He Who Hunts Demons Chapter 28: 28-Tymbal

Read chapter 28 of He Who Hunts Demons by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

While on the way to Eldermire I fumbled with the badge of the Iron Eagles. It was a pentagon shield made of brass with edges carved into elaborate designs. In its center was the same emblem emblazoned onto the designated carriages of the Iron Eagles, one of an eagle with feathers of iron soaring the sky. Ogling the badge filled me with a sense of superiority I hadn’t realized was nestled within me. But I didn’t mind. I’d lived as a dreg of society all these years, moving up a bit in life was something I appreciated and one I believed no one would fault me for. It took about twenty minutes for us to arrive at the border of Ur. There was also a significantly long queue there that seemed to stretch on for eternity, both for those who were coming into the city and those leaving. However, as soon as our carriage was seen by the border officers, they directed us towards a different location which had little to no movement. Here, there were only carriages like our own, just with different emblems. One had the design of a knight standing atop a pile of bodies, another had the design of a unicorn piercing its horn through the midsection of a demon, amongst a few others. Curiosity got the better of me and I tried to see through the windows of the carriages, but, alas, they had their curtains shut. Unlike me, the occupants of the carriages most likely weren’t novices, and weren’t interested in observing those in other carriages. It didn’t take long for us to be cleared through the border. Sammie had simply presented the contract of our job assignment signed by Gaston for review, and that took about a minute or so. It was apparently as a means to have a specific clue as to where we were headed exactly in conjunction with what time we were let past the border. This makes it easier for the border officers to work with the church in the case of emergencies to determine what route we had taken and how they could either retrieve our dead bodies or help us out. I hoped nothing of the former would be happening. Our journey to Eldermire began on Ur’s Southern Road. It was named that because it led towards the Southern Sea, where the small village of fishermen, Port Ur-Uduak, and ships taken to Uduak resided. On the map Veva had given us, Eldermire was located just at the center of the road, a day’s journey to Port Ur-Uduak, but ten hours from Ur itself depending on how fast the carriage moved. A steam train would have been the best mode of transportation, it was what I’d used when I came into Ur. But it only functioned between cities in close proximity, like Ur and Andhera, and the small cities close to Ur, like where I’d come from, Meadbray. All in all, our journey was bound to be a long and tiring one, which was why I reached for my suitcase—a free one given to me due to the grace of the Iron Eagles—and took out one of the books I’d received from Gaston on Martha’s behalf, named ‘A Simple Guide Into Runes’. She had worked fast with my request, and even though that didn’t exonerate her fully from prying into my mind, it at least cleansed her sins a bit. Before I could bury myself in the words of the book, however, Sammie decided that we all talked about ourselves to create a tight bond in the team. I assumed that was because he didn’t want me zoning out. After all, considering that they’d all had the chance to bond for a week before I arrived, it was more than obvious that his proposal was as a means to accommodate me. So even though I took a few seconds to consider it, I decided that it would be foolish to alienate myself when I’d only just joined the team. I shut the book. Sammie smiled. “I’ll start,” he said. “Abel and I come from a small town situated in between the borders of Esmer and Maor. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Nearly everyone has.” He paused and I raised a brow. Was he expecting me to guess the town purely from the information he’d given me? Fascinating that he assumed I would do that. Regardless, I took him up on the challenge fo