Chapter 74
Mitchell stared at the sprawling medieval metropolis before him. He imagined it was what London or Paris must have looked like in the Middle Ages. Or maybe even Rome since Mitchell knew that, at its peak, there were roughly a million people in the city whereas London in the Middle Ages didn't even have a tenth of that. And Lorivin definitely held more than fifty thousand people.
Their frantic pace through the forest had gone largely without incident after that first encounter with the patrol. With Vras to scout ahead, they had come across a few others, but opted to avoid them in favor of speed since it seemed to be more frequent. Word had obviously gotten out that they'd tracked her to that part of the country and being somewhere else became a priority.
The real trouble had been the bridge that they'd crossed yesterday. There was a guard station at the bridge, just as Allora had suspected there would be. With Vras's help, though, they had been easy enough to distract.
The shadow cat was getting better at his illusions and, in the small camp on the far side of the river, he had created visions of several truly terrifying creatures that had sent the people into a panic and Mitchell had given him permission to leave a guard's corpse somewhere to be found to add to the fear and confusion. This had drawn the handful of guards away from the guard stations at the bridge as people swore they were under attack from demons, and the trio had been able to creep across under the cover of darkness without being detected. They'd had to stop and let Vras find some food after they'd put enough distance between them and the bridge as using his illusion so much apparently took a lot out of him, but other than that, the journey was unhindered. Moving at speed had proved to be their best advantage.
The city was roughly circular, with a diameter of four to five miles as near as he could tell. Mitchell could also see walls constructed at various intervals inside the settlement itself. Dominating the skyline was, of course, the palace. It sat on a rise near what counted roughly as the center of town, given its irregular shape. Maybe it had once been a proper circle but over the years it looked as if it had grown in fits and starts to meet the demands of the rising population and so that led to some interesting bulges here and there in walls that were constructed later.
The palace wasn't some grand edifice with spires every fifty meters, but there were a few towers. It was hard to gauge the height since they were still a few miles from the city itself and the whole area sat in the bottom of a small depression that wasn't quite deep enough to be called a valley. Still, the string of hills that encircled the urban center did allow him to get a good view.
Even from this distance, the translucent dome that shielded the palace was evident. It was almost like a soap bubble that enclosed the whole structure. In the bright light of the afternoon, he could just make out the high walls that encircled it and the buildings of the palace compound itself. He could see one large central building that was maybe eight or ten stories high, and then around that, many other smaller buildings, some clustered, and some set apart but still enclosed within the protection of the bubble. It reminded him quite a bit of a university campus from this distance.
"Wow," was all he could say.
Mitchell started to study the surrounding city, and he thought he could detect where districts might be based on the building sizes and orderliness of streets. Things closer to the palace looked grander, with more even lines indicating streets, and the more his eyes tracked out farther, the smaller the buildings became, the more varied in their designs, and the more disorderly the grid. He could make out market squares at various points and then the outer walls themselves, which seemed to have undergone some construction as of late. There were scaffolds erected at various points, and some parts of the walls were higher than others.
Then, just outside the walls, there was a whole other city with little thought given to planning outside the main avenues going in through the main gates. It was like the haphazard market that he'd seen outside Besari, only substantially larger. He could also see what were clearly homes and even apartment blocks outside the walls themselves. And, just as the gnome had said, there were long lines of people, carts, and goods, waiting to make it through the gates as things and people were searched.
"Lorivin," Allora said, a note of both love and dread in her voice. "We have finally made it."
"I knew it was big," Lethelin said, "But I didn't know it was
this
big."
"How does it compare to Varset," Mitchell asked her.
"About double the size, I'd say."
"At the last census, the population of Varset was estimated to be just under three hundred thousand people," Allora intoned as if reading from a fact sheet. "The population of Lorivin is around eight hundred thousand permanent residents. So more than double."
The pride in Allora's voice at this fact was obvious, and she said it without taking her eyes off of the splendor of her home. And Mitchell had to admit, there was a majesty about the place.
Lethelin, never one to let something like that slide, made her "little miss know-it-all" face and mouthed mimicking the numbers behind Allora's back, but didn't reply. Mitchell grinned. They really were so much like sisters at this point, with their snipes at one another, but also a fondness that seemed to grow by the day. Even though their bickering could be a little frustrating, he still found it adorable.
"That is the Onyx Gate," Allora said, pointing to a large structure off to their right opened out towards the east. "The road swings north and enters the Shadow Glen about three days ride from here. One can take it to the northern sections of Awenor and eventually to Kazig, either by boat across the Hartik Sea, or via passage through the northern section of the Skybreaker Peaks."
She indicated the gate to their left and the road it serviced, which arced away from the city and pushed through the western ring of hills.
"That is the Sapphire Gate and that road heads towards the coast and," Allora glanced at Lethelin, "Eventually all the way to Varset. The other three gates are the Blood Stone Gate, the Opal Gate, and the Obsidian Gate."
Mitchell and Lethelin watched where she indicated and, while the Opal and Obsidian gates were on the far side of the city from their vantage point, he could still make out the roads that led away from them.
Allora continued with her geography lesson.
"The Onyx Gate is reserved for official traffic only. That is people or merchants traveling on diplomatic missions, goods meant for the palace or one of the many embassies inside the walls, government business, the Knights, or high level city or military officials."
Mitchell nodded his understanding and Allora continued.
"The Sapphire Gate is for non-official merchants and people with business in the Cloud District." She glanced at her two students. "That is the district just outside the palace proper."
"The snobby rich folk, right?" Lethelin remarked, as her eyes followed the road where it tracked into the city and up the gentle slope towards the palace.
"The people there are considered the wealthy of Lorivin, yes," Allora answered, her voice a little tighter. "The rest of the gates are open to any traffic except for Opal Gate. That is the smallest and reserved for foot traffic, or for individuals, merchants and tradesmen with no more than a pull cart."
"Do you know where the inn is that we're supposed to report to?"
"It is in the Kethend District..." Allora's voice trailed off as her eyes scanned the city. "Roughly there."
She indicated a section of the city west of the Onyx Gate but off from the main road about halfway up the slope towards the palace.
"It is a mix of residential and trade shops."
"Which gate do you think you'll use," Mitchell asked Lethelin.
