Deepwoods (Book 1)

by Honor Raconteur

  Siobhan entered the room and took a glance around. Two narrow beds, one on either wall, with enough space for a pallet on the floor between them, a fireplace that sat cold but with logs ready to be lit, and a single washstand holding up the corner. Large enough for the women, certainly, but she didn’t know how Tran or Wolf could begin to fit on those beds. They normally had the larger rooms when they stayed here. She’d never seen Gramms so full before. The storm’s doing, perhaps?

  Choosing the bed closest to the door, she set her pack down and started rummaging through it for a set of clothes that would be comfortable enough to sleep in but decent enough to wear downstairs. Sylvie came in after her, setting her pack on the opposite bed and doing the same search. Siobhan could hear the men’s low voices next door as they talked amongst themselves.

  Denney came up a few minutes later and without ceremony dropped her pack onto Siobhan’s bed. “Phew! Got that sorted.”

  “The dogs?” Siobhan asked. In her preoccupation to get warm, she’d temporarily forgotten about them.

  “Gramms had some of the scraps brought in from the kitchen and made them a place near the fire. Said they’d be fine there while we had our bath and he’d keep an eye on ‘em.” Denney smiled as she spoke, digging out a loose sweater and matching pants. “I do love the man.”

  Actually, Gramms’ easy-going nature about having dogs stay in his inn was one of the reasons why they always chose the place. His surly attitude aside, the man knew how to be a good host.

  “Good enough. Bath,” Siobhan said firmly. Clothes tucked under her arm, she headed back downstairs.

  The baths had sensibly been put in the same hallway as the kitchen so that hot water could be easily carried over. Siobhan’s stomach started rumbling all over again as she passed the wealth of delightful smells coming from that room. She ordered it firmly to be quiet as she kept right on going into the women’s bathing room.

  She took in the sight of the six wooden barrels and their steaming water with a smile of delight. Little benches sat next to each barrel, holding clean towels neatly folded and bars of soap. She went directly to the nearest one, setting her clothes under the towel, and quickly stripped of her shirt, vest, coat, riding skirt and boots. Someone paused long enough to draw the curtain in front of the door closed (thereby preventing any accidental shows for whoever might be in the hallway). Sylvie and Denney went to the barrels near her, and they didn’t pass a word among themselves until they’d settled into the hot water with a long sigh of pleasure.

  Knees folded up slightly, Siobhan laid her head against the side of the tub and let the water erase every trace of cold from her skin. Ahhhh. Paradise. Her hair still felt frozen against her head, so she unbraided it and let the long length of it flow into the tub. Mmmm, better.

  Companionable silence descended for a long moment as they soaked and enjoyed. But silence could never last long with Sylvie in the room and eventually the woman broke it. “So…what do you two think of Master Markl Hammon?”

  “I’ve never seen such an easy-going, amiable man,” Denney answered promptly, lifting her head so that she could look at everyone properly. “He’s been very helpful ever since he joined.”

  “And he’s honestly interested in everything,” Siobhan added thoughtfully. “And I do mean everything. He told me he came to us because he wants to study the different cultures of this world, find a way to make trading easier. But his curiosity certainly isn’t limited to that.”

  “Truly.” Denney shook her head, sending her honey-colored hair swirling on the water’s surface. “You should have seen Grae’s face when he actually took notes on pathfinding. I don’t think I’ve ever seen our gloomy man openly beam like that before.”

  A thought occurred and Siobhan asked Sylvie, “Did you happen to ask around? Find out if he really is related to the Silver Moon Hammons?”

  “Oh, he is,” Sylvie answered with an odd smile on her face. “But at the same time, he’s not.”

  Siobhan set herself to be patient as she weaseled the full tale out of the woman. Sylvie didn’t enjoy anything more than a good secret to share. “Do expound upon this matter, Mistress Storyteller.”

  Sylvie giggled slightly and sat forward, dark eyes shining with enjoyment. “I asked Charlin, you know, Darrens’ head assistant, and he told me the full story. Apparently, over two decades ago Hammon Senior had a bit of a drunken affair with his first wife’s sister—”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened to the point they were in danger of falling out of her head. “You’re joking!”

