Part 5

Greza avoided the smaller towns where she’d stand out.  She kept to the main roads and covered her face with her scarf and kept her hood up.  People would think she was a human at a distance or a Dark Elf up close.  There was nothing about her to draw attention. 

She kept her head down but her eyes open.  No one would see her long, pointy ears or her sharp teeth.  She was just a traveler passing through. 

Her backpack had a few days of food but when she opened the purse she had found more money than she had ever imagined.  A hundred gold Imperials.  She wasn’t sure exactly how much that really was, but she knew a small farm might cost as little as eighty Imperials.

But nobody would sell an escaped slave a house.  The scars on her body, her mannerisms and her lack of knowledge of the outside world were like signs pointing to her, telling the world about who and what she was. 

The further she walked the more convinced she was that she had no other real option other than Ekonia.

She had time to mourn Erinad in her own, silent way.  She walked for days over grassy fields, rolling hills and sprawling woods.  The weather was growing colder and she had counted a week of freedom so far.  Every night she would pray for Erinad’s spirit to reach his Reward and sit among the gods.

Erinad used to have a necklace he kept hidden under his robes.  It was the symbol for the Divine Lights.  A circle with a starburst in the middle.  She had always wanted one but didn’t want to be caught with it.  Slaves weren’t allowed religion.

This new life was certainly unusual.  She could stop whenever she wanted to, eat when she chose to and sleep in if she wanted.  She was alone but she was free to do as she chose.         

One day, the tenth, she woke up to the sound of horses.  She looked out from behind the bushes she was sleeping behind and saw eight riders coming down the road.  They and their horses wore black armor with white trimming.  One of them carried a banner that had a black background and a silver lion on it. 

They wore heavy breastplates, full helmets with rectangle slits for eyes , two triangular holes for a nose and vertical slits for the mouth.  They reminded her of skulls. Their thighs and hands were armored but the rest was black leather.  They carried short matchlocks in scabbards and numerous pistols along their chest, hips and saddles.

But as they came closer she saw that it wasn’t a lion but a chimera.  It had a goat head beside the lion one and a snake for a tail.

She snatched up her backpack and walked out next to the road to meet them.  She saw the lead rider’s hand inch closer to his sword.  She made sure her scarf still covered her face.  If hunters asked these men she didn’t want to put them in the position to have to lie for her: assuming they would in the first place.

As they grew closer she raised her hand in greeting. 

The lead rider spurred his horse ahead and came to a stop in front of her. 

“Good day,” she said. 

“Do you have business with us?”  The man asked, his voice sounding metallic through the fully enclosed helmet. 

“I go to Ekonia to join the company,” she said. 

“Do you now?  What makes you think they’ll take you?”

“I can fight.”

“Of course.

Then the other riders caught up. 

“What do we have here?”  The rider holding the banner asked.

“A peasant girl that wants to join the company, sir.” 

The banner holder looked at her for a few, long moments.  Then he took off his helmet revealing a human man with a scar down one side of his face and a dead eye. 

“Girl, we don’t take underfed castaways.  You have to know how to fight or at least show you can learn to fight.  It doesn’t look like you could pull a bow string.” 

“I can fight,” Greza said.

“You said that before,” the lead rider said.  “She isn’t much of a talker, either.” 

“We don’t got time for games, Den.  Keep moving,” the banner man said. 

“Right.”

Then the lead rider made to push her away with his foot. 

She grabbed his foot with both hands rushed forward, pushing him out of his saddle.  He landed in the road with a dull ‘thud’ and the sound of metal.

Greza moved back with her hands up, ready to defend herself, but instead she saw the that the other men were laughing. 

“She told you she could fight, den!”  One of the men called out. 

“Shoulda listened to her,” another one said. 

The banner man laughed and rode up to her. 

“What’s your name, girl?”

“Greza.”

“Just Greza, eh?  Well, Greza, maybe you got some fire in you.  You’re a five day walk to Ekonia and another one to our headquarters.  Stick to the main roads.  There are signs so you can’t miss it.  Take this.”

He tossed her a small, silver coin.  It was heavier than most and had a boars head on it. 

“When you get to the castle gate, tell them Richkurk said you were alright.” 

