“Are all the fields this bad?” I nod at the burned land next to the lane.
“Justthese they passed on their way through, but it’s bad enough. We’ll have half the harvest we expected. It’s going to be hard times, for sure, especially with the dry conditions getting worse every year. We’ve still got the inn, though, so travelers will stop by for at least as long as Khyrrus stays free.” He shakes his head. “We didn’t know the Zhagarn had advanced so far. Don’t get a lot of news here.”
“Thank you for the information,” Kaelen says. He shakes the man’s hand and then holds out two gold pieces I didn’t see him remove from his pocket.
The old man stands, lifting his chin. “Don’t need your charity. From the looks of it, you need that gold more than I do.”
“For the children,” the prince says quietly. “I’ve a little sister, and we lived through some bad times, too.”
“For the children,” he reluctantly agrees, taking the coins. “I’m Urnar. You’ll be looking for the inn?”
“We are,” I tell him.
“Might be crowded with that odd party of five strangers that showed up yesterday,” he says. “Never thought I’d see a high-blood Sylvan lord in Merrion, that’s for sure.”
Bern whoops with joy. “Our friends made it!”
Urnar gives us a quizzical look but doesn’t ask. He leads us through the town and to the inn, which we wouldn’t have been able to miss. It’s the largest building in the town square, and a wooden sign swings from a metal pole over the door. The inn is called The Speckled Goose, and whoever carved the geese in flight on the sign was a true artisan.
As we approach, a man who must be the innkeeper walks out, barrel-bellied, with a crisp white apron over his sturdy dark clothes. He watches us approach and nods to Urnar.
“Customers for you, Younkin,” Urnar says. “I’ll see you tonight.”
The man nods as Urnar walks off and offers us a bland smile. “Who’ll you be when you’re at home, then?” he asks us, and the question is so oddly phrased I wonder for a wild moment if he knows all about us and is going to expose us for who we really are.Then I see he’s studying our bedraggled clothes and lack of horses or baggage. He’s probably wondering if we have sufficient coin to pay for a room.
“I’m a merchant, and we were set upon by brigands,” Kaelen says. “We hear our party might be here? Five—”
That’s when Sergeant Neville bursts through the door and rushes down the steps to us. To my utter shock, the gruff soldier picks me up and swings me around. I don’t see any visible wounds, and he’s not wincing or limping. Maybe Elianna had more of her healing potion?
Maybe they escaped unscathed from thedraugrs?
I suddenly don’t care about propriety, and I throw my arms around his neck and hug him. “I’m so happy you’re well!”
He grins at me. “Soli! I’m so glad to see you!”
When he puts me down, he turns and pumps first the prince’s hand and then Bern’s. “Great to see you, lads! We were worried after—”
“Those terrible brigands,” I break in, not wanting the innkeeper, who’s listening avidly, to hear anything he shouldn’t.
“Right. I need to be off to the stables,” Neville says, his eyes telling me he understands why I cut him off. “Chitai and Andras are preparing to set out to find you. We only got into town late last night, running hard, and the horses needed rest.”
“Elianna and …” I can’t bring myself to say Trick’s name. Hope is a rock in my chest.
“They’re still in their rooms, likely sleeping. They—It was a hard trip for them, after we lost you two in that crevasse on the way over the Barrows,” Neville says, giving us a meaningful look when the innkeeper turns to precede us into his establishment.
“Yes, right. That was a rough journey, indeed. Did the wagon make it? Our cargo?” Kaelen asks.
“All safe and sound. I’ll just run back and tell them to stand down, then,” the sergeant says. “You two can get rooms and food. Bern, you can room in with me.”
Neville hurries around the corner of the inn, Bern close on his heels. Maybe I should go with him to see for myself that Andras and Chitaiare fine, but he surely would have told us if that weren’t the case. And that bath is all but calling my name.
Kaelen pulls his clinking coin purse from a pocket, and suddenly Younkin is all smiles. “Yes, young lord. Our best rooms for you and the young lady. Will that be one or two?”
Even though he asks in a perfectly normal voice, not in a leering or suggestive way, I can feel my face heat. “Two rooms, please,” I say, but it occurs to me I don’t have any way to pay for anything.
I’m suddenly aghast at my presumptuousness. From a pallet on the floor to my own room at an inn? Who do I think I am? “Or … I can share with Elianna or Chitai?”
“They’ve got one of their own, not big enough for three,” the innkeeper booms, no doubt counting coins in his head. “I’ve got the perfect snug spot for you.”
