Suddenly, Shunneth appeared behind the next man to attack the group and stabbed into his neck with a dagger, dropping him to the ground. The rest of the warriors were trying to move forward to help the engaged attackers, but were stopped by the magical field that Symania had raised that glowed with a slight blue hue.
Ceras shot off a stream of smaller fireballs from both ends of his staff, which all dived and swirled toward a warrior behind his shield. The first few fireballs seemed to go through him with no effect as if he was not there, but the fourth hit him in the center of his breastplate, exploding in a white light as he was blown off his feet. As the man was starting to pull himself up, now with a hole in his armor, Ceras cast his immobilization spell. He followed it up quickly with another fireball that penetrated the hole in his breastplate, blowing a large cavity in the man’s chest. He was still standing as the immobilization spell was holding his body in place, and blood sprayed out of the large wound onto the grassy ground.
Qyndad had gotten up from the man on the floor, who seemed to have been beaten to a pulp. He rushed off to his next target, who was behind a shield as he tried to get access to the battle. Ceras noticed that the dragon had blood all down his leather armor as if he was a ghoul, yet he had not yet drawn a weapon. The battle between Rinaldo and the other warrior seem to be a game of chess as the two continued to blur and reappear in different positions, both seemingly trying to trick the other into making a mistake.
The movement was so fast that Ceras was afraid to use his fireballs to help, but he did cast an immobilization spell to lock Rinaldo’s opponent in place. This took a few tries as the man was moving so fast, but eventually he froze, giving Rinaldo a chance to attack with several swift blows to the head.
By this time Qyndad had reached the men on the other side of the shield. They were all gathering around him, and he was hitting out like a wild animal. Ceras noticed that several of the men had gotten solid hits on his body, ripping apart his chainmail and clothing. As one of the men behind Qyndad was just about to stab him, Shunneth appeared at his side again and stabbed a dagger into his exposed neck.
Rinaldo appeared beside Qyndad and started to fend off the attacks with his sword, shouting at Qyndad, “Use your bloody weapons!”
Ceras targeted a man on the edge of the battle with an immobilization spell, quickly followed by a mixture of fireball and ice-spike, which took him down as the ice cut the body apart while the explosions ruptured his body. The other two were finished off with a combination of pure wild kicking and hitting from Qyndad, and the combined combat strategy of the two warriors.
When the last attacker fell, for a brief moment silence fell over the battle field.
“Does anybody need healing?” Symania shouted, breaking the silence.
Rinaldo put his hand up as he had a wound in his arm that was bleeding all over his clothes. Symania moved over and started to heal the wound, blue light flowing from her finger tip.
“What a complete and utter mess that fight was,” said Rinaldo angrily as he stared at Qyndad.
“I attacked, didn't I?” asked the dragon, sounding defensive.
“Yes, but do you know how to use the weapons you’re carrying or are they just for show?”
“No, I don’t... it's not like I've had to use them before!”
Shunneth walked over to Qyndad and looked at the holes and cuts in his armor, all seeming to be at the vital points of his body, and asked, “How are you not injured at all?”
“It's a special stupidity skill that only he has,” muttered Rinaldo as the dragon looked offended.
“We need to get better at this, as the next time we may not be so lucky. Qyndad, take note that sometimes running is the best solution, as it has all to do with getting a tactical advantage when we can,” said the exasperated Rinaldo.
“I notice that it’s very different fighting a number of high-level humans than fighting monsters,” said Ceras, “as the monsters seem to be more predictable.”
“In the capital you can get the training you need,” said Symania as she looked over the mess that Qyndad’s clothes and armor were in.
“I really think that we could all do with some training in combat when we get to the capital. Even Ceras and Symania, who use magic most of the time.”
Ceras could see that the fight had really rattled Rinaldo, as fighting somebody with similar skill to his own made it more difficult than he’d thought it would be. Ceras was also worried that he had been unable to work with the fighters on his side to help them efficiently. He supposed that there was more to the using of magic within a team than just raw power.
The bodies of the attackers had disappeared as they were sent to resurrection.
“We’d better move away from here, as it’s always possible that more people might come,” said Symania.
Leading the way, Rinaldo started forward along the path and said to Shunneth, “Would you go to the rear of the group and keep an eye on whether anybody is following us?”
“Sure.”
“Symania, keep an eye on Qyndad and maybe show him how to use his weapons for something other than decoration,” said the still-angry barbarian, striding forward.
Before Ceras started to move forward with the others he said,” Wait a few minutes. I’m just going to cast a spell to give me an eye in the sky. I need to be still to do this.”
When the rest nodded for him to proceed, he cast the spell, and as if he had a third eye, his view changed and moved up from his body and high into the sky. When he had gained a bird's eye view of the world around him, Ceras looked around for any sign of people. Slowly focusing his view in different directions, he was able to scan their surroundings. From behind them, Ceras saw a slight movement of an armored figure moving from bush cover into a wooded area.
