The Traveller part 4

 

He snapped awake in the dim room, the echos of the nightmarish memory still retreating to the corners of his mind, his hand instinctively rubbed the scars upon his side, he rose from the bed and moved quietly to the window he looked out across the rooftops, at some point while he slept the rain had stopped and the rising sun was only beginning to burn away the morning mist. The sounds of the waking city rose from the streets below, shopkeepers pulling back the shutters from there windows, the clop of horses hooves as they pull carts loaded with wares to the open market places, he turned from the window his icy blue eyes falling apon the black and silver suit of armour to one side of the room he approched closing his eyes and placing his hand gently upon the eagle crest spread across the curiass his fingers tracing the detail of the outstretched wings of there own accord, he took a deep breath remembering the moment he knelt before The King and Patriarch all those years ago to recieve his knighthood, his hand travelled of its own accord towards the left pouldron his fingers feeling the the scars of the many battles the suit has been through, despite the attempts of Kurik and the armourers to remove them. He remembered them all, the great battle of Tennhousers Gate, The War of the Six Cities, the Nibian Insurrection, the battle of Rybachy Pass and a hundred others. 

                His hand slipped from the pouldron at the sound of a faint knock upon the door, he turned as Kurik entered carrying a thick white towel over his arm and some breakfast "Good morning My Lord, time to get ready, they will be expecting you at the palace"

     He nodded taking the towel from his squire and headed out the door toward the bathhouse downstairs.