The Greatest Tavern in the World
Finn, Toni, and I descended the ramp from the Onyx Glory onto the docks of Shallow Tides Bay, bags in hand and ready to set off into the city together.
“Captain, I can’t thank you enough for letting me be part of your crew,” Toni said to Captain Malcolm Serpentis, who was standing on the ship’s deck, watching us disembark. He’d granted Toni leave from the ship, and even paid him for his work ahead of schedule.
“If you come back a more talented healer and want to rejoin the crew, I’ll consider this a wise investment,” the Captain smiled down at us, his gray eyes sparkling with good humor as his long, silver hair danced along the cool coastal breeze.
I looked over at Toni. Was it part of the deal to leave now that Toni would eventually go back to the Onyx Glory? “What if he doesn’t come back?” I asked, clutching the bottom of Toni’s jacket possessively.
Captain Serpentis laughed, “Then I’ll make sure to tell the Tidekeeper, Arionis, about my good-hearted nature when the sea takes me one day. Hopefully, he’ll see it as a balance to some of my misgivings in this life.”
Arionis, god of the sea, should welcome the captain into whatever afterlife he offered with open arms. “You’re a good man, Malcolm Serpentis. The Tidekeeper would be lucky to have you.” I said, smiling at the Captain and feeling a hot, painful breaking in my heart. We’d more than lucked out in finding the crew of the Onyx Glory. But we’d see them again. We still had to breach Stormreach together and save my people. “We’ll find you once I’m ready.”
He nodded, digging around in one of the pockets on his chest. He pulled something out and flipped it from his fingers toward me. A small shining object whirled at me, and I snatched it from the air before it could land in the water behind us. He’d thrown a small silver coin with an engraved serpent circling the money piece. I didn’t recognize the tender. “That should help you — when you’re ready,” the captain said. “Spin it on a map, and it will land where its sister coin resides.”
The captain patted his coat pocket again. The other coin was with him. That would certainly make things much easier for us. We’d just need a map and time to get back to the ship. I nodded, dropping the coin into my bag, in a pocket that buttoned closed. That coin was likely my most prized possession at this point.
“Well, shall we go?” Finn asked, eyebrows raised high on his forehead in anticipation.
“I’m ready,” I said, and we marched toward the gates that closed off the docks from the town.
City guards posted at the gate barely glanced at us as we passed by them on our way into the town of Shallow Tides Bay. The streets were filled with merchant carts selling everything from fresh fish off of the boats to handmade soaps and small do-dads for around a house. People of every race walked back and forth from ships and shops and further into town where I supposed some of them lived. I’d never seen so many different types of people all together at the same time. Or just in general.
Children crossed our path, holding onto a rope in a single-file line. They followed a large, matronly woman, with dark brown hair swept up into a neat bun on her head. Her olive hands clutched the front of the rope, showing off well manicured nails that were dusted with chalk. Rows and rows of buildings existed beyond those that lined the cobblestone road we were on, all sweeping up toward the forest and mountain beyond.
“This place is huge,” Finn whispered into my ear.
We had three days until half-moon. I was itching to explore every nook and cranny of this city. “You’ve been here before, Toni. Right?” I asked, looking up at our tall-folk friend. He smoothed out his still-perfectly kept hair and squinted his big brown eyes.
“A few times. I have to admit, a lot of the time spent here with the other sailors was in a tavern of some sort,” he said, flushing bright red. “So, if we did anything else in the city beyond that, I don’t quite remember what it was.”
“Why don’t you remember?” Finn asked, his face pinched and puzzled as he tried to figure out what a tavern could do to a person to make them forget.
The shire didn’t have the usual sorts of drinks that one would find in a tavern. We had Giggle Fizz, which made everything seem funny to the drinker, and crushed mulberry drink, which did make you feel funny if it had been left in the jugs for too long. None of that ale or mead stuff that the tall-folk liked to drink, though.
“He’s talking about alcohol, Finny,” I said, knocking Finn with a light fist. “It’s not like what we have at the shire. I’ve heard its rather gross compared to what we like, actually.”
“Well, we are adventuring,” Toni said, tapping a finger to his chin in thought, “It only makes sense that we secure a room in a tavern while we wait for half-moon and the starfish. That’s where all the good adventure stories start, anyhow.”
Two hours later, we were at a tavern called Ale and Hay, which Toni swore was one of his favorites in the city.
“Just how– hic– just how many taverns have you been at?” Finn asked, half a mug of mead deep and swaying lightly on his barstool. He beamed lazily, clutching the handle of his mug with tight fingers.
Toni’s cheeks were rosy and flushed, and he squinted through his eyelashes at us warmly. “I’ve been to so many taverns, and Ale and Hay is the best tavern in the world!” he said, shouting the last part as he raised his second mug, sloshing some ale onto the table.
