IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS.
After having left Darya by the gates of the city of Vinevris, Princess Eluan and the knights of the Sun's Guard accompanying her have resumed their long trip westward toward the distant city of Hadun, located on the remote Isle of the Lotus. Their mission is to deliver to Duchess Sung the letter of Queen Hailey, to inform her about the incoming threat represented by the Nightlord.
Both the Queen and her younger sister are unaware of how Hadun is already a target for the Nightlord's forces. Following the orders of Queen Artemis, enslaved to the power of the Darkness, Admiral Nyphoros is starting to recruit a pirate fleet in order to put siege to the Duchal city and its territory...
https://www.literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-07
https://www.literotica.com/s/daugther-of-the-sun-ch-10
***
The immense avenues of the ducal city of Hadun were ample and well shaded, flanked as they were on both sides by long rows of tall, broad-leaved trees, which filtered the vivid light of the afternoon creating an enchantingly golden, almost intimate, atmosphere.
Eluan adored the city since the first moment she had laid her eyes on it, while disembarking from the barge. The general sense of tranquility, order and cleanliness that emanated from those wide streets made of rammed earth, from the low, distanced and well-kept painted wooden buildings, made it a very different city from Syfall, which with its narrow alleys and its houses of stone almost piled one on top of the other on the slopes of the hill, it sometimes appeared to her as almost suffocating, oppressive.
With enraptured curiosity, the young Princess looked all around her, observing the massive comings and goings of the busy inhabitants, while her small group led their horses at a slow pace along a wide, crowded avenue, progressively moving away from the harbor and heading towards the innermost area of ββthe city.
The men, engaged in the most diverse business activities, wore simple leather vests over their bare chests, trousers cut short to the knee and straw sandals. Only a very few of them were strolling around armed, carrying with them only daggers or short swords tied to their rope belts, another feature of this city which Eluan greatly appreciated.
The women, who were walking in pairs or in small groups along the streets, were absolutely enchanting in their long, colorful kimonos that reached down to the ground, accentuating their slender and tapered shapes, and many of them were shading themselves from the beating rays of the sun by using some small, colored paper umbrellas. Eluan found all of them to be so very cute and lovely.
The Princess did not fail to observe the different buildings on both the sides of the road, marveling at the level of caring which seemed to have been put with almost obsessive precision into every minimum detail. Every single house had its own little garden, and the inhabitants of Hadun seemed to have competed with each other to make theirs even more wonderful than those of their neighbors, exquisitely adorning them with bushes, flowers, shrubs and small statues of stone.
There was also no shortage of shops along that busy commercial street, artisans of various types, pottery makers, tinsmiths, fruit sellers, blacksmiths, candle makers and many, many more. Almost all the shops were full of customers, and the lively chatter of bargaining enlivened the atmosphere all around.
A small herbalist's shop caught in particular her attention. Through the open door, Eluan could see the shelves full of small vials, jars and stills full of ointments, oils and other more mysterious potions, while a pungent aroma of herbs, spices and medicinal plants pleasantly reached to her nostrils. The city of Hadun was very well known in the continent of Mur for the skills of its apothecaries and healers, and Eluan would have loved so much to be enjoy the opportunity to stop for a while in one of those shops, to delve deeper and explore that world that was so fascinating and unknown to her.
Continuing further down the road, Eluan's eyes fixated with curiosity on a large, elegant, two-story edifice, one of the biggest in that neighborhood, which clearly stood out from all the other smaller buildings, and whose wooden planks were entirely lacquered in polished black. Above the massive double front door, a huge flower was drawn, painted a bright, vibrant red.
Riding at her side, Nicole Silvermoth, the youngest of the three female members of the Sun's Guard escort accompanying her, a native of those lands, noticed what she was looking at.
"I sincerely hope you are not thinking to step into that building, Princess," she said with a giggle. "This is the House of the Red Tulip, one of the most famous brothels of Hadun. It wouldn't be appropriate for a person of your noble rank to step inside; thus, I have to admit, some of the girls who work there are quite noticeable and definitely worthy to stay even in the court of a Queen."
"No titles," Anja, who was riding nearby, leading the group as her usual, admonished her with a firm voice. "Remember where we are."
Nicole assumed a guilty and embarrassed expression for a moment, before looking back at Eluan and smiling at her, accompanying the gesture with a knowing wink while sticking out her tongue.
The Princess giggled, amused by that scene and by the funny expression of the young knight of the Guard with the curly head and the lively, almond-shaped eyes. Overall, she was finding great enjoyment in her company; along the way, Nicole had turned out to be a cheerful and playful girl, with a strong sense of humor and an always ready joke, and to Eluan it had been a true pleasure to have her by her side throughout their long journey.
She was about to drop the subject, however the last part of Nicole's sentence had attracted a no small amount of her morbid curiosity.
"Then, since you seem to know this place so well, I have to deduct that you have been there personally?" Eluan asked, as they continued to move along the avenue, away from the building with the black lacquered walls.