Deathless

Deathless Chapter Ten: Gateway

Chapter Ten: Gateway

Fire cascaded down from the heavens, like droplets of water during a hurricane. A thunderstorm brewed overhead as our soldiers dropped to the ground like flies. Panic spread through our ranks like wildfire, and it seemed that the gods themselves had exacted their wrath upon us. Curving arcs of lightning descended upon us, and the blackened lumps of what remained of the men struck the soil. And then the earth itself was raised up. Razor-like thorns of brown from the ground thrust through our troops, staining the soil with crimson.

-Excerpt from The Battle of Morsar, written by Haren, scribe of King Arseph the Mageslayer

"We've arrived!" Sirya exclaimed, her face twisted in a wide grin. "Frontier Town, at last!"

After having traveled back through the Ragnor Hills for eight hours since dawn, navigating through the rocky terrain where the low-lying hills offered no respite from the sun beating down on them from above, they had finally reached their destination: Frontier Town.

Frontier Town was a humble little village that prided itself on being the 'Gateway to Ninquelen.' For this town lay on the very end of the Iron Road, a trading route stretching from River's End in the south. Merchants of all variations of wealth and vigor traveled along this road, peddling anything from valuable minerals mined from the Peaks of God, to fist and salt obtained from the Iamanus River. And at the very end of this road lay Frontier Town, the very last 'frontier,' you might say, before a traveler would cross into Ninquelen, the City of Roses.

Frontier Town had gained great prestige from being so close to Ninquelen, so much so that King Arseph, in the years before the Mage War, had ordered this little village to be walled and manned with trained soldiers from the Royal Guard. It was an impressive sight, with towering, safe-looking stone walls rising from the outskirts of the village, and warriors clad in shining white battle armor walking along the walls, and imposing ballista and catapults perched on the stone.

"Seems different from what I remembered," Vanya muttered as she came up alongside Sirya. She gazed at the sky, in which she noticed the sun dipping dangerously low on the horizon. She could already see swathes of purple andblack in the orange and blue blanket of the heavens. "We'd best get along. Security in this town is tight, and it'll be long after sunset before they let us in."

They proceeded then towards the front gates of Frontier Town, or what passed for gates in this tiny village. A shabby-looking portcullis hung from seemingly unstable ropes hung from the main watchtower. One of the disadvantages of being so close to the capital was that Frontier Town was the last line of defense before invaders reached Ninquelen, and a rather pitiful one at that.

The town had been stormed numerous times before, during the countless smaller revolutions and revolts that had risen up over the years, and during the Second Great Serenian War, in which all of the great empires in the mighty continent of Serenar, were nearly brought to ashes by a single warrior empire to the South, Xernas. The Xernians had managed to capture Arlenia's neighboring ally, Luartia, an empire that had stood for eons. It was only in the Xernian War, years later, when with the help of the Arlenians, Luartia managed to take back their homeland and destroy the Xernian Empire to the South.

The history of the continent of Serenar extends far further than the nine centuries' long of history of Arlenia, originally called the Iron Island for its massive wealth in metals by King Beorth of Borras.

As was expected of them, the guards manning the walls at the time stopped the foursome as they attempted to pass.

As if they could stop us if they tried, Vanya thought.