The walls of a city loomed over Luther. The gates were wide open, and few soldiers patrolled along the perimeter. Snow covered every available surface, as it seemed to do everywhere in the far north. The city was busy, and people flowed freely through the gates.

Luther, Wolfgang and Barstag had been travelling for almost two weeks since they had left Ardaric and the Kroanians. They rode north, passing mountains in the east and a vast ocean in the west. Eventually, the mountains and the ocean were left behind, and the land opened out to massive plains and forests.

They had met very few people, their only provisions what they had taken and what they found. They avoided the villages on the path, wanting their passage to be unnoticed until they were deep inside the land. Ralpor, Luther remembered it was called. So the steward of King Torbain had said. Its name and the fact it was ruled by Skadi were all Luther knew of where they now found themselves.

They rode their horses through the gates of the city, the inhabitants barely sparing them a glance. Luther tried to see as much as he could. The first thing that stood out for him were the people themselves. Many of them looked the same as all other people Luther had ever seen, varying in height, fitness, skin colour, but nothing unusual about them.

It was the others that Luther couldn’t help but stare at. They were tall and slim, all of them having long hair. The ears of each were long and pointed, sticking out from underneath the hair. Luther did not know what they were, but he knew they were not human.

Luther leaned closer to Wolfgang on his left. “The people? What are they?” Luther whispered. Wolfgang shook his head, equally as perplexed as Luther.

“They’re elves,” Barstag said from Luther’s other side. “I have met many of their kind before, from my last life. They are mostly a peaceful people, but you do not want to be against them when they are roused to war. I would not stare, if I were you.”

Luther felt self-conscious of his long axe strapped onto the back of his horse, but no one seemed to notice. In fact, many of the citizens wore weapons of their own. The streets were full of people going in all directions, the din of conversations constantly there. The garb of the inhabitants seemed strange to Luther; for the humans, it mostly consisted of long furs and cloaks. The elves wore lighter clothes, seemingly unbothered by the biting cold.

Barstag led them along the road, heading deeper into the city. Eventually, the road opened out into a huge square. Stalls filled the square, paths leading everywhere between them. Merchants had set up their wares at every available place, and both humans and elves moved through the market making their purchases.

Barstag dismounted his horse at the edge of the square, Luther and Wolfgang following suit. They walked into the market, leading their horses by the reins. Many of the goods for sale were familiar to Luther, the same as you would find down south. There were some items that he had not seen since his last life. And there were quite a few he had never seen before, different inventions and contraptions unique to this land.

“Ho there, tired travellers!” a voice called. Luther turned to see a merchant beside them waving for their attention. He was a small portly man, wearing colourful clothes. “Welcome to the liberated city of Deisa! Come, buy some of the best goods in this land!”

Barstag approached the merchant cautiously. “How do you know we are travellers?”

The merchant laughed. “Come now, isn’t it obvious? Look at yourselves, attired in foreign clothes. I have a good eye for this sort of thing. So, what shall you buy? I’ll give you a good price, a special price, to welcome you to Deisa!”

Barstag didn’t look at the wares. “You called it a liberated city, didn’t you?” Luther glanced down at what the merchant was selling. They were strange machines, and he could not tell what use they had.

“Yes, I did. This is the liberated city of Deisa! Thanks to Queen Skadi the Saviour, may she live forever!”

“Queen Skadi? So, she is the ruler of this city?” Barstag asked. Luther already knew she was more than that, but he saw what Barstag was trying to do. Get the merchant talking, and they might find out all they needed to.

“Oh, not just this city, my friend,” the merchant said. “She rules all of Ralpor, as she deserves. Her rule stretches from the land of the raiders in the east to the great ocean in the far west, from the sea and the land of Vittor in the south to the high mountains in the north. She rules it all, because she liberated it all.”

“Did she?”

