Daughter of the Sun

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS...

The nights of Hailey, Daughter of the Sun, Queen of Syfall and of the Kingdom of the South are haunted by the disturbing visions of the marching armies of the Night Lord, an evil supernatural being who had manifested Himself in the lands of the North. Following the advice of Praja, her trusted counselor and court sorceress, Hailey sends her younger sister, Eluan, and her lover and captain of her guards, Darya, to alert her vassals, the Duchesses Sung of Hadun and Dasha of Vinevris. In the meanwhile the Night Lord has already subdued the mind of Queen Artemis of Troygrove, and has instructed her about His plans of conquest and dominion...

https://www.literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-04

***

The seven mounted riders contemplated the sight of the city from the top of the grassy hill.

From their elevated point of observation, the terrain gently sloped down until the shores of the wide gulf that overlooked the placid waters of the Southern Sea. And there, set on its banks, splendid and shining like a precious jewel, stood the ancient and marvelous city of Vinevris.

In the intense and brilliant light of the early afternoon, the great city appeared to the travelers in all its glory, similar to an enchanting mirage emerging from the air, distorted by the summer heath; hundreds of slender towers rose high into the sky like needles, each of them topped with domes and vaults shimmering in brilliant colors of emerald, ruby, sapphire, gold and silver, forming a sumptuous kaleidoscopic vision capable to enchant the eyes and to conquer the heart of whoever would have allowed their gaze to rest on it.

Vinevris was a rich and opulent city. Being the main port of the Kingdom of the South, and one of the largest in the whole Mur, its immense wealth was the consequence of the intensity of the commercial trades with almost all of the other cities on the continent and beyond. From its great harbor, countless vessels and galleons came and went from every part of the known world, transporting every kind of merchandise, from the ones aimed to satisfy the most basic necessities of life to the most exotic and luxurious oddities.

From the far distant, western land of Antaros, on the other side of the Ocean, immense ships arrived fully loaded with gold, spices, exotic herbs and fruits, and precious woods coming from the Empire of Yzca and from the many other, mysterious realms which flourished of that continent.

To the south, the mighty galleons of Vinevris were capable to reach the Isles of the Moon, right in the midst of the Southern Sea, and and push themselves even beyond, reaching the coastal cities of Lyras, Apsus and Zakata on the immense and still mostly unexplored continent of Gowanda, returning to Mur filled with marvelous pearls, diamonds, precious stones, ivory, incenses, resins and perfumes of every kind.

And to the east, the greedy and fearless sailors and traders of the city were able to reach the other main ports of Mur, the three Sultanates of Tarbaste, Saad and Galador, the great and mysterious island-continent of Gajandri, up to the semi-mythical kingdom of Thalos, in the far orient, which was believed by many to be the very end of the Earth. Their ships returned loaded with silks, fine drapery, dyes, and precious artifacts, for the delight of the rich inhabitants of Vinevris.

Every possible kind of goods was traded in that city, with the sole exception of slaves; accordingly to one of the fundamental laws promulgated since the most ancient times by the royal House of Val Lumenar, slavery was absolutely prohibited throughout the whole Kingdom of the South; anyone found to be owning, capturing, or dealing in slaves would have been immediately sentenced to death.

"The Door to the World"; this is how the city was nicknamed by the inhabitants of the Kingdom. And, indeed, it was possible to meet the whole world among the crowded streets of Vinevris, in its great squares, in its thriving markets and in its luxurious palaces. Vinevris was a cosmopolitan city, a meeting point and a crossroads for cultures, races and religious faiths from all over the world, but, at the same time, it could have been also a dangerous place, full as it was of adventurers of dubious morality, charlatans, swindlers and thieves.

The city took its name from the legendary Queen who had founded it, over three thousand years before. Stories and myths reported that the young Queen Vinevris was only twenty-two, when she had landed on the southern coast of Mur with a fleet of fifty ships carrying the remains of the army and of the people who had remained faithful to her, after her forced exile from her homeland in Antaros. And, on the spot on the beach where nowadays stood a shrine in her memory, the young Sovereign had planted her sword, swearing in front of all the Goddesses to guarantee safety and prosperity to her followers and to anyone who may have decided to place themselves under her protection.

