Through the Flames

by Billings, Ryne

  Peering through the path that was cut through the forest, they could see a finely made two-story building, composed entirely of wood. Intricate designs were cut into the outer walls of it, making the inn appear to be partially covered in thorny vines. Other than that, only one thing truly stood out about the place. Above the large door, a flag that bore the emblem of a black raven had been hung.

  “I don’t suppose this is the Black Raven Inn?” Caleb asked with a glance to Katie.

  She could not contain her surprise at the question. “How do you know its name?”

  Caleb looked towards the inn, his eyes darting to one of the windows on the bottom floor. “I’m a hunter. I’d be a pretty poor excuse for one if I couldn’t tell the difference between a raven and a crow.”

  The image of the piece of cloth Caleb carried around with him suddenly flashed to mind.

  Those are the only two types of black birds that I know of, Katie thought, glancing at her new companion. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew of at least a few more.

  “So, is there anything I should know about this Nicolas?” Caleb asked, resting his left hand on the pommel of his longsword.

  She took on a thinking post at that for a few moments before answering. “Nicolas… his name is Nicolas Edge, and he is the son of a relatively low-ranking noble in Caldreth. In order to prevent his son’s business from getting out in the open, Nicolas was given the funds to have this inn built by his father. That’s about all I really feel comfortable talking about with you right now though. I don’t like talking about people behind their backs.”

  “That’s fine,” Caleb said with a curt nod. “Let’s just go and talk to this friend of yours.”

  With that, they proceeded to walk towards the inn, going through the path that had been cut in the forest. When they came closer, they could easily see that the inn had been built in a small clearing..

  Reaching the finely crafted doors, Caleb grasped one of the brass door handles and pulled, slowly opening the door to his right. He barely managed to suppress a grunt as he fully opened the heavy door.

  “It’s a good security measure,” Katie remarked as she walked past him into the inn.

  Once Caleb stepped through and shut the door, he began to look around. From the look on his face, Katie could tell that it was not what he had expected. She suspected that everything that he had known about inns came from stories.

  The spot where they were standing had a dirt floor, and there were walls to his left and right, making the area that they were in comparable to a four foot wide hallway. About five feet in front of them, there were two large wooden doors. One was to the left, and the other was to the right. Thoughts of where to go came to mind. Both doors were options, but so was the area that the hallway-like path led to.

  “The stables are down there,” Katie suddenly said, pointing forward. “I’m guessing Nicolas only has his horse back there at the moment.”

  “Where are we headed to?” Caleb asked with a sigh. It was easy to see that he was getting quite frustrated at not knowing what he was doing.

  “Left… definitely left,” Katie said with a small smile. “That leads to the tavern. Right leads to the rooms where we’ll be staying.”

  “What’s on the top floor?” Caleb asked curiously.

  “The top floor is used for storage,” she said simply as she walked forward.

  Instantly understanding that she was referring to her friend’s business as a fence, Caleb followed after her, passing her just as they reached the door. The door seemed to be just like one of the front doors, and it was just as difficult to open.

  Once it was pulled open, they were treated to the sight of about ten tables spread out across a wide-open room with a light colored floor made of wood.

  Entering, they saw a bar to their right. It was behind that bar that they saw the only other person in the room. Dressed in all black clothing with long black hair tied back into a ponytail and dark gray eyes, the young man’s very light colored skin stood out.

  Walking around the bar, his lips pressed together into a small smile. His right hand was resting on a dagger that was at his belt on his right side.

  “Katie, it has been a while,” he said as the smile deepened. “I haven’t heard from you since my dear uncle had you sent away about a month and a half ago. How are you?”

  “It hasn’t been that long. I’ll admit, it does feel like it has much longer than it really has been, Nicolas,” Katie said, adding his name more for Caleb’s sake than anything. “And yes, your uncle sent me away, as you so aptly put it, about a month and a half ago.”

  As the discussion was going on, Caleb’s eyes narrowed and a frown formed upon his face as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on between the two.

  “I see… anything interesting happen?” Nicolas asked as he stopped about ten feet away from them.

  “Not much,” Katie replied dryly. “When I was on my way back, I encountered some highwaymen. As it turns out, I was tired and they were actually slavers.”

  “You were captured by slavers?” Nicolas asked in surprise. A trace of anger could be seen in his eyes. “I hope they are dead.”

  “My new friend killed most of them,” she said with a small smile as she gestured towards Caleb, who looked a little confused at the interplay between them.

  “That explains the blood,” Nicolas said as he looked Caleb over carefully. The dried blood on his clothes was even more prevalent to the trained eyes of the raven haired young man. “My name is Nicolas Edge, the proprietor of the Black Raven Inn. I’m sure our lovely friend has told you all about me already though.”