“You’re wasting the good stuff,” I said, nursing the last few sips of my first mug of mead. This stuff wasn’t so bad. Different and heavier than anything I’d drank before, almost like a broth or something. I was lightheaded from my drink, smiling at my two friends at the table across from me, and swinging my feet since I couldn’t reach the foot holder of my barstool. I didn’t have much — or any — tavern experience, but Toni was right about this place. It was the greatest.
Toni pulled out a handkerchief from his coat pocket, patted it on the table to sop up the spilled ale, and then squeezed the wet cloth over his mug. A couple of drips of ale splashed into his cup. “It was my plan all along to get some ale on the table. It adds extra flavor.”
Finn cackled, rocking back and nearly falling off his stool before catching himself on the table. This feeling was very different from Giggle Fizz. I hiccuped loudly and clapped a hand over my mouth. Another hiccup bubbled from under my hand. I couldn’t stop.
Toni and Finn laughed as I hiccuped uncontrollably, but then a green-gray hand slammed a dagger into the table, inches in front of me. My hiccups subsided as I jumped out of my skin. The disappeared, leaving the dagger, which was planted two inches into the wooden table.
“I’m trying to drink in peace, if you don’t mind,” A large orcish woman glared down at me, orange-brown eyes blazing with annoyance. Her straight black hair was shaved on the sides and long on top, pulled back into a tight loop on the back of her head. Her tusks had silver crowning over the tips that matched the cuffs on her pointed ears.
“Sorry,” I said, trying my best not to cower, but she’d scared the hiccups and possibly a little pee out of me just then. Her hand extended, pulling the dagger out of the table and exposing a dark tattoo shaped like a four-pointed star with a blank hole in the middle. “Can I buy you another drink to make up for disturbing you?” I asked, feeling strangely sober all of a sudden. Toni and Finn sat quietly across the table, watching my interaction with the orcish woman with curious and terrified regard.
She shook her head, yanking out her dagger from the table, and returned to a dark corner nearby. We all kept our noise level down after that rude interruption.
Thirty minutes passed, and activity at the tavern grew steadier. It seemed like a good mix of regulars, and folks who were looking for a place to stay were milling about the Ale and Hay. A hooded figure came through the door and looked around slowly, scanning the tavern. Who comes into a place with a hood on if they weren’t trying to hide something?
I narrowed my eyes at the person. There was no telling what they looked like under the shadows of their hood, but they spotted someone in our area of the bar and started staggering over. The way they walked… it was like they were in pain. Movement from my peripheral vision alerted me that the orcish woman had stood up from her seat. The hooded figure tumbled forward as they got within five feet of her table, landing on their hands and knees on the ground. I saw the trail of blood following them then.
“That person is hurt,” I whispered to Toni and Finn, who for the last thirty minutes, had been deep in a conversation about the healing properties of plants that could be found near Shallow Tides Bay. Toni wanted to go and find some of them in the morning and Finn was asking for a few specific ones that we didn’t have at the library back home.
“What person?” Toni asked, but then almost immediately spotted the hooded figure on the ground a few feet away. He stood up, pulling out bottles of different tinctures I didn’t recognize from his backpack and setting them on our table as he continued searching for other things he needed.
The orcish woman was kneeling on the ground, speaking lowly to whoever it was under the hood. There was a hint of panic on her face.
I got off of my stool, too, moving closer to the two of them in the corner, but not close enough that I was in daggering range. “Can we help? My friend is a powerful healer,” I said, gesturing back at Toni, who was now stirring two different tinctures together and glancing up in this direction every few seconds. It was like he was counting the time it was taking to prepare whatever it was he was doing.
The orcish woman looked up, her face going steely and her orange eyes sharpening. “No, leave us. This is none of your business,” she barked at me. I stepped back a couple of paces, startled. We just wanted to help.
The hooded figure turned to look at me now, the shadows fading as they faced the light of an overhead chandelier. A beautiful woman with cropped black hair and amber eyes smiled weakly at me, her face slowly losing color. “Don’t mind Winona’s temper. She’s just scared. Underneath this tough exterior, she’s really got a kind heart,” the woman said, her words faltering slightly despite her honey-filled tone.
Toni stepped forward. “I have something that should help the wound stop bleeding,” he said, holding up a purplish-red potion.
Winona’s eyes grew silvery with tears, and she looked away from us, breathing heavily. The beautiful woman on the ground lifted her cloak, revealing a deep slash in her gut. Black tendrils crawled like veins through her body from the wound. The same tattoo that the orcish woman — Winona — had on her forearm was on the woman’s inner bicep.
“I’m afraid healing the wound wouldn’t save me,” she said quietly. “But you’re kind for offering.” Was she dying? How could this woman be so calm? Why wouldn’t it help? What was that black stuff?
