Arm Of Galemar (Book 2) (18 page)

“No,” Hilliard agreed, pleased to find Landon shared a
common interest in historical matters.  “It was not.  Basill was far too busy
keeping the kingdom he had forged from falling apart.  His son began the
palatial construction.  There, you can see it.  It is located on the only rise
between the Pinedock and the Starshine rivers.”

Marik peered into the sprawling civilization.  If he
had the correct buildings then he would take Hilliard’s word that they were in
fact located atop a rise.  It was invisible from the hillside, especially when
surrounded by the city.

Hilliard continued.  “As the power of the Cerellas
solidified, increasing numbers of people came to live in Thoenar.”

“I’m surprised there’s no wall,” Marik commented,
wanting to add to the conversation.  “Since it was right after the Unification,
I would have thought that would be a high priority.”

“Oh, there are walls, to be certain.  Look closely and
you will see three separate rings within the city structure.  As the population
grew, they expanded beyond the original walls.  About ninety years after the
founding of Thoenar, the fourth Cerella was forced to build a second wall to
enclose the city again.  One-hundred-and-fifty years after that, the third was
needed.”

Landon continued while Marik identified the walls in
question.  “When space within the walls grew scarce, newcomers and the children
of the original residents were forced to build outside their protection.  Since
no significant force has threatened the capitol in the last three hundred
years, there has been no need to construct a fourth barrier.”

“And in the event of a crisis,” Hilliard concluded,
“the citizens can withdraw inside the walls to safety.”

Kerwin asked, “So does that mean the city is
sectionalized?  Which ring will house the architects?”

“Only the centermost circle is truly different from
the others.  It houses the palace grounds, and most of the nobles and wealthy
families reside within the original city.  The two rings and the outer
districts are open to all businesses.  You’ll have to ask once we arrive, but
you might need to travel all over the city to visit different building
planners.”

“Look there,” Landon pointed.  He gestured to Thoenar’s
northern edge where the buildings thinned.  “I’d hazard that is where the
tournament will be held.”

The ground became a rain-arch of colors.  Pavilions,
tents and structures of every type were being erected.  From this distance
distinguishing the specific purpose of any one area was futile.  A swarm of
workers flowed throughout the site.  The tournament area was easily two miles
wide.

They reached the calm and placid waters of the
Starshine River.  A hundred-yard bridge spanned it.  The bridge had been built
as a series of arches constructed from giant stone blocks, across which had
been laid a flat top to form the roadway.  Water flowed musically thirty feet
below.  Cool breezes blew off the river’s surface.

Thoenar gradually began across the bridge.  Buildings
peppered the Capitol Highway, packed closer together the further toward the
city they traveled.  Most were inns or shops, all generating healthy business
with so many visitors entering town.

Thousands of people were in motion, many clothed in garish
colors.  A festive air saturated the environment.  Marik felt offended. 
Refugees
are pouring into Galemar every day, killing themselves to flee strife and
warfare!  How can they completely ignore that?

He concluded, after studying the people, that they
were actually working very hard to ignore the outside world.  What could they
do to change anything?  May as well forget about it and hope the troubles
stayed far away.

The noise increased the further into Thoenar they
penetrated.  Crowds shouted for no apparent reason other than to make noise. 
What conversation the group could understand centered around the tournament for
the Arm, which would commence in eleven days.

Most roads were stone paved.  Alleys and spaces
between buildings were hard dirt.  As in Spirratta, the buildings grew taller
while also closer together.  Though the buildings lining Capitol Highway were
shops to attract travelers, Marik had yet to see any establishments he could
not have found in Duke Tilus’ city.  Only size was the telling difference.  One
building, a tavern for certain, stretched so wide that three separate doors
were spaced at intervals along the roadside wall.

After two miles, the buildings were interrupted by an
open space within which settled a spacious earthen yard.  Beyond the yard rose
what could only be a stable.  It put the main stable in Kingshome to shame. 
Hilliard directed his mount to the entrance.

