Chapter Six #4
“Are you sure you’re not too busy with your new friend here?” I asked with a subtle tilt of my head. “Ellyn and I can make our own way down.”
“Oh, don’t let me keep you any longer, Alden,” Josee said as she rested her hand on his bicep. “I know which house is mine. I’ll get to work unloading, and I might even be able to sell some products today.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Josee,” Alden said in a tight voice. “I’ll check in with you later.”
“Goodbye for now,” Josee said with a wide, toothy grin. “And it was a pleasure meeting you all.”
“And you, Josee,” I said with a small wave. “Take care.”
“Goodbye!” Ellyn chirped as she waved, too, and the three of us watched as Josee led Bert down the street and away from us.
As soon as she was out of earshot, my wife and I both turned to Alden with the same knowing grin. The tips of the half-orc’s ears flushed, and he quickly shifted his attention to one of the rooftops across from us.
“Looks like Willy fixed his shingles, that’s nice,” he muttered under his breath before he clapped his hands together with a too-wide grin. “Shall we walk?”
“Get in my side-by-side, we’ll get there quicker,” I said before I decided to add another jab. “Lover boy.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Noah,” Alden said with his chin raised high.
“Yeah, yeah, just get in the Gator,” I snorted as I led the way back toward my vehicle.
Alden climbed in the front with me, while Ellyn and Fang slid into the back.
The drive to the east wall was spent with Alden avoiding eye contact and nervously tapping on the dashboard.
He whistled a random tune to fill the silence, but as soon as we made it to the wall, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Allow me to give you the updates, uninterrupted by any unrelated topics, if you’d please.
” Alden’s words spewed out of his mouth in quick succession, so there was no room for argument.
“Hunter Gibbon and Alaek think the watchtowers will be finished in the next few days. We have constant watchers at all times of the day and night, and men are posted on the rooftops of these back houses to spot anyone coming.”
I glanced behind us to see a lean elven man sitting on one of the slanted roofs with a spyglass, a glass bottle of amber liquid, and a half-eaten sandwich next to him.
“That’s good,” I said. “I’m sure the people feel a lot safer.”
“Definitely,” Alden said. “As soon as Josee appeared on the horizon, my men told me quickly and efficiently. Should Shaar or any more bandits show up, we’ll know as soon as--”
“Overseer!” the elf on the rooftop suddenly cried out. “Soldiers! There are soldiers approaching!”
It seemed the Overseer had jinxed us.
“Soldiers?” Alden’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are they wearing a sigil?”
“Not one that I can make out,” the elf said as he peered through the spyglass. “But their armor is golden.”
“So unlikely to be bandits,” the half-orc sighed. “We’ll open the gate.”
“Alden, are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked as I pulled Ellyn behind me protectively. “What if they are bandits, and they’ve just robbed some rich folk on the road?”
“Golden armor means one thing in this world, Noah,” Alden said in a serious tone. “And if we don’t open that gate for them, we’ll find ourselves in even deeper muck.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I frowned.
“Noah--” Ellyn’s whispered words were silenced as the vine gate began to unfurl itself.
True enough, a group of over a dozen soldiers dressed in gold-drenched armor were approaching on horseback. The rising sun behind them caught on their backs and made them look otherworldly.
Each of them had a regal disposition and held their helmeted heads high as if they were the sun’s heralds, and white capes billowed in the breeze behind them like raised flags.
Even their horses had an air of authority about them as they stepped proudly, and with each careful trot, their tack chimed.
Their coats were all crystal white, and large golden bridles with flaps covered their eyes. The reins wrapped around their heads shimmered in the gloved grips of those holding them, and I could see the threads of gold woven throughout the dark leather.
They moved as a unit in perfect unison, like a wall of golden light.
They weren’t in a rush. They were slow… deliberate.
Whoever these gold-plated people were, they knew they had power, and judging by the pale complexions of my wife and Alden, and from the workers who had paused in their hammering to gape at the approaching party, I knew things were about to get very interesting.
As they finally marched closer, I could see a small circular sigil imprinted on the golden chestplate of each soldier. It was engraved in silver and cut so deep into the metal that it was impossible to ignore.
The sigil was a crowned man pinning what looked like a large crystal to the ground with his boot. A scepter rested in one hand, while the other was raised in triumph.
Everything clicked in one nauseating moment.
These people weren’t bandits.
They were the king’s soldiers.