Chapter Four

Two days passed without much event. The first night, we did indeed make it to Dahkan Stream by nightfall, and we camped out there. Sleeping outside was a new one for me.

I was told in no uncertain terms that I was required to sleep in the center of camp, right beside the small fire that Matthias had made.

Cassius and Tomas were on guard duty, and Angelica sat beside me the whole night. Vengar, apparently, required no sleep. It was something to do with the Vengar Mark, which was a small tattoo of a black star between the brows, something I’d honestly barely noticed until it was pointed out to me. I’d had a lot going on these last few days. Angelica and Tomas both had them, and I couldn’t remember if Arielle did, but from what Rosalie and Angelica told me, she had had one, all Vengars did.

The Mark identified Vengars as Vengars, and was also apparently impossible to replicate, capable of being created only by a High Shaper, which was the title given to powerful shapers who served monarchs. They weren’t the strongest shapers in the world, but they were among the best, and entirely loyal to the monarch they served. Rosalie talked a lot about binding contracts, something about the High Shapers losing their connection to the Everlight if they betrayed their monarchs, but I remained unclear on who or what enforced that.

The second night we camped out was in a forest, and Angelica remained seated by me the whole night. I was restless, though, and found myself talking to Angelica for hours.

It was hard to know exactly what information I should be asking for, and it took a while to explain big concepts to me, but slowly, I began to understand elements of this world. Or maybe I should just say Avona, as Rosalie did caution me that the kingdoms were drastically different. There was a kingdom called Cerandor where the kingdom was divided into different counties and controlled by people called court vassals, for instance.

The city we were headed to, Daena, had a sovereign lord, just like all the cities did. The sovereign lords (or ladies if they were female, as this world was surprisingly cool with women in power) served the monarch, and kept their cities in check. They doled out punishments, controlled trade with other cities, and managed their city’s military and political situations. They weren’t exactly elected officials, as the title could pass through blood, but the city held the right to vote out their sovereign lord and pick a new one if their current sovereign lord was a prick. The lineage would then continue from whichever person got picked in the election, until one of that person’s descendants fucked up badly enough to be voted out.

Kind of a weird system, to me, but I guess it works.

Today, on the third day of the six day journey, I was told by Angelica that we would be crossing the Abara Plains, which was what it sounded like, a large, open field.

That made Angelica, Tomas, and Cassius wary. We’d have no cover if something or someone attacked, though we would be able to see them coming easier, so there were pros and cons.

“Abara’s quite sizable, so when we cross through the plains, I think we can spend the night in an inn.” Matthias called to the group as the horses plodded along. The plains were apparently named after the large town that sat on the outskirts of the plains. It wasn’t classified as a city, and had no sovereign lord, just a mayor, according to Rosalie.

I was astride my own horse now, which was very fun. I wasn’t too good at controlling him, and we hadn’t gone faster than a trot, but after a lot of work with Angelica and Tomas, who were by far the two most agile members of the delegation, I had become competent in getting on and off the horse.

I still had no gear or equipment or anything, just a brown bag that was filled with some changes of clothes that Matthias had gotten from the Vina general store.

I’d asked repeatedly to be trained with a sword, and each time, the whole delegation had given me a firm and resounding no.

That would wait until Daena, I was told, when there were training blades, secure environments, and skilled blade tutors. Matthias’ words, which, while reasonable, annoyed me.

The trees abruptly stopped as we headed on, and suddenly we were just in a flat plain. I could see for miles in any direction but backwards, and in the distance loomed a huge mountain range.

“Whoa.” I breathed, staring in awe at the distant peaks, so tall they looked like they might pierce the sky.

“Those are the Aysia Peaks. They sit on the border between Avona and Aysia, the kingdom to our east. If you think those are impressive, wait until you see the Cordillera. That’s in Elond, and it’s enormous. It’s no wonder they have an economy built on mining out the Cordillera.” Rosalie informed me, pulling Honey up alongside my still unnamed horse.

I had never seen too many mountains back in my world, but I was pretty sure that if the Cordillera was bigger than the Aysia Peaks, it must blow Everest out of the water.

