Alanna: The First Adventure Read Free Page B

and green, ropes of gold and silver chains. Some people were staring as openly as she was. Others shoved their goods under people’s noses, shouting for them to buy. Women in tight dresses eyed men from doorways, and children ran underfoot, sneaking their hands into pockets and purses.
    Coram missed nothing. “Keep an eye to yer saddlebags,” he called back to Alanna. “There are some here as would steal their own mother’s teeth!” He seemed to be directing this comment at a tall young man standing near Alanna.
    The lean young man grinned, white teeth flashing in his tanned face. “Who, me?” he asked innocently.
    Coram snorted and kicked his horse onward. The man winked one bright hazel eye at Alanna and vanished into the crowd. She watched him until someone shouted for her to watch herself. She wondered if he really was a thief. He seemed very nice.
    They left the marketplace, taking the Market Way up a long, sloping hill. This led them through districts where rich merchants lived, up past the villas of even richer nobles. The crossing of Market Way and Harmony Way marked the beginning of the Temple District. Here the Market Way changed its name, becoming the Palace Way. Coram straightened his saddle. After his years of soldiering, this was like coming home.
    Alanna saw countless temples as they rode through the district. She had heard that a hundred gods were worshiped in Corus. There were enough temples for that many, she thought. She even saw a troop of women dressed in armor, the guard of the Temple of the Great Mother Goddess. These women were armed with great double-headed axes, and they knew how to use them. Their duty was to keep men from ever setting foot on ground sacred to the Great Mother.
    Alanna grinned. Someday she would wear armor too, but she wouldn’t be confined to temple grounds!
    The ground suddenly rose steeply. The Temple District ended here. Above them, crowning the hill, was the royal palace. Alanna looked at it and gasped. Ahead of her was the City Gate, carved with thousands of figures and trimmed with gold. Through this gate in the palace wall, kings and queens came down to the city on holy days. Through this gate the people went to see their rulers on Great Audience Days. The Gate was as high as the wall it pierced: a wall lined with soldiers dressed in the royal gold and red. Behind the wall, level after level of buildings and towers rose, up to the palace itself. The area had its own gardens, wells, stables, barracks and menagerie. Outside the wall on the other side lay the Royal Forest.
    All these things Alanna knew from her father’s books and maps, but the reality took her breath away as a paragraph written in a book never could.
    Coram led the way to the courtyard beside the stables. Here servants awaited the arrival of guests, to show them to their rooms, to guide the arrivals’ servants and to take charge of the horses. One such servant approached them.
    Coram dismounted. “I’m Coram Smythesson, ofFief Trebond. I’m come with Master Alan of Trebond to begin his service at Court.”
    The hostler bowed. A royal page rated some respect, but not the respect a full-grown noble would get. “I’ll be takin’ th’ horses, sir,” he said, his voice thick with the accent of the city. “Timon!” he called.
    A slender young man in royal livery hurried up. “Aye, Stefan?”
    â€œOne fer his Grace. I’ll see t’ the bags.”
    Alanna dismounted and hugged Chubby for a second, feeling as if he were her last friend. She had to hurry to catch up with Timon and Coram.
    â€œYe’ll show his Grace the proper respect,” Coram growled in her ear. “A wizard with a sword, he is, and a better leader ye’ll never meet.”
    Alanna rubbed her nose anxiously. What if something went wrong? What if the Duke guessed?
    She glanced at Coram. The man was sweating. Alanna gritted her teeth and