Dao Divinity Book 1

by Bruce Sentar

  Guess that’s what happens when you have more than a wild boar to worry about eating your crops. A wooden fence doesn’t stop a direwolf.

  There were sections where it appeared that the city was building up another layer of walls beyond the farms, further enclosing them with the city. It looked like a massive project, and knowing the amount of work from his days bricklaying, Dar cringed to think of the poor laborers’ hands.

  “Is that section of wall new?” he asked Sasha.

  She looked over the fields. “Yes, I think it is. I haven’t been here for a while though. It wouldn’t be the first city to wall off their farms. With the monsters and devils about, farming is a risky job.”

  “They already have those spiky things,” Dar pointed out. Although as he took a closer look, he decided that they might stop gremlins or even deter some direwolves, but they wouldn’t do more than delay a gang of trolls.

  “The towers are to alert anyone of incoming dangers; they actively trim the forest back to give them a better field of view. The troll caltrops are just to stop anything from rushing the farms before they can react,” Cherry explained.

  Meanwhile, Amber stared at him like he had two heads.

  “I’m from very far away.” Dar gave her a smile.

  “I want to go live where we don’t have to worry about no devils.”

  Laughing awkwardly, he said, “Well I can’t go back, and I certainly can’t bring anyone there.”

  Even as he said it, he realized that he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. He remembered begging Lilith to send him back when they were at the River of Souls, but now, things had changed. He could see a life here, a bigger purpose.

  He finally had a chance at power and making a difference, and this world definitely needed him. The primitive lifestyle they lived had its drawbacks, but there was also something primal about it that spoke to a core part of him.

  Challenges like building a home, fighting off devils and pursuing his dao felt natural, like it was something that had been missing for him before. He wasn’t sure he could go back to some quiet life now. He felt more alive now than he had ever felt before.

  He looked over the girls around him and made a conscious decision. He’d been exploring this world, one foot in and one foot still hovering in the past. Now, he committed himself to pushing forward here and leaving the rest behind.

  He had no doubt some of it would be uncomfortable like the master-type persona he was supposedly supposed to have, but so far, having multiple women didn’t seem like the worst thing.

  Smiling to himself, he decided he could at least embrace that part and give it a chance; the girls wanted him to after all.

  A weight began lifting off him. He would take Sasha’s advice for now and see how it all went.

  “Are you okay, milord?” Amber asked.

  Realizing he’d been quiet for too long, he spoke, “You just prompted some thoughts that cleared up some things for me. I am from far away, and I’d been struggling with the change in how people operate here.”

  “Oh,” was all that Amber managed in response.

  Focusing on the city ahead of them, he let Amber drift away to talk to Marcie. As they moved closer, the structure of the city became clearer.

  Stone walls that were two stories high surrounded it, with higher platforms interspersed throughout them. Behind the walls, the city was bustling with activity. They were still too far to make out the individuals, but it was clear there were masses of people moving in and out of the gates, with workers spread across the fields or venturing into the woods.

  They moved forward at a steady pace before a voice shouted out, “Halt!” The voice was followed by the thud of heavy boots as a small group of men in matching armor stepped forward, the caravan coming to an abrupt stop.

  They had been stopped just past the farms; the watch towers must have sent word in advance of their arrival. The guards looked alert, but not alarmed, as the whole group stopped and voices went down the line.

  “What can we do for you?” Dar asked, stepping forward while still dragging Cherry’s cart.

  The guards frowned at him, looking him up and down. He didn’t seem to fit whatever they were expecting.

  “Hello, good men, I’m Count Tint.” The count jumped up in front of Dar. Dar stepped back, happy to let the count take the lead. He wasn’t sure how the formalities of this would go, and he didn’t want to make a mistake that might cost the entire caravan.

  The guard at the center of their group turned back to another who was holding a bag brimming with what looked like rolled up parchment. “Count Tint?” The guard eyed the count, who only nodded in response.

  The guard with the bag flipped it open and eyed the scrolls, finally choosing one with red binding and proceeded to unravel it. He read through it silently until he got to what he must have been looking for. “Count Tint, the count of Northshire. A small town of no more than five hundred.”

  As the guard looked up from the parchment, the eyes of the other guard followed, seeming to roughly size the group against the information they had just heard.

  He knew they would come up with far fewer than five hundred, though Dar wasn’t sure if they had that many before the devil attack. It was certainly less than that by the end of the trip. If he had to guess, there were two to three hundred people in the group now.

  “It seems you brought most of your town here with you, count. Care to give us an explanation?” The head guard seemed more bored than aggressive, like he’d dealt with this before.

  “We were attacked by an unholy swarm of monsters. We fought as a town and slew the whole lot of them!” Count Tint pumped his fist with the final words, eliciting some excitement from the crowd behind him.

  “But, alas, when we turned back towards the town, some of the little buggers had managed to slip through and homes were burning. We raced back and started a bucket brigade, but too many places had caught fire. We were forced to flee with our belongings.” Tint swept the hat off his head and pulled at it between his hands as he shook his head.

