Between the Veil and Crown

Kylin 51

Kylin remained in the seventh village until the rest of the party heading up to the capitol had arrived. Rei was sending Ofjaet, Taileia, and Morganne for obvious reasons, and Kylin and Preman to act as guards for them. When Morganne came, she brought Gloryborn with her.

"To carry all of my supplies," she informed him, gesturing to the pack laden on the horses. "Without knowing what's causing his illness, it is very important to have everything on hand in case. No one will question it."

As long as no one inspected all of the bags, that was. One of the bags contained some preliminary equipment for an apprentice. If the bags were searched, it could be easily written off or explained as being backup equipment for the Rangers, trusting that no one at the capitol knew the practices of the Rangers well enough to refute them.

When they had gathered, they met up with Kendra at the sixth village. Kylin was careful to pull up his mask and hood to ensure that he would not be recognized by Glae, should he cross their path. He kept it them up even after leaving the village, though more for its added warmth.

They reached the first village in good time, Kendra even remarking that they had gone faster than she expected. They spent the night there, leaving early in the morning. The first portion of the trip out of the Veil was not unfamiliar to Kylin. Rangers had traveled the path before. It was only strange when they followed the curve of the path towards the north and River Jeopardy instead of taking a side path away from it.

They came to the earthen bridge over the river. While maintaining a brisk pace was the goal, Kylin, Morganne, and Preman could not help but to look over the edge at the rushing water below. This was the closest they had ever been to Jeopardy, and it was fascinating, to say the least. Tons of forceful water with white crests tumbling over rocks and crashing into trees that leaned too far over it, disappearing feet beneath where they rode, only to come out on the other side, continuing its dangerous journey. Having only heard it from a distance, the sheer volume was overwhelming to Kylin. He wondered how Ofjaet handled it without showing a trace of being bothered.

Not just that, but both Ofjaet and Taileia were seemingly immune to the charm of the river's frightful beauty. They continued on without so much as a glance, Ofjaet caught up in his extraction of whatever useful information he could get out of Kendra.

It was dark by the time they had cleared the river and entered Harlofelp.

No. They had already been in Harlofelp, Kylin reminded himself. The villages were a part of the kingdom, even if they felt so very different from . . . here.

And "here" happened to be in the shadow of a towering wall.

"Chester," Kendra told them. "The last town before the Veil."

Chester looked like the home of something sinister. Kylin was quite glad when Kendra steered them away from it. The land was much more open out here, not as many trees to be near, but sleeping under the open skies was familiar. Sleeping in such a walled area that looked as though it contained more people than the villages and Rangers combined did not appeal in the slightest.

"Potential spies?" Ofjaet surmised about Kendra's decision.

"And more," she confirmed. "As I told your captain, there is a good reason we cause trouble there."

In the morning, Kendra followed the main path for a little ways, explaining that this was the merchant path, headed to the east. It was not a very busy road, with only some bands of merchants and lone travelers traveling to and from Chester. Passersby would give nods as a form of greeting, but otherwise kept their eyes on the road ahead of them, unbothered by appearance of anyone else there.