The Mercenary's Valkyrie: Book One

Vayleron City

After Kaden's war horse made a "miraculous" recovery, we made the remainder of our journey in record time. Our supplies were hardly touched due to the amount of fresh meat a certain immortal hunted for us...

But on mid sun span of the fourth day, we were before Vayleron.

It's walls reached into the sky in whitewashed stone. The flags proudly flapping high above in crimson and gold colours. Royal colours. More guards could be found here than anywhere else in the realm. But these were mere military grunts, nameless and never within leagues of the treasury troop.

For now, we were undetectable.

The four of us blended into the flow of carts and riders that endlessly crossed the main entrance gates. I sighed happily as I took in the familiarity of it all. It was here where we had made a name for ourselves—for bad as much as good. Yes, we had swindled the guilds of the assassins and thieves to high hell but they were criminals anyway.

Most of the citizens here we managed to help... As long as we swiftly received payment. 

I saw John and Kaden scanning the crowds with grins as a few heads turned up in our direction.

"The three lions!" A man shouted.

"They returned?"

"Could that be Tayah?!"

I smiled under my hood as more city dwellers pushed to get a good view of the four of us sat on horses making our way down the wide cobbled street.

"Popular are we?" The Valkyrie said dryly beside me.

Her hood too, was pulled low to avoid attention on a pair of starling silver irises.

"We are not all bad you know." I muttered, watching as an attractive woman tried to gain my attention with a wink and a smirk. It worked. I grinned broadly at her.

The immortal snorted.

"I smell so much desperation in the air."

"Jealously does not become you." I taunted as I tore my eyes away from the red head on the street. 

I didn't even need to meet the immortal's eyes to know they were burning into my head.

"Nothing on this realm could ever make me feel a sliver of that. You would do well to remember where I come from." She growled.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a withering look. 

But word would travel soon enough that the three lions—otherwise know as myself and two buffoons—had returned. Every assassin and thief in the city would be very interested in that information.

I pulled Parsnip off to the left abruptly to lead us off of the large main path. The longer we were on it, the faster word would spread. The buildings were much higher than Ravensbrooke here and built closely together. On many occasions I had used the tiled rooftops for evasion.

After all, the guards were too heavily armoured to pursue up there.

"Do tell me we have somewhere to go, Tayah." John said worriedly from behind.

"Horses first. Then we find lodging."

"So, we don't have our own lodging." Kaden concluded in a grumble.

I whirled in my saddle and glared at them. "Excuse me for not making an extra purchase in real estate before we were chased out of the city by scores of assassins!" I snapped.

My voice echoed down the alley between two stone buildings we rode through and I winced slightly. They both grumbled lightly and sighed as we continued down the narrow passage. To be honest I'd had enough of it. Enclosed spaces were so prone to—