by Kris Hiatt
Treace knew the tricks, at least thought he did. Moff said the stable owner would tell him the mare is worth less due to her age, and the fact she’s a mare. He’d tell Treace that her hooves looked pretty used up and her back was about to sag, but it was all a game. Moff gave Treace a decent number to go by, and if he could get that, he was happy.
“Yes, sir, and her back sags and her hooves are worn and every other thing you are going to point out to me,” Treace said, drawing the man’s attention.
“Played the game ‘afore have ya?” Mr. Glendon asked, smiling.
“Enough to know that we both agree this horse is worth at least four onner, probably four onner and three,” Treace said, just as Moff instructed.
“Then ya haven’t played it enough, cuz I’m only goin to give ya two onner and four pieces for her,” Mr. Glendon countered, just as Moff predicted.
“I can ride her to the north side of Haven and get three and six, easily,” Treace said. “And, it’s closer to my destination.”
“Fine, three and one, and that’s as high as I go,” Mr. Glendon said, crossing his arms.
“I’ll take it,” Treace said sticking out his hand. He guessed from the look on Mr. Glendon’s face that he wasn’t used to not getting the better end of the deal, which from what Moff said, meant that Treace actually got a fair deal for the horse.
Mr. Glendon shook his hand then went back inside to get the money. Treace pulled the travel pack over his shoulder and gave the reins to the stable boy who walked the horse into the stable.
Mr. Glendon came out a few moments later and handed Treace three silver onner and the single silver piece. He said goodbye and walked toward the city proper, adding his coins to his coin purse.
He thought that went much better than he first thought it would. He had no idea how much a horse was worth. He had never bought, nor sold one before today. Moff said he thought the horse was worth close to three onner, so Treace figured it worked out. Now he had to secure some lodging and find a smith that would let him take on some work.
He turned back to Mr. Glendon, who was watching him walk away.
“Are there any inns that you would recommend?”
“All of em,” Glendon said and then walked back into the stable.
Treace didn’t think that was too helpful, but, considering that he added more money to his purse than he made working in Kilindric, he was feeling fairly good about how things were starting out. He hoped it would continue. It turned out that it wouldn’t for long.
He could go east to the docks, or keep going north and into the city. He decided to go directly into the city. As he walked further into the city’s outskirts, he saw a few guardsmen walking on what he thought must be their patrol route and decided to ask them. He wasn’t sure what they were patrolling, this area didn’t seem to be in the greatest condition and most of the homes and shops were in disrepair. There were many people standing around, or sitting, but that’s all they were doing. The stable boy was by far dirtier than most of the people, but they weren’t pillars of cleanliness, to be sure. Treace wondered what these poor people did for food and clothing, as most of them were thin and wore barely more than rags. He wondered briefly what he could do for them, but knew that there were so many of them that not even all the money in his coin purse would buy the food and clothing needed for these people. What would they do after that?
“Pardon me, sirs, but I am new to town and looking to secure lodging. Are there any that you would recommend?” Treace asked the guardsmen.
“Well aint you a fancy talker,” one said, smiling a smile that consisted of roughly half his teeth.
“Don’t mind im, he’s always that’ay,” the other said.
Treace noticed he seemed to have most of his teeth. In his mind he quickly named them Toothed and Half-toothed.
“Are there?” Treace asked Toothed, not minding Half-toothed in the least.
“I’d say most’a em r’fine,” Toothed said.
“Thanks for the help,” Treace said, knowing he didn’t get any.
“Welcome, citzen,” Half-toothed said.
Treace hoped that not all the guardsmen were that ignorant and that most of the city wasn’t that poor. From his trip through Haven on his way to the College, he didn’t remember any buildings as bad as the ones that were around here, but he arrived at the northern gate before, not the southwestern one as he did this trip. He went out to the docks on the southeastern side of the city on that trip. He hoped the parts of the city that he had seen were at least still the way he remembered. He decided he would walk through the city and find out.
He walked toward the largest buildings in the city, which were still some ways away, even though he could see them dominating the horizon. As he got closer to those buildings, he could see where some of the older rundown ones had been replaced with some nicer ones. After a while longer, he reached a point where the rundown buildings were a memory. The buildings in their place weren’t as nice as the ones in the distance, but by comparison, they were still much nicer. He figured every large city had their older or poorer sections, and he was glad this one seemed to be relatively small in comparison to the whole city.
The city was very large and when he could finally see the two large structures; where he guessed was the center of the city, it had taken him about an hour. He had passed hundreds of people about the streets and until recently, none of them said anything and very few returned his wave. He had seen a few other guardsmen, but decided that he would get a feel for the city for himself.
He walked by a few restaurants and his stomach grumbled in complaint every time he passed one. He knew he would have to eat soon, but wanted to find an inn first. He had passed a few, but their prices were a little too high for what he wanted. He needed to stay for a few months and they wanted nearly all his money to do it. He decided he wanted to see more of the city and hopefully finding an inn that wasn’t charging what he felt were aberrant prices.
