The Winged City

It is nine years to the day today. The vivid scene was still in my mind, although it didn't play on repeat as usual today. Today was always the worst, my chest felt like it was burning and if it rained my magic became a little difficult to use.

I had grown my hair out and tied it into a messy ponytail, I thought it looked quite cool, even though I wore as hood to cover it and my ears.

The air was warm and dry today but I knew the rain would be coming later, it was the calm before the storm as they say. The emperor had called me to the palace so I would stay out of it, but it still made me nervous. I didn't want to feel at a disadvantage in any situation, especially a palace.

The capital city was quite the sight to behold as it sat elegant and prominent in the middle of a huge clear lake poking just above the surface. The bridge to it shining in the sunlight with its golden railings.

I rode onto the bridge, the sound of the wooden slats beneath Ravens hooves sounded good, and the water underneath was pretty and a clear crystal blue colour like the sky. Small shoals of colourful fish could be seen glinting in the sunlight from under the surface. I watched as they swam by.

I brought Raven to a walk as we got around a quarter of the way over, the sound of his hooves had become quite loud and a little irritating as the sound of the forest had faded behind and the sounds of the city were still yet to reach us.

It was silent on the bridge, there was only ever the occasional ripple of the still water and bird passing overhead. We had only passed one traveller on the way over the bridge, he had been coming from the city and looked quite haggard. I had tried to ask him why it was so quiet, but he had ignored me and hurried on his way.

I knew there was something wrong and assumed it was the reason his majesty had sent me the invitation.

I was a lone ranger wandering the lands in search of knowledge and power. To earn money I took jobs wherever I could find them and found information about those who murdered the village at the same time.

I had already taken care of the organisation who had been behind the attack, but I was still unsure, some of the facts led me to believe there was something more behind it.

First of all the village was too far away from the organisation headquarters for it to have been an easy target. Secondly The organisation had often taken similar jobs for others. Thirdly the head had died whilst I interrogated him for answers, and his death was due to magic other than my own which I had found to be a magic contract. And finally there were no records of the village anywhere, it was as though they had all been erased, the organisation would have never been able to achieve that without some kind of high ranking authority. I even suspected the emperor which was the main reason I had accepted his invite.

"Stop there please Sir!" said the guard to the left hand side of the gate. He was resting his right hand on the sword at his side, and his left hand was raised either ready for an incantation, or just as a stop signal in case I hadn't heard him.

"I was invited here by the emperor on some business." I stated reaching into my bag and pulling out the letter. The guard let go of his sword hilt

"Let me see." he held out his hand for the letter. I handed it to him without complaint. He unravelled it and examined the contents.

"Ah. I see. You may pass." He handed back the letter and gestured me through the opening gate.

"Many thanks." I smiled and nodded in appreciation at both guards, before nudging Raven forward through the gates.

The city was bustling and crowded, but there seemed to be less people than I had expected. There was hardly anyone about who seemed younger than thirteen. It was unusual. People stared at me with cold eyes full of suspicion as I entered the morbid city.

#

Nobody in the world knew where the palace was located other than the emperor, his family and his most trusted people. The only thing people knew was that you had to use a teleportation gate to get there and the only one that went to the palace was right in the centre of the city. The gate in the palace went to all possible gates in the empire but only one gate in the empire went to the palace.

As I made my way through the lower quarters slowly, I took in the sights, sounds and smells of the place.

There was a lingering smell of tobacco smoke in the air, and alluring smells of dishes from all around the world. The city was vibrant with colour. The different stalls selling fabrics, ornaments, and plants or even everyday necessities, added something to the atmosphere.

The world was a jumble of conversation, people bargaining with traders, buying and selling, chatting with friends or performers dancing and playing. There was so much everywhere that I wasn't sure where to look anymore.

Even though it was lively and colourful there was an strange and static atmosphere. Dark and unpleasant words slipped into conversations, and an unpleasant odour of anger and fear crept through the crowd.

I stopped by a stall selling meat sticks, I hadn't eaten yet today so decided to indulge myself. The meat looked good and well cooked, yet the man behind the counter looked hollow and sunken, as though all the life had been drained from his body.

"Hello." I said to the man

"Ah! Hello Sir." he had seemed to jump in surprise as I had called out to him.

"Could I buy some meat sticks?" I asked. He smiled in a friendly manner but without any hint of happiness behind the smile. He reminded me of a ghost, he was there but at the same time he was missing.

