The Princess's Servant

2. The Tavern

Holden was having a wonderful evening. After spending all day in town sucking down ale and sucking up Lailoy's finest fruits and delicacies, he was ready to top off the night with some adventure. He took a look inside the coin purse that he had... obtained for this outing and found it still half full. It was amazing how cheap a good time could be when it was at no cost to him.

He tugged on his thin wool cloak as a coolness settled in the air. The stars rose and the crescent moon set as the color drained from the sky. He looked around him at the wood frame shops and the thatch grass rooftops and made the realization that he'd already visited each and every one. Holden's brow sunk. That couldn't be right, he thought. His fun couldn't be over so soon.

With a little huff, he wandered further into town, closer to the castle. It was an uphill trek from the city walls to the guarded gates, and his soft shoes dug into the gaps in the cobblestone as he climbed. His dark blue tunic pants shifted easily around his lean body and breathed in the evening air as he went. At the top of the road, just beyond the inner gates, he looked out at all the little structures to see if there were any he had missed. As he searched, his eyes were drawn to a light that danced in the distance.

He squinted his eyes and thought he made out the structure of a building with a pale horse or two stationed beside it.

Holden turned to a guard. "Excuse me," he called. The guard shifted and gripped his spear tight in his hand. "Is that a tavern over there?" He asked. "On the edge of the farmland?" He pointed at the building with a slender hand.

The guard exhaled through his steel mouthguard and cut Holden a glance. "That's the Tavern on the Edge. But I wouldn't recommend heading out there on a night like this. It's not for the faint of heart."

Holden couldn't resist the smile that crept onto his lips. "I think I'll manage," he told the guard as he started off down the bumpy road. His sight was set for the very borders of the kingdom. His sight was set for the Tavern on the Edge.

*****

In the daytime, Holden found that the taverns of Lailoy had been patroned primarily by civilians, shopkeepers, guards on break, guards not on break, and the occasional sketchy character (which added interest, he thought). So when Holden walked through the rowan wood door of the Tavern on the Edge, these were more or less the types of people he expected to see. Who he found instead was:

A snarling, busty barkeep,
A sobbing man,
A pantless drunk,
A woman with dozens of tattoos and far more knives,
A boy of no more than twelve stabbing repeatedly at a roast,
Two red-bearded twins playing pinfinger on each other,
Four separate mysterious hooded figures,
A pack of people crowded around a table with voices and coin purses raised,
And an eldery man open-mouth licking his singular tooth while staring Holden in the eye.

Holden ducked his head and smiled at the scene. The young man walked up to the snarling barkeep and slammed his coin purse down on the beer-stained table. "I'll have a cup of your finest ale, madam," he said with an enormous grin.

The barkeep looked to Holden, looked to the coin purse, then looked to him again. "I wouldn't be flashing that sack around here, boy," she said with a sour tone. "Not if you intend on keeping it."

Holden watched the heavy set woman pour him a drink. He smirked and stared at the back of her dark hair. "And if I intend to lose it?" He asked.

The woman turned back to him with his frothy drink. "Then I suggest you try your hand at one of our games. You're sure to lose it there," she told him.

Holden smiled wide as he took his coin purse in one hand and tankard in the other. He sauntered over to the crowd and peered past shoulders and moving heads to see two people sitting across from each other at a worn-down table. On his left was a chestnut haired man who gripped his forehead with his fingertips and scrunched his shoulders high. On his right was...