The Last Realm: The Blood of Clans

6: Arrival at the Gates

It was fairly safe to say that we didn't acquire any high ground. In fact, not only had we not found the strategic land advantage, we had backed ourselves up against the frozen river of Tasard. My heels were almost completely pressed to the lapping water of the river, with Aurelia to my left and Chang to my right. Troy and Kat both took the front line while Jace paced back and forth between our two small lines.

“So how many do think there are?” Troy called back over his shoulder, never bothering to look back at us.

“If I'm correct, we got two packs on us. Two alphas and just over twenty wolves total.” Jace spit into the frosted ground as he cursed.

“So that roughly leaves us five wolves a piece?” Troy commented in return.

“That math doesn't quite seem right.” Chang frowned next to me.

“No offense intended but I'm not exactly counting on our royal rear end.” Troy couldn't help but chuckle at his joke, Kat joining in on the light laughter.

Jace glared at the two before reassuring our so called, royal rear end. “Troy never has been the best at tact, but he means to say that any assistance you can offer would be ideal but not stressed.”

“Ah.. that makes sense.” Chang said with a nervous expression.

“Perk up everyone, we're about out of chat time.. our friends are arriving for dinner.” Jace called while nocking his first arrow.

“You really could have picked a better way to put that.” I said while steadying myself and glancing around once more at our group.

Kat had both her gleaming silver daggers out and ready, while Troy held his axe poised defensively in front of him. Jace and Aurelia were both taking aim, Chang surprising me by twisting the head of his cane and producing a slender straight blade. I felt rather ridiculous clutching tightly onto my small golden knife.

“Let fly!” Jace shouted, quickly producing two whooshing arrows into the nearest oncoming wolves, the following battle cries from Troy and Kat echoing in and startling the first wave of incoming predators.

The rush came from all fronts, Troy and Kat both furiously swiping and swinging their blades, deflecting claws and fangs as another set of arrows nestled into a pair of wolves again. I was slightly impressed at how well the princess could shoot, though the arctic attackers gave her many opening and large targets. The second wave of wolves came rushing and mingling in with the first, threatening to quickly overwhelm us with numbers.

Troy swung downwards in a flash, striking a lunging mass of fur right in the neck. I gasped as his blade caught in the monster, leaving him vulnerable as the next wolf jumped at him. Kat was still a blur with both her daggers, as she continued her defensive array of parries and deflections.

“To your left.” Jace shouted to Troy, who instinctively raised his left forearm in time for a vicious pair of fangs to sink themselves down into his flesh.

“Raagh.” Troy bellowed, a haunting deep growl that nearly seemed to mimic the beasts assaulting us.

Jace let fly another arrow that struck the wolf clinging to Troy's arm, piecing it's skull and making it fall roughly to the ground as Troy unlodged his axe. Kat was making a bigger flurry of herself, but finally at the expense of her guard as first one wolf slipped by her and then a second. Her daggers dropping the third roughly to the ground after impaling the chest, and barely raising back up in time to block the incoming pounce that left her sprawled on her back underneath another death wolf.

Chang slashed in blade in a wide arch, making the first wolf slink back for a moment before Aurelia struck it with a well placed arrow. The second wolf propelling itself over Chang and straight at me. I raised my knife defensively in front of my head, aiming at the wolves airborne body, when it was pierced from the side by a thick black arrow that seemed slightly unnatural. I took a moment to count the remaining wolves that surrounded us, counting just under ten now. Noticing their now more reluctant and deliberate attacks, I paused to take a breath and look behind me.

To my sheer amazement there was a tall hooded figure on the opposite side of the river, a horn tipped black bow was held firmly in his grip. The figure loosed another arrow that sped past the calculating horde and straight at one of the larger, black alphas that Jace had previously pointed it. The arrow landed in the ground by one of the front forelegs of the beast. The shadow-man quickly fired a second screaming black arrow that thudded itself into the large alpha's head, dropping it into the iced plains.

My attention was snapped back to the group as a low groan reached my ears, turning me completely to my left. Aurelia was struggling to fend off a snarling set of jaws with her bow, the weapon bending back her direction. Already having wasted too much time focusing on the stranger, I slammed the small golden knife into the eye of the wolf, as Chang rushed over to stab it in the chest.

