Rake's Story

by LeRoy Clary

  Rake said as he grasped the shoulder of the man in the green shirt and pulled him closer, “Hey, never mind her or what she says. I think we can be friends after all.” He lowered his voice to one more confidential. “Listen, don’t you believe any rumors you hear about all those men that got killed up the river by a crazy woman. She is not a crazy killer, and neither am I.” Rake widened his eyes, allowed spittle to dribble from the corner of his mouth, and moved his face closer until their noses nearly touched.

  The man twisted away violently and walked at nearly a run, looking over his shoulder to make sure they were not following him. Rake called after him, “Hey, come back here. She thinks she likes you and wants to get to know you. Alone, if that’s all right.”

  Cinder chastised him through her smile, “Don’t do that again. He’s going to spread enough rumors about us, as it is.” Then she chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Rake demanded sternly.

  Her smile turned impish. “You telling him I’m not crazy.” Her nose twitched and Cinder turned slightly left, following a stray scent like a hunting dog located its prey.

  Rake then smelled it too. At the edge of the stalls, an old woman bent over a small fire contained in a ring of bricks. A metal grating sat over it. Meat marinated in a stoneware bowl. As they watched, she speared another strip of thinly sliced meat and placed it on the grate. It sizzled. Delicious smoke rose, and Rake’s mouth watered.

  Another man, one with an air of officialdom about him strode in their direction and intercepted them by standing directly in front. He was as tall as Rake and wider at the shoulders, with a belly that revealed he seldom missed a meal. His clothing was all black, almost like a uniform. His eyes and voice were not as friendly as he growled. “New in town?”

  “We are,” Cinder answered when Rake didn’t.

  “Visiting people you know? Got any names?”

  “Just visiting everyone,” she said vaguely, her eyes imploring Rake to remain calm.

  “If you’re staying at an inn, all of them are located on the third and fourth cross streets just ahead. Just follow them up the hill and ask anyone. Leave your weapons in your rooms until you go home.” His cold eyes went to the bows carried on their backs. “Your knives, too. We don’t allow trouble.”

  Cinder looked at him and smiled as she asked in her sweetest voice. “Are you scared of me, sir?”

  He flinched. “No.”

  Rake started to step closer and ask why the man felt he could make such demands but found Cinder had moved ahead of him and was effectively holding him back as she said, “You are so big and strong. It’s good to know brave men like you are here to protect me.”

  The man cleared his throat as if he was going to speak, but abruptly spun and strode away.

  “What was that all about?” Rake asked.

  “Better to be nice until we know the rules,” she said. “It would take an idiot to pick a fight with someone appointed to steer visitors to inns and let them know the local rules.”

  Rake accepted the rebuke only because the smell of food interfered with his normally clear thinking. The scent the grilled meat a few steps away drew him there and removed any anger he might otherwise direct at Cinder. He muttered, “What local rules?”

  Cinder said to the woman cooking over the tiny fire, “How much?”

  The woman used her hands placed on her knees to help her stand upright, and even then, her bent back prevented her from standing fully. She cackled, “I like the way you put that jackass in his place. Care for a sample taste? No charge.”

  Rake snatched the proffered hot meat between dirty fingers and blew on it to cool. Barely an instant before Cinder could grab it from him, he tossed it into his mouth.

  “One small copper for two on sticks,” the old woman said.

  “Cheap at twice the price,” Rake said, not really understanding what the phrase meant, but hoping it would ring true with Cinder so she would pay for them. He continued, “My grandfather used to say that, and I didn’t understand until now what it meant.”

  Cinder selected a coin and handed it over. “We’ll take four sticks and some information if you please. You said you liked the way I handled that man? I wondered why you said that.”

  The woman speared three more strips and placed them alongside the first. She added four more slices to the broth to soak. Then she flipped the four cooking on the smoky fire. They were so thin it wasn’t going to take long to finish. She said, “Information is a funny thing. Sometimes it’s free. Other times expensive, no matter what you pay.”

