“So, Orry is cover for their gods hunt story while they’re looking to round up anyone going to find this new king?”
Benson shrugged and mopped at his forehead, leaving a filthy trail. “Sounds ‘bout right.”
“What do you know about him?” Croak asked.
“The new king? What I said.”
“Where’d he come from? How’d he become king?”
“Boy, ya askin’ me like I’s an ol’ woman sittin’ round ‘er knittin’ folk. I ain’t.”
“You didn’t ask?”
Benson turned a baleful glare at Croak, who lifted his hands.
A few seconds later, he looked up as if recalling something important and pointed his hammer at Terena. “Someone came in askin’ ‘bout ya.” He shook his head. “Late last week. Came in fer weapons but asked ‘bout trackers. Named ya.”
Croak cursed. “Really, Benson? You just remembered?”
“My brain ain’t young an’ full o’ nothin’ like yers,” he grumbled.
“Asked for me by name?”
“Aye.”
“What’d you tell them?” Terena asked.
He shot her a glare. “I didn’t tell ‘em nuthin’ bout ya.”
Terena arched an eyebrow.
“I tole them I’d let ‘em know if I ‘ear anythin’ when theys come back for th’ orders theys placed.”
“When are they expected?”
“End of th’ week. Told ‘em dawn on Saturday, they’d be ready.”
“Mercenaries?”
“By th’ look of ‘em.”
“They say anything else, Benson?” Terena asked as she slid a coin toward him on the workbench.
“Aye, said ‘e was lookin’ fer trackers. Said th’ king had need of ‘em. Then asked after Terena Luca.”
Terena glanced back at Croak, who was busy rolling a coin between his fingers.
“I’d planned on leaving straight from here.”
“Eh, ’tis a few days. ‘Ear ‘em out and then decide.” Benson thunked the hammer on the sword. He huffed, straightened, and cracked his neck. “Ye can stay ‘ere if’n the soldiers is what bothers ya.”
“I’m needed in Metilai.”
He snorted. “Yah, yer needed in Metilai.”
Croaked snickered and Terena shot him a dirty look. “Where’re they staying, you know?”
Benson shook his head. “Why the shit would they tell me? Easily found out by wanderin’ to the usual holes.” He lifted his head and grinned with a lift of his chin at Croak. “He sure as rain knows those venues.”
