Chapter 189 - 190
Maels gazed out of the recently wiped window of his carriage, which rattled every time one of the vehicle’s wheels encountered a bounce or bump along the uneven surface beneath them. The Winding Road was centuries old and ran on for hundreds of leagues, so it came as no surprise that many stretches of its vast length were in various states of disrepair, especially so far out into the wilderness where the mountainous topography made it quite difficult for people to service them.
Maels had been on the road for many months, having visited dozens of towns and cities and met with a large number of local lords and clergymen during this time. All of said officials had taken noticeable care of their sections of the ancient infrastructure by ensuring the constant presence and upkeep of the cobbled stones that paved the great pathway. Unlike the more developed areas of the kingdom, however, the road leading into Distan was worn from centuries of weather, with only a handful of cobblestones within eyesight at any given moment, most of which were heavily eroded and protruded from the ground at odd angles.
Glancing up the road at the long column of tightly-packed people that seemed to connect horizons from front to back, he mused to himself that the endless procession of footfalls was doing a better job of servicing the roadway than the count of Distan or any of his predecessors had managed over the years.
At long last, he thought, letting out an exasperated sigh as he connected eyes with an armour-clad woman that was riding adjacent to his carriage. By the day’s end, all of the pieces will have fallen into place and I will have set the stage for my greatest merit yet.
Curling his lip as he was jostled by a particularly impactful shock, he made a mental note to stop in Civus’s capital, Cedor, on his way back to Providence Region so that he could urge King Glenden to do something about the terrible state of the roadway in this region.
"If it pleases you, Your Grace, I could instruct the driver to proceed more carefully?"
The speaker was the only other person in the carriage, a tall man dressed in simple white robes with a deep hood draped over his head. This was Gartur, a lifetime servant of his family’s and also the most conspicuous person out of all the individuals that made up the grand delegation. Even though he wore such long and concealing clothing, it was impossible to hide his deep red skin or the tiny scarlet scales that climbed up his neck to settle just below his ears on either side of his face, or the fiery red irises that defined his large, intelligent eyes.
"Thank you, Gartur, but there’s no need. I fear we’re in for several more hours of this regardless of what speed we keep to." They were already proceeding at walking pace, so to go any slower would almost guarantee their late arrival in the county’s capital of Mayhaven.
"If I may be so bold as to ask, how long are we to stay in this city?"
"Not long," he assured the Inverted man, who reached over to brush some lint from his shoulder in the same way that he had done since Maels was a boy. "We’ll be staying for two nights. One in the cathedral where Bishop Rendel will have accommodations waiting for us, and another in Lord Caedmon’s estate." Seeing the unspoken question in the old man’s eyes, he let out a light laugh and said, "Don’t fret. Mayhaven doesn’t have the capacity to house so many visitors, so most of our people will be camping out in the countryside. Whether it’s the cathedral or the lord’s manor, it’ll only be a handful of us staying there."
Unknown to the old aid, Lord Caedmon wouldn’t be alive to receive them. Even if Maels failed in this aspect of his mission, he had no doubt that Bishop Rendel had also been entrusted with the same task by either Archbishop Vestach or Archbishop Varus, possibly both.
While Gartur’s wrinkled expression remained unchanged, Maels noticed a slight sag of his shoulders—broad and powerful despite the man’s age—that betrayed a hint of relief. As a descendent of the Dauls, Gartur drew negative attention wherever he visited within the empire, and was often shown disdain by others even in Maels’s presence.