services as a jester.”
“Only one piece of jerky for such laugher?”
“Oh, you don’t want it?” taunted Holo, amused. Despite his embarrassment, Lawrence decided to accept the offering.
—but his teeth closed on air. Holo had drawn her hand back at the last moment.
The wisewolf snickered; Lawrence realized that going up against her was a fool’s errand. If she decided to be so childish, he could only ignore her.
If he didn’t build a fire soon, then they would all be eating dinner in the cold. Lawrence moved to get off the wagon, but Holo grabbed his sleeve and drew near.
Lawrence’s heart skipped a beat.
Her eyelashes still had traces of tears in them, which caught the red light of the setting sun.
“I do think, from time to time, that some raw mutton would be nice—what say you?”
With the mournful bleating of the sheep echoing through the twilight air, Holo’s words—spoken through her ever-keen fangs—could not have been entirely in jest.
After all, she was a wolf.
Lawrence patted Holo’s head as if chiding her for making a bail joke, then hopped off the wagon.
Holo’s lip curled in a brief snarl, but she soon smiled slightly and passed Lawrence the bundle of straw, tinder, and firewood.
Chapter 3
Entering Ruvinheigen required passing through two separate checkpoints. One controlled passage through the city walls, and the other was situated out on the main road, which encircled the sprawl of greater Ruvinheigen.
Owing to the heavy traffic in and out of a city this size, one had to obtain a passage document at the outer checkpoint in order t0 pass through the station at the city walls. Legitimate travelers would use the legal routes into the city, obtain proper documents, and pass through the walls—any who lacked the passage document would be turned away on the spot.
The checkpoints also provided some degree of control over the inevitable smuggling and counterfeiting that large cities attracted.
The road that Lawrence and his companions took was evidently less traveled as their checkpoint—while not exactly crude—was rather simpler than checkpoints on more common routes, and the guard there seemed to know Norah. Using some strange power, she guided her sheep through the purposefully narrow checkpoint gate, and Lawrence followed after having his wares inspected.
The plain checkpoint stood in sharp contrast to the grand, august walls of Ruvinheigen.
It would be completely impossible to breach Ruvinheigen’s walls without control of the surrounding areas. Walls of earth and timber were spoken of with pride in other areas, but here a barrier of stone surrounded the city with lookout towers positioned at regular intervals. Ruvinheigen was nearer a castle than a city, and Holo let out an involuntary gasp of wonder as they regarded it from a convenient hill just past the first inspection point.
Just outside the walls were cultivated fields, and between the fields, roads stretched radially out from the city.
Here a group of pigs was driven by a farmer; there a long merchant caravan was visible. Farther in the distance, a white carpel moved slowly over the ground—probably a flock of sheep sonic shepherd had brought to pasture. Shepherds with flocks numbering over one hundred were not rare, but this shepherd was likely biding his time before finally bringing his sheep into Ruvinheigen to support the city’s consumption of meat.
Everything about the place was extraordinary.
Lawrence and his companions descended the hill and took one of the roads that ran between the fields.
The city was so large that from the hill it had seemed close, but traversing the distance took some time. Norah had to be care ful that her sheep didn’t eat the crops growing at either side of the road. At length, the group was close enough to make out the designs on the city walls.
At this point, Lawrence carefully produced two silver coins and held them out to Norah.
“Right, then, here’s
“Only one piece of jerky for such laugher?”
“Oh, you don’t want it?” taunted Holo, amused. Despite his embarrassment, Lawrence decided to accept the offering.
—but his teeth closed on air. Holo had drawn her hand back at the last moment.
The wisewolf snickered; Lawrence realized that going up against her was a fool’s errand. If she decided to be so childish, he could only ignore her.
If he didn’t build a fire soon, then they would all be eating dinner in the cold. Lawrence moved to get off the wagon, but Holo grabbed his sleeve and drew near.
Lawrence’s heart skipped a beat.
Her eyelashes still had traces of tears in them, which caught the red light of the setting sun.
“I do think, from time to time, that some raw mutton would be nice—what say you?”
With the mournful bleating of the sheep echoing through the twilight air, Holo’s words—spoken through her ever-keen fangs—could not have been entirely in jest.
After all, she was a wolf.
Lawrence patted Holo’s head as if chiding her for making a bail joke, then hopped off the wagon.
Holo’s lip curled in a brief snarl, but she soon smiled slightly and passed Lawrence the bundle of straw, tinder, and firewood.
Chapter 3
Entering Ruvinheigen required passing through two separate checkpoints. One controlled passage through the city walls, and the other was situated out on the main road, which encircled the sprawl of greater Ruvinheigen.
Owing to the heavy traffic in and out of a city this size, one had to obtain a passage document at the outer checkpoint in order t0 pass through the station at the city walls. Legitimate travelers would use the legal routes into the city, obtain proper documents, and pass through the walls—any who lacked the passage document would be turned away on the spot.
The checkpoints also provided some degree of control over the inevitable smuggling and counterfeiting that large cities attracted.
The road that Lawrence and his companions took was evidently less traveled as their checkpoint—while not exactly crude—was rather simpler than checkpoints on more common routes, and the guard there seemed to know Norah. Using some strange power, she guided her sheep through the purposefully narrow checkpoint gate, and Lawrence followed after having his wares inspected.
The plain checkpoint stood in sharp contrast to the grand, august walls of Ruvinheigen.
It would be completely impossible to breach Ruvinheigen’s walls without control of the surrounding areas. Walls of earth and timber were spoken of with pride in other areas, but here a barrier of stone surrounded the city with lookout towers positioned at regular intervals. Ruvinheigen was nearer a castle than a city, and Holo let out an involuntary gasp of wonder as they regarded it from a convenient hill just past the first inspection point.
Just outside the walls were cultivated fields, and between the fields, roads stretched radially out from the city.
Here a group of pigs was driven by a farmer; there a long merchant caravan was visible. Farther in the distance, a white carpel moved slowly over the ground—probably a flock of sheep sonic shepherd had brought to pasture. Shepherds with flocks numbering over one hundred were not rare, but this shepherd was likely biding his time before finally bringing his sheep into Ruvinheigen to support the city’s consumption of meat.
Everything about the place was extraordinary.
Lawrence and his companions descended the hill and took one of the roads that ran between the fields.
The city was so large that from the hill it had seemed close, but traversing the distance took some time. Norah had to be care ful that her sheep didn’t eat the crops growing at either side of the road. At length, the group was close enough to make out the designs on the city walls.
At this point, Lawrence carefully produced two silver coins and held them out to Norah.
“Right, then, here’s
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