Wraith King 2 by Jack Porter

Author:Jack Porter [Porter, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

33

This time, I never lost consciousness. But our journey to the nearby human city of Crowmore was mostly a blur as I struggled to stay on my horse.

Sarina rode with one of Nya’s guards because if she’d shifted now, I wouldn’t have had the strength to do anything about it, anyway.

Crowmore was a moderately sized city that sat at the convergence of two main roads through the mountains. To the north and east, the plain stretched out into hard fields and bare pastures. To the south, more mountains formed the lower edge of the Slavers’ Bowl. And to the north, in the far distance, gusts of steam were just visible to us on horseback. I took in all these things as we joined the main road leading to the city.

The city itself didn’t rise above the wall that surrounded it. Square towers punctuated the gray stone at intervals, and the battlements were closed in to the elements and potential threats. A flock of crows had gathered to rest on the main gatehouse when we arrived.

“Doesn’t the Wraith King use crows?” I asked Ilana, who was riding beside me.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “But not all crows belong to him. You never know.”

“So why do they let them stay there?”

“If they shoot the crows, and the bird belonged to the Wraith King, he will retaliate,” Nya said. She had halted her horse to look at me. “Be on your guard here, Jon. I don’t have a love of Crowmore, but it is one of the last free cities in the Slavers’ Bowl, and it’s also rife with pestilence and spies. The Wraith King only allows it to govern itself because it continues to hold the fork in the road. And in return, the city pays tribute like any other—with its children and peasants. But the citizens are—in theory, at least—free to come and go as they like.”

“Then do we need to stop here?” I asked.

“We need to tend our wounded, and I wish to speak with the Chief Magistrate concerning the sorceress we—you—killed, and her apprentice who is still out there.” With this, Nya glared at me. “Until then, do not tell them what occurred on the road. In times past, Crowmore asked for the elves’ protection, but we haven’t always been able to give it. Fortunately, maybe this time we can.”

The sturdy wooden gates were reinforced with iron and branded with the symbol of the city—a crow. Nya rode up to the guard, introduced herself, and within moments, our entire company was granted passage into the city.

The town was filthy. Children and animals were unwashed, the gutters flowed with the smell of piss and shit, and even the larger stone houses looked in disrepair.

If this was freedom, I didn’t want it.

The way Nya and her guard led us through the streets, it was obvious she had visited before. We soon arrived at a large inn. It was too small for all of us to get rooms, but the long tables within were big enough to accommodate the party for a meager supper.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.