The Last Inn

by Rachel Gay

  “If I can keep them from being distracted by anything shiny, then it’s possible,” Miles said as he pulled the box off of his wrist and began fiddling with the dials. He looked up after a minute or so and saw that Kota and Erin were watching him, fascinated. “Yeah, this could take a while, and that’s just to calibrate the blasted thing. You two should probably go on back to the inn.”

  “I kind of want to watch,” Erin protested, but Miles spared a hand to shoo them away.

  Kota stopped at the top of the stairs to ask, “Think you and Arlo can get along?”

  “As long as the fire chicken doesn’t start something,” Miles said, before a squawk came from up in the rafters. “Oh, like you weren’t thinking about it.”

  Arlo turned around and put a wing over his head, but a low, grumbling noise continued to come from his corner of the rafters.

  Miles waved as they went down the stairs and turned his attention back to the combox, which started beeping and giving a low whine. Kota and Erin had barely reached the ground floor when they heard the vampire shout, “Busy? How can you possibly be too busy to answer?!”

  “Now I don’t feel so bad about leaving,” Erin admitted as Kota put out the torch. He grinned and they stepped out of the clock tower and blinked.

  Even though the sky was still overcast, their eyes still had to readjust after the gloom. As such, they did not notice the couple walking nearby on the green until they stopped and Eli Smith said, “What on earth were you two doing in there?”

  Entry 63: Volunteered

  Erin and Kota froze, and the young man fought the instinct to hide at the sound of the blacksmith’s voice.

  “Well?” Eli said, crossing his arms and staring down at them. Beside him, a woman with rolls of chestnut hair and bright eyes raised a hand to her mouth to hide what looked suspiciously like a smile.

  “We were...Um, taking a day off to look at the snow, and Kota was curious about the clock tower,” Erin answered, jabbing Kota in the side with her elbow.

  “Oh, yes, it’s very interesting,” Kota said, taking the cue and rubbing the bruise now forming on his ribs. “They built the town around it, right?”

  “No, actually the town came first,” answered the woman. “The river used to be the center of town, until it expanded away from the forest. So you’re Kota?”

  “Y-yes, I am.” Kota backed away as the woman stepped closer and looked him over. “So, you’re, uh...”

  “Erin’s mother,” she said and smiled. “Naomi. And have you been hiding out in the inn this whole time?”

  Kota could feel his face turning red, and was almost grateful when Eli distracted Naomi by saying, “Whatever you two were really doing, you should get back to the inn and send Art home before it gets dark. Yeah, I know where he’s at.”

  This last bit was in response to Erin’s surprise, and she said, “Sure, of course.”

  “Geld is asking everyone to stay indoors after dark now,” Naomi said. Her face fell and she glanced at Eli before adding, “There was another attack last night.”

  “Another one?” Erin said. “Wait, they don’t think it was the wolf, do they?”

  “Well, something attacked Darren as he was walking home last night.” The blacksmith shook his head. “Poor guy was cutting wood, didn’t realize the time before it was already dark. Patrol found him this morning, too wounded to walk and half-mad from fear.”

  Erin and Kota looked at each other, but both could see that the other had no idea what to make of it.

  “Has anyone told Terra?” Erin asked, and Kota nearly bit his lip in half when he heard the hunter reply, “Yes, they have.”

  Terra came striding across the faded grass with the mayor struggling to keep up. “Didn’t expect to see you two in town. Finally got bored with the inn?”

  “I wish,” Eli muttered.

  “Talking about the beast, eh?” Mayor Geld said, puffing a little from the slight exertion. “Terra and I just checked in on Darren, poor fool. Imagine, going into the forest alone!”

  “Well, someone’s got to do it,” Naomi said, and looped her arm around her husband’s. “Winter’s coming on, and the people need to keep warm somehow.”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Geld said hastily. “Since my tamer seems to have left, I suppose there’s only option left for dealing with the beast, eh?”

