Laker got off of his horse and walked it into the village. The roads got smaller and smaller the farther they were away from Carthage. In Carthage, most of the roads had enough space for three horses to walk side by and this village's roads barely fit one. The path connecting the different villages wasn't much better than these roads.

By the time that he had reached this village, the sun had sent a while ago and most of the people had gone out of the streets. The roads were empty, and the sparse torches cast long shadows. If this was Carthage, Laker would have been worried a lot more. Most of the people in villages were harmless farmers. Criminals had no place here. Carthage, on the other hand, was crawling with criminals.

At this time, it would be difficult to find a tavern, but Laker didn't need to. He had been here before a while ago when he was working for other merchants. He pulled the horse along as he tried to remember the location.

After searching for a little while, Laker found the familiar tavern. He walked in and found a completely dark room. The torch inside had gone out and there was no one to light it again. Laker went back out and tied up the horse to the side. He pulled out a bag from on top of the horse and poured a part of it onto the floor. It was grain for the horse so that it wasn't hungry in the morning.

Laker, then, went to the side of the tavern and knocked on the door that was there. A few seconds later, a man opened the door.

"Room for tonight," said Laker in a flat voice.

"That's great, sir. Now if you follow me, I'll show you to your room." said the man. He was clearly happy to have a customer. He led Laker to the inside of the tavern. Inside, he took him to one of the rooms and opened it.

"How much?" Asked Laker.

"Ten copper,"

Laker took out 10 copper and handed it to the man. The price was obviously inflated a lot, but Laker didn't have another choice. It was already late, and there were no other taverns in this village.

"I can see that you are having a busy night. Can you arrange food in the morning?" said Laker as he noticed where his room was.

"It seems it's my lucky day and yes, by the time the sun rises, I'll have a hot bowl of food ready," said the man.

The room inside was small, with the longest wall being about 10 feet wide. In the middle of the room, taking up the majority of the space, was a bed. With a thin blanket on top and two pillows, it was enough for two people to share. Laker locked the door behind him and went to sleep.

The next morning, Sam woke up before everyone else. He waited for a few minutes to see if the other two would get up by themselves, but they didn't. Figuring that they would eventually wake up by themselves, Sam went outside the tavern.

As soon as Sam walked out of the door, he noticed the horse that was tied to the side of the building. It was relatively the same as the horse that they sold. It was mostly brown with a darker saddle. From a distance, it would look the same, but if a person came close, they would be able to find small differences.

Sam was now unsure what to do. Just to confirm a thought that he had, he went back in to look at the different doors. He was right. The fourth door down from the hallway no longer had an empty sign-up. The unknown man probably came in after they had gone to sleep.

There were two possibilities that Sam could think of. The other horse, the one that the second bandit had, was brought here by the men from Laina's village. Or, someone was going towards Liaina's village, and they just happened to stop here for the night.

Sam never got a close look at the other horse, so he was unable to distinguish if this was the same one or not.

Either way, there was nothing that Sam could do right now. If he woke up Xander and Laina, that noise could also wake up the man. He couldn't go anywhere alone, so he was stuck here.

Figuring that, Sam went back outside. The outside was lively with people going to places, taking, and kids running around. Sam walked into the crowd with no real destination.

Sam did his best to remember where the tavern was so that he didn't get lost. As he walked, Sam listened to the chatter going on all around him. At first, he was unable to make out anything because of the number of different voices he could hear, but he slowly got the hang of it.

The most common thing that the people talked about was work. How good their crops are doing this year, and how much they might make. After that, was the gossip. How was cheating on who and who was getting married to how. Then it was the rumors. These were much harder to hear because most of the people talking about them were using a small voice.

There was talk about the horse. Someone had seen the pair of man and horse coming east, and people were curious of his purpose. There were all sorts of theories, but all of them seemed to be false. But there was another rumor being tossed around. There seemed to be a noble, whose name no one knew, offering high-paying jobs, but no one in this village was positive about it. There seemed to be a little bit of animosity between the noble and the Lord, and a lot of people were scared that if they worked for that noble, they could be seen as rebels from the current Lord of Carthage, Drogo.

Sam considered these two things as separate, and so he didn't make the connection between them.

