Tales of Aranth: The Girl and The General

Chapter 8

I will be fine, there won’t be even a scar left on my head, but the doctor wanted me to stay for the night in the hospital. I slept well and then ate awfully distasteful porridge and was examined again. Then the paperwork needed for the discharge took forever. I guess that is another influence from the writer’s world. 

And now I’m standing in front of the hospital thinking what should I do now. I do not really know where I am. There was no map included in the book and the city was rather poorly described as most of the action took place in palaces and manors. I can tell the colors of the drapery in multiple rooms of the royal castle, but here, on the street, I'm helpless. Crap.

I sum up my knowledge about the King's City topography. It isn't much, but maybe I'll figure out anything useful.

First Quarter is where the aristocracy lives. It spreads out around the hill where the king’s castle is built. It’s beautiful, with broad avenues and parks and residences of white stone, with escutcheons on their gates. There are some restaurants and theatres, where a meal costs more than I have in my purse. This district descent to the coast, where another park is placed. The coastal side is the better one, where the relatives of the royal family have their residences. I know it quite well, at least in theory, most of the plot took place there. But I'm not there and probably never be.

The city is placed on a bay and has huge docks on the southern side of it in a long tine. The wind from the sea blows from north to south, so it's easier to enter the docks than the royal harbor, but it's much tougher to leave the docks. There is the Third Quarter. That is where the modest townsmen live, mostly in the tenement houses. There are also markets and workshops. And some inns for sailors.

The richer, but not noble live in the Second Quarter, closer to the castle, farther from the smells and noises of the harbor. Most elegant shops and public buildings are placed there. This quarter demarcates the First and the Third. These three districts are grided with the barracks and the grand city walls. The staff buildings are close to the First Quarter, but I assume that the hospital should be closer to the Third. In case of an epidemic.

And there is the Fourth Quarter. I’m not sure if such a district could exist for real. It’s huge and a total mix of everything with everything else. Parts of it look like not-so-wealthy suburbs and parts are more like slums. It’s actually no quarter, but a long belt placed between the big city walls and the small city walls on the height of the Second and Third Quarters. There are some small houses and markets and almost every inch of the ground is already used. The inns aren’t as clean as in the Third Quarter, but it is said that the fun is better in the Fourth. But there are places in the Fourth where you wouldn’t go willingly. And I have no idea where Copper Street is. Just hope that within the better part of the worse district in town. I guess I need to ask someone.

If only I could be sure that Alarana is already back. But what will I do if she isn’t? Well, it’s about noon, they may be back.

I see a man heading to the hospital. He is a soldier, a captain.

“I’m sorry,” I call him. “Sir. Did the army from Red Hills come back?” It sounds stupid, and he looks at me like I was an i***t, but I don’t know which army this was. I know that there are four armies in the kingdom, but it wasn’t written which of them fought at Red Hills.

“They are marching to the city through the Lower Gate now.” He says and goes away quickly.

Ok, so the Lower Gate should be somewhere in the south, in the small city walls. But it doesn’t make sense to go there. As far as I know, the soldiers should be dispatched as soon as they enter the city walls, so I decide to go to Copper Street and wait there for Alarana.

The author once showed her mercy over me. There is a sign with the “Fourth Quarter” on it. Luckily, she wasn’t an avid worldbuilder and she didn’t create her own alphabet or I would be in great trouble. How did I miss it earlier? I go where the sign indicates. I go through the barrack’s gate and then down the street until I get to the crossing. There I can go back to barracks or turn left to go through the wicket in the big walls.

A soldier looks at my clothes. 

“Dispatched?” He asks.

“Yeah,” I answer.

“Well, good luck, don’t waste all the pay in a week.” He smiles and lets me pass.

“I won’t.”

The streets are visibly narrower and more crowded, but it doesn’t look bad. I look for a stall, I’m hungry, and I quickly find one at the market corner. An older woman sells hot buns. I buy one, trying to figure out which coin I should use when she says the price. The bun smells so good, but instead of digging in immediately I ask the lady:

“Do you know how do I get to Copper Street?”

“Can you see this street?” She points to the street on the other side of the market, I nod. “You need to pass three crossings and on the fourth turn left. There will be a small square, Copper Street is the one that leads to the north.”

“Thank you,” I say and follow her directions, slowly chewing the bun. It indeed is delicious.