Although tempted to glance back over the river, I steadied my terribly shaky nerves and watched as our small ensemble cleaned up the last few stragglers of the night raid. Jace had discarded his bow for a short sword, and was helping to watch Troy’s injured left flank. Kat was using her smaller stature and the pile of carcasses around her for a makeshift defensive trench. It was only a few more moments longer before the packs had been dwindled down to only a small handful and the remaining three wolves joined up with the sole alpha wolf. As the four wolves began to turn tail and run, they were intercepted and cut down by a small group of approaching armored knights on horseback.

The knights easily dealt with the retreating few wolves and then hastily proceeded in our direction. Hopefully this wouldn't be trouble adding upon itself, a thought that seemed to be shared non-verbally. None of us refused to retire our weapons yet, but the shrinking distance of the riders allowed me time to glimpse back over the river behind us. I was slightly baffled to find the opposite shores vacant and with no traces of anyone having been there minutes earlier.

The small band of silver armored knights steered their horses to a slow trot and eventual halt in front of our encampment. The knight with dark black hair leaned down towards the mangled body of Seiji, clucking his tongue softly as he shook his head back and forth in disgust to the others.

“I'm sorry we didn't make better time.” A blonde man called out, as he stepped down to the ground and tried to show no ill intent.

“It wouldn't have made much difference.” Troy replied back solemnly. “He was dead before the attack started.”

“At the howls and commotion, we came as quickly as we could.” The blonde man paused, as if to consider the best way to phrase his sincerity. “Our job was to ensure that all travelers be escorted into Kitasa safely. Yet, we had received word that none were headed this way until morning.”

“Naren.” A nervous glance was exchanged around our group, an unspoken thought that Jace growled lightly.

“I know it's a bit late for formality, but please let us escort you onward to the castle.”

“You have our thanks for the gesture.” Aurelia said, stepping forward through our tired band. She was dragging Chang with her, leading him by the hand as his feet stumbled to keep up.

“Lady Altamira and Lord Toshezo.” The rest of the riders quickly dismounted as the blonde made introductions.

There were four riders in total. The two older looking males and the other two, who were younger looking but close to Jace and Troy in age. The youngest had light brown hair with green eyes, while the older had a rusty brown hair color with dull blue eyes and a red headband, the poked out underneath his shaggy bangs. All of the knights had silver armor and an icy blue gryphon on the chest plate.

“My name is Kirby Salazar, and this is Victor Vasquez.” The blonde man with golden tinted eyes gestured to the black haired, black eyed man next to him.

“Those two are Hurst Frederick and Louis Surrency.” The knight Kirby introduced the older one with the red bandanna first, then the youngest of their four.

“So nobody else has arrived within the last day?” Aurelia asked further.

This earned a head shake to accompany the reply. “Unfortunately not.”

“Then I expect the treatment befitting royal guests. Chang, myself and our other accompanying lord will ride three of the horses, while you allow the fourth to carry our fallen attendant’s body for proper rights in the city.”

The dark haired man finally spoke, his voice deep and alarming. “I see no third lord among you, just accompanying pirates.”

Jace nudged me forward until I was standing front and center, feeling incredibly awkward in the flowing purple and black tunic of Kyzekia.

“I was hoping this could be kept a secret for a little while longer.” Jace said as he stepped beside me, a hand resting on my shoulder as his other extended the reserve invitation he'd been holding onto.

Victor snatched it roughly and tore the letter open. Scanning it with a bemused expression, he finished reading before showing it to the others. It took a brief moment of pause before he cleared his throat and spoke.

“This is a slight turn of circumstance, but this will be presented immediately to the court. We all apologize for the inconveniences, once again.” Victor replied with a stern glance back to the other three knights, who in turn all bowed in unison.

Our roving band had increased to ten now, and we were told that since it was just a few short hours away from daybreak, we would arrive at the capital of Kitasa by morning light. We didn't really have a long way left to travel but with the horses carrying our packs it sped things up by a large amount. I couldn't help feel bad about the wolves and what happened to Seiji, it seemed to be largely surreal and I was half expecting to wake back up at any moment.

I knew though that the moment to awake wouldn't really come. So on we trudged, a knight each leading a horse further north along side the slow, frosted river. Jace and Troy had stayed back for a little distance at first but had finally caught up. Something about checking tracks or anything that might have been overlooked from our camp. It was about an hour before they both returned.

