Deepwoods (Book 1)

by Honor Raconteur

  Tran led them confidently up another two narrow streets and onto a wider, more appealing road that emptied into a pretty courtyard. There lay the North Bay Inn, its doors facing the courtyard, looking different than the last time she’d laid eyes on it. Strange, her memory said that the three-story building was brown with dark green trimming. But it now looked creamy white with blue trimming. Had someone painted the place? It didn’t look different in any other way. She took a peek inside the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the front of the building as she rode toward the door. The inside seemed to be different too, as if the floors had been replaced with a lighter wood and the walls inside had been given a fresh coat of paint. Well now. Business must be good to afford a renovation like this.

  “Sylvie,” Siobhan called back.

  “On it,” the other woman assured her, already leaping lightly from the wagon. Straightening her hair, she walked confidently through the main door and out of sight. A few moments passed in silence before she came back out again, a smug smile on her face. “Five rooms left, most of them with larger beds, which includes breakfast, dinner, and baths. I got him to cut the price down by saying we only have the cart and two dogs.”

  Then they’d need to return the horses tonight. Well, likely best to do that anyway. They’d served their purpose here and the group didn’t need them anymore. “How much?”

  “Twenty-seven kors.”

  “Oooh, not bad.” Siobhan gave her an approving nod. She turned her eyes up to the sky and made some quick calculations. “I think we’ve got about two, perhaps three, hours of daylight left here. Everyone, throw your bags into your rooms. Hammon, if you and Fei will return the horses? Good, thank you. The rest of us will split off in pairs and see if we can’t find confirmation that our missing party went through here. Who knows? We might get lucky and find something out today.”

  “It’ll take some luck, Shi,” Beirly warned her.

  She grimaced a smile at him. “Don’t I know it. Wolf and I will take the streets. Conli, Denney, Grae, take the inns. Beirly and Tran, take to the gate guards on both sides, see if they have any record of who came through. Move, people.”

  ӜӜӜ

  Siobhan had no idea what the world had been like when governments still ruled this land, but now every level of people existed from the most wealthy and powerful to the completely destitute. Every class of people had their own groups, their own places of gathering, even if they didn’t officially belong to a guild. She had learned early on that if someone really wanted to know something, then finding the area of the city controlled by the street gangs was one of the best ways to go about it. Street rats thrived on information. More accurately, they survived by knowing the comings, goings, and dealings of every person in their city. The trick would be finding the right person with the right information and somehow bribing them into talking to her.

  She had some experience in this, having done it before, so she stopped by several food stalls and stocked up, asking about the ‘dangerous’ places in the city of the people in the marketplace. Once she had a good idea of its location, she and Wolf headed straight there with two heavily laden bags in hand. (Siobhan would actually do better if Wolf didn’t go with her, as he would scare any child at first sight, but he categorically refused to let her go into the rougher sections of the city alone.)

  The difference between this shadier area and the more affluent section they’d just left was like night and day. Siobhan felt a shiver go straight up her spine as she looked at her surroundings, not sure if she felt it because of cold or unease. The buildings here looked gutted, with no windows or doors aside from the odd tattered cloth pinned up. They looked lifeless, and it took no imagination to believe that spirits haunted this area. The streets were littered with odd refuse. No lamps lit the streets, of course, and the narrow alleyways didn’t let in much natural light. It smelled cold, dank, and rotten. She swore she could hear the skittering of rats in the shadows, too.

  Maybe Wolf had a good point about her not going in here alone.

  She kept her hand carefully away from the long daggers at her waist and tried not to look unnerved. Somewhere…somewhere in here there had to be signs of life. She kept her eyes peeled for it, scrutinizing everything. Where did this group normally hang about? Oh? Up ahead a small fire burned in a brazier that had seen better days. No one was in sight, but they’d have bolted for the nearest cover upon seeing her and Wolf. The brazier gave her a good stopping point. Not to mention some much-needed light.

