The Sword Maiden

Sabbatical Protest

We spent the rest of that afternoon cleaning out the other rooms.  There were three of them, all somehow worse than the ones before them.  We found one more dead rat in room 8.  

Then we started in on cleaning out the stable.  It wasn't near as bad as the rooms, because it was used more, but there were still some nasty corners.  Meanwhile, Redwar climbed up a ladder that looked a little shaky to me and set to work repairing a hole in the tavern's roof. 

I realized later that the look of indifference on the tavern owner's face wasn't that at all.  It was tiredness.  He was haggard, and the fatigue made him sharp in tone.  

This confirmed the strangeness of the tavern to us, because surely, in a town this size, a boy not old enough to work in the mines, or at least one woman, could be paid to help out.  But it appeared that the tavern keeper earned just enough to keep it running and not much else.  Furthermore, I had the vague impression that no one wanted to help out. 

We sat down to dinner just as the evening crowd started to come in.  I expected the tavern to become full of jolly, good-natured fellows, as the Finnleys' had always been, with a card game or two and lots of conversation.  

But again, that was not the case.  Most of men ordered their dinner, a beer, and sat in huddles of two or three.  Some of them even sat alone.  

This caught all of our group's attention.  All of us were constantly looking around, trying to find a clue for the reason for this strange scene.  

This was repaid by the guests, who also looked at us with curiosity, but mostly suspicion.  I caught more than one man staring at Bound, or Valeria's sword Bane, or one of Daxton's throwing knives.  

One man I caught looking at Bound I managed to look him in the eye.  He was taken aback and glanced away, out of embarrassment but also, it appeared, out of a bit of fear.  

This caused my interest to multiply a hundredfold.  When I brought my gaze back to the table, Redwar caught me eye.  He'd seen the whole exchange, and the glint in his eyes with the twist of his lips told me he was cooking something up.  

I smiled slightly and took another bite of my buttered bread.  Now this was going to be fun. 

But as it turned out, we never had a chance to use whatever it was Redwar was planning.  Just as we finished our supper and started to move our chairs back to stand and leave, three men rose and came for our table.

They had a hostile, bolder look in their eye that set me and everyone else on edge.  I stood up from my chair and stepped out into the open, next to Valeria, where I had room to move.  

The air in the tavern changed to one of tension.  They stopped a few feet from us.  The leader of the three, a man with red hair streaked with gray and well muscled, spoke first.  "Who is your leader?"  

The question seemed odd to me but Redwar stepped forward.  "I am.  And who are you?  What do you want with us?"   

"We want to know what is your business here in Time's Tale."  

"We're passing through, we're on our way to Klada, the capital city."  

The leader narrowed his eyes.  "So you're not Mayor Tale's men?" 

Valeria and I exchanged surprised glances as Redwar said, "No, we don't even know Mayor Tale."  

The strained lines of the leader's face relaxed.  "Then you're not here to-" here he cut himself off, seeming to think about his next sentence.  "You're not going to do anything for him?"