with Shani in Tlaxor, but she was still pleased to have been able to see her friend. Shani was doing all she could to convince the Petryan high lord to promise aid. Shani seemed determined, but not hopeful.
Ella patted the letter she carried in a pocket of her dress, for Bartolo, currently training soldiers at the Pens in Sarostar, from his wife. Ella knew Shani was sad that the two of them were apart. They regularly traveled back and forth, but both had strong ties with their homelands. She wondered if they’d ever choose to live together in either Altura or Petrya.
Jehral and his troops now led their horses by the reins as they picked their way over the rocks, and the company’s journey into the mountain pass continued. Soon the path leveled off to enter a cleft in the rock, with high walls rising on both sides. Ahead Ella saw more of the green land to the north revealed in the view. Drinking in the sight of the emerald forests and blue ribbons of the Sarsen’s tributaries, she felt an intense longing to return to her homeland. Turning and checking her position, she made sure she could still see the red earth of Petrya behind her.
She was at the absolute middle of the pass.
“This is the place,” Ella said.
Jehral nodded and ordered his men turned out in a defensive formation. Ella reached into her satchel and removed three thin rods, as thick as her wrist and as long as her arm, placing them on the ground.
She reached into her bag again and took out one of the triangular prisms. Keeping the reflector covered by her body, Ella whispered a series of activation sequences and watched with satisfaction as the prism cycled through one hue after another. When her tests were complete, she took out a triangular piece of flat metal and fitted each of the rods into holes on the corners of the steel base.
Ella placed the pyramid-shaped prism on top of the metal triangle. The prism now stood on three legs.