Kingdom Come

Arrival

Loki pushed his way through the crowd towards the front of the tavern. He sat down next to a tall man at the bar and ordered a whiskey. The barmaid brought his drink and smiled faintly at him before walking back hastily to the kitchens .

"Remove your hood."

"What? Why?" Loki questioned. "I thought we didn't want people to be suspicious of our transactions."

"We don't." The tall man said.

"Then shouldn't you be hiding your face? And why are we sitting up here in the light and not back th-"

"Because suspicious people sit in the back, in the dark, rapped in a cloak, and I own this tavern. Now, remove your hood." The tall man finished the sentence in a threatening whisper, and Loki quickly obeyed. "Did you get what I needed?" The man asked as he eyed his empty glass.

"Yes, I did." Loki pulled out a large wine bottle and sat it on the counter. "The finest wine in the Five Kingdoms! Very expensive and extremely difficult to get!" Loki announced loud enough to be heard by a few people but still quiet enough to make it seem like a normal conversation between a dealer and a client. He leaned closer so that only the tavern owner could hear and whispered, "You have NO idea what I went through to get this for you. Why do you want this anyway?" Loki pulled out a second bottle of wine and handed it to the man who eyed the thick red substance as it slowly settled in the bottle. He removed the cork from the top and moved the bottle to his nose. Immediately his eyes flashed darkly; his vision becoming blurred for only a second before clearing intensely. All of his senses were heightened from the smell alone, and he could not wait for a taste.

"My business is my own, and you are not getting paid to ask questions." The man said, still in a daze. His eyes suddenly snapped to the meet Loki's, "This wine has an excellent bouquet. I'll take it." He pulled out a large purse and tossed it onto the table in front of Loki. The dealer frowned at the purse, there were not near enough coins to meet the price they had originally agreed upon. As if he could read Loki's mind, the tavern owner responded, "The money is all there. I simply pay in gold coins not silver."

"I didn't know that a tavern owner could afford to be that particular about his currency." Loki stated doubtfully.

"I guess you could say that I'm sensitive to that particular metal." The man replied, "Count it if you like; it's all there." He raised an eyebrow and the look in his eyes dared the dealer to question him. Loki struggled for a moment before picking up the purse and heading towards the door. The tavern owner looked down to the crate of bottles at his feet and pulled his lips into a smile as he ran his tongue against one of his sharp teeth. "Hello, Azrael."

*****

"God..." She sat up rubbing the back of her head where she had been struck as she sat up on the bed. "What the hell was that for?" She looked around the room. There was a table with two chairs on the far side of the room next to a hearth, a stone slab with a single candle and a few bloody rags, the bed she sat on, and a small chest at the foot of the bed. "Wow, there's not even a window in here." She said quietly to herself. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and stretched her arms high above her head; it felt so good to be able to use her limbs again. She slowly made her way over to the table to look for food. A small waterskin hung above the hearth, which she greedly snatched from the wall and began to drink from. After she had taken the last drop into her mouth she breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the pouch. She didn't remember water tasting that good. She clung protectively to the waterskin as a mother holds her newborn child and returned to her search for food. After checking in the most likely and unlikely places in the house and finding nothing, she decided to move her search outside. "Maybe they have a separate building larder or something?" She dropped the waterskin and panic rose with in her again. The door was locked. She was trapped again.