Chapter 101: First Advanced town (Second Part)

We waited for Walmir’s carriage to disappear at a corner of a street before resuming our walk toward the closest inn of the town. Ilan, who had chosen to stay with us for the time being, guided us through small streets, steep flights of stairs, and bumpy paths none of us would have had the idea to go through without him.

After half an hour, we finally reached a solid-looking wooden inn with a slightly crooked sign telling in the simplest way: ‘inn’.

“The owner is a friend and the rooms here are cheap,” declared Ilan as our strange group — gathering a little too much attention for my comfort — approached the entrance.

“I certainly hope so, I’m a little tight on money right now,” sighed Jazor while peeking inside his meager leather purse.

“You would still have plenty in your pockets if you hadn’t wasted it all on brothels inside the previous Advanced town,” I remarked with a derisive snort.

“True, I used up a lot of money on alcohol, gambling, and women… The rest I just squandered,” he laughed gathering a few chuckles from Alianelle and Ilan.

Unwilling to grant him any kind of answer and hiding the amused smile on my face, I followed Ilan inside the inn.

The interior was well lit, and the pieces of furniture were made of simple wood, but clean enough to give a comfortable feeling to the hall welcoming the clients. On the left side of the counter, where a clerk was eyeing us with the same moderate surprise as everyone we had crossed paths with, was the opened door to what was obviously the dining room.

The pleasant odor of cooked fish immediately assaulted my nostrils and awakened my appetite when I came close enough. The crate of food we found inside the devastated camp had exempted us from looking for food and helped us significantly shorten the time needed to reach this town. However, dry food wasn’t exactly the best and we all craved something different.

However, we first had to pay for our room.

Something Ilan graciously did for all of us before excusing himself.

Jazor took the key to the room we were going to share together and quickly disappeared upstairs without a look in my direction. Alianelle took her own and patiently waited for her father to follow her. However, Paul had his eyes fixed on Ilan’s retreating back with undisguised suspicion.

It didn’t take a genius to understand what was on his mind, so without a word, I turned around and walked away. Paul was right to be wary. The comfortable bed and the warm meal would have to wait.

I closed my eyes and waited near the entrance for Ilan to walk away. When he was far enough, I exited the inn under the surprised gaze of the owner and Paul’s look of gratitude.

For long minutes, I patiently followed Ilan among the unfamiliar streets. My senses made such a task trivial and gave Ilan little possibility to notice he was being followed. Just like with Walmir, I wanted to have faith in him, but unlike with him, we didn’t have any kind of deal going on between us. Only the purest form of trust to make me believe he will continue to keep what he had learned to himself.

He had certainly kept his word to hide the truth about Alianelle from anyone so far.

However, now that we were inside the Advanced town, the spark of doubt that was turned off outside the walls once more lightened and made it impossible for me to completely trust him. I stayed out of range, only coming closer when I sensed him staying close to another lifeform for a little too long. However, over an hour of shadowing yielded little result.

Ilan had saluted a few guards, a few shopkeepers, and even a gorgeous-looking woman who had immediately embraced him when he approached her, but none of them warranted more than a passing, uninterested glance from me.

It was only when he crossed the door of an imposing building made of solid black stones that my suspicions once more flared up. Contrary to our inn, this building didn’t have any sign to indicate its function. The guards properly dressed and armed near the entrance didn’t obstruct him in the slightest when Ilan entered through the heavy-looking grey door.

Because of them, I couldn’t walk inside without being immediately spotted so I patiently waited at the corner of the street with my eyes closed. From so far away, I needed to seriously concentrate to understand what was going on inside. Ilan waited several minutes next to someone who was probably the clerk at the reception desk before someone else came from downstairs. With my magic sense alone, it was impossible to tell if this person was a man, a woman, or from what race he or she originated from.

All I could say was that Ilan followed this person upstairs and went even deeper into the building, nearly at the edge of my perception.

What was this building and what was Ilan doing inside?

I had no way to know by simply standing so far away.

However, something was already clear.

Ilan meeting someone of importance immediately after leaving us somewhere he knew was exactly what both Paul and I were worried about.

I had to know who he was seeing.

A quick look around and a soft propulsion from my wind magic were all it took to reach the roof of the closest building without anyone noticing me. A few more magical jumps across rooftops and several magics used as diversions were all it took for me to finally reach the roof of the building where Ilan was.