Crossing the plains was a long and kind of boring ride. Most of it was spent in silence, as the group was kind of distant from each other. Cassius rode far ahead, Tomas far behind. Matthias wasn’t as far up as Cassius, but he was definitely out of earshot. Rosalie and Angelica seemed to circle around me, and Cassie had yet to catch back up after detouring to Jurona. Matthias did keep insisting that she’d meet us at Taron Bluff, which was a day out from Abara.

More hours of crossing flat, empty, boring plains dragged on, until finally, the sun began to dip down from its’ seat high in the sky, and Matthias hastened the group to a brisker pace. Eventually, the end of these fucking plains came into sight, tall trees rising up in the issuance.

We had to veer left, almost back the way we had come, but then I discovered Abara sat in a clearing ringed by trees from all directions but one, which was the plains. Howls from wolves went up as the sun fully sank beneath the surface, but by then, we were on a smooth road leading up the gate of Abara.

Abara was decently bigger than Vina, and had a wall around the city defended by this single gate, near as I could tell. A tall guard tower rose up from the wall in this region, and men stood at the battlements holding crossbows.

Two men in chain mail armor walked forwards from their positions at the great doors to Abara, each with a hand resting on the hilt of their sword.

“Welcome to Abara, tanden.” one of the soldiers nodded.

“Tanden?” I whispered to Rosalie.

“It means travelers.” she whispered back.

“Thank you, kind sirs. I am Captain Matthias of the Dawn Order, and we are a peace-meaning delegation. We’re on our way back to Daena.” Matthias explained. The two soldiers glanced at each other and the one who was closer to Matthias nodded slowly.

“Do you have some identification, Captain?” he asked politely. Matthias pulled out a scroll from his saddlebags and offered it to the soldier. The soldier’s eyes widened.

“Thank you. Batson, open the gates!” he shouted up to the battlements, and the large doors began rumbling open. When they were open, Matthias led the group into Abara, where he began headed left, down the more crowded of the two roads before us.

It took me a while to realize he was reading signposts that weren’t written in English. They looked like absolute nonsense, and didn’t even use English characters. It looked like high fantasy Japanese or something, and I just followed Matthias, clueless as to what the signs read.

Matthias obviously could read the signs, as we rounded a bend and did indeed see an inn at the end of the street.

As our group of horses and riders walked down the street, many people were looking at us in fascination. I realized quickly that ‘us’ was a very strong word. The majority of the spectators were ogling Angelica and Tomas’ Vengar Marks. Some rather bold citizens of Abara were ogling Rosalie, who was, of course, a knockout, but Matthias looked like he’d knock out whoever was staring at his wife. He seemed territorial like that.

We reached the inn and a boy of maybe twelve rushed out to greet us. Him and Matthias exchanged quick words, a golden coin was exchanged, and suddenly everyone was dismounting and the boy led away the horses.

I found that wildly irresponsible but no one else seemed to be bothered so I just tacked it up to world differences and followed the delegation inside.

I was the last one in, and Rosalie grabbed my arm and pulled me closer when I entered.

“Stay close to us.” she instructed in a soft whisper, and I realized abruptly how close she was. I nodded emphatically, and Rosalie gave me a warm smile and released my arm. She turned to face forwards again but didn’t take any steps away from me.

“Three rooms, please.” Matthias said to the innkeeper, a kindly old woman.

“Of course, dear. Just three? Seems like not quite enough for all of you.” the old woman said innocently, and suddenly I realized she might not be as kindly as she seemed. It was just a ruse to drum up profit.

“No, there will suffice. Two of us per room, one per bed. That’s well enough for us.” Matthias said politely but firmly, and money was exchanged.

“Alright, Angelica, I presume you wish to remain with Will.” Matthias said, and my sworn Vengar nodded.

Cassius and Tomas, it seemed, shared the last room, with Matthias and Rosalie obviously sharing the first.

We were led upstairs by one of the innkeeper’s servants, and then it was revealed that the rooms were about as far apart as possible.

Matthias growled and paced for a moment, the wheels in his head visibly turning.

