open and the girl peered out at them.
“Thank you for the wonderful meal,” Kevik told her. He took out a silver and left it for her on the table. He could see that she saw the coin he placed on the table, but made no move to leave the safety of the kitchen to retrieve it.
Outside at the stable while they were getting their horses ready for travel, Chyfe commented to Kevik, “You do have a fearsome presence.”
“Do I?” asked Kevik. Turning toward Chyfe, he could see the laughter behind his eyes barely kept in check. Then from where Chad was cinching tight the straps securing the saddle to his horse, he heard him break into laughter. Chyfe burst out with laughter as he could no longer contain it.
“No,” Riyan said as he turned to Kevik, “you don’t look fearsome. But your spells are nothing to laugh at.” Glaring at the others, he soon had the laughter stilled.
“Thanks,” Kevik said. He really didn’t mind their laughter, it felt good to be a part of this group. The ability to laugh at one another at times without hard feelings, helped to bind them closer together. He had never had such companions before in his life, and he was proud to be counted as one of them.
”Come on,” Bart said as he swung into the saddle. “We’ve still got a ways to go.” He rode his horse out of the stable and was soon joined by the others. Leading the way, Bart had them heading out of town and on the road to the crossroads at Skerin.
The weather remained good with sunshine throughout the day. Ice began to turn to slush under the warmth of the sun’s rays, it almost felt as if the world was warming up. But that was just an illusion as once the sun went down, the world would freeze all over again.
From Skerin, they set out the following morning under partly cloudy skies. To the west, storm clouds could be seen far away on the horizon.
On their left flowed the river as it made its way from the forest of Ki’ Gyrx. It flowed alongside the road throughout the day. They weren’t able to reach Skerin by nightfall, instead they stayed at one of the roadside inns some miles north of the city. By the time the sun went down, the storm clouds to the west had drawn closer, but could still pass them by. They fervently hoped so.
Riyan was up with the sun the following morning and the first thing he did was go to the window and check on the storm’s progress. The edge of the cloud cover remained about where it had been the previous evening. It looked as if the storm wasn’t going to come their way.
By noon they were at Kibb. A moderate city, it sat on the crossroads where the road from the north ended at another that came from the southeast and continued on to the west. The river that had been running alongside the road since Skerin came to an end as well, flowing into a large lake. The city of Kibb sat on the lake’s western shore. From there they turned to follow the new road as it moved southeast. A day and a half later they came to the city of Hunter’s Reach.
With the sun still hours away from dropping below the western horizon, they rode through the gate of Hunter’s Reach. It was the last major town before Kendruck, which was still at least three days away. From there, their road led south to the northern slope of Tinderlock Mountains. Then they head east and follow the road as it begins turning south to run along the eastern slopes of the mountain the rest of the way to Kendruck.
The storm clouds to the west which they had kept an eye on for the last two days had steadily drawn closer until they now blotted out most of the sky. It was decided to find an inn and see how things looked in the morning before heading further south. From what they gathered from talking with a trader, there wasn’t much to be found from Hunter’s Reach to Kendruck.
The first inn they located was the Tradewynd. After acquiring rooms, Riyan had the idea of searching for a wine merchant to see if they could learn more of the bottle and the crest it bore. They asked the proprietress of the Tradewynd and were told Hunter’s Reach didn’t have one.
“A wine merchant?” she asked with a grin. “Here?” After chuckling for a moment, she said, “Only place around here where you might find wine is over at Tinton’s. He runs a place that has more merchandise than two chandlers’ if you ask me.”
“Where might we find it?” Bart asked.
“You boys come through the west gate?” she asked.
Riyan shook his head. “No,” he replied. “The north.”
“Well, head over to the west gate and you’ll find it not too far from there,” she said. “You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you ma’am,” Riyan said to her.
They left the inn and made their way across town toward the western gate. The streets were fairly clear of snow. Most of it had either been removed by the citizens of Hunter’s Reach or else melted. Either way, the dirt streets were a veritable mess of mud and ruts. The carriages and wagons moving about town were bouncing along so badly, Bart was surprised they hadn’t broken an axle yet. He was amused by the circumstances of one fine looking lady who was riding in a carriage. Every time the carriage hit a rut, which was about every other second, she would bounce in her seat. It looked as if she was holding on for dear life to the window frame of the carriage door.
Similar sights continued to be seen as they continued their search for Tinton’s shop. When the eastern gate finally appeared down the street, they had yet to find the place. They asked one of the local townspeople and were directed down a side street. It wasn’t far before they saw what the proprietress of the Tradewynd had meant when she said you couldn’t miss it.
The storefront had to take up one full block of the street. There were three separate doorways just on this one side through which people could enter Tinton’s establishment.
“Is there enough business in this town to make it worthwhile to maintain such a shop?” asked Chyfe. He had seen some large businesses back in Catha, but what he saw before him dwarfed them all.
“I doubt it,” replied Bart. Moving toward the closest doorway, he led the others into the building.
Just within the entrance were two small children, neither could have been more than six or seven. When they saw their group enter, they immediately came forward and began wiping the mud from off their boots.
“Here now,” Bart said as the younger of the two boys grabbed the calf of his leg and began cleaning his boot with a less than clean rag. The boy paid him no heed. Once he finished with one, he began with the other.
Riyan glanced to the other entrances and saw similar pairs of children stationed at each of them. One such pair was doing the same to another group of three men that had just entered. “Looks like they do this to everyone,” he said.
“Son,” Chad said as the older of the two boys came to him for his turn, “I don’t think this is necessary.”
The lad looked up at him. “Master Tinton doesn’t like mud tracked through his shop,” the lad explained. When Chad drew his boot away from the child’s grasp, the child looked up at him again. “Tracking mud inside is very bad,” the child said. He again started reaching for Chad’s boot.
Riyan, who had just had his boots wiped clean, said, “Just let him do it Chad.”
“Yes, Chad,” Seth said with a grin. “We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
Chad gazed down at the lad waiting to wipe his boots, then relented. “This feels odd,” he said as the child raised his boot off the floor and commenced cleaning it.
“Different places, different customs,” offered Kevik. He was grinning at Chad’s expense when he felt his staff being grabbed by the other child. The grin vanished from his face in a flash and he snatched his staff out of the child’s hand. “What are you doing?” he demanded. He definitely didn’t like anyone touching his staff but himself.
The child pointed to the lower end and said, “Master Tinton doesn’t like mud tracked through his shop.”
That’s when Kevik looked down and saw the lower end had a small amount of mud attached to it.
“Come on Kevik,” Chad said. “We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“Yes Kevik,” Seth grinned. “Different places, different customs.”
Kevik glanced at him then down to the child who was waiting patiently. “Can I clean it myself?” he asked. The child offered him his rag and he soon had the lower end of the staff clean. Once everyone was suitably clean, the boys returned to their stations adjacent to the doorway.
“You have to admit,” Soth said as they moved further into the shop, “he keeps a clean place.” And in fact, it was one of the cleanest shops any of them had ever been in.
From the inside, this place looked even larger than it had from the outside, as if that was even possible. Shelves lined the floor and walls, there was even a stairway leading up to a second floor.