With my senses to guide me, I cautiously walked on the old roof tiles while being careful not to slip and staying attentive to avoid the most delicate-looking of them. Finally, after several minutes of this slow walk, I reached the edge of the rooftop directly above a window.

Ilan was inside with his mysterious interlocutor. My magic sense made it a certainty, but this ability couldn’t help me any further.

Regretting that I didn’t know any magic to enhance my hearing, I held my breath and concentrated as hard as I could to discern a few words.

“Are you sure?”

The voice was male, rough, and filled with surprise.

“Yeah. You didn’t see what I did,” was Ilan’s answer.

My blood immediately turned cold and a heavy feeling settled in my stomach as my imagination worked overdrive to make these few words match my fears.

I concentrated to hear more, but the few words I caught after that didn’t make any sense on their own.

Did Ilan really just sell out Alianelle, or was I simply too paranoid?

I ran my hand through my hair in a nervous movement, something I immediately regretted as my arm wasn’t completely healed from the wound inflicted by my own ice. Moving it around was still painful and nearly drew a cry of pain that would have immediately given away my presence.

The creaking of a moving chair I heard next was the only warning I needed to pull my head away from the edge of the roof. Immediately after, the window was forcefully opened without any delicacy making my heart skip a beat as I realized that I had apparently made some kind of noise after all.

For long seconds, I waited still as a statue, fearing that I would be discovered.

“Is something wrong?”

With the window opened, Ilan’s voice reached me more distinctly this time.

“No, I must be tired. If you don’t have anything else to tell me, I will take the necessary measures and contact you once again in two days,” the same unknown rough voice as before spoke words I had dreaded to hear.

“Alright. I…”

I didn’t hear anything more as the window was closed just as forcefully as it was opened.

However, I had heard enough this time.

----------------------------------------------------

Afraid that I would be discovered, it took me longer to leave the roof than to reach it. When I finally managed to get down in an inauspicious alley whose sole existence seemed to be to pile up waste, Ilan had already exited the building.

I didn’t know the entirety of the conversation he just had, nor did I know the full truth about Alianelle he immediately understood when he saw her wings. However, I still knew and heard enough to be left with more doubts than ever.

Did Ilan really go back on his words?

Did he sell Alianelle’s secret?

I didn’t want to believe it, but I couldn’t take any risk.

I resumed my tailing with the use of my magic sense. However, even after several minutes of waiting, Ilan didn’t move from the step where he was sitting. With his head resting on his right hand, his eyes were darting all around as if looking for something.

Or someone.

“I know you’re here! Show yourself!”

His forceful declaration made a few bystanders look at him strangely and swerve to pass further away from him. On my part, I shuffled back a step when these words told with such conviction left his mouth. I didn’t know how, but Ilan knew I was there.

I was sure of it.

Hiding and later lying was a possibility I seriously considered for a moment, but I needed answers even if this wasn’t how I initially intended to have them. So, with measured steps, I slowly emerged from the corner of the streets and made my way toward my former travel companion who indeed didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see me here.

“How long have you known?” I slowly asked with furrowed brows.

“What? That you were following me? I just found out inside Albert’s office. I may not have the same perception as you do, but after all this time by your side, I still picked up a few tricks. If anyone had told me that I would learn something from a kid like you, I would have never believed it. I have to admit that your mana trick to sense lifeforms is indeed neat, although I can’t use it as well or from as far away as you do,” he explained carefully while standing up from the step he had been sitting on.

His height and massive frame immediately appeared intimidating after he had stood up as it was a painful reminder of how our last physical confrontation went.

Sensing my discomfort, Ilan slowly raised his hands in mock surrender as a sign of appeasement.

“Don’t look at me like that, Sillath. I know we both had our differences, but remember that it’s not me who has betrayed our group,” he rightly pointed out.

“So now that we’re not an official group anymore, anything is fair game?” I asked back bitterly.

“You really are suspicious, kind of sad for a kid if you want my opinion…” he mumbled before taking a deep breath. His dark eyes, black as coal, looked straight into mine as if he was trying to convey his heartfelt feelings with this sole gaze.

“No, Sillath, I didn’t betray your friend’s secret,” he finally solemnly declared in his characteristic rough voice. “I’m many things but being a liar isn’t among them, and even if we’re not traveling together anymore, I will keep my word.”

“Then…” I started with suspicion written all over my face.