“Find anything?” I asked as both picked opposite sides of the chestnut mare I was riding.

“A few things yes, but they can wait until later to discuss mostly.” Troy smiled in his response.

Whatever they must have found seemed to be a good thing. It helped draw my curiosity back out from the sullenness I had been sucked into since the fight.

“We did find this though.” Jace slid a small black object into my palm, letting me examine it for a time.

“What is this?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from getting too excited or loud and drawing any unnecessary suspicions.

“That will come hopefully tonight. For the moment, study it and then keep it hidden.” Jace replied sternly.

I nodded and looked over the deep black object. It looked familiar, like a small claw of something and then it dawned on me. It was like the tip of the hooded strangers bow, but in a smaller, finer detail. This must have been on one of his arrows that had been fired at one of the alphas. It would have likely gone unnoticed by the knights due to it sharing the same color of its prey. I wanted to trot over to show Aurelia, but Jace's warning echoed around in my head, so I waited.

The landscape mostly remained unchanged as we continued our trudge north, the river stretched at irregular intervals and shrunk itself back in the same sloshing patterns. The constant scenery made me think of old classical paintings back home, except for the river, which remained a constant flow of thick and clunky frozen water. After more small talk, light banter and many short naps, I felt compelled to ask about the knights.

“So, uh..” I slightly hesitated, being unsure of how to just ask outright. “You're knights..”

It was a statement, nowhere near a question but I guess after a week of close quarters living with the group we'd had, I was translatable.

“I believe that the young master is inquiring as to your knighthood.” Jace smiled calmly from beside the horse. “Your order, so to speak.”

Kirby gave a slight chuckle, leading the horse that was carrying Aurelia nearby to James, whose horse was being led by the young Louis. “We are Outland Knights.”

The response was short and sweet, to the point, but left me with no clue other than their title.

“This is unfortunately the first time I've been outside of the tower.” I said back in response.

“Safety reasons and all that.” Jace smirked, causing an outburst of laughter from all but the knights.

“You live in a large tower on a holy island and you never leave because of safety issues?” Victor scoffed at the idea, which brought laughs from everything this time, knights included.

“So what exactly are the Outland Knights?” Chang asked this time, beating me to the punch on the next question.

“Most people would consider us to be the heavily armored infantry of Tasard's army.” Kirby began to reply. “Unfortunately, the truth isn't so exciting. We are mostly the royal guard and do some light escort work and winter hunting.”

“So are there are lot of your knights? I mean, you don't seem to have many battles or wars to fight.” I asked curiously, unsure how there could be a lot of soldiers in this cold, northern continent.

“Would you not sharpen your sword blade, just because you might not need it on a regular basis. It doesn't mean you would let it dull and rust.” Victor lightly snarled out a reply back.

“The Outland Knights are quite a powerful order, and it's a very big honor to be counted among their ranks.” Jace said in a friendly gesture to help smooth the conversation back out.

“It also helps that the alternative would be fishing or going up north to be a miner.” Kirby added in a way that mixed with his comical expression had all of us laughing hard.

It took what seemed like another hour of travel after that, before the looming ice white city walls came into view. I was a little surprised to find that the city was essentially void of a large kind of keep, like I had seen sailing from Kyzekia's shores. The city was nestled almost directly up against the river, with a small section of the walls connecting with bridges and creating a small encircling of buildings on the western side. The Tasard capital of Kitasa was indeed an industrial working city deep within the heart of a winter world.

As we approached one of the large gates in the outer walls, walls that were no higher than about ten feet but appeared plenty thick, we were greeted by a pair of mismatched fellows. The first, was an older man with broad features and raven black hair, which he had pulled back into a thick ponytail, he also kept a small wispy mustache. He had on long, heavy purple robes and a light blue cloak that he wrapped himself in. He was about average height with a portly build, that was understated due to his garments.

The younger man with him had a frosted white tint to his shoulder length hair, that was braided on the front near his cheeks. He looked like more the role of a winter-man to me with heavy black boots and heavy brown pants, and a thick gray fur-trimmed coat that wrapped around his body. His right arm stood outside of the heavy coat, wrapped in tight black cloth and showing the darker gray gloves he wore. He had his body propped up against a greatsword, as they watched us arrive.

“Well, well, well.” clucked the robust man, shaking a chubby finger in our direction as we reached them.

“We didn't need an additional escort.” Victor spat at the direction of the two.