  She stopped in front of it, kicked an upturned crate onto its side, and used it as a table of sorts to spread her bounty of food on. She made sure that the thick loaves of bread, cured meat, wheels of cheese, and the last haul of apples for the season could be plainly seen from every angle. Then she sat back on her heels and called out in a strong, loud voice, “My name is Siobhan Maley. I need information. Is there anyone that is willing to eat and speak with me?”

  Taut moments passed. Finally, a tenor voice called out from the shadows, “’o’s he?”

  “Ah, this is Wolf,” she introduced pleasantly, as if this was an everyday introduction. “He’s my friend. He was kind enough to help me bring enough food for everyone.”

  Very, very slowly, a thin body stepped out of the shadows. The boy couldn’t have been more than fourteen, and while he looked scrawny, he had a full set of clothes on, so he had to be fairly successful at some sort of livelihood. He came forward with a steady but slow pace, his eyes looking them over intently with the air of a cornered animal. Siobhan pegged him as the leader of the group as no one else dared to make even a peep.

  She met his eyes levelly and stayed very still, letting him come in at his own pace. He stopped a good five feet away, not daring to get any closer. He kept darting looks at Wolf, expression blank but body language uneasy.

  “Wolf,” she muttered from the side of her mouth, “Will you stop looming and kneel? You’re scaring the kid.”

  “I’m not doing anything!” he protested softly.

  “You’re breathing. That’s enough.”

  With a put-upon sigh, he sank to one knee beside her, hands carefully in view.

  “Come eat something,” Siobhan invited with a charming smile, beckoning the boy closer. “Among my people, we eat when we talk business.”

  With Wolf’s silent intimidation somewhat weakened, and under the charm of all that food laying out in the open, the boy ventured in closer although he clearly wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not.

  “Ya…ya don’t look like slavers.”

  Siobhan blinked. Is that what he was afraid of?

  “No, we’re an escorting guild. We’re actually here to find some missing friends of ours.” Seeing him eye the food hungrily, she broke off a piece of bread and popped it into her mouth, proving to him silently that she hadn’t drugged it in any way. As soon as she did so, he grabbed the loaf and starting stuffing whole chunks into his mouth.

  Someone, at some point in time, had tried to trick these kids. It made Siobhan boiling mad to think of it. What, their lives weren’t difficult enough? They had to worry about being caught and sold as slaves, too? Without a word, she picked off a small piece of everything and ate it, proving it all safe. When she did so, more children started coming out of the buildings, although they didn’t come to where she sat. She counted fifteen, but who knew how many there actually were.

  When the whole loaf was consumed, the boy sat back and offered, “I’m Lenney. So what’s yar business, guildie?”

  Now she was getting somewhere. “Like I said, we’re looking for missing friends. We don’t know if they made it through this city or not. I can prove they came through Island Pass, but I want to know if they made it to Quigg. I also want to know if they left and where they were going.”

  His dark eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “How many we talkin’ ‘bout?”

  “It was a group of sixteen from Blackstone Guild.”

  “How long back?”


  “Hmmm…I’d say over a week. They’re five days overdue in Sateren.”

  He shrugged his ignorance. “Don’t know ‘bout ‘em.”

  “You can’t keep track of every person that comes and goes in a city of this size,” she agreed, not bothered by his response. “But I bet you can find out.”

  His lips parted in a grin, revealing crooked teeth. “Eh, I can. So what’s the info worth to ya, guildie?”

  She dug into her shirt pocket and held up two gold coins, which was a fortune to these children. Siobhan enjoyed watching his mouth drop open. “Two coins if you can give me the day they entered. Four coins if you can tell me when they left and which direction they were headed.”

  He recovered his composure and swallowed hard before saying through a dry mouth, “It’ll take a good day or more to find out.”

  “I’m searching in other ways to find them,” she warned him. “So you better find out quick. But when you do, I’m at the North Bay Inn. Ask for me and I’ll come to you.”

