Chapter 13: Hiding in Low Places

The presence of Jean de Val changed things.

Before my worst case scenario would have been that the cult would bribe a few of the locals and hire unscrupulous sorts to come after us. Perhaps I thought they would even send some of their more competent faithful in Iskander to find us. All dangerous possibilities no doubt but probably manageable in the short term. If I was simply aware enough and took enough sensible precautions I’d liked my chances of staying one step ahead of anyone the cult could wrangle up to come after Catherine.

Now however the possible worst case scenario had become much, much worse. Jean de Val was personally powerful and an incredibly influential figure in this city of Bassett. His family were all also powerful and influential members of the local nobility, with his father holding the title of the current Sheriff of Bassett. That meant that de Val family already had connections and a network of people who worked for them here. They knew the lay of the land. They had the influence to turn half the city against us if they so chose.

And they were apparently all ardent devotees of the Cult of Abadeth.

I didn’t know if the cult knew Cat and I were in Bassett. However I felt that it would only be a matter of time until they figured it out, if they hadn’t already. When they got confirmation that we were in the city they would surely attempt to recruit the help of the de Val family in hunting us down. If the de Val family flexed their influence and used all of their might to come after us then to say we were in serious trouble would be like calling a mountain a particularly large clump of dirt. In other words as things stood if that scenario were to happen Catherine and I would be completely done for.

My first impulse was to simply pack up and leave and immediately, heading to the next city further into Galia and further away from Iskander. But as we walked through the city and I took a few minutes to calm down and think I realized that such a move would be both hasty and foolish. Our supplies were low after weeks of travel and Cat and the horses were thoroughly worn out and exhausted beyond belief after several weeks in the wilderness. We would need at least a couple of days to resupply and recuperate if really wanted to head out again. The other issue was that we would be arguably easier to pick off on the road than we would be in the city. As awful as dodging the household troops of the de Val family in the city sounded trying to dodge them on the open road would be ten times worse. Idyllic as it was there were very few places for us to hide in the countryside surrounding Bassett especially with three horses in tow. All that flat farmland was good for the economy but poor for two people looking to go unnoticed. Traveling cross country was unlikely to afford us the same safety as it had in Iskander and I didn’t really feel confident not knowing the land or the terrain. Traveling unnoticed was likely out as well. A foreign grown man and a young girl traveling would stand out no matter what disguises we might be able to put together. Getting caught out on the open road would be a death sentence and if they started watching the roads I did not like our chances at all.

I couldn’t help but feel like the noose was steadily beginning to tighten around our necks.

“Brother,” Cat said suddenly, snapping me out of my increasingly dark thoughts.

“What is it?” I asked with a small smile, doing my very best to hide my worries.

“It’s just,” she said, looking around surreptitiously before turning to whisper to me. “I’ve been feeling more of them as we’ve been moving around the city.”

Her words caused me to straighten up in alarm. “Magic beasts?”

“No,” she hissed at me like I was being daft. “The stones.”

That was… that was good information to have. Not sure how that knowledge would be immediately helpful, but it was good to know indeed. “How many?” I asked in a low voice.

“I’m not sure. There is a lot more, I guess magic noise here than in the wilds. I’ve felt more than two I’m pretty sure. Less than six. Maybe. I’d have to start getting really close to say anything for sure.”

“Thanks for telling me,” I told her, turning thoughtful. “We might have to investigate later, see if it might be possible for us to acquire one of them.”

“How? Stealing is wrong because it’s naughty and against the empire, remember?” Cat said, injecting an impressive amount of sarcasm into her voice.

I didn’t deem to grace her comment with a reply. But I did give her a dose of the sideways stink-eye.

As interesting as that information was, it still didn’t tell me where we should be going next. After thinking about it for a few minutes I reached what I felt was a workable plan in the short term.

For now our only real protection was our anonymity. Staying hidden had to become our highest priority for now. So that meant staying out of sight and away from places where people might report us to the local constables that worked for the local Sheriff family, should they come asking. Most reputable establishments tended to be very quick and happy to cooperate with law enforcement, if only to earn some good will and avoid any unwanted “inspections” or the like. Staying at a place like that was just asking to be almost immediately caught once someone like the de Val family started asking questions.

That meant that in order to have the best chance to stay under the radar, we would need to find the right kind of disreputable place to stay.

After discreetly asking a few people some innocent sounding questions I soon had us headed towards the older and much poorer part of town known to the locals by the charming moniker of "snake town." Every city had something like those kinds of neighborhoods. If not an outright slum, then areas where the less well off and the disenfranchised tended to live and gather. One surprising piece of education from my time in the legions was how at least three out of five of all the new recruits all came from such backgrounds and neighborhoods. Living and fighting with such men for years had given me a certain familiarity with their type, if only by osmosis and by learning to manage their peculiarities.