“Where are you going?”  Marik kicked his mount into a
trot to come beside the young man.

“We must stable our horses here.  We don’t have
licenses for them to enter the inner city.”

“Say that again?”

“You must have a license for each horse you own if you
wish to use them within the inner city.  This is partly a measure to keep the
city clean.  If you have a horse within the walls, you must clean its mess
whenever it leaves one.  If a horse is found doing so without being cleaned up,
the horse’s registry is tracked and the owner is fined accordingly.”

“Are you serious?”

The comment surprised Hilliard.  “Of course I am. 
Citizens may deposit the horse leavings in any of the sewer accesses, so it is
no great hardship.  Everyone should make an effort to keep the city clean. 
After all, they all live here together.”

Marik pulled free the instructions from Locke and
found the line on the day of entry into Thoenar.  It mentioned stabling the
mounts, which he had assumed they could do at the inn.  He surrendered.  “All
right then.”

They were immediately set upon in the yard by a short
man in leathers and a sweat-stained vest.  He quickly introduced himself as
Paddy, the owner, who nodded when Hilliard returned his own name.

“Ah, yes!  I received the reservation request last
month!  I have it in my office.  I’ll be back in a whisker.”

During his hasty dash into the main building, the five
riders collected their belongings.  In addition to Hilliard’s travel pack the
young man had also brought two large bags he needed help with.  Dietrik carried
one, commenting on its weight.

“It is mostly clothing for official functions I must
attend during the tournament.  I’m sorry you are stuck with it.  Oh no, I
insist!” he directed to Landon when the older man lifted the second bag.  “You
were hired as a bodyguard, not a servant.  I understand you have to put your
duty first.”

Paddy returned.  He bore a sheet of quality
parchment.  Duke Tilus’ seal flashed from the bottom beside Seneschal Locke’s
signature.  “Lucky this arrived when it did!  I’ve been taking more
reservations than I know what to do with.  Five horses, was it?  Ah, yes!”

Once they finished unloading their gear, Paddy bit his
lower lip.  He elicited a piercing whistle clearly heard within the stables
over the noise from several hundred people cavorting in the street.  Young men
emerged to take the mounts.  The one reaching for Marik’s nearly lost a finger.

“Watch him!” Marik warned belatedly.  “He’s got a
nasty attitude.”

“We know how to handle his likes,” Paddy assured him. 
“So then, it’ll be a silver-and-half per mount if I’m to hold onto them ‘till
the Arm is declared.”

Marik handed over three silvers, the rest to be paid
when they retrieved their mounts.  He made an entry in the small notebook and
asked Paddy to sign his name beside the expense so Janus would have nothing to
gripe about.

A woman emerged from the stables with a mare on an
extremely long tether while he wiped off the small feather quill.  She coaxed
the horse to a trot in the yard’s center and pivoted as the animal ran in a
circle around her.

Paddy noted his interest and pointed out, “We may be
smack in the middle of the city, but we see to it your mounts get their
exercise everyday!”

“I see.  You run a good stable.  It’s small wonder
Duke Tilus’ seneschal picked you.”

As he thought would happen, the comment swelled the
little man with pride.  Hopefully it would also ensure that their mounts were
cared for with extra attention, though it might not have been necessary.  Paddy
bid his customers farewell and left to see to other matters.

Marik, scanning the instructions, asked Hilliard, “So
where is ‘Swan’s Down Inn’?”

“It is over in the Second Ring.”

A frown creased Marik’s face.  “And where is that?”

“The Inner Circle is the original city, which was
walled by the second Cerella.  The Second Ring exists between the Inner Circle
and the Third Ring, which exists between the Second Ring and the Outer City.”

“Where’s the First Ring?”

“There isn’t one.  As the circle came before, it is
generally considered the first in line, so to speak.”

“If that’s what they decided to do.  Where’s our inn?”

Hilliard’s smile paled slightly, the young man
struggling to keep it from faltering altogether.  “Truth to tell, I don’t
remember.”

