Arrival
“Fuck, I’ll be glad when we finally get there and I can get off this damn horse for longer than overnight.”
Lorgon Edge gave his daughter a disapproving look. “I hope to hell you show better manners once we arrive.”
“Or you’ll what?” she threw back at him with a hint of a smile. “If memory serves, you haven’t spanked my bottom since I was seven. And that’s because I truly deserved it. So what if I backtalk to a few battle lords? Sometime they need a major attitude adjustment anyway.”
“Caralas—“”
“I know, I know. You want me to be all prim and proper like a battle princess should be, or is expected to be. Haven’t you figured out by now I don’t want to be a princess? I don’t want some guy coddling up to me because my father is a battle lord of one of the biggest compounds in the west.”
“It’sthebiggest compound in the west, bar none,” her father corrected her. “There isn’t a battle lord for hundreds of miles who hasn’t heard of Vega City.”
“And yet, you accepted the invitation from some little turd battle lord you’ve never met, and dragged our asses all the way over here because of what he’s ‘accomplished.’”
She heard her father’s sigh of exasperation. “Do we need to go over that again?”
She gave a bark of laughter. “Oh, comeon.You know half, no, three-quarters of all that mumbo jumbo we’ve read about and heard through the grapevine has to be fictitious. It’s made up or blown out of proportion. Remember that kids’ game, Gossip? Where you tell one person something, and they go tell the same thing to someone else, but by the time it gets back to you, it sounds nothing like what you started with? That’s what we have here. One giant ass game of Gossip.”
“Maybe when it comes to their exploits, I’ll grant you that. But there’s no denying the progress in relations with Mutah. We’ve seen the results for ourselves.”
Caralas raised a hand in surrender. “All right. I’ll give you that. I’ll admit things seem a lot better between us and the mutes. But I can’t give this French guy, Jacques?”
“D’Jacques. Yulen D’Jacques.”
“I can’t see how he and his mutie wife can be given all the credit. But I gotta admit, a lot of those stories make for some very entertaining reading. I managed to get copies of both books so far. I’m hoping there’s a third.”
“Books?” The battle lord gave a confused look. “What books?”
She patted her saddlebag. “Yeah. I brought ‘em with me. You’ve seen me reading them.”
“I didn’t know that’s what they were about. You’re always reading something or other…when you’re not on the field trying to better your arm.”
“When you’re the battle lord’s daughter, you have to learn to fend for yourself sometimes,” she quipped, earning a chuckle.
They both straightened in their saddles when they spotted a guard galloping toward them. “Compound straight ahead, just beyond the next rise,” the man informed them.
“Is it Alta Novis?” Edge demanded.
“Don’t know for certain, sir, but it looks like there’s a large gathering of tents outside its walls.”
“That has to be it,” Edge muttered, and glanced up at the sky. “Good thing. Sun’ll be down in a couple more hours. Pervick, take a couple of men and ride ahead to announce our arrival to the compound.”
The soldier saluted and loped away.
“Looks like you’re going to get your wish,” Edge informed his daughter.
“Yay me,” she softly said, and smiled. “We even made it in time before the conference began.”
“No thanks to those feral cats we ran across a week ago. We would’ve made better time if it hadn’t been for that.” The man kneed his horse, clucking his tongue to urge the animal into a trot. Caralas followed suit, and the rest of their entourage did the same.
Once they reached the top of the rise, they stopped to look down at the compound lying in the distance. The scout was correct. A myriad of tents surrounded the tall, imposing walls like a massive flower garden of riotous color. The outlying area was teeming with soldiers and horses. On top of the ramparts, more men walked the catwalk. Rising from the middle of the inner fortress, a half-blue, half-red banner snapped in the breeze.
“This is Alta Novis. That’s D’Jacques’ flag. Gotta give him credit. He’s got the place well-fortified.”
“Against whom? Normals versus Mutah? Or them versus whatever dares to come out of that forest?”
“Does it matter?”
