57. Trinity

Shandra is not sure what to look for.

All that time, the girl could have sworn she would find a nice village with wooden and stone houses, with rural purposes, some river nearby and maybe some tribal music in the background.

But what she saw was a walled city, with sentries and guards protecting it. It was as if an entire civilization stood there, in the heart of the forest.

The closed gates were easily twenty times larger than she was, and the men guarding it....

"Who's coming there?" one of the soldiers asked, approaching. He carried a huge spear in one hand. The others pointed their crossbows at them.

"I have come to bring a message to the Zirun Clan. A message of enormous importance."

The man with tanned skin and braided hair half-closed his eyes as he recognized him.

"Marcus, isn't it? The exile. You know that approaching the clan after an expulsion is punishable by death."

"You couldn't kill me, even if you wanted to."

"What?!

"Have the gates opened immediately, and summon the T