  “She’s told me that you’re a fence,” Caleb said, bristling at the man’s smooth voice.

  Nicolas nodded his head curtly in response. “Of course she did,” he remarked. “After all, that’s the function that you two need me for. Isn’t that right, Caleb of Kirakath?”

  At those last words, Caleb and Katie both froze, shocked that Nicolas knew the former’s name.

  “A young man calling himself Caleb of Kirakath freed about a dozen peasants from the slavery that they were to be sold into. With the man’s name and description in mind, they’ve ensured that you are a hero to their villages,” Nicolas said as he sat down on a nearby table. “I deal in illegally procured objects primarily, but I also deal in information.”

  “You obtained that information incredibly quick,” Katie noted with a frown. “How is it that you learned of it before we could even get here?”

  “My sources are very good,” Nicolas said simply. “Now, am I to assume that you would like to get some new clothes, two rooms, and a bath or two?”

  “That’s correct,” Katie said, seeing that Caleb was about to say something. “We can talk about everything after we have cleaned up.”

  “Fine,” Caleb said as he crossed his arms. His eyes darted towards Nicolas again. “Do you have clothes that will fit us?”

  “You’re not a large man, but neither are you small,” Nicolas remarked with observant eyes. “If I don’t have something that will fit, then it will at least be close. Wait here.”

  With that, Nicolas walked behind the bar and went through a door behind it.

  Once the door was shut, Caleb turned to Katie. “Why are you stalling? If he deals in information like he says, then I might be able to find out something from him.” His words came out more harshly than normal, anger clearly reflected in his tone.

  She looked at him with piercing eyes and said, “Shut up. I don’t care what you think we should do. You have no idea how to go about this. Without me to hold your hand, you’re going to screw everything up. Is that what you want? Do you want your quest for revenge to become impossible?”

  Caleb was taken aback by her words. It seemed that her words had struck him fairly hard, seeing as no response came from him.

  Taking a deep breath, Katie spoke again. This time, her words came out softer. “Give it some time, Caleb. Nicolas will help us
with this, but there are some things you don’t know yet. I promise that we’ll talk to him about it tonight.”

  Though her promise was not all that reassuring to him, Caleb nodded. He found that he could not bring himself to look her in the eyes after the way he had snapped at her moments ago.

  Silence reigned as they waited for Nicolas to return.

  * * * * *

  “That was just what I needed,” Caleb remarked as he stepped through the door that was across from the door to the tavern.

  About an hour had passed since he arrived at the Black Raven Inn with Katie, and he had just finished bathing and getting dressed. As a result, he was no longer clad in bloody clothing.

  Black leather boots, loose black cloth trousers, a dark blue tunic that fell to the middle of his thighs, and a finely made black leather belt cinched at his waist made him look like a new man entirely. At Katie’s request, the only weapon that he carried at that moment was the knife his father had given him two years earlier. Its sheath was replaced with a new one that was made of the same leather and craftsmanship as his belt.

  Walking across the dirt ground, Caleb pulled the heavy door open, being treated to a sight that made his eyes widen slightly.

  Though he could tell that the girl before him was Katie, she was not the dirt covered girl with tangled hair anymore. With black leather boots that stopped a few inches below her knees, a pair of black leggings tucked into her boots, a dark red sleeveless tunic that fell a few inches below her waist, a slender black leather belt cinching her tunic to her waist, and a pair of fingerless black leather gloves on, she looked far different than he had expected. That was only the beginning of it though.

  Her once dirty face and tangled hair were no more. There was no doubt that she was a girl, and a beautiful one at that, with her face clean, allowing her light skin tone to be clear and her eyes to sparkle like the emeralds that they looked like. In addition to that, her once tangled hair now fell to her shoulder blades and was held back in a ponytail by a piece of black leather that was laced up at its underside. It appeared as though her hair had become a more vibrant shade of red since he last saw her.

  “You look very nice, Caleb,” Katie said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Her eyes seemed to brighten further at that point. “We were just waiting on you.”

  Caleb’s eyes immediately darted to the bar as he stepped through the door and pushed it shut. His eyes stayed on Nicolas, who was sitting on the bar with his legs crossed, for a few moments before he turned his attention back to his female companion.

  “I’m surprised,” he said, his voice low. “I thought you two would discuss everything without me. I’m not exactly in the know when it comes to the things that you two specialize in.”

  “We can’t fault you for not knowing the game, Caleb,” Nicolas said as he hopped off of the bar. “You’ve clearly been living in a small village your entire life. You’ve been to a few other small villages, by my reckoning. Katie remarked that you were caught off guard when you entered my inn. I’m going to assume that you’ve ever been to a place that was large enough to have an inn, so how can I fault you for not knowing the game?”