“Then,” he interrupted. “Who did I just meet? To answer your question, the man I just saw is the leader of the Mercenary guild in this city. Even if I have been chaining missions with Walmir for more than a year now, in the end, I’m still a mercenary. My presence here must be declared just as well as my departure. That’s why I met him.”

I recollected the few scattered words and sentences I had managed to glean through my amateurish spying, and indeed they could fit this explanation. Unable to hope to gain any other kind of information from these words alone, I turned my focus back to Ilan who was intently watching me in silence.

“You want to leave?” I finally asked after a few more seconds of thinking.

“There is nothing more to hope for on this land for a good while, now,” he confirmed with a firm nod. “The wrath of the wilderness will continue for several years making any kind of expedition suicidal. If I stay here, my only option will be to work as a guard, and I didn’t leave my hometown for this kind of work.”

His explanation made sense. I could definitely understand his reasoning and the idea that the wrath of the wilderness will last for several years at the very least was also shared by both Walmir and Jazor.

However, it wasn’t enough.

“How can I trust you?” I asked helplessly, knowing perfectly well how difficult it was to convince anyone that you were trustworthy.

“As I said, it’s really sad that you can’t simply trust me, and not just because you’re a kid. We fought side by side for so long now, that I had hoped you would have understood me better. But, if you want a reason to trust me…”

He walked a few steps left and right with his gaze directed at the blue sky as if pondering how he was going to say his next words until, after a few seconds of this pacing, he stopped and once more turned his eyes toward me.

“You and I fought against each other. It was… brutal, but I never tried to kill you no matter how stubborn you were. You know that,” he added in a forceful voice leaving no room for any kind of contestation. Ilan could have killed me if he had wanted to, this was a truth impossible for me to deny. “However, I did try to kill your girlfriend… I’m sorry about that, I was wrong,” he concluded in a voice softer than I’ve ever heard him use.

His apology coming from such a steel-like man I saw butchered dozens of animals with a single swing of his sword appeared horribly mismatched, but his words did seem genuine as far as I could tell.

However, he wasn’t finished yet.

“But, even if I was wrong about your girlfriend, I was not about Paul. He did betray us and intended to leave us to die on this land. He is not a good man, he is not someone you should risk everything to protect,” he declared vehemently.

“You don’t know him,” I objected. “He made mistakes, but when I was without a penny in my pockets and without a roof in an unknown town, he still helped me while nothing forced him to do so.”

“Don’t think he is a good man just because he gave you a few coins and a place to sleep for a few nights. First of all, are you sure it’s him and not his daughter that chose to help you?”

Even if I didn’t want to admit it, his question had hit the nail on the head. It was Alianelle who had insisted that her father help me. I didn’t need any reminder about how easy it was to read my emotions on my face as Ilan immediately made a derisive smile after his unanswered question. This embarrassed silence was the only answer he needed.

“Where are you going with this, Ilan?” I finally asked.

“Well, I know that Paul isn’t a good man and I’m also well aware that Himara and Seth hate me and they have a damn good reason for it. So, I know for sure that both he and this stinky kid Seth probably more than insisted on my execution after you made an ice cube out of me.”

Once more no confirmation was necessary.

The memory of a child begging for someone to be killed was unfortunately still fresh in my memories.

“However, you didn’t,” he declared with a grave voice. “You spared me when it would have been infinitely easier and safer to kill me. You were wounded, you had people probably screaming at you to end my life once and for all, but you didn’t kill me.”

“No, I didn’t…”

“And for that, you have my gratitude. I may not respect Paul enough to give a damn about his fate, I may not care about his daughter, but I care about what you did. You saved my life, and even if I don’t find it enough, if the only way to repay you is by keeping my mouth shut about his girl, then I will do it,” he declared in a solemn tone I didn’t have the heart to doubt.

Gratitude.

Was this really the reason for Ilan’s promise to keep Alianelle’s secret?

Could I believe that was enough?

Probably sensing my doubt, Ilan who had started to turn around, temporarily stopped to add a few more words.

“Moreover, you may not understand what this girl’s identity means, but trust me it spells trouble. Big time for anyone involved. I’m not going to risk my life for illusionary profit after just managing to survive against all odds, and if you were smart and probably a little bit more selfish you would do the same.”

With these last words, and without waiting for any answer from me, Ilan slowly turned tail and finally climbed the steep stairs he had been sitting on before our conversation.

I stayed rooted on the spot, not knowing what to do with him anymore, long after he disappeared from the corner of the street.