Chapter 30
Morning also followed, or at least a hint of morning. A loud rap on my door was followed by Titus’ voice. “Grace! Time to get up! The sun will be rising soon!”
I groaned and raised my head high enough to look out the window.
It was still dark. Still, I didn’t want to slow up such a large train of men, so I crawled out of bed and shuffled over to the door, which I opened.
Titus stood in the hall with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips. I hated it.
He bowed his head to me. “Good morning, Grace. I hope you slept well.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed them profusely with my fist. “I was.”
“Food is ready downstairs, and the horses are being saddled.”
I followed him downstairs, where the rowdiness from the previous evening was still being cleaned up.
A few busted chairs had been piled in a corner, and stains and a few errant bits of glass hinted at some spillage.
A large breakfast awaited me, but I was only able to get down a dozen bites before the front door opened.
Cassian strode in with a small entourage of his men. He walked over to me and inclined his head. “Good morning, Lady Holt. Are you ready for the final leg of the trip?”
I swallowed a large helping of eggs and stood. “Just strap me to the saddle, and I’ll be ready to go.”
Some of the men laughed, and Cassian offered me his hand and a smile. “I’ll be sure to keep a tight grip on you.”
We moved outdoors, where the horses and a brightening eastern horizon awaited us. I was helped up, and Cassian took the lead with Titus close beside us. The others climbed aboard their horses or the cart, and we were soon off down the road.
That last part of the journey was as much a blur as the afternoon before, especially with the long shadows of the early morning hanging over everything. We continued until noon, where we stopped at a small clearing to rest and eat. The horses were offered food and a drink from a nearby creek.
I munched on a piece of bread from my perch on a rock while the men saw to the animals and their own affairs. My solitary meal was interrupted by Cassian, who strolled up to me and offered me his hand. “There’s something I want to show you.”
I shifted atop my perch and winced. “Does it involve more riding?”
He chuckled. “Walking. It’s only a short distance.”
“Then I’m in,” I replied before I stuffed the rest of my bread into my mouth.
I accepted his hand, and Cassian helped me up.
He guided me into the woods and to a small mound some forty feet high.
It was large enough to look over the tops of most of the forest. We made our way to the heights and were presented with a breathtaking view of our surroundings.
Yellow fields and green woods mingled to create a tapestry of bounteous color.
Cassian pointed at a spot on the horizon. “Do you see that? The silver shining in the distance?”
I squinted and beheld something that shimmered in the light of the afternoon sun. “What is it?”
“The peak of the Citadel, and the first hint of Elyra. We’ll be there just before sunset, so you’ll get a good view of the castle before we settle into your new home.”
Home. I wasn’t sure I wanted to call it that just yet. Still, I didn’t argue with him. He had promised to put me up for free, after all.
We returned to the men, who had readied the horses.
Hope for the finish filled my heart, and I watched the scenery pass with more interest. The road widened, and more traffic joined us.
Other carts, carriages, pedestrians, and riders mingled together to create a steady stream to and from the capital.
We climbed a short hill, and the forests fell away to reveal a large valley. Elyra was nestled in the gentle depression of that hollow, its countless houses, businesses, and other buildings nestled inside a fortified wall some forty feet high and fifteen feet thick.
Twelve gates opened into the city, and these were all manned by the soldiers of the man I accompanied. Our company dipped down the road and arrived at one of the gates an hour before sunrise. My thighs were grateful for the arrival.
The men saluted their master, and the plebeians stepped aside to gawk at the king. Many of their curious eyes fell on me, and I shrank beneath that much attention.
Cassian leaned close against my back and lowered his voice to a whisper. “They’re admiring your beauty.”
I snorted. “They’re admiring you and wondering about me.”
“Let them,” he mused as we trotted into the city. A maze of winding streets stretched out before us for miles. “I’m curious to listen to what the naughty rumors that may spread.”
I choked on my surprise, but the increasing crowds meant I couldn’t vocalize my shock. The people crowded the streets and watched us stroll past. Stone shops with large windows, wooden houses with one or two floors, and large inns with many windows dotted many of the cobblestone streets.
