Chapter 84
The journey stretched on.
We stayed with the noble caravan for several days, trudging alongside them down a long, dusty trade road that curled across the hills like a lazy serpent. The path was exhausting and monotonous, continuously twisting and turning without any change in the scenery. The days were warm, the nights quiet, and the company was truly complicated.
The damned noble crest of a red snake coiled on the field of black was everywhere.
It fluttered from polished brass flagpoles fixed to all the wagons and the horse carts. It glimmered from the shoulder plates of armored knights who'd barely spared us so much as a second glance since we'd started out our journey with them, and it was stamped on the sides of every carriage and every trunk. Apparently, nobles liked branding themselves like cattle as a show of their wealth and power.
I didn't think much of it at first, but then I noticed Sim.