It wasn’t much longer before he came to a familiar place. Well, a place with a familiar name at least; The Fishermead Inn. He highly doubted the owner of this establishment was the same as the one in Lake City, but he guessed it was possible. He decided it must be as good as any and went inside.
Only having the Lumber Inn and the two bars in Kilindric that also had rooms to go by, he was impressed with the cleanliness of the interior of the place. The two bars in Kilindric weren’t the cleanest of places, but his mother worked at the Lumber Inn and Treace thought it was very clean. The owner of this place must take a lot of pride in their work. With just one look he knew the prices would be just as high here, but he was running out of daylight and he was terribly hungry.
“Come on in,” a cheerful female voice said. “Welcome to the Fishermead.”
Treace looked behind the bar to find a robust woman who had to be in her late thirties or early forties. Even though she was quite thick, Treace couldn’t help but admit she was lovely. She had striking blue eyes and her round face wore a beautiful smile that Treace guessed brought her more tips than her ample bosom that sprouted from her bodice. He walked toward the bar.
“I haven’t seen you in here before, handsome,” she said, her smile just as large as ever.
“New to town, ma’am,” Treace said. “I’m looking for a room.”
“Call me Dinella, hun, you’ll make me feel old if you call me ma’am,” she said pursing her full lips in a pout.
“I apologize, Dinella, that was not my intent,” Treace said, not wanting to hurt her feelings.
“Oh, hush, young man, just let me look at you,” Dinella said, looking Treace up and down.
He was starting to feel uncomfortable.
“Young, handsome, well-spoken, and courteous. I’ll tell you what, if you can outlast old Dinella here, I’ll let you stay for free,” she said, tugging at her bodice and lewdly winking at him.
Treace had no idea what to say. There had been several ladies at the bars in Kilindric tha
t flirted with him, but he had never been openly propositioned like that before.
“Oh, you leave him alone, Dinella. You should be ashamed, look at how red his face is,” a portly man about her age said. He came around the bar as he talked and slapped her on her behind as he passed. She started a little but smiled even more because of it.
“Fine, you wouldn’t of lasted anyway,” Dinella said, walking away and shaking her large rear end as she walked.
“Sorry about that,” the man said. “She just does that to get under my skin, that’s all.”
“That’s what you think,” Dinella called from another room.
“My name is Denard, and you’ve met my wife, Dinella,” the man said, extending his hand.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” Treace said. He wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, but he found it very odd that she would be propositioning a strange young man just to get under her husband’s skin.
“I know, Denard, Dinella, they’re so close, aren’t they?” Denard said.
It looked to Treace like Denard thought the puzzled look that Treace knew was on his face was because of how similar his and his wife’s names were. He didn’t know why Denard wouldn’t assume it was because his wife just propositioned someone in front of him.
“Yes, they are quite close, but…” Treace started to say.
“That just gets everybody,” Denard said, laughing and cutting Treace off.
“Did your wife just…”
“Leave? No, she’s still here,” Denard said, cutting Treace off again.
“I’m still here!” Dinella called from the other room.
“Alright sir, I’m just going to…” Treace started.
“Get a room for the night?” Denard finished.
“No, leave,” Treace said, happy to finally finish a sentence. He turned and headed for the door.
“But I thought you…” Denard managed to say before Treace cut him off.
“Were tired of inconsiderate and crazy people? I am,” Treace said and left the Fishermead. He hoped he would never return.
He walked back to the last inn that he remembered passing, which was close to the baron’s palace and went inside.
The Palace Inn was obviously named due to its close proximity to the baron’s palace, but the place did not live up to what its name implied when it came to size. The main room of the inn was much smaller than the Fishermead, but Treace thought that as long as the owner, Red by name, didn’t flirt with him or finish his sentences, he’d be okay. Red didn’t do anything odd when Treace was in here about an hour ago, so he figured it would be alright. He approached the bar and sat at the only remaining seat.
Treace figured Red got his name due to the bright red fiery hair the man had on his head. While the inn wasn’t nearly as clean as the Fishermead, it wasn’t as if it was filthy. It was just as clean as the Lumber Inn back in Lake City. Red was busy bringing food and beverages to people and Treace didn’t see anyone else helping the man. Luckily for Red, his building wasn’t that large so he didn’t have to go very far to deliver his orders. Treace wondered if that was part of Red’s plan.
“Decided my prices weren’t so bad after all, eh?” Red told Treace a few minutes later, seemingly complete with the latest rounds.
“Not so much the prices, sir. It’s just that you don’t seem crazy,” Treace told him honestly.
“I see you been to the Fishermead then,” Red said, smiling broadly.
“I couldn’t leave fast enough,” Treace said.
“Big D hit on ya?” Red asked.
“She said if I could outlast her that I could stay for free,” Treace said. He could feel the corners of his mouth turn down at the thought. Red laughed a good laugh at that.
“Well, tell you what. You pay for the room and tonight’s meal is on me,” Red said.
“Deal,” Treace told him.