“Indeed! She started the revolution against the Great Slavers, and in doing so she set us all free. We are all eternally grateful to her for saving us.” The merchant seemed to realise that they were not going to make any purchases. “Well, if you are not buying anything, I will have to ask you to move on. Business can’t stop, I’m afraid.”

“Of course,” Barstag said. He fished a gold coin out of a pouch he had taken from the raid of the city of Zarkone. “You don’t know where there is a good inn for travellers like ourselves?” He held out the coin.

The merchant accepted the coin eagerly. “Oh, there is a nice inn just outside the town, to the northeast. It has a sign of mammoth tusks above the door. You can’t miss it.” The merchant examined their coin for a second. “A Vittorian coin, eh? You are from there?”

Barstag smiled. “We are from all over. I thank you for your time.” They turned and led their horses deeper into the marketplace, leaving the portly merchant behind.

They wandered through the market for a long while just taking in the sights and goods. At one stall, Luther bought an exotic piece of fruit he had never seen before. When he bit into it, it felt like an explosion of juice in his mouth. He couldn’t help but go back and buy another after he finished eating the first.

Eventually, they decided to leave the market and get some rest. They made their way out of the stalls and through the streets, and out the same gate they had used to enter. They mounted their horses once outside the city, and Barstag led them around to the northeast.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Only a short distance out from the city, Luther saw a large inn. Above the door, the head of a mammoth had been painted, with real tusks coming out from it. Luther had never seen a mammoth. He had lived his first life on islands, nowhere near any of the creatures. A small stable was built along the side of it. Noise streamed out of the open door.

Wolfgang waited outside with the horses while Barstag and Luther went in. The main room of the inn was filled with other travellers eating and drinking, resting from whatever journey they had been on. A tall elf stood at a counter just inside the door. His long blond hair was pulled back to show off his elegant face, the features perfect. Luther forced himself not to look at the pointed ears, afraid he would stare and enrage the elf.

“Can I help you?” the elf asked. His voice was light and soothing.

“Lodging for three people, and stables for three horses,” Barstag said, placing a couple of coins on the counter.

The elf picked up the coins and examined them briefly, before tossing them into a pouch at his side. “For how long?”

“Just the one night, for now.”

“Very well.” The elf snapped his fingers and a small man appeared at his side. “Hillar, see these men to their room and then see to their horses.”

“Yes boss,” the man said.

Luther, Barstag and Wolfgang grabbed their gear off the horses then followed their guide into the inn. He led them past the main room and up a creaking staircase. He stopped on the third floor and opened a door for them.

Inside, there was a cramped room, just four beds and a window looking out towards the city of Deisa. There were a couple of small tables and chairs, all making up a mismatched set. There was already a bag on the first bed in the room.

“The three empty beds are yours for the night,” Hillar said to them. “Make yourselves at home. There’s food to be found in the main room, and you can eat it here or there, whatever you wish. I will go see to your horses.”

Luther wandered over to one of the beds. He tossed his small bag of provisions onto it. The bed itself was a ragged thing, but it was still a bed. He placed his axe underneath it, out of sight. “What do we do now?” he asked.

“We go down to the main room,” Barstag said. “Split up. Try to find out anything you can, but don’t stand out too much. Drink, eat, do whatever, just don’t make it too obvious that we’re only here for information. Understood?”

“Perfectly,” Wolfgang said, grinning. “We are to get drunk and talk to people.”

Barstag rolled his eyes. “Behave, Wolf. Let’s go.”

Before he left, Luther took a long dagger out of his bag. He could not bring his axe, but that didn’t mean he had to go unarmed. He placed the dagger inside his clothes, completely concealed, and followed Barstag out of the room.

Luther entered the main room of the inn. He paid for a tankard of ale and took it over to a fairly quiet corner. Two men were sitting on the other side of the table, talking to each other. One was tall and well-built, muscles bulging underneath his shirt. The other was small and skinny, with a long hooked nose. Luther sat and drank his ale in silence for a while.

