From Iron and Ruin

Aoak

Chapter 40: Aoak

I could smell salt on the breeze.

The procession of the Legion made its way doggedly along the wide-roads. I had not remembered the roads into Aoak being so wide, or well made, but they were. The ground gave no problems for the wagon wheels and the rocking in the saddle was soft.

Ahead, a sprawling town sat behind a wall of slate grey stone. I could see the slope of slated rooves peeking up over the wall. Noise babbled from the town and the gates were spread wide-open.

Then, beyond the walls and spread out as far as the eye could see, was the sea. Blue-green water that sparkled under the sunlight and a wind that carried the scent of salt-water.

"Amazing!" Kohen stared at the sea, perched on the saddle like a bird about to leap into the air. "The sea has so much to say!"

"And what does the sea say?" Mahon asked, one hand holding the reins of his golden-coated mount. That salt-wind rustled his dark hair that curled behind his ears, in a bad need of a shear.

"The sea can say a thousand things in a second." Kohen tilted his face up to the sky, an easy smile curling the wide corners of his mouth. "Babbling news that pours from the open mouth of rivers, greeting the vast water of the sea. The life that explodes from the beds of the river where creatures live, unknown to everyone who walks on land. The sea has so much to say – so much sorrow and suffering, but happiness too. Sometime- only sometimes, I hear whispers of lands far beyond the reaches of boats. Hidden and protected viciously from the likes of us. There are no Zentins there either. Not ones I can hear."

"I wish I could hear that," Taelan said somewhat wistfully. "I can hear a whisper on the wind, or tell how the trees feel by how they crack and groan but never how they truly feel."

"What good is that? I can't hear stone, but I am it's master." Gwen said. "Which is given with respect and reverence because it took a long time to achieve that."

Halon's brow pinched at us and he leaned over in the saddle, somewhat disturbed. "It is alarming how often your friends engage in deep, nonsensical conversations."

Gwen turned on him. "Are you questioning my skill?"

"Of course not." Halon's brow arched. "But your quick defence tells me much."

Mahon paled. "Your skull is softer than you think, Birchwood."

Gwen stared hard at the Half-Blood, her brows thunderous. He stared back, a strange smile rising.

Was he ...?

Asha'da.

Kohen looked vaguely delighted.

Poor Mahon didn't seem to know what was happening.

"Perhaps we should continue on." I urged my mount on, urging her along the road.

Small figures stood on the wall, watching as we approached. Great banners of the Legion were caught on that salt-wind, heralding our arrival and it wasn't long before I caught a joyful shout that rippled along the road.

Aoak.

The fish-bone gate had been dismantled, but they had left the bones as trophies planted against the dark stone wall. Over the walls, great shrieking gulls circled. I had remembered those birds, vicious and greedy, sweeping down to rob the candied applies from the children at the fairs. I wondered if we could get them to ally themselves with the Legion? We could pay in fish.