“Now, now. That is no way to treat one of the court, like myself. Besides, if these royal brats hadn't decided to trounce all over the countryside we wouldn't be out rescuing them from night terrors or stupidity.” The reply came back with a snarl and more chubby finger shaking but this time at the knights.

Kirby turned to us to make introductions, as he instructed Louis and Hurst to lead the horses to the stables after depositing the body elsewhere first. With an over exaggerated sweeping gesture and a cheesy smile, he helped mediate.

“The stately gentleman, here to greet you unannounced, is Cristof Greeley. The younger, more silent man, who is on gate duty, is Zale Ingram.”

As Kirby made his introductions between the two, the argument between Victor and the older man Cristof started to wind down.

“Enough, enough.” Bellowed Cristof, his purple robes shaking as his face turned a beet red with frustration. “Don't think you've seen the last of me today. You insolent knights are going to be the downfall of us. Never, never have I been so outraged.”

“Put a sock in it, windbag.” The heavy coat wearing Zale stood up fully, taking his weight off his sword finally and turning with a scowl to the older Cristof.

“Outrageous, completely outrageous. Worse than last week, this is. Indeed.. just wait until I tell the court...” Cristof began a quick paced waddle back into the city, mumbling all the way about his disgust of the matter.

“Sorry you had to see that.” Zale offered with a flat, monotone expression. “I believe this is my responsibility from here?”

Victor shrugged, turned his back and headed off in the direction that Louis and Hurst had gone earlier. Kirby offered his regret at us having to witness such a scene and wished us the best. “It might be not warm, or exactly the best paradise for a first trip outside of Trevithack tower.. but try and make the most of it. You know, adventure a little.” He smiled and popped me in the shoulder with a laugh before turning and leaving as well.

“What now?” Troy asked curiously, to the lone guard who would escort us further.

“We go and settle you in for some rest. Nothing will really happen around here until after noon anyway. Best to do things once the sun is out and warm, since it tends to stay a bit chilly until then.” Zale chuckled back lightly.

“Sounds good. I could use a little more rest, no offense.” I yawned, feeling a bit safer actually being inside civilization.

“The only problem, is that we only have a little bit of space left.” Zale replied with a nervous look.

“A little space? Meaning?” Aurelia shot back in a concerned glare.

“Well, you might have to share the rooms we have for you. We expected only a few of you, and not until a couple days from now at least.” Zale tried to slink into the shadows with his reply.

“How many exactly were you expecting.” Aurelia snapped again, this time her voice growing louder.

“Two, my lady. One for the young lord Toshezo and the other for yourself. But circumstances have made us cramped. You have a room to share with the lady Gaulthier, and lord Chang has a room to share with all of the others in your group.”

“I certainly hope the room is big enough.” Chang laughed nervously.

“Just around this corner, and here we are..” Zale instructed as we arrived at the garage-like looking building.

It was a small beige apartment looking building, connected together but separate with a door on each side of the building. It vaguely reminded me of summer camp up in the Ozark mountains, just with the buildings more stone than wooden cabins. We said our early morning goodnights, and broke off separately to our differing sides, the girls taking the left and us the right. It took about half an hour for us to unpack our things and settle down for the round of naps and light sleep.

“Well, tomorrow we meet the royals and then prepare for the ball. It's still a few days away, so myself and Troy could scout around the city a little to pick up any information.” Jace drawled out between a pair of yawns.

“Then I guess we'll have plenty to do, once we wake up in a few hours.” Troy laughed lightly.

“Hey.. I'm just glad we evaded my brother. I really hope that the others didn't have any complications back at port.” Chang offered before falling asleep.

It was a sweet lull but I was unable to shake the eerie firelight from the campfire that danced in my head as I slept. The firelight burned in my mind until we were all woken by a knocking on the door. Troy lazily dressed and moved to open it up and find Zale standing in front of us, a young lady behind him.

“It's time for your royal audience with the court.” His voice booming into the room, echoing around off the walls.

“Five more minutes.” Chang grumbled from underneath his heavy blankets.

“Rouse yourself young lord, not only do you have an audience, but company for your escort.” Zale smiled and stepped out of the way of a young woman with pale skin but fiery red hair, that was cut short just above her shoulders, and dark brown eyes. “This is the princess, Kelicia Azhade. She will guide you around into the western city.”