In twos the knights silently marched back through the moody interior of Cagrach Hall. Alwyn squinted as the intensity of the sun painted his face, as he was once more greeted by the bustle of the city. Though he felt calm and his face betrayed no tumult, his mind was reeling from the sheer abundance of information that they had just received. One look at Orwick told him that his feelings were mutual.
"Off to the stables with you then?" Orwick offered, obviously prodding for some means to start conversation.
Alwyn nodded. "Not heading that way yourself I take it?"
Orwick just shook his head, waving his hand dismissively.
"I should make my way over in a short while, just need some time to…sort my thoughts," he finished.
They stood and watched as a mule cart stacked high with crates creaked down the cobbled road.
"Looks like you'll be heading back through our old neck of the woods," said Alwyn, flashing a grin.
"While you're slumming it out, freezing over in Creagsten? I'd say I definitely drew the better lot," Orwick laughed half-heartedly.
Alwyn followed Orwick's eyes to a well-dressed family stepping out from their townhouse. A smiling father caught a giggling girl no more than eight by the arm as she attempted to rush past him and into the road. Meanwhile, the young mother held her teary-eyed son to her shoulder as they made to step into an awaiting carriage.
"How long is it now that we've been in service to Regganor?" Orwick asked, watching the carriage as it trundled away.
"Well I'd begun my training on my fourteenth roat and wasn't knighted till my twentieth," Alwyn recollected, "though you squired even earlier than that."
"And yet, what is it we've really done?"
"There was that time when I was a squire back in Willowgate that I helped old miss Adelaide rid her garden of screaming mandrakes. Took nearly a moon to get the ringing out of my ears." Alwyn stroked his chin as he recalled the memory.
Orwick shook his head in frustration.
"I am being earnest, Alwyn. Aside from annual rotations for border patrols and the odd band of highwaymen that grow bold enough to take us on, what is it we've accomplished? What is it that we have been training for all this time?"
"You mean since the war?"
The question was rhetorical. Unfortunately, Alwyn had seen Orwick take on such a mood many times in the past. It was best to walk him through the process.
"You know that damned war took my grandfather and sent my family to ruin…my father was never the same after their infernal machines nearly ended his life."
Orwick almost choked on the bitter words, but having repeated them so many times retained his composure. His eyes stayed fixed on the carriage as its coachman stepped up to his seat.
"Cost your father a leg himself," he added.
Alwyn furrowed his brow but said nothing. He allowed his brother in arms to simmer as they watched the children playing through the back window of the carriage. Bringing out a pair of dolls, the older sister had managed to soothe her crying brother. It appeared as if they were laughing together as the carriage set off. Though Alwyn's father had fought in the Copper War and truly had lost a leg in one of the deciding battles, he had not let it affect how he had raised his sons. Comparing the injury his father had received did not seem akin to Orwick's fathers' abandonment, but he let his companion vent on.
"In the time of our fathers, we were the most powerful Kingdom in all of Junia." Orwick began, turning towards his partner after the carriage had passed out of sight. "Those settlers got the smallest taste of power and decided to sever the hand that fed them. After floundering for decades since, why is it only now that we're being told of a way to remedy our cause and aid our people?"
Though Alwyn could only see this as good news, he couldn't help but notice that it did not alleviate his friend's rancor.
"This could be the answer we've been looking for, why bring ill fate upon it before seeing what's in store?" Alwyn assuaged.
Orwick sighed and shook his head, but the tension seemed to fade from his shoulders.
"I suppose you're right in that old friend." He said with a sniff, turning back to clap Alwyn on the shoulder with a weary smile. "I just fear it sounds too good to be true."
Alwyn laughed heartily, which worked to bring some genuine mirth back to Orwick's eyes. "Treat it like you would one of your love affairs. Only time will tell what will come of things, so don't fret in the present."
"Get on with you already!" Orwick waved him away, "I've some packing to do of my own."
Alwyn stepped off merrily on the path towards the garrison stables, turning on his heel after a number of steps to call back to his fellow knight.
"Should I expect to see you at Durandal's past dusk?" he asked with a wiry smile.
"I'll take it into consideration," Orwick retorted with a smirk, before turning in his own direction back to the barracks.
He didn't let it show easily, but Alwyn could tell that his words had had a healing effect on his companion's mood.
It was only a short walk down the curved avenues of Privatis to reach the stables that adjoined the western gate. Taking only a short detour to a side street bakery to make a quick meal of some fresh-baked honey tarts, Alwyn paid the baker a few extra scalics before carrying on to the sleepy corner of the city that housed the troop stableyard. The arbiter of the upkeep was leaning against the gate and smoking a pipe as Alwyn approached. Looking up from his boots as he heard the approaching footsteps, the old man's face took on a picture of delight.
"Sir Alwyn! I'd say it's a surprise had ah not seen half a dozen of the Drake's Tongue ride in just 'fore dawn!"
Alwyn greeted the stable master warmly with an outstretched hand.
"A pleasure as always, Master Taylor. It seems you've your work cut out for you, I'm afraid."
"I'll say," scoffed the stable master as he held open the gate, "Doubtless Greenwood's cooked up something for the lot of you."
"Something along those lines," replied Alwyn vaguely, recalling the warning he had received in Cagrach Hall.