The shadow of the Citadel stretched over much of the city.
That imposing tower was situated on the far side of the city, only a quarter mile from the fortified wall.
It was a two-hundred-foot-tall structure of stone and wooden support shaped into a hexagon.
The top was a peaked stone roof with open faces between the support pillars.
I couldn’t see the base through the forest of city buildings, but the way there seemed to be a large gap in roofs around the foot made me think it occupied a lot of space.
“Why is the Citadel all the way over there?” I asked my guide.
“The city was smaller when it was built,” he explained as we made our way to the center and left of the metropolis. “Much has changed in the hundreds of years it was built.”
We meandered our way through the streets until the ground sloped upward toward a large, low plateau. The palace sat at the end of a hundred-yard driveway. There was a gatehouse at the top of the road, but no wall.
“Why isn’t there anything around the palace?” I inquired. “You know, like a wall or something like that?”
“My ancestors believed that the defense should be focused on the city, not on the palace, and opted for only a small contingent of guards to protect their family.”
We arrived at the gate where the men lined up and greeted us with low bows. Cassian nodded at them as we passed, and saluted the man with the tallest feather in his cap. “Good evening, Lucius. How hails all?”
The man nodded at the palace. “Nothing to report, Your Majesty, except that Lord Secundus awaits you.”
The palace itself was a picture of imperial columns, vaulted porches and balconies.
The main body of the structure was three floors high and occupied an acre.
The two above-ground floors each had a long gallery supported by the huge stone pillars.
Tall doors led into the interior, which was brightly lit with the high windows.
The main body was flanked by an added wing on both sides, and they all surrounded an organized garden of flowerbeds and fruit trees with meandering walking paths between them. The east wing was the same design as the main body, but the west wing was a different beast altogether.
There were four floors instead of three, and the wing was nearly twice as wide as the other parts of the palace. The balcony was split by high walls that separated the parts like apartments.
I twisted my head around and nodded at the larger west wing. “Is that where your private quarters are?”
A strange smile slipped onto his lips. “Quite the contrary. That is where my guests live.”
There was something in his wording that caught my attention. “Live? Don’t you mean stay?”
“Unfortunately, no,” he revealed with a heavy sigh that rattled my back.
“One of my ancestors was quite paranoid, so he demanded that the families of his wealthiest and least trustworthy subjects live in his palace. If they attempted in any way to overthrow him, he threatened to eliminate their line. His subjects thus were forced to remain in the palace, or at least to visit as frequently as they wished to see their families.”
“He thought they were going to kill him, so he put them up near where he slept?”
“‘Keep your foes closer than your friends,’ as the old saying goes.”
“So did it work?”
“In a way.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“My ancestor became so paranoid that he ceased to trust anyone, even his cook. He prepared his own dishes and ended up choking to death on a fish bone he neglected to remove.”
I had to stifle a laugh. This was about the death of one of Cassian’s ancestors, after all. “And so the guests remained while the king fell?”
“Exactly. His son was not so paranoid, but he retained the custom as it suited his needs to have the wealthiest of his subjects at hand.”
“For brides?”
“As money lenders. He borrowed excessively for a few fruitless wars.”
“It sounds like your family’s had a lot of fun over the years.”
His wicked eyes looked me up and down. “So we have.”
I blushed under his double entendre and whipped my head around to face forward. “So how many ‘guests’ do you have staying here right now?”
“Currently three families, but unlike those olden days, they’re free to come and go as they wish, so long as they pay the rent for their rooms.”
“Rent?”
He chuckled. “I could not afford them any other way. They are accustomed to the finer things in life, and their kitchen bill in one week alone would allow us to stay at Squire Torquatus’s house for half a year.”
My face drooped. “One week? Ninety gilds in one week?”
“And they often exceed one hundred gilds, and even more so when a banquet is to be had.”
A grin slipped onto my lips. “I promise I won’t spend any more than twenty a week.”
His eyes twinkled as he inclined his head to me. “I thank you for that.”