The city changed since they left. The walls seemed to have improved with strange material. She could feel the power emanating from the wall itself. But that was not the most important thing. The new palace could be seen from far now. It was made of the same strange material that the walls were as well. She pa.s.sed the place where the blacksmiths were and there were new lines of real houses with big ovens where the blacksmiths worked in as it seems new attire and all in black with big hammers printed on their fronts.They pa.s.sed them but didn"t see their friends almost to the end. The closest house to the gates was the biggest at the same time. Kendra saw the young man having the same attire but having two hammers crossed and standing near his oven and ordering people what to do.
""The temperature is too high... the material won"t melt evenly if you change it that way...why are you hitting that poor thing to the nothingness, it should be hit with strong but even hits not like that..."" he was nagging at all of them and on end taking the hammer and showing the way it is done.
He looked up to say something to one of the workers and saw Kendra, Isaa and the Fluffy standing there and staring at him.
""Oh. It seems you are back. Goluk told me you are on vacation. By the way, he told me to greet you if I see you. They went back home to pack their stuff. It seems that the Lord bought their land and started building something big there. He gave them as exchange land of the same size near the city and they choose to accept it. Soon he will be back. I will see you later. If you need me just let me know. I need now to teach new students about my work, so I am sorry if I have no time talking to you...Not that hot! Didn"t I warn you? Are you dumb?"" he waved his hands and run towards the ovens where one of the students almost didn"t burn himself with the hot metallic fluid.
Kendra looked at the fluid and could feel the energy emanating from it. Strange...What is actually going on?
They slowly went around the corner and they grasped. The place where the dwellings stood now was all filled with small houses with gardens, Actually, it seems they cleared the trees as well and made as it seems a settlement outside the city. There are thousands of houses and as it seems most of them were already occupied. She felt strange. What is going on?
She wanted to enter the city but teh guard stopped her."" Stop. Show me your city badge."" He looked at her clothes in contempt and Kendra looked at him stunned.
""Eh. I was not home for a while. I have no idea what you are talking about."" she looked at him curiously.
""Then you can"t enter the city."" he waved his hand as he was shooing them away. He looked at their clothes again in disgust and hushed them away.
Kendra looked down on her and saw tehy had clean and proper clothing. What"s wrong with it? She understood that there must be stronger inspections and control now as not everyone can enter the city. It is good this way, but how can she go back to the house like this.
""Can someone please just let the officer Luar guarantee ask to come out. He can guarantee for me.""She said while politely bowing to the guard.
""Who do you think he is and who do you think I am? He is one of the main officers of the Lord and I am a guard here not your messenger. Do you think I have the right to go and talk to him all the way to the palace? I can"t leave my post. Now leave. Don"t p.i.s.s me off."" he used his hands and pushed at Kendra but she didn"t move. He was wexed."" What is wrong with you. Do you want me to really get angry and send you to the jail?""
""No, but actually what is your job? Just to stand there and not let anyone in? Is that your only job?"""she asked curiously.
He was stunned. He could clearly see that this small boy was quite strong as he couldn"t even move him for millimeter from his spot. He felt scared and humiliated at the same time. He knew that against this kid he had no chance. He turned around and looked at the group of guards standing not far from him.
""There is trouble here. Please help me."" The guards came and started laughing. Two cute children and a dog were standing in front o them and looking at them.
""Are you scared of the boy, the girl or the tiny dog."" they laughed at him. One of the guards went to the boy that stood there and stared at them. He was a quite good looking boy so he went there and wanted to make fun of him.""You are cute. Wanna warm my bed tonight?""
The boy furrowed his eyebrows and an icy voice sounded out of his mouth.""Be careful what you are saying. Is this how you guard the doors? It seems the Lord stopped having real guards on the gate. I will need to give you all proper training.""
The guard was stunned by the icy words and the feeling of fear took over as the boy"s hair started changing from white into red hue. Even little girl and the dog got closer and looked at them with anger.
