Tor. He thought it likely he might find an old friend or two there. But Caledan was not certain he was ready for the memories that came with meeting old friends. Instead he guided Mista toward another inn called the Wandering Wyvern, where he knew he could find good drink and good rest.
Just then a shadowy form shambled from the dark maw of an alley, and Caledan's hand slipped to the knife in his boot. The form stepped into the dim circle of illumination below a sputtering torch. Seeing it was an old woman, Caledan relaxed. She was clad in tattered rags wrapped about her shapeless form, and her white hair was filthy and matted against her head. She didn't seem to see Caledan riding toward her, and she stumbled before Mista so that he was forced to rein the mare hard lest the old woman be trampled.
'Good evening, old mother,' Caledan said as the haggard woman gazed up at him with dull, rheumy eyes. 'Shouldn't you be home on as chill a night as this?'
The old woman shook her head, moving her lips silently, mumbling to herself as if she was trying to remember something. Then her eyes cleared for a moment, and her gaze met Caledan's.
'I have no home, sire,' she said finally, her voice cracked and hollow. Caledan reached into the pocket of his cloak and pulled out a gold coin, which he pressed into the woman's gnarled hand.
'Then find one with this, old mother, at least for tonight.'
She looked at the coin for a moment as if puzzled by it and then nodded as she turned down the street. Caledan watched her as she shambled away, mumbling to herself. He shook his head as he nudged Mista onward. He didn't remember that the elderly had ever been turned out onto the city's streets before, either. It seemed there was a lot he didn't remember.
He soon found himself before the Wandering Wyvern. To his relief it looked much as it had on the day he left, a blocky, comfortable-looking building with the High Tower of the city lord looming above it. 'I was beginning to think I had come to the wrong city, Mista,' Caledan said to his mount.
In the small courtyard Caledan called for the stable boy, who appeared moments later, bleary-eyed and with straw in his hair, apparently having been asleep in the barn.
'I'm sorry, milord,' the lad said. 'We don't usually have travelers after dark.'
'Take this,' Caledan said, flipping a copper coin to the boy as the lad led Mista toward the stable. 'And if you tell her several times over what a lovely horse she is, it's likely she won't even try to bite you.'
'Aye, milord!'
The interior of the inn was comfortably warm, but there were few patrons, and most of these cast mistrustful looks at Caledan before huddling back down over their food or drink. Caledan took a place on a bench at one of the long wooden tables, and when the innkeep, a nervous little man, came to him, he ordered a plate of whatever food there might be in the kitchen and a mug of ale.
'I'm sorry, milord,' the innkeep said fretfully, 'but there's no ale served after sundown.'
'What?' Caledan said, completely taken aback.
'It's in the rules.' The innkeep gestured furtively toward a large, crudely drawn placard nailed to one of the walls. The placard was filled with line after line of writing scrawled too poorly to be legible at a distance, though the large words which headed it were clear enough. They read: Lord Cutter's Rules.
'Since when are there rules about drinking ale in Iriaebor?' Caledan asked with growing annoyance.
'Since that lout Cutter came, that's when,' a rough voice growled next to Caledan. He turned to see a burly, red-faced man sitting nearby. The comment seemed to make the innkeep uncomfortable, for the nervous little man looked hurriedly about, as if to make certain no one was watching, and then disappeared into the kitchen. 'Every day there's another of Cutter's rules come down from the tower,' said the big man, who from his dress and size appeared to be a dockhand.
'Just who is this 'Cutter?' Caledan asked, trying to make his tone as sympathetic as possible. 'Is Cutter the city lord?'
'Aye,' the dockhand said glumly. 'Ever since good old Bron disappeared a year or so ago. Wasn't so bad at first, but that didn't last long. Seems old Cutter never runs out o' rules, and all of them boil down to the same thing-there's nothing worth having or doing that's allowed no more. And you learn quick enough all right not to break any of 'em. You do that, and Cutter's guards haul you away, and no one ever sees you again.' He paused for a moment, taking a reflexive pull on his mug and frowning when he realized it was only water. By the look of him, he must have swallowed as much ale as he could possibly hold before the sun had set. 'You just come into the city?' he asked.
Caledan nodded. 'I've been traveling for a long time.'
'Well, you shouldn't 'ave come here,' the dockhand said, and after that he fell into a gloomy silence. Caledan left him in peace.
The nervous innkeep came back not long after with a plate of food for Caledan. The fare was good-a thick stew, cheese, and brown bread-but there wasn't much of it. He had just finished eating when the door of the inn opened, and a tall, fierce man clad in the livery of a city guard stepped through. A tense hush fell over the common room. Conversations halted in midsentence, and forks froze in midair.
The guard scanned the room slowly with hard eyes. His countenance was harsh and proud, his sharp cheekbones each outlined by a thin white scar. His hand rested with practiced ease on the polished sword hilt at his hip. This man was a warrior, and a dangerous one at that, Caledan thought.
'Innkeep, bring me food,' he barked in a guttural voice. 'Make it your best, and make it quick. Otherwise I might get angry.' A cruel smile touched his thin lips, and his dark eyes glittered perilously. 'You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.'
The innkeep swallowed hard and bobbed his head, scurrying off to the kitchen like a frightened mouse. The guard sat at a table in a dim corner, a leer on his face. His hand never strayed far from the hilt of his sword.
Gradually, the conversation in the common room started up again, though now it was even more subdued than before. The nervous little innkeep brought a steaming platter of roasted meat for the guard and received only a harsh glare in payment.
'Friend,' Caledan said softly, turning to the nearby dock-hand who was scowling at his mug, 'you wouldn't happen to know who that cheerful-looking fellow in the corner is, would you?'
'Him?' the deckhand grunted. 'He's one of Cutter's captains, he is. Let me tell you, stranger, you don't want to have no trouble with him. He'd gut you as soon as say good-day to you. You'd do best to keep out of his way, you would.'
'Thanks for the advice. Here.' Caledan slipped a few coins toward the fellow. 'Wait until dawn, then buy yourself a mug or two.'
'Say! Gods be with you, lordship,' the dockhand said. His bleary eyes glimmered as he pocketed the coins, but Caledan had already moved away toward a shadowed alcove where he could watch the guard without risk of notice.
The guard's black leather jerkin was emblazoned with the traditional symbol of Iriaebor-a silver tower above an azure river. However, Caledan noticed that a crimson moon had been added to the insignia, rising behind the tower. No doubt that was Lord Cutter's touch. Caledan found he cared for it as little as the other changes which had befallen the city.
When the guard finished his food, he roughly pushed his plate away and stood. His chair clattered to the floor, and the inn fell deathly silent.
'What are you maggots staring at?' the guard snarled. The patrons in the room quickly averted their eyes. The guard snorted in disgust and then swaggered out the inn's doorway.
Pausing a few moments, so as not to appear as if he were following, Caledan stood and walked casually out of the door into the night beyond. He espied the guard in the distance, striding jauntily down the dimly lit street. Caledan followed, keeping to the shadows.
The guard made his way down the Street of Jewels and then turned onto the Street of Lanterns, disappearing from view. This had not been a particularly savory part of town even seven years ago, and now it was worse. Bold, red-eyed rats scurried in the refuse-lined gutters, and wicked laughter drifted down from open windows above.
Caledan turned the corner and then paused. The guard was gone. He must have entered one of the doorways that lined the street. Caledan muttered an oath, but there was nothing he could do. He turned around to make his way back toward the Wandering Wyvern.