“Thank you,” she said. 

“Get off the ground, Den.  It’s just your pride that’s hurt.” 

When he got back on his horse she saw that even Den was smiling. 

“You got some strength there, lass,” Den said before riding off. 

She watched them go and stood there with the man’s coin in her hand.  So, those were mercenaries of the Chimera Company of Ekonia.  She wondered if she’d get to wear that black and white armor and ride a horse.  She’d never ridden a horse before. 

After meeting them she picked up her pace and took fewer breaks.  She paused in the towns long enough to buy food and moved on. 

The buildings were different in this flat part of the world.  Instead of wooden tiles they had thatch roofs and windows with a dozen smaller panes instead of a single large one.  The food also tasted more of wild herbs. 

Around noon of the fifth day she came to a sign that marked the border to Ekonia.  A small, rocky river marked the boundary between the Empire and Ekonia.  She paused long enough to say a quick prayer of thanks.  

As she walked that day she saw that Ekonia was one massive, rock filled field.  A plow had never touched this land before.  Scattered among the fields were bogs and marshes.  She began to wonder if the king had given the Chimera company the half of the kingdom he didn’t want anyways. 

A few dead, scraggly trees dotted the bleak landscape and what were either large crows or small vultures rested in their tortured branches.  She couldn’t tell from the distance but she was sure they were watching her. 

Nothing in her histories or stories mentioned lands as dread and awful as this.  It didn’t look as if anything important ever happened here. 

She slept on the side of the rode with no cover or hint of shelter.  When she woke in the morning the sky had turned grey and heavy and she knew it was going to rain.  She ate the last of her carrots and continued down the long road. 

An hour later it began raining.  It was a cold rain that seeped into her bones and made her breath visible.  All she could do was button her coat and put her hood up.  It wasn’t long before the road was nothing but mud.

Eventually she came to a fork in the road with a sign.  One way pointed to a town called “Lerak” and the other pointed to “Chimera Fortress.”  She went left, toward the fortress. 

Half way between noon and sunset she saw a dark shape in the distance.  She kept walking and a half hour later she came to the foot of a hill with a squat, stony fortress.  It didn’t look anything like an Imperial building.  There was no elegance, sophistication or ornamentation to it.  It was bare, stone walls that rose up to battlements and round towers that rose a little higher than the walls.  It was hard to tell with stone but the place felt enormously old.

The giant wooden gates were closed.  She could make out the shapes of soldiers standing on top of the gatehouse. 

She moved to put up her scarf but remembered that she didn’t want to hide from these people. 

Greza took a deep breath and steeled herself.  She hated how she talked.  She spoke like a simpleton.  Her mind spoke in eloquent, verbose language but none of that translated to speech.  The past eight years she had trained herself to speak as a slave and now that she no longer needed to she found that she couldn’t do anything else.

She approached the gate and knocked.  She waited but nothing happened.  Just before she was about to knock again a hatch opened up in the door and a man’s face appeared. 

“Who are you and what do you want?”  The man asked.    

She moved in closer because she knew her voice didn’t carry. 

“I’m Greza.  I come to join the company.” 

The man smiled as if she had just told a joke. 

“We don’t need any washerwomen.”

“I’m here to fight.”  She held up the silver coin.  “Richkurk said I was alright.” 

“Richkurk?  He said that?”

He grumbled something that she couldn’t make out and then she heard the sound of the gate’s bolt’s being unlatched. 

The gate swung open just enough for her to squeeze in and then it closed behind her with a thunderous ‘clang.’ 

Four soldiers stood there eyeing her up.  She didn’t know what to say so she held up the coin. 

“I can’t tell if Richkurk is mad or a genius,” one of the soldiers said. 

“He aint never been wrong before.” 

“What are you, girl?  You’re either the ugliest Dark Elf I’ve ever seen or the prettiest Ork.” 

“Never mind him, mam,” a soldier in the back said.  He stepped forward. He was a young human with only stubble for hair.  “What’s your name?”

“Greza.” 

“Well, Greza, welcome to Chimera Fortress.  I’ll take you to see the chief.   He’ll sort you out and figure what to do with you.” 

She had made it.