The Krakos: Book Two of The Legend of the Artificer

Chapter 2

"You took your time," was the first thing that greeted Grim and Tibalt as they stepped out of the gate, and Tibalt huffed as he started to tie back his hair.

"Not nearly as long as you," he shot back, and Angel laughed as Tibalt got his hair into something a bit more presentable after Tarm so helpfully informed him that most holkinds did not let their hair hang loose or leave it in a messy bun in mixed company. Deft fingers plaited the hair back against his scalp in the vague hopes that he would be seen as presentable, and he paused at the sight of people passing by on a wide road and others waiting near the stone circle for others to come.

He probably should activate his disguise circle, he thought distantly, and reached up to his throat where the gold was set into cherry red skin. Fingers dragged over the mark, and the illusion shimmered into being and locked into place. Golden circles disappeared, and he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together to feel the ridges catch on each other to make sure they were still there. The magic sparked, and he turned back to Grim.

"It smells like fresh water," he said flatly, and Grim raised a brow.

"It's a port city, so it would," he replied passively and gestured to Cairn. "Up you get."

Grim braced his hands together, and Tibalt set his foot firmly in the interlaced fingers and hauled himself up onto the saddle with no small degree of sheer terror. Grim launched himself up behind him with so much ease it felt like Tibalt was being mocked, and the reins were gathered in one hand.

"Let's go," Grim decided. "Elmer! Giddup!"

Elmer sat up from her lazing on the back of her mare and blew wild, curly bangs out of her eyes with a huff of irritation.

"I am up!" she snapped, and Grim clucked his tongue as he nudged Cairn into a walk.

"You weren't," he said flatly, and guided Cairn out into the road.

"Where's the other troll?" Tibalt asked as he looked around, and Grim huffed.

"Trrir? He only lets people out in the evenings and early mornings. If you want to use his gate, you have to time it. Keeps the chaos down," he replied. "I think he just likes napping. He's old enough that he spends most of his time asleep."

"Mood," Tibalt muttered under his breath, and Grim's thighs squeezed against his as he pushed Cairn into a canter.

"What?"

"Never mind" --he automatically gripped at the pommel of the saddle for balance-- "but give me warning, please."

"No," Grim said placidly, and Tibalt made a noise of offense, "I'm teaching you hands-on. That means you have to know what my body's doing when I do it."

Heat rose in Tibalt's cheeks and he bit back something highly inappropriate, given the fact that he was at Grim's mercy and couldn't possibly make things uncomfortable, considering their positions here. Elmer glanced back at them, and her lips slowly twitched up into something incredibly concerning, by all intents and purposes, and he resolutely ignored her. It was too hard to focus on conversation with focusing on staying balanced, anyways, and thus he spent much of the canter to Vengyll bouncing in the saddle and figuring out how to roll his body with the ride. The other three managed it with criminal ease, but he felt much like a sack of potatoes, dangerously close to falling off, with no recourse for salvation beyond Grim's firm arms.

It wasn't long before they reached the sprawling city. It rose up from a great distance, cutting out of the sparse trees and sprawled out over the flatlands around the rivers. Made of red and gray stone, it was not what Tibalt would think of as 'massive', but given the fact that this was not the kind of world he was accustomed to, he supposed its size would be relative to the general vibe of the world he now lived in. The two rivers, Hrotun and Dayr, were contrasting colors. He didn't know which was which, but from what he could see, one was a murky brown, and the other was a bright and clear blue. If he recalled his High Hulan etymology correctly, Hrotun was likely to be the brown one, and Dayr was probably going to be the blue one. It sounded right, anyways. He wished he could ask Teacher, but Teacher was still utterly refusing to speak.