Chapter 5: Grenfell ... Part 1

Dustin gazed upon the village of Grenfell as they approached. Galen was to his right, Draven and Sven followed behind. Grenfell was larger than any city Dustin had been in before. There were no grand gates just a clutter of buildings with a clearly defined road running between them. Some of the buildings were much larger than anything he had seen before. Dustin’s excitement had pushed his hunger to the back of his mind.

“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Galen asked Dustin.

“Only in dreams” he replied.

At the entrance to the city Dustin could see a group of men running towards the end of the road. He suspected that these men racing to the edge of the city were the escort he had been told about. The four were tired from the trek and had fought off a random band of thieves. The band of men stopped just at the edge of the road where the town road began the road from Bingham ended.

“You must come quickly” the stocky guard said to the four travellers. “Adam is about to address the people with news from Colodia.”

“Adam is here?” Galen spoke up. “This must be bad, come on let’s go!”

The four rushed to the centre square of the city. As they rushed through, Dustin caught a glimpse of wall structure that had been buried by houses. At the centre square Adam had already begun telling his news from Colodia. The people were absolutely quiet rapt by the news of the Macote army’s numbers.
Macote had built a large army, but have yet to move against Colodia. Their forces have been at bay for quite a few months now. Adam was the first messenger to manage to get into the city since Macote began recruiting more people. Their security had been tight since rumours of war began to circulate throughout their population. Adam had to sneak in behind the walls through underground passageways that had not been used since the last war over fifty years ago.

Inside he had learned of Kartu; an old warlock based in the centre of the inner circle of cities. He had a dark and unexplained past and was at the centre of the last war over fifty years ago. One would think this old warlock would have passed away many years ago; residents of Macote fear the mere mention of his name. Rumour has it that he controlled all of the inner cities and was preparing to rule over the outer circle as well. He had tried this during the last war, but a local hero was there to stop the massacre and end the war.

The Galen of legend had spurned a new fad of people naming their first born after him. He had led a small band of mercenaries to victory over the vast armies of Macote and most people who heard the news of his plight had honoured him by passing on his name.

Galen the messenger, travelling with Dustin and Draven was one of the children named after the legend. His mother had been only a young girl when the war began and had heard all of the heroic stories. Galen had caught a glimpse of the man of legend when he was but a little boy. News travelled much faster back then; there were more messengers and fewer dangers on the roads between cities. Now times were different and right now, Dustin, Galen and Draven had finally made it to the centre square.

Adam was telling his news from Colodia with some added new from Macote. Everybody’s attentions were fixated upon the rough looking man at the centre of the square on a table. He was perched on the table so all of the folks in the city were able to see and hear him. The crowd was large and quiet with the exception of the occasional gasp.

Come back next week for Part 2