Empire of Ashes

Chapter LXVIII - The King Who Crowned Himself

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The guards exchanged nervous, uncertain looks. This did not happen to them often — their job was to search peasants, not deal with this horseshit. The youngest of them was gaping a little. The one we had been addressing ran a hand through his hair.

"Well?" Temris demanded.

"Yes, of course," he stammered. "It will— It will take a minute to arrange an escort. Yes."

While they talked, I put my foot in Amber's stirrup and clambered back into the saddle. She was pawing at the ground like she could sense my unease, and she probably could. There was enough tension in my body to fire a trebuchet.

One of the guards went running for his superior, and we had to wait for him to return with four horsemen in tow. These were not ordinary soldiers but rather members of the royal guard, with Herox's white lightning bolt and the Anglian star-rose embroidered onto their chest. So I hated them on sight, and only the thought of the captain who had worn that same uniform languishing in northern captivity was somewhat comforting.

"If you would accompany us, gentlemen," one of them said.

As if Melia and I were invisible. When I had been told that Anglian customs were different, I had not realised they meant women were considered second-class citizens.

"Yes, we will," I replied loudly, making a show of kicking Amber into the lead. The looks on the guards' faces made it so very worthwhile.

Melia must have caught on, because she nudged her horse into my wake and followed. There was a grin playing about Tem's lips as we passed him. He waited until we were four paces ahead before he mounted Nightmare and let him walk on, Anlai and Fendur as Iyrak at his flanks. The royal guard split into pairs — two in front and two behind.

That was how we rode into Belmery, and that was what the peasants saw. About half of them bothered to glance at us, and the ones who did looked away again just as quickly. Everyone was too busy to care about a handful of people from a country they had never heard of. They moved out of the way for the horses, but that was all.

I, on the other hand, drank in everything I saw. I had not been to a city before, and the sight of houses arranged in neat, cramped rows was an unfamiliar one. There were people everywhere, packed like rats in a gutter with scarce room to move. People of all ages and descriptions. Market stalls every colour of the rainbow lined the crossroads, and the owners announced their goods in booming voices.

We turned left onto a cobbled slope, curling uphill towards the next level. The upper part of the city was clearly wealthier — the houses had space between them and some even had gardens. People wore bright cotton and silks instead of rough-spun wool. And most telling of all, it was quieter. There was no shouting across the street, no boisterous conversation between friends, and no wild laughter.

The further into the city you went, the larger the houses became, until we reached the second slope. This one led to the third tier, to the keep itself, which towered over the city. There was a gate to keep the commoners out, but the tenders took one look at our escorts and waved us through.

Before long, we rode into a courtyard surrounded by sheer walls of dark grey stone. At the far end were arches three times the height of any normal man, and they opened into what looked like the keep entranceway. There were a handful of stable boys waiting to take our horses — and I found myself uneasy at the idea. Obviously, I couldn't keep Amber with me, but we hadn't been far apart since we had left Cambria weeks ago. She was a piece of home.

But I dismounted when everyone else did, and I let the boy take the reins. We had come too far to hesitate now. Amber would be safe until the time came to go home, even if we were fleeing into the night as king-killers. Once she was gone, I watched Nightmare kick and stamp at his own stable boy, who looked on the verge of tears.