The Wandering Inn_Volume 1

by Pirateaba

  “I am unsure as to what you should do, Pawn. I regret that Erin is not here to aid you.”

  “Indeed. I dislike Revalantor Klbkch’s requirements of you, and the Revalantor himself if it comes to that. Checkmate.”

  Anand placed his queen in an excellent checkmate and Belgrade nodded. He looked at the other [Tactician].

  “I am extremely upset, Anand. I demand a rematch.”

  “I accept.”

  Pawn left them to it. Well, he had his answer. He was supposed to do something with the Soldiers—only even Klbkch had no idea what. Wonderful.

  That was how, terribly depressed, Pawn found himself walking through Liscor that evening. He was still free to leave the Hive, and so he walked among the Drakes and Gnolls, feeling the cold wind on his carapace.

  No one paid any attention to him. Normally, they might, if only to look scared and walk away from him. But today Pawn was more invisible than anything else. Oh, people noticed him, but he was now simply another person in the crowd, rather than a Worker, an Antinium.

  It was due to his new Skill. [Humble Presence]. It made him, well, ordinary unless Pawn did something that really stood out or he was by himself. It was perfect for someone like him. Klbkch had already told him it might have useful applications in battle—but Pawn didn’t want to fight.

  But he commanded Soldiers. But he had no idea what to do with them.

  And he’d already caused trouble. Pawn hung his head, but his feet kept moving. In times like this, he only had one place he wanted to be.

  The Wandering Inn. Even if Erin wasn’t there, at least Pawn could rest there in peace for a while. And he was getting hungry. Pawn had begun to hate eating in the Hive, and he had money. So Pawn walked out of the city and up to the inn.

  It was the only place where he really felt alive.

  —-

  She had a guest. Lyonette rubbed her eyes a few times when she saw the figure slowly walking up the hill towards the empty inn. But it was real. Someone was coming.

  A guest!

  She nearly cried in relief. It had been…so long.

  Two days this time. Two days after Lyonette had worked so hard! She’d made food and learned to cook and even cleaned the inn. But it had been two days since Pawn had left, and no one had come by.

  Not Olesm, not Relc to ask about Erin, not even the grumpy adventurer. No one. But now she had a guest! The same guest, in fact, as last time.

  The Antinium. Pawn. Lyonette remembered being afraid of him, of hating the Antinium. But right now she could have kissed the Worker on his mandibles. He was coming to spend money! To eat!

  The girl rushed around the kitchen, trying to figure out what to make. Food! She couldn’t serve him the rubbery noodles she’d been making herself for breakfast, lunch and dinner, could she?

  No, the Antinium couldn’t even handle gluten.

  No bread or pasta, then. Lyonette froze. Could she make a soup? But when she checked, she had barely half a bucket of water left! And then the Antinium was at the door and there was no time to fetch more!

  Screaming internally, Lyonette opened the door.

  “Good evening!”

  The Antinium entered, nodding politely at her.

  “Good evening to you, Miss Lyonette. Are you open today?”

  “Open? Of course! We’re open every day! Every night! Let me get you a chair. Would you like to sit next to the fire? I can put more wood on—”

  “Thank you.”

  Seemingly bemused, the Worker watched Lyonette rush about, stoking the fire, getting him a glass of water. She hovered around him anxiously, trying not to wring her hands.

  “Would you like something else to drink? Um—we don’t have anything, though. To eat?”

  “Water is quite acceptable, thank you. I would indeed like food tonight. What is on the menu, may I ask?”

  Lyonette froze. What was on the menu? She didn’t even have a menu! Her mind went blank, but her mouth took over in this moment of crisis.

  “W-would you like eggs and bacon?”

  That was all she could think to make! Erin normally had all kinds of soups and meat dishes she could serve—but Lyonette didn’t know how to cook any of them!

  Pawn seemed to think for a moment, and then nodded.

  “Yes. I will have some, thank you.”

  Lyonette smiled at him, dashed into the kitchen, and called herself ten kinds of stupid while she fried up a heaping plate for him. Eggs and bacon? She’d served that to him last time! He’d get bored of the food, surely! When she’d been living in the palace, Lyonette would have fired the [Chef] who made her the same meal twice in one week!