Red nodded and went back to where Treace guessed was the kitchen and came back a few moments later with a large bowl of steaming soup and a hefty chunk of bread. Treace’s stomach voiced its approval at the sight of dinner and Treace dug in after a nod of thanks to Red.
As Treace finished up his bowl of potato soup, he noticed that the inn had mostly cleared out. There were a handful of people left drinking ale or mead, but most of the people there to eat had already finished and left.
“Drink?” Red asked, placing a key down in front of Treace.
“Wine, please,” Treace said, taking the key.
“Ah, a wine drinker,” Red said as if it were something rare. “Usually don’t get too many of you in here.”
“What do you mean?” Treace asked, curious to know what Red meant. He placed the requisite amount of coins where the key was.
“Oh, well, it’s just that most wine drinkers stay on the northern side of the palace, not come down here to the south side. But, since you said you were from out of town, I guess you wouldn’t know that,” Red said, scooping up the coins.
“Are people told what they can and can’t drink?” Treace asked, confused.
“No, not at all. You’re definitely from out of town, where you from?” Red asked.
“Lake City, sir.”
“Ah, one of northern towns. I suppose there probably weren’t different parts of the city there, was there?”
Treace wasn’t sure what Red was referring to, so he shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrow in response.
“A wealthy area, a poor area, an area for the market, a dock area, an industrial area. Those kinds of things. All the people that belong to one of those groups usually live and work there. Except the wealthy, usually they don’t work,” Red clarified.
It started to make sense to Treace. He remembered seeing the poor area already; the area in which he arrived. He’d been to the dock area before and guessed from what Red said about wine drinkers that the wealthy area was north of the palace. He was used to drinking wine with Heral and Moff, but knew that most people of his class drank either ale or mead; it was a little cheaper.
“What area are we in?” Treace asked.
“Well, you might call it the common area,” Red said. “People from this area aren’t poor, and not rich either. That’s part of the reason, but also because other areas need to travel through here to get to other parts of the city. It’s sort of the central area.”
“I never saw a wealthy person in the poor area,” Treace said.
“And you won’t, either,” Red said.
“Then how do they travel south? Isn’t that the main road in and out from the south?” Treace asked.
“Used to be, yeah. Now the wealthy people will leave out of the west or the north road and go south from there,” Red said.
That explained why Treace didn’t see any wealthy people when he entered from the south.
“You see, the wealthy might come to the common area, but not for too long, but they would never set foot on those filthy streets in the poor area. They’re afraid they’ll soil their expensive shoes,” Red said.
“Can the poor go into the wealthy area?” Treace asked. He never had to know these things in Lake City or at the College. People were people and everyone went anywhere they wanted in the city.
“They can, but they don’t. They get all kinds of sour looks from the rich folk and eventually the guards will ask them to leave.”
“Speaking of the guards,” Treace said. “I met a few in the poor section and they seemed as if they weren’t the best choice for guards.”
“You know much about being a guard?” Red asked.
“Well, no,” Treace admitted.
“I could tell.”
“Why do you say that?” Treace asked.
“How do you think a son of a noble would feel if he had to do guard duty in the poor section of Haven?” Red asked.
Treace understood then. It was actually a very good idea. Have guards from that area patrol the area. That way the guards wouldn’t be too tough on the people since that’s where they worked and live
d. “He wouldn’t like it much. So do all guards work in the areas in which they’re from?” Treace asked.
“Not all, but the commander is a smart man and tries to when he can,” Red said.
“How do you know so much?” Treace asked.
“I’m a bartender,” Red said as if it were explanation enough.
“I see,” Treace said. “And where is the area where one might find a forge?”
“Looking to have some work done are ya?” Red asked.
“Actually, no, I’m a blacksmith and I’m looking for work,” Treace said.
“Is that so,” Red said. His eyebrows rose slightly and from the tone in his voice, Treace knew Red doubted the young man in front of him was a very good smith, or even one at all.
“It is indeed,” Treace told him.
“Well, a man has to have a trade of some kind,” Red said. “You’ll find nearly all of the smiths to the north of the docks.”
“Nearly?” Treace asked.
“There’s a smith near to the baron’s palace, just outside to the east. He does all of the work for the commander’s men. Every other smith is near the docks.”
“Thanks,” Treace said. Red nodded and walked off to check on his other patrons.
Treace finished his wine, which was more potent than the wine he was used to in Kilindric, and went up to his room.
The room was larger than what he thought, given the size of the main room downstairs. There were four rooms in the inn and he was in the one closest to the stairs. It was furnished with a small bed next to a window, an end table with a wash basin in it, a small closet for clothes, and a small table with a single chair not far from the door. Both tables had a candle on them, which Treace lit. He could still see without even one of them being lit, even with the sun over the horizon it produced enough light for him to see, but not for much longer.
He sat his travel pack on the table and found his journal inside it. He pulled out his ink and quill, and then opened the journal to a blank page and he began to write. He wanted to write down the areas of the city as Red explained them. He wanted to walk more of the city so he could add a small map later on. He added notes about the forges and concluded with a part saying he hadn’t heard anyone mention anything about the College or its brothers yet, for good or bad.