Pouring more mana points into the spell, he was able to move his observation point from his location in the sky toward the armored man now entering the wood. Ceras felt like a bird flying high in the sky over the green, grassy landscape and then diving toward the trees of the woodland. He swooped around the man to get a good look at his face, and recognized the thickset man from the inn who had been talking to the men who had attacked them. Breaking the spell, he wished he had some way to track the man without keeping the magical eye on him.
“Let's get moving. The man who seemed so interested in us last night is out there spying on us,” said Ceras as he started forward.
Chapter 5 An Invitation
The five travelers had been walking and camping for the last few days, trying to avoid any contact with other people on the road. Symania had set them a good pace as she referred to the map for directions. They were now approaching a walled city in the bright midday sunlight that warmed them as they hiked through the rolling hills.
“We should be able to get some decent accommodation in the city tonight before we head off into the wilderness for our supposed shortcut,” said the smiling Symania, obviously thinking of the comforts a good inn could offer her. She still looked as clean as when they’d started, despite having traveled for so long.
As the adventurers crested a hill, giving them a spectacular view of the city spreading out in the shallow valley before them, Ceras could see forest to the north-east of the city in the direction of the wilderness that they would be traversing. A road ran to the east and south of the city, passing through farmland and forest with carts moving slowly along pulled by large oxen.
The city had a large earthen rampart surrounding it, with sharpened stakes at the bottom as if it was a regular occurrence for it to be attacked. On top of the rampart was a high stone wall with a wooden stockade, adding extra height to the fortification. Ceras noticed the tall stone and brick towers that stood guard over the wall were mostly facing towards the north east of the city into the wilderness.
Inside the city was a complex array of twisting roads leading through the mass of buildings that looked to be crowded with people. Ceras could see squares filled with mark
ets and large open areas with various sporting and tournament events taking place.
In one sector of the city were larger mansions with grass and tree areas in between the buildings. The mansions seemed to be surrounding a large fortification in the center that looked like a castle but was more ornate in nature, indicating that somebody with money resided there.
“The residence of the Earl of the town,” said Symania as she saw Ceras looking at the central structure.
The adventurers started to walk down the well-trodden path towards one of the city gates. As they passed carts and other foot traffic of people taking goods from the surrounding area into the city for trading, Ceras noticed that there were some large caravans assembling outside the gate which seemed to be setting off on long journeys carrying goods.
There were a lot of guards with each of the caravans, wearing used armor that seemed to have the wear and tear of many battles. When he had worked on the farm, he remembered sometimes the steadings were visited by caravans to pick up supplies before venturing into the wilderness. As a small child, it had always awed him to hear the stories of adventure from the guards of the caravans, which had helped to give him a thirst for the adventurer's life.
With the constant flow going in and out of the city gate, the guards did not pay much attention to the five young adventurers entering the city amongst the masses of human traffic, so they passed through easily.
On entering the city, they found themselves on a street that ran into the center. The street had many shops and market stalls lining the road. This was the first city that Ceras had been in outside Riverward, and he looked around with wonder at all the people dressed in much richer clothing than he was used to seeing.
Both Qyndad and Rinaldo seemed to have similar expressions on their faces as they stared at the people around them. Ceras saw a group of young men and women who looked slightly older than him, dressed in elegant clothes with no weapons or armor, as if they were not fulfilling their service as adventurers. They were idly walking down the street, chatting away as they looked at the goods displayed by the shop owners.
When they passed the unarmored youth, Ceras turned to Symania and said, “They seem to be of the age when they should be doing their five years of adventuring, but none of them have armor or any weapons. What’s going on with them?”
Symania turned her head and looked at the group he was referring to and frowned slightly. “In the larger cities it’s even worse than in Riverward, where at least the adventurers are in a combat or crafting class. Many of the rich youth here will get a class that is of no use at all for defense, like arts or entertainment classes, enabling them to spend their service in the ease of the city without having to fight or gain any levels that will be of use to defend the kingdom.”
“Hmm, sounds pretty useless to me,” said Rinaldo.
As they walked on, the group came across an intersection to several large streets. A slightly raised platform held a group of performers acting out some scene from a play, with about fifty people sitting around tables in a paved area, eating and drinking at their midday meal. The five adventurers stopped in wonder to watch the performance from the edge of the paving.
After a few minutes of watching, Ceras realized that it was a well-known scene from a comedy that he had read in a collection of plays at home. The actors were very polished and made the crowd laugh with their over exaggerated performance, making the text come to life for Ceras and giving him a new take on many aspects of the play.
When the captivating spell of the performance was over, many in the crowd stood up and gave the actors a standing ovation. Some of the costumed actors came down into the crowd to accept money for their performance, with smiles and hats for people to drop coins in.
“That was fun to watch,” said Symania, still with a smile on her face after laughing so much. “I forget what it’s like to be in civilization with some entertainment.”
