At Mercy's Will

Part 4

Eileen and Cinaed made it into the city the next day. Eileen's butt hurt from riding a full day, thankfully the city gates came into view. it was a large city with giant bridges connecting to the small island where the city and castle was at. Guards were positioned at all points of the bridge entrance and exit. we slowed our horses and walked past the first set of warriors. the second set stopped us.

"Stop there, who goes?" the older one yelled.

"We come with private business of king Angus, let us pass." Cinaed yelled back.

"The king has no business with Priests and Nuns." the other yelled stomping his staff. 

"we are not just any Priest and Nun." Cinaed said pulling up his sleeve to show his shoulder where a black mark stood. 

it was a cross with a circle around most of it, thinking of the mark of Grale made Eileen's own start to burn. the guard gasped and stepped back, Cinaed smiled and let his sleeve drop back down. 

"Assassins of Grale," the solider mumbled before yelling, "let them pass."  

Cinaed nodded and urged his horse into a walk, Eileen followed behind him and they trotted into the smelly city. Eileen scrunched her nose and the smell of filth wafted into her nose, Cinaed coughed but kept going into the city. they passed a lot of small shops with doors open, in some houses there were women tending to sheets and dusting off rugs. grime and dust fell softly down to the brown streets. they passed a very crowded market place that made it almost impossible to cross, merchants called out yelling in different languages from all over the world, trying to tempt them into buying something. 

Eileen ignored them, looking ahead she saw the castle gleaming ahead, it's clean-ish stone walls standing out from all the dirty little homes. Cinaed led on, Eileen looked into one of the windows of the houses to see a young girl around her age, looking out to the castle with a bored look. the house she looked from had a lot of noises and many drunk men walked out of there.  Eileen new the girl was a prostitute and looked down to the muddy ground. they passed into the open gates of the castle. more guards were stationed there and waited for instruction, a few watched them, Cinaed dissmounted and walked to Eileen helping her off. a stable boy ran over.

"Oye sir, you need a place fur your horses?" the boy asked.

"Yes, here." Cinaed said handing the boy two coins. 

the kid looked at them in awe and led the two horses away. Eileen watched as a young man in armor walk up to them. he had blond hair that glistened like gold in the sun. 

"Can i help you?" he asked.

"We are here for the king, our Father has told us to come." Cinaed said.

Eileen looked around the clean court yard. it seemed to be the only clean place, when she looked back the young guard was watching her, humor in his eyes while he held a scowl. she arched her eye-brow, daring him to do something stupid. 

"I am Prince Edward, you two must be Brother Duncan and Sister Duncan." Edward said. 

Cinaed nodded, Edward turned and started to walk up the stairs. Eileen didn't notice her brother follow behind until Edward called her out on it.

"You find the walls bewitching?" Edward teased.

Eileen sent him a glare as she hid her blush. How dare he! she followed behind Cinaed who gave her a smile.

"I could kill you in seconds and you wouldn't even know it." she mumbled.

Edward  led them into the castle, it was big. bigger than the church she had been used to, she wondered how many secret passage ways there were and how long it would take to find them all. they walked into a private library where there was a chair and desk facing them. books were on shelves all along the room, going as high as to touch the ceiling. a man she recognized far to well stood, his arms folded as he looked out the great window.