When they came out on the other side of the curtain, Erin was surprised to see that they were in a completely different cave than the maze-like one she had traveled through before. This one was made of a dark grey rock and was very shallow—the opening was right in front of them, and Erin could see grass and sunshine beyond it.
As they stepped away from the curtain, a silver-haired man dressed in a dark blue shirt and pants appeared at the entrance to the cave. He looked startled at the sight of them and hurried over to speak to Arturyn. Erin couldn’t understand what they were saying, but she guessed that the emperor appearing unexpectedly with a bandage over one eye and his skin covered in green scars would be a cause for some concern.
"That's Kaeld. He's the gatekeeper here," Kirchel told Erin in a low voice. "He's been guarding this portal for ages, so he's almost as well-known as Arturyn is."
It sounded like Arturyn was giving a brief explanation of what had happened to him. When he had finished, Kaeld gave a comprehending nod and beckoned them to follow him out of the cave.
Outside, there was a grassy area surrounded by forest. In front of them was a road paved with square grey stones leading away from the little clearing through a gap in the trees. To their left stood a rectangular stone building with a roof covered in wooden shingles. Kaeld led them toward it, still talking with Arturyn.
There was a small paddock next to the building with several animals inside it. They looked a lot like horses, but Erin guessed that these, too, were really paskjys. As they moved closer, she could see that they had a more delicate build than horses, with long, slender legs. Their heads were narrower and smaller, and they had large, deer-like ears and big, dark eyes. Their manes curled into ringlets, though the rest of their hair was smooth. And their tails were long and thin like a cat’s with a tuft of curly hair at the end—a difference that had been much less visible on the soris, since they were covered in fire.
As they neared the building, three men emerged and started toward them. They were wearing matching dark grey and silver uniforms with a crest on the front that looked the same as the one on Arturyn’s bag. All three were large and muscular, and Erin guessed that they must be soldiers. One of them joined in the conversation with Arturyn and Kaeld.
After a short discussion, two of the soldiers went over to the paddock and started leading out four paskjys. Kaeld waved his hand at them, and with a brief glow of white light, saddles and bridles appeared on the animals.
“Two of the guards are going to escort us to the city,” Kirchel said, still speaking softly. “And Kaeld is going to let us borrow a couple of his paskjys.” She smiled wryly. “They can't let Arturyn just walk into the city, after all. It would be very un-emperor-like.”
A few minutes later, Erin was mounted on a tan-colored paskjy behind Kirchel, and they were riding along the road out of the clearing with Arturyn and two of the soldiers. The trees they were riding past seemed to be evergreens, and the air felt cooler and thinner than it had back in Lomáril. Turning her head, Erin saw snow-capped peaks rising up behind them and guessed that they were in a valley high in the mountains.
After they had gone a short distance, the path started to rise over a small hill.
“You’ll be able to see the city in just a moment,” Arturyn told Erin. “As soon as we get to the top.”
As they came to the crest of the hill and broke through a line of trees, Erin had her first glimpse of Katan Jyrat. The city was built in the middle of the valley floor around the shores of a lake, whose clear blue water sparkled in the sunlight and reflected the grey mountains behind it. There was a large island on one side of the lake, with a wide stone bridge connecting it to the shore and the rest of the city.
On the island stood one of the most beautiful buildings Erin had ever seen. It was made of what looked like white stone and had several towers topped by long graceful spires. A high, square wall ran around it with a tower at each corner and two smaller towers in the center on the side facing the bridge.
“The white building out on the lake is the imperial palace,” Arturyn said, watching Erin with a smile. “It's also my home.”
She raised her eyebrows. “That’s one fancy house.”
Arturyn laughed. “Yes, it is. It wasn’t always so fancy, though. When the empire was first founded nearly fifteen hundred years ago, it was only an old, broken down ruin. It was torn down and rebuilt about two centuries later, when the last Silmarith country finally joined the empire.” He gave a wry smile. “The fact that the last country to join was also the largest and richest one may have had something to do with it.”
“So the empire is over a thousand years old?” Erin asked, impressed. “That’s a long time.”
Arturyn nodded. “It started out as a truce between two rival countries—Tinur and Selanor—that had been at war with each other for decades. Several of their allies joined in the peace agreement in the following years, and the empire was officially organized about sixty years later. The rest of the Silmarith countries gradually joined as the benefits of belonging to the empire began to outweigh any disadvantages—or, in a couple of cases, when rulers were replaced by less stubborn successors.”
Kirchel shot Erin a grin. “You can tell what his best subject in school was, can’t you? He’d probably be the foremost authority on the history of the empire if he weren’t so busy making the history of the empire.”
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They were drawing near the outer wall of the city now. The small road they were on connected to a much larger road, and they joined in a light stream of traffic moving toward the city gate. There were a number of other riders mounted on paskjys as well as several carts that were being pulled either by paskjys or by larger animals that resembled cows with black and brown stripes.
Erin saw Arturyn reach up and pull the bandage off his left eye as they moved onto the main road. She guessed that he wanted to avoid drawing attention to his injuries. He still got plenty of attention even without the bandage, though. Nearly everyone on the road looked up and watched them as they went by.
