Land of Magic

3

“You don’t look like you can afford a piece of my elephant’s dung, let alone a seat. Get out of here!”

Hadjar and Einen looked at each other, shrugged, and demonstrated that they had the necessary funds. The guard grumbled something and directed them to a person responsible for the sale of passenger seats. By nightfall, the formalities were settled and the friends had a private coach at their disposal. Unlike Rahaim’s caravan, it wasn’t drawn by desert mules. In fact, nothing pulled it at all. It rested on the back of a huge elephant.

***

A journey that might’ve taken at least two years in a simple caravan lasted only a month and a half. On the morning of the fortieth day, after descending from their coach, they found themselves on the border between the desert and the Eastern provinces of the Empire.

After thanking the caravan driver for taking care of them, they untied their desert ravens and rode toward the hills to the west. The sand was gradually replaced by dry ground. Small bushes started appearing, then tall bushes, and at some point, they found themselves in a coniferous forest.

When they entered the forest, Hadjar stopped his raven for a few minutes. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. The pleasure he experienced at that moment was difficult to describe in words. It was like hugging your loved ones after a long time apart.

They emerged from the undergrowth onto a broad plateau. There was a smooth, green valley below them. It was divided in half by a rapid, winding river. It lapped at the banks and turned a mill wheel. In the distance, the black smoke of a forge swirled. Numerous villages surrounded the cliff where an Imperial city stood, right on the border.

“By the High Heavens…”

“By the Great Turtle…”

The friends gasped with delight. The city was so huge that it could easily accommodate two capitals of Lidus. Its huge towers and massive walls were decorated with long, red flags. Instead of spires, stone statues of dragons spreading their wings rose into the air. Rows of carts loaded with a variety of goods crept slowly over a drawbridge. A huge number of people riding creatures of all stripes stood in a queue.

“Fucking hell,” Einen said.

Since he very rarely cursed, Hadjar immediately followed the direction of his friend’s gaze. He was watching a black dot in the sky. As the dot grew larger, its outline became visible — it was a small sailing boat! Flying through the sky, the sailboat covered more than a mile every second! Soon, it left the two friends standing there, gaping, and disappeared behind the walls of the city.

“Now I know why Paris smiled when we told him about the hundred coins,” the islander grumbled. “I think, Hadjar, that we barely have enough to pay for the journey to Dahanatan.”

Hadjar swallowed and nodded a little stiffly. Paris had told them that their upcoming journey would be very simple and go by quickly, but that it’d be breathtaking. He’d promised that they would see things any mortal would have died to witness.

“Let’s keep going.” Hadjar spurred his desert raven onward.

They crossed the gorge and entered the city. The guards collected the toll, a quarter of a coin! For each of them! As they entered through a huge archway, they found themselves on an avenue so wide that it could comfortably fit six carriages side by side. The number of people of various nationalities and levels of cultivation was staggering.

Hadjar, who was looking for a port on the map Paris had given him, had figured that they would need to sail down a river. However, just half an hour ago, he’d learned that the Empire could truly surprise him. When they reached the pier, it did so once more. Apart from the oddity of a small sailing frigate floating on a dense cumulus cloud that was moored to a pier, it really was a most ordinary port.

As they climbed the ladder, they asked a boatswain how much it would cost to travel to the capital.

“Sixteen coins,” he said, in between shouting something to the sailors. “Each.”

Cursing Paris and Rahaim, the friends climbed aboard. They didn’t have much of a choice. If they rode their desert ravens, it would take them about twenty-one years to reach the capital through all the lands of the Empire, provided that they didn’t make a single stop, of course.

During their flight, they had to help the sailors and servants defend from harpies, repel the attacks of sky pirates, survive two storms, one of which was created by a creature so powerful that the captain had to use an artifact at the Lord level to drive it away, survive a disease similar to scurvy, not to mention almost falling off the edge of the ship several times and other dangerous adventures.

By the third week, their new clothes had turned into tattered rags, the frigate was barely able to stay in the air, and at the end, it almost crashed into the beautiful emerald domes of Dahanatan.

The miserly captain refused to give even a small reward to the friends for their assistance. So, after wandering through the labyrinthine streets of the seemingly endless city, they finally found themselves in front of a huge gate. 

 

 

  

While on board, Hadjar had been able to fully appreciate the splendor of the capital of Darnassus. The city spread out across a vast plain covered with meadows and lakes.

Its walls were about 65 feet high, and so wide that several houses could be built on their parapets. Stately palaces and castles rose within the city, and in the center was a forbidden region. Covered in a magical, cloud-like veil, it was hidden from view, but it made Dahanatan seem even more magnificent. Its streets were as wide as avenues, and its avenues were as wide as trade routes. Dozens of flying ships hovered in the sky above the city, and hundreds of skyboats and countless cultivators riding various winged creatures were taking off and landing everywhere.

The streets were filled with citizens so diverse that Hadjar sometimes saw peoples that South Wind had mentioned only in ancient legends.

All the Schools in Dahanatan didn’t just have massive and beautiful gates, but were also situated on high ground. It looked extremely magical. Huge chunks of earth seemed to have been carved out of the ground and shaped by a giant artist. The streets leading to the Schools ended in a thirty-foot cliff, atop which, on the smooth surface of the plateau, stood the Schools’ many pavilions and castles.

The city was so huge that a mere mortal couldn’t cross it on foot, going from one end to the other, in less than two weeks.

After landing, Hadjar and Einen walked through the streets, sometimes stopping at different shops. Mostly at bookshops, weapon shops, and alchemical shops. The abundance that was presented to them surpassed the auction of Underworld City.