Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aelia’s first glimpse of Llmera should have been one of the most exciting moments of her life, and yet she couldn’t muster the enthusiasm she knew the massive mountain that housed their capital city deserved.
The few days since she’d left Keeran had been torture, leaving her with too much time alone with her thoughts.
Her masochistic subconscious had plagued her.
It made her relive the horror of that night in Callodosis every time she closed her eyes, before replaying Keeran’s conversation with Beserkir over and over again, all day long.
And just to really piss her off, it hounded her with the memory of how Keeran had looked when she’d screamed at him, the way she’d seen something in him crumple.
So Llmera, if nothing else, presented her with the distraction she had been so desperately waiting for. The mountain stood in the otherwise uninterrupted horizon, a lone sentinel guarding Demuto, marking where the waves of grass gave way to the endless undulations of the sea.
It was a masterpiece of engineering, but the real wonder of the city could not be credited to any mortal power; Mother Nature was the true architect.
As a tidal island, the mountain on which the Dragons had built their capital city protruded from the ocean, commanding the attention of everyone Aelia shared the road with.
Initially, she’d been uneasy when it had started to become steadily busier, the tracks webbing across Demuto merging to form the wide stone road to the capital, but none of the merchants or tradesmen around her so much as looked her way.
They were all too preoccupied with making it safely to the city, a note of apprehension hanging over them as they shuffled forwards, aware that their time to cross to the mountain was limited.
As the tide had withdrawn, it had exposed the stone road embedded in the soft sand of the seabed, linking the shoreline to the city.
If they didn’t cross in time, at best, they’d arrive in Llmera with wet boots.
At worst, they would be swept away by the rising tide.
Despite being unimpressed with the potential consequences for her, Aelia had to concede that it made for a stronghold which must have been unrivalled in its defensive abilities.
The ocean floor stretched indefinitely on either side, a strip of wet sand hugging the shoreline as far as the eye could see.
The traffic into the city was slow-moving, which gave her ample opportunity to appreciate the world usually hidden beneath the sea.
Aelia had no idea how many times she’d heard people marvel at the fresh air of the coast, waxing lyrical about the smell of the sea, but now she was here, she wondered what the hell they’d been talking about.
The ocean was undoubtedly breathtaking, humbling her with its vast magnificence, but the cloying smell of fish and marine decay was not something she thought belonged amongst the many wonders it was credited with.
As she drew closer, the mountain loomed above her imposingly. She’d grown up on stories of the Dragons of Llmera. Of how they had excavated it to create a multitude of tunnels, branching in a complex system from base to peak to form the Inner City, home to the wealthiest of the wealthy.
The rock that had been removed during the excavation of the Inner City had been used to build the enormous sea wall that ran the perimeter of the mountain’s base.
It seemed poetic that the sea defended them from assailants, and the wall defended them from the sea, like a guard dog kept safely outside the home.
The same stone had been used to build the Outer City, a crowded network of houses, temples, stables, and warehouses that sprawled up the mountainside. Aelia craned her head back to take in the buildings that seemed to have been thrown against one another with disorderly charm.
The density of the Outer City faded as it crept higher, the terrain becoming too rocky and sheer to support buildings past a certain point. Aelia ignored her protesting muscles for as long as she could, but eventually she had to right her neck before it got stuck that way.
The crowd on the road slowly shuffled around her as she rode forwards amongst the trading trains, carts, and people.
Hundreds and hundreds of people. With rest tantalisingly close, she climbed up the winding road to the sea wall, finally coming to the main gates.
The guards on either side of it were leagues apart from the one they’d seen in Drias.
Their gleaming plated armour was immaculate and well-fitting, their expression was stern and alert, surveying every face that passed with unnerving severity.
Aelia guided her horse towards them, troubling them for recommendations for an inn. They supplied her with directions, which she repeated in her head a few times as she passed through the gate.
A flicker of pride stirred in her chest as she looked around the chaotic streets of Llmera. She had made it.