The original small settlement of exiles, made of simple mud and wooden huts, had turned quickly into a fortified town, and then into a lively centre, capable of attracting the inhabitants of the other villages located along the coast and in the immediate hinterland.

At that times, the local populations of Mur were still relatively primitive if compared to those of the western continent, whose civilizations were much older. The men and women who came from Antaros following their Queen surpassed the locals in navigation techniques, agricultural knowledge, metallurgy and forging. The economic and military growth of the new center, and its gradual territorial expansion northwards, caused growing friction with the city of Syfall, at that time ruled by Queen Ellyn Val Lumenar, one of the distant, direct ancestor of Hailey, the current Queen, and her relatives.

Five years after Vinevris had landed on the coasts of Mur, the military clash with Syfall became inevitable. For about three years the war had continued in the form of continuous skirmishes between the two cities, with alternated results. Until, on a foggy autumn day, the two armies had met in a decisive frontal clash along the western bank of the Arnon river.

The terrible battle, which lasted over three hours, had entered in history with the name of "The Battle of the Fog and the Blood", and had ended with the capture of Queen Ellyn herself and with the complete rout of the remnants of the army of Syfall. It was a sensational event for the city put under the protection of the Goddess of the Sun, the first of the only two times in its millennial history in which the city had fallen under the dominion of a foreign power.

Queen Ellyn, who was fifty years old at the time, had been forced to submit to the custom that on the continent of Antaros, was reserved to the defeated rulers. Stripped of her royal robes, the Queen of Syfall had been forced to walk naked to the victor's pavilion, between two rows of soldiers who had insulted her, mocked her and made her the subject of heavy and obscene sexual compliments.

Ellyn was mentally prepared to face her destiny: being humiliated, dethroned, enslaved, perhaps even killed. But, to her surprise, the young conqueror came from oversea had received the defeated Queen of Syfall in her pavilion with all the honors. Respectfully, Queen Vinevris had prevented Ellyn from getting down to her knees, removing the cloak from her shoulders and covering with it the nakedness of the Queen of Syfall. Tenderly, she had kissed her on the cheek, calling the older Queen friend and sister, promising her that there would never again be hostility between the two cities, and that the inhabitants of Syfall would have been, from that day on, like children to her, whom she would protect and care for lovingly.

On her side, Ellyn had found herself immediately fascinated by the charming aura of nobility, worth and beauty which emanated from the younger Queen of the west; and the legend said that, despite the twenty years of age difference between them, and the fact that Ellyn was a married woman, the two Queens had soon became lovers. It was also said that the two kissing women immortalized in the "Monument to the Reconciliation", the colossal four-metre statue that nowadays stood in one of the internal gardens of the Ducal Palace, were none other than Vinevris and Ellyn themselves, who had posed for long time for one of the most prominent sculptors of the newly-founded city.

With Queen Ellyn turned into a loyal vassal, and with the armies of Syfall now at her command, Vinevris had set out to conquer all the enormous territory to the south of the Shield river, the great water course that flowed from east to west, marking what today was the northern border of the Kingdom of the South. In those days, the city of Hadun was the capital of a Kingdom that stretched from the Isle of the Lotus to the westernmost part of the continent of Mur. Within three years, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hadun had been driven out of the main land of continent and, a year later, the entire Isle of the Lotus had capitulated, crushed by the naval superiority of Vinevris' fleet.

Having completely secured the lands of the south, the now thirty-four years old Queen Vinevris had turned her gaze to the region on the opposite side of the Shield river. The warriors of Marwe, valiant ebony skinned men and women, offered a strenuous and tenacious resistance, barricading themselves in the dense and dark swamps in the southern part of their territory and trying to wear out the Queen's troops with guerrilla techniques.

But they too could do nothing to avoid their defeat. And so, after five years of fighting, Vinevris was able to cross the stone gates of the ancient city of Marwe as a victor, and to sit triumphantly on the Serpent's Throne, the traditional seat of the rulers of that Kingdom.