""You are disrespectful towards us. Do you think you can enter the city just like that? And who do you think you are to put the city Lord into your mouth. I will stuff it with my..."" the rest of words was not said as the boy rose his hands and hit him with a fist.
The other guards were stunned. Such a little boy had such big strength. That guard that flew away was the biggest and the strongest of them all. They gathered together and wanted to attack but they had no chance. The boy took time while they were stunned to beat them up and their wailings alarmed more guards that rushed out.
They attacked as well and failed miserably. This time the Kendra was getting more and more furious. ""Stop it. I had no intention to attack. This man is disgusting. He asked me to...to...he is just disgusting. I can"t believe that such a person is a guard. Actually, I need to ask, how comes not even one of the old guards is on the gate? What is going on?""
The guards saw her calming down but still looking at them icily. They really had s.h.i.+vers down their backs. They stood up and looked at the child. One of them sighed.""It was really wrong from us to attack before asking. We are new guards appointed by the office. We applied as the guards and went through tough training. When we heard him yelling we taught first you are harmless, but attacked you as you seem to be a way too aggressive (a.r.: srsly?! -.-).""
Kendra felt headache upcoming.""Who is the d.a.m.n fool to let such people guard the doors without proper training? Is this how you act towards everyone? When did you all start to work?"" she started raising her voice.
""The new officer in the city office let us go on gates, we were given order not to let anyone in without badge and already 20 days,"" he answered quickly as he saw the hair color getting red on its tips.
Isaa came in front Kendra and bowed politely to teh guard. ""We are sorry. We own a house in the city but were not here for a long time. Just came back and so many changes happened. Please forgive my brother."" She said while looking sweetly.
That is what guards saw, but what Kendra saw is Isaa"s eyes turning a slightly darker color. If they say something wrong now...
Luckily for them, they just smiled back. Isaa"s smile is after all bit deadly. Kendra was worried about what will happen when she grows up. She sighed.""I actually asked that idiot there to call officer Luar to guarantee for me. But he attacked me without any good reason. Please send someone to the main office. Tell them Kendra and Isaa are back.""
The guard that spoke furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. ""It"s not that I don"t want to help you, but we guard can"t go to the main office. I can go to the city office, and ask the officer there.""
Kendra shook her head. It seems something is wrong with a city officer. ""Can you go then to the ice house and ask for owner Fintan. Tell him what happened. Hurry. I will wait outside and won"t make any more troubles.""
He nodded took the horse that stood near the doors and runs fast to the inner city. Kendra nodded. He might have attacked her but he still listened to her words. The rest of the guards stood there like a flock of dumb birds and looked at him with fear and awe.
She looked at them and smiled. ""I am sorry I attacked you. Actually, I just defended myself from you all. By the way, if there was no entry last 20 days, what happened about the market day?""
One of those guards came near and looked at her with wonder if she was dumb.""What market days? Strange I never heard of it.""
Kendra got stunned for second and looked at Isaa that was stunned as well. ""Uhm. The market days that were every three days?""
""Oh, is that reason why last few weeks so many people came to the gate and left because we didn"t let them in? We didn"t know anything about that. We just had ordered to not let anyone without badges into teh city."" he shrugged his shoulders.
Kendra started feeling something is off. She took Isaa and they stood near the door and waited for the answer. Suddenly she heard the squeaky voice.""What is going on here? Why are you all not on your posts? Why is this idiot on the floor and sleeping?""She saw a short thin man with unnaturally pale skin coming out the gate and yelling at them.
Her eyes narrowed. She remembers this one. He is one of the n.o.bles that were behind sir Tally. She never liked his small sneaky eyes. He looked at her and unfortunately not remembered. It seems his eyes are not only sneaky, but he is also shortsighted as well. She could see him coming closer to guards face and then calling each of them by teh name. What would happen if she spoke, will he remember then?
She smiled suddenly and Isaa knew that something will happen. She smiled as well. Finally, she can see Kendra in action."" Interesting. A n.o.ble as city officer... And not greeting me. How rude.""
