Chapter 48: Four Of Wands

For all they'd seen the city from the hill, it took another week for the caravan to arrive. Sarandia carried Thuria in a sling on her breast. Harald watched her check a hundred times a day that she breathed and thrived. She chuckled and laughed through the days and had an incredible appetite. Siana found some cloths to swaddle her. 

They rolled up to the city and Harald had to force himself not to gawk. Bellopolis had no true wall. No need, for it had been built after his great-grandfather made peace among the Houses. Walls and defenses stood only at the port where pirates had been known to make lightning raids.

Lusia was walled with stone, white and blinding in the afternoon light. The walls stretched away in either direction at least forty feet tall. The road cut through a broad swath of green.

"Killing zone," the driver said back to Harald. "I'm always a bit nervous until we get to the gate. Not that there isn't a hundred ways to get killed inside the city too."