Nothing and no one seemed able to oppose her unstoppable advance, while Vinevris was already planning to extend her dominions eastwards, towards the distant cities of Lothorel, Langdor, Reybrook and Idhrim. But fate had decided otherwise; on a summer morning, while Vinevris was searching for relief from the intense heath by bathing in the waters of the Tarnar river, on the north of Marwe, she had been bitten on the calf by one of the many underwater snakes that infested that course. The "Curse of Xanadu", as the most superstitious called it referring to the great serpent-idol worshiped by the inhabitants of Marwe, had punished the Queen for her insult to the ancient city.

And so, the legendary Queen and Conqueror who had came from beyond the ocean had passed away prematurely, at only thirty-nine years of age, leaving no heirs behind her. Her body was cremated in front of one of the main pyramid-temples of the city of Marwe, and her ashes, collected in an urn, delivered in the hands of Queen Ellyn, her most faithful vassal and lover.

Distraught with grief, the elderly Queen of Syfall had abdicated the throne in favor of her daughter, donned the veil of mourning, and carried by herself the cinerary urn, walking barefoot all the road long from Marwe to the city of Vinevris, where she had placed the ashes of her liege and lover in the shrine named after her memory. And, in that shrine, she had remained until the end of her days, living like a hermit nun, in perpetual memory of the woman and the Queen who had conquered her Kingdom and her heart.

For about four hundred years the city of Vinevris had held sway over a territory larger than the current Kingdom of the South, but none of Vinevris' successors were ever able to measure up to the great Queen, nor were they ever able to further extend the territory of the Kingdom.

The city of Marwe was the first to rebel and to regain the independence. And, four centuries after the death of Queen Vinevris, a descendant of Queen Ellyn and another of Hailey's ancestor, Lesya Val Lumenar, led the revolt that would lead to the creation of today's Kingdom of the South, with Syfall as its capital and Hadun and Vinevris as Duchies at its dependency. Since then, various dynasties of Dukes and Duchesses had ruled over the city of Vinevris, taken from the nobility or from the rich mercantile class of the city, but always chosing people who were faithful to the House of Val Lumenar.

The last change of dynasty had occurred about two centuries ago, when one of the richest families in the city had been installed by direct appointment of the Queen of Syfall. And nowadays, on the battlements of the city walls, alongside the black and white flags with the red ship, symbol of the city of Vinevris, stood out imperiously the banner with the black eagle on a gold field, emblem of the Feyner family.

***

Darya and Eluan contemplated the wondrous sight of the city from the back of their horses, the sound of the waves and the screeching of the seabirds clearly audible even from the top of the hill on which they were standing.

Even from that great distance it was possible to distinguish some of the city's most monumental buildings. The walls of the majestic Ducal Palace sparkled with golden light in the rays of the sun. A little further to the east it was possible to spot the gigantic shape of the Vault of the Heaven, the great pantheon dedicated to the cult of all the twelve Goddesses of Mur. The immense bulk of the Hall of the Merchants, the business center and meeting place for the richest men and women in the city was clearly visible between hundreds of other buildings. Beyond it, on the eastern side of the bay, the great lighthouse of Vinevris stood out in all of its dizzying height.

Turning her gaze to the left, Eluan spotted on the face of the Captain of the Guards the same rigid, concerned expression she had at the Tower of the Sun, in the moment in which Hailey had assigned her the task to bring her letter to the Duchess of Vinevris. Darya's lips were almost sealed, her big brown eyes scanning nervously the outskirt of the city as in timorous search of something known to her only.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Eluan asked, feeling the natural impulse to help her friend, whatever the matter could have been. During the three days of travel from the Tower of the Sun to the city of Vinevris, the two women did not have any opportunity to be alone, and Eluan had preferred not to broach the subject in the presence of the soldiers who Darya had picked as their escort.

"Better not," replied Darya, recovering from her unspoken thoughts. "One of us is sufficient to deliver the letter of your sister and to talk through the matter with the Duchess. And there is still a long way from here to Hadun, Princess. You'd better move forward without hesitation."

"I could spend the night here," Eluan tried to insist. "I'm certain that the Duchess would be glad to welcome all of our group at the Palace. Few hours of time would not make a big difference; I could resume the journey tomorrow, at the first lights of the dawn."