Soon the buildings became older, the beams seemed to sag a bit, and the paint was often faded and peeling. Wide clean streets gave way to narrower streets that smelled noticeably worse than where we had been just before. Well dressed and generally upbeat people gave way to hunched shoulders and suspicious looks. As we moved further in things only got worse. More than a few people began to eye my horses speculatively and a few even had the gall to turn their eyes on Catherine. Then they would invariably turn to look at me and would find my unyielding gaze staring right back at them. Most of the would-be thieves then decided they had other places they urgently needed to be at that point.

Though the neighborhood we were now in was, to put it mildly, rather less than stellar I still felt confident that I would be able to find what I was looking for. All of the places where one could rent a room around this neighborhood would be undoubtedly run by someone who was at least a bit disreputable in the eyes of the law. As much as I didn’t particularly love the idea the truth was we currently had need for such an individual. I just needed to find a shifty establishment with the right type of criminally inclined individual running the place.

In my experience there were two kinds of disreputable people who tended to walk on, shall we say, the grey side of the law. The first were the opportunists, the ones who would betray just about anyone and anything for a few coppers if they thought they could get away with it. Obviously that was the type of shady character we wanted to avoid since they would betray us to the Sheriffs or anyone else at the first opportunity if they thought there was something in it for them. The second type of disreputable individual was a bit harder to pin down, but I liked to think of them as the spiteful ones. Usually they had some problem with authority, be it the local guards or the nobility or their commanding officer or something else. Even if they were shady they would still have rules and their own pride. They might take silver to knife someone, but you won’t catch them dead cooperating with the city guard. They might try to rob a store, but if they caught someone trying the same thing in their neighborhood they would beat them brutally as a warning that this neighborhood was off limits. All the spiteful ones were different and had different places where they drew the line. However if I was a paying customer and minding my own business the odds the owner would betray us to the local authorities at the first opportunity was drastically lower. None of the spiteful kind of ne’er-do-well that I had ever met during my time in the legions held any kind of love for the law.

All that I needed to do then was find a shady inn or tavern where the proprietor looked less shifty and more like he was pissed off at the entire world.

We went through two establishments that didn’t meet my stringent criteria before we came to a promising third. The windows were dirty but looking through them I was able to get a good enough look at the man behind the bar. The proprietor was a heavily balding man, well into his middle age but still muscled like a man half his age. He was looking at his customers with naked hostility as he cleaned a glass with a dirty rag, his expression set into a permanent frown of general disgust at the world and glaring at anyone who even looked like they might even think about starting trouble. Perfect.

“I need you to stay out here with our things for just a minute,” I said, a bit worried about doing just that. But no one was in sight and I didn’t want to drag Cat through the no-doubt delightful customers of the tavern if at all possible. “If anyone starts to hassle you yell and I’ll be out in just a second. Don’t make eye contact with anyone but don’t look you’re trying to hide away from their gaze either.”

“Why did we come to this dump?” Cat asked while wrinkling her nose. “I know we could afford at least a couple of nights in a much nicer place.”

“Nicer, maybe, but it wouldn’t be as safe as this place,” I told her, amused by her complaining. “Don’t worry princess. Now days even a place like this will have a tub for you to take that bath you keep talking about.”

“It better,” said Cat, looking around nervously. She wasn’t entirely unaware that we’d entered a less than ideal neighborhood. Then she turned to me and gave me her best serious expression. “If you’re going to start dragging me to places like this you had better pony up and buy me that dueling sword I’ve been asking for as soon as possible.”

“We’ll see,” I told her with a lopsided smile. It might not be a bad idea to teach her at least some rudimentary ways to protect herself. “I’ll be back in a minute. Remember to yell if you get in trouble.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hurry up and get it done already,” Cat said, waving me off impatiently.

With a mocking salute I turned, put on a more appropriate face for entering a place like this, and let myself inside the Angry Hog tavern.

The time was only nearing sunset but the front room was already halfway full of rough looking sorts playing cards, arguing or seemingly just doing their level best to get drunk. My entrance earned me a few looks but no one paid me much mind. As I did a routine threat assessment of the room a couple of things jumped out at me. One, there was a group of shady looking men who everyone else seemed to avoid looking at gathered around a table in a corner. All of them were wearing a black sash tied to their upper arm. Some kind of gang, maybe? Two, on the opposite end of the tavern sitting by himself was one of the biggest people I had ever seen in my entire life. He was completely bald and hairless and wasn’t even wearing a shirt. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom inside the Angry Hog I also noticed that his eyes were white. No pupil or iris, just an intense white all of the way through.

I was a little bit surprised at seeing that man. He was the first non human I had seen since I’d entered the city.

Turning away from looking at him I headed towards the bar where the barkeep was already eyeing me like I owed him money and he wasn’t too happy about it. I didn’t bother with too many niceties or small talk. The proprietor didn’t look like the sort of man who would appreciate beating around the bush and Cat was waiting outside all alone waiting for me.