“We’ll keep room assignments as they are, for now. If there’s any threat, Angelica, I’ll come personally.” Matthias said gravely, and my Vengar nodded.

Angelica and I were led down one hallway and into room 4. She set down her bag on the floor and I stepped around her to realize it was just one double bed occupying the room.

This old woman innkeeper was a vengeful bitch!

I looked at Angelica, and found she was already settling into a chair for the night.

“You’re really just going to stay awake all night and watch me sleep?” I asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“Vengars don’t need sleep.” Angelica said with a shrug.

“But don’t you get bored?” I asked. She considered that.

“I suppose I do sometimes. The Mark… it does have a tendency to take away some of the humanities of the people who bear it. I haven’t thought about whether I was bored in… years.” Angelica shook her head, looking a little surprised at this revelation.

“You don’t need to sleep, but can you?” I wondered.

“Yes, I can.” she nodded, “I won’t, though, as you require protection at all times. You’re just too important.”

I looked at her.

“You seemed more human in Vina. Less robotic soldier, more of a badass warrior chick.” I said grudgingly.

“Ro…bot…ick?” Angelica frowned, clearly not understanding the word, which was honestly a little adorable.

“Yeah, like, uh… lifeless. Machine.” I shrugged, unable to explain a robot to someone who didn’t know what computers or robots or Terminator was.

“I have orders from Captain Matthias to defend you at all times. I have my obligations to more than just you, my lord.” Angelica said softly.

“But you do have to obey me, yes? Or does Matthias outrank that?” I asked, stepping closer.

“I swore my fealty to you, my lord. If you command something, I will do it, no matter who else’s order it contradicts. Do not question my loyalty to you.” Angelica said passionately, jumping to her feet, eyes blazing, “I will serve you until the day I die for you, my king. I have named myself the first to take that vow, and I am your sworn servant until the day I perish. No mortal can ever come between that vow, and no power can break it, save my ****.”

I was stunned at the intensity of that response. I hadn’t expected that at ALL.

“Angelica… I had no idea you were so.. passionate about your oath.” I said, shaking my head in wonder.

“I guess you don’t know how Vengar operate. Lessons with Lady Rosalie won’t teach you that, because she herself doesn’t know.” Angelica admitted, and she knelt at my feet, “Vengar all serve the monarch by default. Whenever they take the Mark, they kneel at the feet of whichever person sits on the Throne of whichever kingdom they live in. Even if the monarch who was in power when the Vengar took the oath is killed and their killer takes the throne, the Vengar will serve. Their loyalty is to the throne, not the person on it. If they had free rein to pick whichever person they want, there would be chaos.”

“You swore fealty to me, though. And Tomas did it to Matthias.” I pointed out. Angelica nodded.

“Yes, I did. You are both people of power, but not former monarchs. Vengar are forbidden from swearing their fealty to any former monarch. And until the day I swore my fealty to you, my fealty was with the Throne of Cerandor.” Angelica explained.

“You’re from Cerandor?” I asked in surprise, “You never mentioned that before.”

“It wasn’t pertinent to protecting you.” Angelica apologized.

“From now on, Angelica, I don’t want you to act as just my guardian. Be a person, interact with me like a friend would, not like how a soldier would their general.” I shook my head.

“King.” Angelica replied.

“What?” I asked.

“Like a soldier would their king.” Angelica corrected me, “I am the first soldier in your army, my king.”

“Well, my first order is for you to get up and stop kneeling in front of me.” I said, waving my hand. Angelica obeyed me, rising to her feet immediately.

“Lock the door, and get some rest.” I ordered her, and climbed into the bed. Angelica locked the door, turned out the light, and went to drop back down onto the chair, but I intervened.

“Angelica, no. There’s plenty of space in the bed for you.” I said, and Angelica startled, but she obeyed me. She set the sword down beside the nightstand, unbuckled her weapons belt and took off her chain mail breastpiece, before climbing into bed with me.

I was so exhausted that I fell asleep almost instantly, and never wondered how I’d been able to see Angelica in a pitch black room.