Chapter Four:

My transformation complete, we began our ride to the next town. I didn't bother wearing my chain mail, given just how secure Pyris had been. The High Road continued to lead us to the east. Lyra told me that the village of Woods Edge was our next destination. It was much like Woodcrest that we passed through a few days ago. There was some kind of settlement spaced out a day's journey apart on the High Road. That was certainly convenient!

With our late start, we rode along at a good clip to make up time. We passed a slower moving caravan along the way. I could see that some adventurers were riding with the caravan.

"It's common practice for caravans to hire adventurers to act as guards along the way," Lyra explained. "There's not much danger this deep in Pyris, but you can never be too careful. It's insurance for the caravan masters and a few coins in the pockets of adventurers."

The terrain was hilly, covered with forest for the entire day. As the forest began to thin out and the hills flattened, we arrived at Woods Edge. The village was little more than a way station along the High Road. There were places for caravans to camp for the night. Inns for food, drink and shelter and other businesses that dealt with travelers. As was typical in Pyris, there was a strong military presence. We spent the night at the Hilltop Inn.

We were off on our journey early the next day. After Woods Edge, the terrain became more flat and narrow plains once more. Many farms dotted the landscape. To the south, higher hills could be seen with foreboding mountains behind them. Lyra said that those were the Cruth Mountains and that they separated the Inner Kingdom from the Outer Kingdom.

"Inner Kingdom? Outer Kingdom?" I wondered aloud. Those were terms I was not familiar with.

"The Kingdom of Cynalon didn't start out as big as it is now," Lyra explained. "The land that is now Cynalon had many different names and rulers in the past. For instance, the city of Pyris was at one time called Dolos. As the orc hordes covered these lands like a plague, the old cities and rulers fell. New rulers arose and new cities were built or rebuilt as the case may be."

"King Victor the First founded Cynalon after he and his associates threw back a great horde that had conquered most of what we call the Inner Kingdom. What we call the Outer Kingdom used to be called the Kingdom of Darokin, but they were defeated in the Kingdom War by Cynalon."

"So the Outer Kingdom was conquered then?"

"In a fashion," Lyra explained. "It's a bit complicated. But to summarize, the city of Crossroads used to be called Selenica. An orc horde burned Selenica to the ground. The Duke of Selenica was angry that the Darokin King didn't lift a finger to help him, because Selenica was so far from the Darokin capital, what we now call Elcadan. In his frustration, the Duke of Selenica turned to King Tellon the Fourth, the King of Cynalon for aid. King Tellon agreed, and helped liberate the City of Selenica. In time it was rebuilt and renamed Crossroads and the Duke swore his fealty to Cynalon. The Duchy of Selenica was also renamed to the Duchy of Graystone and became part of Cynalon."

"All of this didn't sit well with the Darokin King. He attacked Cynalon on two fronts. His ground troops marched on Crossroads, while his navy assaulted the Inner Kingdom coast. The war stretched out for years and all the while a new orc horde was forming. With the two kingdoms focusing on each other, the orcs invaded and burned Corunglain to the ground leaving all of Darokin open for invasion."

"A peace treaty was quickly drafted and the Kingdoms of Darokin and Cynalon joined forces to defeat the orc invaders. Together they did just that at the Battle of the Streel Plain. The orcs were decimated and those few who did survive fled back to the Broken Lands. But the peace was short lived, as the Darokin King immediately attacked once the orcs were driven off. King Tellon slew the Darokin King in single combat and by virtue of conquest claimed all of his lands. Most of the Darokin nobility swore their fealty to King Tellon as they had no love for their former king. A few tried to fight back but were outmatched. That is how the Kingdom of Darokin became the Outer Kingdom lands of Cynalon nearly two hundred years ago."

"So we are in the Outer Kingdom then?" I asked, trying to sort out all that information. It made my head hurt.

"Yes," Lyra answered.

"You sure know a lot of things."

"The Lady Sallavarian wants her apprentices to be well-rounded individuals," Lyra said with a laugh.

To our north was a much different sight. We saw the edge of the Dorwynn Elfholds, the great forest home of the elves. I was familiar with this as we can see the same forest from my home back in Plowman's Stand. The Dorwynn Elfholds was a massive, majestic forest that formed most of the northern border of Cynalon. The elves were fiercely private individuals. Outsiders were not permitted in their lands.

We covered more ground this day as the terrain was easy to navigate. At the far end of the long narrow plains sat the town of Hillside. It was set at the base of the hills to our south. Past Hillside the High Road entered into a hilly forest region, so common in this area.

After a night at the Hillside Inn, we were off on the road again. This time I wore my chain mail armor, as Lyra said we were nearing the edge of Pyrisian territory. Today I went with an all black look as I wore a black over-shirt on top of my armor along with my black pants, boots and gloves.

We spent the morning riding through hilly forest before the ground leveled out leaving us in just forest. Near the end of the day we arrived at Cruthway. It was little more than a village like Woodcrest or Woods Edge. It was situated on the far eastern edge of the Barony of Pyris, near the border it shared with Graystone. It was named Cruthway as a road south from the village eventually led to Fort Cruth at the base of the Cruth Mountains. The fort was a military outpost.

The night was spent at the Cruth's Shadow Inn. Just an hour out of town and we were into the Duchy of Graystone lands. The terrain remained forests with the occasional hill.

"So why is Graystone a Duchy and Pyris a Barony?" I asked out of the blue.

"The short answer is that Graystone is a larger domain in total," Lyra answered. "It is composed of multiple Baronies, whereas Pyris is a single Barony."

"Okay," I answered as a thought came to mind. "If Duchies are made up of Baronies, then what Duchy does Pyris belong to?"

