Dark Lord of Kismera: Knights of Kismera Read Online Free PDF Page A

where we’re headed?”
    Vashti kicked her horse into a canter. “Yes, my Lord. Let us hurry.”
    The sun was low over the horizon when they came to a well-traveled road and started to pass small farms and homes. Drace decided maybe it really wasn’t a dream. It’s almost a fairytale. Although he wasn’t ready to ditch the dream theory just yet.
    Drace glanced at each farm and building they passed and was amazed at the broad time-scale of appearance. He couldn’t place a specific time period but guessed most were from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. The exception was the clothing on the few people he saw. There were no modern conveyances or wire fences, no electric lines, nothing to indicate the modern era. They passed one farm where a middle-aged man was cultivating corn with a draft horse. He waved at them in a friendly manner as they galloped by.
    They trotted through a large village near the fortress. The town was bustling with people about their work and children playing along the streets. Greetings were called to the two elves as they passed. As they neared the castle, the road became paved with cobblestones. Pride’s shoes striking the stones echoed against the buildings.
    Once they left the village, Drace could see the stronghold clearly for the first time. It sat on top of a large, high hill. There were several orchards at the base of the hill, planted far back from the sides of the road.
    The long incline was covered in good grass, similar to Kentucky bluegrass, and wildflowers. Several children were playing, chasing each other among a group of sheep that grazed loose and contented outside the high outer curtain wall. The open area, while doubling as pasture, also made sure no one could approach without being seen by men upon the battlements. Four such armed men watched their arrival from the curtain wall, while two more stood outside the outer gatehouse, all armed with swords strapped around their waists, and wearing chain mail and armor.
    Drace didn’t know about being in ‘another plane,’ but did feel as if he had stepped through time. Drace looked up, eyeing the metal portcullis warily as they were waved on through the immense gates.
    Drace was able to look around more as they slowed to a walk once inside the outer bailey. To his left were paddocks, several horses standing dozing in the afternoon sun, or nibbling scattered hay. Two large stables were close by; a neigh from a horse inside had Pride lifting his head to answer.
    To his right were several large vegetable gardens Drace assumed were for the castle’s use. Further over were smaller barns for a few cattle and the sheep. Chickens scratched in the grass around them.
    Two more men greeted the elves when they passed through the large inner gates into the inner bailey, the castle rose in front of them and Drace craned his neck to look up at the red-gold stone fortress. The main body of the castle was four floors with a large, tall, square tower at each corner that raised two more floors above it. Walkways lined the top edge of the walls with stairs leading from them to the top of the towers, giving sentries outside access to the tower roofs. Men were barely visible atop the two front towers.
    Heavy wooden doors, tall enough to grant access to a man on horseback, marked the main entrance, probably into a main hall. Large open windows flanked the door, wooden shutters of heavy oak ready to be closed for either weather or defense.
    Moving along slowly, following Vashti and Ka’Ril, Drace saw along the inner bailey wall was two barracks, large enough to hold a considerable number of men who moved around each structure as they went about their tasks.
    There were other smaller buildings nestled along the wall: a wood shed, a smithy, a smoke house, a laundry. Drace did not know the use of a couple of rooms. Close to the barracks was an armory, or weapons room, judging from the weapons and shields propped against the building’s exterior