We stayed in Ferneby for one more day to rest and to repair (and clean) our armor and clothes. In the evening we gathered in the main room of the inn to make plans.

“There are a lot of rumors about,” Arndrir said when we are all gathered with beer and mead. “The sword hasn’t been found, but there are lots of reports of dragon sightings.”

“Are they searching for it too?” Tiriel asked.

“That seems to be unknown. They appear to have attacked several parties and companies, but nobody knows why.”

“What are the kingdoms doing?”

“Mobilizing, unfortunately. There is war brewing, unless someone finds the sword, and soon.”

“What is this sword?” I asked. I had spent the day before talking to everyone - except for Caveria who had been holed up in the women’s room to sleep and heal - and had accepted that they really did want me to continue with them.

“It’s called the Dragonblade,” Arndrir said. “It was made a long time ago by mages of all the races working together.”

“It’s a magical sword?”

He nodded. “The blade is steel, but the hilt is made of dragon bone. It’s said it has a core of dragon bone running inside the blade to, which gives it magical power.”

“Vast amounts of magical powers,” Thord added.

“Dragon magic,” Serah said.

“I... guess that’s different from your magic?”

“Yes, and Tiriel’s, and dwarven magic. The dragons are the couriers of the gods, and their magic is not limited to the elements, like ours. They are the most powerful beings on Lumaria.”

I wanted to ask more, but decided to save it for later. “And now this sword has been found. So it’s been lost?”

“It disappeared centuries ago,” Arndrir said. “It was believed to be destroyed. It was found in the earth, in mines deep under the Ruula mountains.”

“By humans,” Thord said, shaking his head over his beer.

“Yes.” Arndrir smiled. “They didn’t know what it was, but according to the story I’ve heard, a battle mage found out it about it, tried to steal it, and killed himself and a lot of bystanders in a huge explosion. The sword’s magic is very strong. After that chaos broke loose.”

“Everyone has been searching for the sword,” Tiriel said. “The human kingdoms sent agents, and then soldiers, and more soldiers. Now the armies are marching towards the mountains. My brother, the Elven King of the Desolate Mountains, charged me with finding the sword and stopping the war. So I came down from the mountains and started to put together a party with the best adventurers I knew of.” She beamed at us around the table.

“Every adventurer in the land is also converging on the Desolate Mountains, or on Ambor, the capital of Dimra and the nearest large city. I hear it’s teeming with warriors, bandits, minor lords, renegade soldiers who want to become king, and a lot more.”

“That’s where we are going too?”

“Yes. We need to find as much as we can about where the sword has been. It was believed that a small group of Dimran agents seized it and were taking it back to King Orcander, but it never arrived.”

“Once we get to Ambor, I should be able to pick up a - trail, if you will.” That was Serah. “I am a healer, but I also have a talent for, well, finding things. Sometimes just from hearing about them.”

“Do you have more questions?” Arndrir said. I shook my head. “Then let us discuss the route ahead and our plans when we arrive. It is only a two day march to Ambor from here.”We set off early the next day. The road descended further from the hills, down to a large plain. There were more people on the road and we passed villages and towns as the forest slowly gave way to farmland.

There were also a lot of soldiers about, most of them wearing the flaming scepter crest of Dimra. We didn’t run into bandits or monsters and so made good progress. We spent the night in an inn again, albeit without the luxury of baths.

I felt unusually tired and was a bit unsteady on my feet at first, but Serah used her magic on me at every break and dissolved the remaining poison from the bird. Caveria was recovering quickly too.

Late in the afternoon the second day we were following a large road, with a steady stream of wagons, horses and donkeys, and people walking. There were small towns and villages everywhere around us as we approached the city.

I was a bit apprehensive since I hadn’t seen one of their cities before, and if it was full of warriors and adventurers it sounded like a dangerous place. I’d done what I could, continuing my training with Arndrir and Caveria.

The city was surrounded by walls and guard towers, but it had sprawled far beyond those. There were guard posts further out, and when we passed the first one Serah turned to me with a smile.

