Chapter 522 — Reception
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
She raised her head and saw an unfinished city wall stretching across the wilderness ahead, the road running straight toward a sentry post before it, and through the several gaps where the wall had not yet closed, great swathes of houses and buildings were visible.
"Is that Xuan Yao City?" she said, looking into the distance. "It's certainly large..."
"No, that's only the new district on the north bank—and the unfinished part at that," Margarita said with a slight shake of her head. "We have to pass through this area and cross the Mechanical Bridge before we reach Xuan Yao City's riverside plaza."
A flicker of doubt passed through Victoria's eyes, but she asked nothing—she felt she had already asked quite enough questions along the way. Whatever she saw next, she would do better to judge with her own eyes.
The convoy passed the sentry post and drove into Cecil's north-bank new district. The moment they entered the city proper, Victoria saw the enormous banners hanging on either side of the road:
Welcome to Cecil.
This novel manner of welcome struck her as rather amusing, and very soon that sense of novelty and amusement turned to astonishment.
The huge banners were fixed to three-story buildings on either side of the road, spanning the entire street. Many magic-crystal lamps wrapped in colored cloth had been strung together, extending forward along the road; neat rows of buildings stood along the wayside like guardsmen, and in the open spaces between those buildings and the road, countless people had already gathered—on this cold winter day, thousands upon thousands of healthy, vigorous folk in warm winter clothing had gathered on both sides of the road!
When she had set out from the royal capital, Victoria had never imagined she would see a welcome of this kind—not even when she beheld the towering, magnificent Boulder Fortress, or the vibrant towns of Carroll and Kant, had she imagined she would see a welcome of this kind.
This was winter!!
Yet the crowds along the road only grew, truly and steadily. As the magic-guided convoy drove into the city district, the lead vehicle sounded its horn—a loud note produced by some manner of airbag and brass-tube device. At the sound of the horn, the people gathered along the road broke into loud cheers, though whether they cheered for the guests or for those few carriages, one could not tell.
And at the same moment the horn sounded, urgent, orderly hoofbeats came from the side lanes on either side. Several troops of brightly armored cavalry emerged from both flanks of the road, clad in uniform white armor and cloaks bearing the Cecil emblem, banners in hand, swiftly closing in to either side of the convoy and trotting forward alongside the carriages, which had slowed.
Victoria watched the spectacle outside in astonishment, but near-instinctive reserve and propriety moved her to the most becoming response—she opened the carriage window in the manner Margarita had taught her and gave a slight nod to the knights and citizens outside.
As the convoy drew near the riverside quarter, figures who had long been ready appeared atop the buildings on either side of the road, and petals came drifting down from on high, falling like winter snow upon the carriages, upon the cavalry escorting them. And at the far end ahead, Victoria had already glimpsed the Mechanical Bridge slowly descending—
Was that a bridge wrought of steel?
She could see plainly the huge gears and lever structures turning beneath the bridge, some immense engine driving the span slowly down and together, meshing the two halves tightly. The convoy did not slow at all as it advanced; the moment the bridge mechanism closed, it drove onto the deck—and the cavalry on either side kept pace at the same steady speed, not a single horse breaking stride.
How long had these soldiers trained? How many soldiers of this caliber did Cecil have?