The n.o.ble heard a familiar voice and slowly turned around. ""You, you, you are alive?""
""I, I, I plan to live a very long time. Why should I not live, could you tell me? ""asked Kendra while looking at him with an even bigger smile. If someone who knew her so far saw her now tehy would try to run. This was literally the smile before doom.
""They said you all died and we took over the city. The Lord made the city and let the Officer Luar handle it while he was in the village building something, who knows what. We taught it was unseemly to have such lowly officer as his subst.i.tute so we took over temporarily the city..."" his voice became smaller and smaller and suddenly he dropped on his knees.""I am really sorry. I was worried that when they are not in here I wouldn"t be able to handle the wrong people so I stopped everyone coming in. I didn"t mean any harm to the city. Truly!"" he almost started weeping.
""You stopped market day for 20 days. If you stopped everyone enters an inner city I would understand, but outer city!!! Did you give permissions to people from all the city parts to go in and out?"" she asked sternly the shaking n.o.ble while the guards looked flabbergasted at the scene.
He started shaking even more.""I closed the city for the last 20 days. Noone was given permission to go in or out.""
Kendra started shaking. ""Tens of thousands of people are closed in the city. Without food. If even one died from malnutrition I will skin you alive. And you know me so far, I really will do it.""
He started crying now anxiously.""The guy from the ice house was giving them porridge and vegetables. He was always complaining that there is almost no food in the city but I couldn"t let anyone out. I was worried that something could happen and...I...I...I.""
""Lies!"" Kendra turned serious and smiled ironically.""Do you think I will believe such blatant lie? Who told you to do it. I promise you will keep your life if you tell me. If not I will kill you now and then I will put your whole family into jail. And anyone who is befriending you. Who knows how deep such thing is going on.""
He saw someone coming closer and when Kendra was close enough he saw the icy eyes and completely red hair. He started shaking. He knew this is his last chance to survive.""It was one of the n.o.bles. Sir Tally went out with the Lord and miss Xara. He felt that the city couldn"t be in the hands of a simple guard and made me take over the guard duty. Actually, I am quite scared of him. He has powers and I was afraid he will use it against me.""
""What kind of powers?""Kendra already had the hunch about the n.o.ble that was seeming to calm when she killed his brother.
""It"s scary. He had all black around him and some kind of sculls popped out. Not only that one of his men stank b.e.s.t.i.a.lly and had worms all over his body. I was so scared that I accepted his proposal.""
""I understand. You go back to your home. Pack your stuff and leave the city with your family. You are from this moment on kicked officially out the city and will never be able to come back. Neither 10 generations of your family. That is the only thing I can do for you."" she said calmly.
He squirmed to stand up and started running. But soon he started shaking and fell down and under their eyes, he started having a seizure and even before Kendra could react he stopped moving as foul smell started spreading from his body.
""It seems I need this time to lock down the city completely. You guys have to lock doors now. No one is to go out or in just like he said. Not even a n.o.ble. Lock the gates from inside quickly and give me the main key. Like that they can"t go after you. Isaa, listen to me. Go to get the Lord. Use the mist and the cloud at the same time. Its faster than with horse. Here take the bag I made for you and take these sandwiches I prepared before. ""
She stuffed in her bag the sandwiches she made from vegetables and fish as they had quite an energy. She filled one tube with watered energy water to give her more power on her way.
She made guards close the gate as she looked at Isaa"s face. She could see worry so she smiled relaxed at her and showed the Fluffy. Isaa nodded smilingly.
Yes, Fluffy broke finally through his next stage, now he can talk even without full moon and he had dual power. Wind and fire. They taught it was water but his water abilities were just natural thing that came from his tribe. Like Cian had fire tribe.
As soon the gates were closed she made the hidden cloud as Kendra called it and rose above roofs and trees and speed up on the way she a.s.sumed the Lord is. She really hoped they could come and help Kendra on time.
In the city...