Novar’s trial was fast approaching—the Council had scheduled it for the 27th—but it was a conversation that Raya overheard on her way out of Olston for a hunt that put the first twist into her week. The guard named Tharin was on duty, speaking with one of the others. She only caught part of their communication as she strode through the opening in the palisades. The sky was grey and overcast, so she had been in a rush.
“… sighted at the inn, too,” the guard was saying. “So that’s the last place he was seen, with her.”
“What’s that?” Raya asked, pausing. “Something about the guard?”
Tharin blinked. They all knew Raya had helped out the Councillors, but they also knew she was closest with their benefactors. Nonetheless, he said, “Hanik was sighted in the tavern of the Old Granite Inn, with Lotha, after his shift the night he vanished.”
Raya paused. She tugged on one of her leather straps, where it was chafing. “Hanik and Lotha were at the Old Granite Inn…?”
The other guard nodded. “We already questioned Lotha, but she didn’t know anything—”
Raya turned around and started heading back towards town. The sun was warm on her back, immediately. Tharin called after her, but she just waved at them, with a smile, and headed south, towards the North Rock. The Old Gran was as quiet as it had been the last time she went there, also in the morning. Ogivar grinned when he saw her. “It’s been a few days, Miss Ganner,” he said.
“Too few,” she said with a wink. “One of these times I ought to stop in for a drink instead of information.”
The innkeeper just smiled. “How can I help you today?” he asked. He lifted the cloth he had been scrubbing a table with and tossed it over his shoulder. Despite his height, she could tell the man was all muscle.
“The missing guard, Hanik, was in here?” she asked.
He shrugged. “The guards talked to a bunch of my patrons yesterday. I saw a guard with Lotha, yes, but I didn’t know Hanik. Some of the people in here did though. Lotha answered some questions from the crowd in here, then left after a drink.”
“And the traveller I asked you about last time, he was at your bar, right? Did he leave at the same time?” Raya asked.
“Now that you say it,” Ogivar said, “I think he left a few moments later, yes.”
“I need to ask Lotha about it,” Raya muttered. One of the barmaids came out of the nearby kitchen, but paused to wait for their conversation. “Thanks for your time, again, Ogivar.”
“That’s what I’m here for, apparently,” the innkeeper said. “Not selling drinks or rooms…”
She didn’t wait for him to finish. The door closed behind her, admitting her to a windswept street. It was going to rain soon. The clouds above swirled with darkness, and the warm breeze carried tiny cool droplets of water, gently brushing her skin.
Raya followed the street away from the Olston mine, and took a right turn to reach the main street of town. The new buildings for the refugees were being built at the end of the road—already, ten had been finished and each housed multiple families, cramped for space. The people from Elpan kept to themselves, mostly, but were seen in the markets and shops frequently. A few seemed to have made friends, and the townspeople kept doors open to their guests.
Lotha, Viker, and a few of their trusted men lived in a two-storey home on one of the side streets; Raya had visited them a few times since their arrival in Olston. She knocked, and Jarei answered the door. He was one of their work overseers, who handled house planning and supply acquisition. “Oh, hello Raya. Were you looking for someone?”
“Is Lotha in?” Raya asked.
Lotha appeared, as if called. She hadn’t applied her normal make up yet, so her face was just a tanned olive shade, and her eyes looked more rounded than the streaks on her face usually made them look. “Raya?”
The huntress smiled, as Jarei left the door. “Good-morning, Lotha.” A burst of raindrops came down, splattering around Raya, and persuading her to take a step forward.
“Come in,” Lotha said. “How can I help?”
“I just had a couple questions… I understand the guards asked you about Hanik, the guard who disappeared,” Raya said. She looked around the small anteroom they stood in. There was no sign of anyone else. Lotha led the way into a sitting room, where a few cushioned chairs had been set up. Even Jarei had gone upstairs, it seemed.
“They asked me. I’m really sorry to have caused any misunderstanding,” Lotha said. “I saw him leaving his shift when I was walking down the main street and asked him to accompany me to the inn. I just wanted everyone to see me with someone from the town, you know. There’s a lot of inquisitive folks here still.”
“And after the inn?” Raya asked. “I’m just trying to put figure this out, if I can.”
Lotha shook her head. “He walked me back here, and once we left the main street, he said his home was the other way. Didn’t see him again.”
“Nothing strange happened?”
“Raya…” Lotha sighed. “I’m sorry. There was nothing.”
Outside the storm began to rage, rain tossing against the wood shutters of the house with an occasional rattle. Raya had to get home in case it picked up too much. She didn’t want to get rained in here. She had no reason to doubt Lotha, but she didn’t want to get in the busy woman’s hair too much. “Thanks for seeing me,” she said.
When she eventually stepped into her own house, panting and dripping with rain, her arrival was heralded by thunder. Something was wrong with that night the traveller and the guard had vanished. Had the traveller taken the guard, or the guard the traveller? Or were they both still here, hidden or hiding? The entire mystery was unsettling.