Lore of Eternal Shadow: The Fugitive King

Chapter Thirty-One

The road east of Narbon to Conti followed the Asgard River. The land grew dry as it came into the shelter of the Himmel Ranges over the northern horizon and the Arca Mountains which flanked Zicone, Runa, Tiberan, and the Vampirex to the south. Even as autumn came, the plains of dead grass were still heavy with heat. Cicadas carried their haunting calls across the brown landscape with the day's heat. At night, crickets and grasshoppers chattered ceaselessly. Mount Asgard, white with snow, loomed far in the distance before them.

The road forked, another path went past the Asgard River to Canus and the eastern ocean. The road to Conti went into the foothills of the Arca Mountains. Evergreen groves grew more numerous but most of the terrain remained open and grassy.

Conti stood on top of a high hill. The city was surrounded by meadows and it overlooked the long plains to the north and west that Zicone and the others had just crossed. Behind, massive rock mountains jutted out from beds of evergreen trees. Conti was surrounded by stone walls punctuated by cone-topped towers. Ten-thousand lived in the city. Zicone, Runa, the Vampirex, and Tiberan passed through the gates. The guards were alert but let Zicone in when he told them who he was. Around here, Zicone was remembered equally as the Prince and the Sussurri. Zicone kept his guard up: the city was a familiar place and an unknown.

Most of the buildings were crafted of masonry concrete with red clay tiled roofs and vines growing up the sides. Zicone smelled sautéed Contian cooking coming out of a fine café. Zicone would almost kill for some fried zucchini and mushrooms right about now. His stomach growled with the dinner rush.

A few large towers of concrete rose over the rest of the city here and there, well tall enough to catch the views outside the city walls. "This reminds me of Zysandra a bit," Tiberan remarked.

"Half of Conti is Zey^Rey," Zicone responded, "Hence the towers and also the magic required to defend them."

"I guess the walls are just for show then?" Runa asked.

"They were built originally before Caligo's time," answered Zicone, "long before the Zey^Rey migration. They're such a part of the city, no one could dream of taking them down."

"The Zey^Rey here remind me of Salgan," Tiberan noted, "They're Zey^Rey but... they're different."

"This isn't Narbon," said Zicone, "many of these Zey^Rey were born here and all of them have accepted Galgaroth. They've acclimated." He looked back at Tiberan, "Of course, they're like the rest of our kind in more ways than a few. They really think they're safe. They have no idea how close Caligo is to these walls."

At the inn that night, Zicone asked around and further confirmed his suspicions. There was no hard word on the Sussurri Cabal, just rumors on a whole wild and crazy spectrum. This was how the Sussurri liked it and usually it was for the best. Right now, it was extremely frustrating.

"Seems they went through a lot of trouble just to cook some lamb," Runa noted as she examined the local cuisine on her fork.

"You don't like it?" asked Zicone.

"It's not that," she ate her forkful, "this is nothing like what I've had in Galgaroth before... It's like this city has a completely different culture." She began writing in her notebook again.

"So now you do food reviews?" asked Tiberan.

"Food is part of culture. This is a new culture," she stated, "Of course I'm going to write about it."

Zicone laughed. The feeling, laughing with friends, took him back. Munching on his beef, lamb, chicken, vegetable, and mushroom scramble helped him further remember being twelve or thirteen. He, Salgan, and Alva would run up and down these streets on their off hours: watching the sun set or distant thunder storms from the towers, munching on something delicious, or just hanging out together. They were bittersweet memories but they were cherished. Even after everything, Zicone couldn't not miss his brother.