Pilot: The Three Hilled City
Ko the Cobbler Arrives in a New City
This is the first pilot within Pilot Season, where each week I will be putting out a first chapter, followed by a poll to see which story I will continue as a serialized novel in 2025. Subscribe to be informed when the next pilot drops.
When Ko crested the small rise in the foothills of the Diamond Peaks, and the valley was laid out before him, he couldn’t help but pull his reins up and pause. There were three hills in the center of the valley, completely isolated, with bridges connecting them.
Atop the three hills were the buildings and homes that constituted a city or, at the very least, a large town, with tall, strong walls blocking out the sun. For two of the hills, the ones farthest from where Ko sat on his wagon, it would be impossible to get to the crest except across the bridges. But the first had a gradual slope leading up to the gate. Houses, unprotected by the walls and bridges, were scattered in and amongst the base of the hills, in the valley within a valley, glinting in the sunset. He could see a steady stream of people going up the hill and through the gate. Ko nodded to himself.
Yes. This will do.
He flicked the reins and Sugarcap, his old donkey, picked her way carefully down the side of the hill and towards the three hilled city. He nodded to the people as they stared at him, smiling down from his perch up on the wagon. A child stopped and pointed at him, her mouth open and surprised, before her mother scooped her away.
Sugarcap knew her business. Ko had kept her for ten years and in that time, she’d learned when to speed up and when to keep a steady pace, and this, the path to Hillgate, required consistency. It was fast enough to get him there before the sun completely set, but not so fast that those in the way couldn’t move to the sides of the path to allow him to pass.
Two guards stood on either side of the gate, asking people their business before they were allowed into the city. The one on the left was shorter than the one on the right, but both were still taller than Ko. He’d have been surprised if they were shorter than him. He was expecting tall people.
They were dressed in simple leather armor, with some chainmail underneath and metal skullcaps on their heads and held spears so spotted with rust that they seemed more useful for walking sticks than anything else. As far as Ko could tell, they were Augr, natives of the Eastern Shore, with the tell-tale blonde hair sticking out from under their helmets. He could have been wrong, though, and they could have been mixed-heritage, with some Imperial Tisanese or Watcher or even elf in there. Ko didn’t know and didn’t particularly care. He wasn’t as particular about bloodlines as many of his kin-members were. He just cared if people were kind.
The guard on the right was leaning down as he spoke to a grandmotherly type in the line to enter the city, her long, gray hair tied up into a bun. He asked her a question and her reply made him laugh, loud and piercing, before he gestured her through. He said something to the guard on the left, and the other man also let out a loose chuckle, without looking away from the family who were animatedly explaining their situation.
But the taller guard’s laugh cut off sharply as he saw the next person in line.
Ko spoke softly and Sugarcap moved a few more steps forward, the wagon protesting.
“What business do you have in the city?” the tall guard said, fast, as if he hated the words.
“Good evening,” Ko said, softly, carefully. He knew the language, but it had been some years since he’d tasted foreign words on his tongue. “May I ask you to speak slower? Your language is not, eh, native to me.”
“Why are you here?” the guard said, slow and loud as if by speaking louder Ko was more likely to understand.
“Ah,” Ko said with a wide smile. “I am a merchant. I have come to open a shop.”
“A shop,” the guard on the left joined in now as the family scooted past him into the city. Ko was vaguely aware of a mass of people lining up behind him. Whether they were watching the exchange or waiting for their turn, he didn’t know. “Selling what? Mushrooms?”
The right guard laughed again.
Ko’s smile did not dim at all, despite the laughter.
“Shoes,” he said, lifting his feet up so that they could see the perfectly stitched leather encasing his foot. “I am, eh, cobbler.”
The two guards stopped laughing again, staring at him.
“A cobbler?”
Ko drew his eyebrows together in concentration. “That is the correct word for shoe-maker in your tongue, yes? I can make set for both.” He gestured between the two guards and climbed down out of the wagon.
There was a loud groaning sound from the group of people behind him, waiting their turn to get into the city.