  Dar tried not to chuckle at the count’s profusive gestures. He had to give it to the man; he even felt a bit sorry for the finely dressed count after that spectacle.

  The guard nodded to the man with the bag of scrolls, who was already juggling the scroll in one hand while dipping a pen in ink and scratching new notations on the scroll.

  “I must say, your group is better off than I’ve seen for a group traveling cross country without a proper guard.” The guard was looking us all over, a hint of skepticism in his eyes.

  Count Tint nodded eagerly and turned to Dar. “This man here. I know he doesn’t look like one, but he is a wizard that seems to focus on dao enchantments that greatly help him in combat. We all watched him fight a troll in barehanded combat.”

  Several of the nearby villagers spoke out for Dar, corroborating the story.

  “Well then.” The guard still eyed him warily but seemed to appraise him to a higher standard after the villager’s feedback. “The duke would love to have more wizards in town.”

  A few eyes drifted over to Cherry and Sasha behind him. “Do you have them under oath?”

  “I have Cherry under oath to her dao,” he said, not explaining his relationship with Sasha.

  The guard frowned at the use of Cherry’s name, like it was unusual for Dar to use it. “Well then, the other should be aware that we will require an oath to even enter the city. The past month has seen increased trouble with monsters; we would rather not invite them into the city at all. But an oath will keep them under control.”

  He wanted to argue about the guard’s use of the word monsters but starting a fight over it wouldn’t accomplish anything.

  Sasha laid her hand on his arm, whispering. “It’s fine.”

  Dar did his best to smile; he didn’t want to give these guards any reason to deny them entry to the city.

  Sasha projected her voice. “I swear on my dao to follow this man an
d do no harm to those in the city except to protect myself and those around me.”

  Dar felt the weight of her words settle around his shoulders like a mantle. It was a powerful thing for her or Cherry to swear on their dao; these guards likely didn’t realize just how important it was.

  “Good. That’s settled. Any other monsters traveling with you will need to swear an oath as well. If you can find an inn, that’s great, but they are rather full and competitive. The eastern part of the city is where most of you will likely end up though.” He turned back to discuss details with Count Tint.

  The rest of the crowd slowly started making their way into the city, but the energy as they had approached it had dimmed. Instead of elation and excitement at finally making it here, the crowd had grown somber at the end of the statement by the guard.

  “What’s on the eastern part of the city?” he asked the girls around him.

  Marcie answered, “The slums. If we aren’t the only town to come this way recently, there’s a good chance the inns are full up. And, even if there are rooms, the space is probably limited and the prices way up.”

  “Sasha, did you get paid by the count?” Dar wanted to confirm that before they went into the city.

  “Enough of what I was expecting,” Sasha said, looking over her shoulder at the count talking to the guards. “Besides, we won’t be able to get the second half, not with the guards there.”

  Frowning, Dar had to agree. He didn’t want to deal with that either. “How much do I have to my name at this point?”

  There were only a few chits in Dar’s pocket as Sasha was managing the money. She understood the currency of the area and had the spatial pouch. He was also still technically in her employ, even though she had been cutely flustered when he pointed that out.

  “I got twenty-four gold from the count, so your half is twelve,” Sasha said.

  Amber and Marcie’s eyes lit up at the number.

  Dar didn’t have much to compare it to, but based on their faces, it must have been more than they were expecting. But that seemed only fair to Dar. They had basically performed the task of a full contingent of guards, taken on a pack of trolls on their own, and if not for his immortal body, he would have been permanently crippled.

  He had earned every bit of that money. “How many days at the inn do you think that’ll buy?”

  “Plenty!” Amber blurted it out loudly and excitedly before catching herself and shifting more professional. “Sorry, milord. I forgot myself. But that will be enough to house us for a while. That would be enough to rent a small home.”

  “Can you rent homes in Bellhaven?”

  “Of course. Any city is the property of the lord, who then rents out everything,” Amber explained.

  Dar wasn’t a history buff, but that sounded somewhat similar to the feudal systems that had existed in his old world. At least, close enough.

  “Would it be easier to go straight to renting out a home, or should we find an inn?” He really felt out of his element; he hoped it wouldn’t be too weird to Amber that he was asking all these questions.

  As they moved, the whole caravan was starting to break up as they approached the city. He followed the lead of the girls as they headed in one direction.

  “It will take a few days to find a home. We should find an inn for a week, just to be safe.” Sasha tapped her chin. “I think I have a few old friends that might be in Bellhaven, I could talk to them after we get settled and see about getting a house set up.”

  “Friends? Are they demons?” he asked.

  “Huh? Oh, she’s human; she just really likes expensive clothing. I’ve made quite a few dresses for her,” Sasha replied.

  Dar shrugged; that made sense. If she liked expensive dresses, then there was a good chance she might have some authority here that could get things done.

  Their whole group got quiet as the guards at the gate watched everyone with an air of oppression. It almost felt like they were looking for an excuse to jump on them.

  Dar watched other people coming and going, but they all slowed down, walking more carefully and quietly as they passed. He made a mental note. There had to be something there; he should watch out for the guards.