They stood in the lowest ring of houses and shops at the base of the mountain.
The streets of the Outer City, the part of the city that covered the outside of the mountain, were heaving with people.
She walked aimlessly for a while, listening to the cacophony, breathing in the city.
Life surrounded her and after her few days in isolation, she relished it.
The houses were simple but cherished; not a speck of dirt covered the walls.
Nor did she see any beggars, not a single one.
Aelia examined the people as they walked.
Most were simply dressed, much like those in her village, but occasional flashes of expensively coloured fabric caught her eye amidst the browns and greys.
It seemed popular to walk around once Shifted, so Animals of all shapes and sizes crawled, loped, and flew down the streets.
Guards were everywhere, monitoring the crowds tirelessly.
Massive Dogs roamed the streets, the Llmeran flag wrapped tidily around their neck.
They were soldiers in the King's army, artemians in their second form with an unparalleled sense of smell, for which they were renowned across Demuto.
They sniffed the air as they walked, detecting everything from which animal a person Shifted into, to what they had for lunch.
Aelia’s stomach lurched. What would they make of her scent? She wouldn’t have the scent of a human, she was sure, but how could she smell of an artemian if she didn’t have a second form? Unsure, she decided to give them a wide berth.
The inn turned out to be infinitely nicer than the one in Drias, much to her relief, but she found out why when she came to pay for the room and stable.
Whatever she had to do to free Fenrir, she needed to do it quickly, because anything more than a couple of nights would have her near penniless for the journey back to Callodosis.
So, she left her horse with instructions for him to be treated like royalty, the horse she’d inadvertently stolen from Keeran, and headed straight out on aching legs to find the docks.
Although quieter than it had been earlier in the day, Llmera still hummed with the energy of a capital city, with music wafting from closed doors alongside spiced scents that had Aelia’s mouth watering.
The subtle smell of brine permeated the city, but it grew stronger as shops and restaurants gave way to the warehouses and grimy taverns that lined the streets leading up to the docks.
Although it was still early evening, many people on the streets looked like they’d already seen the bottom of one too many tankards.
Aelia resisted the urge to find the hilt of her dagger as their leering followed her down the street.
Aelia only slowed when she reached a break in the sea wall, the paved streets giving way to a dock full of ships being readied for the open water. Gulls soared between their masts, their sharp calls in harsh contrast to the soothing rush of the waves lapping against the rocks below.
A few were warships, proud and intimidating; some were preparing to transport the wares of merchants around the world; but most of the vessels looked as though they simply sailed the coast and returned with fish to feed the city.
The smell was overpowering, clogging the air as the day's catch was unloaded, but Aelia was too wired to notice.
Somewhere in amongst the floating beasts before her, was a ship readying to transport humans to Ideolanthea.
Aelia swallowed the familiar nausea she’d been fighting since she’d heard Beserkir tell Keeran about the King’s deal, to save the artemians from war by forsaking the humans.
She had no idea what the ideolan would want humans for.
All Ideolanthea cared about was their war, and the humans would make weak soldiers against the magic wielded in the Mithrylaya.
She’d spent the last few days praying to gods she didn’t really believe in to let Fenrir still be in Llmera. If he’d already been shipped off to Ideolanthea, she doubted she’d ever be able to track him down.
Aelia stopped at the water’s edge, leaning onto the handrail atop the sea wall with crossed arms. She looked out over the array of ships; she had no idea what she was looking for, but somehow she had to work out where they were keeping the humans.
Ships came and went, the black waters beneath them making Aelia’s stomach churn as their hulls slipped silently through the waves, their sails tucked safely away.
It took her a while to work out how they were heading so surely out to sea without any visible means of power, but when she saw a jet of water explode out of the ocean into the air, her mouth dropped open.
An artemian, in its second form, was dragging them safely out to deeper waters. Now she knew what to look for, she could see monumental shadows lurking beneath the surface, huge creatures of the deep ready to tow ships in and out of the docks.