Dina has inherited her mother's gift and can make people feel shameful about their deepest secrets with just a single look. But with this gift also comes great responsibility and loneliness. Only very few people can look a Shamer in the eye and over...
Dina had only ever visited The Cliff City once before with her mother and that was already years ago so she hardly remembered it. She only remembered that it was where the king lived and that the city was situated on the furthest tip of a cliff that reached all the way to Onlain facing the Northern Sea. Though the entire country of Skay-Sagi was one big peninsula, Dina had only ever seen the ocean that one time she was in Dunark. It was only recently that she learned what she thought had been the sea on their way to the market in Solark was actually just a very big inlet. Dunark had originated with the castle that the king at the time wanted to be easy to protect and so he had built it as close to the cliff as he could get, so there would only be one way to it. Over time, the water had eroded its way even closer and the northern castle walls were now only an extension of the vertical cliffs facing the water. It looked like it would only be a matter of time before it would fall in the ocean, but it had stood for many hundreds of years and would probably easily stand more than an extra century. The city had spread from the southern castle walls and gone inland from there.
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Dina felt sure the city was at least a thousand times bigger than Birches and expected that there would still be a long way to her mother even after they had entered the citygates, but instead of heading towards the gate she remembered her mother bringing her through the last time, Drakan turned right a moment too soon and took them through a smaller path alongside the walls, and she could see Dunark Castle getting closer. Drakan called it the Pay Path, because apparently its purpose used to be to transport money and other treasures to the castle without having to bring it through the entire city. When they finally reached the Pay Gate, only a single guard was manning it, and it seemed enough, because the big stallion hardly fit through and Drakan had to bow his head all the way to Dina's shoulder. When he was that close, she could smell his breath. It was sweet and warm, like when Melli had eaten too much honey, but there was also something very unpleasant and an almost salty smell of iron.
"Peace in home." The guard greeted as he let them through, apparently he recognised Drakan from afar, because there were no questions asked as to why he was bringing a 12-year-old girl who wouldn't look him in the eye through the secret gate at this time of night.
"Peace in home." Drakan answered as they came through, although Dina thought it weird. Did Drakan live at the castle? He definitely knew the way, because though they turned many corners and often went down allies that were so narrow that Dina's shoes scraped against the walls, he never doubted for a second.
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