by Rachel Gay
Kota bit his lip and said, “Quick, clean off the tables.”
“What?”
Kota piled up the dishes into a great stack and carried them to the kitchen without responding. After a minute, Erin thought she caught on and helped to carry the rest to the kitchen sink. While Kota turned on the water to soak the dishes, she ran back and wiped down the tables and reset the chairs. A sudden thought had her run to the desk and pull out some papers someone had drawn some doodles on, probably Miles, and spread them out over the table.
When, a few minutes later, the front door shot open and Eli Smith thundered in, he saw Erin sitting at one of the tables idly drawing as Kota looked in, wiping his wet hands off with a dishcloth.
“Can we help you, sir?” Kota asked, sounding so calm that it surprised Erin. She knew he must be trembling on the inside, even more than she was.
Relief crossed Eli’s face before his usual anger returned. “Where have you been all morning?”
Kota and Erin exchanged glances and she said, “Here, of course. Why, what’s wrong?”
“Half the town’s been yelling that you were attacked by a monster! A giant wolf’s been running all over town, they say,” said a voice behind Eli. The smith stepped aside, revealing the mayor standing behind him and gasping for breath. “We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Like I said, I’ve been here all morning,” Erin lied without batting an eye. “I was just telling Kota I was thinking about going into town today, since it’s so quiet here.”
Kota nodded, using the dishcloth to hide his shaking hands. “You said something about a giant wolf?”
“Yeah,” Eli said, turning his stare on him. “Some weird stories they’re telling back in town. You heard anything about it?”
Kota and Erin both shook their heads, almost in unison, as Geld tugged at his collar and said, “Terrible stuff, some people have even got it in their heads that the beast is magic or something. Can’t tell you how many people have come to me talking about how it kept changing shape.”
“Like that thing they found over by the farm?” Kota asked.
“Yes, I suppose so,” the mayor said, but he did not look too pleased at that idea. “Bad business. They said the mercenary with that trader caravan killed the thing, right in front of all of them. Word like that gets around.”
Eli frowned and said, “If there’s another of those things around, something needs to be done. This one was running around in town, not hiding out in a barn.”
Kota spotted Eli’s eyes flicker over toward Erin as he spoke. Erin did not seem to notice, as she glanced at Kota before she said, “Maybe it was just a wolf. If these are the same people talking about me being attacked by it, then I bet they didn’t even see the thing. Remember that whole thing when everyone thought there was a monster under the bridge?”
Kota shifted uneasily at this, but luckily no one noticed.
Geld sighed and said, “All the same, we’re setting up a patrol around town. Perhaps it would be better if you two did not stay here. It’s so far from town and the farms, and if something were to happen—”
“Hey, that wasn’t the deal!” Erin jumped up so fast that her chair fell back behind her. “You said we could keep the inn open, and I’m not going back just because of some rumor. Kota’s here, and I don’t think any monster will be coming in the front door.”
“Yes, the handles are hard to use without hands,” Kota said quietly, and Erin glared at him.
Geld hesitated and looked up at Eli, whose perpetual frown did little to show what he thought.
“I suppose, as long as the beast doesn’t show up again,” he said slowly, and when the smith failed to interrupt him he continued, “You two may stay here, as agreed.”
Eli spoke, and the mayor tensed. “Yes, and in the original agreement there was something about rent. How are you going to pay that, exactly?”
Erin thought of the empty rooms upstairs, and the little money they had left from the wayfarers. “We’ll handle it. When is the first payment due?”
“End of the month,” Geld said promptly, not needing to consult on that one.
Erin nodded and said, “Got it,” with enough conviction that Eli’s eyebrows went up. “As long as you don’t try to run us out over this wolf thing.”
Geld tugged at his chin and muttered, “Yes, something will have to be done about that,” but no one paid him much attention as a familiar carriage rolled up in front of the inn. Before its wheels stopped turning, the footman jumped down to open the carriage door for Madame Elzwig.
Entry 32: A Note
Mayor Geld paled at the sight of the Judge’s seal but swiftly put a smile on his face and strolled out to the carriage with his arms spread in welcome. “Madame Elzwig! It is a pleasure to see you here. Not on business, I hope?”
Madame Elzwig stepped down with the assistance of her servant and looked down at Geld, who halted about halfway when he saw the expression on her face.
“Should I be?” she asked. “I found half the town in an uproar over some monster, waving around kitchen implements and cavorting with wayfarers. Care to explain, Geld?”
“Wayfarers?” Eli Smith asked, as beside him the mayor murmured a stream of “Oh, dears” before managing to say, “I'm terribly sorry, we just had a little false alarm this morning. Surely nothing an esteemed Judge such as yourself should be concerned with.”
“Oh, so you caught it, then?” Madame Elzwig said. She motioned to her servant, who passed the two men on the steps and went to Erin looking out around the door frame.
While the mayor stammered for a response, the servant said, “Madame wished for me to apologize about the early arrival. Are there still rooms available for the night?”
“Y-yes,” Erin said. Even counting the wayfarers' rooms they still had space, although she did not think they would be claiming them tonight.
“And is there somewhere we can put the horses? I'm afraid they have had an exciting morning, and the driver...”
