after sunset was subject to a certain amount of fear and caution, but when I failed to do anything more sinister than take my chair, they marginally relaxed. The music started up again, a sprightly tune, but few paid much attention to it as the patrons leaned close across their tables to talk. My hearing plucked out enough from the various conversations to inform me that I was the main topic, not that it was much of a surprise. I would have known that from their stares alone.
I let my gaze wander over the room. They were quite the mixed lot, the nomadic Vistani sharing a roof with merchants, two travelers wearing badges marking them as local petty officers of my exchequer, some miners, and a knot of poorly dressed people sitting apart from the rest. They seemed a weary and downtrodden lot, but they were not quite ragged enough to be beggars.
When the Vistani players eased into a slower song, I cocked an eyebrow at the keeper and he instantly came over. 'I'm seeking word of a young woman recently come to Hoessla. I understand she is in your employ.'
My opening clearly flummoxed him, and he hesitated. 'I have several young women in my employ.'
'No doubt. This one is very comely with coppery hair, an orphan. I believe her name is Nadia. I assure you my intentions are entirely honorable,' I said, fixing my gaze on him.
He blinked and gave a little shake of his head as though dizzy, but became much more cooperative. 'Indeed, there is such a girl here, your lordship. She is as you've described.'
'I should like to see her. Send her to me. Now.'
He nodded and hurried away through a serving door. Moments later he returned with a young woman in tow. Had I possessed a beating heart it would surely have been drumming as they approached. Then came the crashing let down of disappointment. She was lovely; her face and form were similar, but she was not my Tatyana.
I shut my eyes and drew in a long breath, releasing it slowly-not a necessity for me, but old habits die hard and the hope of reuniting with my beloved had, for just a few brief moments, put me in mind of younger days. This was not the first time I had met with failure, nor would it be the last. Punishing the Vistana for this false hope would be pointless and only discourage others from sending information in the future. My search would simply continue.
When I regained control of myself and was able to look again the keeper seemed to be most anxious. The girl was plainly frightened. I managed a reassuring smile, which alarmed her even more, for she shrank back against her master.
I sighed and said with a dismissive gesture, 'Thank you, young lady, that will be all.'
She did not wait for further encouragement and slipped off to whatever haven she had in the back of the house, leaving the keeper on his own. He managed to resist following her. All attention in the room was on me.
'Have we displeased your lordship?' He was trembling.
'I had hoped she might be someone else. Are there no other orphan girls in Hoessla such as I have described? Perhaps someone who was taken in by a family when she was yet a child?'
'I know of none-'
'Are you sure?' I gave this last query a solid hypnotic nudge. 'Search your memory.'
His face froze, eyes wide. I provided him a long moment to think, then backed off. When he could speak, he only repeated his earlier denial. 'Perhaps if your lordship spoke with the newcomers. They seem to have traveled far and might be able to help. But they're quite hard to understand. I don't know where they're from, but their words are nigh on gibberish.' He indicated the poorly dressed group at their tables. Unlike the others in the room, these visitors seemed only curious about me but weren't particularly afraid. That was odd.
My instincts sparked. Another crowd of interlopers from the outside? Perhaps they were the cause of the knocking I had sensed. They looked rather harmless, not the usual run of thieves and murderers.
'Have they a leader? If so-'
The keeper anticipated the rest of my request and bustled over to one of the men. They made a rapid exchange, mostly with the innkeeper pointing hesitantly in my direction, and with a puzzled shrug the man stood and came over. He was a big broad fellow with a sword in a battered scabbard whose workmanship did not originate in Barovia.
My lips twitched, suppressing a smile, and I motioned for him to take the keeper's chair.
He spoke and I was mildly surprised that I could understand some of his speech, though the intonation of his words had a lilting sing-song quality totally alien to Barovia. Though a word here and there was familiar, the rest was indeed gibberish. I feigned that I had not heard him while I cast the appropriate spell which would allow us to communicate more effectively.
'I would first know who I am sitting with, sir, if it is not too much of a liberty,' he repeated, his accent strange but cultured and not at all challenging. His gentlemanly demeanor was in vast contrast to his humble clothing and rough face, the look of an outdoorsman, but with the manner of one of my more polished nobles.
'I am Count Vasili von Hoist,' I said, searching for a reaction. Most people in Barovia knew the name of Lord Vasili, Strahd's able and slightly less terrifying envoy, almost as well as that of Strahd himself. Though I was now speaking this visitor's native tongue, a few of the nearby merchants overheard the name Vasili and exchanged nervous glances.
This large specimen merely gave a low bow, full of dignity. If he was surprised, it was at my seeming command of his language rather than my name.
'I am Auric, son of Courewsy. It is an honor to meet your lordship.'
Then, with a dignity which belied his attire, he lowered himself into the chair opposite me. I bought him a flagon of the house's best beer then commenced the drawing of information from him. It did not take long. He could no more withstand my hypnotic command to speak than others before him. His genteel behavior was explained when I learned he was the son of a retainer in the house of some noble I had never heard of, confirming that he and the others had come from the outside. It was most unlikely any of them would know aught of Tatyana, but I did inquire just in case, getting a negative reply. That cleared, I went on to other points.
'What land are you from?' I asked.
'Forlorn.'
'That is its name?'
'Indeed, your lordship.'
It seemed an unlikely appellation, but I would deal with it later. 'Cinder what circumstances did you come to pass through the Mists?'
'Mists?' he queried back, brow wrinkling.
'To get into Barovia you passed through a thick mist.'
'There was no mist.' His face was blank now under my pressuring, indication that his mind was wide open to me.
'What do you mean?'
'The weather has been fine and clear,' Auric, son of Courewsy said, placid as a sheep.
'But you had to-' I cut myself short, thinking fast. He was telling the truth. They had come in from the outside but had not been delivered here by the Mists. 'What brought you into Barovia?'
'We walked.'
Ask a foolish question.
'Why did you come to Barovia?' I continued.
'We wished only to escape Forlorn. There are horrors in its forests now. We sought shelter when we saw the mountains.'
'What horrors?'
'I know not, but a few weeks ago I found the body of one of my friends, or what was left of it. He'd been torn to bits. I went to others who lived throughout the forest and they spoke of the same thing. People were vanishing. Sometimes we would find a body, or what is left of a body. We gathered ourselves together and departed while we could.'
'Who are your people?'
'We have no name. We lived in the forest, apart from each other.'
Hermits, then, I'd heard of such eccentrics. It was not a life much favored in Barovia. Solitude was a dangerous practice in its harsh, wolf-infested mountains. Then there were other, more exotic hazards-myself for one.
'Does not gathering into a group defeat the purpose of your isolation?'
'We only came together for safety at the end, and if allowed we'll soon part company again. This land seems more welcoming.'
