Arc 5: Chapter 22: Ire and Intrigue
Our return to the city coincided with an onset of rain, and distant black clouds threatening worse. True summer was only a bare handful of days away, and with it would come summer storms.
My powers warn me when danger from beyond my homeland’s shores is near. I could feel a rancorous wind in the north, though it had not yet arrived to trouble the capital. It would be full of heat from warmer lands, ready to drive away the last vestiges of winter’s chill.
Somehow, I knew that long winter would not loosen its grip easily.
I tried to put the troubled sky out of my thoughts as Hendry and Emma followed me back to the palace. As I went, I thought about what needed to be done, and what I should say to the Emperor. My companions kept their own silences as we moved through the streets.
Catrin remained at the inn, making me promise I would return before the fighting started. I wanted to see her again. And I dreaded it.
Churning thunder guided us to the Fulgurkeep through streets teeming with people. Another batch of knightly retinues had arrived, bringing crowds out to greet them and plead for news from afar. A fever seemed to hang over the city, fear and anticipation boiling into an anxious flavor.
Navigating through the mess took time, and every wasted moment frustrated me.
“What are you going to tell the Emperor?” Emma asked me as we cut through some alleys to avoid the throngs.
I still hadn’t decided, and had no answer to give her. She must have sensed my mood, because she fell quiet.
We managed to beat the tourney prospects to the Fulgurkeep’s main bridge gate. Just as I was leading our trio out into the avenue, what I had at first taken to be part of a building suddenly rose to its full height and stepped out to greet us.
It emerged from the gap between a church tower and a court hall, rising near tall as both. The three of us all tensed, and I suspected my young followers had the same thought I did — that another storm ogre had appeared in the capital.