"Thanks Princess, but I insist that you go anyway," Darya said, immovable as a rock. "Our mission is of too critical importance to allow ourselves to collect even a single minute of delay."

Thus with some reluctance, Eluan nodded her dark-blonde head, feeling apprehensive for whatever could be the mysterious reason which could afflict her dear friend.

"Good luck Darya," she said simply, before leaning forward on the saddle to give her a light kiss on the cheek.

The five members of their escort, men and women of the Sun's Guard, gave the military salute to their Lady Commander, before turning their horses and spurring them to follow the young Princess of Syfall, along the road heading west.

Darya remained to observe their group for long moments, until they had disappeared from the sight on the other edge of the hill, leaving only a cloud of dust in the air behind them; then, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, she slowly led her horse down to the hill, toward the gates of the distant, glittering city.

***

Several memories came back to Darya's mind, as her horse passed through the open gates in the northern walls of Vinevris and ventured into the crowded streets.

As always, the city was a chaotic hubbub of crowds and a cacophony of sounds. Laughter and screams of urchins playing and chasing each other in the streets, the chatter of negotiations in the shops and stalls, the heavy, rhythmic hammering of a blacksmith coming from a forge. Not far away, a bell of one of the temples of Nala was ringing, inviting the faithful to attend to the afternoon service.

Darya knew Vinevris very well. It was the city in which she was born, thirty-three years ago, and where she had grown up until her adulthood. Thomas D'Agatos and Susanne Marlow, her beloved parents, were still alive and were still running their business at The Red Oak Inn, one of the many taverns in the area of the docks, in which she has spent her first childhood.

For a moment, Darya wondered if it would have been appropriated to pay their parents a visit, before directing her steps toward the Ducal Palace. Feeling a deep sense of guilt within herself, she realized how she had not seen them even once for the last two years, nor even wrote a letter to them. And she was their only child.

Shacking her head, she dispersed the thought from her mind. She was the Lady Commander of the Sun's Guard now, and the protection of the Queen and of her family was her first and most important task. "I can't leave you alone, my sweet Hailey" she thought with a sigh. "My duty in your regards and my love for you prevent me from doing so."

Darya had very pleasant memories of her childhood, spent running around and playing in the streets and the alleys of the city together with other rascals her age. They often fought each other just for fun, and sometimes a small but true fight actually broke out with the kids from some other rival gang. Since she was a little girl, Darya had proved to be exceptionally strong for her age, and in a fight she was perfectly able to defend herself and to beat even boys a few years older than her.

At the age of fourteen she had begun to work at her parents' inn, serving the tables during the evenings and keeping the place clean and tidy during the day, when the customers were usually fewer. For years she had thought that this would have represented the totality of her life; work at the inn of her parents and eventually inherit it when they would have become too old to run it, find a good man in town to marry and with whom have children. The prospect of such a ordinary and in a sense anonymous life didn't concern her too much at that time. Darya was a very simple girl, with no particular ambitions and, in all honesty, at that time she wouldn't have been able to imagine anything different for her.

As she approached adulthood, Darya's natural beauty began to blossom, and she found herself starting to attract the attentions of many of the boys of her age who usually frequented the area around the Red Oak Inn. However, on her side, she realized how she did not have any particular interest in any of the boys around her and that, actually, she was not feeling particularly inclined to build a romantic relationship with anyone at all.

The first turning point in her life came unexpectedly during her eighteenth year. Like every evening, the Read Oak Inn was crowded, and Darya was serving at the tables, carrying frantically trays loaded with food, mugs of beer and glasses of rum from one table to another, when a slightly tipsy sailor, enticed by the young beauty of that waitress, had the bad idea to ​​put his hand under her skirt, groping firmly her bottom in an harassing way.

The unexpected gesture had surprised Darya, who had gasped loudly and had dropped the tray to the floor in a deafening crash of shattered mugs. But her subsequent reaction had been immediate; an instantaneous left hook had caught the troublesome sailor right on the jaw, knocking three teeth out of his dirty mouth and sending him sprawling unconscious on the surface of the table.