Calisa flipped pages, noting the records—name, date, and guest room. Sometimes there would be additional notes, such asAllergic to beets.OrLikes mountain view. OrNo apples.
Most notes were cryptic, but once in a while, the innkeeper would stop the lists and instead write out more of a paragraph—a kind of journal entry.
Opened portal to the Night Market of Elyacor.
Good prices from Rin, third stall in the fifth row.
Ate a spiced meat pocket. Moon was gibbous.
It wasn’t much of a diary, but in it were snippets ofadventures into other realms, mostly centered around either guest recruitment or shopping expeditions. This was where all the food and supplies for the inn came from, especially to please the varied palates of the guests.
Calisa heard a scratching at the door. She instantly tucked the logbook under the quilt before opening the door.
Steve waddled inside.
In the fireplace, the firebird flared brighter, and Steve chirped at the bird. He trotted across the room and lay down in front of the hearth. The firebird shifted its fire closer to the grate so it could warm the lizard.
Smiling at them both, Calisa retrieved the book and returned to her chair.
There were hundreds of entries for guests, each with dates scrawled next to them, as well as how much they paid—first in their original currency and then converted into dollars. A few paid with magical items. She found the entry for the enchanted teapot. It came from a realm called Versinar. Or was that the name of the guest? Every page sparked its own set of questions. New realms. New people. New creatures. She skipped ahead to near the end.
She wasn’t certain what she was looking for.
Perhaps a nice, clear note detailing where Auntie Zee had gone last night and what to do if she didn’t return as scheduled?
Or a record of where Jack’s father went?
Or a clue as to when and why it all went wrong?
But there was nothing like that. Just a steady decline of guests. Maybe that’s all it was: over time, Auntie Zee had slowed, andshe’d lost the ability to care for the inn by herself. No grand event or traumatic moment. Just time, which Calisa supposed was traumatic enough.
“Why didn’t she ask for help sooner?” she asked out loud.
In the fireplace, the bird halted its dance over the logs. It cocked its fiery head. Its eyes were embers sunken into the shifting flames.
“Do you know?” she asked it. “Why does she keep pushing people away?”
The firebird only stared at her.
“Steve, what do you think?” Calisa asked.
Steve let out a snort. He was asleep again.
She kept reading. In addition to every name of every guest and every realm they came from, there were records of where Auntie Zee purchased her supplies and how much she paid. Of all of them, one place kept cropping up more than any other:
The Night Market.
What’s the Night Market?
And more important:How do I get there?
Chapter Seventeen
Intent on finding Jack, Calisa hurried downstairs. She paused by the smoky mirror in the lobby. “Is that where she went? The Night Market? Do you know?”
Who?
“Auntie Zee.”
