Dragonspell: A Novel

"Are ye sure ye won't ride all the way into the city?"

Kale hardly heard the farmer's question as she stood beside his wagonload of barley grain. Her eyes looked over the crude cart she'd traveled in and then turned to the dazzling metropolis across the wide valley. The sun sparkled on Vendela, a city of sheer white walls, shining blue roofs, and golden domes. Many spires and steeples and turrets towered above the city, but in a vast variety of shapes and colors. More than a dozen castles clustered outside the capital, and more palaces were scattered over the landscape
across a wide river.

Seeing Vendela reminded Kale her life had changed forever. Her hand
rose to her chest and rested on the small pouch hidden under her clothes.

I have a destiny. The thought scared her and pleased her too. After
being a village slave all fourteen years of her life, she'd been freed.

Well, sort of free.

One week ago she'd left River Away, her village of two dozen homes,
a shop, a tavern, and a meetinghouse. In maybe another week, she'd go
through the tall gates of the most beautiful walled city in all of Amara,
quite possibly in the entire civilized world. It would take a week to get used
to the clamor. She could feel it from here.

I'd go mad in my head if I stepped into Vendela tonight.

The city pulsated with thoughts and feelings of more people than she
could count. On market day in River Away, she endured thirty or forty
people close enough for her to feel their lives bumping against the walls of
her inner person. But Vendela...

I might smother. I'll go slowly into that city. Nobody knows I'm coming. I
don't have to hurry. A mile or so a day. Slow, till it feels comfortable.

A lot of things worried her. It was easy to say you were glad not to be
a slave any longer. It was hard to walk alone into a place you'd never been
before. Nobody knew or cared about her in Vendela. In River Away, most
everybody cared, even if the caring revolved around whether or not she
worked hard.

"Girl!" The old man's bark jerked Kale from her thoughts. He scowled
at her. "I'm going right into the city. Ye might as well ride with me."

"Thank you, Farmer Brigg, but I'd just as soon walk the rest of the
way. I can look at how pretty Vendela is."

She smiled up at him, feeling some affection for the gruff old man.
She'd ridden the last leg of her journey beside him on the wide wooden
seat. He'd been kind to her, sharing his bread and cheese and stories of all
the wonders in the great city. Nevertheless, Kale would not be rushed into
entering Vendela. She'd do it in her own time.

"Ye're headed for The Hall, aren't ye?" His pale blue eyes twinkled
under bushy gray eyebrows.

Kale didn't answer. To say yes would give away more about herself
than she intended. Not such a good idea, trusting someone outside your
own village, even a grandfatherly, talkative old farmer.

"Well, I see ye're not going to tell me." He winked at her and then
looked off at the city, his expression growing grim. "Should ye get in
trouble, go to The Goose and The Gander Tavern, North City. Ask for
Maye. Tell her ye're a friend of mine, and she'll help ye if she can."

"I will," said Kale, and waved good-bye to the old man before trudging
up the hill, away from the road. She listened to the squeak of the axle
and creak of the wheels but didn't turn to watch the farmer's wagon lumber
down the sloping road. Among an hour's worth of advice, Mistress
Meiger had said to keep her focus on what's ahead.

Kale sighed. Mistress Meiger knows best.
Lush gorse bushes covered the grassy slope. The hill nestled right
against one of the mountains. Farmer Brigg had known the names of all
the peaks in the Morchain Range. His stories of how these names came to
be fascinated Kale, but it was tales of Vendela that caught her attention.
After all, Vendela would be her home.

Just over the rise, she found a place to settle. She sat with her back to
a gum tree, her bare feet propped up on a stone outcropping. She rested
her arms on knees pulled up to her chin and her chin on her folded arms.
Then Kale took a long peaceful breath of the hot summer air and allowed
herself the luxury of gazing at beautiful Vendela. The twisting spires and
floating spheres were beyond anything she had imagined. The whole scene
looked like a magical picture, clean and bright and full of promise.