Page 15 of Conflicted Fate
Chapter Nine
“There are wolves out here,” I said to Kiel as we walked side by side in the middle of our escort. The two-legged members of the group kept close to us, while those with four, such as the centaurs and the wolf shifters, ranged far and wide, scouting ahead and providing flank protection as we crossed the plains.
“Yes,” he said bluntly.
“Why does nobody ever talk about that?” I asked. “I thought the only ones to leave the Canis Empire were the traders. But they seem to live here. Long enough to have become trusted.”
Kiel shrugged. “There have always been wolves living in the wild tribes,” he said. “Even since the days before, though it was more frequent then. It’s nothing new.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why I was so disappointed about that simple explanation. Had I expected some sort of grand conspiracy, perhaps? Who knew.
“How far is your prince?” I asked one of the nearby guards, a tall, silent type. With slender features and a wicked tilt to his eyes, he appeared perpetually furious.
“None of your business,” he hissed back, barely taking the time to look at me.
I leaned away at the fury boiling off him. “What the hell did I do to you? Sheesh. I’ve never met you before.”
“You followthem,” the creature spat. “And anyone who follows those murderers has the same blood on their hands.”
I glanced at Kiel. “Him? What’d he do?”
The elfin creature—he had no steel or metal on him whatsoever, which had me wondering if he was part, or perhaps even full, Fae—looked at me narrowly, part of his face scrunching up in scrutiny as if he couldn’t decide if I was too stupid to answer or messing with him.
“Your leaders. The Alphas. The Death Tyrants, as we call them out here.”
I almost told him that wedon’tfollow them, but Kiel’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.
“We’re almost there,” he said, pointing ahead as the ground fell away before us to reveal our destination.
I wasn’t surewhatI was expecting, but the simple and clean city of stone was not it. The buildings were squat and mostly square and rectangular, structures built for simplicity and not style, quite the opposite of the grand, soaring spires and towers in the larger cities in the empire.
Making a mental note not to associate “wild” with “uncivilized,” I started taking in everything I could about the city, and it most definitely was not atown. Given the size of it, I had to guess over twenty thousand people lived within it. Not to mention, the permanence of the structures. Wooden buildings lived on the outskirts, but only there. As the city grew, they were replaced by more permanent stone.
And it was clean. The stone waswhite, and it showed. Dirt didn’t clog the roads and alleys. I tried to reconcile it with the filthy centaur leading our group but couldn’t. Perhaps that was where my misconception had come from. I’d expected a collection of huts. But it wasn’t like that at all.
“Are there more cities like this?” I asked Kiel. “Outside the empire, I mean?”
“Yes. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. There are a great many people who don’t live under the umbrella of the Alphas.”
“I …” I stopped speaking, choosing silence instead of revealing to all around just how naive I’d been. Even after months of working and fighting alongside the rebellion and discovering how evil the Alphas were, I was still blind to so much. Our empire had always been talked about as this grand beacon of civilization, something that the rest of the world would never achieve. As if we were the only ones with culture and the ability to work together.
Now, that was all being torn down as I realized our borders were not just to keep others out. They were to keep usinand ensure the populace was blind to howbigit was outside. And how everyone got along without an immortal ruler to “show them the way.”
We walked through the streets of the city until we arrived at a building that, by nature of having three stories instead of one or two, was the biggest around. A stone fence surrounded the property, and the gates were made of wood. The only metal in sight was what bound the gates together. Even then, several of our guards would only walk straight through the center.
The centaurs left us as we arrived, trotting off to somewhere else outside. Inside the building, we were led down a long hallway. Halfway down, a pair of servants met us with folded clothing in hand for us to put on. After donning the robes, we continued, following the guards into the throne room.
The big, spacious room with its angled ceilings was filled with the roaring crackle of a giant fire from off to the left. Paintings hung from the walls, while giant candles filled a dozen chandeliers to provide light that was accentuated through a large glass window set high in the far wall.
A multitude of tables and benches filled the room, with all manner of beings seated at them, eating and drinking and conversing. Eyes flicked toward us, but most seemed to not care.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a voice boomed from the far end, capturing our attention.
I stared openly as a humungous figure rose from a chair that would have sat six or seven Kiels. The creature was taller than him, too, but the vastness of his size was centered in his gut. “A treat from the tyrants, you say? Spies trying to cross the border?”
A rustle ran through the room as those at nearby tables and benches voiced their displeasure.
“Not spies, your lordship,” Kiel said, stepping forward and ignoring the spears and swords that swung his way. “Not enemies, either. Not to you or these people, at least.”