  “No, I’m not,” Sylvie assured her. “It caused quite the scandal at the time. At any rate, it caused one Master Markl Hammon to be born into the world. At first, no one was quite sure what to do with him. The sister certainly didn’t want him, as he endangered any future marriage prospects she had. So Hammon Senior took him in as a son, which enraged his wife and made her leave altogether. But, as it turns out, the split became a blessing. Hammon Senior met and married a woman with a much better character about a year later, and she gave him a whole passel of children and raised Markl as if he were her own son.”

  “The mother and the sisters he mentioned earlier,” Denney said thoughtfully. “True, he did sound genuinely fond of them.”

  “With good reason, it sounds like,” Siobhan added just as thoughtfully. So a mother that rejected him, a step-mother that wouldn’t claim him, but a third mother that married in and loved him unconditionally. Talk about a rocky start in life. But he seemed to have come through it just fine.

  “So while he is the firstborn son,” Sylvie continued, “he’s not a legitimate heir and so technically shouldn’t inherit anything. Rumor has it that his father actually gave him the choice of whether he wanted to inherit the guild or not and Markl chose not to. But he’s obviously still got a lot of family support.”

  “And funding for his chosen path,” Siobhan mused, sinking a little further into the tub. It also rather explained why he so readily joined their guild to pursue that path. Loved or not, he didn’t choose to stay in the family business. He might very well be looking for a place of his own, somewhere that he felt he truly needed to be.

  “He’s a good man.” Sylvie said this with uncharacteristic sobriety, expression soft. “His mother did well raising him. I was teasing him earlier, getting on his lap like that, but I was also testing him. I wanted to see what he would do. He kept his hands properly on my knees and didn’t do a thing to make me uncomfortable. Do you know how many men I’ve met that would have taken advantage of that position somehow?”

  Far too many. One of the tests that Siobhan put men through when applying to the guild was how they reacted to Sylvie. Most responded with lecherous intentions, to one degree or another. Tran, Fei and Conli hadn’t, hence why she’d let them into the guild. She had no use of men that treated women disrespectfully.

  “I knew he wouldn’t.”

  Sylvie quirked an eyebrow at her, slightly surprised. “How?”

  “When you brought him to me, he was more interested in looking around the Hall than at you,” Siobhan explained with a slight smile. “Of course he noticed you, but a blind man would do that. He didn’t do anything more than give you a look of appreciation. That’s when I knew he was trustworthy.”

  Denney shook her head wryly. “I knew he had to be a good man because the dogs liked him. But you know, Siobhan, the other reason why we like you to be the guildmaster is because you have an uncanny knack for judging people.”

  Siobhan snorted. “No, I’m pretty sure it’s because I let you lot get by with anything short of murder.”

  “And that,” Sylvie agreed serenely. “Well now, what else shall we discuss while the men are out of earshot?”

  True, opportunities like this were rare, especially while they were on the road. “Actually, I need to ask something else about Hammon. Do either of you know if he’s skilled in fighting?” To not be a capable fighter in this world was strange, but so was the idea of being a
‘scholar’ so she felt like she had to ask.

  “I would assume he is,” Denney volunteered. “I saw him pack a sword spear this morning.”

  Oh good. Siobhan let that weight roll over her shoulders. She’d forgotten to ask that pertinent little detail before shipping out this morning. But it seemed an odd choice of weapon for him. A sword spear was part blade, part staff and would stand taller than the man himself. Tran had trained in it at one point and told her it took considerable skill to be able to wield it without leaving yourself open. And why would a Robargen’s choice of sword be a Teheranian weapon?

  Siobhan made a mental note to ask Hammon that later, if the opportunity ever arose, and went to the next topic she wanted to discuss. “Is Fei sick? I’ve never seen him sleep this much.”

  “Bit of a hangover,” Denney explained. “He came in to see Conli about it late last night. The sweet rolls apparently had enough sugar in them to make him a bit tipsy.”

