The Blade and The Bird

Chapter 10

The sun was rising above the towering pine trees as Sidra caught sight of the city of Dhinal in the distance. The trees thinned out as the horses galloped towards the city, branches giving away to stone. The skyline was broken up by the height of the buildings here, the bricks stacked double the two-floor buildings of her hometown of Moros. These buildings didn't shine a bright white in the sunlight like the ones of Yariky rather they were made of a slate-color that seemed to match the sky.

As the horses slowed their pace as they entered the town, Sidra and Baron prepared to leave the cart. She noticed how tired the man looked in the morning light, with dark circles under his eyes and a hunch to his back. She felt bad for a moment that he was still transporting goods so late into his life.

"Thank you very much," she said to the old man as she climbed out of the back of the cart. Baron gave similar sentiments and the man nodded at them before he climbed off his bench to untie the horses. The two of them left the man to his business and began to walk further into the town. Sidra realized this was the furthest she'd ever been away from Moros, it had been days of traveling, and she really missed her quaint little house in the trees right now. She wished everything was a bad dream and she could go back to the way things had been. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

She'd only made it a few paces when Baron gave her arm a sharp tug and pulled her towards the closest wall. She looked over at him with surprise and he pointed toward a poster that had been taped to the outside of the slate-colored wall. She took a few steps closer to it to get a better look at it and Sidra recognized a sketch of her and Baron on the poster. It was their faces done in crude charcoal and she took a step back in shock. There was a note beneath their pictures that said there would be large reward money for their capture and Sidra could see the royal seal stamped into the top of the poster. She reached toward her collarbones and pulled her hood up quickly and then motioned for Baron to do the same.

"What is this?" Sidra hissed at him. She felt her heartbeat increasing the longer she looked at the sketches of their faces.

"Looks like the court is involved," Baron said. There's tension in his voice as he said this. Sidra looked again at the royal seal stamped on the top of the poster. Sidra knew one thing from this poster, that someone important was looking for her. Some had figured out that she didn't die alongside her grandmother. Her name was written on the poster as well, she wondered how these people had gotten her name. Next to the sketch of Baron it just said "Name Unknown".

Sidra pulled her hood tighter around her face and motioned for Baron to do the same. She turned away from the poster and began to walk down the street, she kept her face cast downwards as she walked, but had to give the occasional glance at the street signs and roadmaps along the main street to figure out where they were going.

She hadn't wanted to stop in this town, she had hoped the man was going all the way to Moros, but unfortunately, they needed to find some way to continue on their journey. They needed to get toward the cart area, just as they had done in the last town, to try and buy passage further North toward Burya. Now, Sidra stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do now that she saw their faces plastered on every wall of the city. Sidra took a few more steps forward when she heard the last thing she wanted to hear.

"They look like the pictures," a young boy said to his father as he pointed to Sidra and Baron. His father looked up from his son over at the two of them and his eyes widened in surprise. Sidra stopped in her tracks as she made eye contact with the father and Baron collided into her back.

She tried to tighten her hood and wave out as if it wasn't her, but it was too late.

"Guards," the man shouted. "Guards, they're here."