“You embarrassed them, Kye.” Annora laughed and smacked his shoulder with a wet rag.
The corporal winked at them. “Don’t you worry none. My mother will see to you. Enjoy your stay.” Then he slipped into the crowd and disappeared from view.
Annora sighed and shook her head. “My son loves to bring me customers, but he forgets how quickly the rooms fill. I only have one room left, and I know it’s taken.” She motioned at the back wall, where a large placard held rows of hooks set above black numbers. One brass key hung on a hook in the third row.
“That one is certainly mine,” Cassiel said.
Annora chuckled. “You’re not the first to say so, sir.”
“A friend of ours should have arrived earlier to reserve our lodging, mistress. His name is Nelrron,” Dyna said, mentioning Rawn’s alias.
“I hear too many names in a day to remember them all, lamb.”
Cassiel exhaled sharply. “He’s an elf. Tall, blond, with the speech of another age. Dresses like a vagrant.”
Annora’s face lit up, and a giddy smile broke through. “Oh, yes, now I remember! He came through early this noon. Handsome gent if I ever met one, andcourteous,” she added, giving Cassiel a disapproving frown. Annora brought out a big thick heavy register book from under the counter and opened it to a section bookmarked with a blue ribbon, running a finger down the list of guest names. “Nelrron, Nelrron … aye, here it is. Nelrron reserved three rooms. He noted here the last key is for a young man, but no name, only another alias. How do I know it’s you?”
Cassiel groaned. “He chose an alias for me?”
“Aye, in good faith, I’ll allow you a guess.”
He raked a hand through his hair, trying to remain calm. Rawn didn’t mention he would use an alias for the rest of them. He didn’t know what it could be. The elf referred to him by royal address. So did Zev.
“Could it be … Your Highness?”
She grinned. “I can see why he chose that.”
Cassiel glowered at Dyna playfully when he caught her hiding a smile.
Annora snatched the key off the wall and handed it to him with a flourish. “Welcome. Your room is on the third floor,Your Highness.”
“Thank you,” he sighed in relief, ignoring the tease. For a moment, he’d worried there would be no lodging for the night.
Annora winked at them in the same manner her son had. “It gets quite busy this time of year. Thank sir Nelrron for reserving the last room for you and your wife.”
The lump returned to Cassiel’s throat, leading to a coughing fit. Dyna patted his back.
“Oh dear, he must be knackered,” Annora told her. “Better get him to bed, then. I’ll send meals to your room. Your friend noted you abstain from meat. I’ll have the cook make something special.” With that, she tucked away the reservation book and rushed off.
“Wait,” Cassiel called, but the innkeeper disappeared into the kitchens. He gripped the key in his hand.
“Rawn forgot to mention the room is only for you,” Dyna said, “I was to board with Lucenna.”
“Well, how are we to know in which room you need to stay? We cannot stay together.”
Cassiel cut back into the crowd to search for the others. There were too many people, too many faces to make sense of any individual one. He circled the floor, but there was no way to find them among the throng. They were unlikely to be in it. Rawn and Lucenna needed to remain out of sight.
“They will not be here,” Cassiel said to Dyna, but at her silence, he turned around to find her gone. He was an idiot. Her petite frame must not have been able to follow him through the crowd.
He took a breath to regain the calm he didn’t feel and closed his eyes. Searching for her through the bond, Dyna’s presence hovering around his senses pulled him back to the bar like a glowing torch in his mind. Cassiel elbowed a path through the wall of bodies to get to her, ignoring the shouts of protest and outrage.
“An apology is a common courtesy,” a deep voice growled.
“You would not need one if you had not been in my way,” Cassiel said. He didn’t have time for this.
“Come again?”
Gritting his teeth, Cassiel spun around, only to meet the hairy chest of an orc. The creature’s colossal body towered a few feet over him, his complexion green as moss with angry cat eyes. Sharp canines jutted out of his swollen lips. Long, pointed ears stood out amongst the orc’s dark green hair tied in a tail. Leather boots fitted his massive feet, leather gauntlets, and armor protecting his body as thick as a tree and fists the size of Cassiel’s head. In one mammoth hand, he carried a huge cudgel hammer. With the other, he grabbed the collar of Cassiel’s coat and yanked him into the air.
