Iron and Wood #Wattys2017

Chapter Nine

"Templar, I'm hungry."

"So you've told me," Shal muttered.

It was the time of day when the sun approached the horizon and turned its light to gold. The horse had run hard and was still sweating and panting, and by the time they slowed to a trot again, the sounds of the forest creatures were only punctuated by Ella's incessant whining.

"Are we going to stop soon?"

"No," Shal said for about the sixth time. "We are going to keep moving until the light is gone."

She slowed the horse to a halt.

They had reached a hill, leading down through the trees. The forest was more open here, and Shal could see a small village at its base.

"Can't we stop there?" Ella's annoyingly high-pitched voice rose again. "Wouldn't they have food?"

Shal exhaled slowly. There was only a crust of bread left in the pack.  At this rate, the trackers would be able to hear them a mile away.

"We'll stop in." She tapped the horse's sides with her heels, and he trotted tiredly down the hill.

"For the night?" Ella asked hopefully.

"No, for half an hour at most," Shal snapped as the horse reached the bottom of the hill. There was a tavern in sight, with a hitching post outside. "Do not talk about what we're doing as long as we're here..."

"Can't we stay for the night?" Ella griped. "I don't want to sleep in the woods again if I can help it..."

"We can't help it." Shal dismounted and roughly lifted the girl down.  

She pulled her cloak shut to cover Ella's grubby nightgown before tying the horse on.  They climbed the two steps to the door of the tavern.

The tavern smelled like pig, both live and roasting, and was occupied by a dozen men who had clearly come from the road that Shal was avoiding – farmers, it seemed, in their wool clothing, and three merchants with finery covered in plain cloaks. A warm fire crackled behind the counter with pork turning on a spit within, and a fat hog lay on straw right next to it. The scrubbed bar-top was the only clean thing in the room.

Ella wrinkled her nose as she stepped inside, hanging back near the door and holding the hem of her gown off the floor.  Shal approached the bar quickly.

"Imperial business," she said curtly to the young woman behind the bar.

The maiden, in a worn floral dress, put down the glass she was washing slowly.

"What do you want?" she asked nervously.

"I am escorting this lady north, on orders from the Captain of the Templars," Shal wondered how long she would be able to use Marius as an excuse. News traveled slowly in Ceyose, but it would catch up to them soon enough. "Feed her. I need a fresh horse as well, and bread for the road."

The girl nodded, slightly pale.  She beckoned over a young man from one of the tables, whispering to him.  He glanced fearfully at Shal before hurrying out the door, past Ella.

"Take this as payment. It's pure silver, and enchanted." Shal dropped the silver key on the bar-top.

She went back to the girl, brusquely steering her by one arm to a table near the bar, away from the men in the back.

"Eat what they give you. Don't complain." She turned back towards the door. "I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Ella called at her back, getting no response.