Aldis came through the inn door talking with durn.
"Landlady! A room, a bed for both of us, and hot water before I fall over."
The woman behind the desk was old and broad-shouldered, with grey hair pinned tightly away from her neck. She looked at him with the tired indifference of someone who had been dealing with travelers for thirty years and had long since stopped being impressed by any of them.
"How many nights?"
"One."
Aldis slapped a low-grade crystal onto the counter.
"And put me somewhere with noise. I am not sleeping in a cupboard."
She picked up the crystal, weighed it in her palm, and set it back down.
"Two nights for that."
Aldis stared at her.
"For that I thought caelrith was expensive?"
"Two nights for that."
He pulled a face dramatic enough for three tables to notice.
"Fine. Two nights and the water. Two buckets, hot."
"Here are your keys and as for water it comes when it comes."
Aldis snatched up the key.
"Wonderful establishment."
Half the common room watched him climb the stairs.
That was exactly what he wanted.
The room had two narrow beds, a small washstand, a cracked basin, and a window overlooking the inn’s rear yard. Below, carts stood beneath the fading evening light, their drivers unloading sacks while stable boys moved between them.
Aldis shut the door.
The loud traveler disappeared.
"Wash your hands. Face and neck too."
Durn raised an eyebrow.
"You expect someone to recognize us from stone dust?"
"I expect someone to remember that we were anywhere near that chamber if they notice it later." Aldis rolled up his sleeves. "There was dust all over us when we left. Wash it off."
Durn glanced toward the window.
"And then?"
"We go downstairs."
"To investigate?"
"To listen."
Aldis moved to the side of the window watching the yard through the gap in the curtain.
"I will sit somewhere near the door. I will talk loudly gathering their attention"
"I had noticed."
"You will sit beside me and support when necessary."
Durn gave him a dry look.
"That part should be easy."
"Good. Because while I am making half the room regret having ears, you will listen to everything behind me."
"How much noise are you planning to make?"
"Enough that four men know my name before midnight."
Aldis turned from the window.
"And not enough that they remember the names of anybody else who arrived with or after me."
Durn understood.
Their purpose was not to be invisible.It was to make sure the wrong person was memorable.
"A distraction."
"yes and a very good one."
"And the others?"
"They enter after us, separately. Quietly. Different tables. No obvious connection."
Durn nodded while Aldis smiled.
"Tonight, I am the fool everyone remembers."
Soon someone kicked the bottom of the door,aldis opened the door.
A boy stood outside with two buckets.
"Hot water."
Aldis looked inside one and grinned.
"For once, she listened."
He stepped aside and let the boy carry them in.
Ghara and Thorne arrived four minutes later.
They approached the desk as though they had never seen one another before.
Ghara placed a crystal on the counter.
"Room. Two nights."
The landlady looked at the payment, then at her.
"Ground floor, east wing. Backs onto the yard. Carts start moving before dawn so it will be somewhat noisy during the day."
"Then not that one."
The old woman looked at her for a moment.
"Top floor. Same price. Stairs are poor."
"Top floor then."
A key slid across the counter.
Thorne picked the keys silently and went upstairs.
Vale entered last.
Pib and Elenwe followed several paces behind him,vale placed two crystals on the desk.
"Two rooms. Two nights."
"First floor and second."
"Fine."
She entered the three bookings into the ledger within a quarter of an hour.
She asked none of them where they had come from.
She did not need to.
It was market week. Travelers had filled the city, and strangers were pouring into inns every evening.
When morning came, the only one she was likely to remember was the loud man demanding hot water.
The common room was almost full by the time the eight returned downstairs.
Every good table had been taken. Men stood along the walls with mugs of ale in their hands, and the air thick with the smell of stew, wet wool, smoke, and ale.
Carters from the northern road crowded near the fire, steam rising from their coats. A long table in the center belonged to harbor workers. Near the hearth, four merchants had been drinking since before sunset, while a group of stall women argued loudly enough to even put the best diplomat to shame.
The room was noisy, but not so noisy that conversation disappeared.
Perfect place for information soon each of three groups took their places.
Aldis and Durn took the small table nearest the door.
Ghara, Thorne, and Renna claimed two seats at the end of the long table, making room for themselves without seeking anyone’s attention.
Vale, Pib, and Elenwe settled against the side wall.
From there, they could see almost the entire room.
Aldis immediately raised his voice.
"Landlady!"
The old woman looked over.
"What have you got for the dinner?"
She walked over carrying a slate.
"Fish stew. Mutton and barley. Pie."
"Whats the best from all of them."
"Mutton. Mostly."
"Then stew. Bread. And ale."
"You paying now?"
"I said ale, didn’t I?"
She gave him a flat look.
"I mean paying."
"I pay when it arrives."
She walked away.
Aldis leaned back, satisfied while durn lowered his eyes to his cup.
Their work had begun.
Within ten minutes, Aldis knew the names of four carters.
Within twenty, they knew where he supposedly came from, what he had paid for a mule two weeks earlier, which road he hated, and exactly what he thought of the northern gate.
He argued over mule prices, complained about road tolls, insulted one particular bridge.
