III

Sitting atop their horses, Dantera glanced back into the forest.

She seemed nervous. “What is it?” Yoreno asked.

“I just want to make sure those Black Guards are not following us.”

“Is this thing you have to show us that secret?”

“Si! And you will understand why once you see it.”

They rode on through the forest at an ever steeper incline. Some of the rocks in the paths forced them to switchback, but the trail they rode upon was smooth and grassless.

A trail used by others in the area—or perhaps people.

“We haven’t seen any monsters in a long time,” Mai said. “I’m surprised.”

Sorika turned her shoulders to regard Mai. “You say that, and the next time you will be doing battle with those same monsters you say aren’t here.”

“Give it time,” Yoreno said. “Remember those spine claws?”

She nodded. “Mm.”

Dantera stopped her mount. “We are almost there.”

Yoreno glanced past her.

“Yes, Yoreno.” She lifted her arm. “Just past those trees.”

Dantera was still wearing her adventurer’s armor. A polished silver plate with dents. In key areas were runic inscriptions designed to repel magic and other physical attacks. Over her shoulders she still wore the her adventurer’s shawl, which consisted of a soft leather and some animal fur.

Or was it monster fur?

Yoreno didn’t know.

At times, she used the soft leather of her shawl to cover her face. That was how they had met her, atop a rise. Yoreno had thought her an enemy at the time. Until she lowered the covering.

It was the biggest surprise they had come across since setting out to find her. And still he and she had not had a discussion concerning her sudden leaving. Oh, they spoke for a quick moment at the exit of the cave a few days gone, and Yoreno thought they had come to an understanding.

Perhaps that was enough.

Glancing about, he saw that the mountain evergreens were thick and high. Ahead, the trees broke, the branches and needles forming a sort of cave exit. Probably because animals took this path regularly.

Yoreno kicked his mount and she trotted past Dantera and through the wreath of branches. The afternoon sun hit him in the eyes and he squinted. As he held his hand over his brow, what Dantera had indicated before came into view.

“Wow,” he said, feeling somewhat awestruck.

“Oh my goodness!” Mai said behind him as she dismounted. She ran up to the cliff’s edge to look across the way at the lakeside kingdom.

Lakeside was the wrong word, Yoreno thought. In the middle of the lake was a mountainous island and perched atop it was a tall castle.

He dismounted and stalked up to Mai with Sorika and Dantera behind. Shielding his eyes, he looked on at the tiny little kingdom.

The castle was tall, the turrets impossibly slim and high with cone shaped red-tile roofs. At the base of the castle was a tall wall with houses and other structures nestled about. The houses were packed tight, leaving thin winding roads trailing down the cliffs.

Beautiful.

On the water a boat crested the island from behind, sailing for the large tributary to the east. “How did we not know this was here?” He turned and glanced at the others for an explanation, but most of all to Dantera.

“I don’t know,” Dantera said as she came up beside him. She looked at Yoreno and winked with a smile on her face.

He didn’t know how to take that.

“Ah,” she said as if remembering something. “Look at the flags,” she said as she handed Yoreno her spyglass.

He put it to his eye and searched for the flags through the blue haze of the warm spring afternoon. The flags fluttered in the wind. There were a lot of them of gold and blue. “Those are—“

“Yes,” Dantera said with a grin. “The flags of Aevalin.”

“But…” Mai said. “This is not Aevalin.”

“No,” Dantera said. “Perhaps this is an adventurer’s kingdom, born out of the kingdom of Aevalin.”

Sorika nodded, saying nothing.

“Oh,” Mai said. “That makes sense.”

“There are hundreds of these little kingdoms through out the lands. To hear of them all would take months of learning and study, and I know heraldry and noble lineages and their histories is Yoreno’s favorite topic.

Yoreno’s eyes widened as she called him out. But she glanced at him and chuckled.

With a smile, yoreno brought the spyglass back to his eye. He spotted another flag. “Look,” he said, handing Dantera the spyglass again. “Just west of the second turret.”

She looked for a moment, then lowered the glass. “It’s a white flag with a blue dragon.”

“That is their flag,” Yoreno said.

The top-tier adventurer that was now outranked by everyone present nodded.

“Are we going?” Mai asked.

