Chapter 1: Arrivals (Part 5)

Preliminary forays into the wilderness had revealed nothing but the occasional forest, the occasional stream and some occasional plains. There was no sign of human habitation for many karas around, and, sure that it was safe, Arboru’s expedition decided to pitch camp and find out more about this new land, so as to return to Jodias with more than just a vague report of land beyond the sea.

Dekllon went to a nearby stream, no more than three paces across. Waist-shallow, such streams were numerous across the area they had explored, and flowed eastwards to the sea without ever joining to form a larger channel. He put down his spear, unbuckled his sword, undressed and took a bath in the murmuring water, the first one in two months he had had with freshwater instead of briny seawater. It was satisfying beyond description, and he rested for awhile in the cool water, letting it remove the tiredness of the voyage from his bones where they had lodged, before getting up and dressing. He had come a long way from the port town of Sumeras where he had chosen to settle after the Arrival. Here in a strange land, possibly one of the only two hundred humans for a league around—inconceivable back in the old, small Erennia, where there was always someone wherever you looked—he felt exhilarated and pleased that Arboru had discovered this new land, a strange feeling indeed considering that he had been one of those on the Tioron plotting to kill Arboru less than a day ago. But that aside; it was time to return to the camp.

Something glinted in the water of the river, catching the corner of Dekllon’s eye just as he was about to turn away. Frowning a little, Dekllon turned back to investigate further, dipping his hand into the riverbed to scoop up the gravel where the glint was. Probing his palm’s contents, his eyes suddenly widened in understanding, and he frantically looked around. All of a sudden, what he was seeing registered in his mind. Breathing hard as if he had run a kara at a sprint, Dekllon slowly turned and took to his heels, screaming.
“Everyone! Everyone! There’s—”

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“—Gold! Gold! It’s everywhere!” The overjoyed yells and shouts of the five-man exploration party rang out into the valleys and hills as if there were anyone within earshot to hear them. One of them had stumbled on a rock, and turning back, they had discovered a large stone, big enough that only two palms together could hold it, with a thick tracery of that wonderful metal running straight across it. Suppressing their ecstasy they had dug a little into the ground, discovering that already, at the surface there was gold strewn all around in the rocks. What more of deeper down underground? They were rich, rich, and Erennia would be all the richer! Jodias would surely reward them greatly for this discovery; maybe even put them in charge of the gold!
As they worked hard to put as much of the gold ore into sacks as they could to bring back to the camp, it occurred to them that this meant they would surely be returning to these shores, now. No kingdom, not Erennia most of all, could give up the allure of possessing such rich land covered in gold.

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That night, as Arboru sat with his men around the fires, his mind was clicking away to calculate the potential worth of this discovery his crew had made. Apart from Dekllon and about ten others who had been to the rivers, there were also fifteen others exploring to the northwest who had stumbled upon gold mines, seemingly upon the same vast one. They were unusually joyful that night, and Arboru had ordered amphorae of wine broken open and the wine poured out in celebration and libation to the gods. As the dark liquid poured out of the long thin jars the fragrance of the wine, meant for trade with any they might have chanced to meet on the newly-discovered shores, rose into the night with a sweetness unparalleled by any other celebratory wine drunk in the years past. That night, all the two hundred men slept peacefully in their tents, their dreams filled with the glint of gold and visions of huge villas and mansions they would build, and all manner of good food.

The next morning, however, only two ships hoisted their sails to return home. The Tioron and the Mondery each carried only twenty men, including Arboru, and the oars moved hurriedly as the ships put on as much speed as possible eastwards. Arboru had emphasised maximum speed above all other preparations; the ships, to move faster, had left all their supplies save what the crew needed behind on the shores of the new land, christened Arboriel, after himself. Their sole cargo were sacks of gold ore that the men who had discovered the gold had filled. Behind them, too, they also left the remaining men who did not get on the ships, in their neat campsite, with orders to begin building a permanent settlement. When they returned, it would be with the families of the crew, more people to settle in the town and around it, and better tools with which to master the land and shape it to their needs.

Those who had been left behind wondered at the silhouettes of the ships sailing into the rising sun, and wondered when they would see them again.

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When the two ships anchored at Itayra a slow two months later, they returned to a radically changed Itayra, and beyond that, a radically changed Yll'adelia. Far from the semi-complete state it had been in when Arboru had last seen it, just the previous year, Yll'adelia now carried on its walls the gleaming austerity of completion, their every stone proclaiming solidity and stability, their proud lines and angles jutting into the sky. Completely cut of black granite, the walls towered thirty paces high, with a great tower every fifty paces, open-topped. From every towertop the crossed crescents of the Erennin fluttered, and occasionally visible on the battlements, Royal Guards patrolled the walls in pairs.

To his surprise, Arboru found the grey-haired figure of Jodias waiting for him just outside the northwest-facing Itayra Gate, ten Guards around him. News of the ships’ docking had travelled to his ears in the one hour it took for Arboru to deal with the formalities, get a drink in an inn, and make the walk into Yll'adelia with his crew. Jodias fixed Arboru with a steady look, and said, ‘We will talk in the Palace.” Arboru nodded, and the procession moved through the streets towards the Palace at its centre. Passing through the gate, Arboru could not help but look up at the ceiling of the portal, an almost incredible distance up, and wonder at the weight of the massive bronze and wood doors that were opened against the inner walls. Ten paces thick, the walls of Yll'adelia were truly massive monuments, built in defiance of time, both in its construction and its endurance.

The eight main streets of Yll'adelia were arrow-straight, radiating from the plateau at its heart, each terminating at a huge gate. Full twenty paces wide, the streets were divided in the middle by small grass verges from which trees grew to shelter the ground like in old Mirynium, while on the roadside, more trees did the same, their branches interlinking to form a roof over the streets. The interplay of light and shadow was at once fascinating and calming. In concentric rings around the plateau, linking all eight broad avenues with one another, smaller side streets branched off from the main ones. Encompassed by avenues, streets and even smaller streets and alleys, marketplaces, shops, houses, inns, gardens, mansions and workshops jostled for place dynamically. Construction was ever going on, and the city seemed to live on its own, without its people. The streets teemed with people, the windows and balconies often had people looking out of them. The occasional tower would rise from among the buildings, testimony to some richer noble or soldier or merchant who could afford the additional height. Arboru found himself walking quickly as the Guards set a cracking pace that he was beginning to feel throbbing through his calves.

The line separating the city from the Palace was as abrupt as it was real. The shade of the trees suddenly disappeared, curving away to the right and left of Arboru as they surrounded a huge empty space around the palace enclosure, a stone wall that surrounded the plateau in a circle fifteen paces high. Passing within the palace gates, the gold-covered doors were quickly swung shut behind the group of men. Jodias turned away to the left, passing through winding paths in between gardens and palace buildings until he arrived at the Great Hall, a monumental building with pillars all around it and sculptures decorating their bases. The citadel plateau’s cliffs towered over the rest of the palace, clustered around its base. Passing into its shadow Arboru caught a glimpse of the gleaming white stone walls of the citadel high up above him, before entering the cool darkness of the Great Hall.