Toni’s hand fell to his side. He looked devastated. “I’ve never not been able to help someone before,” he mumbled under his breath. Finn stepped forward and took Toni’s hand, removing the potion and placing it back on the table with our stuff.
“It’s okay, Toni. Whatever is happening with that wound looks unnatural. This isn’t about your abilities at this point,” Finn said, returning to Toni’s side and squeezing his arm.
What were we supposed to do then? Sit around and watch this woman die?
“Was it one of the Reanault clan who did this?” Winona asked, helping her friend turn so she could lie on the ground.
The woman sighed with relief when she rested her head on Winona’s knee. “Yes, I was following one of them like we were instructed and didn’t hear one of the sneakier ones come up behind me. They have some kind of poison on their weapons. Don’t go after them when I’m gone, or you’ll die, too.”
“Not without taking a couple of them out first,” Winona whispered murderously.
The woman coughed, grabbing at her wounded stomach in pain. A trickle of blood fell from her mouth. My breath hitched as my mind flashed back to the night of the raid. How Maester Bobbins winced in pain as he died on the ground. I stumbled forward, taking the woman’s hand despite a death glare from Winona.
“Leave,” Winona said, moving like she was going to push me away. Her friend, despite the fact that she was dying, raised a hand to stop her.
“What’s your name?” the woman asked, her voice quiet as her face paled even more, but her eyes still shone with so much kindness.
I sniffed, feeling a wave of sorrow welling up inside of me. “Kithri Tealeaf. I’m so sorry this happened to you. I promise to stay until you’re at rest. Every– everyone deserves that,” I whispered, a tear dripping down my cheek.
I felt Finn’s hand on my shoulder, and Toni kneeled down to the floor next to me. “We’ll all stay,” Finn said resolutely. “For both of you.”
The woman laughed weakly. “Well, Winona. It seems like you have a new clan. I worried about that as I found my way back here tonight. I suppose I can go in peace knowing you’ll be cared for.”
“Emilee,” Winona whispered, lower lip quivering as she held back her tears. “I’m not ready for you to go.”
I couldn’t help myself. I scooted over to Winona and wrapped an arm around her. She stiffened under my touch but didn’t make me release her.
“I don’t think you would have ever been ready,” Emilee said. “But this was the life we agreed to. We knew the cost.”
Winona grabbed the tattoo on her arm, and I felt Emilee’s hand slack in mine. A final breath escaped from her lips as she closed her eyes. And she was gone.
Winona shook under my arm. “Please, let us help you,” Toni said, folding Emilee’s arms across her body. Finn motioned for someone to alert a barkeeper.
Winona stopped shaking and looked up from Emilee’s resting body. “No — I don’t know you. I don’t trust you. And I certainly don’t like you. On top of all of that, you obviously don’t belong to the guild, so even if I wanted your help, I couldn’t ask for it.”
“What guild?” I asked, pulling away to watch Winona’s reaction.
Her skin paled to a light gray and her eyes shifted back and forth between the three of us. “Dragon’s breath,” she cursed, a long, huffed sigh escaping between her tusks. Apparently, she wasn’t supposed to talk about whatever guild it was she was part of. What kind of secret guild didn’t want members speaking of its existence?
There were secret societies in every country around our world, working undercover to see their different agendas through… there were just so many and probably more that I didn’t even know of. But not being part of some secret society shouldn’t be able to stop us from helping Winona — she was just being difficult.
I glanced down at Emilee’s resting body and had to look away before more tears came. I was there for a stranger, guiding them into the next life, but not my own people.
“We know you’re hurting, but it doesn’t seem like it’s safe to go and do whatever you’re planning to do on your own,” Finn said, applying logic to the situation that I just couldn’t muster with the buzzing memories of the night of the raid filtering my thoughts. I’d always been so mad at myself for not staying with Maester Bobbins as he died. But would that have doomed me to the same fate as him? There were so many unknowns about that night, but I couldn’t help but feel shame for leaving him.
“No, not happening,” Winona argued, glaring at us with tears still in her eyes.
“What’s so wrong with letting us help you?” Toni asked, leaned over and carefully covering up Emilee’s wound so that the rest of the bar didn’t see it. He pulled out an empty vial from his pocket and scooped some of her blood into it that was near the creeping black tendrils from the wound.
“Emilee said you’d die if you went after them,” I said after Winona refused to respond. “You don’t have to trust us or even like us to let us help you. People shouldn’t be running around with poison weapons and stabbing others.”
“I might even be able to figure out an antidote to the poison if you give me a couple of hours,” Toni said, holding up the vial.
Winona groaned loudly. “Fine. But none of this mushy cow-dung or flamboyant antics you all have been up to. This won’t be an easy job, and you might not survive if you don’t take this seriously.”
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