“Well of course we are, silly girl.” Dantera looked at her reprovingly. “If anyone knows of the cultists’ activities, it would be them.” She gestured toward the castle and Mai looked contrite.

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Ignoring the fact that Dantera was slightly cross with her social better, Yoreno continuedtaking in the sight. On the outskirts of the lake were houses and farms. “It looks like a prosperous little kingdom.”

“Indeed,” Dantera said. “Which makes me wonder why the Nai Sha’el assassinated king Branlin and not this kingdom’s ruler.”

“Let’s find out,” Sorika said soberly.

Mai nodded.

“We are to do just precisely that,” Dantera said. “Now I think I spotted a way down from this summit. It may take some time.

“Let’s just hope these people are friendly,” Yoreno said.

“I have no doubt they will welcome us,” Dantera said. “Now let’s get moving!”

“But what about Dell and Lev?” Yoreno asked. “How will they find us?”

“I left instructions at the last guild house that we were traveling northeast,” Dantera said in way of explanation. “If they quest forward according to my instructions, they will inevitably find this kingdom.”

“And they will know we’re here?” Mai asked.

“It is only logical.”

“If we’re still here,” Sorika said.

“If we depart,” Dantera said, “we will leave appropriate instructions as to the direction of our travels.”

Sorika nodded.

“It will be a merry little hunt for them,” Yoreno added.

“Si.”

While they were making good headway, Yoreno wasn’t certain he wanted to leave things up to chance. There was still the possibility that Dell and Lev wouldn’t find them. Slim, but that chance was still there.

They needed reinforcements. Now, not tomorrow.

The Order of Nai Sha’el was close—their designs in the region apparent and obvious. Yoreno wouldn’t be surprised if they had a large hideout in these very same mountains.

Perhaps they had even conducted their activities from this very kingdom they were now gawking at.

Saying nothing though, Yoreno followed the others.

Time would tell all.

Further investigation was necessary before making large decisions. To go back and wait would also be a huge waste of time and energy.

Dantera was a good leader, a practical and logical one. She was also a risk taker—much more so than Yoreno—that much was certain.

But she was a top-tier adventurer. With a much higher ability and greater confidence because of that, it only made sense.

As they travelled off the summit and onto more level terrain, the trees began to change. There were still plenty of tall evergreens, but now many of the trees turned to hardwood, consisting of oaks, nut trees and even a few plate leaf trees.

Yoreno didn’t know if the latter were native to this region or not, but he did know that if the trees were not held in check they began to grow close together, their thick plate leaves forming a strata of tough material almost like a roof if one were to travel underneath.

Their extremely thick trunks and fibrous wood made them difficult to chop down. They also provided an elevated platform for walking on. Or so he had heard.

He rode up to the plate leaf tree and touched the leaf. “I’ve never seen them in person before—only in books.”

Dantera smiled. “They grow like weeds around the fabled Heart Tree.”

“A fable,” Sorika agreed.

“Is it really, though?” Mai asked. “I believe its out there.”

“You believe the Heart Tree is real?” Sorika asked and whirled on Mai.

“I’m a mage,” Mai said. “I have an open mind.”

“Real or not,” Dantera said, “the ‘plate leaf’ is real and you are looking at one.”

They continued on, finding a road after a time. Mostly dirt, there were some flat river stones placed about, perhaps to fill holes and to keep them from being washed out after the rains.

The trees were thick, but interspersed. There was a lot of cleared farmland with fence. Down the sloped terrain leading to the lake, the castle made intermittent appearance through the trees.

“Why do they not clear the land more fully?” Mai asked.

Yoreno glanced about and came to a quick conclusion. “Perhaps the things they grow in this region require only partial sunlight.”

“Oh,” Mai said, and nodded. “The castle… It’s much higher than I had thought,”

Dantera leaned back on her saddle as she turned to address the party’s mage. “It is majestic, no?”

“Like the old construction of Aevalin.”

“Just so.”

“But why?” Sorika asked.

“That, I do not know,” Dantera said. She turned on her saddle. “Yoreno, what do you think?”

He glanced through the trees at the bits of the castle he could see. “I don’t know, but perhaps whoever built it had wanted to do so in Aevalin’s honor. You said it yourself—hundreds of these little kingdoms are born out of Aevalin.”

Dantera nodded. “Not a bad deduction, protégé.”

“Am I?”

