“Is that a rhetorical question?” I groused.
“Sylvester, you’re on supplies. Have Arcadia help. Dina, Marc, you guys stick together and wander the town. Make sure no one is talking about Aurelia. We’ll meet back in the square in three hours.”
“Is that enough time?” Burt asked. “We’re supposed to be looking for Aurelia thoroughly.”
“It’s a needle in a haystack in this place.” Nova shrugged. “We can’t search inn rooms and we don’t want to raise suspicion, right? If we go back with that explanation, the alpha will have no choice but to move on. Not even Tanix will be able to scrutinize us.”
“Someone just needs to sit that wolf down and explain this situation clearly to him,” muttered Dina, a small, spry wolf who was good in a pinch. She’d been chosen over Dante for that reason. She didn’t talk to me much. I was pretty sure she thought I’d get her into trouble. Given trouble was my idea of a good time, she was probably right.
“Someone just needs to give that wolf a hug,” I said, linking my arm in Nova’s. “Time’s wasting. Where to?”
The inns were all located in one section of town, not far from one of Granny’s stalls. They positioned it in plain view, not even down a back alley or in a seedy corner. This town had no qualms about the drug trade.
We settled on an inn with a large tavern and a bad carving of a roaring lion on the sign. A few people dotted the space, filled with worn furniture on a scraped wooden floor. The little stage area in the corner was sadly bare, though it was probably too early for any sort of spectacle. At least the ale was absurdly cheap.
“Why is this place so cheap?” I asked the barman, eyeing my drink. “What’s in it?”
The barman, a grizzled old fucker with a nick taken out of his ear and more whiskers than hair on his head leaned a fat palm against the bar. “This ain’t that kind of establishment, and if you go on accusin’ me of anything more, you can see your way out of it.”
“Great, fine, awesome, good chat. But why is this place so cheap?”
The barman grabbed a cup from below the bar and spit in it before rubbing it clean. “The mayor gives the inns a stipend to make staying in town cheaper.”
I took a sip of my drink and winced a little at the bitter taste. They didn’t put much love into their craft here. “And why is that?”
“This a game of twenty questions? Drink your ale and mind your business.”
“You get a lot of repeat customers, don’t you? You have a real old-world charm.”
His eyes narrowed and I winked at him before following Nova to a table in the center of the room. The other drinkers were spread out around us, all within easy hearing distance if we were so inclined.
We were halfway into our pint when the guy behind Nova, a man with a mangy, slightly reddish beard and a gross looking glass eye, leaned back a little, getting closer to her.
“They made the beds cheap so people will come to the town,” he said in a low voice, talking to us but not facing our way.
I perked up. I loved people eager to chat. They usually had a lot of stories, knowledge, and gossip, and hardly ever a clue when to shut up about it all.
“What’s the attraction?” I asked, taking a gulp. I didn’t have much time. I needed to get happy fast.
“What else? Granny’s Delight. The mayor gives the inns a stipend so they can lower the prices. Then, in turn, they jack up the price of the snacks.”
“Why is the mayor—ah.” I nodded. I’d heard of this before. “The mayor is getting a cut.”
Granny had an uncanny ability to suss out who she could bribe. Get the cities and towns in on it—hell, get the royalty in on it—and work together to unload the product. She was good at her job.
The man leaned forward again, over his beer. I let him be for a moment, talking a little nonsense to Nova, weaving fake stories about traveling that painted us as friendly, uneventful people. Non-threatening, basically. People never worried when talking to non-threatening travelers, especially lonely sods with glass eyes who never banged anything he didn’t pay for.
We were on our third pint and I hadn’t yet been able to create another bridge of communication. I sensed things were about to get interesting when a portly guy with a stained shirt and dirty hands joined Glass Eye at his table.
“How’d you do?” Dirty Hands asked before draining half his pint in a series of gulps.
“Unloaded the whole lot. This town sure has a need.”
Dirty Hands grunted. “The few villages around us won’t sell it. Everyone comes here.”
“Don’t I know it. They go through it fast, too. Best stuff on the market if you can stomach it.”
“If you got a hookup for the dragon elixir, you mean. Did you bring any?”
