Chapter 528 Leave With Grace

Chapter 528 Leave With Grace

There was no fancy sendoff after they finished breakfast, just a runner sent to the stables to get Thor hooked up to the wagon and staged for departure.

Thor was happy to help them with their work, even if they had done a lacklustre job of scrubbing his scales last night. They had at least scrubbed him down, but there was no enthusiasm and no extra attention to the itchy spots, even when he tried to point them out.

So, he was hooked up and ready when Karl arrived with the team, while the grooms pretended that they weren't intensely curious about the fact that his entire harness rig was made of silk rope.

Normally, the shoulder brace would be wooden, with hemp ropes attaching it to the cart, but Thor's harness was entirely silk, and included ties for a rider to be securely strapped in place. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Karl checked the cargo, and found that it appeared intact under the net as the others loaded themselves into the wagon.

Guards on the bipedal lizard mounts escorted them through the city streets, clearly not intending to let Karl stop and do business inside the city limits. That actually worked for everyone, as Karl had no intentions of staying in the area.

With a whole group of Overlords and seers here, Karl was looking forward to being out of their sphere of influence. The less likely they were to notice what he was doing, the safer he would be.

Nobody challenged them as they made their way out the gates and into the open farmland that surrounded the city, where the others began to relax a little. They weren't going to say anything to blow their cover, but at least that feeling of being suppressed was gone, and so was the feeling of being watched.

Inside the fortress, The Oracle, was sitting with a group of twenty Trouble Seers, staring at an image on the smooth surface of a pool of water in a silver pool.

"Are you sure that he's not going to be back, Oracle?" One of the seers whispered. "Yes, he is gone. I don't know what sort of threat he is, but my advice is that we don't follow his movements directly. If we interfere, it might encourage our soldiers to do something that triggers the danger.

Karl had mentioned him during their interview, and the Oracle had seen them interact in his visions. He might not know their current relationship, but the anger of an ancient Dragon was not something to tempt.

But in the wagon, Karl and the others knew nothing of these concerns, and they were happy to have simply escaped the notice of the Overlord Council without anything major happening.

They had just passed the first cluster of small vegetable farms that served the fortress, and had passed into what Karl would consider a wilderness area, headed east down the main road.

Karl turned to talk to the others. "You know, this shortcut is actually pretty nice. The road here is all gravel and well maintained, much better than the deep ruts and soft dirt that we were getting on the other sections of the road. Maybe we can stick with it for a while before we move back to travelling through the wilderness to get to the underserved customers?"

Dana nodded. "That's not a bad idea. We might be able to make a few good trades along the way, and pick up more than farming tools."

Tessa nodded. "We might pick up a side quest or two as well. From what I understand, the further northeast we go from here, the more trouble they have with Giants and wild beasts.

If we go that way, we should be able to get some excellent customers, but if we follow the road to the southeast we will get to the capital city of Newbon, and from there we can head east through human populated lands until we get to the wilds, then we're into more dangerous territory.

The Wilds are almost completely controlled by beasts, but there are a number of towns and one major port there as well.

A pirate port again, but that's to be expected. Only this one specializes in beast materials, from what I understand, and not slaves."

"And from there, we can follow this huge river all the way up to Whiton Temple. There are major trade routes along the river, and a road going from there into the Golden Dragon Nation. It's a pretty solid route, and we should be able to make sales and purchases at nearly every stop."

"We might even find buyers for some of Rae's silk."