Serpent's Rising by Joe Jackson

Author:Joe Jackson [Jackson, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2020-05-30T22:00:00+00:00

They continued for a few more days, crossing the golden fields of Tess’Vorg. The realm was beautiful. They passed travelers, villages of mallasti, and the occasional harmauth patrol. None of the patrols stopped or even stared at the four women after the first time, and other than a curious glance here or there, the rir women didn’t attract much attention. The more Kari thought about it, it seemed Uldriana drew more attention, perhaps because she was leading the rir women on their journey?

True to form, Uldriana interspersed some more lore and knowledge about Emanitar and his realm in between her lessons with Sonja. She mentioned that despite having three mistresses and once being kast’wa to King Koursturaux, he had yet to sire an heir of either gender. Kari hadn’t considered it at first, but it was an issue in light of King Sekassus’ attempt at murdering the mallasti king. In the back of her mind, Kari began to wonder if King Emanitar might be unable to sire a child.

Kari was amazed that the journey had proven as worry-free as Amastri had suggested thus far. True, things were bound to change for the worse when they reached Sorelizar, but Kari became more curious about King Emanitar and, to a lesser extent, King Morduri. She wondered what the two neighboring kings wanted from their positions, and whether they were involved in any plots against Citaria. While civilized and seemingly benevolent on the surface, Kari doubted they were that way to anyone outside their own people, and that in terms of their threat to Citaria, they were still Kari’s enemies.

Not long after lunch on that fourth day, the city of Rulaj came into sight. It was conspicuous on the open plains, a lot of its detail readily apparent even at a fair distance. Obelisks, sandstone statues, and walls inlaid with colored mosaics or bas relief artwork became identifiable even a mile from the city’s edge.

“This place looks beautiful,” Sonja commented.

“It certainly does,” Danilynn agreed. “Rather reminds me of the ice temples back home, or the terraced temple district of Dira Ch’Tori.”

The closer they got, the more detail they could see: an aqueduct, several windmills of some sort, a grand coliseum, and, not the least, a fortress-palace with high, pointed towers topped by flying flags. The flags, oddly enough, depicted a lion with the spots of a hyena all over it.

“Wow,” was all Kari could manage as they continued toward the city. Uldriana glanced at her with a slightly subdued smile.

They began to follow a wide, dusty road, and traffic picked up as they got closer. Just as Kari had suspected a lot of the stares here were directed at Uldriana. Kari and her friends, by comparison, didn’t draw much more than the curious glances of people unused to seeing rir.

They must be suspicious of Uldriana traveling with us, Kari thought.

The people here were all clothed, just as Uldriana had mentioned back in Moskarre. The mallasti tended to wear hand-woven, light garments made more for modesty than protection, though occasionally they included leather bits.

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