“Apologies! Please!” Ko said, holding both of his hands up to them as if to calm a rearing horse. He turned to the taller guard and leaned over to look at his boots. He made a noise soft in the back of his throat. “Tsk, tsk. You see? The leather creased because your boots are too big. And here.” He touched the edge of the guard’s shoe so light that Ko could only just feel the warmth coming from off the guard’s body. “The stitching is coming undone.” He stood straight. “When I have found a place, you must come. I am Ko. You will find me?”
He gave the guard a hard look, as though the statement wasn’t a question but a command. The guard on the right nodded, a bit surprised.
Ko broke out into another smile, a bright ray of sun on a cloudy day. “Good! You will see. I do good work.” He turned to the other guard with an apologetic look. “You will come too, but I, eh, block the line.” He climbed back onto the wagon and looked expectantly at the two guards.
The guards looked at each other.
“You’re...a dwarf, right?” the one on the right said.
Ko nodded, the smile not leaving his face for an instant. “Yes! You know my people?”
“But…” the one on the left asked, obviously trying to find the words.
Ko waited politely.
The right one appeared to give up trying to be polite about it. “Where’s your beard?”
“I don’t have one,” Ko said. If he was offended, he gave no sign.
“But...all dwarves have beards?” the left guard said.
“I don’t!” Ko replied. “But.” The dwarf made a big show of looking in both directions, and then leaned forward to gesture the guards closer as if telling a secret. They both leaned close. “I am still a dwarf.” Ko leaned back and laughed loudly, his hands on his belly.
Despite themselves, both guards began to smile as well. The one on the right stepped forward. “Sir, could you pull your cart to one side? We need to talk our Lieutenant.”
“Of course!” Ko said. He spoke a few soft words in his native tongue to Sugarcap and the donkey pulled the cart to the right so the other people could get around him. The guard on the left now took over both lines of people, alternating back and forth, while the tall guard disappeared through the gate.
Sugarcap whuffled softly.
“Now, now,” Ko said in his native tongue, leaning forward to pat the animal on the hindquarters. “It’ll be alright.”
Sugarcap turned her head so one large eye faced him and farted.
Ko sighed. “I hear you, I hear you.”
The donkey turned her face forward again.
Ko waited for what felt like several hours but could not have been longer than twenty minutes, the sun falling lower and lower behind the hills ahead of him, the line of people going into the city growing thinner and thinner. He had waited many times in his life, for rain to stop, for snow to clear, for other merchants to finish their bickering, but he had never felt as nervous as he did in that moment. But even nervousness cannot last forever, and a gnawing hunger began to fill his stomach.
A loud gurgle filled the early evening air, echoing from his belly.
Ko looked down as if surprised and then looked around. There were two people left in the line, talking to the guard who had remained behind. Ko wasn’t sure they heard, but all three of them had little smiles in the corners of their mouths.
Ko felt his face heat and turn red. His people did not care about bodily noises. After all, they were only the natural movements of gasses and fluids through the body, just as gas and fluid moves through a tunnel. But he knew those who lived above the ground found such sounds embarrassing, as if emitting them were a moral failing. He hoped that those who’d heard the sound would not avoid his shop because of it.
He put down the reins carefully, stepped off the wagon, stretched, and began to root through a handful of the burlap sacks that sat open to the air in the back of his wagon.
“Sir?”
Ko whipped around, holding a large mushroom in one hand while part of another hung out of his mouth like a long, white tongue. The tall guard had returned with a woman, his Lieutenant, Ko assumed, who was not wearing armor, but had a short sword belted at her waist. She also had the Augr hair, though it was clearer she was mixed-heritage; her skin was closer to bronze than the general Augr bone white.
Ko swallowed and grinned at both of them. “Your question from before,” he said, breaking the mushroom in his hand in half. “It, eh, reminded me I missed lunch.”
Ko held out half of the meaty, tan-capped mushroom to his questioner, but the guard held up his hand in response. “No, thank you. Lieutenant, I think you’d better-”
“Mr. Ko, do you have a permit?” the Lieutenant said, crossing her arms.
