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A few days later, Ruby and I are standing in a meadow outside the walls of Morum. We followed a merchant convey who overtook us. The occupants of the wagons eyed us suspiciously at first. My initial thoughts about the column leader and adventurer, Aermus, was he’s a good man even if he’s brutally honest and aggressive as hell. He and another man held their pikes on me while Ruby mostly answered the questions. We were able to persuade them we weren’t bandits when they realized how lightly armed we were. I’m pretty sure they thought we were off our rockers traveling a desolate stretch of road with no money, weapons, or armor. 

Eventually, they trusted us enough to allow us to stay reasonably close to their wagons for protection. There wasn’t much to worry about from us, since there were seven adventurers with the caravan. According to the Aermus, packs of wolves attacked travelers in this section of the kingdom, so we were grateful for the extra protection.

By the next day, Ruby’s natural charm got more and more information from our fellow travelers. It also got me more nervous. The looks coming from some adventurers at Ruby made me naturally suspicious of them. However, some spoke different languages, meaning I wasn’t even sure of what they said. Still, if they wanted to take her, there’s not much I could do about it, given the differences in weapons and fighting skills.

Damn, I need a translator!

As I stood there, I thought about our new kingdom. The Glennot Kingdom, ruled by King Conmáel, was a name vaguely familiar to me, like one of those obscure trivia names in history. It seems the king is an undefeated champion knight whose never lost a battle. The merchants spoke about his fair rule and his beautiful Queen Findabair. According to the tales, the queen is so beautiful that hundreds of men died to woe her as a bride. Now, that’s just screwed up, in my opinion.

Listening in to the conversations among the merchants and Aermus, I learned much more about this world. While some conversations were in languages not even close to English, some I understood confirmed the obvious differences about what I believed I understood. The fairy tales I grew up with were incorrect, but still a central part of these lands. That means Merlin exists, but he goes by the name Myrddin Wyllt. I guess it sounds more noble with two names. He’s still got a feud going with the enchantress Morgan le Fay. Their feud seemed to cause a lot of problems for the kingdoms, with various conspiracies and political intrigue. It appears the kingdoms don’t have time for war since most of their time and energy must focus on stopping some curse or plague caused by a witch or sorcerer. It appears there are quite a few bad people causing problems.

Of course, I told Ruby to lie about our past. Our story is we’re commoners seeking a better life in a good kingdom. I guess the merchants assumed we were married since they treated us that way. For my part, I tried to keep from speaking much and listen in on the conversation. Later, as we slept together, I learned the tidbits that Ruby picked up with her conversations. We considered trading in her cursed dagger but decided against it since neither of us knew about the curse. All I knew is the blade maintained a fine edge even though it looked made of silver. To me, that meant the underlying metal was top notch, thus expensive, if I guessed right. Selling it for some food made little sense at the moment. The berry bushes and creeks with fish got us by without undo hunger. I even upgraded to crude fishing gear using a hook I found on a creek bed and uncurling some of the yarn used in my cape’s construction. Bigger fish seem to like worms just fine, and the cursed dagger gutted them like a filet knife.

Also, I discovered more about the kingdom that Ruby and I escaped from. The Joteland Kingdom which appeared somewhat like Vikings of old with the names like King Fornjót and Queen Grimhilde. Also, I escaped from a village called Draugr. The rumor going around was a plague of undead attacked the village. My guess is they thought I was undead when they saw my neck. Since I did not know where the wound came from, I can only surmise someone tried to kill me. Perhaps they were leading the mob. It also woke me to the fact that I needed to find a way to become much stronger in fighting or get a sponsor of some sort until I could get the money I expected to earn.

Why am I standing in the meadow with Ruby, watching the merchant wagons pass through the gates of the walled city?

First, there’s a toll to enter the city. It’s a simple mechanism to keep out the rift-raft commoners like me and Ruby traveling away from other kingdoms. The toll for most cities is a half-silver coin, which is naturally held by the merchants, the clerics, and the nobility. A serf or commoner will seldom carry anything valuable, and they mostly trade in pfendings, a coin made of copper. If you’re dressed in commoner clothing or a slave and found carrying half-silver coins, you’re considered a bandit in the eyes of the guards.

