Chapter 23Raner had gathered the group in the afternoon for training, outside the city, westward and on horseback, which told them that the day’s practice would have to do with protecting while riding. They had stopped in the middle of the Royal Road before it went through a birch wood. It was a sunny day with few clouds, and it did not look like rain. This cheered everyone, since the last few days it had been raining pretty heavily.In the distance above a hill there was an army watch tower, and they could see soldiers, which did not surprise them. The kingdom was preparing for war, and the Royal Army soldiers had been activated and were in constant motion. They were taking over towers, forts, ports, and other fortresses of strategic value throughout the realm. Two of the King’s main armies, the Snow Army and the Thunder Army, had gone south to the border with Zangria. From the news that arrived from the Rangers on watch missions at the border, the Zangrian army was also mobilizing

Chapter 25They reached the Nocean coast of the Central Sea and landed at a small beach with dunes. Lasgol dragged the boat up the beach in case they needed it to go back; he did not want the tide to take it. He looked around. They were alone on a beautiful beach of white sand, with the sea at his back and in front large dunes with some vegetation between them, which foretold what they would likely find beyond.We keep going south, he transmitted to Camu and Ona.Okay.Ona chirped once.They started up the dunes, soon encountering a landscape that was as beautiful as it was desolate. An enormous desert began beyond the first dunes, which still had some vegetation and spread as far as the eye could see. To the southwest they saw the walls and towers of what looked like a large city, the city of Marucose, one of the northernmost cities of the Nocean Empire.Very desert.You can say that again. The worst thing is that the desert spreads for leagues and leagues in every direction.No wate

Chapter 27Ona and Camu jumped up and turned toward the five figures who were watching them calmly from the dune. They were wearing long black and blue robes, which covered their whole bodies except for the face and hands. On the head they wore a scarf, desert style, and they were armed. At their waists they carried knives and scimitars.They’re desert dwellers, Lasgol transmitted to Ona and Camu as he carefully retrieved his bow and quiver from his side.Enemies?I can’t tell. Some are friendly and some are not. No friendly, you see.Yeah, with our luck that would be the case.The desert dwellers continued staring at them without making any movement. Lasgol assumed they were not looking for conflict, although it could also mean that they were taking their time. The truth was that Lasgol had barely any knowledge of the peoples of the desert and their habits. He missed Egil terribly in these kinds of situations…We retreat slowly, he transmitted. It was a defensive maneuver. He wanted

Chapter 29Astrid, Ingrid, and Molak were waiting for Raner on their horses east of the capital, according to his orders. They were half a league from the Royal Road and were to wait for the First Ranger to join them. Not very far away they could glimpse Beaver Hill, so called because of a rock at the summit that looked very much like the animal.“What do you think the First Ranger has in store for us today?” Molak asked his comrades.“So far, everything he’s had prepared for us has been enlightening and interesting,” Ingrid said in a satisfied tone. “So I hope that whatever he has for us today will be so too.”Astrid stroked her horse’s neck.“I feel the same way. The truth is that training to become Royal Rangers has pleasantly surprised me.”“You weren’t expecting it to be interesting?” Molak asked, surprised.“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to be useful and so I thought I’d be bored. But it’s turning out to be the opposite. I think that in the Assassin Specialty at the Shelte

Chapter 31Ona, Camu, and Lasgol went through the ghost city, following the enormous scorpions that had taken the Silver Pearls. The trail was quite clear since two sets of eight scorpion legs walking on streets partially covered by desert sand were unmistakable. Lasgol was having no trouble following them. Besides, they had carried away the ice jewel so if he lost the trail he could wait for a pulse that would tell him where they were.Lasgol was thinking how lucky they had been that the crocodile had not joined the fray in the middle of the city, since that would have been an additional problem. On the other hand, the croc would have destroyed half the city if entered it, so to a point it was logical it had not come in. Well, as logical as one giant crocodile at the entrance of a city in the desert with colossal scorpions and cobras as guardians was. When he told the tale in Norghana they were not going to believe him.They turned left and then right. They were not in camouflage s