FreeHolds Adventure, Cycle 1 Part 9a

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Part 9) Adwin

Adwin raced along the edge of the bridge, the East Sister River thirty paces below him. The green stone ledge under his feet ran from one support column to the next. He was still fifty paces from the next column and the main part of the bridge to his left was crowded with scores of people. As well, there were numerous carts and wagons and many animals. Somewhere behind him he had left Tipper and Mokha with the horses. Not far ahead of him, amongst the dozens of people, was the woman Raven. The thief Raven and likely as well, her friend Celestial.

He was focused on not letting them get away.

He moved up to the support column, this was the second one on this end of the bridge, two more until he was at the centre of this side of the river. He leaned against the supporting column which rose above him and scanned the crowd ahead.

They were twenty paces away, Raven’s dark hair and especially his hat on Celestial’s blondish head drew his eye. They both carried sacks and were dressed in the clothing they had been wearing the night before.

He hopped down from the railing onto the main bridge and edged his way past the crowd. Then, once past the support column he climbed back onto the railing. He looked at the narrow railing’s slightly rounded surface, he figured he could run along it well enough.

So he did. Leaving a trial of startled shouts and exclamations he darted along the length of the railing, took a longer stride to overstep some bird droppings and teetered along another half dozen paces. The two women had turned and were looking up at him with mouths open when he leapt from the railing. He jumped over the closest people, though his knee knocked into something hard along the way. He slammed into Celestial grabbing his hat at the same moment, she went down under him, breaking his fall. Angry shouts rang out from the crowd around him. He staggered to his feet, nearly collapsing as his knee sparked with pain and pointed after Raven, “Thief! Don’t let her get away!”

Someone grabbed him from behind, “What foolishness?”

Adwin struggled to free himself but his knee wouldn’t take his full weight and the person who held him was very strong. “Let me go, these women are thieves.”

“Thieves they might be, but you’ve struck Councillor Corvern Bane.”

“But she’s getting away.” At that moment Celestial sat up with a dazed look on her face, a fair sized bump was forming on her brow. Her dress was torn at the shoulder and she vomited onto the bridge.

Raven had disappeared into the crowd, angry faces gathered around Adwin. Someone suggested throwing him from the bridge.

“Move aside. Move back.” A loud voice commanded from behind Adwin, not the person holding him though. The crowd made room. A well dressed man stepped into view, he spared a single scowling glance for Adwin but went to Celestial, crouching in front of her.

There were more angry noises from further back, traffic had nearly stopped and people wanted to know what the holdup was. The well dressed man helped Celestial to her feet, motioned to the man holding Adwin and they all moved to the side of the bridge.

The well dressed man said, “I’m Councillor Bane, East District. Who might you be?”

“Adwin, of Hadden’s Fort.”

“Alright Adwin, you claim this woman stole from you?”

“Yes and her dark haired friend, Raven.”

The Councillor asked Celestial if this was so. Of course she denied it, both the thievery and her associate’s name.

Then he asked Adwin, “You have witnesses?”

“I do, my friends Tipper and Mokha, they are on the bridge heading in this direction. They’ll be here soon.”

“Well, assaulting this woman and your assault on my person was witnessed by many. Assaulting a councillor is a fairly serious charge young man. I can drop the two of you off to the guards once we’re off the bridge. That would allow things to proceed to the courts, you would be able to make your case. Though its a sure bet that you would be charged with two counts of assault and creating a hindrance to traffic on the bridge.”

Adwin could not believe what he was hearing.

“Alternatively, you can make apologies to the young woman and myself and we can all be about our business.”

Adwin was stunned. Dealing with the courts and the guards was not how he wanted to spend his time in GreensBridge. So, he apologized to Councillor Bane for colliding into him, he apologized to Celestial and returned her hat. Then they let her walk away. The man holding him turned him around and slammed a fist into Adwin’s guts. The blow dropped him.

The councillor crouched down, “I’m unsure of the type of justice you are familiar with young man, but I assure you, things are done differently in GreensBridge.”

Adwin could not say anything in return, he was fighting to regain his breath.

The councillor continued, “I’ll leave my marker with you. If you want to follow this up later or are in need of some work go to the address stamped on the back.” He passed a small wooden token to Adwin and then left.

When Adwin regained his breath he pulled himself up and leaned on the railing. He was going to wait where he was until his friends caught up to him. He tucked the marker from the councillor into his pouch and took the time to look around.

