FIRST BOOK OF THE PIPER OF MIRCHAEK TRILOGY
When the walled city of the gods, Dansarun, opens its doors for trade, Xuijae's ruling clan sends its perfect representatives: the troublesome prince, Kai-Se, who wants nothing to do with palace life, and...
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Mutsu burst with color when they arrived at the city proper.
As soon as they cleared the valley between two foggy peaks, a huge crowd greeted them, waving ribbons of red and yellow—Xuijae's royal colors—and cheering. Loud fanfare started from the lip of the city, where cobble stones kissed upturned earth, and continued all the way until the delegation reached an open square where the rest of the crowd trickled into.
Oddly, Shencai's original residents, the creatures of lore, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the crowd was composed of people who looked exactly like humans—two feet, two arms, a face with the same number of holes and organs—but all resemblances ended there. Even from his place inside the carriage, Nao-Zai could feel waves of foreign power rippling off the gathered people. Even with smiles on their faces and a seemingly positive outlook on their neighboring empire's representatives, he couldn't suppress the shiver going down his spine and freezing his limbs into their tense state.
Should these people decide the humans weren't welcome, they could trample Xuijae in a matter of minutes. He needed to increase vigilance.
Houses made from stone and bamboo much like the ones Nao-Zai was familiar with back home loomed in the background, the roads winding around them. Paper lanterns were bright orange with respect to the old Shencai's royal colors but only some houses had them hanging from their awnings. As Nao-Zai's gaze took in all the details in the parade, he noted that the prevalent color of the lanterns the crowd carried were teal—Dansarun's symbolic color.
It was supposed to resemble the waves of the sea up to its symbolic strength and might and its ability to last forever. And conducting a parade and pasting all of Dansarun's symbols in the empire they conquered was almost like the gods were sending a message: Defy us and Xuijae could end up like Shencai.
Nao-Zai wasn't an expert on politics but maybe the prince could offer more insight into this. He glanced to the prince's direction only to find him staring dully at the crowd with a kind of lifeless eyes which reminded Nao-Zai of the pair he once saw on a prisoner serving his fifteenth year in jail.
Kai-Se watched the parade with his chin on his hand, his fingers tapping absently against the carriage window's sill. His eyes flitted here and there, the sunlight streaming from between the gaps in the gray clouds overhead turning his pupils a warm shade of chestnut. Nao-Zai didn't even know such a color was possible.
At least the prince had stopped humming that infernal song.
The parade cleared the open square and even more people trickled into the crowd, making it thicker and more...cluttered. Nao-Zai's mind whirred with a plan to arrange them orderly. Have them fall in line. Maybe that'll solve the problem.
From the corner of his eye, he saw something dash from the shadows. He drew closer to the window from the other side of the carriage, earning a curious glance from the prince. He peeled back the thin curtain to have a clearer view of the crowd and kept his eyes at the pairs of legs clad in beige trousers and skin-tight dresses. True enough, someone—rather, something—wove through the fray, earning whispered curses from the owners of the legs.
