Just where was I being taken?
The sounds of people and heated conversations grew distant, until they were but a faint murmur in the background. In contrast, the finery of the massive building that I was walking through only grew finer in appearance. The better question might be, who was I to be meeting with?
At last the entourage of guardsmen around me came to a halt. A pair of oaken doors opened to reveal a suite that looked out on a terrace garden overlooking the city. I looked around uncertainly, only to see one of the guards gesture for me to enter into the room.
I went forward, but they stayed where they were. I moved on into a room decked out with vibrant colors and gilded tapestries. A servant girl appeared out of nowhere and gestured for me to follow her.
We moved out onto the terrace that seemed to run the length of this side of the building. I saw an older man standing at the railing that overlooked the city. The girl gestured to him and I got the picture that this man was to be my questioner.
I had no knowledge as to why I was being questioned further like this. I'd had very little to report. I'd come across a caravan and saved a baby. That was all. Why was I here in the presence of someone who was obviously very important?
I drew within six feet of the man before I stopped. Distantly I heard the servant girl leaving. We were now alone on the terrace except for the bees hard at work on the flowers that were in pots and planter beds all about us.
"It would seem, stranger to our lands, that you are quite the hero. I must thank you for that. There are few left in all the world who give a care over whether or not a Thyanian baby lives or not."
"It was nothing sir. I just did what I could to save a baby's life."
The man's regally held shoulders turned as he faced me and said in a voice that brooked no arguing, "On the contrary it is of great importance, what you have accomplished."
For a moment I was mesmerized by the sight of the man's face. The whole right side of the man's face was marred by the scars of what looked to have been made by the swipe of a big cat. Apparently this man at some point in time must have had his own run-in with a Lion Man.
"The report I received said that you killed one of the cursed beasts."