  But the Antinium didn’t seem offended. Instead, he paused when Lyonette placed the big plate of eggs and bacon in front of him—nearly all of what she had left.

  “This is quite a fine meal. Thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome!”

  Lyonette nearly sagged in relief. She hovered around Pawn as he picked up a fork. He paused, looked at her.

  “Would you like to sit?”

  “Oh!”

  She was bothering him! Lyonette sat instantly, trying to smile and not be obtrusive as Pawn ate. The silence was…

  After a few minutes Pawn spoke.

  “It seems the inn is rather empty. Have you been receiving much custom, Miss Lyonette?”

  “Me? No I—”

  Lyonette paused. How could she tell the Antinium about crying in the inn, counting the few copper and two silver coins left? Eating the same horrible mush she cooked up every day? How could she?

  How could she not?

  “It’s been…hard since Erin—Miss Solstice left. No one visits.”

  “That is troublesome. I hope my business can help.”

  “It will! I just wish there were a lot more people like—like you!”

  “Thank you for the compliment.”

  “You’re…welcome.”

  More silence. Lyonette looked at Pawn, realizing this was the first time she’d ever been so close to one of the hateful Antinium, the terrors of Rhir. He looked so…normal for some reason.

  “Um.”

  “Yes?”

  “How’s it going in the Hive? With the other Antinium, I mean?”

  The Worker seemed to pause for a few seconds.

  “It is…going well. There are some difficulties, but the Hive is well.”

  “Good.”

  “Yes.”

  Lyonette sat with the Worker, refilling his glass, drinking some water herself. They didn’t talk much while he ate his way through the plate of greasy eggs and bacon. When he left, he paid her well. Lyonette stared at the bronze coins and smiled tremulously. Then she cried again.

  —-

  Pawn left The Wandering Inn in good spirits. The brief respite and dinner made for a world of difference. Suddenly, he felt happy again.

  The inn. Sitting there and talking—well, it wasn’t the same, but the Human girl had been decent company and the food had been far better than the mush in the Hive.

  A good night. A good evening. That was what it was. Pawn walked back down the hill, staring up at the clear night sky as he did. The air was cold around him, but he enjoyed the biting chill and the crisp crunching sound the snow made under his feet.

  The stars. Oh, how the stars shone. Yellow and red some of them, but green and purple others, shining bright, shining faintly, some flickering behind the occasional cloud. And the two moons were beautiful as well.

  A sky full of wonders, a landscape full of snow and silence. Warm belly, good conversation. Pawn felt alive again. This was what he’d missed.

  How wonderful. How…Pawn stopped in the snow, struck by a sudden realization.

  “This is what I must show them.”

  Yes. This. This night was like everything Pawn had experienced since meeting Erin, a small capsule of pure happiness. Of course, the inn was different, and it had been Erin, not Lyonette running it. But it had been the experiences of th
e inn which had made Pawn who he was. Klbkch desired new Individuals, but just teaching them chess wasn’t enough. Chess was only the method. It had been Erin who truly mattered.

  And if she was gone, then it fell to Pawn to show the Soldiers the same world she had shown him. Pawn walked back to his Hive, his steps suddenly full of purpose. He needed to take his Soldiers outside. Outside of their Hive where everything was the same.

  He would talk to Revalantor Klbkch about the issue that very night. As Pawn walked, he clicked his mandibles together, savoring the flavor of his meal. Eggs and bacon. He’d had it last time, hadn’t he? Well, Pawn didn’t mind, although perhaps next time he would ask Lyonette if she had any good cheese she could add to the meal. He really liked scrambled eggs, but he liked omelettes filled with gooey cheese even more.

  —-

  He was never coming back. That was what Lyonette told herself again and again as she wallowed in despair in her dark, empty inn. The fire was dying down again.

  “Idiot! You stupid idiot!”

  Lyonette buried her head in her arms and cried. The Worker—Pawn was gone. He’d left coin, but he hadn’t said he’d return. Of course not! Who’d say that?