  He nodded slowly, having a hard time taking his eyes off those coins until she put them away again.

  “In the meantime,” she stood back up, waving at the food, “think of this as a good faith payment and eat up.”

  “Ya drive a hard bargain,” Lenney complained. From the way his eyes shone, he didn’t mean it but hoped to weasel more out of her.

  “I’m downright generous, and you know it,” she retorted with a grin. “Come to me with good news quick, Lenny. And be ready to give me details, otherwise I won’t believe you.”

  He looked offended that she thought he would lie, but they both knew he would if he thought he could get by with it. With a last wave, she turned and headed back the way she had come.

  Twenty feet away from the children, they finally dove into the food like ravaging wolves. She didn’t pause, but kept walking, finally turning a corner and passing completely out of sight.

  Wolf leaned in and murmured, “You think you can trust the boy?”

  “About as far as I can throw him. But four golds will take care of that entire group throughout the winter, so he’s going to make sure to earn it, one way or another.”

  “Is that why you offered such a high price?” Wolf shook his head. “Siobhan, I never know with you if you’re being shrewd or generous.”

  “What, I can’t be both?”

  He just shook his head, amused, and refused to rise to the bait.

  They walked in companionable silence for several minutes as they passed out of the street rats’ territory and back into the normal hustle-bustle of the city.

  “So, say they made it through here and went on to Sateren as they should have,” Wolf said with a strange look on his face. “I assume that you want to use Grae’s pathfinding to get there quickly.”

  Siobhan quirked an eyebrow at him. What did that expression mean? “Of course.”

  “You also remember that he doesn’t have a pre-built path made to go to Sateren with?”

  She opened her mouth to respond and froze, nothing but a croaking sound emerging. It actually had escaped her immediate notice that they had never gone to Sateren before and so of course Grae didn’t have a path ready that went that direction. “Oh,” she said weakly.

  Wolf nodded, unsurprised. “I knew it. You hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

  Siobhan’s head dropped so that it hung in despair. “We’re going to be digging around in cold ground for stones, aren’t we?”

  “We certainly are.” He tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace. “Digging in the cold ground with a fussing, nitpicking Grae hovering around issuing orders. Now isn’t that something to look forward to.”

  “Shut it, I’m trying not to think about it.” Actually, just imagining it gave her a headache.

  “Maybe if we made it clear we’re in a hurry?” Wolf trailed off and rubbed his chin. “Although that didn’t do any good last time.”

  “Or maybe Hammon will distract him with more questions and he won’t be as naggy this time,” Siobhan offered hopefully.

  “You realize that’s wishful thinking.”

  “If you don’t stop that, I’m making you sleep outside tonight.”

  He raised both hands in surrender and didn’t say another word.

  No, Wolf was right, no way would distracting Grae work. On the other hand…. “Since we’re going to be here for a good day anyway waiting on informants to get back to us, maybe I can split up our manpower a little? Say, have three people go out to start putting a path together, while the rest of us search the city?”

  “The question is, which two people do you hate enough to send out with Grae?”

  “As the newest member, Hammon is automatically going,” Siobhan decided on the spot. “He’d likely enjoy the experience anyway, with all his interest in pathfinding. Hmmm…but who else?”

  “Denney?” Wolf suggested thoughtfully, stepping to the side to avoid a wagon before crossing the road with her. “All she does is get lost in this city anyway.”

  A very good point. Sending their directionally challenged animal tamer out with two other people would keep her safely out of potential trouble. “Denney will be our sacrifice, then.” Looking at him from the corner of her eyes she added, “If that’s alright with you?”

  He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “I’m just not sure if you trust the man yet or not.”

  “You’ve sent him out with only one other person before this.”

  “I sent him out with Fei. That’s not the same thing as Denney and Grae. Answer me, Wolf. Has the man won your trust yet?”

