Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) Read Free Page A

who destroyed the rats… he blinked
as he realized the woman was Nisa, a younger version of Nisa than
the one he had met the other night at the Courtship ritual. Why
would Nisa be in his dream? And why would the dream be about
rats ?
    “ Up and at ‘em,
boys!” Sir Nickleby roared, stomping about the camp as the two boys
groaned; they wouldn’t go back to sleep with the knight in such a
fuss. “This is a disaster, what , who doused the fire last night?”
He asked, looking down into the fire pit they had created.
“Why , it’s still smoldering!” He exclaimed.
    “ It was Basha, sir,”
Oaka said, standing up and pointing at his brother.
    “ Tattler.” Basha
muttered, and then said, “I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again.”
as he stood up as well.
    “ You have first watch
tonight, Basha.” Sir Nickleby said.
    “ Why do we have to
keep watch, sir?” Basha asked.
    “ Because I said so,
and we are not camping out five miles away from home, we are
already a hundred miles away from Coe Baba.” Sir Nickleby
said.
    “ A hundred miles,”
Basha said, smiling and turning to Oaka. “Can you imagine?
We … ”
    “ A hundred miles is
no laughing matter!” Sir Nickleby said, striding towards him. “We
are now outside of Coe Baba’s district borders,” He said,
face-to-face with Basha, “on the edges of Coe Anji’s district
borders. We are, in essence, in no man’s land, in the space between
districts. Here is where the bounders wait, here is where robbers
can be found, here is where any crime can be committed, and no man
can prosecute it. Here is where the boundaries disintegrate between
districts and authority, and we have to get out of this area, and
back to safety , or what counts as safety , in Coe Anji.” The knight
said, turning away and walking off.
    Basha stared at him.
Why are you so concerned? He wanted to ask the knight, but
couldn’t. For the past few days, whenever they had passed anybody
on the road , heading towards Coe Anji, or away from
it , Sir Nickleby was certain to sweep aside his cloak or saddle
blanket to reveal the hilt of his sword in its scabbard right
beside him, even if they weren’t close to the stranger but on the
opposite side of the road from him or her. Basha and Oaka had
learned to follow suit, perhaps to detract any possible murderer or
thief from tangling with them, but perhaps it wasn’t necessary,
Basha thought.
    The knight had all of
these tips on survival, and lectured them constantly on what they
should expect while traveling through Mila Forest, Popo Hills, and
Tau Valley as if he might not stay with them all of the way. He
told them all about the cities and towns they might stay at, the
challenges of camping out in the wilderness, including how to
properly set up camp with holes for the latrine and fire, the
proper form of etiquette should they stay at a nobleman’s
estate … everything they should know, it seemed to Basha. He supposed
the knight was worried, in case something should happen to
him and the boys would be
left on their own , but Basha was certain
the knight would be with them always. Sir Nickleby had to be one of
the most experienced knights ever, and certainly knew how to plan
things out .
H e couldn’t be so careless as to let
something happen to him.
    On the first day, the knight had
planned their route, using a map full of intricate drawings of
Arria. It showed the routes that traversed mountains, trees, towns,
rivers, and castles, the sections split between Mila Forest in the
north, Popo Hills in the middle, Tau Valley taking up most of the
bottom half of the page and a blank space for the Wastelands ruled
by Doomba on the other side of the mountains known as Dragon’s
Teeth
    “ Where is Coe
Pidaria?” Basha had asked, staring at the blank space on the map
that first day , as if it
might appear if he concentrated hard enough . Coe Pidaria, the
legendary first capital city of Arria where the first king, Corr,
had ruled almost three