  They passed the guards in no time, and the group took a collective deep breath of relief. “Are guards always like that?”

  “No, they are not, but this city is clearly in trouble.” Cherry chewed her red lips as she looked around. “It feels more depressing here than it did a decade ago. Not far from cities I’ve known in the past on the brink of collapse.”

  Amber spoke up. “Uh, it hasn’t been more than a year since I was last here, but there are a lot less people performing on the streets.”

  Looking around, Dar tried to get a good feel for the city. Instead, his eyes gravitated to the occasional person with brightly colored hair. Sasha had said that was an indication of someone being a spirit. “There are more spirits than I was expecting.”

  “Yeah, maybe a hundred or two hundred spirits and demons here.” Sasha guessed, also looking around to take in the population. “It’s not uncommon, but the ratio keeps getting bigger every time I’m in a city. You humans breed worse than rabbits.”

  “Hey,” Dar said with a grin, remembering all the time they’d spent together on the trail.

  They passed by a cart that was selling dumplings, but his gaze caught on the flowers adorning the side of the cart.

  “I’ll give you a chit for this flower.” Dar pointed to a lavender bloom that matched some of the cloth that Sasha used in her dress.

  The woman behind the stall flapped her mouth open for a second before blurting out, “Sure.”

  He didn’t waste time and dropped the chit before cutting the flower free.

  “Flower?” Amber asked, his group had stalled for him.

  “Sasha, here. The color reminded me of you.” He handed her the flower, causing a deep blush to race across her cheeks as she took it.

  Someone in the crowd around them whistled.

  “Thank you, Dar.” She took the flower, admiring it for a second before tucking it into a strap on her hat. “How does it look?”

  “Just as beautiful as you,” he said, knowing it sounded cheesy, but her face still lit up.

  She could barely contain the wide blushing smile on her face. “I’ll have to make it up to you later.” She winked and kept moving, a little extra bounce to her step as she led their group through the city.

  Dar went back to people watching as they moved through the city. He was hoping to get his hands on corpses that would be able to feed the little dao tree and potentially progress some of those buds into more fruits.

  The way the girls described walking the dao path seemed long and arduous. He wanted to use the dao tree for all it was worth to speed things up. So far, his only option was killing the spirits he had seen, and that wasn’t something he was comfortable with.

  As they moved, he smelled the stink before he saw it. There were racks of stretched hide drying in the sun. This was clearly a tannery, but it gave him the idea to check out a butcher shop in the future.

  “We’re here,” Sasha announced.

  “Great, let’s head in.” Dar just took a quick glance at the sign hanging out front; there was a caricature of a drunk fox on the board.

  The place didn’t seem very fancy, but what caught his attention the most was that the majority of the clientele weren’t human. It was largely filled with spirits with brightly colored hair and demons with some aspect of the animals they used to be on clear display. A few could pass for human like Sasha, but Dar was able to sense the mana flowing through them that made it clear they weren’t.

  It made sense that his entry had caught the attention of more than a few of the patrons. His presence seemed to wind the whole room tight. They all marked him as an outsider, like walking into a new dive bar.

  Sasha was either oblivious to the tension or ignored it as she cut right through the dining hall. It seemed hard to be
lieve she wouldn’t catch onto it, so he decided she must just be avoiding it.

  “We’d like two rooms,” she said at the counter.

  The man looked up with gold, slitted eyes, like those of a snake. “I apologize, but we are out of rooms,” he said with a sibilant hiss, like his tongue might not be exactly human either.

  “Do you know where we might be able to find a room?” Sasha seemed surprised.

  “No, ma’am. The inns are all booked up that I know of. There have been five towns that have come for shelter recently.” His eyes wandered past Sasha to Dar, as if he was expecting trouble.

  “You don’t need to worry about my bodyguard. He’ll behave.” She turned to me with a pointed look.

  What? Did I just look like trouble? Yeah, I probably did.

  Shrugging in response, he held his palms up to show he meant no trouble.

  Sasha rolled her eyes. “You can seem pretty intimidating, Dar. But why don’t you and Cherry take a seat here and have lunch. I’m going to take Amber and Marcie to see if I can’t start to get things arranged.”

  She turned to the two girls. “You two just need to be ready to help out where I ask. These are the kind of people that are used to being waited on, and I need you two to help.”

  Both of them nodded.

  “Good. Now Dar, please don’t get into any trouble.”

  “I could go with you,” he offered.

  Sasha shook her head. “No, I think you draw too much bad attention. Sorry, Lug, but you are kind of scary. Thank you again for the flower. We’ll be back shortly.”

  With that, she moved with Amber and Marcie falling into step behind her like servants waiting on their lady. Their heads were bowed, and he couldn’t help but wonder if there were training courses for that type of thing.

  “Alright, Cherry. Where do you want to sit?” Dar asked.

  “By the window, so I can keep an eye on my tree.” Cherry was already looking a bit lost with the tavern wall between her and the tree, which was parked in the cart just outside.

  Shrugging, Dar headed over to an open table that had sightlines to the tree. Waiting for somebody to take their order, he continued looking around and taking in everything happening inside and outside the tavern.