I wasn’t watching this time as the wagon entered the city, but I could feel it when we made the transition. The wagon went from rolling smoothly along the hard-packed dirt outside the gates, to trundling along atop cobblestones with a jolt. Shortly thereafter, we came to a stop again. The wagon must have reached the checkpoint that Azarus and I were going to get off at.

“Hey.” I heard Azarus say to me from above. “Time to go. Get our bags, will ye?”

Taking a deep breath to settle my nerves, I answered in the affirmative. Standing up, I picked up mine and Azarus’s bags from the hook they were hanging on, and shuffled my way to the back of the wagon. After jumping down onto the pavement, I took a moment to stretch and pop my back. The interior space of the wagon had been cramped enough that I couldn’t really move around too much.

Opening my eyes after my stretch, I saw that I had attracted a bit of attention. While there didn’t appear to be many regular people hanging around the entrance of the city, there were still some along with the soldiers. I could see them eyeing me from where they were standing and whispering to themselves. The soldiers at least kept their eyes to themselves, doing their best to ignore me. I shifted self-consciously in my fancy new cloak, nearly bringing a hand up to finger my collar before stopping myself. Don’t think about it, I told myself. They’re just curious about the weird human who was totally not a slave.

I jumped when a hand clapped me on my shoulder. Following the hand to its source, I found that it was Azarus looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “Alright?” He asked curiously.

I let out a breath. “Ah, yeah. I’m fine.” I took another deep breath. “So, what next?” I asked him.

“Gotta finish up with Gren. C’mon.” Azarus said, jerking his head towards the front of the wagon. I followed after him to find that Gren had jumped off of the driver’s seat and was talking to another dwarf that looked like a clerk of some kind. They seemed to be exchanging papers. When the clerk saw Azarus and I coming, he said something to Gren and then walked away after bowing in Azarus’s direction. Gren turned around to face us. When Azarus reached him, the two of them clasped arms.

“Thanks for the ride, Gren,” Azarus told him. “I appreciate it, considering everything.”

Gren nodded at him. “Well, it didn’t end up being much of a problem, so it’s fine. Just don’t make it much of one after I’m gone, eh?”

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, here’s the rest of your pay.” Azarus said dismissively, handing a clinking pouch to him.

Gren tossed the pouch in the air once, presumably to test the weight. With a satisfied look on his face, he nodded to Azarus. He then turned to face me. “Well, I hope you find what you’re looking for, Mr. Hart.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said to him with a wry smile.

With a final nod to us, Gren walked off in the direction of the clerk that had been talking to him earlier. That left Azarus and I to ourselves, as it seemed that other dwarves were hesitant to approach Azarus.

“Well, let’s get going,” Azarus said to me before walking off down the road that led into the city.

I hurried to catch up with him. “So, where are we heading?”

Azarus snorted. “Where else? To the great bloody palace.”

……………………………………...

Azarus led me through the city of Rhoscara on foot. It wasn’t a short walk by any means. The city was huge, and dense by any measure. We must have been walking for at least an hour and a half in order to reach the back half where the palace lay. During the walk, Azarus did his best to introduce me to the city. He pointed out historical monuments built by his maternal ancestors, he pointed out shops that he particularly liked, and he even pointed out building styles that he was knowledgeable about.

Sometimes I forgot that his second profession was Engineering.

He told me about how you could trace how old the city was like you could a tree. The oldest buildings were nearer to the center of the city, from before the palace had even been built. Newer buildings, and thus newer architectural styles radiated out from the center of the city. Apparently, the palace, or rather the palatial district, was a relatively new construction at only three hundred years old. The old Florens manor at the exact center of the city had been converted into an administration building from where the city could be governed by its apparently elected mayor.

I noticed during our hike that people recognized Azarus pretty often. It wasn’t uncommon for us to walk through a new area and for some dwarf to notice him and bow in his direction. Most of the time, this would lead to a bunch of other dwarves in the area copying them, even if they didn’t know why. Azarus pretended not to notice as he took me on what was essentially a tour.

What I enjoyed the most, however, must have been the markets. Plural.

We must have passed through at least six of them on our journey to the palace. Each of them was different in some manner, each of them apparently catering to a different need. They were large and sprawling, filled with both people hawking goods or browsing for them. I was curious, so I asked Azarus about why Rhoscara didn’t just have one huge market instead of multiple smaller ones.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Azarus scratched his chin. “S’pride thing, I think.” He said musingly as we passed through one of the more sedate markets. This one seemed to be focused upon arts of one kind or another. There were paintings, drawings, and sculptures in this one. Hell, I even saw plenty of instruments on sale in shop windows. Many of them I didn’t recognize at all.

“How do you mean?” I asked him distractedly, rubbernecking at everything we saw. I’d found that I was enjoying myself, truly having fun, for the first time I’d been stranded on this planet. Everything that I had seen in Rhoscara was just so interesting to me, so new to my modern sensibilities. It was like being a part of a massive Renaissance fair, except it was real, with real magic visible everywhere.

“Hmm, well.” Azarus glanced at me. “I heard Gren talking’ to you about the Houses, yeah? Rhoscara belongs to the Florens, and they’re the ones that the highest quality goods come from. At least, in the Principality. That’s ‘cause all the good crafters flock here. Common knowledge that you can get a writ from a Florens that’ll subsidize your research if you impress ‘em. Draws right from the royal coffers, as long as ya don’t abuse it.”

