Pantros didn't like having so many people around him. As much as they offered more protection, they could just as likely be additional corpses in his wake. He didn't want to offend the prince, though, so he replied, "That's a noble offer, thank you, your highness." Estephan seemed satisfied with the response. Pan wondered if maybe Fork were close enough to Vehlos for him to go that last leg of the journey alone.
Being from a port city, Pantros understood the distances between the major ports of the world. He'd seen the maps, and knew how far Gyptania, Rahvenna and Everton were in terms of sailing days. Vehlos was close to an ocean, he knew, but Fork was nowhere near an ocean.
CHAPTER 11: CHARLES
The roadside sign said that Fork was west and Southbridge was south and Westen was east. There was no sign pointing to the north road, where Charles and Heather had come from.
“Fork then?” Charles asked.
“I don’t think so,” Heather said. “Too many people too close together, I’d hate to get angry in that big of a city.”
They didn’t really need to resupply. In the week they’d been on the road, they’d found work each evening as either smiths or tinkers. Gus had given Charles a hammer and a tinker’s anvil as well as a pack to carry them in. The work they’d found along the way had gotten them plenty of salted food and dried fruit for the road and a small amount of coin. Charles now wore his sword sheathed across his back and Heather wore a red leather apron around her waist. Their clothes fit, as did their spare clothes, though both were in need of washing.
“Southbridge it is,” Charles headed along the road to the south with Heather at his side.
A few miles down the road a covered wagon pulled alongside and slowed. “You two look like you’ve a long road ahead of you and your feet could use a rest.”
The man was older than Charles by enough that his hair was graying at the temples. He wore light leather armor, which was not uncommon among men who traveled regularly. The carriage was painted in a splattering of colors. The lines of the paint were neat and straight, but the colors were varied and looked like they were either chosen at random or chosen deliberately to disturb anyone’s aesthetic senses.
“I am Jonah of the Wandering Rose,” the man on the wagon said. “Where are you headed?”
“Melnith,” Heather said.
Charles nodded.
“I’m not going all the way there, but I can give your feet a rest for a day or two,” Jonah said. We’re camped two days walk west of the river.”
“How far is that from here?” Charles asked.
“Five days on foot, two on my wagon,” Jonah said. “I travel this road regularly so I know all the best places to stop for lunch and for a good clean bed.”
“Do you always stop and offer people rides?” Heather asked.
“Just often enough to have someone to talk to on the long ride,” Jonah said. “You two look like you’ve got quite a story.”
“Maybe we do,” Charles said. “If it’s all the same, I’d rather not share that story today.”
“Then hop on,” Jonah said. “I’ll play the role of story teller.”
“I don’t want to walk anymore,” Heather said.
Charles shrugged, the man did have a sword strapped to the driver’s bench, but he was still only one man. He didn’t seem like a threat. “Okay,” he said. He helped Heather onto the wagon then climbed on himself.
“Welcome aboard,” Jonah said. “I promised a story, so here goes. This is a story I taught Thomas Boncanta himself. It’s the story of a woman I once met who changed history with her sword. Let me tell you the tale of Legend of Phyre.”
CHAPTER 12: TARA
The man holding her hand wasn’t the man she’d married, but Tara couldn’t convince herself that was true. He felt like the same person, he had the same way of thinking, of speaking and the same humors. His touches felt the same as she remembered.
This Thomas even had the air of worldliness to him, though he’d never been beyond the village of Stonewall before; he’d absorbed every bit of knowledge of the world from anyone who would talk about it. In the two days they’d been riding in the carriage and the two days prior, he’d talked endlessly with the Knights. He probably knew more about Relarch than any of the native Knights did simply because he’d gleaned every little bit of each individuals knowledge.
And Tara got to hear all about it when the Knights couldn’t take any more questions.
Relarch was one of two human nations on the continent of Teminev. It claimed all the land east of the Evenflow river as far south as the Great Bay and as Far East as the ocean, including the village of Stonewall, but not Ignea. To the north, Relarch ended at the mountains and the borders with the Vulak Tribal lands. That border was less defined and varied depending on the success of Vulak Raids or Relarchian expansion. The Vulak rarely organized in large enough numbers to siege a Human Fort, and the Humans didn’t really want the land for more than a buffer between the lands they did want and the Vulak Tribal Lands, so they also rarely committed the resources to expand. Half a dozen forts along the border changed hands every couple years. It was a constant war neither side seemed committed to try to win.
The truth was that Relarch was politically, though not geographically, centered on the city of Fork where the Starshone met the Evenflow. The Counties and Duchies closer to the Capitol felt more of the Kingdoms influence while the lands farther out, such as Stonewall, may have forgotten that they were part of a Kingdom.
Tara sat at the front of the carriage, beside Thomas. He was sleeping, but Tara was content to just snuggle by his side.
CHAPTER 13: PANTROS
Pantros sat by a window, occasionally reading one of a handful of books in the carriage and mostly just watching the passing scenery. He’d never seen anything but city where the ground was stone and he was never more than five paces from a wall.
At the end of the ridge, atop the cliff, stood ruins of red stone. “What’s that?” Pantros asked, Estephan, who’d been napping across a table from him.
The Prince glanced out the window. “It’s an old tower, older than the Abvi. The red material is called Opalite and it is exceedingly valuable, as long as it hasn’t been worked. Once it’s been worked, it retains its shape forever and is nigh indestructible.” Estephan said.
“That tower looks well destructed, I guess the Opalite is less valuable once it’s been worked and destroyed.” Pantros said. “Why hasn’t anyone rebuilt it using normal stone?”
“There’s nothing to this land. It’s in the middle of a mountain pass to nowhere. If there were anything at all east of here, we might have a town or fort here. That tower where we met is far more defensible with smaller numbers. The mountains prevent the rain here most of the time, so the land is not good for farming or grazing.”
“So, no one claims it?” Pantros asked.
“Its Kingdom land,” Estephan said. “No one wants it.”
“Can I buy it?” Pantros asked.
Estephan laughed. “Land is the most valuable commodity the Kingdom has beside its people. I couldn’t imagine a boy like you even being able to comprehend the amount of money it would take to purchase even unwanted land.”
“Let me surprise you,” Pantros said. “Give me a number.”
“I could probably arrange to sell that tower and the land for four leagues in each direction for a chest with ten thousand gold coins.” Estephan said.
Pantros thought, but doubted all his stashes combined quite had that many gold coins. Only the one chest was nothing but gold but it was a mere fraction of ten thousand coins.
“Done,” Sheillene said, landing in the seat beside Pantros.