He paused to look over his shoulder, and Erin saw the carriage driver patting the horses and murmuring to them.
“We have a stable around back,” Erin said. “But I don't think we have anything to feed them.”
“Ah, we’ll take care of that,” the servant said. He was back down the steps in an instant to speak to Elzwig and the driver.
Erin looked back inside the inn, but Kota appeared to have used the distraction to slip away, probably back into the kitchen or up to his room. She sighed, realizing he wouldn’t have been much help anyways, and went out to help the servant unload the carriage. There must have been at least three cases for Madame Elzwig alone, heavy, leather things that dragged Erin’s arms to the ground.
She spotted her dad watching and said, “Kota's running around, getting the rooms ready.”
“Of course he is,” Eli said, frowning. He turned his attention back to the mayor, who was trying to explain to the Judge what had happened this morning when he really had no clue himself. He was baffled enough to find out that she had seen the wolf.
“Well, what does it matter if it had a strange mark?” Geld said as Erin passed by a second time. “It's still just a wolf, right?”
“Don't you think I know a curse when I see it?” Madame Elzwig said in a loud, booming tone. “You need to nip this in the bud, Geld.”
Erin nearly dropped the luggage on her foot, very aware of the servant waiting behind her as she fumbled to get a better hold on the bag. When she couldn't stall any longer, Erin went up the stairs, puffing under the weight of the luggage but still finding enough breath to ask the servant, “Did you see the wolf too?”
“Just a glimpse,” he said, not even slightly out of breath. “Did you?”
“No, no, Kota and I have been here at the inn all day,” Erin lied. No reason to change their story now.
“I see. Is this the room?”
Erin had found the biggest room for Madame Elzwig, even though she knew the Judge wou
ld be used to better than the sparsely decorated room that smelled faintly of lemons. Being a corner room, it did have windows on two walls that looked out over the front yard of the inn and out toward the town, but the extra light did it few favors.
They left the Judge’s luggage there, and the servant went into the room next door to put his own things down. From what he had explained to Erin, the driver would be staying out in the stables for the night, but they would still be paying for his room and board. She didn't get it, but wasn't about to start asking questions.
Back outside, Madame Elzwig was waving Geld away. “Fine, fine, you don’t want my help. Just don’t say I never offered.”
“It’s not that we don’t value your help,” the mayor said, and waffled for a way to finish that sentence before coming up with, “I would just hate to waste your time.”
Madame Elzwig put a hand to her mouth to hide a yawn and said, “Well, if you do change your mind, I can at least give you the names of some specialists, but if you will excuse me I need to rest. We traveled all night to get here, you see.”
“Ah, of course,” Mayor Geld said. He spoke with Madame Elzwig all the way to the door, but she did not seem to be listening. Erin could see the red in her eyes and wondered why they did not just stay at Wichel.
Eli Smith stopped Erin and said, “Be careful around the Judge, okay? You and the boy. She has a lot of power and sway, and not just in the capital.”
“Yeah, I know, Dad,” Erin said. She could still hear the mayor trying not to put his foot in his mouth. “She’s been here before.”
“She has?” Eli’s head turned back toward the inn. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, and for a moment looked even more tired than Madame Elzwig. “Well, just be careful. Your mother was worried about you, with...with everything this morning.”
“Oh.” Erin couldn't think of anything else to say, even as she watched her dad and the mayor walk away. She just wished she could get her hands on the wayfarer that had spread that rumor.
After Madame Elzwig made her way to bed and the servant and the driver went to find some feed for the horses, Erin went around the inn and finally found Kota, asleep on his own bed.
She couldn't even think about sleep right now, after everything that had happened. Erin wandered back downstairs and noticed the doodles from the desk still sitting on the table. As she shuffled the papers together, she noticed among the stick figures and really bad attempts at drawing trees a familiar symbol. There, in black and white instead of the vibrant color of the original, was the same mark as the one on Kota’s face.
Erin paled, wondering if the Judge had noticed it. She started to ball up the page, but stopped and looked on both sides to see what else was there. On the back there was a stream of meaningless notes, all written in the same loose handwriting that varied in size, but one word in particular caught Erin's eye: Cure?
Entry 33: An Offer
Erin stared at the page, turning it over a few times and reading over the barely legible scrawls for anything else, but it all seemed to be nonsense. Still, the drawing of Kota’s mark, combined with that single word, made it impossible to ignore. She went and found the grocery list from yesterday in the trash, but Kota’s handwriting did not even slightly match the writing on the note.
She chewed on her lip until it occurred to her: Miles. Of course, the vampire must have done it. She imagined him sitting at the desk, procrastinating writing his report, and scrawling on this scrap piece of paper while he thought.
Cure? Well, Erin thought she knew what that referred to as she turned on the stove and used it to set the corner of the paper on fire before dropping it in the sink. As she watched the paper burn and then turned on the water to wash away the ashes, she wondered if there really was a way to cure Kota. Why did the witch send him here in the first place?
She turned the thought over all day, and by the time evening was coming on the only idea she could come up with was that the witch probably just wanted to get rid of Kota. That, and to go through the wayfarers’ rooms and get all of their stuff out. She piled up everything in the backyard, figuring that if they wanted it that bad they could come and get it themselves.