  “But you know both kinds?” Cinder asked with a chuckle.

  Rake stood aside, eyes smarting from the smoke hanging in the air, not just from her little fire, but over the entire city. He allowed his eyes to roam, like when hunting. He noted a woman trying to make eye contact with him. She stood beside a partially open door as if inviting him inside. A man stood at the corner of a building watching them. They were strangers and thus a curiosity. He might mean nothing. Or something. The next time Rake glanced his way, he was talking to another and seemed to have lost interest in them. An innocent encounter of eye-contact.

  Another, a man wearing a cape with a high collar that hid his lower face quickly turned away as Rake’s eyes found him. This time, when Rake turned away and looked at the trading stalls down the row and then flicked his eyes back, the man was watching them again.

  The old woman used thin strips of wood to stab through the meat, several times for each piece in a weave, then she handed them to Cinder as she asked. “So, what is it you want to know, young lady?”

  Cinder handed Rake two of the sticks and said, “First, we want an inn to stay at. An honest and clean one where we can stay a few days and leave our belongings without them being rifled or stolen.”

  The old lady pointed to a side street, not one of the two that the officious man had indicated where the inns were located. “Only one of those left in the whole damned city. A few blocks and you will find the sign with a rocking chair on the wall placard. Tell the innkeeper I sent you and she’ll front me an ale next time I’m in the neighborhood. Good, honest place. Rooms are upstairs and nobody gets up there without Demi seeing them pass.”

  Rake found the meat tender, crispy on the outside, and filled with strange flavors, all to his liking. He finished both pieces before Cinder finished her first. He eyed the one she hadn’t eaten. Cinder pulled another small copper coin from somewhere and sat it beside the bowl with the soaking meat.

  “Another for you?” the old lady asked. “You must be starving.”

  Cinder said, “Maybe tomorrow I won’t have the money to pay for one. That’s just to make sure you get the ale and to remember me. Good advice is worth what you’re willing to pay for it.”

  “Shouldn’t have to pay between friends. Take your coin back.”

  “Where I come from, that will insult me, and then we would have to fight here and now with my choice of weapons. Do you really want that?” Cinder stood her ground with a soft smile to take any sting from her words.

  All three laughed as Cinder steered them away. Rake followed her down the row of stalls. He finally asked, “Why give away your money?”

  “Give? Never. You see, what I did was buy valuable good-will from a valuable source. If the inn is as she described, it was worth ten times that to avoid making mistakes and searching until late tonight to find the one we want. The man who greeted us steered us to others. He said to go in a different direction. Besides that, the next time we need a truthful answer, we know where to ask.”

  Rake was following Cinder but looking at her with far more respect than before. He glanced behind and thought he saw the man who had been watching them at the market duck into an alley but couldn’t be sure.

  They took the side street the meat seller had indicated and watched for the sign with the rocking chair on a wall. Four buildings down they found it, a flat plaque nailed to the wooden wall, on it a simple drawing of a chair wit
h curved rails under it. The inn was unimpressive from the outside, two stories tall, with peeling gray paint that may have been white at some time. Streaks of soot ran down at every corner, and from the edges of windows, like most buildings in the city. A wide, covered porch stood in front, three or four steps taller than the road.

  Rake immediately had the idea that the building had not always been an inn. The shape made him think of the trading post near his house, only the living area was above instead of behind. They entered the front door and found a dining room filled with twenty empty tables and mismatched chairs. A lone woman bent over as she wiped the tables clean with a cloth. She turned to face them and snapped. “Who are you?”

  She was thin, middle-aged, and her hair hung down her back almost to her waist. Streaks of gray were evident, but overall it was dark brown, so the gray showed up more than on hair lighter colored. While she may have been pretty, her anger distorted her features. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and wet cheeks showed where the tears had recently flowed.

