Chapter 20

Pardin did not know what to expect when he arrived at the capitol city of Rantallion yet what he encountered was far beyond his imagination. His only expectation was a swift dive bomb attack by a dragon to knock down the city gate but someone or ones had beaten him to it. One door was completely off of its hinges and the other was barely standing with half of the bottom hinge still bolted to the wall.

The streets were a mess of strewn clothes and dirty, naked bodies, very much alive. Some of them were still trying to copulate but the strain and fatigue was widespread and thoroughgoing. However, there was one old hag with tits drooping down to her bellybutton that was still raring to go, soliciting everyone who passed her. She even offered a gum job with a toothless grin.

Adray thought she was cute.

The streets were narrow and winding. The houses on the bottom were modest, made of adobe baked bricks stacked against wooden frames with thick woven roofs of river rushes. The houses were only two stories high in the lower reaches. As one climbed higher and the wealth accumulated, the bottom floors were built of cut stone. The squares that opened up as one traveled deeper into the city were upended stones with mortar in between. Each square had a fountain in the middle of it.

Just below the castle walls, the manor houses were cut stone from top to bottom. Their roofs were wood poles with sheets of peeled bark to seal out the cold and rain. Where the line of houses ended, a dry moat separated the castle from the rest of the city. The castle was on the other side of the moat. The walls were high and thick and the great door was tightly secured in its niche in the wall. No grappling hook could overcome the overlay of stone that protected the top of the door.

Something about the castle wall made Pardin's skin crawl. The wall, made of the same cut stone as the fine houses behind him, had an unnatural feeling to it that made him want to rub his skin clean. As Shmor explained, around the walls was a spell that rebuffed the magic that had overcome the rest of the city. As with the magic itself, Pardin did not pretend to comprehend how any of it worked or did not work. He understood that standing too close to the wall only increased his desire to take a bath.

Men in arms patrolled the top of the battlements and their faces looked grim. A shout of recognition came from one of the soldiers and suddenly a lot of men were pointing their fingers, spears, and arrows at him and at Adray. After a moment of silence as they stared down at him and he stared up at them, a lot of muffled orders and commands were shouted across the battlements. Men shuffled and moved about in no discernable order that Pardin could understand.

A man appeared at the closest battlement in a tall hat with huge white plume coming off of the back of it.

"Parading human with big, stupid hat," Adray squealed. "Just like in the humantales ma and da used to tell. I bet you a hundred coppers he starts shouting and gets all red in the face."

"I'm not taking that bet," Pardin said. "Can the fairies get over that wall and tell us what is gathering?"

"There is blood magic wrapped around the castle," Adray said as if her revelation was an everyday fact. "Can't you feel it on your skin? No fairy is going to get past it."

The man in the funny hat cleared his throat and brought a large metal cone to his mouth. "Hear the words of your Lord Hinderblast, you blasphemous fiends who bring the evils of monster magic into our blessed realm. As sovereign of this holy land, Lord Hinderblast will defend this realm, putting to death all vile and wretched creatures who subvert the natural order of the world. Magic is a crime against nature. Magical creatures have been a stain on creation from the moment of their birth. They and their minions shall be eradicated from this earth and their evil purged from our midst."

The man then started to list all of their crimes against the realm. He cursed them and then began to describe the various ways they would all be taken, captured, tortured and ultimately put to death. His descriptions became more and more gruesome.

"See, I told you he would get all red in the face," Adray said.

Pardin was half-listening when a rushing sound in the wind caught his attention. "Uh-oh," he said frantically searching the sky.

Anorexia dove straight down from above with her front talons extended. In the blink of an eye she hit the battlement and scooped up the funny hat man, leaping back up into the sky. The few arrows that were launched bounced harmless off of her scales.

"Put him down," Pardin screamed. "Put him down, put him down."

Anorexia stopped in mid-wing beat and gave Pardin a hard look. With a dragon-like shrug, she released the man from her claws. The man fell with his arms flailing. He bounced off the edge of the battlement, slid down the outside of the wall, bounced again and rolled into the bottom of the dry moat. He did not move.

"That must of hurt," Fuster said. "I'll only give him a seven point two-five for dramatic presentation because his landing sucked."

Anorexia dived again and disappeared behind the wall of the castle. She emerged again with a fat hog this time. She glared at Pardin as if daring him to say something. Instead he put his two hands together and applauded. Everyone gathered followed his lead and she seemed quite pleased with the ovation. As a dragon she was not going to share her find but she was just as susceptible to flattery as anyone else. She hoisted her tail and let loose a large crap in the castle courtyard from high above.