“Welcome to Ambor,” she said. “Welcome to my home!”

“You come from here?”

“I was born here, but I haven’t lived here for many years. It still feels like home.” She looked around with a big smile on her face, and listened to the noise and chatter of the city.

We continued deeper into Dimra’s capital, but hadn’t reached the walled inner city when Arndrir turned down a narrow alley. He led us into a warren of alleys and small courtyards, before he stopped at an unmarked door in a very narrow passage. He knocked in a complicated pattern and a woman opened.

He said something I couldn’t make out, she replied something else, and he said a long phrase that sounded like nonsense. Only then did the woman drop her bored expression and grin at him. He waved us inside.

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The woman led us up a narrow stair to the third floor, into a large room with several doors.

“Welcome to Ranger Inn,” she said with a grin. “This isn’t a formal inn. It’s one of the rangers’ hideouts, and we only allow non-rangers inside if there are special circumstances.” She turned to Tiriel and bowed deeply.

“I welcome you to our rooms, High Princess of the Splendorous Kingdom! May there be friendship between us.”

Tiriel bowed back, in a flowing, graceful gesture that made the woman look clumsy. “I am honored, ranger. May there be friendship between us!” Then she giggled and gave the woman a quick hug.

The ranger woman looked amused, but turned to the rest of us and bowed.

“Serah Derambra, I welcome you to our rooms, and back to Ambor.”

“Thank you, Karinne,” Serah said with a bow. Her eyes were twinkling.

Karinne greeted the rest of us, finishing with Caveria.

“Caveria Dragonbane. It is an honor to meet you at last. I welcome you to our rooms.” She bowed, more formally than to the rest of us.

Caveria bowed stiffly, but her eyes gleamed with pleasure.

Karinne showed us our rooms, and told us we could join the visiting rangers for dinner, or go where we pleased. Arndrir recommended that we stay inside - news of our arrival must have spread, and it would be better to have a clearer idea of what was going on in the city before venturing out together. Nobody argued, so we had a hearty dinner with the twenty other rangers staying in the inn.

They were intensely curious and greeted Arndrir and Serah warmly, but kept their distance from the rest of us. Which suited me fine, but Tiriel was restless. Thord and I retired to our room early. Arndrir hadn’t returned by the time I fell asleep, and I heard singing coming from the direction of the dinner hall.

“I propose we split up today,” Arndrir said during breakfast. “Several of us are very conspicuous and well-known, and the less attention we attract the better. Also, some of us need to start by going places where all of us will not be welcome.”

“That is fine,” Thord said. “I will go to the Dwarven Hall, and they would not speak as freely if all of you were along.” He grinned toothily at Tiriel.

“And I will go to our embassy,” she said.

“Peter,” Serah said, “you can come with me if you wish. I will visit some of my favorite places, and see if I can pick up any hint of the sword.”

“You shouldn’t come with me, at least,” Caveria said. “The mage’s guild wouldn’t let you in.”

We split up, and I followed Serah out of the maze of alleys, out into a larger street.

“I want to go to the market first. I always went there with my mother, and the smells remind me of home.”

The street was crowded, and there was a constant buzz in the air. The people were dressed in wildly varying styles and many were armed. I saw a number of dwarves and elves as well.

“Is it always like this?” I asked when we turned into a smaller street.

“No,” she said, frowning. “It’s always busy, but there’s a tension here today. Something’s brewing.”

That sounded ominous I thought, but I followed her across an even larger thoroughfare and then onto a smaller street. The buildings were taller here and made of stone. They were tall, three or four floors, with shops on the street level. The streets were all paved, and they had gutters and drain holes, I noted. So they had some kind of underground technology, despite there being very little technology from what I’d seen so far.

The market was nestled under the city wall, which rose smooth and gently curved, taller than the buildings. There were hundreds of stalls, covered by linen cloth mounted on timber frames. In the stalls, merchants sold everything under the sun: vegetables, flowers, tools, live animals, dead animals, crystals, books, weapons, rocks, herbs, and much more. Serah headed for the herb market, and wove through the throng with a happy smile. I followed as best I could.

