Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 45

The guard at the front gate stopped their wagon. “What’s your business in Grimspeak old man?”

Clint gestured toward Dante’s sleeping form. “The boy and I are here to sell some of our crops.” Then Clint dug into a pouch and pulled out his documents, handing them to the other guard.

Dante felt a gentle poke from the shaft of the guard’s spear. “Wake up, we’ve got orders to check everyone’s eyes.”

Dante opened his eyes, ‘waking up’ from his fake slumber, but still maintained a drowsy look on his face.

Clint spoke up to his side. “Sorry bout that, the boy’s awful tired. Our cart had a broken axle, and these old bones were too weary to help fix it.”

The guard just nodded, then went to the back of their cart to check what was under the canvas. “Hey Frank, we’ve finally got a new batch of carrots.”

The other guard, who was blocking their path to the lift, had a broad smile cover his face. “Old man, are you selling these in the square today?”

Clint nodded. “Yes sir, that’s the plan.”

Frank stepped to the side, gesturing them through hurriedly. “Thank the Goddess.” Frank turned to the side, where two messenger boys were standing at the ready. “One of you go tell Betsy at Peaks Tavern that there is a new shipment of carrots, and that they will be sold at the square.” One of the boys shot off to the stairway, full of excitement.

Clint didn’t hesitate to usher the horses forward, tipping his hat to the guards in gratitude as they stepped onto the lift. The chains that connected to the lift pulled taught, and they were slowly raised towards the city.

When he had first seen Grimspeak, he had a few misgivings to say the least. The Tracker had said that it was a settlement, but it wasn’t. It was a fortress.

There were only two ways to get to the peak of the mountain that it was located on. The first, and easiest, was the narrow staircase that ran up the side of the mountain. The other was the lift that they were currently riding on, but either way, one needed the proper documentation to gain access to the city.

Thankfully, the farmer that had given him the information had told him the easiest way for an outsider to gain access to Grimspeak; paying someone else to let you in. Clint was one such person. For a small fee, only 5 coppers, he would sneak someone inside of the fortress.

He actually thought that the price was somewhat cheap, but apparently, the practice was so common that no one would pay more than 5 coppers to be snuck in.

Dante turned to Clint. “Why were they so excited that you had carrots?” Carrots were a typical food in Alazel, so he didn’t see what all the commotion was about.

Now that they had made it past the guards, Clint had a lopsided grin back on his face. “They crammed too many people on this damned mountain. So many in fact, that the surrounding farms wouldn’t be able to support them if they grew anything other than grain.” He gestured to the carrots in the back with his thumb. “Vegetables, especially ones that are a natural sweetener like carrots, are a delicacy in Grimspeak.” Clint cackled in delight. “These carrots are worth over ten times what I paid for them. I’m practically scamming these morons.”

That made sense to him, the less there was of something, the greater its value usually was.

Dante looked over the side of the lift and instantly regretted it. They were already over a hundred feet in the air. “How does a mountain like this even exist?”

The question was rhetorical, but it didn’t stop Clint from piping up beside him. “The current ruling family of Grimspeak is one of Geomancer Classifications, they built it up from nothing.”

He had been wondering why the mountain had such steep cliffs, it looked like a massive cylinder jutting out of the earth, but built by humans? That didn’t seem conceivable. “How did they build something so large?” If the lord of Grimspeak could make a mountain, he should be in the Outer region at the very least.

“Well, they started almost two hundred years ago. When the last campaign ended, the lord at the time recruited all of the Geomancers in the surrounding land with the Barricade skill. They came together to build this monstrosity.” Clint gestured at the mountain that they were scaling. “A bunch of fools if you ask me. There won’t even be another campaign. The last one resulted in massive losses, even for those in the inner regions.”

Dante’s eyebrow rose. “What do you mean by that?”

Clint shuffled in his seat, then began to whisper. “You didn’t hear it from me. But from what I’ve heard, the church was the cause of the last campaign. Their failure made them lose a massive amount of power.”

Clint’s hesitation, even on the isolated lift, made more than a little sense given what he had just said. If a priest heard those words, he would be crucified for blasphemy. Speaking against the church in any way was a death sentence, and a painful one.

Still, if the church really was the cause of the last campaign, it raised several questions for the upcoming one.

For now, changing the conversation away from one that was potentially dangerous would be best. Even Clint could be secretly working for the church, and just looking for blasphemers. “What’s the easiest way to leave Grimspeak?”

Clint shrugged. “Just walk out the front gate, they don’t check people leaving, just entering…” He paused for a moment before continuing. “The security has been a bit tighter than it usually is though.”

The lift slowed to a halt as they reached the top of the mountain. Clint whipped his horses, leading them forward through the dense crowd.

There was only one word that could describe Grimspeak; cluttered.

