Chapter 157

The mountain path was narrow; in places it would admit no more than two riders abreast. Small wonder the highlanders rode only the little mountain horses that could manage such trails. Domeric’s company rode through the passes, across stretches of farmland, and on toward the wilder peaks.

To guard against the knights of the Vale, the strongholds of the ten great mountain clans were all set deep among the tangled heights of the Mountains of the Moon. Without a highlander who knew the ways to guide them, any stranger who ventured in would soon be lost among the disordered tracks.

After more than an hour of winding roads they reached their destination. In the distance a great village—or mountain stronghold—lay cradled among the peaks, its wooden buildings of strange design rising one above another. The highlanders had never raised a castle of stone, yet the Mountains of the Moon themselves were fortress enough. Even the strongest fortress, however, could be broken from within. That was why Domeric had accepted Varys’s counsel.