  The blond’s voice grew dry. He could not deny the man’s words. In fact, his next words only served to confirm them. “What game do you speak of?”

  The raven haired man’s lips pressed together at that, laughter barely suppressed under the surface. “You prove my point so well.”

  “The game is our lives,” Katie said simply. Indifference could be seen in her eyes. “We- Nicolas and I- are loosely associated with the Thieves’ Guild of Caldreth. Thus, we play the game. And before you ask, the game has no name. It is simply the game.”

  “The game is how we interact with other criminals and the various men of importance,” Nicolas chimed in, his silky smooth voice sending a chill down Caleb’s spine. “As Katie so aptly says, the game is our lives. We were never taught it, but we know it better than we know ourselves. This ties in with your desire to find the men that serve under the banner of two crows pinned together by a black feathered arrow. Relax. Katie told me about the patch that you carry with you.”

  Caleb’s eyes narrowed, but he could not feel upset with the redhead at that moment. He still did not feel well about snapping on her earlier. He also had to take into consideration the fact that he had not told her to keep anything between them.

  “What do you know about the emblem?” Caleb asked after he took a deep breath. “Do you recognize it?” He removed the patch from its place between his belt and his tunic at that moment and held it up.

  “I’ve never seen it before in my life,” Nicolas said plainly. “I reckon that I can find out who it belongs to, or find someone that knows, within a week though. If I don’t know about them by now, then they are staying under the radar.”

  “I need to know who they are and where I can find those murderous bastards,” Caleb said, anger swelling. The anger was not directed at anyone present, which seemed to allow them to remain somewhat calm.

  “If I were to whisper their name in the marketplace of Caldreth, then they would know they I was searching for them within one week. By the time I managed to get you their location, they would be halfway to the Isle of Akabar. Even you, Mr. Bandit Slayer, would have trouble getting to them then. Thus, I ask you to be patient. Finish your business in Caldreth. Once you are ready to go after them, then you can return here. At that time, I’ll be more than happy to find out where they are when you are ready to ride like the devil after them.”

  Caleb seemed to deflate as he leaned against the door. “I don’t have much of a choice, now do I?”

  “No, you do not,” Nicolas replied with a grim smile. “You should look at the bright side in the meantime. The longer they go without you going after them, the longer they think that they are safe. You will have your chance to seek this revenge that you so clearly desire.”

  Unnoticed by Caleb, Katie’s lips pressed into a tight line as if she wanted to say something but could not bring herself to do so.

  “There is no doubt in my mind that I will kill them,” Caleb said softly. “It’s my only purpose left now. Even if it kills me, I will succeed.”

  It was at that moment that Nicolas and Katie first saw the fire in Caleb’s eyes burn at its full intensity.

  “I believe you,” Nicolas said with a single nod of his head. “In the interest of helping you, I’ll let you two stay here indefinitely… free of charge.”

  Katie’s head snapped towards his old friend at that. She could not believe what she had just heard him say. It was not something that she would have ever expected of him.

  “Why would you do this for us?” Caleb asked, sincerely curious.

  “You, Caleb of Kirakath, are going to make something of yourself. Of that, I am sure,” Nicolas said as he leaned against the bar with his arms crossed. “I don’t often see a man with such passion and determination. I figure you’d make a better ally than a foe, so it should be no surprise what kind of relationship I’d prefer.”

  Nodding slowly, Caleb took in the information carefully. “Very well then,” he said after a few moments. “I believe Katie said that we should get horses to ride to Caldreth on. Do you have any that we can buy?”

  “Katie already spoke to me about that,” Nicolas said with a smile.

  “We’re not going to get horses just yet,” Katie said suddenly. “I wasn’t thinking clearly when I made that decision. I had planned on paying for a room here, so riding a horse to Caldreth paying for the horses to be kept in the stables would be too impractical.”

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you two had done all of the planning already,” Caleb remarked.

  “We have,” Nicolas said dryly. “Thanks for asserting your opinion though.”

  The younger man blinked in surprise. “Then why were you two waiting on me?”

  “It’s impolite to eat dinner without calling all the guests to eat,” Nicolas answered.
r />   “You… called me for dinner?” Caleb asked in confusion.

  “Aren’t you hungry?” Nicolas asked.

  Instead of answering verbally, Caleb gave the raven haired young man a look that appeared to question his sanity.

  Chapter 9

  Caleb took a deep breath as looked at the longsword that his father had kept hidden under the floor of his bedroom. The constantly-polished sword was lying on the bed of his temporary residence, sharply contrasting with the dark blanket that covered the somewhat comfortable piece of furniture.

  A knock at the door broke the young man’s focus on the sword, his eyes immediately going to the source of the noise.