  Wolf chewed on that question for a long moment, stepping around to walk at her left side to shield her from the late evening traffic still on the road, before he finally said, “I don’t think him a threat. Don’t smile at me like that, Siobhan. I didn’t think him a bad man from the start. You’re too good a judge of character to let someone sleazy into the guild. But that doesn’t mean I trust him to watch our backs, either. I don’t know how this man fights or reacts to danger. Is his first reaction to protect or run? Does he have the awareness to recognize danger before it actually hits? I can’t trust him until I know.”

  Siobhan’s open palm ceded the point to him. She didn’t know any of that either, and they wouldn’t know until the first real danger hit them as a group and they could see how Hammon reacted. It was not the best way to find out, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the only sure-fire method of knowing. “But you trust him enough to go out stone hunting.”

  “Enough for that, especially with the dogs going along,” Wolf agreed.

  Good enough for the time being. Wolf’s faith in her judgment aside, she knew very well that she was fallible. She trusted his instincts as much as she trusted her own and if he had some issue, then she wanted to hear it.

  They returned to the inn only to find that everyone else had beaten them there. Not only that, but they had already claimed a back table in the main room and ordered dinner, no less. Siobhan called to them as she navigated around the tables, “At least tell me you ordered dinner for us too!”

  “We didn’t know when you’d be back,” Beirly responded carelessly with a toss of his hand. “Order your own.”

  “A fine bunch you are,” she grumbled, finding an empty seat and taking it. As Wolf took the empty seat next to hers, she caught Hammon’s eye and asked, “Horses sorted?”

  “Safely returned, no extra fees to pay,” he assured her.

  Excellent. She so hated hidden fees. “Perfect. Tell me some good news, people.”

  “If they ran into trouble, it doesn’t look like it happened in this city,” Conli reported to her. “We asked the guards here and no party of sixteen people or any mention of Blackstone appeared in their records.”

  Well, that was something, anyway. “Anything else?”

  “Blackstone does have a trading branch here in the city,” Sylvie piped up, idly stirring a bowl of
hot stew. “I stumbled across them quite by accident, but they were rather helpful. They gave me a list of every inn that the guild has an affiliation with. I figure they would have used an inn they knew, so I’ll start there.”

  Bless Sylvie’s brains. If she was right—and she probably was—that would no doubt save them some time. “How big is that list?”

  Sylvie grimaced. “That’s the bad news part. It’s quite the list.”

  Well, Blackstone couldn’t be considered a ‘small’ guild by anyone’s standards. “Big enough to divide up? Alright, then let’s split it between people. However, Wolf pointed out to me that we don’t have a ready-made path leading up to Sateren. So while some of us are investigating, I want others stone hunting for Grae.”

  Every single person but two looked at her with outright dread. Grae looked happy—he hated talking to strangers on general principle—and Hammon didn’t seem to mind either option. But then, the scholar stood to learn something new either way. “Hammon, as the newest member, you draw the short straw. Denney, you’re joining them.”

  Denney let out a wordless protest.

  “The dogs can go with you and serve as a lookout while you’re working,” Siobhan told her patiently, having already anticipated this reaction and planned a response to it. “You know they obey you better than anyone else. I can’t spare another person to protect everyone while you’re working. The dogs are a neat solution to the problem.”

  Denney slumped in resignation.

  “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be as many stones as last time,” Grae attempted to reassure her. “It’s only…er, how far is it to Sateren exactly?”

  “One hundred and eighty-three spans,” Hammon supplied.

  “Oh? That far? I assumed it was closer because the itinerary said it would only take them three days to reach it from Quigg.” Grae frowned as he calculated things at high speed. “Probably a little optimistic on someone’s part. Well, regardless, the soil is quite rich around this area, so as long as we have good sunlight, hmmm….” He muttered to himself in complex mathematics that no one at the table could or tried to understand before he nodded, satisfied with his own conclusion. “Yes, we’d only need about ninety stepping stones altogether. So, it’s just 3,150 stones we need to find,” he assured Denney with an innocent smile.