The Steel Queen - Prologue

Chapter 1 Katherine

Kath took the steps two at a time, racing the light from the rising sun to the battlement at the top of Castlegard’s tallest tower. If she hurried she’d have time enough to work out the riddle. The question had been nagging her since dinner last night, but she needed the view to be sure. Rounding the last spiral, she stepped out onto the windswept battlement. A single knight stood watch alongside the brooding gargoyles, his maroon cloak billowing over a silver surcoat. Too old for the field of battle, Sir Bredon’s eyes were still keen enough for the lookout towers. Without turning he said, “Hello, Imp.”

Kath smiled. To the knights and the candidates she was the “Imp”; to the ruined veterans she was “Little Sister”. No one saw her for what she really was. In some ways being invisible gave her an advantage; age was a trap for a girl and a curse for a woman. At fifteen, she wanted to avoid the trap for as long as possible. Crossing the battlement to stand next to the knight, she leaned on the wall, the crisp wind tugging at her unruly blonde hair. “Anything out there?”Sir Bredon pointed to the northern horizon. “A patrol returning from the north but otherwise it’s quiet.”

Kath spotted the dust cloud on the valley floor. She held her breath; half hoping an enemy pursued the patrol. Peace was boring.

“No cause for alarm.” Sir Bredon walked a lazy circuit around the parapet, keeping his gaze on the countryside below. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”

Kath scowled. “It’s too early to be at the healery. And besides, I have a riddle to solve.”

“A riddle?”

“Last night at dinner, Father said that Castlegard could almost defend itself, that any attacking force would have to overcome eleven defenses created by the ancient builders.” The riddle challenged Kath, giving her the chance to prove she knew the castle better than anyone. “I think I’ve worked them out, but I need the view to be sure.”

The tower gave her a perfect eagle-eye view of the great concentric castle and the broad saddle-shaped valley below. The valley breached the east-west range of mountains that separated the southern kingdoms from the lands of the Mordant. The castle guarded the valley, holding the Mordant’s hordes in check. It made sense, but Kath thought the explanation was too simple for a castle raised by the ancient mages. In many ways, Castlegard was itself a riddle; the construction of the inner walls so seamless they looked as if they’d been molded from molten granite.

Running her hand along the impossibly smooth mage-stone, Kath could easily believe the ballads the bards sang about the making of the castle in the days of high magic. The mage-stone walls showed no sign of wear despite more than thirty generations of use. Magic used to raise such a castle was long since gone from the land, destroyed during the War of Wizards, but Castlegard remained as a marvel of older times. Whatever the truth behind the castle’s origins, legends agreed that Castlegard was invincible and no army had so far proved the claim false.

“Eleven you said?”

“Some of them are easy.” Buffeted by the chilly wind, Kath tucked her hair behind her ears and wished that she’d worn a cloak. “The greensward makes approaching enemies vulnerable to arrows, and the moat looks peaceful enough but I know it’s deep.” Last summer, she’d probed the murky depths with a broken lance, never finding the bottom. “Three has to be the drawbridges and four the gatehouses protecting the bridge mechanisms. Then there’s the iron gate and the first curtain wall but they probably count as one. It gets tricky inside the first wall.” The eight-sided castle was a series of fortified walls, separated by traps and tricks. The outer walls, raised by the sweat of ordinary stonemasons, were challenging, but the soaring inner castle, raised by the magic of ancient wizards, was surely impregnable. “I’ve heard the knight marshal say there’s nothing but traps between the two walls.”