Chapter 344: A Show Of Strength (Part One)
The sounds of the approaching army grew louder and louder until everyone in the northern districts of High Fen City could hear the steady beat of drums and the clinking of armor as soldiers marched toward the city. The glow from more than a thousand torches and lanterns lit the sky and dozens of wagons trundled across the canal bridges outside the city gates.
"Look, look! The Golden Eyed Clan," an excited young man from the Glass Eyed Clan shouted as he strained against the ropes, hoping for a better view of the approaching army. His sinuous neck stretched out far enough that one of the stone-faced soldiers from the palace rapped him on the back of the head with a mailed gauntlet before jerking a thumb in the direction of the side street the boy was standing in.
"Hey, look," a shorter boy from the Clan of Painted Masks said, tugging at his taller companion’s tunic. "Look at the man leading them, the one with the pure white fur! He must be seven feet tall. Do you think he’s High Lord Hamdi?"
"High Lords don’t walk when others ride," a wizened, serpentine woman said from behind the young men who were jostling for a better view. She might never have seen another High Lord in person but when had anyone ever seen High Lady Erna slithering along on her own tail while others rode horses or stayed in carriages? The notion was preposterous!
"But he shouldn’t be anyone weak," she added. "He might even challenge our arena champions."
After decades of watching fights in the arena, she knew strength when she saw it. More than that, her flickering tongue could all but taste the aura of blood that clung to the white-furred lupine man at the head of a long column of soldiers. Only champions who had slaughtered countless foes in the arena possessed the aura that this man did, so whoever he was, he couldn’t be unimportant.
At the head of the column, Savis trotted forward briskly, stopping just outside the walls and drawing a deep breath. The words he was about to speak burned in his chest like the flames of the cursed Inquisitor and his tail hung limp with shame but there was nothing he could do about the position he found himself in. Now, he could only do as he’d been ordered to in the hopes that his obedience could purchase salvation for his sire.
"People of High Fen City," Savis roared in a voice so loud that it could be heard all the way to the palace gates deep within the city. "I am Savis, Eldest Progeny of High Lord Hamdi of the Tangled Wood, Slayer of Garibor and Talshafan, called the White Fang of the Tangled Wood!"
"What business do you have in High Fen City, Savis of the Tangled Wood?" The answering call from the guardsmen at the gate lacked the strength of Savis’ powerful sorcery but it was still clear and resounding to all the gathered common folk pressing against the ropes.
"Today, this defeated dog serves as herald for the woman who toppled the Tangled Tower," Savis answered. His fur bristled with barely suppressed rage, but he had little choice in the matter. Lady Nyrielle’s instructions had been clear, and this was hardly the first time she’d sent him out to serve as a visible symbol of the fate that awaited those who thought themselves stronger than the youngest True Vampire.
"Lady Nyrielle, Eldritch Lady of the Vale of Mists, called the Blood Princess of the Arena, Her Eternity the Harbinger of Death has come to visit her former student, High Lady Erna of the High Fen, and to secure passage for her army to return to the Vale of Mists," Savis said formally.