And So It Begins by R.G. Green Page A

constructed over the fire here, and Kherin knew some of the Defenders assigned to the camp would spend their night ensuring the fire didn’t go out. He had held that duty more than once at previous Defender camps.
    “Aye, my lord,” Ronel said after a moment, drawing the prince’s gaze back. “Prince Adrien is being tended to at the healer Willum’s quarters in the city. I will arrange an escort for you immediately.”
    Kherin didn’t miss how his eyes had gone to the trader as he spoke, or miss the slight shake of the head the trader returned.
    “I know the place,” the trader said quietly. “And it might be better to not wait on an escort.”
    Kherin was glad to hear the trader’s words, though he knew it was his illness, and not Adrien’s injury, that was behind them. But he didn’t want to wait for the escort to be assembled now that he had finally reached Gravlorn, and that alone kept him from accusing the trader of coddling.
    Ronel may have argued, but he didn’t, instead replying with a simple, “As you wish, my lord,” speaking as though it had been Kherin who’d declined the escort. “Your horses will be cared for until they are required. Our Defender Leader, Greshem, will be notified of your arrival and informed you will be lodging in the city.” Again he seemed to be speaking to Derek. What confirmation Derek returned appeared to be enough, and Ronel raised one closed fist in a parting salute, and then turned to resume his own duties in the stables.
    Derek drew Kherin toward the camp with the gentle pressure of his hand, the soaked ground slopping mud on their boots with every step. The continuing rain filled their footprints almost immediately, and then washed them away altogether within moments of their passing.
    Like other Defender camps, Gravlorn’s consisted of a series of long, rough-sided buildings constructed for usefulness rather than comfort, their arrangement forming a broken half circle around the central campfire with a clear view of Trian’s Ford. The kitchen would most likely be built closest to the fire, while the barracks would be the largest and set the farthest from it. A makeshift armory and areas for storage would fill other structures, though Gravlorn had forgone the building of a morgue. Kherin identified each of the buildings from his familiarity with Defender camps, but was surprised at how few Defenders were seen among them.
    “They are probably in the city,” Derek told him in answer to his whispered remark, his voice low and not altogether approving. “The beds at the inns are undoubtedly warmer, the food better, and the company more pleasing. I would imagine most of our Defenders prefer the comforts of Gravlorn proper over the discomforts of the camp, especially on a night as miserable as this.”
    Derek had slipped an arm around him as they crossed the camp, and Kherin let the criticism he felt at the nearly abandoned camp slip away as he leaned on the trader for support. The memories of the way-stop, combined with Derek’s close proximity, sent a sliver of warmth through him that gathered around his cock, though he resisted the urge to return the one-armed embrace.
    But as they passed the central fire and continued on to the far edge of the camp, Kherin’s disparagement returned. Gravlorn loomed large in front of them, built so close there was almost no separation of the camp from the city. Though he hadn’t spoken, Derek murmured quietly that it hadn’t always been this way. Gravlorn, it seemed, had expanded north as well as south, leaving the camp to occupy only a narrow strip of land between the city and the Ford.
    Kherin’s ridicule rose when the soggy ground of the camp gave way to cobbled streets after no more than a few dozen paces past the outermost Defender structure, and he almost snorted when he saw that the first businesses met in the city were taverns. The sounds coming from inside them all but proved Derek’s earlier remarks as pointedly