An Epic of a Knight and Valkyrie

Chapter 2

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“So then,” Roy clapped his hands together as we finished tying our horses firmly. We were in Halifax now, and the sun was beginning to set, putting us in a setting of blazing orange and warmth. It would have been nice, if not for the smell of the devil’s nectar floating through the air from every passerby’s mouth. “Shall we begin by asking around?”

 “If we do that, they’d see us coming from a mile away.” I reminded him as I secured my own sword in my belt. I drew my own traveling cloak around me, as did Roy, but we kept our hoods down. We weren’t afraid to be recognized. Especially since anyone looking would be able to see Roy’s shield bulging on his back. “We can ask a few people, but we have to be casual.”

 “What do you guys intend to do?” Gwendolyn asked quietly. “Confront them and demand they give themselves up?”

 “We’ll fight if they decide to be stubborn.” Roy chuckled. “But we have to try and be a symbol of peace.”

So we began to make our rounds, pacing throughout the entire town. From what I saw, it was business as usual. No one seemed to be causing trouble anywhere and no one seemed to know anything about pirates. Perhaps it would have been better to just seek their ship out.

Gwendolyn and I ended up waiting outside a tavern as Roy went off to pass waste. After a few hours of searching, we hadn’t come closer to finding our quarries. We did, however, find a few people who had seen some people passing by who looked like they weren’t from around here, and ‘smelled like the sea’.

“That’s not so convincing.” Gwendolyn had decided to voice her opinion then. “This is a port town—everyone smells like the sea.”

But it was true—the breeze always had salt on it. But we had no choice but to go in the general direction we were pointed toward.

Gwendolyn had vanished from my side before I knew it as well, grumbling something about needing a drink. At first, I let her be, not wanting to go into the tavern if I could avoid it. But it didn’t take me long to realize that she probably didn’t have any coins that we used for currency here in England.

My stomach churned as I strode into the tavern, digging my hand into my bag to grab a few coins to hand Gwendolyn before rushing out again. The smell of alcohol was not a welcome scent to me.

But seeing Gwendolyn sitting at a table surrounded by slovenly looking men didn’t appeal to me either.

It wouldn’t have bothered me if that was what she wanted. From the looks of it, they had bought her some whiskey to drink and were trying to joke around with her. But they’d also ripped her cloak off and one had wrapped his arm around her shoulders tightly. I almost wished that she had decided to bring her axe along with her, rather than leave it with the horse. Then these guys might have had a second though as she struggled to ignore them, drinking the alcohol quickly in large swallows. For a woman, she sure could drink. Maybe her temper was burning off the alcohol quickly.

“There you are, Gwendolyn.” I sighed as I approached the table, ignoring the filthy looks that were aimed at me immediately. “You left in a hurry, so I was worried.”

 “Are you this girl’s guy?” The one with his arm around Gwendolyn asked with a raised eyebrow. His accent was so thick; I could hardly make sense of his words.