“I remember a troop of actors traveling through our land once,” said Rinaldo, as if he was thinking of a treasured memory. “They stopped and gave a performance for all of the neighborhood farms. It’s the only time I’ve seen something like that.”
As one of the actors passed, they all put in some coins in appreciation of the performance.
“Let’s find a place to stay for the night, and we should stock up on some provisions if we're going to brave the wilderness,” said Ceras as he started to move along the street.
“Shall we find something nice this time?” Symania pleaded. “It would be nice to have a hot bath and sleep in a decent bed.”
“OK. If that’s what you want, I guess that I’ve got the money for it,” said Ceras.
He was ill at ease with the thought of spending money. For him it felt like a significant amount since he had been taught to save every penny, and it didn’t seem right. He knew that being a dungeon master had made him rich, even though he had not kept track of the financial side of things. Hidden-Caverns and Grikius were the financial geniuses, and they kept telling Ceras that the shops they had opened with the compensation provided to the adventurers were all turning a large profit. Hidden-Caverns was still generating significant amounts of money from the dungeon as well, so Ceras was not too bothered by money, but old habits of not spending anything were hard to shake.
Before the journey, he had asked Hidden-Caverns for some money for expenses and all he had received was a large bag of holding that he had just put away. Hidden-Caverns had been rambling on about what was in there and he’d only half-listened; he had understood that it contained more than money but he had forgotten the details. So far, he had not even opened the bag as he had been using some of the gold, silver and copper coins he had collected over the time he had been in the dungeon, as that had seemed to be plenty for the party’s needs so far.
“How does one find good accommodation?” asked Qyndad, seeming to want to please Symania.
“I’ve been here before,” said Shunneth, “so I know an inn that should meet your requirements, Symania.”
“Thanks.”
“Is it expensive?” asked Ceras, still concerned about spending.
“Well, I never actually paid for it, but I guess it is.”
“You’ve got plenty of money, Ceras. I just want some decent accommodation for once,” said Symania with a winning smile.
“Right. Lead the way then, Shunneth.”
Shunneth looked around, trying to get her bearings, and said, “It’s close to the Earl’s castle so as long as we head that way, I’ll be able to find it.”
“Sounds expensive to me,” Ceras muttered.
Following Shunneth, the team walked further into the city along the cobbled main street. In a section of the city with large parks and plazas surrounded by shops, Ceras noticed a large complex of grand buildings, all built out of stone as if they had been around for ages. The complex was a large square that was full of fountains and food stalls serving young people with all manner of food items. A grand entrance with elegant arches provided the way into the building complex. Ceras saw all types of people walking in and out of the buildings, but most of them were youths dressed like adventurers.
“Is that a guild building, Shunneth?” Ceras asked her.
“No, it’s an adventurers’ academy,” she said as she glanced at the building complex. “It’s like a university but not so grand. Mostly it’s for fighters, as it teaches more practical techniques than the universities, but it may have a magical department.”
“I wonder if it would be worth me looking into.”
“Sure, but let’s get the accommodation sorted first.”
The team carried on walking through the square of the academy, and entered into an area of the city that had more expensive-looking houses. Ceras started to notice that the five of them looked out of place with their battered travel clothing and armor that showed so much damage.
Most of the people on the street here were either tradesmen working in the area, or people in fine
clothing who were walking along as if they had all the time in the world. The five adventurers got a few dirty looks from people when they passed them.
“What’s their problem?” growled Qyndad with a deep frown, as he saw the third such look thrown at their group.
“We just look out of place, dear,” said Symania, trying to pacify the dragon. ”Just ignore it.”
“If you say so, but I’d rather...,” Qyndad stopped talking when he got an intense look from Rinaldo.
Shunneth eventually led them to a large building surrounded by gardens and a wall with metal spikes along the top. There was a gateway into the building complex with a few guards outside, dressed more for a parade ground than guarding an inn. Over the wall Ceras could see the inn towering above the surrounding buildings, several stories tall. Many of the rooms had balconies looking out onto the gardens and the surrounding area. Ceras had never seen such a magnificent inn in his travels, which, as he admitted to himself, were limited.
When the team of travel-weary adventurers tried to walk through the gate to the garden surrounding the inn, one of the guards indicated for them to stop.
“What's your business here?” demanded the guard as he scanned their badly-worn adventurers’ clothing.
“Accommodation for the night,” snapped Shunneth, with an edge to her voice. “What did you think we wanted?”
“You really don’t look as if you have the coin to afford to stay here,” shot back the guard, stepping in front of them and barring the way.
“What-?”
“Wait a second, Shunneth, before you start shouting at this good man,” said Symania. “He really does have a point, as we do look pretty bad for such a high-class inn. Ceras, show the man some gold coins to convince him that we can pay for our accommodation.”
King of the Realm Page 5