Chapter 17 - Messenger

I awoke the next morning to the sound of stomping hooves and loud voices. Adarra's army was packing and loading everything into wagons and carriages. I washed my face quickly and managed to flag down a servant to bring me some breakfast, fruit,and pastries, before I headed to find Adarra.

I ran into Gisela first. The black-haired amazonian was ordering men and women about, guiding to do various tasks. She wore the same leather armor as she had on yesterday but now she also had a large silver spear strapped to her back.

"Gisela," I called over to her as I approached. "Can you give Adarra a message for me?" She turned to me and smiled, "Well good morning to you to Nathan. What message do want me to send?"

"Can you just let her know that I'll be flying above on rath?" I replied. "If she needs then tell her to just send a mental message and I'll head down." I didn't want to travel on the ground when I had a wyvern, and it also put some distance between me and Adarra. After yesterday I didn't know how to react or treat Adarra. At times my instincts told me she was an enemy but at others, they told me she was just a beautiful lady. Not to mention the emotions and feelings she brought out within, none of them good.

Gisela nodded at me before going back to ordering the soldiers. I headed to the edge of the camp before summoning Rath and taking flight. I stared down at the people from below as they packed, they looked so tiny from up here, no one would ever guess that a powerful princess and perhaps future queen, if fortune smiled on her, was among them. The army took only a few minutes more before they were packed and starting down on the dirt path just outside the clearing.

As Rath flew at cruising speed as to not pass the army, I thought about the events of the previous day. I had felt true weakness, and for the first time since coming to this world, I had felt powerless. I wasn't stupid or a fool. I knew that I wasn't the strongest and that this world held gods and creatures that could destroy mountains and kingdoms in a single breath, but knowing and feeling are two very different things. Back on earth, I had never had to fear such things, but here... all it would take was one wrong move or running into the wrong person, and I would be done for. The system was powerful but it didn't make me invincible, at least not yet. It was a harrowing thought, but also one that I needed to motivate me. I had not tried as hard as I could since I had come to this world. They were things that I could be doing to level up faster and quicker, but I ignored them for the slow road. Now... now I knew that couldn't take such a road anymore. I couldn't grow complacent. After this quest was done, I would need a new way, a new path.

[Incoming mental message. would you like to accept?]

I groaned, "It's barely been a few minutes," I muttered. I sighed and accepted the message

{Nathan, The queen requests that you land your beast next to Gisela. She waits at the back of the army and will explain everything else once you land}

That was it, nothing to do with the queen as I had expected, but instead Gisela. I sent Rath the mental command to land at the back, as I wondered what Gisela was going to say. Would I have to travel on foot with her? but that made no sense unless the queen thought I'd run away, but she already knew I wanted something from her so that can't be it. I was still thinking about it when Rath landed and Gisela called out to me.

"Nathan, have your beast lower itself, so I can climb on," she called, and I raised an eyebrow, is this why the queen wanted me to land, because Gisela wanted a ride? She must have seen the confusion on my face because she called out again.

"I'll explain everything once we're in the sky," she said. "Now get your beast to let me on." I was still confused but had Rath lower himself so Gisela could get on behind me. She placed her arms around my waist and Rath took off.

The army had started marching again, and I turned over my shoulder to address Gisela, "So why did the queen want me to give you a ride?" She was wide-eyed and had a huge smiled on her face as she peered over Raths's side. She hadn't heard me at all.

"Gisela!" I yelled over the wind to get her attention. She finally turned to me, "This is amazing," she said with awe in her voice. "I've never had the chance to fly before. You're really lucky you know?"

"Yeah, real lucky," I said. "But can you please answer my question? Why did the queen want me to give you a ride." If she said because she wanted to, then I didn't know whether I'd be angry or just annoyed, probably both. Her eyes lit up as if she had just remembered something and she pulled a folded letter from her back, "The queen wants us to head to the capital as quickly as possible to deliver a message."

Now that caught my interest. "A message?" I asked in confusion. "Aren't we going to be arriving at the capital in a couple of hours?" Adarra had said we'd be arriving at mid-afternoon, which wasn't far off, so why did she need this message delivered so quickly?

"I can't say," she said in an apologetic tone. "She told me not to tell you. in fact she told me not to tell you that I couldn't tell you, so consider this a favor of sorts." Now my interest really peaked. I felt annoyed at not being allowed to not what the message was, but not entirely surprised. After all, she had only met me yesterday, and she would be a fool to trust me so quickly, even I knew that.

"So we deliver a message then... what, wait?" I asked and she nodded. She went back to peering over the edge after that apparently having said all she needed to say. I sent a mental command for Rath to fly at full speed. Gisela let out a whoop of excitement and I griped onto Rath tighter. I had never flown Rath at full speed, so this was my first time, and I was happy to know that Rath was very very fast. The terrain below blurred as we shot forward and the wind whipped through my hair, as Gisela kept letting out shouts and cheers, at one point asking Rath to do a flip. I held back the urge to call her crazy and was thankful that my summons only followed my commands.

It was 45 minutes later after that before I spotted the capital in the distance. I wasn't able to see much of the walled city, but I was able to make out a castle and some other tall buildings. I was also able to see what looked like two large camps on either side of the city, the other factions, I guessed. The terrain below had changed and the land was flatter with fewer trees and more paths, including a stone road, which could be seen leading directly to the capital. Rath was flying high enough that we'd be hard to spot, but I quickly realized that there was no way I could land in the presence of people.

"I'm gonna land as close as I can, but away from any people," I said. I didn't know what their exact reactions would be, but from the way Adarras people had reacted, I guessed it wouldn't be good. Gisela had no complaints with that and a few moments later I had Rath land next to a small rocky outcropping. I stored Rath as soon as Gisela and I had dismounted, and I turned to her, "You wanna lead the way?"

She nodded and without another word we took off in the direction of the stone road. It took a few minutes to arrive on the road, and we walked down it, passing by people and carriages, more heading away from the capital than in. The people were primarily human, but there was a couple of beastkin of different types here and there.

20 minutes later we arrived at the entrance to the city. Two large silver gates about 20 feet tall stood open and 2 guards in black and silver armor stood on either side. I wondered what faction they were a part of or if they were part of a faction at all. It wouldn't seem fair to allow one of the factions access to the city and its entrances, as that would give them an advantage, so I guessed they must neutral. The guards didn't even stop or check us as we entered, and there was a steady stream of people leaving the city, most likely have heard about the meeting of the heirs.

The city was, for a lack of a better term, empty. There was a road and a few stone and wooden buildings immediately after the gate, nothing that caught my eye, but after walking for a few minutes, we entered into some sort of market district, or at least that's what I thought it was since there were so few people in it. Most of the wooden stalls and buildings looked empty or closed, and the few people that were still here looked either poor or injured. They must have been too poor to leave the capital and take their chances out in the wild. I couldn't help but feel some pity for them. They had no choice but to take their chances and hope that the meeting went well and didn't dissolve into a 3-way battle.

There were multiple paths and roads that led away from the market area and Gisela took a left that led into an alleyway. It was dark and a foul smell assaulted my nose the moment I stepped in. I had to hold back the urge to gag as I followed Gisela deeper in the alleyway. Gisela for her part didn't look affected by the smell at all. Perhaps she grew up in a place like this, I thought. We kept on walking and took two more turns before Gisela finally stopped at a worn-looking wooden door. She knocked on the door in a weird pattern, that must have been some sort of code, either that or Gisela was odd. The door opened a fraction and Gisela slipped the letter through the crack. The letter was snatched from her hand, the door shut and she turned to me and whispered, "Well, jobs done. Now we just have to wait for the queen."

"That was it?" I asked, baffled. It had not been what I was expecting at all. Then again I didn't really know what I had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been this. To my surprise, Gisela's eyes grew wide and she quickly placed a finger on her lips.

I shot her a questioning look and took a quick glance around. What was with all the dagger and cloak stuff? Who did she think could be hearing us? and it's not like I had said anything important. She didn't answer me but instead turned and started back the way we had come, leaving me to follow, confused.