  Kota stared at the faded grass as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

  Terra caught Erin’s eye and shrugged. “I know the place where they found the woodcutter, so from there I should be able to track down the beast, easily.”

  The mayor clapped his hand on the hunter’s shoulder and said, “Attaboy.”

  “You’re going out alone?” Naomi asked, and her keen eyes took in the hunter much like they had with Kota.

  “Not like anyone else around here would go,” Eli answered for him. When Terra started to protest, he said, “You’ve asked around, haven’t you? The patrol, the apprentices, and what did they all say?”

  Terra coughed and decided to change the subject by latching on to Erin and Kota. “You two are ready to head back to the inn, right?”

  “Sure, I guess,” Erin said, but her mother stopped the hunter before he could leave.

  “You know it’s not a good idea to go after something that you know nothing about by yourself,” she said. “Geld, surely someone can be found.”

  The mayor looked about as happy as Terra to be put on the spot. “He is a professional, Naomi. You can see that for yourself.”

  Naomi turned on Kota and said, “What about you?”

  “What?” Kota froze when he saw that everyone was now looking at him. “I, uh, that might not be the best idea, I mean, I watch the inn at night, I can’t just go running off on Erin.”

  Eli looked at Erin. “You can’t handle the inn one night by yourself?”

  Erin’s face flushed red and she said, “Of course I can! Who do you think I am?”

  The blacksmith shrugged. “Okay then, so Kota can go with the hunter and they can keep each other out of trouble. Sounds settled to me.”

  “But–” Kota started, but the words failed when he realized he had no idea how to get out of the hunt without far too many questions being asked. He sighed and Terra smiled when he saw the young man was giving in.

  “Great. We’ll head back to the inn then and get ready. By tomorrow morning we’ll put a stop to these attacks.”

  Kota and Erin were not so sure that would be how this night turned out, and the walk back to the inn was mostly a one-sided conversation as Terra listed off everything he and Kota would need.

  After they returned, Terra pulled Kota to the side while Erin talked to her younger brother Art and said, “Don’t worry. Just follow my instructions, and I’ll handle everything. From the site of last night’s attack it shouldn’t take long to track down the beast. With any luck, we’ll be back before morning.”

  “I don’t have much luck,” Kota admitted and Terra laughed.

  They left within the hour, Terra with his bow and arrow and Kota bearing a pack with the few extra supplies the hunter thought they might possibly need. They talked little as they went around the border of the forest until they found the old, weed-patched footpath that the woodcutter had taken the night before. It wound on through the forest, but never went fully in. At all times they could see the bare fields beyond the thin line of trees. Kota thought of how Erin had whispered to him, when Terra wasn’t looking, “If all else fails, give him the slip” and he smiled. That, at least, he thought he could handle.

  Terra stopped and bent down to look at the ground, brushing aside the little patches of snow to reveal the red layer underneath, stained by the blood on the ground. “Well, I think we’re getting close.”

  “This cold, the ground will be too hard to hold much of a mark,” Kota said, and pulled his jacket a little closer. It had been the biggest one he could find in the attic, but he was starting to see why someone had left it behind.
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br />   “Yeah, that’s right,” Terra said, and Kota tried to ignore the surprise in the hunter’s voice. “But the beast did manage to leave a trail.”

  He pointed off the path to the series of broken tree limbs and trampled bushes that, hidden as they might have been by the remaining snow, still marked the way into the path of the beast.

  Entry 64: The Beast of the Forest

  The woods were full of little noises, from the creaking of trees to the drip, drip, dripping of melting snow, as well as the sudden, quick noises of small animals moving just out of sight, startled by the passing of the two young men. Terra walked in front, his eyes on the trail of devastation left by whatever beast had attacked the woodcutter, while Kota trailed behind, gazing up and around at the tall, dark trees and the patches of sky between the bare, reaching branches.

  The gray sky became night, and a few stars managed to appear among the masses of clouds drifting overhead, but still they followed the trail. It was not hard to follow, and the stars provided enough light that Terra insisted on waiting to bring out a light until they were tripping over rocks and roots and Kota nearly walked into a tree.