  “I’m Rake and this is my sister, Cinder. The lady down at the first stall selling meat sticks said to tell you that you owe her a beer. I wanted to say that before I forgot. And I’ll pay for another for her.”

  “You need a place to stay, huh?”

  “And eat,” Cinder added.

  “For how long?”

  Cinder stepped forward. “For one night, to begin. Then we’ll see. What’s going on? You’re the rudest innkeeper I’ve ever heard of.”

  “Just making sure of who I let into my place these days.”

  Cinder removed a coin and placed it on a table to show we were not asking for charity. “Where are the other people? Your other customers?”

  The woman sat heavily in a chair and faced them. A knife appeared from the folds of her skirt, a hunting knife almost as long as a short sword. “They were run off.”

  “Why’d they run?”

  “New owners at the other inns sent their goons to scare them. I wouldn’t sell my inn, so they try and keep customers away from me to put me out of business. You can expect a visit from them, I suppose. Go stay at one of the other inns is good advice to avoid trouble. I may not even be open a few days from now.”

  “Who?” Rake asked. “Who’s doing that to you?”

  “A few months ago, three men arrived. Some say they came from Breslau. They have private soldiers and local strongarms to accompany them everywhere, and they have gold to spend. A lot of it. They bought the other five inns in Mercippio and now all travelers go to stay with them. Staying here will only bring you trouble.”

  Rake held his tongue. Cinder was right about not talking and still learning what you wish to know. He’d wondered at the name of the city. Now he knew it was Mercippio and remembered one of the first men they’d met used the same name. The three men with the gold intrigued him. “How much would it take to buy five inns?”

  “More than I’ll ever see. But they didn’t stop there. They also bought other businesses.”

  “Which ones?” Cinder asked as she sat her rucksack heavily on the floor and took a seat across from the innkeeper.

  The woman shrugged and said, “Oh, lots of things. Blacksmiths, and even the knife-maker down the street from here. The granary and both mills. They hire men to guard their new businesses. Rough men and they pay them well.”

  Rake exchanged a look with Cinder.

  The woman said, “Listen, I understand if you want no trouble and decide to stay elsewhere. I’d recommend it, to be honest.”

  Rake said, “No, this inn looks good and the other woman said you’re honest, but can you protect our privacy all by yourself?”

  She snorted. “Funny that you ask that. All travelers at the other inns are questioned extensively about their business, their travels, and reasons for visiting Mercippio. Their belongings are searched when they are away, from what I hear. In the Rocking Chair, I cannot promise you anything except that I will not go through your things—and nobody else will if I have any say. Call me Demi.”

  Rake was going to ask a question about other travelers who were resisting the newcomers, but Cinder caught his eye and gave the slightest shake of her head. Rake felt the blood rise and knew he still had a lot to learn. Let them talk . . . and you’ll eventually hear what you want and won’t give yourself away by your questions.

  That was a hard lesson.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The room Demi shoed them was simple to the point of being bare. It was clean, the cloth mattress-cover stuffed with fresh hay, and that lent a comfortable smell to the room. All the other rooms on the second floor were empty, and a second room was affordable, but sharing a room allowed them to talk privately as things occurred to them. The question of a second room never came up.

  Outside another small door in the room, a second-floor tiny balcony overlooked the nearly empty street. With the gray color, the thick smoke, and lack of people on the street, Rake decided the city appeared dreary and forlorn. If it was an animal he stalked, he would find old, injured prey at the end of the trail.

  After the innkeeper departed from their room, Cinder slumped in the only chair and said, “Mercippio is an unhappy place, and Demi’s explanation seems to explain part of it.”

  “Because someone bought the other inns?” Rake asked, not seeing her concern.

  “And the blacksmiths and the knife-maker and the mills. That was the one that got my mind thinking of what I’d buy first if I wanted to invade a new land. What would I send my spies to control?”

  “Buy inns so you’d have a place to stay when you arrive?” Rake avoided the small pillow Cinder threw at him.