Now that he knew everything that he needed to know, Sam returned back to the tavern. Thankfully, he remembered the way back, and so he was able to backtrack.

Sam went to Laina's door and knocked on it softly. Her's was the first door so she was the farthest away. She was also a light sleeper like him so there was a good chance that she could have already been up.

A few seconds, later Laina opened the door. Her shoulder-length hair was bent in a few places, and her eyes were still half-closed. "Good Morning," she said as she yawned.

"Morning. Can I talk to you, outside?" asked Sam. He didn't want to explain to Laina inside because the longer they stayed here, the higher the chance that the man would wake up and see their faces.

"Sure, but what is this about?" asked Laina as she followed Sam outside. He led her a good distance away from the entrance and then turned around.

People were walking all around them, but no one paid them any attention. From this distance, Sam could see the entrance and still be far enough away that anyone coming out wouldn't be able to see him in the crowd.

"Ahh...," Sam thought about how much he should say right now. The issue wasn't whether Laina was trustworthy or not since she most of what he was going to say anyway but the people around him. Sam got close to Laina's ear and whispered, "Remember two days ago, when I said that we should leave right away in case something happened. This is that case. See that horse over there? Someone came in last night with it from the east." Sam pointed to the horse. "I might just be paranoid but I have a feeling that whoever wrote that note and this person are connected,"

Laina understood everything that Sam was saying but she was unsure about one thing. "What about Xander? What if they see each other? Is he going to be in danger?"

"I doubt it. The man doesn't know that Xander is coming from your village. I also doubt that Xander will wake up at the same time as that man. I chose to wake you up because you might come out of your room and run into that man. If he sees any of us, it will get much more difficult to hide in the future." Sam then added, "Plus, waking Xander up will cause so much noise that will definitely cause the man to get up."

After saying that Sam moved to Laina's side and watched the door of the tavern. Minutes passed by and there was no movement. Sam was starting to get bored so he started to listen to people's conversations again.

After what seemed to be a long time later, a man walked out. He was neither Xander nor the person that let them into their rooms last night. He went straight for the horse. After uniting the reins, he led the horse to the outside of the village. As he went forward, people made way for him, letting him move forward. In a short time, he was gone.

Sam and Laina watched him the entire time. They both watched his face intently, trying to make sure that they remember it. After he left, Sam walked back to the tavern and Laina walked after him. Inside, they found Xander pacing around.

"Where did you guys go? Anyway, I have to tell you two about this guy. He just walked out, maybe you saw him leaving. He was so rude. I saw him eating when I woke up and I said hello and do you know what he did? He looked at me once and then ignored me." Said Xander. "I then asked if he saw you two and then he continued to ignore me."

Sam sighed and closed his eyes. He told himself that it was just bad luck to make himself feel better. "How closely did he see your face?" He asked Xander.

"Not very, he looked at me once, up and down, and then pretended I wasn't here, but why does that matter?" said Xander.

Sam couldn't bother explaining it now. "Nothing, just get ready. We're leaving soon." They went back to their rooms and grabbed the few things that they had. Xander called out Stratus and he jumped into Xander's arms. Very soon they left the tavern and then the village.

A man sat at the head of a large table. The table was large enough to hold another 13 men, but the rest of the seats were empty. The room that he was in was brightly lit from the glass windows and the rich adornments that hung on the walls were clearly visible. Guards were standing at all corners of the room and the two large doors. He was currently eating from a bowl of silver. A few people stood to his side informing him about the current news in Carthage.

"The supplies that you brought from Lord Kain arrived at the port last night. The quality of the goods hasn't been checked yet. Do you wish to send someone there to make sure that everything is in one piece?" Asked one of the men standing to his side.

"It's not needed. Kain wouldn't do something as silly as giving up faulty goods." replied the man as he kept eating.

"I understand, Lord," said the man, and then he moved onto another topic. "A person is claiming that he is going west under your orders. He even has a horse. What do you want us to do about this imposter, Lord?"

Drogo passed eating for a few moments to think. "Nothing, he's most likely working for that idiot Giles. He never learns, does he? How did you get this news?" He asked.

"One of our guards. He was in a village and happened to overhear."

"Give him a reward and tell him to keep a lookout for that man. If that man returns back to Carthage, I want him captured."

"I understand, Lord Drogo."