Brian Pratt - Quest's end

Riyan mounted then gazed to the house. “Sounds like a family having fun on a winter’s night,” he said.

“I know,” agreed Bart. “Weird.”

“Why weird?” questioned Riyan. “I’m sure some magic users are just regular folks.” Then he chuckled.

“What?” asked Bart.

“I was imagining Kevik doing that in his robes,” he said with a grin. Then they both laughed as they turned their horses back toward the main road. In a short time they were back at the inn.

The next morning after they had gathered in the common room for their morning meal, Bart went to see if the King’s coins were still nailed to the wall behind the counter where guests arranged for rooms. Sure enough, they were still there. So, when their serving girl returned from the kitchen with their food, he asked her about them.

“Oh those? They’re the King’s coins,” she explained. “There used to be one of those Hunters of the Horde that lived around here, Durik was his name. But he died a while back during a trip to the east.”

“Do you know how he died?” asked Chyfe. He and the others knew exactly how he had died and who had killed him. What he wanted to know was what everyone else knew.

“Not really,” she explained. “A thief killed him I think. That’s what I heard.”

“Too bad,” Bart said. “I would have liked to have been able to talk to him.”

She shook her head slightly. “He wasn’t what one would have called sociable,” she said. “He mainly stayed at his estate except those nights when he would come to the tavern across the way.”

“This Hunter had an estate here?” Riyan asked, prompting her to continue.

“He did,” she replied. “It was auctioned off several weeks ago to a magic user and his family.” Her face lost some of its jovialness. “Don’t know if I like the idea of one of them living nearby.” Then her face registered shock and a little bit of fear as her eyes went quickly to Kevik in his magic user robes and the staff propped against the wall nearby.

“Oh!” she said. “I…I didn’t mean that magic users were a bad sort, or anything like that.”

Kevik gave her a reassuring smile. “I took no offense,” he assured her. Sighing, he added, “Some of my brethren fully deserve to be thought about in such a way. But most of us are like everyone else.” Glancing to Riyan and Bart, he said, “I’m sure most professions have their share of the bad sort.”

Riyan nodded in agreement. “You’ve got that right,” he said.

She relaxed a little after receiving Kevik’s assurance that he had taken no offense. But she still beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen when she was through.

After she disappeared through the kitchen door, Bart said, “I don’t think the magic user and his family are associated with Durik.”

“No,” agreed Riyan, “I don’t think so either.”

They finished their meal, and it wasn’t until they were beginning to leave that the door to the kitchen cracked 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.