'Yes. No. No, but...',
he fell silent, putting the pieces of information together through the hazy
mists of his tired mind. 'Iknow there is a route to the Reaches, and that's it.
Thanks for filling me in.'
They passed a small cottage
just a few meters away from the road. Its owner was a little further away,
tending to his crops, just like numerous others all around. The sun was still
high but already descending from its throne at the top of the skies. They day
was pretty - not a single cloud concealed the blueness of heavens.
That promised a good
day. The horse went through the open gate and into the city.
Alvaren may not have
paid much attention last night, but now he looked around, curious. Large, even
cobbles coupled with hooves made quite a noise after the dirt trail, but it was
soon dwarfed by the city's sounds. People and carriages moved in every
direction. Here and there, small groups of townsmen chatted away, paying no
heed to anything. Shops were wide open with all kind of glittering goods for
sale - clothes, armor, food, tools - literally everything.
Not all was well and
good, though. A worrying number of people gave them harsh, intolerant looks.
That could mean trouble.
Which didn't promise a
good day.
Shirral, seeming uncaring,
kept looking around until they reached one of numerous junctions and entered a
side alley. It was a littile smaller, but crowded with people going after their
business. At least they didn't give them looks. Or they didn't have time for
that.
Further down the alley
was an enormous inn. It had its own courtyard, surrounded from three sides by
the building shaped after a horseshoe. And a tall building at that - except for
one of the sides, it was three floors high. The wall were clean and decorated, the
sign showing a bear- "The Wild Bear", it was called - seemed freshly
installed, even the roof tiles appeared to gleam in the afternoon sun. The
stable was like any other. Alvaren goto ff the horse with some help and waited
while Shirral led their mount to a free stall and took off its load. She hung
the saddle on a peg and came out with the sacks. He shot her a puzzled look.
'I don't trust the
people around here', she answered the unspoken question.
'It's the ears', he
pointed out.
'Exactly.'
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