Marik’s gaze rolled skyward.  Dietrik cut in, “So you
have never been there before, lad?”

“I have, but only once.  I was seven at the time.”

“Well then, let’s budge on through this crowd and find
a guardsman to have a chin with.  They can steer us straight.”

When they turned, they found a man with
afternoon-shadow darkening his lower face listening to them.  He was dressed
ordinarily, having refrained from coloring-up for the coming tournament.  Marik
scowled, about to ask what he wanted, when the stranger spoke first.

“Going to Swan’s Down, are ye’?  Why now, I can bring
ye’ there meself right proper!”

“No thanks,” Marik stated, beginning to walk past. 
“We can find our own way.”

The man walked along with them.  “For certain,
master!  I can take ye’ there straight, no worries!”

“We said no!  I’m sure the cityguard won’t charge us
for the information!”

“Aw, I never said I wanted yer coin!  I won’t be
taking so much as a single copper from ye’!”

“I doubt you’re the charitable type,” Kerwin declared,
placing a hand on his hilt in warning.

“Ye’ have keen eyes, good master!  Ye’ just be sure to
tell old Barfellow behind the desk I brought ye’.  He’ll make sure I get looked
after.”  He winked in a manner he must believe looked sly before adding, “And I
can take ye’ through some good shortcuts ‘tween here and there.  In this awful
crowd, it’ll take ye’ until the midnight bell to get to Swan’s Down on yer
own.  Come along!  It won’t cost ye’ anything at all!”

Marik faced Landon.  The archer was deep in thought. 
Stepping closer, he whispered, “What do you think?”

“Shills are common types in the cities,” Landon
returned as quietly.  “Most either charge you a few coppers to find a decent
room, or they have arrangements with certain inns.  The innkeeper will pay the
shill a certain amount for every customer he brings.”

“You think he’s a shill working for the Swan’s Down? 
Kind of a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Half the inns in the city must have shills waiting to
intercept travelers.  He may have overheard us and decided we would be easy
coin.  Since we are already headed there, he can tell the innkeeper he
diligently convinced us.”

“What do you think?”

“He looks clean and well fed.  If Swan’s Down is a
higher class inn, he might earn enough as a shill for them to make a decent
living.  Especially if he works for several inns.  And he’s smart enough to
wait by a sizable stable near the inner city instead of loitering around the roadside
inns near the bridge.”

Which means
,
Marik thought,
he might be as trustworthy as they come.  I guess it’s the
seedy ones you have to watch.

“Very well,” Marik directed at the shill.  “Show us
the way, and tell me your name.”

“Yes, master!  I’m Halsey.  Just over this way!”

Halsey glanced over his shoulder every five seconds to
confirm they had not wandered off, taking them deeper into Thoenar.  No one
offered an opinion.  They accepted Marik and Landon’s decision.  In short time
they came to the first wall.  Or actually the last one, depending on how a
person chose to look at it.

This wall would certainly be a deterrent to invaders. 
Reminiscent of the wall around the Hollister Bridge, imposing stone rose twenty
feet tall.  The mortar between the square blocks was invisible so the wall
struck Marik as all of a piece.

And thick, as well.  The opening Halsey led them into
was a twenty-foot tunnel passing through the wall.  Marik marveled at the sheer
volume of stone and effort required to build such a colossal barrier encircling
a city.  Could it actually be twenty feet of solid stone, or did it merely seem
that way?

Halfway through the tunnel, Marik noticed a hole in
the wall.  In truth a window, it looked out into the tunnel from a small room
inside the stone.  Two guards flicked their eyes from face to face from
within.  Tacked to a cork board on the wall behind them, Marik caught a brief
glimpse of several dozen papers.  Most were covered with writing.  Others
displayed surprisingly skillful faces drawn in chalk.  No one stopped the
pedestrians at the wall which meant the guards inside the room only watched the
crowd, searching for likely troublemakers.  When they left the tunnel, he
glance back to see a door set in the stone.  It must lead to the guardroom,
matched on the wide passageway’s opposite side by a twin.