by H. M. Clarke
“Something else we can discuss later. Let’s just leave the barn for now and go look over at the Inn.”
Banar and Lily nodded agreement and Ashe lead them across the courtyard to the main door of the inn. Now that he was looking for it, Ashe could see the wagon tracks marring the soft ground of the courtyard.
A lot of people and horses had arrived after he and Ryn left yesterday. Fresh piles of horse dung littered the ground near the barn, and some rotten timbers of the Inns’ verandah had been torn away and left where they’d drop.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Ashe muttered as he climbed the step to the Inn’s door.
“You feel that way about everything, Ashe,” Banar gave him a friendly slap on the back as he followed him onto the verandah.
“All of these footprints and scuff marks can’t all have been from you and Ryn, could it?” Lily asked as she stepped past them and looked around the wood slats.
Ashe glanced around the porch and frowned as he noticed the amount of foot traffic that had passed through enough to wear away the built-up grime and loose sand that was now trying to cover them again in the light breeze.
The sound of scrapping metal was Lily’s reply as Ashe drew his sword. Banar did the same while motioning for Lily to come in behind them.
As they came through the Inn door, Ashe had to wait a moment as his eyes acclimatized to the darker interior. Across the floor, he could see numerous footprints, mainly from big hobnailed boots similar to the pair he was wearing that had placed new scratches all over the oak flooring.
“It looks like they are all leading to that door.” Banar pointed with his sword toward the bar and Ashe saw that the door to the corridor had been left wide open showing the inky darkness beyond.
“That’s where Ryn was attacked.”
“We’ll need some light.”
Ashe heard the tap of Lily’s staff as it banged the floor and then saw a pink light flood past him. “Let’s go.”
They moved across the floor and Ashe placed himself first in line as they entered the corridor. It was just as dark and loathsome as it was yesterday, and the smell of blood was not as thick on the air. Reflected in the pink light, Ashe could see the trail of footprints leading off down the corridor and noted that both his and Ryn’s prints were completely covered by them. One set of footprints branched off from the trail to the door of each room, which now stood open.
“It looks like whoever was here has now gone,” Banar said though he did not sheath his sword.
“Looks like it. The body should be down there,” Ashe gestured down the corridor with his sword. “Though, I have a feeling that he’ll be gone now.”
“His friends would have taken him for burial,” Lily said from behind them.
Ashe grunted in response. He would have just left him out to rot. He kept walking, letting the light from Lily’s staff dimly light up the corridor before him. The pink glow made everything look different, the color change would take some getting used to. Ashe made a mental note to practice fighting in the dark with Donal, so that he could get used to seeing things through the purple glow of his staff.
“I think this is it.”
Banar’s voice made Ashe aware of his surroundings. Blood still marked the walls and floor, though the pink light made them look more like large wine or coffee stains. But the body was gone.
Ashe stopped next to one of the large blood stains, sheathed his sword and gestured with both hands. “The man was right here.”
“Looks like his friends have taken him away. Now we know that the man that attacked Ryn was not a loner.”
As Ashe gave Banar a nod, a glint of metal caught his eye. He bent forward to investigate, unsure if it was a trick of Lily’s pink light. An object was wedged between where the wooden wall joined the floor. He drew his dagger and used the tip of it to pry it out onto the floor and then picked it up to bring it closer to Lily’s light.
“What is it?” she asked.
Ashe moved the object to the palm of his hand and held it out for all to see. It was a small figure of a standing dog with its ears and tail raised. He flicked it over to see the back and noted the steel pin used to secure it to cloth. “A pin of some kind.”
“It’s the badge of the Maluski’s,” Banar said as Ashe flicked it back over. “With the cloth I found in the barn, this confirms that they were here.”
“But why?” Lily asked, the hint of the whine coming back into her voice.
“The Maluski’s don’t even hold land anywhere near Kaldor, only a small villa in the Equestrian Quarter.” Banar peered up at Ashe waiting for his response.
“Let’s take this back to Dagan and the others. The Magister might have an idea about what the flunkies of a Caester is doing here hiding stuff in an abandoned inn in the back of beyond.”
CHAPTER Thirteen
Ryn raised her spoon and took a sip of the beef broth, her eyes watching Donal as he tried to loom over her from the other side of the table.
“I may have magiked away all your pain and injury Ryn, but your body still needs to recuperate the energy that it lost. You need to eat.”
“How many spoonful’s do I need to have before I can leave the table?” Ryn asked as she dipped her spoon back into the bowl. She couldn’t decide who had made the broth, though it was probably Donal as she had never seen Dagan cook anything edible. Donal was a decent cook, but he can be a little too liberal with the salt. And this soup was salty.
