Find Your Fire - The Angulus Chronicles #1

Chapter Fifteen

The two guards, Mikhail and Gerio, had been expecting us and after a quick handshake, they led us over the long wharf towards the castle.

Gerio was an older man, mid-fifties, with dark almost blackish hair and the same uptilted eyes as Oahn, who had been serving this kingdom for over a thirty years now. He was kind, maybe a little blunt, but it was obvious his loyalty was to his king and their people.

Mikhail, however, was a young blonde boy, maybe barely nineteen, and showed much more interest in the Teacht Aniar than Gerio probably ever would. I was kind of happy that the guards hadn't trained that little light and interest out of him because, in my opinion, it was always good to have an interest in the unknown.

It was obvious Oahn was from here, as all three of them had the same skintone and uptilted eyes.

We had reached the wall and the group was now heading for the stairs spiraling down to an open courtyard below, the steps of the stairs cut out of the stone wall. I strolled behind the group, examining the castle and losing myself in its beauty. The white of the walls was blinding my eyes slightly but the smell of the roses growing up the wall was a nice contrast with the salty sea breeze that seemed to linger. Millions of bridges were connected between seven massive, gold-topped towers and stairs led down to the courtyard below, crossing holes through the water surface, a surface that created a clear roof above the ground and left dancing markings on the millions of benches below.

"You should see it when the sun goes down." Mikhail had slowed his pace and now strolled beside me, his bulking armor glinting in the sunlight. "The sky is lit up with pinks and yellows, even so, are the white walls, and with the colorful fishes swimming above us, it's a maze of color and movement."

I looked at his eyes as they crinkled, enjoying the thought of it. "It surely is a masterpiece. Who made it?" We followed the group through a grassed field that led us past a fountain spewing azure blue water, and Mikhail turned his soft gaze on me. He did not fit in that armor, it didn't match. He was too observant of the beauty of nature to be fighting and protecting.

"We don't know. This castle is as old as the kingdom itself and the books live up to millennia years back." His eyes darted to Gerio before landing back on me. "If I were to guess, I say it's the work of artists." His face lit up as he spoke. "Incredibly talented artists who used stone to build the castle but also knew where to place it best, knew where the sun would hit the right angles." When he eyed Gerio again, his smile faltered. "Sorry, I'm not supposed to talk about it while I'm on duty."

I knotted my eyebrows together in a frown. "Why? Is it a secret?"

"No-..." The sound of our boots scraping the floor was the only sound before he continued. "But I'm supposed to be on guard and not allowed to talk about hobbies or chitchat in general." He then looked at me with a wry smile. "It's not very professional, is it?"

"No, maybe not." It was obvious I did not agree but he decided not to approach it. Instead, he changed the subject. 

"So, you guys are here to admire our kingdom, right?" He kicked a stone on our path and winced as it hit a bench with a loud clunk. Not professional.

"Yes, Miuh invited us weeks back but since we're all so busy, we couldn't come sooner." I kept my tone light as the lie rolled off my tongue. We had decided to not go into full detail about why we were really here, but Mikhail and Gerio were already informed about us by Miuh himself, so we couldn't fully deny the fact Miuh had interest in us. I just hoped he wouldn't ask why, because I was the worst liar ever.

"Well-..." Mikhail continued, not having a clue that I was as vague as possible. "You chose the best time of the year. This month, the spice market is visiting our capital. Vendors from all over the world gather together to sell the people everything from chilies to thyme and rosemary, only the best of the best. Hunters bring their best meat to sell us, and they cook the most amazing dishes with the two combined. It's a true delicatessen. We used to have big festival nights where the vendors showed us everything from using the spices in food to creating herbal teas or medicine, but now we can't anymore."