“Ah,” she said when we stopped by a stall with every free surface covered by fresh herbs. “This is home.”

She strolled along the table, bending down to look and smell at everything.

“Do you use herbs as well to heal?” I asked her. “I’ve only seen you use magic so far.”

“I mostly use herbs,” she replied. “They are better for the body, but on the road and in combat magic is faster.”

I followed her among the stalls, moving slowly, since she stopped and talked to many of the merchants, and bought a considerable number of herbs.

I wondered how she would store them, but she showed me how she rolled them up into tight balls, wrapping them with a thin layer of magic that would sustain them, and then putting them into small pouches she wore under her cloaks.

“I hope we will be able to stay for a few days, so I can brew some of these into potions,” she said as we continued into the live animal market.

“Why wouldn’t we?” I asked.

Instead of replying, she pointed to a tavern across the street from the market. She led me into a stall and we ordered soup and bread for lunch. I hadn’t even noticed I was hungry.

“To answer your question,” she said, “what happens now depends completely on what news the others bring back, and what I can... sense.”

“You said that before. What is it that you do?”

“I am a healer, as you know,” she said. “I am a priestess of the Moon Goddess, and my magical powers come from Her. They are a gift of Her grace, and they are the powers of life itself. That is how I heal, and that is how I kill.” At my shocked expression, she shook her head.

“You’ve seen it. I killed goblins attacking the children in the valley, and I also killed those possessed humans. The Moon Goddess is the Goddess of Life and of Death. She grants life, and She takes it, and with Her grace, so do I. I can kill with a touch, by draining the life force from a living being.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I only do it in defense,” she continued. “I am not a battle mage. I can only kill by a direct touch, not from a distance.”

“I see.”

“So, my powers are the magical powers of life, and they swirl all around us in a city like this. That means I can also pick up traces of everything living creatures have sensed, or thought, or perceived.”

“Like a sword?”

“Yes. If the sword has been here, or if anyone has heard about it, that knowledge will be flowing between the people in the city. Even if they don’t know it, or think it, it floats between minds. I can pick that up. So I will walk through the city and trying to detect any traces of that. Most likely I will only sense rumors, but if anyone has actually seen it, or been involved with it in any way, that knowledge will be here too, and it will be different from the rumors.”

“So you can... read minds?” I said. That was a new and unsettling aspect.

Before she could answer, there was a loud boom and people started shouting outside. Serah sat up and looked towards the door, wide-eyed.

“Come on!” she said, stuffing her remaining bread into a pocket as she rose and headed out.

“What’s happening?” On the street outside people were running and shouting, and most of the merchants in the market were rapidly packing up their stalls.

“I don’t know,” she said, sounding tense. “Something’s... going on.”

I followed her back towards the street we’d come. People were streaming away from the market. There was another boom, and a fireball streaked over the wall, across the sky. As I followed it, it broke up into many smaller ones, like fireworks in the blue sky.

Serah walked briskly towards the larger street and the city gate there, but stopped when it came into view. Soldiers were running up the street, towards the gate, while other were running the other way. There was shouting and screaming and children crying. We stopped at the corner of the small street and watched.

Another fireball exploded in the sky and a guard captain stopped and swore at it.

“To the King!” he shouted and ran off towards the gate with his soldiers.

“Serah, what’s happening? Do you know?”

“There’s a lot... the guards seem to think the castle is being attacked. That someone... Someone has the sword, and has taken the king hostage and declared himself emperor of all Lumaria.”

I stared at her. “Is it true?”

“That, I don’t know.” She looked out over the street, but she looked distant and unfocused. Then she shook her head and took a deep breath. “Let’s go back to the inn. The rangers will know more.”

She dived into the churning river of people flowing down the street, and I almost lost her as I tried to follow. As we emerged on the other side, into the maze of narrow alleys, another fireball exploded above us.