CHAPTER ONE
It was a cold, dark night in Casville, the capital city of the Nersean empire. The beautiful streets of the city that were always bustling with activity in the daylight had understandably become deserted. Voices of chattering human beings had given way to the sounds of hooting owls, chirping crickets and other such sounds that usually filled the night.
Two figures could be seen walking down the Levois street with burning torches in their hands. Their voices, albeit in whispers and undertones, seemed to have been amplified by the relative tranquillity of the night and could therefore be heard quite clearly as they walked briskly towards the northern gate of the city.
"Don't you think, Harvin, that the sire is not being fair to us?"
One of the men, the taller one in fact, observed.
"I don't think so. Why do you ask?" the second man queried.
"Why, this man keeps his concubines in the tower always. . ." the first man, whose name was Miguel, complained.
"What about that?" Harvin asked bluntly while stealing a cursory glance at his colleague to see if he was really alright. How on earth did their boss' concubines concern them?
"You don't understand. He keeps his concubines in the guard tower but do not allow ours to even visit at all.'
Harvin's thin lips widened into a fat smile. "Now I see what you mean. Maria will do you a whole lot of good on a night like this. isn't it?"
"Exactly," Miguel replied with a twisted faced smile of his own.
"Have you asked him before?" Harvin asked, turning the conversation back to their boss.
"What?" Miguel seemed to have gotten lost in the transition.
"Permission to bring Maria over, silly," the other man rebuked.
"No, I haven't," Miguel answered truthfully. "I don't think I have the heart to do that. He will surely refuse."
"Ask him first," Harvin advised. "You never can tell if he would accept without asking."
"True," Miguel conceeded.
Presently, they arrived at their destination; the Northern city gate. The magnificiently sculpted northern gate was one of the four points of entry into Casville. It was always manned by four guards both day and night. Miguel, Harvin and two other guards were on the roll to guard the gate tonight.
"A good evening to you gentlemen," Farsell, one of the two other guards, greeted cheerily as his two colleagues entered the guard post.
"Evening Farsell," they greeted back.
"It is cold tonight," Lujan, the other guard, remarked, stating the obvious. "I do hope we won't have Vavires."
Vavires was the Casvillean word for those trading parties that often entered the city with their numerous sealed goods. It was the duty of the guards to check the contents of each package and ensure that no contraband is being brought into the city.
"Certainly not," Harvin opined. "Nobody in his right mind will be travelling under this inclement conditions. Besides . . ."
The remainder of Harvin's remark was drown by a distinctly close, combined sound of snapping branches, beating hooves and neighing horses.
The guards turned sharply in the direction of the sound and saw not an approaching trading party but two men dressed in peasant clothing, riding two dark horses swiftly towards them.
One of the riders caught more attention because of his rather odd dressing. In addition to his all black peasant garb, he had on a dark hood that half covered his face and then he bowed his head low as he rode so that the uncovered part of his face became totally obscured from the guards from distance.
The other rider was not much less spectacular. He was a huge man, a really huge man with a small shaven head and a fearsome
visage. No matter what angle you looked at him, you get the impression of a predator raring to pounce on its prey.
"Do you suppose they are bandits?" Miguel asked his colleagues, as he unsheathed his broadsword and assumed a fighting stance.
"I don't know what to think. We will discover who they are soon," Farsell replied.
In no time, the two riders arrived at the watch post of the guards and they were waved to a stop.
Source: Nairaland
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