Dragon Blossom

The city of sun and sand

The city of Pellegrin was unlike any Eri had ever visited before. She was a lucky girl, or at least she had been for the past year and a half. She had travelled to many incredible cities in her life: Meyrin, the castle city atop a mountain; Artemia, with its water canals and immense white walls; Unermia, the blue stone enclave hidden behind the waterfall; and Cerrem, the small port with the lighthouse. But Pellegrin was something entirely new. Frey watched her run from bow to stern with her friend, both pointing at everything and looking at each other excitedly.

They were arriving aboard a much smaller barge than the caravel they had crossed the sea in, as they had changed ships upon arriving at Axandor, the main seaport; the river was very wide, almost as wide as the waterfall of Unermia, on the banks many people spent the day sowing all kinds of grains, vegetables, and even flowers. It was remarkable that just a few meters beyond the river there were endless sand dunes, as if the whole country existed only along the river. As they advanced, the large buildings, temples, and monuments became evident. Jamdar stood at the bow with his arms crossed, looking proudly at his city, satisfied with the amazed looks of the children.

As they approached the city center, their destination, they encountered increasingly grand constructions. The temple of sand and sun, dedicated to the God who protected Pellegrin, dominated the entire riverbank with its wide columns adorned with reliefs that told the story of the kingdom and of the God of sand and sun himself, who was said to embody determination, blessing the men and women capable of enduring life's hardships with abundant life and prosperity. Like everything in Pellegrin, its size was in its breadth and depth, the temple was in fact a gigantic esplanade surrounded by columns. Further on was the palace of justice, whose entrance was carved to resemble the jaws of an enormous feline beast, and finally, the great royal palace. Where the queen awaited them. A queen, Frey imagined Cardinal Celhyun pulling at his nonexistent hair in a rage at the idea of a woman reigning.

The palace extended in all directions, even over the wide river, for the enormous bridge that rose above it, allowing even boats and sailing ships to navigate beneath, was also part of the palace. A wooden dock beneath this bridge served as their landing place. Frey was grateful to be able to disembark under the cover of Pellegrin's scorching sun. Large gates in the quarry beneath the same bridge would lead inside. Apparently, they were actually the main entrance, as most people seemed to get around the city by boat. In practice, it was two palaces joined by the bridge, occupying both banks.

They docked, and the ambassadors summoned a whole group of stevedores to unload the barge. Valderant ordered the sailors to help with the task. She herself had captained both ships on the journey. Apparently, she owned a small fleet of about four vessels of different sizes and had made a fortune transporting people and goods between Artemia, Druhunn, and Pellegrin. If that was true...

"Val," he asked, taking advantage of the fact that Runa was preparing Eri to disembark. They would meet the queen as soon as they had settled in. He wanted her to look presentable and behave well. "Why did you leave the order? You still carry your sword, you even have those potions on hand. The master said you had the potential to be a legend. What happened?"

"I wanted something better, something for myself," she replied without looking at him, concentrating on her men. "Back then I had nothing, and I thought I would be happy just killing dragons, taking revenge on them for burning down my city, traveling with Jimmer and you. When Runa arrived and you got engaged," she paused a bit too long, "it was shortly after I killed my third dragon, I realized that after the brief aftertaste of victory, the emptiness didn't go away, the dragons died, and I still had nothing. Runa never killed a dragon, and look at her, she has everything. Don't tell her this or I'll leave your face looking like an eggplant, but I was very envious of her, I no longer felt comfortable among you. So I went to find my own happiness."