Fortunately, I learned this before we arrived, along with the general layout of the city. So, I hatched a plan the day before we arrived. I explained my idea to Ruby, which included the need for rope and another sickle. Then Ruby offered to sleep with the men for the equipment. Her idea made me furious. Sure, I’m getting possessive with her, but the degrading aspect really set me off. Her eyes widened when I pulled her out of earshot of the caravan.

“Don’t you ever offer to do such a thing again!” I gripped her shoulder with one hand, squatting to look directly into her eyes.

“When you do that, you belittle yourself. You’re not a prostitute. Do you understand?”

“But how shall we consume and liveth in the city?” Her confused expression told me she wanted to help, and her body was her vehicle to survive.

I let out a sigh. As I thought about it, she’s dealt with growing up in a caste system. I haven’t. So, I released the grip on her shoulder and changed my argument.

“As long as you’re with me, you hurt my status as a noble by doing such a foolish thing. You are never—I mean never—offer your body to another person. Don’t embarrass me like that!”

My strange reasoning got through as tears welled up in her eyes. I took her into a hug, which made her stiffen for a moment. Finally, she loosened up, and I released her. Ruby kept glancing at me as we walked back to the caravan. However, I paid little attention as an idea came to me.

Before dawn, I went to one of the merchant’s wagons. After I borrowed a large coil of rope, I added another sickle to my collection as well. Now, this is risky since they’ll string me up by my neck with the same rope if I’m caught. Aermus told me they hang thieves when we first met. But with the wagons so close to the city, I figured the merchants wouldn’t discover the theft until they got inside gates. Which leads me to the second reason Ruby and I are so far behind the merchant caravan.

After I stole the materials, we hid them. Acting out our ruse that morning, we followed the wagons for a while before Ruby faked hurting her ankle. We waved them on as I put her arm over mine. When the wagons finally got out of sight, we went back to retrieve our stolen items, then walked to the outskirts of Morum just as the merchants entered the city.

Now we waited for the darkness to fall while I went to work on my invention, the grappling hook. Alright, it’s not my invention, since the grappling hook dates back to the Roman era for boarding ships. I used to read a lot about naval warfare as a kid, so I’m sure that got me into the Navy in the first place. However, I have a special use for my homemade version, which involves scaling a medieval wall. First, I cut out a small piece of the rope I stole, then unbraided the strands to wrap around the two sickles. I put them together with the blades facing opposite of each other before I wrapped the small strands around the handles. Then, I took one end of the rope and spliced in the twisted strands with the cord, finally wrapping the handles again with more of the strands. When I finished, I had a crude grappling hook.

“Thou art most wondrous,” my pretty companion marveled at the device.

When a beautiful woman gives you such a compliment, trust me, it goes to your head. Full of myself, I tested the device out on a tree. It worked just fine for the first time; the hook wrapping itself over the limb. However, I forgot the sharp blades cutting into the rope. When I crawled about halfway up the tree, the rope snapped, and I ended up on my butt. Luckily, the two sickles fell out. However, I looked like a damn fool trying to get out of the way of the sickles trying to impale me on the way down. My bruised ego joined my bruised backside while I remade my grappling hook.

After I finished grappling hook 2.0 (yes, I’m a grandpa who’s played computer games), I coiled up the rope. The sun was close to setting. We waited until darkness was almost complete before we went across the open field and circled around to one side of the walled city. The merchant’s descriptions of the walls were pretty accurate. About three people high, they told Ruby, which came out about fifteen to twenty feet by my guess. By the way, people in this world are shorter than I’m used to. Larry was about six feet tall since he stood about the same height as Aermus. Even though I’m probably fully grown, I can tell I’m a few inches shorter. My guess is Ruby’s probably close to five feet tall. 

From our position, we watched the men holding lanterns, making their rounds across the battlements on the top. It didn’t take long to spot a pattern. After I explained what I wanted to do, Ruby and I laid back and waited until the sounds of the city slowly faded away.