LITMIR.BIZ

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I haven’t been in the empire for long or much. Please forgive me for that,” she said.

      “May I ask why we are here and how long we are stuck to these wooden posts?” asked Rain, raising his voice, jerking and trying to break the chains of the shackles from the wooden post.

      “You can jerk as much as you want – they are deeply embedded, and everything is securely done,” said the brute standing next to the girl.

      “Let him jerk as much as he can,” the girl replied.

      “Alright then… Let’s get down to business,” the girl said. “Why are you here? For reconnaissance or something else?”

      “Why do we need this?” Rain asked her.

      The onlookers literally surrounded them.

      “Izi, how are you?” Rain asked. “Did they hit you hard?”

      But Iziro remained silent.

      “My people were concerned that you came here at this difficult time without any problems. You could conduct reconnaissance or something worse. My task is only to ensure the safety of my people, so I hope you understand me. And I hope you also understand my people. Not answering is your right. But these people chose me not for nothing. I am responsible for every person here. And I will do everything in my power to ensure their safety. And you are diminishing their safety in my eyes. At least until we know anything about you. If you have something to tell, you can tell it to one of those who will pass by you. We hide nothing from anyone. Everything said will be reported to me immediately. You can be sure of that,” she explained.

      “And what to say if there’s nothing to say?” Rain said to the departing girl.

      “Anything you want!” she shouted, disappearing into the crowd of onlookers.

      “And why were you silent?” Rain asked Iziro.

      “What could I say? It would hardly help us. You could tell her your story, and I could tell mine, but then they would take advantage of it, and we might never leave here. So the only thing left for us is to wait.”

      “Excellent tactic,” sarcastically remarked Rain.

      As evening approached, a laborer came and threw something vaguely resembling food in iron bowls. He also brought a trough of water, from which, it seemed, pigs could have drunk at some point.

      “Yeah. We need to get out of here,” said Rain. “Do you have any ideas, Izi?”

      “Don’t disturb my sleep,” Iziro replied.

      Memories from Iziro’s childhood flooded back to him.

      “Interesting,” Iziro said out of the blue. “The last time I was called that, I was almost like that kid who helped lift the cart.”

      “What was his name?”

      “Izi.”

      “Well, that’s easier. If you want, I can stop.”

      “No, it’s okay… It just brings back memories… This and everything around,” Iziro said, lying on the ground.

      Rain leaned against a wooden post, exhaled, and closed his eyes. He woke up in the morning to a strange noise.

      “What are these two Raderians doing here?” Rain heard.

      Rain woke up and saw something that made his body wake up rapidly. It was a group of five knights from the royal order. The story was repeating itself, but these knights were different from the ones he had seen before.

      “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” one of the knights asked.

      At that moment, all of Rain’s doubts disappeared. These were definitely different knights if they didn’t recognize him.

      “One exile, and the second… He doesn’t look much like a warrior. More like a monk from the southern mountains,” another knight said.

      “Bring me your leader!” said the main one among the knights to the people gathering around.

      One of the knights dismounted, approached Rain, grabbed him by the hair, and said:

      “Well, Raderian, your time has come. Will you tell us something valuable, or will you die like this?”

      Rain just looked at him with furious anger in his eyes.

      “We should interrogate them properly before that,” said one of the knights.

      “They’re unlikely to say anything. It’s better not to torture ourselves and finish with them right away, and then deal with this local troublemaker,” one of the knights said.

      Meanwhile, Iziro simply sat on the ground with his hands folded, still in chains, and did nothing.

      “And what about this one?” asked one of the knights.

      The knight closest to Iziro delivered a strong blow to him. Iziro briefly opened one eye, then closed it again.

      “Seems like some sick Raderian. Definitely a mountain monk!” the knight exclaimed.

      People around began to gather and surround the knights, just as they did with Rain and Iziro.

      “There’s something wrong with these people,” one of the knights whispered, observing the situation.

      “Disperse and get back to work!” the main knight shouted loudly. “I command in the name of His Majesty!”

      But the crowd continued to gather around the knights. At one point, there were so many of them that the knights had to stand closer to each other, feeling the danger in the disobedience and the workers’ behavior.

      “Disperse, or serious punishment awaits you!” the main knight menacingly shouted.

      The crowd pushed the knights away from the Raderians chained to the posts and, one could say, absorbed the Raderians into itself.

      “Iziro, do you have any ideas on what to do?” Rain asked anxiously. “Izi! Izi! It’s not time to sleep, damn it.”

      Rain began to desperately try to break free from the shackles, but the brute spoke the plain truth: “Everything here is done to perfection.”

      Meanwhile, the knights drew their swords. One of them approached and killed one of the workers. However, the workers didn’t scatter. Instead, one of them exclaimed, “A-ah,” and everyone began to repeat it in rhythm, raising and lowering their fists. “A-ah, A-ah, A-ah,” the workers chanted, and suddenly spears emerged from the crowd, forcing the knight who had come close to step back. The knights were forced to group even tighter.

      “Iziro!” Rain shouted.

      Iziro finally opened his eyes, exhaled, and first took one hand, shifting one of the wrist bones to pull his hand out of the shackle. Then he did the same with the other hand.

      “Could you have done this seriously all this time?” Rain asked. “What were you waiting for?”

      “I thought sleeping under the watchful eyes of the locals would be safer.”

      “We could already be halfway to Aeris.”

      The workers didn’t care about what was happening with the Raderians. They were dealing with a more serious issue. Two knights attempted to break through the cordon by mounting their horses, but the horses were afraid of the spears, so they didn’t approach the crowd. The knights then began throwing knives at the workers and something resembling miniature versions of them. The deaths of close friends and companions started frightening the workers, and some began to step back. Some of the spearmen started throwing their spears. Despite everyone being extremely serious and martially inclined, some still distanced themselves from their fallen comrades, thus disrupting the powerful blockade. Nevertheless, the crowd still seemed like a genuinely formidable force against so few knights, even though they were highly trained warriors. Especially considering that almost every member

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