The Achillios Chronicles (3-Book Omnibus Edition): Contains Alabaster, Onyx, and Verdant by Don Jones

Author:Don Jones [Jones, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-17T22:00:00+00:00

Seven

San inhaled deeply, enjoying the slight salt tang of the air that drifted in through the tiny window of her equally small room. She’d been to Spessarta numerous times as a youth and even occasionally after settling in nearby Lakeheight. After she’d been caught thieving and Lakeheight exiled her, she fled west and found her new family in Onyx. That was long ago, though, and she knew nobody in Spessarta, so she was cautiously optimistic.

She’d come to Spessarta with a dozen others from Onyx, leaving the rest of the traveling party camped well outside the city. More than a few of them had been exiled from Spessarta and didn’t want to take the chance of being recognized. Her current crew had taken rooms at four different inns so that if one of them was compromised, they could hopefully escape and hide out with one of the others.

Spessarta was one of four major cities along the East coast: Azuline, Verdant, and Opaline were the other coastal trade centers. Avalon and Southsea, to the south, were smaller towns engaged mainly in fishing. Spessarta was arguably the most beautiful of the coastal cities, and easily the largest trading center. While Azuline and Opaline produced their fair share of seafood and agriculture, and Verdant was well-known for its lumber supplies, only Spessarta had become a true center of trade and exchange. Merchants from as far away as Amethyia came to sell their wares, and even smaller distant towns like Hastings and Pairee came to supply themselves from Spessarta’s enormous markets.

Unlike many of Achillios’ major cities, Spessarta wasn’t defended by tall, sturdy walls. Spessarta’s Ruling Council—consisting of four elected councilors and four hereditary ones—believed that trade and commerce were all the protection the city needed. And as far as anyone could tell, they were right. The one time in recent history that Spessarta had been attacked, the attackers had found themselves facing down armies from a half-dozen other cities, all of whom relied on Spessarta for critical supplies and commerce.

With no walls to formally define the city’s limits, Spessarta seemed to form around you as you approached. From any direction, the main roads led through smaller, village-like settlements that housed the trades and crafts that were too large, noisy, or intrusive for the city itself: blacksmiths, farriers, tanners, and the like. As you moved further, you encountered the first trade-markets, where anyone could—for a fee, of course—set up shop. These outlying markets tended to trade in livestock, lumber, and other heavy, bulky goods. Those markets gave way to the city itself, peppered with homes, shops, pubs, inns, and the like, along with cobblestone streets. Spessarta’s City Hall sat in the middle of the city, surrounded by the homes of wealthier merchants and landed gentry. Those were surrounded by well-off tradesmen and Guild Halls, which in turn were surrounded by the houses and shops of the less-affluent. All of these resided in a strict grid of streets and alleys, with four broad avenues each leading directly to one side City Hall.

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