Of Ashes and Blood: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Shattered Empire Book 1) by P.C. Darkcliff

Author:P.C. Darkcliff [Darkcliff, P.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2025-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: ON THE RAMPARTS OF CAHES

To Derrik, Cahes resembled an anthill just before a storm. People rushed around shops and markets to stock up on food to endure the siege, lamenting the lack of supplies and the high prices caused by the monsters’ razing the farms outside the city. Many shops were closed, and the banging of hammers on nails carried through the streets as shopkeepers boarded up their doors.

The poor were leaving the suburbs for the heart of the city, their meager possessions on their backs or handcarts, desperate to get as far from the city walls as possible. They blended with wide-eyed peasants who had escaped from nearby villages on oxcarts and horse-drawn wagons. Both groups drew curses from footmen and bodyguards who trotted ahead of lacquered carriages. City guards strutted in their red-and-blue surcoats, glaring with distrust as if they suspected everyone of being a traitor.

Cahes seemed to be much larger than Balabor, with hovels and wooden houses strewn haphazardly along the dirt paths of the suburbs, and with rows upon rows of stone houses lining paved throughways. Built in veined white marble, the enormous royal palace crowned a large hill above the city, with gilded domes and bronze statues standing along the flat roof.

Having ushered Derrik and his friends to a shaft leading to the city, Ylaha and her subjects stayed underground to wait for nighttime and join the garrison. Al’Anark reunited with his elven troops while Eriana and Leya joined the healers and physicians who were preparing medicines, ointments, and bandages in a drab, brick hospital in the suburbs. And Derrik, Broose, and Glen had suddenly found themselves alone amid the mayhem.

They found lodging in an inn near the wall separating the city’s ancient nucleus from the newer suburbs. After a long, painful hesitation, Derrik had reluctantly left the dragon egg hidden under the bed before they left the bedchamber. As they roamed the crowded, sunlit streets, they spotted a large group of armed men heading toward the ramparts. Although they had no armor or uniforms, the men marched like soldiers in a tight, orderly formation.

“They are probably members of the citizen army,” Broose said.

“Let’s go with them!” Glen exclaimed, rushing to march along. Broose and Derrik exchanged an exasperated look as they hurried after him. Their friend’s back had healed completely and he was the old Glen again, afflicted by laziness one moment and possessed by unbearable energy the next.

Some of the volunteer soldiers gave them a strange look, but then they shrugged and kept marching. Listening to their conversations, Derrik realized that they were going to relieve an Aratonese banner on the wallwalk on the city ramparts.

Derrik kept clenching his sword hilt, feeling cold sweat make his hand stick to the smooth leather. At last, he would fight in a real battle, defending an enormous city from monsters, as he had always dreamed. But all the adventures had exhausted him, as had the long march through the dwarfish tunnel. He had hoped that the men were just going to an encampment for sword practice in preparation for the battle.

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