She got a glare from him as an answer. Ryn grimaced and took another sip. “You know you can glare at me more comfortably if you sit down at the table.”
“I am not glaring. This is my look of concerned authoritarianism. I know you Ryn. As soon as I relax, you’ll be off out that door quicker than I can spit.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, Donal.”
“You would and you have. Remember when Marcus whacked you on the back of the head with the training staff? You were knocked out cold, and after the healing I was set to keep an eye on you-”
“That was not my fault!” Ryn cut in as she jabbed her empty spoon at him. “I didn’t send you into the girl’s dormitories, and I very definitely did not send you into the bathing room.”
“But you did send me to get you a fresh change of clothes.”
“I asked you to find Sana and have her get me a change of clothes.”
“Sana was…. busy…. and I couldn’t find anyone else…” Donal’s face flushed crimson. Ryn tried to stifle a giggle.
“Well, you could have waited, she doesn’t take that long in the loo.”
“If you had to smell what was coming out from under that door, you wouldn’t have waited either,” Donal grumbled.
Ryn tried to suppress her grin. Sana was legendary at Brookhaven Keep for the quality of smells she could exude from her ablutions, and her silent-but-deadly farts were enough to clear a room of even the most hardly of experienced campaigners. Her reeks would even make a skunk blush for shame.
A trickle of amusement ran down her Link. Dagan must be out on the front porch listening. “Heads up, the boss is coming,” she hissed.
Donal looked at the front door just as Dagan opened it to come in but did not close it.
“The others are returning,” he said by way of explanation. He seated himself in the chair next to Ryn. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better, thank you,” she replied while twisting the empty spoon in her hand.
“You’d better finish that before it gets cold. I didn’t make it just so it can be wasted.”
“You made this?” Ryn said with disbelief.
Dagan raised an eyebrow. “I did.”
“I didn’t know you could cook. It’s good.”
“Nobody asked. I’m not just a pretty face, you know,” he said with a smirk. “I’m very domesticated.”
“If Dagan is back to his usually snarky self then, definitely you are feeling okay Ryn,” Donal huffed as he finally took a seat at the ta
ble.
“I am feeling okay. How many times do I have to tell you both,” she said as she filled her spoon from the soup bowl.
“Until we actually believe you, Ryn,” Donal replied.
As Ryn quickly finished her soup under the watchful eye of the two men, she could faintly hear the sound of horses’ hooves thrumming from the path into the farmhouse. She had washed herself up and changed into clean clothes, which made her feel much better. After Donal’s healing, her arm and side felt as they normally would, though maybe a tad weaker. Ryn still felt a little tired, but there was no way that she was going to tell Donal that.
She was just sipping the last of her soup when the three arrived out front and were tying up their mounts to come in. The glimpse she got of Ashe’s face told her that the news they bought might not be good.
Dagan rose from the table as the three entered the farmhouse and without issuing a greeting launched straight into business. “What did you find?”
Ashe nodded to Ryn and then glanced at Banar, who then fished out a folded piece of cloth from his belt pouch. He handed it across to Dagan. “We found this in the Inn’s barn,” he said. “It looks as if someone had been using it for storage of some rather large crates.”
“Men and horses had come in after Ryn and I left yesterday and moved whatever was in the barn out. They also took the body of the dead man as well, so it looks like he belonged to them. He must have been a guard for whatever they had in the barn.”
Dagan unfolded the piece of cloth and Ryn raised herself from her chair to get a better view of it. It was a horrible combination of orange and brown, and sitting in its center was something small that flashed when it caught the firelight. He picked it up with long, slender fingers and held it up.
“It’s a dog,” she said in surprise.
“It is the badge of the Maluski family to be precise.” Banar held up a finger as he spoke. “And the Houndcaester and his kin do not own any territory anywhere near Kaldor.”
“Except that Villa in Kaldor that you mentioned,” Lily interjected.
“Yes,” Banar sighed.
“The cloth bears the colors of the Maluski’s as well. Probably torn from a man’s livery as they moved the crates out of the barn onto the wagons they had bought.”
“Did you find anything to show what was held in the crates?” Dagan asked the trio.
Ashe shook his head. “There was nothing. But the fact that they felt the need to hide them in an abandoned Inn is telling.”
“You think they might be involved in black market goods?” Ryn asked.
“The Maluski’s do not need to dabble in the black market to keep their wealth,” Dagan replied.
“They have land and industries enough to keep them supplied with food and wine and other luxuries for the next thousand years.” Banar looked at Ryn as he spoke. “Though my family’s wealth outstrips them by a long shot.”