The city was amazing, or at least the part he could see, the bridge’s structure blocked much of the view to the west and south. Yet to the north and northwest he could see a city the size of which he never imagined. He guessed the main island was around six yat across and narrowed to under three yat at its northern end. Further north was a series of smaller islands, the first three of which were joined by a bridge similar to the one he was standing on. Part of that bridge had collapsed, a couple of partial support columns stood further north in the river and great slabs of green stone could be seen on and around the shores of the next island north.

Most amazing, the great green tower he could see on the northwest corner of the main island, it was a hundred paces skyward. There were great walls of green stone, as well; roadways, broadly arched gates and smaller structures crisscrossed the main island. Newer structures filled the spaces in between, some of them around fifty paces in height, looking insignificant compared to the more ancient Eldra tower. From where he was he could not make out individual people, but saw great crowds of them gathered along the island’s eastern docks.

The other thing that amazed him was the gulls, up until a day ago he had never seen one before. Now, he could see thousands of them, flocking around the docks, gathered in uncountable numbers along buildings and even many dozen perched along the bridge not far from where he stood.

Below, the water held dozens of boats, many swiftly moving south with the great river’s current, some fighting northward under sail or with oars. The island docks must have held over a hundred larger boats and barges and uncountable smaller craft. The nearer bank of the river also had docks, some close to the base of the bridge others further north along the bank, these were not as large as the island docks and seemed spaced along the eastern bank communities or at the mouth of some of the canals.

“Hey, Adwin!” Tipper’s shout came from behind, he turned and saw her waving at him from near the centre of the bridge. He plunged into the crowd and cut across the traffic, limping up to his companions.

“No luck?” Mokha asked.

“Close, but some local guy made a big deal of things and it didn’t go the way I hoped.”

“Too bad.” Tipper said.

To Mokha he asked, “You’ll still be able to trace Raven?”

“Should be able to. We have her hair and so long as she doesn’t get too far from us I can keep track of where she is. At least in terms of distance, actually scrying her would be more difficult.”

“Ah, okay. Lets not lose her.”

“Maybe you should hop up on your horse. What happened to the knee?”

“Ah, I think I clipped the local guy I mentioned in the head or shoulder when I jumped from the railing. I did take Celestial down, gave her a big goose egg, she smacked her head on the bridge.”

“Well, lets keep moving, folks don’t seem to like it when we’re just standing in the middle of the bridge. I’d like to get out of this crowd.”

“Once we get halfway across we should be able to see most of the city, certainly the three towers.” Mokha said.

Adwin let them lead his horse, he watched the people and the city. Eventually another of the green towers came into view, this time in the southeast part of the city. Near it, a squat tower of red stone as well large, many columned, buildings could be seen. Mokha said the red tower was the Arcanium while the other buildings comprised the larger part of the GreensBridge University.

Eventually the arch of the bridge started downward and the majority of the city game into view, including the third great green tower. Unlike the other two towers this one appeared to have had the upper quarter broken off. Another great bridge could be seen to the southwest, according to Mokha it connected to a smaller island, commonly known as the Tannican District and then that island was joined to the western mainland by yet another Eldra bridge.

In the centre of the city was a circular wall, not green but brown, surrounding a tree filled area approximately a half yat across. Though seemingly out of place and certainly a curiosity, Adwin was too busy trying to figure out how to build a tower that size.

“How did they make them?” He asked.

“The bridges, towers and whatnot?” Mokha clarified.

“Yes, they’re so huge, tall and… Even though I can see them, I question if I’m not just dreaming.”

“Oh, they are real my friend. The Eldra were an ancient race before they came to this world, they were gifted beyond any human or elven mage and were great elementalists. They raised the towers from the natural stone with powerful magic.”

“Why?”

“According to local lore, they made this city to be a gathering place of all the races of the world. Goblins, elves, humans and the Eldra, it was a city of peace and education. This happened in a time before the dwarves and trolls or the orc. Long before there was a Tannican Empire.”

“And yet these towers and bridges remain. Are there any of the Eldra left?”

Mokha looked at Tipper, “Not so much, as I understand it,” he continued. “The drake came to this world and they were the enemy of the Eldra and they warred with one another throughout the ages. It is said a great curse was placed on the Eldra and they could not have natural children from then onward.”

Tipper looked like she might have added something, but was distracted by an overturned handcart and had to take the horses in hand to lead them around. Then Adwin noticed some dwarves up ahead of them. They were short and broad shouldered with thick hair on scalp and face. Large featured through the face, their clothing and demeanour seemed humble. Adwin said hello to a couple of them and even waved at them as he passed, they seemed to pay him no heed.

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