"Yes of course. How many would you like? and what kind?" he continued smiling. Usually people would be surprised by my appearance, I may have been wearing a hood to cover my bright red hair and slightly pointed ears, but my golden eyes always piqued the interest of those who saw them.

I usually covered up my ears, hair and eyes with magic because of the looks I would get, but most of the time I couldn't be bothered. I wasn't going to bother with the emperor either, I doubted he or one of his guards wouldn't notice the faint traces of magic no matter how well I concealed it or how well I used it. But to be honest I did have an itching to try and knowing myself I would probably give in.

"Are you alright?" I asked instead of answering his question

"Ah. Yes Sir I am." he seemed a little nervous and his voice shook a little. He purposefully averted his eyes, and began to turn over the meat to busy himself with something.

"Its alright, I wont hurt you or anything. I noticed the atmosphere has been off ever since I entered the city, a lot of suspicious stares were pinned my way. Do you mind telling me why?" I smiled. The man glanced around nervously and lowered his voice leaning in.

"My Son. He was kidnapped last week. Over the past month over sixty children have gone missing from the lower quarters, most from the slums, but still lots from us peasant families." he sobbed a little stuttering his words.

"I see. Thank you for informing me. I am sorry for your loss" I smiled and handed him a coin.

"Thank you sir." He took the coin and bowed his head before placing it in his pocket.

"I will take four honeyed meat sticks."

"Of course Sir." The stall owner sniffed.

He handed me four meat sticks wrapped in paper so that the sticky warm honey coating wouldn't get everywhere. I handed him the money needed to pay for the meat sticks and jumped back onto Raven. Smiling and nodding my head in appreciation at the store owner I urged Raven into a trot up the street.

#

I reached the nobles quarter gate after thirty minutes of riding through the bustling market section. The merchant, peasant and slum quarters were mixed all around the markets, as all of the stall owners and shop owners in the lower quarters were merchants or peasants and the slum areas weren't houses. Most of the nobles shops and establishments were in the shopping district in the nobles quarter, or the upper end of the market streets in the lower quarters.

The wall separating the quarters had two guards at the gate similar to the ones at the entrance gate only better dressed and cleaner. They seemed less accustomed to fighting and more accustomed to eating. Both of them seemed to be working on pot bellies at the moment rather than the protection of the upper town.

"Stop. Papers." said the older, fatter and greying man on the right nearer the gate house quite forgetting to be polite. I reached into my satchel and took out my identity papers an the letter from the emperor. The old man yawned as I handed them to him. I watched his eyes flit down the pages uninterested in what they said.

"So your telling me, a commoner like you received a letter from his majesty?" he looked at me with an eyebrow raised. There was a hint of practiced refinement in his voice that he had seemed to let go of completely whilst talking to me.

"Yes?" I asked questioningly. "I am a ranger. I work for anyone who pays, this time it just so happens that time it is his majesty."

"His majesty would never call for such filth as a ranger to help him. He has his own royal guards and us. Your letter is obviously fake. Go home scum!" he tossed my papers to the ground. I slid off of Ravens back and bent down pick them up out of the dirt. I straightened up and brushed the dust off the documents, fortunately the ground had been dry. The younger guard seemed nervous. Seems like he had more sense than this old guy I thought. I smiled politely at the young guard before speaking to the older.

"I am afraid you have got it all wrong. This letter is no fake. I received this letter around two and a half weeks ago in the northern region of The Blue Mountains, after I had just finished a job from a local resident there, that resident being the Marquess Fathomfield. He left his residence for the capital just one day after giving me my task, he should still be here as he had some long term business with the king seeing as he is one of the kings advisors. You may contact him if you wish to do so, or you may contact his majesty himself. As you already know only nobles can teleport into the capital and out of the capital, unless it is an invite from the emperor himself where you can use the teleport gate in the capital to reach his majesty's residence. However you are still unable to teleport into the city, therefore I had to teleport around the city to the closest gate and ride to the city from there, and this means that I have made his majesty wait for two and a half weeks. Please do not make the mistake of holding me back further. I hope that explains this in enough detail."

I almost laughed out loud at the looks on the two guards faces, the younger one was stressing out and moving his mouth like a fish, I assumed he wanted to say something, and the older one looked angry. But I held my laughter in. They seemed very uncomfortable which was rather entertaining for me. I smiled.

"Sir. Um. I am sorry to but in, but the signature on the letter is his majesties, and the ribbon and wax used to seal the letter is only produced in the palace itself, so I believe it is authentic." the younger one looked down at his feet nervously. The older one began to inspect the ribbon, signature and the wax, before his face paled and drooped.

