Re: Part 58 - The road
Cyan keeps her ears open for James' assessment of the situation - his experience is far, far greater than hers, and she defers to it instinctively. For all of her raw talent, James has the instincts of a soldier who has spent much of his career hunted - it has scarred the big man where few can see, but also made him wary in ways others might not appreciate.
"Paralicos...a beautiful name, for a land of heights and shadows." She smiles, nods. Paralicos it will be, then. To her, that is, when she writes the song of this Quest. Someday. "Perhaps the blackmoss is an ancient threat, then, gone stale with the decades? I suppose one might so hope." Indeed, one might. It smacks of the tactics of the Seraphim, of their use of the Gatherer, but in a more subtle fashion.
James, again, brings a snippet of knowledge to the conversation that may indeed be pertinent. Cyan frowns, glances at Berd. "I have...heard of this war. It may have coincided with the fall of the lands most dear to my heart. A ripple, perhaps, through the Myriad Worlds?" Roman speaks up then, possibly in defense of his own homeland. Lexy had spoken of this war, Cyan thinks. Hadn't she? Or had it been Lazarus? Both of Chaos, both possessing knowledge far, far beyond her own. "In the past, yes," she mumurs. "But the ripples spread still."
Berd, having dealt with the rain, slowly rolls back over onto his stomach and sighs out a puff of golden sparkles. Immediately, the Questors' sodden clothing (those who actually suffer from the rain, that is) begins to warm and steam. Cyan frowns, recalling something. "We know of many of the worlds of the people here, but others we do not. Trista, you say your home is similar to Jonnee's and James'? Interesting - what is it called? From what city do you hail? Jonnee came to us by way of Las Angelos - is there a city named so in your homeworld?" Her eyes light upon the strange woman beside Berd's current porter, the woman who is alone in the Myriad Worlds. "Banglen-Yp - would you give us the name of your world - or…can you?"
Then it lies ahead. Cadiniagart. Cyan's lips thin, and she stares down at where it all began. Four times, now, she has travelled to this city. Does Beldin still lurk within its walls - she never did get satisfactory answers regarding that man. Will they again meet a Prince and Princess of Amber here?
One, she came on a boat, alone. Here she fell in with Lexy, Duncan, another Morgan. Here she met Ares, poor Ares, slain along the trail with his grave despoiled, and Otandal, killed in ambush shortly after their introduction. The second time she returned, the mysterious artist Kendell accompanied them, along with the indomnitable Kalika and Hunter. The third time she came with Jack, found Aaron again, met stolid Andrej and bitter Kaelyn, brave James and laughing Jonnee, all agents of the crown. Here, too, she encountered the artist Leonardo for the second time - the third time he and her had met had been in his homeland, where she cut him down with Gurthang.
The rain has ceased to fall upon them, but Cyan wipes her cheeks. A girl entered the city - an innocent, wandering minstrel, with a happy, lazy drake upon her shoulder. When the girl returned, she was an agent of Amber's Crown on a mission of state to determine the threat to an empire. Entering the city a third time, she was a girl no longer, no innocent to the trials of the worlds, and the drake upon her shoulder cast a long, dark shadow.
Now?
Once again into Cadiniagart, sporting its own marks of war. A war of flame and explosive violence. Cyan stares down at the city with hematite eyes, grey and lustrous, and no drake rides upon her shoulder now. He sits close by, but things have changed again.
She shifts in her saddle, reaches up. The Warrior in Jet and Gold adjusts Gurthang's hilt, then raises her hand toward the city. "Best we continue," Cyan says quietly, and urges her horse forward to the war-torn port.