“Good afternoon,” I said, going for straightforward. “I’m looking to rent a room for two travelers for a couple of nights. Some hot meals too, if you’ve got them.”

The barkeep eyed me up and down suspiciously before grunting. “Payment up front. In full.”

“Naturally,” I replied with a closed lipped smile. “I’ll also need someone to take care of three horses. And maybe some privacy if some busybodies happen to come around asking questions. I’ll understand if these services cost a little extra.”

I’d expected the barkeep to continue to be annoyed. Instead he snorted, seemingly amused by my not-so-subtle request. “People know better than to come in here asking questions about my customers. But aye, I’ve got a boy can take care of your horses for a few days and make sure no one walks away with them. Got a nice room too, and hot food. Won’t be cheap though, stranger.”

“Oh?” I asked. “How much?”

He told me. It was about twice as much as I would have expected and a bit of a rip off for a place like this in this part of town. Still if what he said about keeping his mouth shut and about our horses being in good hands was true then in this case I would consider it money well spent. We weren’t hurting for funds, at least not yet.

I discreetly counted out the silver from my pouch and slid it over to him. After he examined it thoroughly and made it disappear under the counter he briefly went into a back room. When he came back he handed me a heavy iron key.

“Second floor, last room on the right. Door bolts from the inside. You get three meals a day, if you miss one you don’t get a refund. Come get your dinner whenever you’re ready.”

I took the key and nodded. “Thank you,” I said, then did my best at giving him a charming smile. “By the way, my traveling companion is a… shy sort, and isn’t good with rough company. We’d like to avoid any attention. Is there any way we could use the back entrance to get up to our room?”

The barkeep’s eyes narrowed. “There is no back entrance,” he said roughly, which I was certain was an outright lie. “You and your ‘companion’ come in and out through the front like everyone else.”

I frowned unhappily, debating on whether it was worth arguing further, before deciding it would get me nowhere and just make this man resentful of us. “Very well. We’ll be going up to our rooms now. Send the boy out to take care of our horses, if you would.”

“Aye. He’ll be right out.”

I went back outside and soon enough the boy, a freckled teenager that seemed to be mute, came by to take our horses. However that presented a bit of a logistical problem. We had three horses filled with supplies, personal belongings and valuables. I ended up almost comically overburdened while Cat only carried a few of the lighter bags.

“The stairs are in the back, seconds floor and last door on the right,” I instructed her. “Don’t look around the room. Just keep facing straight ahead and walk confidently but don’t run.”

“Yeah, sure,” Cat replied with a roll of her eyes. “You’re totally overreacting. How bad could it be?”

Much worse than I was comfortable with as it turned out. When I had walked in alone I’d hardly been spared a second glance. As I entered the second time it was a much different story. Overloaded with luggage and with an eleven year old girl in tow almost every roughneck in the room paused what they were doing to stare at us. There was interest there, as well as people gauging opportunity. I tried to glare the ones I could into submission but it was dramatically less effective with both my arms and my shoulders heavily laden down with bags. Most troubling, it looked like we had especially caught the interest of the group of thugs and the non human that I had made note of earlier.

I fought the urge to grimace. If my goal had been to avoid attracting attention I may have just failed at that rather badly.

No one tried anything though as we crossed the room and made our way upstairs.

The room was small with two tiny beds and a window so small I doubted a toddler would be able to fit through. There was a small closet and a door which led to the bathroom. Cat immediately ran into the bathroom and soon I could hear the hand pump being worked.

“There’s no hot water!” yelled Cat, sounding distraught and scandalized.

“Did you really expect there to be in a place like this?” I asked, putting our things down in a corner with a sigh of relief.

“Whatever. I’m still taking a bath,” she called stubbornly from the bathroom.

“You do that,” I said, picking out a the bed closest to the door and sitting down heavily upon it.

I was tired, but I wasn’t in the mood to sleep just yet. Closing my eyes I leaned my head back on my pillow and activated my [Recovery] skill. It was a useful skill that allowed me to recover and even heal at four times the normal speed, with the requirement that I had to be still while using it. Thirty minutes later I felt like I’d had a refreshing two hour nap. By that time Cat was coming out of the bathroom looking freshly cleaned and scrubbed. Without another word she threw herself on the bed opposite mine and pulled the covers over herself.

“I’m going to do downstairs for a bit,” I told her. “I’ll bring you up some dinner later.”

“Okay,” she muttered, already at least halfway to being asleep.

I’m glad she didn’t ask why I was going downstairs. Sure, it was prudent to get the lay of the land and try to get ahead of any trouble that might be coming our way from our little attention grabbing episode across the tavern floor. That was something I was definitely going to do. But after all the setbacks, the hardships and the hard decisions I would likely have to make very, very soon?

I felt a pressing need for a good, strong drink.