He continued, "Though it seems I'll be spending some time away, and will need to ready Esper for the journey. I take it she's been in good health? I regret I haven't had the time to stretch her legs myself since last nock."
"Aye chipper as a lark, though a tad antsy. I imagine she'll be excited to be ridden past the gates."
Master Taylor removed his cap as he followed Alwyn inside the stable, the straw that littered the floorboards crinkling under his feet. The stable had a musty, earthy smell from the hay and wood that Alwyn and the stablemaster both found welcoming. Though the atmosphere was humid, there was a good enough flow of air that it did not become stifling. Esper whinnied gleefully from her stall to the left as she saw her master's approach.
"Her saddlebags should be made up with everything you might be needing, though if you find yourself wont of anything, give me a holler."
Alwyn thanked the stablemaster and slid a couple of silver scalics into his hand. At once he set about inspecting the condition of his tack for the journey ahead. Though having full trust of Master Rowan Taylor through his dedicated years of work with the garrison horses, Alwyn still took proper care to look after the health of his mount. He thoroughly inspected her teeth and shoeing before grooming her coat. All the while Esper kept a curious eye on her charge, who smiled fondly in return. It had been some months since he had journeyed beyond the outskirts of Privatis with Esper, and figured such a trip might prove good for her health. She was always a spritely mare, as Alwyn recalled from his earliest days of their partnership, and while she had mellowed with age he knew that she must be eager for a wider space to roam.
He was deeply lost in thought before he noticed the other voices from within the stable, and it took even longer before he recognized them. Quickly finishing up his brushing, Alwyn gave the mare a loving pat before rising to his feet.
"There are just too many matters where we have been left in the dark…" spoke the first of the voices.
"I too have questions I wish could be paired with answers, but I am certain we will find out in due time. There must be reasons why our knowledge is being limited," reassured the second, a voice like a gravel road that creaked like loose floorboards.
"I just don't care for it," the first insisted, "faith in our command and comrades is one thing, but trust in much else is harder bought and easier spent these days. How are we to assemble a puzzle when we haven't been given half the pieces?"
Sir Heinrich was about to reply when he spotted Sir Alwyn step out from Esper's stall from the corner of his eye, who half-bowed with an arm crossed over his chest in respect to his senior knights.
"Ah Sir Alwyn," Sir Heinrich exclaimed, returning the formality, "readying yourself for the journey ahead?"
Sir Lawrence cleared his throat and, after announcing he had other business to attend to, showed himself outside, managing only a tight smile to Alwyn as he passed by. Sir Alwyn approached his senior apologetically, with the nagging suspicion that he had eavesdropped on a conversation he was not meant to hear.
"Trying to make as short a work of it as possible," he answered, attempting to move past the feeling, "It is good to see you Sir Heinrich, it has been many moons. How was your journey from Duchy Creagsten?"
"Long and tiring," replied the elder knight, stroking his snow-white beard, "though the change in scenery has improved my mood almost as much as the change in weather has improved the ache in my joints."
Sir Heinrich spoke seriously, though the glimmer in his eye told Alwyn that his senior was in good spirits. It was rare to see all members of the Drake's Tongue within the same Duchy, much less the same city, and Sir Heinrich's holdings were so far removed to the north that there was little reason for him to make an appearance unless it were absolutely necessary. Though he had had very little interactions with him, Sir Heinrich had always been one of the seniors Alwyn had looked up to most. Not only had he been a member of the Drake's Tongue even longer than Marshall Greenwood, and long enough to remember the Copper War itself, he was less finicky than the likes of Sir Lawrence and so always held a more approachable demeanor.
"Sorry to have to ask you to journey back so soon."
Alwyn smiled apologetically at the old man, who sighed and rolled his eyes in return.
"Should I have stayed where I was, you could have all summoned me from my lodgings on the way. But ah, there is no use looking to the past," he returned the smile and looked over his junior knight with curiosity, "It seems I shall be deferring to you anywho for the duration of this journey, Sir Alwyn. I place my trust in your hands."
Alwyn gave a nervous laugh at the respect shown by such a veteran, his words ringing back to the conversation he had unintentionally overheard.
"I know there are some uncertainties about our journey ahead, many of which I'm sure a number of us share. Though I have been granted the honor of such a position, I would appreciate any guidance you may have - we are headed to the Duchy in which you are charged, after all."
Sir Heinrich nodded, thoughtfully formulating a response,"These are strange times indeed, the likes of which Regganor has never faced. Uncertainty in such days is only to be expected. It is as I told Sir Lawrence, there is naught for it but to depend on the wisdom of King Edwin, and those he has entrusted to deliver our salvation."
Reading the words plainly, Alwyn could see that the elder knight was reassuring him not to fret on the matter, so Alwyn resolved to calm his nerves. He thanked Sir Heinrich for his wisdom.
"Ensure you get some rest this evening as well, Sir Alwyn. We've a long ride ahead of us," Sir Heinrich called as an afterthought as he ambled out of the stable, "Don't give Durandal enough coin to retire just yet."
Alwyn grinned and waved as Sir Heinrich passed the gate and his shadow faded into the sunlight of the street. Alone once more, he laid his hand on the hilt of his sword and shook his head, trying to recall the details of their conversation.
Tricky old man, He thought as he smiled to himself. I had never even mentioned the tavern.