The big man on the other side of the table looked over at him. “You are not from here, are you?”

“Nay, I am from far away,” Luther said simply.

“Just arrived?”

Luther nodded. “Earlier on. I had heard rumours of this land, and I wanted to see it for myself.”

“Indeed? We are just passing through this city, continuing on to Snawkon tomorrow.”

“Snawkon?” Luther asked, trying to seem casually polite.

“It is the capital of this land now,” the little man said. “The seat of Queen Skadi’s power.”

Luther nodded. “I have heard of her.”

“Of course you have. She is very famous across Ralpor.” He leaned in closer to Luther, as if he was going to say a great secret, though he did not lower his voice. “I heard storms of ice follow her wherever she goes, and that is how she won the revolution.”

“You heard wrong,” another voice said. A woman sat down beside Luther, a small cup in her hand. “No storm of ice follows her.”

“Is that right?” the little man asked, cocking his head to the side.

The woman nodded. “No ice, but wolves like snow are with her, and they are fearsome.”

An elf laughed, coming over to join them at the table. “Wolves? That is ridiculous!”

The woman reddened. “So, what do you think it is then?”

“I don’t think she needs anything. It is her mind. It is strong and powerful, and can crack the will of anyone.”

“Now who is being ridiculous?” the woman asked.

Luther looked back and forth between them. He needed to keep them talking. “What does Skadi look like?” he asked.

“She is beautiful,” the big man said. “Her hair is as white as snow, her skin as pale as ice, her face more elegant than any sculpture. Or at least, that’s what they say. Not many people see her.”

“Really?” Luther asked.

The small man shook his head. “It’s true. She hasn’t been seen often in public since the revolution. Only the Princes see her regularly.”

The elf nodded. “All her orders are passed down through the Princes. She has done little publicly since she executed the few Great Slavers they caught.”

Luther was getting more and more confused. “Great Slavers?”

“The Great Slavers were the ones who controlled this land before the revolution,” the woman said. “There were dozens of them; Waltar, Horpoit, Karwit, Mallesk, Puttix, Yornal, to name a few. When the revolution came, we killed them all. Some were captured and brought before Queen Skadi to be executed, others escaped and we hunted them down and killed them.”

The little man nodded. “It was Mallesk who used to control this area. He managed to escape, but they found him eventually and slew him. His mansion is now in ruins, you can see it if you go east a bit. But that’s what he deserved. All of them got what they deserved, for the pain they caused while in power.”

Luther took in all the information, storing it away. He hoped he would be able to make sense of it later. He turned back to the two men. “Why are you going to Snawkon?”

“To join the army, of course!” the big man said. “It is only right, after all Queen Skadi has done for us, to join her army. She is looking for as many people as possible.”

“Did ye hear about all the soldiers coming up from the south?” the little man asked. “From Vittor, or some such place?”

The elf nodded. “I heard their king has sworn loyalty to Skadi already, and pledged all his troops to her cause.”

“At least he knows what’s good for him,” the woman said. “I also heard that the raiders in the east have stopped attacking as much. It seems they realise that there is a new leader.”

Luther quietly excused himself from the table, standing up. They paid him no attention. He glanced about the room. Barstag and Wolfgang were still talking with people, and the place was only filling up. In a dark corner of the room, he thought he saw someone watching him. The figure’s face bore twin scars across their cheeks, and they were clad all in black. A necklace hung from their neck, a silver token of a snake, a head on either end of its body, hanging from it. Their eyes stayed on Luther for a moment before flicking away. The person seemed strange to Luther, but everything was strange in this land. He should just ignore it.

Luther returned his empty tankard to the counter. He released a deep yawn, feeling the weariness to his bones. He was ready to rest. But he knew it would be a while before he got to sleep, the things the others had said floating around in his head, like a mystery to be solved. Something strange was going on here, he knew that much. Something very strange.