When they reached the large metal gate, the guards stationed on either side of it held their right arms across their chests, with their hands flat and placed sideways over their left shoulders. This was apparently some kind of salute, because their two guards returned the gesture before they passed through into the city.
Inside the gate, the road continued in a straight course and was lined with trees and two wide strips of grass and flowers. On the other side of the grassy areas were smaller paved walkways that ran past what looked like stores and workshops. Many colorful stalls were set up on the walkways in front of the buildings, holding a wide assortment of goods for sale. People, animals, and carts moved up and down the street. Other people stood near the stalls, exchanging business and talk, and groups of children played on the grass.
Again, everyone looked up at Arturyn as they went along the street, and there was some excited talking and pointing. A few people called out what sounded like greetings, and some of the children came out to run alongside their paskjys, looking wide-eyed and excited. Erin and Kirchel received plenty of curious looks as well, and Erin felt herself flushing from all the attention. Arturyn, however, took it in stride, returning greetings and laughing at the children’s antics. Of course, he had probably had people treating him like this all his life. He must have gotten used to it by now.
The street led to a large, circular plaza with a fountain in the center, surrounded by more trees, grass, and flowers. The buildings here looked like they housed government offices rather than shops.
Past the buildings on the right side of the plaza were the lake and a short road that connected to the stone bridge leading out to the palace. They turned that direction, accompanied by more stares from the people in the plaza and salutes from a group of soldiers who rode past them in the opposite direction.
As they crossed the bridge, Erin looked over the lake. The city extended around three sides of it. The fourth was bordered by the mountains. A river ran out from a canyon between two of the mountains and into the lake. Then it ran out again on the other side, cutting through the city buildings. The river entrance was surrounded by a cluster of docks and small boats.
“That’s Zeiryn over there,” Kirchel said, pointing to a large complex of buildings not far away, on the lake shore between the bridge and the mountains.
It certainly looked like a university of magic. The buildings seemed to be made out of stone, but they were in a rainbow of different colors, from yellow to turquoise to pale pink. The stone shimmered in the sunlight as though there were tiny crystals embedded in it, but more than that, the whole group of buildings seemed to emit a faint glow, as though the very stones were steeped in enchantment.
When they reached the palace gate, Erin saw that the guards stationed there stood in front of the entrance rather than to the sides as they had at the city gate. She guessed that security must be tighter at the palace itself, especially if there was an important meeting coming up.
One of their escorts called out to the guards at the gate. They moved quickly aside and offered salutes as they rode inside. They went up a long drive that led through a formal garden and up to the front entrance of the palace.
They slowed their paskjys to a halt at the base of a short set of stone steps leading up to a huge set of double doors. Arturyn slid off his paskjy and then helped Kirchel and Erin down from theirs. The two guards stayed on their animals, however, and when the three of them had finished dismounting, Arturyn handed them the reins of the two borrowed paskjys, and they turned and went back toward the gate, leading the riderless paskjys after them. They must be taking them back to Kaeld and returning to their post by the cave entrance.
Erin and Kirchel followed Arturyn up the steps to the front entrance of the palace, where two more guards were stationed. They saluted and pulled open the double doors to let them enter.
The entrance led into a huge, magnificent hall. It looked like it was several hundred feet long and four or five stories high. Two curved staircases on either side of the entrance led up to a balcony that ran along the sides of the hall, supported by elaborately carved stone pillars. Large banners hung from the balcony railing, with a variety of colors and images on them. At the end of the hall there was a larger banner showing the familiar picture of a winged snake encircled by smaller symbols, which Erin had realized by now must be the imperial crest. The floor was covered with colored stone tiles arranged in intricate patterns. There were patches of sunlight shining on them, and, looking up, Erin saw several large skylights set into the ceiling. More guards were standing at intervals along the walls, and a number of men and women were moving across and around the hall. Most of them were dressed in matching white and grey outfits. Erin guessed that these were servants, since a group of them seemed to be busy cleaning the floor and dusting the stone carvings on the walls and pillars.
Arturyn turned to Kirchel. “Well, we made it to the palace doors. I guess that means you’re free to leave my side now.” He sighed. “Though it looks like I’m about to be the one to leave your side. Bredin has obviously noticed I’m back, which means I’m going to rush off and be insanely busy in just a moment.”
Following his gaze, Erin saw a short, plump man with a round, anxious face emerging from a door on the side of the hall. He hurried toward them, talking rapidly, his voice sounding half relieved and half frantic.
Arturyn gave them a long-suffering look. “Well, try to make yourselves comfortable. And maybe I can talk him into letting me go long enough to join you for dinner….”
He started forward to meet Bredin, beckoning to one of the servant women as he went. She came over to him, and he spoke to her, gesturing toward Erin and Kirchel. The woman nodded and made a small curtsey. Then Arturyn started walking up the hall with Bredin, and the woman came over to where Kirchel and Erin were standing. She and Kirchel exchanged a few words, and then the woman turned and started toward one of the staircases.
“Come on,” Kirchel said, moving after the woman and motioning for Erin to follow her. “She’s going to try and find us a corner where we can spend the night in the midst of this bevy of activity. And if we’re lucky, she might be able to find us some lunch, too.”