Something Amarande could confirm personally.
Still, the princess slid off her horse and tied the gelding to the hitch post beside the sign. “Taillefer, my offer still stands if you’d like to leave.”
“Despite the sign’s whimsical warning, I’m coming with you.” He dismounted and tied Balkan next to his brother. “That said, if we are not heeding the posted proclamation, I would like to request you return my dagger.”
The prince fell into step beside her, approaching the main building’s large portico and yawning door. Amarande answered, “I would, but weapons are not allowed.”
Taillefer jogged ahead to face her as she advanced, walking backward. “Which is exactly why you have that sword strapped to your back and your boot knife thunking against your ankle. Very wise—did you wear your weapons before?”
Amarande continued her trajectory to the covered porch and sun-worn structure beyond. “I am wearing my weapons precisely because of what happened before.”
“I feel compelled to ask what happened before.”
Taillefer caught her wrist. It was not forceful, just a way to get her attention. Maybe he was learning that she did not respond well to physical coercion, but either way she did not want him touching her. She snatched her wrist out of his grasp. He placed his hands on his hips, and glanced at the black hole of an open door and the uncertainty behind. He’d taken her joke about the weapons well, but now the droll nature of his usual expression was gone, his face serious. “Amarande, if my life will be on the line in this building, tell me the whole truth. My neck deserves at least that.”
In answer, she offered him his bloodied dagger.
“There is a man inside called the Innkeeper. As you surmised, he is loyal to the Warlord, who allows him to maintain this inn, which would otherwise go against the rules prohibiting stationarycongregation. It is allowed because he is paid in many ways that benefit the Warlord, but most importantly is that he is paid in information.”
Taillefer palmed the dagger and brightened a bit. “Seems like my kind of fellow—bending the rules and gaining knowledge.”
“You might not want to proclaim that until you meet him… if he is still alive.”
“Princess,” Taillefer chided, again stepping into her path.
Amarande pushed past him, sights set on the building. “When I was last here, the Innkeeper’s guard tried to kill me and the aftermath likely injured the Innkeeper. I left before I knew if he survived.”
Taillefer fell into step beside her. “So, we’re entering an enclosed space, trying to extract information from someone who you may have had a hand in severely maiming or killing?”
“Yes.”
“Suddenly my dagger does not seem sufficient.”
Amarande rolled her eyes. “Taillefer, I witnessed you murder that guard with a single blow of that dagger.”
He didn’t try to deny it. “That was only because the boy was caught unawares.”
The more Amarande thought about the technique he’d used on the guard, the more convinced she was that Taillefer could slay severalawaremen with that dagger and his wits. “You have that fire swamp terror. Use that.”
Despite the danger they faced, he laughed softly. “I realize you called me evil not long ago, but I’m disturbed thatyouwould suggest I unstopper that, toss it in someone’s face, and watch their flesh melt off the bone.”
She stared at him. He was exactly that person. If he would use it on Luca or to disarm a guard as he’d suggested at the Itspi, he wouldn’t hesitate here. Amarande drew her sword. “Stay alert. And do not expect me to rescue you.”
The wooden boards of the porch creaked under their weight as they stepped into the shade of the overhang, blinking into the open maw of the building’s entrance. The doors were missing—nothing left but a black mouth with punched-out windows on either side.
In silence, the pair entered, weapons at the ready as the change in light briefly wiped out their vision. Listening hard to the kind ofsilence that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, Amarande held herself in a strong high blocking stance, grip tight on her sword as she blinked into the dim until the haze of blindness lifted.
The fine vases and plants and specimens of wealth were gone or shattered, the whole place sacked. Where the floor had been charred by the candle during her fight with the Innkeeper’s giant, the boards were splintered. Every door to the building’s interior was off its hinges, the rooms behind littered with debris. Dried blood marred the once-intricate rugs, more evidence of the princess’s previous visit.
“Is this theaftermathyou mentioned?” Taillefer whispered. “If so, I believe you undersold what happened here.”
“The guard was a giant. Most of the mess is not mine.”
“That may be but given this nasty array, I highly doubt this Innkeeper person survived.”
She nodded to the marble desk, in ruins on the floor in the back of the room. “In theory, but also last I saw him he was pinned under that slab of marble.”
“Perhaps that is why I feel as if we’re being watched.”