He couldn’t even see the streets through the dense crowd, there was absolutely no space between each person. The buildings themselves were just as bad, they were just square shacks made of stone, stacked on top of each other to maximize space, likely made with the Barricade skill that Clint had mentioned. They all had carvings on the door, probably distinguishing them from each other, and the only real difference he could find was their relative size.

Still, there seemed to be order in the chaos. The crowds had a stream of people walking through the middle of the road at a speed that was faster than a standard walk, only slowing as they moved out to the edges of the street.

Clint seemed intent on trampling the crowd, charging forward with his large cart, and he almost yanked on the horses’ reigns to stop him. But amazingly, as soon as the cart neared the crowd they just barely squeezed out of the way.

“Alright, I got you here safely didn’t I? Pay up.” Clint turned to him and held out his hand, not paying attention to the crowd he was plowing through.

Dante dug through the black sack for the 5 coppers. “Do you know where I can buy a map?”

Clint kept his hand out. “Head straight down this road, then take a right at the fifth intersection. The cartographer’s shop is third on the left.”

He handed the 5 coppers to Clint. “Thanks for the ride.” Clint gave him a nod, and Dante hopped out of the cart, losing himself in the dense crowd.

The feeling of being in the crowd was… euphoric. He had never felt so invisible in his life. The combination of his features being hidden and the anonymity that the crowd gave him made him feel like he was just another person. Dante reached up to his hair and examined it.

I suppose I am just another person now… with one of the most influential noble houses hunting me.

Letting out a sigh, Dante began walking in the direction of the cartographer’s shop, keeping a hand on the sack with all of his valuables inside.

He had barely moved into the street when he felt a hand in his pockets, his hand snapped out instinctively at a speed that took the thief by surprise. Then, holding the perpetrator in a vice grip, he yanked them out of the thick crowd.

To his surprise, It was a small girl who couldn’t have been more than ten. Dirty, covered in rags, and emaciated. She stared at him with a look of mortification, she was terrified of what he would do to her.

The sight of the girl, who seemed so similar to who he was only months ago, caused him to immediately release his grip and recoil in surprise. It allowed the girl slip out and dart off to find safety in the anonymity of the dense crowd.

Dante stood in silence for a moment, staring off in the direction that she fled to, then took a large breath and set off into the crowd.

Keeping a hand on his valuables proved to be a wise decision. Just moving to the center of the street he felt three more hands delve inside of his pockets, but he made no move to stop them. He had no intention of reliving the experience he just had with the small girl. Something about it made his chest tighten.

As soon as he reached the middle of the street, Dante merged into the high-speed crowd and took off down the road. Waiting until he made it to the fifth intersection, then cutting back through the crowd and taking a right.

After that, he just clung to the slow-moving right side until he came to the third building, which looked exactly like all the others.

The inside was nothing special either, the walls were covered entirely in large stone cabinets that were broken up into tiny compartments and stuffed with different scrolls. The center of the room had a single middle-aged man sitting at a large stone table.

The middle-aged man didn’t even look up at Dante when he walked inside of the room, just kept his focus on the map that he was drawing.

Deciding it would be best not to upset the man he would soon be buying something from, he waited silently.

Around ten minutes later the cartographer placed down his quill and looked up at Dante with a somewhat kind expression. “How may I help you?”

“I need a large map. Preferably one that covers the entirety of the noble territory.”

The cartographer’s eyebrows rose. “Such a map would be quite large… and expensive. Are you sure you can afford it?”

Dante hesitated, he wasn’t sure whether or not he would be able to afford it. All of his leftover money from the academy was left in his room in Housing District 1 with the rest of his belongings, and he had barely managed to scrounge together a few silvers from the bodies he looted in the forest.

“Honestly, I’m not sure if I can afford it, and it would be best if it’s a smaller map if possible.” His answer was likely a bit too honest, but the man didn’t seem like he would try to take advantage of him.

“A small map that covers the entirety of the noble territory?” This time only one eyebrow was raised, and it seemed like the cartographer was questioning his sanity.

The cartographer’s tone gave him pause. Although he knew it was large, he wasn’t sure how big the noble territory was. It had never been something of importance to him when he was staying inside of Alazel, and after leaving, he had basically been wandering aimlessly.

“It doesn’t need to be too precise, just a rough sketch of the Outer Edge territory and the location of the major cities… including Grimspeak for reference of course.”

The cartographer rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Ah, much more reasonable.” The man had a smile on his face, it seemed he enjoyed the mention of a new task. “I’ll do it for 2 silvers.”

Dante nodded in agreement. That was around half of his current money, but the map was his primary purpose in coming to Grimspeak.

The cartographer stood up and rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Alright, let’s get to it.” He stood and walked to one of the compartments in the side of the room and pulled out a blank piece of paper that was a somewhat standard in size. Then, coming back to the table, he picked up his quill, dipped it into the ink, and got to work.