Free The Chesian Wars (A Griffins & Gunpowder Collection) by Joshua Johnson Page B

cuffs and accents. The badge over his heart had a black fortress on a blue field with white stripes from corner to corner. Three chevrons on his sleeve marked him as a sergeant and an onyx pendant in the shape of a fortress hung from his neck.
    "Sergeant...Ferland, was it?" Malis reined up so close that his black beast's flank pushed the man back a pace.
    "Uh...yes, Your Grace. My apologies, Your Grace." The man bowed low. "It is late. I would not expect someone of your position to arrive with so little warning and in the middle of the night."
    "These are perilous times, Sergeant," Malis said. "Your vigilance is admirable. I will need a guide to show me to the palace."
    "Of course, Your Grace!" The sergeant waved to the nearby stables and a young man, or maybe an older boy, emerged from one of the stalls leading a small horse. "This is Blane. He will guide you to the palace."
    "Thank you, Sergeant." Malis nodded and turned his horse toward the city.
    They emerged from the gatehouse into an open plaza, surrounded on all sides by walls fifty feet tall and broken only by three smaller gatehouses. If the main gatehouse were to fall, this would be a secondary line of defense against invaders. Their guide led them directly across the plaza and the wooden gates swung open with the wave of his hand.
    They emerged from the second gatehouse in what seemed to be a warehouse district. Tall buildings made of clay, with wide wooden doors and small windows, lined the street and wooden placards described their use. Many of the placards were written in the sharp angled language of Ehtroy. Malis spoke the language well enough to carry a conversation, but had never learned to read it. The few that were written in the Trade tongue made it clear that this district was used to store goods going to and coming from the rest of Ehtroy. The open warehouses would be closer to the harbor.
    Another wall thirty feet high loomed above them and their guide dismounted to speak with the soldiers huddled around the gate. He made some gestures toward Malis and his guards. After a moment, he climbed back onto his horse and waited for the gates to open. They were wood, banded and studded with iron.
    The next district was lined with shops, massive stone buildings with placards scrawled in Ehtroyan. Jewel encrusted doors, gilded door handles and curtains and awnings made from rich velvet and silk, marked this as the merchant district for the wealthy locals. More guards were visible as well, and not all of them wore the uniform of the city guard.
    "Mercenaries," Lander Patera said as they passed a cluster of men dressed in garish golden uniforms with black accents. They stood under the awning to one particularly large shop, carbines clutched in shivering hands and ivory handled revolvers holstered on their hips.
    "Indeed," Malis said to his captain of guards.
    Lander had been served in his role as the Grand Duke's primary protector for more than a decade. At six and a half feet, he was taller than Malis by a hand and had shaved his head. Most of his olive skin was adorned with tattoos. One particularly disturbing image crawled up his neck and twisted around the right side of his face; it made his green eyes stand out. A single gold stud pierced his left earlobe and a simple gold chain hung from his neck.
    "It's only a little further," their guide promised. They had continued to climb up the hill on which Arbina had been founded and the buildings had become larger, spaced further apart. "This will be the last guardhouse before the palace."
    The final gatehouse was nearly as large as the main gatehouse. The walls here were fifty feet thick if they were an inch and the battlements towered sixty feet high. The gates were made of wrought iron. Tall, narrow windows served as rifle cuts. Malis could see fires burning on the other side of the openings.
    A man in a thick black cloak stepped from the gatehouse with his hood raised. Their guide dismounted quickly and went to