  But would he come back in two more days? Or never? He hadn’t talked much—

  Because she hadn’t been a good host! Lyonette remembered Erin being so friendly to the Antinium, but words had failed her when she’d tried to talk to him.

  And he’d left so quickly. Had it been quick? It had felt like that to Lyonette, lonely as she was.

  He hadn’t liked the food. That was surely it.

  Slowly, as the last flames flickered and died in the dark inn, Lyonette raised her head. She stared at the small, circular discs of metal on the table.

  Money. The only money she’d seen all week. Enough for a few more days of food, of life. And she still had flour and salt and…provisions enough for a few more days. But that was all.

  Water? The stream still ran, and though the water was bitingly cold, it could be heated. With enough wood. Lyonette glanced anxiously to the dying embers, the only thing warming the cold room.

  She had lots of firewood, actually. Erin had used Toren to gather a lot of wood from the boom bark, safely denuded of their bark of course.

  But she couldn’t eat wood, and Lyonette was fairly certain that Pawn couldn’t either. And yet—feeding him eggs and bacon was an expensive proposition, even with how much he was willing to pay! Especially if he only came by once every few days.

  She needed more customers. Lyonette knew that. But who would want to come here, to this empty inn without Erin Solstice? To…her.

  No one. No one but an Antinium. Lyonette clutched at her head.

  More guests. Drakes didn’t like Humans and Gnolls would probably try to kill her. But the Antinium—

  They couldn’t eat bread. Or pasta. That was the huge flaw in Lyonette’s potential base of customers. How could she feed them with meat and eggs and other such expensive ingredients in the winter? A soup might work, but…any inn in the city could serve a better soup than she could, surely.

  In her heart, Lyonette knew she was standing on a cliff. Starvation loomed over her head, dark, chittering. She had to do something. And she knew there was one thing she could do. She’d thought of it every night since Pawn had come the first time.

  One desperate idea. That was all she had. She couldn’t make what the Antinium truly loved—and she barely had the coin to buy enough food for herself now! But there was a source of free, delicious ingredients for them, wasn’t there?

  “The bees.”

  Lyon whispered the word and shuddered uncontrollably. But it had been said. Now there was no going back.

  Yes, there was one untapped source of food in this cold winter. One foodstuff that the Antinium would pay silver for.

  The bees.

  But they were a horror. Lyonette had seen them tear apart Toren when he angered them. She remembered the terrible, buzzing cloud of bees, some larger than her hand, enough to sting an entire village to death in minutes.

  But she had no other choice. Lyonette sat in the dark in, her heart pounding. She stared at the door. Every night she’d had the same thought, and every night she’d been too afraid. For two nights now. Ever since Pawn.

  But he’d come back. He would come back. And she was out of options.

  Lyonette sat in the darkness. She wavered. She found a wheelbarrow and filled it with firewood and kindling. She made a torch and wavered by the door. She rushed to the outhouse to pee, and then throw up. Then she pushed the wheelbarrow out into the cold and dark, four huge jars balanced atop the wood, and Erin’s sharpest knife hung at her belt.

  —-

  “Watch Captain Zevara, may I have a moment of your time?”

  If it had been anyone else, Watch Captain Zevara would have told them it was late and to bother her again the next day. If it had been Relc asking whether he could take the day off, she would have burnt his face-scales off.

  But because it was Klbkch, Zevara just sighed and resigned herself to a late night.

  “Come in, Klbkch. Is something the matter?”

  Senior Guardsman Klbkch entered the room, nodding politely at Zevara. He was always polite, and efficient, something she admired about him even if he was an Ant.

  “I regret taking up your time before you go off-duty. However, I am here to make an…unusual request. And I must inform you that I do not come here in my capacity as Senior Guardsman, but rather as Prognugator of my Hive.”

  That made Zevara instantly sit up in her straight-backed wooden chair.

  “Go on. Is there trouble in the Hive? An…Aberration?”

  “Nothing so pressing.”