It was as Erin tossed the last of the bags onto the surprisingly small heap that she heard voices around the front of the inn. Thinking it was the wayfarers back again, Erin ran inside and through the inn to the front door, ready to lock it if need be as she looked around the door.
“Y’all open?” asked a burly man with a pack on his back nearly as big as him. Around him stood a couple of other people with backpacks, all of them with the look of people who had been walking for days, or weeks.
They certainly didn’t look like wayfarers, but all the same Erin warily answered, “Yes, we are. Are you looking for rooms?”
“Yeah, and food if yeh’ve got it,” the man answered. His stomach rumbled in unison and the others laughed and kidded him about it, but none of them sounded like wayfarers.
Erin opened the door all the way and told them the rate as they came in, stomping their feet on the welcome mat to get the dust off their boots and looking around.
“How far is the capital from this place?” asked another of the backpackers, whose face barely peeked out between a bushy beard and a mass of hair.
“I think most people make it in about two or three days, walking,” Erin said and the travelers broke out into grins and slapped each other on the shoulder.
“Not far at all!”
“Far enough,” Erin muttered to herself. She turned at the sound of footsteps on the stairs and saw Kota looking down over the railing, pushing his hair down to cover his mark. “Kota, we have some more guests. You feel up to cooking yet?”
“Er, sure,” Kota said. Aware of the travelers looking his way, the young man nearly ran down the stairs with his shoulders hunched almost to his ears and muttered something before darting into the kitchen.
“Not a big talker, eh?” said the burly man as he pulled off his backpack and started rooting around in it. “Come on, I’m not footing yehr bill.”
After they paid and went up to their rooms to clean up, Erin put the money away and looked at the hooks for the keys, most of which were bare. She was not looking forward to explaining to her dad why they would need new locks and keys, but she doubted the wayfarers were likely to return theirs.
“Hey, Kota?” she called, staring at the hooks. “You need any help in there?”
Kota leaned into the room and asked, “How many am I cooking for this time?”
“Um, seven, no, eight, including me and you,” Erin said. “Do we have enough food?”
Kota smiled. “I think we can make it work.”
By the time they had everything cooked, the travelers were sitting around one of the smaller tables in the common room and even Madame Elzwig had made an appearance, sitting at her own table with her servant at hand and watching the fire someone had started in the fireplace.
Erin put out the food for the guests herself and ate in the kitchen with Kota. While they didn’t say it, neither of them were eager to spend too long in the common room after last night, and Erin settled for just going to check on the guests occasionally.
“Oh, good, more shopping tomorrow,” Erin said, eyeing the empty bags and containers still sitting on the counter. “What are we going to do about breakfast?”
“I...think I have an idea for that,” Kota said, but would not go into any details. Erin found herself looking at him occasionally, the note still on her mind. Did he still think about finding a cure? He’d never said anything, but Erin had to admit that he never talked about anything unless she pried it out of him.
“I’ll take care of the dishes this time,” Erin offered and sighed when Kota just shrugged and took out the trash. Maybe she could get a decent conversation out of one of the travelers.
Erin distantly heard the front door open and shut, but she didn’t think anything about it until after she finished the dishes and realized sh
e was still alone in the kitchen.
“Kota?” She walked out into the common room and Madame Elzwig’s servant looked up from the game of cards he’d started with the other guests to say, “Madame requested his presence at her room, to deal with a maintenance issue I believe.”
“Oh,” Erin said, wondering what the problem was this time. She hoped it didn’t have anything to do with the plumbing as she went up the stairs and down the hall.
She stopped short outside the Judge’s room when she heard the woman’s imperious voice coming through the door.
“—wonderful meal. It’s not often you can find a decent cook out in a place like this, and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like those grilled mushrooms.”
“They grow wild around here,” Kota said. Two sharp bangs followed by a scraping noise nearly made Erin jump. “There, I think that should do it for the window.”
“Fantastic.” The creak of wood signaled that the Judge had taken a seat. “Tell me...Kota, right? How long have you been working here at the inn?”
“A month or two, maybe?” A pause followed and Erin could almost imagine Kota shrugging and smiling. “I’m not very good at keeping track of that sort of thing. If there’s nothing else—”
“I want to hire you, boy,” Madame Elzwig said, and Erin had to cover her mouth to stop a sound from coming out. “As a chef, mainly, but I am willing to pay extra for additional services.”
When Kota was slow to answer, she added, “How much are you paid, here? I can assure you that I can more than match it.” Madame Elzwig named a price that made Erin’s jaw drop, and added, “As well as room and board at my residence in the capital. I must admit that there are also many perks working for a Judge.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Kota admitted. “But I would rather stay here.”
By the sound of it, Madame Elzwig drummed her fingers on the desk for a tense minute before saying, “Well, my offer will stand. Take a night and think it over.”
Erin heard Kota walking toward the door and darted down the hall before he could see that she had been eavesdropping. She waited on the stairs where the guests downstairs could not see her and pretended to walk up just as Kota came out of Madame Elzwig’s room.