"Ah. W-we are v-v-very sorry Sir. We seem to have made a g-grave mistake. We-we will let you pass." he waddled awkwardly into the gate house and closed the door behind him. A moment later the gate began to draw upwards into the wall. I smiled and leapt back onto Ravens back pushing him gently forward through the gate, nodding my head to the younger guard as I passed.

#

The noble quarter was full of distasteful stares directed at me and some of the peasants and merchants in the quarter who were selling their produce (I wasn't sure how they had managed to get by the guards so was rather impressed). The children however were quite curious about me, they had never seen a ranger before and my weapons strapped on my back and thighs were probably quite intriguing to them.

I had used magic to disguise myself earlier before I met with the guards, so I didn't look too unusual, but I still stood out like a sore thumb due to my all black look in this clean and white place. I took down my black hood to reveal normal ears, long brown hair and green eyes. I had made my skin a little more tanned than it used to be too, as my skin had been unnaturally pale before.

I had no scars on my body (other than one that was concealed by clothes) which was rather unusual for a ranger so I had also created some fake scars on visible parts of my body like my face and hands.

I stopped outside a weapons shop and decided to stock up on arrows as I was running out and didn't have enough time to make my own like usual. I would just enchant these arrows as soon as I bought them. Although they wont be as good as my own they would do for now.

Tying Raven outside at the horse post was difficult, he liked to be with me all the time and I don't think he liked all the stares we were getting. I eventually decided to just let him have his way, I doubted he would run off, so I took off his bridle and saddle and let him stand there on his own.

"You may kick anyone if they try to steal you." I smirked at him hoping someone would.

I dropped his saddle and bridle into my storage bag which had been a gift of appreciation for one of my first jobs as a ranger. Storage bags were incredibly expensive, and one like this would probably have cost around two hundred thousand coins. The bag could store up to thirty metres squared of space.

I felt a stare behind me and turned around too see a tall man in a hooded black cloak astride the most stunning horse I had ever seen before. He was watching me with bright blue eyes.

The horse was a perlino stallion, one of the rarest kind of horse colouring in the world. He had the faintest trace of four white socks reaching just below his knees and hocks, and a faint white bald face marking. His mane shone like white gold in the sunlight.

There was a strong nudge at my shoulder. Raved had pushed hard into me with his snout, I think he was jealous. I smiled at him and kissed his nose as he rested his head over my shoulder. The man on the perlino smirked.

"You have a very gorgeous horse there sir!" I smiled. Raven snorted and nipped at my face.

The man smirked again and slid off of his horse. He was very tall, probably around six foot five judging by my own height as I was six foot one. He had broad shoulders and good muscle judging by his legs. Although I couldn't see his face I assumed he was good looking.

He ignored me and started to make his way towards the shop entrance. I clicked my tongue. The prick was laughing at me.

I felt something coming at speed towards us from behind, I knew it would miss be by an inch, but it was going to hit the man. In a split second decision I lunged forward shouting for him to get down. I tried to create a magic barrier. I felt something hit me full force in the back, a searing pain shot through my body. I landed hard on top of the man who I had already pushed to the ground. My body went numb.

He pushed me off of himself, and sat up dusting himself off before noticing the arrow protruding from my back. I felt weak. The arrow had obviously pierced a lung as I was finding it difficult to breathe and poison had entered my bloodstream. My mind was so hazy from the already effective poison that I couldn't think of an incantation to heal myself.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion now. The man rolling me over onto my front and snapping the back of the arrow. His strong arms carefully lifting me onto his horse, and climbing on himself behind me.

The man kicked his horse into motion, riding as fast as he could one handed holding me against his chest with the other. Raven's worried black pool eyes keeping pace with mine as we galloped towards the centre of the city. My eyes began to close my head bobbing against the man's sturdy chest.

It felt like hours before we slowed and came to a halt at the teleportation gate. The guards at the gate seemed to recognise the man and let him pass instantly, before they ran to sound the alarm bell. I cast a tiny yet effective healing spell to stop the poison from working, as that was my biggest current problem.

My appearance enchantment was beginning to break. I opened my eyes slightly my head bobbing backwards on the mans arm. His face seemed familiar somehow. He looked down at me and furrowed his brows in an expression that could have meant anything. I assumed it was curiosity at my now drastically changed appearance.

I felt myself slip away as white gold light erupted around us.