  “Fine, there should be one in the pack,” Terra said, making Kota turn around so that he could open the one on his back. After some rummaging around, he passed Kota something and then turned on a tube that, after some adjusting, shot out a dim, greenish light. “Mage device. At this setting it shouldn’t affect our night vision too bad if we need to turn it off.”

  “A knife?” Kota asked, looking at the thin blade Terra had given him.

  “Just in case.” Terra closed the pack and slapped Kota on the back. “Erin would kill me if I let anything happen to you, right?”

  Kota did not know how to answer that, so he silently turned the blade over a few times before sticking it in his belt. He knew he would never use it, but figured it would make Terra feel better knowing he had it.

  “What do you think attacked the woodcutter?” Terra asked as they continued walking.

  “You don’t think it was the wolf?”

  “Does this really look like a wolf’s doing?” Terra pointed at the wide trail. “Even if there was more than one, I doubt they would run this close together for so long. This was one creature, that clearly isn’t trying to stay hidden.”

  “Or is too scared to care about anything following it.”

  Terra looked at Kota again, who rubbed the back of his head and looked away. The hunter waved the light over the ground and said, “It attacked someone.”

  “But didn’t kill him,” Kota said without thinking and flinched.

  Terra froze, and Kota thought that he was thinking of a response to that, but when the hunter spoke he said, “Do you hear that?”

  Kota strained his ears, and just barely made out the crackling of twigs and a rough, heavy breathing. He nodded at Terra, and the hunter moved closer so that he could whisper, “Okay, I’m going to go ahead and get a look at this thing, and, no offense, but you’re going to get in that tree there and wait for me. Got it?”

  Kota looked at the tree and back at Terra to see if he was serious. When the hunter failed to crack a smile, Kota shrugged and grabbed the lowest branch of the tree before swinging himself up with hardly a noise.

  Terra nodded and tossed the light up to Kota before drawing an arrow to his bow and continuing on, his eyes searching this way and that. Kota leaned as far as he could and watched until Terra disappeared out of sight before sitting back against the trunk with a sigh. He supposed it was a good sign that the hunter thought so little of him, but it did little to soothe him as he shivered and pulled the jacket up to his ears to block out the sharp wind tugging at the tree.

  Kota tilted his head, listening hard to hear the ragged breaths over the wind, but after a minute or so he was sure that it was getting closer every second. Even worse, it now seemed to be coming from the wrong direction. He tried to tell himself that it was just a trick of the wind, but he could not blame the wind for the silver silhouette that crashed through the brush underneath the tree.

  “Oh, God,” Kota murmured. He shifted his weight and watched the beast stagger over its own trail, noting the dark line over its long, arched neck.

  Terra called from up ahead, his exact words drowned out by the noise below. Kota supposed he must have found where the trail circled around, but all of his attention was on the creature, which turned its head at the noise and pawed the ground with one of its bright, shining hooves.

  Kota shouted at the same moment that the hunter came into sight, but the unicorn lowered its head and charged, ignoring the distraction. An arrow hit the trunk of the tree just as Kota swung himself to the ground, but he saw Terra hit the ground and roll out of the way of the trampling hooves.

  The unicorn turned without slowing in its step, and Kota shouted and waved his arms until it went for him instead of the prone figure on the ground. He swallowed and waited until the last possible second before dodging and running alongside the unicorn, an easy task as the beast was flagging now, its breath coming in increasingly harsher gasps.

  On the other side of the clearing, Terra sat up and saw Kota pull his knife out of his belt and grab something on the unicorn’s neck without slowing his step. The beast ran on, dragging the young man in its wake as it tossed its head and tried to gore him with its long, pointed horn or throw him to the ground.

  Terra glanced at his broken bow, swore, and pulled an arrow out of his quiver as he ran to Kota’s aid. By the time he got there, the young man fell away and hit the ground without moving. The unicorn continued on for a few more steps before stopping and turning to look back at them. While its chest heaved, the ragged, hoarse breathing had stopped, and the eyes had lost the mad, panicked look from just before it tried to kill him.