“Whatever it was, they were either bringing it out of Kaldor or taking it in. The Brothers Osega might have an idea of which it was and what it was from the contacts in their intelligence network. And the Thieves’ Gyld will very definitely know what is going on. The Kaldorian Glyd Master knows of or is involved in every underhanded deed done in the city. We will need to get in contact with them.”
“Do you know anyone in the Glyd there?” Lily’s voice sounded unsure and Ryn watched as Banar turned to his Pair and give her one of his pitying headshakes.
“I know how to get in contact with them. And I am sure that Bron knows some people.”
“And hopefully those people don’t shiv us in the back,” Ashe muttered.
“This thing with the Maluski’s? What has it to do with a traitor in the Tribunal? Shouldn’t we be focusing on that?” Ryn asked.
“This man attacked you Ryn and nearly killed you. His employers need to be brought to justice for putting anyone in that type of danger.” Dagan looked sharply at her and the fire she saw in his golden eyes told her that no matter what she said, he would not be turned from the path of going after them. It chilled her. She dropped her spoon into her empty bowl and leaned back in her chair. Dagan must have noticed her reaction as his gaze softened. He then turned back to the others “We’ll spend the rest of today and tonight here at the Farmhouse so that Kathryn, and our very put upon horses can recuperate from the excitement of the past day and to plan our next move.”
CHAPTER Fourteen
“Now if you all wouldn’t mind; I’d like to speak to Kathryn in private.”
Ryn froze at those words. Dagan’s face held no expression and she could feel nothing coming from the Link they held. Dagan had quickly mastered how to block it. She watched as Ashe opened his mouth to object, but the look on Dagan’s face must have changed his mind as he quickly closed it and turned to follow the others out the door.
Donal was the last to leave, as he rose from the table, he turned to her and asked, “Are you sure you don’t need anything?”
She grimaced at him and pushed her empty bowl away from her across the table. “No, I’m fine.”
Donal glanced at Dagan and then looked back to her. “I’ll just be out on the porch if you need me. Just give a shout out.”
Ryn couldn’t help but smile at his show of support. And she was glad that she wasn’t the only one who thought she was going to get her ass chewed out for being careless. “Don’t worry Donal, I will.”
He nodded and then headed out the door, closing it behind him.
Dagan stayed seated at the table and Ryn clutched her hands in her lap, waiting for the ear lashing she was sure would come. And she deserved it. She knew better than to be caught by herself in a dark corridor. Especially when she remembered calling for Ashe before she went into the darkness without waiting for him.
A silent moment passed. By Bellus, he must be so angry he couldn’t speak and Ryn heard her words tumbling from her mouth before realizing it.
“I know you are mad at me and that this is all my fault, I shouldn’t have gone in that area alone. I should have waited for Ashe when I called him after I saw the lock had been forced. I was inattentive and careless. I will not let it happen again.”
Ryn clamped her lips shut before she could say anything further that would confirm to him that she was more of an idiot than he already thought. She tensely waited for him to respond.
“You think that I’m mad at you?”
His words cut away her worry like a knife. In its place was uncertainty and it must have shown on her face as Dagan’s expression softened in response. It made him look younger and she could now see why people thought him handsome.
“Aren’t you?” she asked back in genuine confusion. “I’m mad at me. I went into an unknown corridor without back up and nearly got myself killed. And-”
“I’m not mad at you,” he interrupted her. His hand was on the tabletop, the index finger of one hand scratching at the thumbnail of the other. “I want to talk to you about last night.”
“Last night? What did I do last night?” Dagan’s eyebrows rose in surprise and Ryn rushed to explain herself. “The last thing I clearly remember before waking up this morning is Ashe putting me on the back of my horse at the Inn.”
“You don’t remember anything from last night at all?”
“Only some jumbled flashes of memory, most of which are probably just fever dreams.” Ryn tested the Link. It was still shut down. She reached across the table and clasped one of his hands and was surprised at how supple and strong his fingers were when they clasped hers back. “I do have a memory of you laying hands on me to dull the pain. Thank you.” She smiled up at him. He smiled weakly back. “Did I do something embarrassing?”
“Huh?”
“Last night? Did I do something embarrassing?”
“No. No, of course you didn’t, I just thought maybe…” Dagan sighed. “It doesn’t matter.” He gently released her hand and rose from the table. “You need to have another bowl of that soup and rest.”
“Yes, mum.”
That drew a smile from him.
“I bet a few weeks ago you never thought that you’d be stuck in a farmhouse with a bunch of Blackwatch Constables and making soup for one of them.”
“No. But I don’t regret it. I do regret the scene I made at the Proving. It was a big day for you and I sort of ruined it.”