"None," Lyra stated. "It is an independent barony."

"But you just said..."

"Pyris is a special case,' Lyra proceeded to explain. "A long time ago it was part of the Duchy of Elcadan. I'm sure that you heard the story of how Plowman's Stand was named?"

I nodded yes.

"The orcs that fought there were part of a much larger group that moved further south and east. Back in those times, Pyris was known as Dolos. The orcs sacked the city and killed most of the nobility. It seems that the previous Duke of Elcadan at that time choose to fortify his closer cities and pretty much sacrificed Dolos to the orc horde. Much like the old King of Darokin did with Selenica."

"King Victor the Fifth was furious over this cowardly action and by royal decree took the Barony of Dolos away from the Duke of Elcadan. It was awarded to an ancestor of the current baron for services to the kingdom. They drove the orcs out, rebuilt the city and renamed it Pyris."

"Pyris doesn't seem like it had been destroyed before," I noted. "It seemed in such good shape."

"Because it's all new," Lyra said. "Did you notice anything really old there?"

"No, now that you mention it."

"There you go."

It took three days from Cruthway to finally reach Nemiston. The terrain was much like it had been on the trip so far: primarily hilly forest. At the end of the first day we reached the village of Ridgeway, situated on a forest cover ridge. The day after that we rode into Brookside, another small village situated in a forest clearing beside a stream. The third day took us to Nemiston.

It was around this time that all my days on the road had started to make me feel a bit jaded. At first all these new places were exciting to me, now not so much. After all, how many way stations can you see before the newness wears off? Now larger cities were still quite a sight, but these small places, not so much. That's probably why I don't remember much about traveling through Graystone.

"I should probably warn you about Nemiston," Lyra said as we rode along.

"Warn me about what?" I asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Nemiston is not like the towns we've passed through so far. Well, that's not totally true, it has the same basic services as say Pyris does, but the people who live there are not as friendly. So expect to meet ill-mannered individuals and don't take it personally."

"How strange," I noted. "A town of rude people."

Lyra simply shrugged.

"Also unlike Pyris, Nemiston doesn't make fine, practical wooden products, but rather works of wooden art," Lyra explained. "The theory is that Pyris effectively became better at the more practical items and so most of those woodworkers moved to Pyrisian lands. Also the wood is a bit better for that sort of thing. The people here have also been secluded from any major conflicts for some time, and so they have been able to be less practical in their work."

Up ahead Nemiston came into view. It was walled, like many of the larger towns I had passed through on my journey so far. It was smaller than Pyris, perhaps half its size. We passed through the gate and Lyra led us to the Wood Gallery, a good sized inn. The town was much like I had been told. The people even looked unfriendly. We just kept our heads down and rode along.

After an unsettling night in Nemiston, we ate breakfast and were on the road early in the morning. The High Road wound its way east passing through light forest and then forest so heavy it seemed to block out the sun. Near the end of the day we reached what Lyra told me would be the last village before arriving in Crossroads: the village of High Forest. High Forest was yet another way station much like the ones we had passed through before. It was primarily a place for travelers to spend the night.

I had to admit that come the next day I was starting to get excited once more. Crossroads was near and this long journey would finally come to an end. I had been on the road so long now that I couldn't even remember how many days it was since I left Plowman's Stand.

The first part of the ride from High Forest was through thick forest, but eventually this thinned out until the forest vanished all together. A great plain appeared before us covered with numerous farms. Up ahead at the far end of the High Road sat the City of Crossroads. Even from this far away it was breathtaking! Huge walls surrounded the city on three sides. Crossroads was built at the base of a mountain range and the mountains went up higher then I could imagine. The whole mountain base was easily twenty five miles wide!

"You're really in for a treat now, Stephanie," Lyra said was Crossroads appeared in the distance. "Crossroads is a major Cynalonian city. I'd estimate that it is five times bigger than Pyris. Trading is the major business here, as Crossroads sits at the intersection of both the High Road and the King's Road."

"King's Road?" I asked.

"The High Road is the major east-west road in Cynalon, the King's Road is the major north-south road. It leads south into the Inner Kingdoms to the capital of Alexandria and keeps going until it reaches King's Port, the major sea port in Cynalon."

"Wow," was about all I could say. It seems that the kingdom I lived in was much, much larger then I ever imagined.

"Crossroads is much like Pyris, but only on a grander scale as it has caravans traveling along both roads. The center of town is a huge open market and trading center. Surrounding that are the inns and businesses that support the merchants. Circling around those are various districts of the city. The homes of citizens of Crossroads, a nobles district, a dwarves quarter, and the rulers district. Duke Francino Selenica rules his domain from Crossroads."

"A dwarf quarter?" I wondered aloud. "Does that mean that there are so many of them that they need their own area? We didn't see many dwarves back home."

"That's not a surprise, "Lyra answered. "Where you live is not the kind of place dwarves like to live. But yes, there are many dwarves in this area, as we are fairly close to the dwarven kingdom of Rockhome. We've traveled so far east that we have reached the far side of the elf lands and passed them. Rockhome is further east of the elves and high up in the mountains."

There was a great deal of traffic on the High Road as we got closer to Crossroads. We overtook a caravan heading to Crossroads, and we were forced to ride on the side of the road while another caravan was heading west.

The sun had already disappeared behind the mountains as we approached the gates of Crossroads. I could now estimate that the outer walls were at least forty feet high. Bright lights shown on the top of each tower along the way, lighting the immediate area as if it was daytime. I didn't ask Lyra what they were as the answer was probably magical in nature. We picked up our pace to ride past a slower moving caravan so that we could reach the city gates before them. A moment later we rode into Crossroads and my long journey from Plowman's Stand had come to an end, but my adventures had yet to even begin.