Sickle Road before going south on Bright Rose Road. Along the way, she came across a patrol of the City Watch – Kummas all. The Watch, along with the Ashokan Guard and the High Army, made up the three branches of Ashoka’s military. While the Guard and High Army had the duty of defending Ashoka in case of attack from Suwraith’s hordes of Chimeras, the Watch – far smaller at only three hundred men – was tasked with keeping the peace for the entire city and her surrounding Oasis.
Luckily, their responsibility was made easier by several simple facts. First, if someone committed an offense, they either paid for it with coin or with the acceptance of severe corporal punishment – or both. Second, beyond Ashoka’s borders was the Wildness, a perilous place full of danger and death. If someone couldn’t get along with his neighbors, his choice was simple: correct his behavior or leave the city.
As a result, c rime was very rare in Ashoka.
To Mira’s way to thinking, it was also exactly what the degenerate lawbreakers deserved. The city lacked the resources to coddle the criminal.
She nodded to the patrol and set her horse to a trot. Soon enough, she came upon the massive Inner Wall that prot ected Ashoka proper. The crenelated battlements soared fifty feet, and the evenly spaced towers reached up another twenty. The wall was thick enough to allow troops to march five abreast. Even now, warriors of the Ashokan Guard paced the wall, keeping watch over the fields and looking toward the distant outer wall. The protection of Ashoka was a duty shared by the High Army and the Guard. While the Guard was a reserve unit, it was also highly professional, which wasn’t a surprise since most of the ranks were filled by every able-bodied Kumma male who had completed the Trials. The rest of their approximately 23,000 warriors were veterans from Castes Muran and Rahail with a smattering of Duriahs thrown in as well. And though they only trained four days a month, there was little difference in quality between the Ashokan Guard and the High Army.
Mira passed into the cool shadow of the Kubar Gate, one of the three gates of the Inner Wall. Each gate was forty feet thick and wide enough for two large wagons to pass one another with room to spare on either side. The gatehouse loomed above as a menacing presence with murder holes all along its length, and the heavy portcullis, made of thick ironwood, was always kept ready to crash down at a moment’s notice.
The traffic was light with only a f ew wagons and pedestrians traveling through the gate. Mira would have been quickly through the Kubar, but everyone had to pause and step aside for a returning Ashokan Guard patrol. From their camouflage clothing, tired demeanor, and grimy faces, Mira guessed they must have been out in the field, scouting beyond Ashoka’s borders. Regular reconnaissance for up to a three days journey into the Wildness was standard procedure for the Guard and the Army. Mira studied the returning warriors and recognized a few of them from Houses Suzay and Shektan. It was Fifth Platoon – 23 men – of Third Company, Second Brigade, Third Legion. Their commander, Lieutenant Rector Bryce, saw her and saluted.
Mira waved back, more out of courtesy rather than any real feeling of affection. The lieutenant was someone Nanna had mentioned as a potential husband. She wasn’t sure what she thought of the man given how little she knew him, even though, like herself, he was of House Shektan. He’d only recently returned from his fourth and final Trial – a respectable number – choosing to settle down while he still had his health. From what she remembered of him as a young girl before he had left Ashoka for the first time, Rector had seemed warm, generous, and lively. Not so much now. The lieutenant was ruggedly handsome, but his time in the Wildness had returned him weather-worn and grim.
Her N anna wasn’t
Luckily, their responsibility was made easier by several simple facts. First, if someone committed an offense, they either paid for it with coin or with the acceptance of severe corporal punishment – or both. Second, beyond Ashoka’s borders was the Wildness, a perilous place full of danger and death. If someone couldn’t get along with his neighbors, his choice was simple: correct his behavior or leave the city.
As a result, c rime was very rare in Ashoka.
To Mira’s way to thinking, it was also exactly what the degenerate lawbreakers deserved. The city lacked the resources to coddle the criminal.
She nodded to the patrol and set her horse to a trot. Soon enough, she came upon the massive Inner Wall that prot ected Ashoka proper. The crenelated battlements soared fifty feet, and the evenly spaced towers reached up another twenty. The wall was thick enough to allow troops to march five abreast. Even now, warriors of the Ashokan Guard paced the wall, keeping watch over the fields and looking toward the distant outer wall. The protection of Ashoka was a duty shared by the High Army and the Guard. While the Guard was a reserve unit, it was also highly professional, which wasn’t a surprise since most of the ranks were filled by every able-bodied Kumma male who had completed the Trials. The rest of their approximately 23,000 warriors were veterans from Castes Muran and Rahail with a smattering of Duriahs thrown in as well. And though they only trained four days a month, there was little difference in quality between the Ashokan Guard and the High Army.
Mira passed into the cool shadow of the Kubar Gate, one of the three gates of the Inner Wall. Each gate was forty feet thick and wide enough for two large wagons to pass one another with room to spare on either side. The gatehouse loomed above as a menacing presence with murder holes all along its length, and the heavy portcullis, made of thick ironwood, was always kept ready to crash down at a moment’s notice.
The traffic was light with only a f ew wagons and pedestrians traveling through the gate. Mira would have been quickly through the Kubar, but everyone had to pause and step aside for a returning Ashokan Guard patrol. From their camouflage clothing, tired demeanor, and grimy faces, Mira guessed they must have been out in the field, scouting beyond Ashoka’s borders. Regular reconnaissance for up to a three days journey into the Wildness was standard procedure for the Guard and the Army. Mira studied the returning warriors and recognized a few of them from Houses Suzay and Shektan. It was Fifth Platoon – 23 men – of Third Company, Second Brigade, Third Legion. Their commander, Lieutenant Rector Bryce, saw her and saluted.
Mira waved back, more out of courtesy rather than any real feeling of affection. The lieutenant was someone Nanna had mentioned as a potential husband. She wasn’t sure what she thought of the man given how little she knew him, even though, like herself, he was of House Shektan. He’d only recently returned from his fourth and final Trial – a respectable number – choosing to settle down while he still had his health. From what she remembered of him as a young girl before he had left Ashoka for the first time, Rector had seemed warm, generous, and lively. Not so much now. The lieutenant was ruggedly handsome, but his time in the Wildness had returned him weather-worn and grim.
Her N anna wasn’t
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