  She’d barely detected the sugar at all. Siobhan rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Really? He’s that sensitive?”

  “Conli says it’s getting worse as he grows older.” Denney made a face. “Poor man. He’s going to have to be careful about what he eats.”

  Oh joy of wonders.

  A soft knock came at the door and Beirly’s voice floated through the wood. “I’m looking for three beautiful women that belong to the Deepwoods Guild. Have any of you lovely water nymphs seen them?”

  All three women laughed. “We’re here!” Siobhan assured him. “Is dinner ready?”

  “And waiting,” Beirly answered, tone rich with unvoiced laughter.

  “Then we’ll be out shortly.”

  Siobhan, a habitually early riser, came awake naturally as the sun started to rise over the horizon. The bed might have been on the narrow and small side, but she’d gotten a good night’s rest regardless. She sat up and raised her arms over her head, stretching and getting the blood flowing again. From downstairs wafted the smell of baking bread, sizzling meat, and something spicy cooking. Mmm. That smelled like good motivation to get moving.

  As she climbed out of bed, both dogs came alert and stared up at her, tails thumping softly against the wooden floor. They had started out on top of Denney’s bed (and because of the narrow size of the bed, on top of Denny as well) but had at some point in the night moved to lie right in front of the door instead. Well, it had likely gotten too hot in here for them to stay on the bed. What with the heat rising up from the kitchen under them, and the fireplace in here blazing merrily along, it’d nearly gotten too hot for Siobhan at one point. Not that she had a mind to complain about that, not after the day she’d had yesterday.

  She rose and dressed in something warm, pulling on her boots and trying not to fall all over Sylvie, who had chosen to sleep in between the beds. The dogs didn’t help as they got up and kept circling her as she moved, nosing at her legs in a clear signal that they wanted to go out when she did.

  “Alright, alright,” she muttered softly. “Wait a minute, will you?”

  Denney lifted her head a scant inch off the pillow and pried open one eye. “Uhhh?”

  “I’ll take care of ‘em,” she told the still mostly asleep woman.

  Reassured, Denney’s head dropped back down and she went right back into a deep sleep.

  Opening the door, Siobhan let the dogs go out first before following after, shutting the door firmly behind her. She didn’t get more than a step before Fei came out of the room two doors down. He took in the sight with nothing more than a good morning grunt.

  “Morning,” she greeted wryly. She, Fei and Wolf were the only three in the guild that even tried to wake up early. But while Fei might be moving, it didn’t mean he had properly woken up yet, and she didn’t try to really talk to him until he’d downed either food or tea.

  They all clumped down the stairs and toward the front door. Siobhan stepped outside with the dogs, fully expecting Fei to stay indoors and simply keep an eye on things from the window. But he surprised her by coming out as well, stopping on the threshold. Her eyes turned up to the sky but it looked just as angry and grey as it had the day before and even on this narrow street, snowflakes fell with regular consistency. The storm had not yet passed. She blew out an irritable breath. Will ye or nill ye, they were stuck here for another day it seemed.

  She kept only the most casual of eyes on the dogs—they knew better than to get out of her line of sight—and stood so she could look sideways at Fei. “Are you awake or not?”

  “Tran-ren snores.”

  In other words, awake. Right. “So you ended up with Tran and…?”

  “Hammon-jia.”

  Oh? So that’s where Hammon ended up. “He strikes me as a good man.”

  “Yes, from what I’ve seen,” Fei agreed. After a long pause, he added thoughtfully, “He’s certainly intelligent. He was respectful in asking me questions last night, but also very curious. Why did you let him into the guild?”

  “He agreed to do the books,” she responded cheerfully.

  Fei gave her quite the look, as if he knew she was only half-kidding. “Siobhan-ajie. Why did you let him in?”

  He wanted a serious answer? She took a half step to face him more fully and answered honestly, “For the same reason I let you into the guild, and Conli, and Tran. Because you all had a look in your eyes as if you were trying to find a proper place to belong, a place that would be home for you unconditionally. He gave me multiple reasons for coming to Deepwoods, and I’m not sure if even he realizes why he’s really here, but I think that if we give him time he’ll find what he’s searching for. Besides, he’s one of the few men that I can trust around Sylvie.”

