The River King

Chapter 14: King Joses

Finneas was awoken early by a hard knock on the door. It was Marcus. The man said Brienne planned on leaving as soon as possible. Finneas stretched his arms and climbed out of the bed. He rubbed his eyes and opened the door. The same ginger cat who'd greeted him the day before rushed into the room. Finneas felt obliged to give the cat a scratch around the ear. The cat seemed to like this, chirping as the boy pet him.

"Nice cat," Finneas remarked. "Does it have a name?"

"Me wife calls it Chuck," the innkeeper replied. "Found it as a kitten. Someone had thrown chucked it away. Margery thought it be appropriate to call the thing Chuck."

The cat followed Finneas downstairs. Marcus's wife Margery had prepared the kid some breakfast – oats with golden syrup poured atop. The food felt fresh, unlike the porridge that was served back in the orphanage. Besides the half-rotten food, the Matron would also refuse to buy syrup, or anything to sweeten the meal. Cook Nanci would occasionally buy sugar, using her own money, but that was rare – the woman couldn't always able to afford to buy food herself.

As Finneas ate his food, Brienne returned from the courtyard back of the inn. Dashing from the kitten, Margery rushed to the table with another bowl of oats. The innkeeper's wife looked quite young; her pale skin lacked any wrinkles. What threw Finneas off was the woman's grey hair. He found it rather strange a woman could grey so early.

"Thanks," Brienne said as the woman placed the bowl on the table.

"You're welcome, my lady," Margery responded, before leaving the two to themselves.

"So, we're going to meet Cymon's brother," Finneas asked.

"Cymon... oh, Prince Neco," Brienne quickly realised who Finneas was talking about. "We'll be meeting the Exiled King sometime today. We first need to make a trip to the temple district."

"Temple district?"

Finneas remember glancing at a map in one of Teller's books. The temple district, a large temple complex, was situated on the other side of the river. That was near the Palace of Kings. Did they truly want to go near where his uncle resided? Surely the governor would be looking for him.

"You'll need to wear a hat or something," Brienne explained. "I'm sure Marcus would have some lying around."

Finneas's curly hair was a dead giveaway and certainly would attract attention. He understood why Brienne would want him to hide that. Still, this didn't answer his question.

"But why the temple district," he asked again. "Surely that's not safe?"

"It's risky," Brienne replied. "But the temple is where the symbols are. A friend of mine, a man named Hextor can sneak us in."

"You want to see if we can find the symbols?" Finneas was beginning to understand Brienne's intentions.

"Exactly," she responded. "The sooner we leave, the better."

Finneas quickly finished eating his oats. He asked Marcus whether he could borrow a hat, or something, to hide his curly hair. The innkeeper found an old beanie a patron once left. While Margery has washed it, the beanie still smelt of alcohol, and possibly vomit. Finneas wasn't too keen on wearing the beanie, he wasn't too keen to be caught by the governor's men either.

They quickly scurried through the city, using mainly the backroads, especially whenever they came upon a heavy guard presence. Finneas felt his muscles nervously tense as they pass the Palace of Kings. Finneas was still worried one of the guards would recognise him. Luckily, this didn't happen. The simple thought of being caught again made his stomach hurt.