Ascent of the Aliomenti Read Online Free PDF Page B

nod of agreement, he resumed his tour of the city. It took only a few moments to understand why the city was so heavily guarded. A huge portion of the northern half of the city teemed with knights in armor, tended by pages of varying ages sporting bright colors identifying the man they served. They’d stumbled upon some type of staging area for a massive quantity of warriors, perhaps a local lord’s effort at military defense against invasion, perhaps an invasion force itself. The town and its walls provided secrecy and defense lest any enemy seek to lay siege and decimate the armored warriors. They’d allow private citizens inside, but only those they believed could provide some level of support to the training efforts, or enable the enhancement of the weaponry.
    Will had seen enough. He flew back to the copse of trees outside the walls of the city, landed within them, and, after ensuring no other human creatures were in the vicinity, resumed his normal physical, visible existence. His body felt strange and heavy after nearly an hour invisible and weightless, and he took a few moments to acclimate himself to gravity once more. He found a stream nearby, and splashed the cool water on his face before drinking deeply. He then went back into the trees and recharged his Energy, as he contemplated his next steps.
    He could certainly pass for a medical professional; he’d served as the village doctor for the Aliomenti, though he’d rarely needed to act in that capacity. Presenting himself as a doctor, though, might raise suspicion in a city prone to such emotion. If Eva, and then Hope, had both arrived with such skills in the past few weeks, and he followed soon after, many might suspect the three of them of some type of malicious intent, infiltrating the city for the purpose of committing some future, unknown misdeeds. He decided it best that he pursue entry with a different profession in mind.
    He decided to present himself as a carpenter. Though he’d done little heavy work, he’d spent significant time with Joseph’s team during the construction of the Wheel and aqueduct systems, reaching a sufficient level of skill that he was permitted to work with the tools used to cut, shape, and join wood. He learned quickly, in part because the men and women working in that area tended toward powerful, loud thoughts that he could not close himself off from. He could pass as a carpenter, one who’d fallen victim to a band of thieves who’d relieved him of his horse and tools as he slept, but thankfully had left him – and his money – untouched.
    Fully charged and prepared for the trial of entering this massive city, he began his walk.
    The thoughts of the knights guarding the gates and manning the tops of the walls revealed that the city was called Abrecan, that about 15,000 people lived there, that the city existed purely to train knights to fight against larger armies, and that word had come of a potential invasion. Such concerns explained the extra security endured by Eva and Elizabeth as they’d entered this city. His initial bafflement at Eva’s choice evaporated; in a city on edge, everyone would be under suspicion, whether new arrival or long-time resident. In a city living under such a heightened state of tension, a stranger appearing inside the walls would incite deep fear, and he understood why Eva had discouraged any teleportation into the vicinity. With a potential invasion and a lack of trading opportunities available to outsiders, it was a place where the Traders – and now Arthur – would never think to visit, and thus they’d never run the risk of exposing the fact that Eva and Elizabeth still lived.
    Will wondered if they’d struggle more to escape the city, should an attack come, than they would to enter it initially.
    He approached the gates and strode toward the guards, putting effort into acting in the proper fashion. He needed to appear confident that he’d be granted access, for to act otherwise