  “No, but I’d want to control and know who was visiting the city and who had been. Blacksmiths make weapons, and so do knife-makers. Sure, they make other things, too, but imagine if weapon availability suddenly disappeared? How much easier would it be for the invading army if the citizens of Oakhaven only have a few? And control the food supply by owning the mills.”

  Rake found himself silently agreeing with her. “I’d also get rid of leaders who could organize an army to fight me. Maybe even some of the better fighters. I know Oakhaven does not have a king anymore, but in many ways, that makes it easier to defeat. It is a rural area, not really a kingdom anymore. Not since the Pride Wars a hundred years ago.”

  “How would you do it?” she asked. “If it was you that was leading an army or if you were a king going to start a war?”

  Rake considered his answer. “Nonviolent at first. Send any local residents who might resist to other cities to get them out of the way. Offer them better jobs there or have them killed by ‘outlaws’ if they do not move. Appoint or elect new city leaders, ones that agree with my cause, even if we have to pay them in gold to do so. Hire assassins to kill those who stand in my way. I’d do all that before marching the first soldier.”

  Cinder stood and paced the room, from the door to the balcony and back, her head down, her eyes vacant as she thought. “You’re right. Send the potential troublemakers away or have them join with you or disappear. Remove the weapons from stalls and shops, then take them from the people. Control the supply of food and who has access to it, as you said. That alone will sway many to join you. Rake, you’re either more intelligent or more unscrupulous and more evil than I believed.”

  Rake continued when she quit talking, before she insulted him again, “Then if you’re Breslau, you march your troops across the Brownlands into Oakhaven and then on to Mercippio almost without resistance and after that, your army can spread out to conquer the rest of Oakhaven all the way to the mountains and beyond.”

  Cinder said, “If we’re right, the invasion is not only coming—it is already here. Already begun. A quiet invasion.”

  Rake went to the small balcony, large enough for one person to stand comfortably, leaned on the railing and looked out over the darkening city. There seemed to be ominous shadows everywhere his eyes turned. “We should go to the other inns to eat and list
en. Spy on them. We may be taking the facts and twisting them to suit what we think is happening. There could be other reasons.”

  “That’s a great idea. And we can walk around and get a feeling that supports our suspicions, or not. We may be reading things that don’t exist into what little we’ve seen and heard. The men who bought the other inns might just be good businessmen trying to corner a market.”

  Not believing that to be the case, Rake rolled his eyes as he took the lead down the stairway where they found Demi sitting and nursing the small of her back as if in pain. At their arrival, she said, “Sometimes, late in the day it hurts. What can I feed you?”

  “Nothing,” Rake said. “We want to visit the other inns and eat at one of them. Can you give us directions and suggestion?”

  “Not pleased with your room? I have others.”

  Cinder said, “Just the opposite. We are going to take a look at the opposition. We’ll stay here as long as we’re in Mercippio.”

  Rake moved to Demi’s side. “I have not seen anyone else helping you clean or cook.”

  “The other inns hired them away. I couldn’t match the pay, so I don’t resent them moving on. Besides, they threatened my loyal employees if they refused to move on. I hold no grudge against them for leaving.”

  Cinder sat across from her and smirked. “You should know my brother and I are trouble-makers. Not for you, but I don’t like what I’m seeing and hearing. If you prefer, we can relocate at any time. Just ask us. We don’t want to cause you any problems. However, I think we may cause others a few.”

  “Trouble? You’re my first guests in days. My supplier for meat refuses to sell to me, the store will not sell to me, my help is gone, and if I’m still in business in a month, it will be my last. So, what other troubles can you add?”

  “You might be surprised.” Rake placed his hand briefly on her shoulder as he walked past. Cinder followed him outside and they turned in the direction of the market. At the end of the darkened street, the places where stalls had been earlier now stood empty. Only a few people were moving about, most walking quickly as if they were intent on going inside because full darkness had fallen over the city.