The Knight's Dog

Part IX.

DERN KEPT HIS OWN NAG and set the brigands’ horses free in the fields of the first farmstead he passed. He’d retaken the knight’s coin and possessions, but found nothing else of value in the brigands’ camp. He and Dog skirted around Woodbridge and moved steadily south, spending their first night away from the brigands huddled together beneath a sprawling oak alongside the road. The next day brought rain and it warmed noticeably, though Dern’s cloak was worthless when it came to keeping him dry. They took a room at an inn in Shreave that night, and Dern paid an herb-woman to make a poultice for his hurt leg, which had begun to ooze a yellow substance into his breeches. After that, the towns became more frequent and larger. Dern bought himself a new cloak in Dunsburgh since the autumn storms seemed intent on persisting.

Poria was the first proper walled city they reached and the first with a gate watch. Dern told the guards he was a farm lad visiting the city to buy supplies and they let him and Dog pass without further questioning. The other cities were much the same, although sometimes Dern had to bribe the guards if they were intent on inspecting his pack and saddlebags. Dern knew how to pass through a city unnoticed as a thief. Posing as a farmer’s son was much the same, and few paid him or Dog any attention. His leg remained sore and stiff, and the saddle irritated the inner side of the wound, but he’d not caught fever and the wound seemed to be healing without mortification. He made a habit of keeping it well wrapped and getting a new poultice whenever they passed through a city.

When they passed through the city gates into King’s Hill, some twenty or more days after killing the brigands, Dern realized he had posed as a farmer for the last time. He’d spent his whole life being poor and unnoticed—it was an easy thing for him—but now he was going to meet with the King and everything would be different. Garamund had told him what to do: how to gain a conference with the King, how to present himself, what to say when the King awarded him. Garamund said there were great men in King’s Hill, the very men who kept the realm in order. He said Dern would be well received and well rewarded. True, there would be the pompous officials and soldiers that had become so commonplace, just like in any other city, but here he’d find men who had the mettle to become knights.

Dern bought new breeches, boots, and a tunic in the style worn in King’s Hill, and then paid for a room at a modest inn that was still more expensive than any other he had stayed at so far. He paid extra for a tub and hot water to be brought to his room and had the first proper bath of his life. When he was done, he coaxed Dog into the tub and gave him a bath too. Dog growled and showed his teeth the entire time, but didn’t try to jump out. Between the two of them they near turned the water to mud.

Dern hardly slept that night and when morning came, he could not break his fast, as good as the food smelled. He paid the innkeeper for an extra night in the room and boarding for his horse, then set off on foot with Dog at his side and the sword and shield still wrapped in blankets. He meant to claim to be a delivery boy for an armorer if anyone asked, but the streets were bustling with people, even in the rain, and no one paid him any mind.

He had never been in King’s Hill before, but it seemed much like any of the other large cities in the realm. If anything, it was older and more rundown. As he and Dog ascended their way towards the center of the city, though, the buildings became more opulent. Instead of the gray stones typical of buildings in other cities, the palaces here were made of cream-colored marble, which seemed to glow warmly even beneath the gray rain clouds.

The castle itself stood atop the hill in the center of the city. It was said that on a clear day one could see for thirty miles in any direction from the castle towers. It was colossal; when they finally reached the outer walls Dern had to crane his head back as far as it would go to see the pennons flying atop the towers.