  Gracefully, Klbkch took a seat in front of Zevara. She eyed him, and his new…form. It still unnerved her a bit that after nearly ten years, he could suddenly look so different. True, two arms and a slimmer body wasn’t exactly that different, but it was just…odd. Another reminder of who he really was, and why she had to treat him and any such conversations with care.

  “Well, I am always willing to discuss your Hive. Is there something you need?”

  Klbkch nodded.

  “Yes. I would like to request that forty Soldiers be allowed access to the surface and area around Liscor.”

  Zevara froze again. She kept none of her emotions on her face, though, and pretended to cough.

  “That’s an…unusual request.”

  “Indeed. I would not normally ask, but I believe the need is justified and according to our treaty, Soldiers may only leave the Hive in times of war, or—”

  “At the request of the Watch Captain.”

  Zevara nodded. She sat back in her chair, eyeing Klbkch cautiously.

  “I see. And may I ask why you want to take your Soldiers out of the city? You’ve never requested something like this before, not in the six years I’ve served as Captain.”

  “Times have changed. I believe it may be useful to my Hive to present my Soldiers with an…expanded view of the area around Liscor.”

  That made no sense to Zevara, but few things the Antinium did made sense. She shrugged, trying to keep her tail still. She knew that Klbkch watched Drakes’ tails and could interpret their movements almost as well as a Drake.

  “I don’t see any reason why I should refuse your request. Only—wouldn’t taking so many Soldiers out of the Hive be dangerous? Of the six hundred Soldiers permitted to your Hive, wouldn’t forty be quite a large number?”

  “I believe we shall be able to compensate for their lack. In truth, our numbers are slightly below six hundred at the moment, but Liscor is a consummate ally, so I see no reason to worry.”

  Klbkch’s face didn’t change. Neither did Zevara’s as she nodded at that barefaced lie.

  “Well, reassuring as you find us, I’m afraid Liscor’s citizens might get a bit…nervous when they see Soldiers marching about. What would I tell them?”

  “Perhaps that the Soldiers are p
atrolling to deal with any Goblin warbands in the area? I am cognizant that the citizens are restless due to the presence of the dungeon as well as rumors of the Goblin Lord. Seeing them patrolling might reassure the citizens of Liscor.”

  That was a good answer, and even a helpful one for Zevarra. She nodded reluctantly.

  “Well, I see no reason to object—only, I’d hate for them to start a panic if they marched down the street. But then, I’m sure you can be discreet and find…alternate ways out of the city that won’t panic anyone.”

  Through the secret tunnels the Antinium have dug. That was what she meant, but both she and Klbkch knew he would never admit anything.

  “They will not be seen within Liscor if at all possible. Soldiers can be very discreet.”

  Zevara nearly snorted fire out her nose. She searched for another question to ask—or something else to bother Klbkch with, but she really couldn’t think of anything. Forty Soldiers killing monsters would be helpful, and it was hardly likely that they’d start a panic. Ten years ago when the Hive was first established, maybe. But now…

  “Well—fine. I, Watch Captain Zevara grant you permission and request that twenty Soldiers aid in patrolling around the city. Twenty, for now. We’ll scale up the patrols if there’s not a panic.”

  Klbkch inclined his head towards her.

  “I am very grateful for your time, Watch Captain.”

  “Yes, yes. Just make sure they don’t scare any travelers on the main road or run into any Human adventurers. Those idiots would probably pick a fight and that’s the last thing I want to explain to one of the Human cities.”

  “I shall instruct them to remain far away from the northern road.”

  “Good.”

  “Well then, good night, Watch Captain.”

  “Night, Klbkch.”

  Zevara waited until Klbkch was gone, marching smartly down the stairs. Then she shook her head and reached for a desk drawer she seldom opened. She yanked the handle, cursed, found the small key she carried at all times, and unlocked it. A blank piece of parchment lay on it. Zevara sighed, and began to write down every detail of her encounter with Klkbch. A report. She’d have to make copies, send them to every Walled City—which of course meant a trip down to the Mage’s Guild at this time of night! Zevara groaned. She’d be getting to her bed past midnight, she knew.