“What?”

“Your protégé?”

Suddenly Yoreno could feel the gazes of Mai and Sorika on his back.

Dantera shrugged. “Perhaps. Even princes have received tutoring from masters lower in station than themselves.”

“I wasn’t…”

“I know you were not.”

There was a pause between them and nothing else was said. The topic of Dantera’s fall from grace was clearly a delicate one. And why would it not be? Yoreno had no idea how he would feel if he had lost his noble rank. Worse, Dantera was exiled from Aevalin, the most advanced, prestigious, and honorable kingdom to the known world.

Suddenly he looked up at the sound of horse’s hooves thundering ahead.

“Someone is coming!” Mai said as she unslung her staff.

Yoreno kicked his horse so that he was abreast of Dantera and Mai while Sorika wandered off the road. If a fight was to break out, Sorika would attack them from a place unseen, as was her nature as a fighter and rogue.

The other company of riders was revealed as they came around a bend. At the lead was a man atop a horse wearing a silver helmet, blue tunic and rough cloth trousers. In his left hand was a bow and he had an arrow knocked.

He came up short and called back, “Sir! They’re here!”

He stopped his horse, but Yoreno was still unclear about who was in charge of this small group as other riders were on his heels.

Yoreno moved his horse up a few paces.

“Halt!” the archer called.

“We come with peaceful intentions,” Yoreno said.

The hoof beats of multiple other horses came around the bend of vines and trees. At their front was a man in silver plate wearing a blue and gold tabard with a white square emblazoned on the front with a blue dragon.

The knight came up beside his man. Behind him were other common soldiers, though one of them had on a breast plate and in his hand he held a standard consisting of a white flag with the blue dragon and underneath it two triangular-shaped flags of blue and gold.

“My name is Sir Wynet, knight and lord of the Kingdom of the Blue Dragon.”

Yoreno found himself lifting an eyebrow at the name of this kingdom. “We”—he glanced back at the others, then back to the knight. “We’re knights of Aevalin. I am Lord Yoreno Brendara.” He gestured to Mai and Sorika. “These are my companions.”

Sir Wynet nodded. “You come heavily armed, Lord Brendara.”

“Yes,” Dantera said quickly as she kicked her horse up beside Yoreno. “We are adventurers. We are on a quest.”

“A quest?” Sir Wynet glanced at his mounted archer, who looked back at him. There was a knowing look there, one of curiosity and surprise.

“Do you come here by accident, or do you have business in the kingdom?”

It was probably best to tell the truth. “We are pursuing assassins. We found…”—what had he called it?—“’Blue Dragon’ on accident.”

“’Kingdom of the Blue Dragon,’” Wynet corrected. “It is called, the ‘Kingdom of the Blue Dragon.’”

Yoreno bowed slightly. “My sincere apologies, Sir Wynet. I meant no offense. As you can see, we are outlanders unfamiliar with your kingdom.”

“Indeed,” he said, not unfriendly, though his clear guardedness remained. “So… assassins, you say?”

Yoreno nodded.

Sir Wynet shared a look with his archer and standard bearer again. The standard bearer nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Very well,” Sir Wynet finally said. “You may come with me, where I will accompany you to treat with the king, or you will turn about face and leave this place.”

Dantera seemed to regard him for a moment. As the leader of the party, Yoreno was about to speak when she said, “We will come with you to see your king.”

Wynet nodded. “Very well. And you can tell your rogue to come out of the trees.”

A moment later Sorika came out of the trees of her own accord—obviously having heard Sir Wynet, her horse moving slowly. Following further behind in the forest was one of Wynet’s men, the knights look altogether different from that of his armored self or that of his other soldiers.

This new man was clearly an adventurer, perhaps a rogue himself.

A subtle sheepish look crossed Sorika’s face, but Yoreno pretended not to see as he kicked his horse in pursuit of Wynet and his men, two of which hung back behind them all.

“We are prisoners,” Dantera said.

“They’re only escorting us,” Mai said, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

“Ha!” Dantera scoffed. Then more quietly she said, “And should they change their mind, mage?”

Mai’s eyes widened slightly.

“Easy,” Yoreno said. “I do not think they mean us any harm or deception. Let’s follow along.”

“What I mean to say,” Dantera added, “was that we should be on our guard. That is all.”