“A...permit?” Ko said, confused. “For...what? For mushrooms?” He held the two halves of the mushroom up in one hand.
The Lieutenant rolled her eyes. “For your wagon. You wish to bring it into the city, right?”
“I...yes, I do.” Ko looked back and forth between the guard and his superior officer, his hand still holding the mushrooms up, as if he was offering them to her. “I need a permit for a cart?”
“To bring it into Hillgate for the night, yes,” the Lieutenant said. “If you wish to do day trading, you won’t need a permit, but you must leave the city before sunset. As you can see, it is sunset now, so you won’t be allowed into the city.”
“But I wish to go in,” Ko said, his hand dropping a little, but still holding the mushrooms. “I wish to purchase a, eh, real estate.”
“You will not be able to bring your cart into the city until tomorrow morning,” the Lieutenant said, her arms still folded, as still as the walls behind her.
Ko looked back at his cart, the sturdy, strong wood, the thin leather of the reins. It had been with him across the continent and back. Ko looked back to the guard and the Lieutenant. “There are stables, yes? Inside the city?”
The guards eyes flickered towards the Lieutenant, but the Lieutenant did not even flinch. “There are no stables available for you within the city walls. There might be some in Bridgebetween.”
“I’m...I’m sorry,” Ko said. Sugarcap nudged his hands, hoping they’d open so she could eat the mushrooms, but he didn’t notice. “Eh, Bridgebetween?” He said the word slowly, careful to enunciate each part.
“The area between the three hills,” the tall guard explained. “You’ll have to go back down the path and then curve around the hills into the area beneath the bridges.”
“Ah, yes,” Ko said. He unconsciously opened his hand and felt Sugarcap’s rough tongue lick one of the two mushroom halves away from his palm and into her mouth. “Does the gate stay open after sunset? I would like to look for a, eh, real estate tonight.”
The guard shook his head, sadly. “No, I’m sorry, sir.”
Ko glanced to the sky. From the Sun Position, he knew it was impossible for him to make it down into Bridgebetween, find a stable, rub down Sugarcap, gather the books, and come back up before the gate closed. Ko’s shoulders slumped, and almost as an afterthought, he brought the remaining mushroom half into his mouth. But, after he swallowed, the lump in his throat bobbing vigorously, he smiled once more. “You cannot plan for everything, no?”
Ko climbed back onto the wagon and picked up the reins. They were warm from the setting sun. “You will be here tomorrow, yes?” He pointed at the guard on the left, the one who’d never left the gate. Both the lieutenant and the tall guard looked at the other guard. He looked startled to be spoken to.
“I...yes?”
“Good, good,” Ko said. “I will see your feet then. I make good shoes. Good shoes! You will see!” Ko flicked the reins and turned the wagon, pointing Sugarcap’s nose downhill. “Good night!”
The guards and their Lieutenant watched him go in silence for a minute or so.
“You sure he was a dwarf, Campbell?” the Lieutenant said.
The tall guard cleared his throat. “He said he was, ma’am.”
The other guard spoke up. “His clothes didn’t look like they were made from sheep, ma’am.”
“Pashmin,” the Lieutenant said, not looking at either of the two men, eyes following the dwarvish merchant down the hill.
The guards looked at each other. The shorter one spoke up. “I’m...sorry, ma’am?”
“Pashmin,” the Lieutenant said again. She turned to look at the guards and put a hand to the back of her neck, as if she was embarrassed. “It comes from dwarvish goats. My mother was a wool spinner.” She let her hand drop and stepped back into the city. “Campbell, Hogan, get the gate closed. We’re done for today.”
Hogan shouted up to the guards on top of the wall, letting them know it was time to drop the portcullis, but Campbell continued to just stare after Ko, until the cobbler turned the corner at the bottom of the hill, headed towards Bridgebetween.
If you’re curious as to my thoughts and feelings while I was writing this piece, click the button below to see my commentary, which goes live on Monday, November 11th.
Well written, though these types of stories don’t appeal. Looking forward to contestant number 2.