Chapter Seven
Sacred Mountain Range, Peru
Nasira drew to a halt along the rocky path. Her lungs screamed to catch up and her legs burned. The path had led her higher into the mountains. High enough that clouds shimmered before her, tempting her to the unknown.
She’d reached the Forest of the Clouds.
After spending a few days in Cusco, a town below the mountains, to acclimatize herself to the altitude, she had started her trek through a less explored region of the Incan empire. And she had still a way to go.
The tops of the rocky mountains were swathed in haze. She’d clocked another thousand meters of elevation today, reaching an uncomfortable 4,000 meters above sea level. And it was starting to show. She had to stop every twenty paces to catch her breath.
She wielded two staffs fashi