  When it failed to charge again, Terra dropped to one knee beside Kota, the arrow still ready as a last ditch weapon. “Kota?”

  “Sorry,” Kota murmured. He opened his raw and bleeding hands to reveal Terra’s knife and a length of rusted barb wire. “I think I ruined your knife.”

  “You....That was on it?”

  Kota pointed at his neck, and now that Terra looked he could see the red line around the unicorn’s neck, in profile now as it slowly walked past them, one eye trained on the pair until it passed and continued on, deeper into the forest.

  “Pain, couldn’t breathe,” Kota said, in between his own gasps, and Terra nodded. They both could imagine the unicorn’s attempts to rid itself of the wire, only to drive it further in.

  “And scared animals lash out,” Terra finished for him, and Kota sighed. Upon closer inspection, he found that Kota had actually passed out. “Here we go, give me your pack.”

  He pulled the pack off of Kota and, after digging some strips of cloth out, put it on his own back, adjusting the quiver so that he could carry both. He tied the cloth around Kota’s hands to stop the bleeding and heaved the young man onto the shoulder opposite the quiver with a grunt.

  “Guess I owe you for saving my life,” he muttered, and knew he would keep reminding himself of that on the long walk back to the inn. He looked up and saw that the clouds had cleared. With the sun due to come up any time now, at least it would be a beautiful day.

  Entry 65: Dawn

  Erin leapt up when she heard the back door of the inn crash open and ran into the kitchen. She stopped short at the sight of Miles, leaning against the counter and looking over his shoulder at the sky out the window, which was changing colors as the sun began to rise.

  “You don’t have to look that disappointed,” he said once he saw the expression on her face. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure there will come a day when I can’t outrace the sun.”

  “No, it’s not that!”

  “Oh, good,” Miles said, cracking a smile that faded when he saw Erin was serious. “What has Kota done now?”

  “We ran into my parents and the mayor outside of the clock tower,” Erin said, and explained about the beas
t that had attacked one of the townspeople while Miles put a hand to his face and tried not to interrupt.

  When she got to the part about how they talked Kota into going hunting with Terra, he broke down and said, “But he said no, right?”

  “He tried, but–”

  “But Kota doesn’t handle pressure very well,” Miles finished and Erin nodded. “So he’s out there, right now, with a hunter who thinks the wolf is the one attacking everyone.”

  They both looked out the window this time, and Miles flinched at the sight of dawn. He moved away from the window, even though the sun was rising on the other side of the inn.

  “Kota’s probably already given him the slip,” Erin said with more conviction than she felt. “Running away is what he does, he’s an expert at it. He’ll probably hide out until the coast is clear and sneak back to the inn with some story about how they got separated or something.”

  “He’s going to ‘give the slip’ to a hunter who is known across the empire for his ability to track anything and everything?”

  Erin did not know how to answer that, but she was saved from figuring that out when they heard three loud thuds, like someone kicking at the front door. “Kota!”

  She ran through the inn with Miles following more cautiously, his eyes on the windows, and threw open the front door only to recoil with horror.

  “Little help here?” Terra grunted under the weight of the wolf on his shoulder combined with the pack, and he staggered into the inn and dropped it onto one of the chairs, where, out of the early morning sunlight, it changed back into Kota.

  The hunter had no time to say anything else before Miles slammed him up against the nearest wall, his face less than an inch away from the vampire’s.

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Terra said, as much as he could with the pressure on his neck. To Erin’s surprise, he stared back into the snarling vampire’s face without the slightest hint of fear. “Although it’s pure luck I didn’t shoot him before now, because not one of you thought to tell me that wolf was human.”

  “Luck?” Miles tightened his grip and the hunter gave a gurgling sound. “You knew there was something with the wolf.”

  “Madame Elzwig just told me to keep an eye on it,” he said, wheezing. “To shoot if it attacked, but that was it, I swear.”