  Fei inclined his head in agreement.

  “You’ve seen that sword spear he carries around?” She waited for Fei’s nod to continue, “Find a way to subtly test his skills with that, will you? I need to know how strong he is. I’d rather not put him in more danger than he can handle.”

  Fei seemed to find this funny, as his eyes crinkled up. “You don’t worry about that with Tran-ren or Wolf-ren.”

  “That’s because they think danger is fun,” she bemoaned. “If I tried to pull them out of trouble, they’d give me a look like a pair of dogs being denied a treat. You’re the first sensible fighter I’ve ever seen.”

  He shrugged.

  The dogs came back to her at that point and nosed at her hands. She patted them and gave them a good scratch behind the ears, and almost got knocked down by wagging tails of happiness. With a wave, she ushered them all back inside, shivering a little as she went. When they came through the door, she found Wolf already seated at one of the tables and three plates of steaming food set out. Oh good, he’d ordered for all of them.

  As they took a seat, he whistled for the dogs, pointing them toward bowls of scraps and water that sat next to his chair. As they happily munched, the humans dug into their own food with happy smiles.

  Only with her plate clean did Siobhan sit back and asked Wolf, “Is this cold typical of Wynngaard? The only time we’ve been through here is during high summer or late spring.”

  “And we came this way during those times for good reason,” he informed her dryly. “It’s only going to get colder.”

  She made a face. Not the answer she wanted.

  “That said, this snowstorm is unusual for this time of the year. We should have another month or two before it gets this cold. I think it’s just an unseasonal storm that’s sweeping through.” This would have sounded vastly reassuring if he hadn’t added, “Or at least, I hope it is. Otherwise we’re in for a cold winter up here.”

  “It didn’t seem as cold to me this morning,” Fei piped up, lingering at the table with a hot cup of tea warming his hands. “We are out of the wind here, though.”

  “Let’s check with the tower guards, see if they noticed any other storms coming our direction,” Wolf suggested. “From their lookouts, they’ve got quite the view.”

  No
t a bad thought. Siobhan nodded in agreement. “We can’t travel a full eight hours again in a snowstorm. Not without risking fingers and toes. But if there’s another storm coming, I’d like to get ahead of it and be in Quigg when it hits. We’re going to need to spend a few days there, likely, to find if Lirah Darrens even made it over the bridges. I want that confirmed before we travel any further north.”

  Wolf scooted back from the table in a rough scraping sound and stood. “I’ll go ask the guards, then.”

  “Take hot tea or hot bread with you,” she suggested. “Your questions will go over better.”

  He thought about that for a moment, shrugged agreement, and reversed directions to the kitchen instead.

  “Do you always feed people?” Hammon asked from behind her.

  Siobhan started in her chair, twisting about so she could see the scholar. He had moved so quietly that she hadn’t the faintest notion he’d joined them downstairs. He looked a little mussed around the edges, but he was fully dressed and obviously ready to start the day.

  “I do,” she answered him after that startled heartbeat, waving him to join them at the table. “Well, among my people, we believe in feeding people for taking the time and trouble to help us, no matter how minor it might be. Offering food—especially to men and children—is an easy way to make friends, too.”

  Hammon seemed to find this amusing somehow. “So that’s why you offered me strawberries and chocolate.”

  “That’s why,” she agreed. “How did you sleep, Hammon?”

  “Surprisingly well.”

  Her brows quirked at this. “You must be a deep sleeper, then. Fei tells me that Tran snores.”

  His smile broadened so that it became mischievous. “I put wax in my ears.”

  Siobhan threw her head back and laughed aloud. “What, and you didn’t share?”

  Fei gave the blond an unamused look. “Next time, you will.”

  Hammon held up both hands in a gesture of surrender and placation. “Next time, I promise. I’m surprised to see we’re the only ones awake.”