Pulhuth’s northern gates stood open, as they always had done. The city had never been assaulted from the north — nothing lay that way but Thaxamalan’s Saw, and whatever hid behind it. The peaks of that giant mountain range, reaching far into the cloudless summer sky, were perennially snow-capped. The guards at the gate thought nothing of their beauty, but were grateful to the mountains, largely because of the cool, blustery wind that whistled down from their heights chilling their skin on what was otherwise a blistering day.
In the wavering distance, across the plains on a little-used track that serviced the northern side of the city, two riders approached. The guard could make out the glint of weapons above their right shoulders, but little else at this distance.
Gradually, watched every second of the way (not because the guard was bound by duty to be observant, but because day in day out there was little else to look at on this side of the city) the riders drew closer, at a gallop.
Staring into the distance all day had given the guard fine eyesight. He gradually made out that the two men were warriors. They rode upright, bore weapons and had stout shoulders. The one on the left, who rode a white horse, was a thick set man with dark skin. His head was shaven. The one of the left, some glinting blade attached to his left arm, wore a full beard and long, unruly hair.
Weapons were of course permitted within the city walls, but these two men had the look of an invading army all by themselves. The guard thought about calling his superior down from his drink in the turret above the gatehouse, but he would no doubt berate the soldier for taking him from his rest.
He thought, ever so briefly, about challenging the two men as to their destination within the city, and even more briefly about asking them to relinquish their swords, which he could see were not for self-defence but for war.
But he was not a stupid man.
They drew level with him, and as they looked at him, he thought better of everything, and even of being a guard. They did not pay him enough.
Shorn and Wen passed unchallenged.
As he watched their receding swords, the guard decided he was long overdue a toilet break.