Middanhal
The first bell of the day had barely rung to announce sunrise when a span of horses were harnessed to a carriage in the southern courtyard of the Citadel. Beyond that, forty horses were also saddled and their riders congregating. Each rider was armed and armoured, wearing a surcoat with a golden dragon that proclaimed them as the kingthanes. They were considered the best warriors in the land, some of noble and some of common birth, and rivalled only by the fearsome Templar knights. They had sworn oaths to give their lives for the House of Adal, the descendants of Sigvard who ruled all of Adalmearc. Which currently meant an eleven-year-old boy, yawning as he stepped outside. "It's so early, Berimund," Sigmund said to the captain of the thanes. "Did it have to be at sunrise?"
"Fe
