The Road to the Capital

News of an unburied sword travels faster than any boy can walk. By the time Aldo reached the second town, three different banners were already looking for him. He had thought, in the dry south field, that the sword was a kind of luck. Three days on the road had corrected him. The sword was a kind of debt, and the whole continent had decided to come collecting. A woman in grey found him at an inn and did not draw a weapon, which made her the most dangerous person he had met so far. She sat down across the table, folded her hands, and said, "There are eleven nations who want that on their wall, and exactly one old man who wants it back in the ground. You are going to have to pick a side, and you are going to have to do it before supper." Aldo, who had never picked anything more consequential than which field to plant, set down his spoon.