The Thief: Chapter Three
In Which Cold and Mutual Distrust Abound
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Thea wiped snow from her face with fingers stiff from the cold. The sound of her own teeth rattling filled her ears while the wind howled. The snow had not stopped. It was difficult to see the road through the thick, white flurries stinging her cheeks.
Brod was staying close beside her. Not wanting to lose her in the whiteness, she presumed. Or did he suspect her of stealing The Ring? She knew he could well be after her, for she recognised him from the king and queen’s longhouse. She had stolen coins from his purse, in fact. His eyes held suspicion when first they met, but the need to flee the troglodytes had outweighed all other considerations. She would not give up The Ring for anything. Its power would right the wrongs wrought upon her family. Those lying bastards at the Potato Counters Guild would be made to pay for what they did.
“Buildings! Up ahead,” Brod said.
She looked where he pointed with a trembling arm. Then she saw them too. Faint outlines in the swiftly moving whiteness. As they drew closer, a large wooden structure emerged. A sign swung on a jutting poll above a bright red door. She squinted and read the words on the sign: ‘The Frumpy Sow’.
“An inn! Thank the gods,” she shouted in a flood of relief. Behind the inn, more buildings appeared. The village was tiny. Besides the Inn, it looked to hold no more than ten other structures.
An hour later, Brod strode into the common room of The Frumpy Sow. After arriving, they had tended to their mounts and paid for two rooms. The innkeeper, an immensely rotund man of middling years, had tried to overcharge them, knowing they had no other option to escape the snow. Brod had been about to draw his sword to get the man to see the error of his greedy ways when he had found Thea had beaten him to it. Quick as an enraged grandmother duck, she had whipped out a knife and held it to the man’s throat. With furrowed brow and clenched jaw, he had relented and charged them a fair price. Brod chuckled at the memory.
The inn’s common room was near empty, with only one jaw, occupied by a group of three sturdy looking farming women, by townsfolk, looks of their simple homespun clothing. The exquisite smell of roasting meat mingled with the inviting waft of pipe smoke from the women. Saliva sprung in his mouth, reminding him he was starving.
Thea stood by a roaring fire in a great stone fireplace set into one wall of the room. Its cheery flames were immediately enticing. Thea wore a simple dark green tunic and brown trousers. She was dressed in the manner of townsfolk, rather than those of a royal village like Brod. He himself wore a gaudy yellow tunic with painted glass beads sewn into it and bright blue trousers. Townsfolk preferred subtle colours and often laughed at the flamboyant fashions of the Royal villages, but Brod cared not, for he was confident in his own fashion choices.
“I must thank you, Brod, for coming to my aid back at the spinney.” She frowned and Brod suspected she was remembering the strange feeling of seeing the troglodytes. He shuddered at the memory. So much knobbliness.
“’twas nothing. It seemed you had the situation well in hand, despite their numbers.”
“Still, you could have run for it and left me to my fate, so I thank you.”
Brod was wondering how he could get word of the troglodytes to the king and queen while still fulfilling his mission to find The Ring. Does Thea have it? And what of the prophecy?
His thoughts were interrupted by the innkeeper yelling across the room to them, “You’ll be wanting some food and drink then?”
“Indeed, my good man. Two plates of whatever you’re serving and some ale too,” Thea yelled back. He nodded, seeming to have forgiven them for the way they had first met. A blade at his throat was probably a regular occurrence.
They sat at the nearest table to the fire and waited. Silence filled the space between them. Mercifully, the food and drink arrived soon. Steaming roast mutton, potatoes, boiled greens and thick slabs of hearty brown bread on massive plates. They both spent the next while shovelling it down as quick as hungry caterpillars on a green spring leaf.
Brod licked the last of the mutton grease from his fingers and looked at Thea. She had finished too, and the tilt of her eyebrows suggested she was appraising him. “Whence did you come, Thea?” he said, with a tone of counter appraisal intentionally present.
“I delivered a message and am returning home.”
“Oh?” he said, cocking an eyebrow.
“A family matter.”
A ‘family matter’ was not something he could easily ask about. That was cunning.
“Do you return home, then? And where might home be for you, Thea?
“As a matter of fact, I am. I’m returning to Little Biglington upon Flarp,” she replied, a note of annoyance creeping into her voice. “How about yourself, Brod?”
“Royal business,” he replied, then with a spark of inspiration, “in Little Biglington upon Flarp too, as it happens. Perhaps we might continue travelling together a little longer?” If he recalled correctly, the town was perhaps several days’ ride from the current location.
She frowned at this, struggling to come up with a reason to refuse, most likely. Eventually she said, “thank you, Brod, the company would be most welcome. Two would be safer than one in such dangerous times.”
He thought again of the troglodytes. When they reached the town, he could send a messenger to the king and queen with word of the attack. He would inform the town’s authorities also, though would anyone believe him?
“I best get some sleep and hopefully come morning the snow will have stopped and we can continue the journey,” she said.
Sleep sounded very attractive and he rose with her, “I too feel sleep calling to me. Until the morrow.”
“Aye, until the morrow.”
That night, while all the guests of The Frumpy Sow were fast asleep, the creature oozed itself through a crack in the window frame. Its body was like black smoke, formless and fluid, flowing across the floor of the common room, searching for the thing of power. It knew it was here, but something stopped it from knowing where exactly it was. Methodically, it started to investigate all the rooms of the building. It slid under each door with ease, while the sleepers slept on.
See the index for all parts of this story.
This is my first time reading your work this morning ☕ and it's a nice break from Politics. Thank You, Nicolas and will reStack ASAP 💯👍