The Wandering Sword: Book One of The Last Eternal by Jacob Peppers

Author:Jacob Peppers [Peppers, Jacob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-03T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

A common saying in the world—one that had even been common a hundred years ago when the wanderer had first begun his endless journey—was that when meeting someone for the first time, a man should always put his best foot forward. And the city of Celes was proof that its engineers, at least, had taken that saying to heart.

The street beyond the gate was fashioned from cobbled marble, the same, he suspected, as that which had been used to shape its massive walls. And while the marble was inevitably cracked in places, what was there was so clean that it shone in the sun, making it difficult to look at.

The shops that flanked either side of the lane were also fine, expensive-looking affairs. No rundown buildings or decrepit inns here—here, a traveler visiting to the city for the first time could only be impressed by the majesty of everything around him. Which, of course, was the builders’ intent.

The wanderer had been to Celes before, but that had been many, many years ago, when he and other young men and women had begun their training under Soldier, long before he and the other Eternals had fought the enemy in the final conflict. Long before they had failed.

On the surface, the city looked, now, much as it had then, yet the wanderer did not think he imagined the undercurrent of fear that seemed to thrum within the city, that seemed to hide behind the doll-like smiles of the merchants as he passed. Neither did he think it was only his imagination that made it seem like the people in the street weren’t walking from place to place so much as scurrying like rats. As they hurried this way or that, he saw them casting anxious glances at the guards patrolling here and there, as if the men weren’t given the task of protecting them but were instead members of some invading army.

Veikr, too, seemed to notice the oddness, whinnying softly. “Easy, boy,” the wanderer said, patting the horse on the muzzle. “We’re just going to deliver the letter, that’s all. Then we’re out of here.”

He made his way past fine shops with expensive and fragile glass windows, though ones not as fragile as the smiles on the faces of those he passed. Once, he had called the city of Celes home, had lived and resided and trained within it for over two years, yet he felt as if he walked in a completely different city. Celes, once, had been home to artists and bards, actor troupes and all manner of creatives trying to make their way in the world. It might have seemed strange to some that the home city of an Eternal who was lauded for his physical prowess such as Soldier might be so, but then people, like the city itself, were always more complicated than they first appeared, and Soldier had been a lover of the arts.

Now, though, the wanderer saw no performing troupes or street bards, only men and women who cast worried glances over their shoulders as they hurried about their day.

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