of Light. Fairy families brought their children out to see the humans, especially Arik who was treated with awe and respect above the other Rangers. Fairies started coming up to the Rangers to offer good luck charms or supplies for the journey and all of the Rangers’ spare clothing disappeared and was returned later, freshly washed and mended where mending was needed.
Queen Mita presented each Ranger with a small sapphire bar to pin on their blacksuits to signify their unity with the fairies of the Sagina Universe. Arik noticed an eighth sapphire bar that was much smaller than the rest, but dismissed it as another group of fairies came along to introduce their children to the Bringer. Prince Midge’s words came back to Arik and he smiled as he thought of his irrational fear of being an outcast because of his branding.
Eventually, the Rangers broke from the pandemonium and returned to their campsite for the midday meal. The meal was quiet as each Ranger pondered the strange people who had opened their homes and heart to the humans. The smiles on the faces of the Rangers proved it was a beneficial experience.
Tanya moved and sat down next to Kalina. “Did you really attend Prince Oscar’s wedding?” Tanya asked.
“Yes,” Kalina answered as she watched Tanya with her peripheral vision.
“You must have been friends with Prince Oscar to have been invited to his wedding,” Tanya probed.
“He was not Prince Oscar then,” Kalina remembered. “He was Duke Dalek at the time and he had many friends.”
“You must have met many of the other guests as well,” Tanya continued. “I understand Alexander Tork and Jenneva were in the wedding. Did you get to meet them?”
“Ah, yes,” Kalina nodded. “The young Lieutenant who was best man and the beautiful woman who accompanied him. Of course I remember them. Who could forget such a fine looking couple? There was always such a crowd around them that most people couldn’t get close. And all that attention with so many other celebrities present. They were a special couple.”
Garth stepped up behind Kalina and put his hands on her shoulders. “Kalina, there are some things we need to discuss with Queen Mita and I would prefer to do that sooner, rather than later,” interrupted Garth. “Tanya, I’m afraid our little session for this afternoon will have to wait for another time. I hope you don’t mind, but the opportunity to speak with the Queen of the Fairies is not one to be wasted. Why don’t you organize the practice rounds for this afternoon and make it something that will entertain the fairy watchers as well as provide a good workout for the Rangers?”
Kalina quickly rose with a smile to Tanya and escorted Garth towards the Father Tree. Tanya bit her lip and wondered if she could beat Arik with a staff.
The rest of the day was spent in practice and the Rangers took pride in showing off their skills. Tanya made sure that the practice rounds included archery, swords, staffs, knives, and of course, Lanoirian Stars. The archery impressed the fairies the most and they marveled at the accuracy of Arik’s longbow. Each of the Rangers was given an ovation after each performance and soon the warriors started trying to outdo the performance directly before theirs.
Niki, however, felt left out. Kalina had disappeared with Garth and she did not possess any demonstrable warrior skills. Halfway through the practice sessions, Niki wandered off into the orchard. Before she got very far, she ran into Garth and Kalina returning to the campsite and they corralled her into returning with them.
When the practice sessions were over, a long parade of fairies swarmed into the campsite and spread long strips of cloth along the ground. Family after family came and placed a food dish on the strips until there were several long lines of small dishes from end to end. Queen Mita explained that this was a traditional sendoff for an army marching to war and the Rangers were being honored as a fairy army.
The servings were extremely small, but the potpourri of tastes was exciting. No one was sure what they were eating, and even the explanations of the fairy host did not often clarify the dish, but each was savored as a delicacy. Tedi thought with amusement that while there were only seven Rangers marching off to war, they probably devoured the equivalent of a whole fairy army during the festival.
Toward the end of the festivities the fairy crowd roared with approval and suddenly parted as a small blacksuited fairy marched towards the seated Rangers. With a leap and a fluttering of wings, Prince Midge landed on Arik’s upraised knee and posed in his miniature version of a Ranger blacksuit, complete with pouches and pockets and wide leather belt. The only deviation from the Rangers’ uniforms was the holes in the back to accommodate the fairy’s wings. Pinned to the shoulder of Midge’s uniform was the small sapphire pin that Arik had seen earlier.
Chapter 25 Kantor
The fairy festival lasted into the darkness, but the Rangers still chose to leave before first light. When the fairy village learned the Rangers were setting out on their journey, the entire village assembled with thousands of tiny fairy lanterns and lined the path out of the orchards, singing a song about a coming battle and the glorious fairy army. Arik took the lead with Midge perched upon his shoulder talking nonstop into his ear. Midge told Arik that he was witnessing the proper sendoff for a fairy army marching off to war and signified that it was the greatest honor, which could be bestowed on anyone leaving the fairy village. After leaving the orchard and waving farewell to the fairies, the Rangers angled southward to pick up the trail that ran along the Black River and followed it westward.
The terrain grew less mountainous each day as they headed downstream towards the western coast of what had been Cordonia. Kantor lay at the mouth of the Black River and was the capital of Cordonia before the Collapse. The only major town between the fairy village and Kantor was Paso and the Rangers gave it a wide berth, keeping well to the north side of the river.
When they got within a day’s ride of Kantor, a large mountain loomed over the flat coastal terrain. Garth recognized it as the mountain that he mentioned to the group during their discussion of Kantor, the mountain that had replaced the Presidential Palace. For the first time on their journey, the Rangers began to see other travelers. Most of them had been on the south side of the Black River and were ignored, but occasionally they passed travelers on the north side and drew strange looks because of their blacksuits. Midge usually hid in one of Arik’s pockets whenever anyone got close.
When they got close enough to see the walls of Kantor, they started to see roving army patrols and avoided them. Garth suspected that there were not many armed groups of travelers in the area and the soldiers would want to know who they were and where they were going. The questions would have to be answered sooner or later, but Garth hoped to enter the city without incident.
They arrived at the city gates late in the day and were immediately surrounded by several dozen soldiers. An officer approached Tedi, who was in the lead, and started asking questions. Garth immediately rode to the front of the group and assumed the leadership position for the Rangers.
“Officer,” Garth greeted, “we seek entrance to your fine city and wish to do so peacefully.”
“We do not like bandits or armed groups within the walls of Kantor,” the officer stated. “You can leave your weapons here and retrieve them upon your exit or you can turn around now. It is your choice.”
“We can do neither,” Garth declared. “We seek passage to the Isles of the Sea from a ship in the port of Kantor and we wish to take our weapons with us when we leave the city.”
The officer hesitated and Garth realized that there were no firm orders to back up the officer’s request to leave their weapons at the gate. The soldier was merely trying to keep a band of bandits from entering and causing trouble.
“We also will require lodging for the evening,” Garth suggested. “Perhaps we could check our weapons with the innkeeper until passage is booked. We wish no altercations during our short stay in Kantor.”
The offer did not seem to convince the officer as he looked at the blacksuited party. “You will be escorted to the General’s office by my men and he will determine your fate. If one of you even touches a weapon, my men will slay you all. We give little advantage to the likes of you and you needn’t worry about a trial.”
Garth nodded to the officer and allowed the soldiers to escort them to the General. The escort of several dozen soldiers led them through town to a large mansion with a gate facing the street. Soldiers manning the gate