I turned to face Azarus at that, raising an eyebrow. “So, what, the Florens are patrons of the arts or something?”

Azarus shrugged. “Something’ like that? It’s worked out well enough for ‘em, I’d say. They’re by far the wealthiest of the Houses. Anyway, the reason the markets are split up like this is ‘cause the crafters can peacock at each other if they’ve got a writ and their rival don’t. It’s a way to breed competition or something like that. Always thought it was a mite inconvenient, meself. They like it though, so…” He shrugged again.

“Hmm.” I agreed distractedly. I’d caught sight of a dwarven woman painting in the middle of the market to a crowd. From what I could see, she was painting a bleak picture. It seemed to be a landscape, but of an almost apocalyptically desolate view. I couldn’t make out the details, but I thought I could make out some islands from on top of a cliff.

Azarus followed my gaze. He grunted disapprovingly after a moment. Surprised, I turned to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“Drawing the Deadlands like that.” He answered with a frown. “It’s a bit disrespectful, ya know? Plus, you're just inviting trouble.”

When he didn’t hear a response, Azarus turned to face me. He found me wearing a deadpan look on my face. “No, Azarus, I don’t. I don’t know what a ‘Deadlands’ is, remember?” I stressed.

Azarus flushed slightly. “Ah, right. Well, don’t worry about it for now. We’re almost there, anyway. The palace is just beyond this district.”

We traveled through the art markets for a few more minutes before we clearly exited them. On the other side of the markets was a very wide, cobbled road filled with people and carts coming and going. On the far side of the large road was a tall wrought iron fence that clearly divided the palatial district from everything else. I couldn’t see much beyond the fence, only some trees that seemed to have been deliberately planted on the other side to block the view. The road, and the fence beyond, extended far off into the district, farther than I could see right now. Maybe it circled the entire district?

I followed Azarus as we turned left from where we had exited the art markets. After a few more minutes of walking, I could see a large gate on the opposite side of the road in the distance. The gate itself was huge, honestly. It was somehow shaped like a giant pair of bird wings that met in the middle. On either side were two huge, armored dwarfs. Their armor visibly differed from the other soldiers I’d seen. Bulkier, I couldn’t even tell if the metal it was made out of was steel. It was a fiery red color with elaborate carvings, and even some parts visibly molded into avian shapes. They cut a fairly intimidating sight. Clenched tightly in their hands with the blade pointed downwards were large, single-edged curved great swords as well. I couldn’t see anything about them through their strangely beaked helmets.

The avian-themed guards-dwarves didn’t react as we approached the gates that all the other dwarves around us were avoiding. Finally, Azarus and I reached the gates and stopped in front of it. Slowly, the pointed helmet of the guard on the right turned to face Azarus.

“Be welcome in the Cardinal Halls, Lord Azarus.” A deep voice rang out of the helmet. “The Lady has been made aware of your visit, and rooms for you and your,” The voice paused momentarily. “Companion have been prepared.”

Azarus frowned. “I guess Enzo sent word, then?” He grunted, visibly annoyed.

The guard didn’t answer him. In a nearly synchronized move, both guards reached out with one hand, with the other still clutching their swords, to push open the monstrously sized gate. With a slight creak, the gates opened before us easily before their combined might. Azarus stepped through without a word, with me scurrying after him. The gates closed behind us with a clang, making me jump.

Before us wound a long and wide breadth of stairs that stretched up the gentle slope that led to the district proper. On either side of the staircase, beyond the trees, were huge flower beds that stretched off into the distance. They seemed to be organized in alternating sections of either red or yellow flowers of a kind that I didn’t recognize off the top of my head.

I was snapped out of my admiration of the flower beds by Azarus letting out a huge sigh. Turning to face him, I could see that he had a put-upon look on his face.

“She’s gonna do it, ain’t she,” Azarus muttered to himself.

I turned my head to face him. “Hmm? What was that?” I asked Azarus, curiously.

Azarus turned to me with a put-upon look on his face. “So, uh. Ya should know something about the person we’re going to go see.” He started awkwardly. “She-”

“Let me guess,” I interrupted him, rolling my eyes. “She’s the leader of House Florens or something, right?"

Azarus was visibly taken aback. “Uh…”

“Don’t worry about it, man. I’m not that surprised, with the way you’ve been cagey about even mentioning whoever we’re meeting.” I said, unphased. “With the way that people here have been falling all over themselves around you, I can’t say I’m surprised about it. You know, you essentially being royalty or something.”

“It’s not really like that.” Azarus winced. “Prince is more of an elected position, ya know? It ain’t like the human kingdom. And uh, yeah. You’re right. My cousin is the Prince of House Florens.”

“Whatever, man.” I sighed. “As long as she’s willing to help us out.” I honestly had no more fucks to give for dramatic revelations, at this point.

“She’ll help, yeah,” Azarus told me. “I might catch some shit from her, ‘cause of the whole. You know.” He said, gesturing towards my neck. “But she’ll help.” When he was finished, he muttered something else under his voice.

“What was that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Azarus.

He shook his head. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get going, yeah? Sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get to work.”

Azarus took off in the direction of the stairs.

I followed him.