Angels Blood by Gerard Bond

Now I think you really should move on, there really isn’t any time to deal with this sort of nonsense.”
    Nightwing’s anger flared, it was as much as she would have expected from a man more interested in procedure than the health and well being of the people.
    She took a deep breath, fixed Borlynn with a steely gaze and very calmly but forcefully repeated herself,
    “ Your Lord Borlynn, I must impress upon you the importance of what is happening here.  We have ridden directly from the outlands to here without stopping to give you news of what has transpired.  I personally saw over two hundred armed horsemen marching in columns having burned one of the towns of the outlands.  There were very many burning towns that could be seen from the hillside.  This is not to be dismissed with such flippancy!”
    She quickly realized even if she did see the king, the wheels of action would be very slow to turn indeed. The pity of it was while the land was wealthy and prosperous, they really didn’t have many issues to deal with and now one was raising its ugly head. She could see the Hierarchy would be all at sea within days. 
    Borlynn considered her more carefully, she wasn’t going to go away, was there harm in allowing her an audience? It certainly would break up the dullness of the events around here he mused. If there was any truth to what she was saying, well he did let her tell King Arrick himself, so he couldn’t be held to blame if things went bad.  Yes, it probably was a prudent measure.
    “ Very well, I shall inform the King of your arrival and that you have very important news for him. You may retire for the evening to an outer tent kept for guests, one of my valets shall arrange it for you.”
    He nodded to a person waiting in the wings, turned on his heel and walked out.
    Retire for the evening? Was she hearing right? Nightwing had expected too much thinking she could see the king tonight.  Time was of the essence and these fools were playing their royal games. She let out a sigh and looked at Loranda who she could see was fuming.
    “ There is nothing more we can do now but do as he says and hopefully the King will have time for us in the morning.” Loranda nodded,
    “ Yes, let’s make the best of it, do you think we could get a bath?”
    Nightwing turned to the valet with a questioning look, who in turn nodded in understanding.
    “ Oh and some food too thank you.”
    Again the valet nodded and they were ushered out  on their way to a tent. At least they were efficient at something here Nightwing wondered.
    Back down south Dark and Keera were laying on their bellies either side of Wollfen at dawn, looking out from a ridge to Port Cholandra in the distance.  They had been riding all night and laying here was a welcome change to the saddle thought Keera. Dark was busy contemplating the sight of hundreds of soldiers busily moving about on the roads below. Encampments stretched out from the defense walls of the city in all directions.  As far as she could ascertain there were thousands of soldiers, too many for the group to really comprehend the sheer size of it all, they had seen nothing like this before. How did they manage to feed and control such huge numbers?
    Wollfen had been quietly watching the city gates.  For over thirty minutes he watched and then finally spoke.
    “ The large contingents are waved through by the gate guards, but all of the individuals up to groups of say 15, they are stopping them all and checking papers, that’s a real problem.  I have looked at the papers we have and nothing in them gives us an excuse to go in there.  I’m afraid we can’t get in and I need to see in the city, I need to get to the ports themselves.”
    Looking out over the bay, Wollfen studied the city walls, they extended out into the ocean like two huge fingers. One at the North of the city here and the other would be at the southern boundary. Not only did it mean any land force couldn’t get around