One of the carters called him a liar.
Aldis called him a thief.
A third man bought them both drinks just to keep the argument going.
Soon the stew arrived in heavy wooden bowls. Fish, onion, something green, and enough pepper to make the broth sting the throat. The bread was dark and dense.
Durn ate slowly while listening.
The room gave them plenty to hear.
Mule prices,River tolls.
A shipment delayed at the southern harbour.
A merchant complaining that steel had become more expensive.
Two sailors arguing over whether the harbor master had taken a bribe.
Nothing useful.
Then the talk shifted.
"The alarm went off again this afternoon."
A man’s voice came from near the hearth.
"That old thing goes off when a bird lands on the roof."
"I saw the guards running toward Fisher’s Row."
"Guards run everywhere everyday nothing new."
The conversation died immediately,nobody seemed especially interested.
Vale heard it,So did Renna.
Neither reacted.
They simply continued eating.
The alarm meant little to them.
The rumors about the machine were what mattered.
They needed a name,a place or anything that might tell them where that machine had come from.
Just then someone spoke from the table nearest to the fire.
Four men sat there with empty cups scattered between them. They had been drinking long before the eight had arrived, and one of them had reached the stage where he had stopped caring whether anybody wanted to hear what he had to say.
"—and I am telling you, I saw it with my own eyes."
His companions groaned.
"You saw nothing."
"I saw four crates."
"You saw crates."
"Four crates and one long barrel."
That drew a few glances.
The drunk leaned forward.
"The crates came this morning,heavy enough that they needed a crane."
"What was in them?"
He looked around as if the entire inn had been waiting for the question.
"I don’t know."
Laughter erupted from his own table.
The drunk slammed his cup down.
"I don’t know what was inside. I know what was written on the crates."
That quieted them.
"What?"
He pointed his finger for emphasis.
"Elarion."
The word seemed oddly clean in the middle of the noise.
"Elarion," he repeated. "Burned right into the wood."
One of the men beside him snorted.
"Never heard of it."
"That is because you know nothing."
"I know Elarion is somewhere north."
"Farther than north."
"How far?"
The drunk spread his hands.
"Far enough that nobody sane goes there in winter."
A few men laughed.
He ignored them.
"And those crates weren’t the interesting part."
"What was?"
"The weapons."
That word changed the room.
Aldis stopped gesturing for half a heartbeat before continuing his story about the bridge.
Durn’s fingers remained around his cup.
At the far table, Renna slowly tore another piece of bread.
Nobody looked toward the hearth.
The drunk continued.
"They’re making things up there that nobody else makes."
"Cannons?"
"More than cannons."
"Then what?"
"I saw the markings. Didn’t understand half of them. But the dockworkers knew."
One of the sailors leaned closer.
"What did they say?"
"That Elarion was sending weapons all over the coast."
He began counting on his fingers.
"Valdris. The Concord. Asterion."
"Buying from them?"
"Apparently."
"That makes no sense."
The drunk laughed.
"Neither do the weapons."
Someone from another table called out.
"What weapons?"
The man raised his cup.
"You’re all asking the wrong question."
He swallowed.
"You should be asking why every kingdom suddenly wants what Elarion is building."
A few heads turned.
The room had become quieter without anybody consciously deciding to listen.
The drunk leaned back.
"I was at Marrow Head. I watched those crates come off that ship. The dockmaster had guards around them. Whatever was inside, he wasn’t letting ordinary men get close."
"Maybe expensive weapons."
"Of course they’re expensive."
"Then why are you making such a story about them?"
"Because I’ve seen plenty of expensive weapons."
He pointed toward the door.
"But I’ve never seen anything like the machine that came through the harbor last month."
That earned silence.
"What machine?"
The drunk smiled.
"Now you’re interested."
His companions cursed him.
He laughed and lifted his cup.
"You’ll have to buy me another if you want me to continue."
The room slowly returned to its former noise.
A chair scraped,someone shouted for ale.
The stall women resumed their argument.
The sailors went back to their cards.
But at three separate tables, nobody had forgotten the word.
Elarion.
Durn had stopped halfway through tearing a piece of bread.
He finished the motion only after several seconds.
Aldis continued his story without missing the rhythm.
"—so naturally I told the mule driver if he wanted another coin from me, he’d better learn to repair his own axle—"
His eyes never left the man across from him.
But his ears had stopped listening to the carters.
At the side wall, Vale finished his ale.
He placed the cup on the table.
Then he stood and started walking away towards the stairs just like another tired traveler deciding he had had enough for the night.
Pib followed several minutes later.
Elenwe went after him.
Ghara and Renna waited longer.
Thorne finished the last of his bread before rising.
One by one, they disappeared upstairs.
Aldis remained below.
He laughed at something one of the carters said and bought another round.
Durn stayed with him.
The distraction had to last but the search had finally given them something worth following.
A territory.
A name.
Elarion.
And somewhere in that northern territory, someone was building weapons unlike anything they had ever seen.
Maybe also including the machine that somehow the demons are using.
Tonight, they had finally found where to start looking.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter