A Soldier's Life - 471 - Wardens of the People

Chapter 471: Wardens of the People

The Sanctum of the People’s Blade looked like a simple fortification at the base of the mountains. The road was not well traveled, and there were no fields surrounding the thick walls. Two men stood atop the gate tower in brown smocks as we approached. One yelled down in a boy’s voice, “Knight Kyrenic, is that you? Bringing some new recruits. That is a big man!”

“It is I. And that is a goliath, not a man, James. Be careful with your words, or you might offend my friends,” Kyrenic shouted back. Thick wooden gates swung open slowly to reveal a large courtyard with stables on the left and small gardens at each end. To the right were simple stone buildings made from the same stone as the walls. Directly across from the gates was a modest castle that didn’t rise above the walls.

A few scattered groups of young men were being instructed by an adult and they all paused to watch us enter. “I don’t see any women,” Baelira commented.

“They are uncommon in my order, but there are three female knights. Since none are probably here, many men will likely be admiring your beautiful face,” Kyrenic said playfully. He got the reaction he wanted as Baelira blushed.

“Your order is not celibate then?” I asked.

Kyrenic laughed as he dismounted and led us to the stables. “If we were, then recruiting would be very difficult. Families are not allowed at the Sanctum, so many knights live elsewhere.”

“What is the purpose of your order?” Maveith asked in a deep voice as the trainers drew their students' attention and resumed weapons practice.

“We are the people’s blade. We defend those who cannot defend themselves,” Kyrenic said simply.

Baelira asked, “Basically, you are adventurers who perform tasks without compensation?”

Kyrenic frowned at the description but slowly nodded, “An apt description. Many of my orders do join the Adventurers Guild and find people in need and rarely charge them more than a meal.”

“Eryk once slew a dozen werewolves to rescue an Elven child and didn’t take a reward,” Maveith intoned.

“And one of them was an alpha,” Evie added in support. Blaze and Benito shared all the stories of our adventures together, and that was one of her favorites.

“I have heard the tale second hand before,” Kyrenic smiled knowingly at me. “Eryk and I are very much alike. I need to report to the knight commander, but James will see you settled for the night.”

The boy from the gatehouse looked to be in his late teens, but his shoulders were already broad from training. He did a poor job disguising his eyes wandering to Baelira over and over again. As we walked across the courtyard to the castle following James, it looked like Maveith was not going to be the primary interest this time around.

“Are there no elves in your Order?” Baelira asked as we passed the training groups of boys and young teens.

James enthusiastically answered her. “The elves have their own order with similar oaths, but sometimes an elf or dwarf will become a squire.”

“How do you become a knight?” Evie asked, trying to draw the young man's attention.

James looked at her and flashed a smile, which made me wary. There was nothing sinister or lecherous; it was just a paternal instinct growing inside me to protect Evie from young men. “Only one or two of us are knighted each year. The requirements are—rigorous. I am somewhat special because I was recruited into the order and expect to be knighted within the next few years,” James said pridefully. Kyrenic told me that having a celestial affinity to imprint the spell form for his aura was required to become a knight of the Wardens of People. That meant they either already needed to have the celestial affinity or had to collect hundreds of essences from the dungeon this fortress guarded.

“Where is Alhar?” I asked, scanning the area as we entered the castle. James appeared surprised that the elf was missing too during the short walk from the stables to the castle, but I prevented him from searching for him. “Forget him. We need to rest because we'll be in the wilds for the next week.”

The castle was simple, with the main hall furnished with long tables and benches for dining. The rooms on the left served as kitchens and classrooms, and the scent of roasting meat and baking bread drifted from them. The rooms on the right housed armories and smithies with silent forges at the moment. A wide staircase with branching stairs rose at the far end of the hall.

We made our way across the carefully cleaned room to the worn stairs and reached the second floor. The corridor was lined with many doors and resembled a hotel. “Guests' rooms are in the north wing,” James said as he led us. The rooms were basic, featuring a small window slit for air, a hard wooden bunk, a simple writing desk, and a chest. “Feel free to choose any room; the bell will ring twice when dinner is ready,” he explained. “There are no other guests here at the moment. I will go find Alhar and bring him.”

“No need,” I said loudly and gestured toward the stairs we had just ascended. Alhar narrowed his eyes at me as he emerged from around a corner. Alhar had his saddle bags slung over his shoulder, pretending he had been with us the entire time. I had been sending out my earth pulses through the walls and tracking the sneaky elf. Alhar only made eye contact with me as he entered the first room and closed the door.

We all selected rooms, and I quickly added to my collection of books in the dreamscape before wandering the castle. The library was on the third floor but was not very impressive, and I only found a few interesting tomes to page through before the bell rang for dinner.

My group sat together at a table while the squire and knights filled the hall. Young boys rushed out with steaming plates of heaping meat, potatoes, and bread. I slid mine toward Maveith as I looked for Kyrenic among the men. I didn’t see him, but counted about a hundred boys, half that number in teens, and half again that many adults. Conversations were lively, and overall, the mood seemed cheerful. Alhar had chosen to eat separately from us with two knights, and I didn’t mind.

I realized when Kyrenic walked into the hall, he was greeted by a number of squires and knights shouting for him to join them at their table. A boy handed him a bowl as he crossed the room to us, filled with twice as much as others had received. He tousled the boy's hair and sat down across from me. “Sorry that took so long. Without message sendings, the knight-commander had a lot of questions.”

“Did you learn anything we do not already know?” Maveith asked, leaning in to hear over the conversations buzzing around us.

“If we follow the mountains as planned, there have been many hobgoblin sightings. It would be safer to head to the coast and follow the road, even if it adds two weeks to our journey,” Kyrenic said.

“I thought there were several dwarven mining towns on our path?” I replied.

Kyrenic dug into his food and somehow managed to talk normally while chewing. “There are. Many have been attacked, and a few have been abandoned. There is a group from my order patrolling with a dwarven regiment, but I do not know where they are.”

“I will think about which path we should take. What about the other thing?” I asked conspiratorially, leaning over the table.

Kyrenic leaned in closer to me, but surprisingly spoke loud enough for the others to hear anyway. “I will come to your room tonight and give you the tour you so desperately want.” Baelira froze with a speared potato on her fork halfway to her mouth. Maveith’s brow furrowed in confusion. Kyrenic laughed at their surprise and, before I could clarify, Kyrenic continued. “Eryk wants to visit a dungeon my order guards. After telling him what type of man Eryk is, he agreed. My assessment of you all during our ride here has allowed me to reveal the dungeon as well to you. Evie, you can keep a secret, right?”

“We are going into a dungeon!?” Evie snapped excitedly.

“The answer to your question is apparently, no,” I said, giving Evie a sidelong look which got a chuckle from Kyrenic.

“Too late now. I will have to trust her discretion then. But I am a good judge of people,” Kyrenic said, still smiling and winking at Evie.

“Evie isn’t going with us,” I said, and I thought she would throw a fit, but she went in the other direction, trying to play on my empathy. She frowned and started herding a potato around her plate, not making eye contact.

“I would ensure nothing happened to her, but you are her father. The dungeon permits up to five people. Eryk, Maveith, Baelira, and I make four. I suppose we could ask Alhar to be our fifth,” Kyrenic said offhandedly.

Was he trying to manipulate me? I wouldn’t have minded Alhar joining us if it weren’t for my collector. I was certain Raelia wouldn’t have told him about it. Ideally, I would have preferred to go in with just the four of us, since that would have given us better rewards, but that would mean Evie would be left behind in a castle full of young men. “Fine, Evie can come, but no fighting for you.”

“Excellent!” Kyrenic said, winking at the now beaming Evie. “The dungeon resets at sunrise, and we will all meet here.” Kyrenic took his half-full plate and headed up the stairs. No matter his façade, I could tell the knight was still flagging from exhaustion.

“Everyone should rest. Right after the dungeon, we will ride.” I only knew a little about the dungeon, and I shared what limited knowledge I had from the ancient book I copied in Godok to the dreamscape. Five rooms, each progressively more dangerous. Evie, of course, was most excited about the unicorn at the end. She wasn't going to enter that room because, as the final boss, we would be sealed inside, but I didn’t tell her that.

During the night, I watched Alhar leave his room twice and return. I wasn’t sure what he was up to, but I would tell Kyrenic before we left. Evie was waking everyone up before sunrise like it was Christmas. What a strange life the girl was living. It was unfortunate because it also woke Alhar. “We will come get you when we are ready to leave,” I said.

“Are you going to the dungeon?” he replied in a flat tone.

“Kyrenic told you about the dungeon?” I asked.

“No. I found it last night.” He briefly looked at everyone before shutting his door. I actually had questions for the elf, but I held them back. His Caelorian bloodline was supposed to communicate with dungeons, but for now, his company was not welcome.

Kyrenic was waiting for us as the smell of breakfast wafted through the dining hall. He looked as if he had slept for a week, and was fully recovered. Kyrenic was carrying a worn collector in one hand. “I borrowed this, but I assume you still have yours?” I nodded. “Good, then. I'll leave this behind. The only items we need to turn over to the order are the essence extracted from the unicorn and a few haunches of meat for the kitchens. The contents of the chest will be yours. Is that acceptable?” He asked our group, as I thought these were generous terms for a private dungeon.

“Agreeable,” I confirmed.

We followed Kyrenic down the stairs and along a wide corridor with four heavy iron bar gates, of which three were currently open. The knights were wisely prepared in case there was ever a dungeon break.

The last gate had a single knight standing guard, and upon seeing us, he unlocked the final gate. Beyond the final gate was the oily black surface I was so familiar with. This dungeon entrance was larger than most, easily over twenty feet tall and about ten feet wide. The door was framed by gray stone veined with blue and white marble.

Kyrenic handed the shield to the lone guard and turned to us. “Welcome to the Twilight Warrior Dungeon. I think you will be suitably impressed once we enter,” he said with a brilliant smile.

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