by Kris Hiatt
“Sharrah said you’re the reason my father made so much money from the bar this last week,” he said. “She said you’ve had everybody drinking and having a good time.”
“Indeed,” Treace said, shaking his hand. Not only did he steal a kiss from a woman in a relationship, but he did it in the bar her boyfriend’s father owned. If he wanted to crawl under the table and hide before, now he wanted to die there. He knew it was only a matter of time before the young man found out about the stolen kiss.
“Well then I should apologize to you,” Treace said, drawing an alarmed look from Sharrah.
“Really? What for?”
“For keeping me out so late working the other night when I could have been out with you,” Sharrah said, beating Treace to the answer, even though it wasn’t what he was going to say.
“Oh, well, she is the independent one. I know she enjoys her work, think nothing of it. Besides, we’ve spent most of the week together.”
Treace decided to let the subject pass thinking she might want to be the one to tell her boyfriend the truth.
“Well, Gerrand, now you can say you’ve met The Wolf. Shall we leave now?” Sharrah said, standing up.
“Yes, we should let The Wolf get back to enjoying himself and telling tales of his exploits,” Gerrand said, taking her hand.
“Goodbye Wolf, and thank you,” Sharrah said.
“Goodbye Sharrah, Gerrand,” he said, looking at each as he said their name.
“Nice to have met you,” Gerrand said.
“Likewise.”
Treace tried to sort out what he was feeling and how it matched what happened. She seemed to like him, he could feel it. She was in a relationship, yet she implied she enjoyed the kiss. She didn’t let him apologize to Gerrand for stealing the kiss and he knew by the look on her face she understood what he was going to do. Why did she stop him?
“Well done,” Moff said, sitting back down.
“Are you mocking me?” Treace asked.
“Not a chance. She wants you more now than she did the other night.”
“You’re missing the fact she left with another man.”
“Your back was to the door so you missed the look she gave you just before she left.”
“Once again, she’s with another man.”
“Yes, but she wants The Wolf.”
Treace didn’t know what to say. Moff made some sense; her actions didn’t match her words. He couldn’t deny that he felt something both toward and from her, but she was with someone else. It wouldn’t be the last time he was confused by a woman.
“You’re not very good with women, are you?”
“What was it you said? Sheltered?” Treace asked.
“Sheltered,” Moff agreed.
Treace twirled his finger in the air when he saw the waitress looking his way.
“That’s what I like to see,” Moff said, an approving smile on his face.
“What’s that?” Treace asked.
“When your charm with the ladies fails, substitute with drink.”
“I’ll be drinking a lot then,” Treace said, still thinking of the conflicting messages.
“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Moff said.
Treace wasn’t sure what he meant by it, but thought he was referring to Sharrah again. He didn’t want to talk about that anymore and was glad when the waitress, nowhere near as lovely as Sharrah, set down their fresh glasses of wine.
“To charm,” Moff toasted, winking at Treace.
Treace shot him a disdainful look and Moff responded with a laugh and long drink.
Treace looked at the bar, trying to determine if the bartender was the owner or not and if he was, whether or not he seemed to be displeased with him for his actions toward his son’s lady. The bartender wasn’t paying him any attention, however, and Treace guessed that he wasn’t old enough to have a daughter Sharrah’s age. Even if he was the owner, he probably would have said something to Treace by now.
“Damn!” Moff said, standing up.
Treace looked at his friend and saw that Moff had somehow managed to spill his wine down the front of his shirt.
“I’ll go change and be right back,” Moff said and quickly left.
Treace shook his head again; the now familiar feeling of doing so not lost on him, and sipped at his wine. He looked around, once again thinking about how to best garner information for the Archmagister. From what he knew already, though, he guessed most people were going to say the same thing; they didn’t know enough about the College to have much of an opinion. If they did, it wasn’t that they didn’t like them, it was more like they thought the brothers to be secluded and not care about the world around them. Either way, it wouldn’t change his current advice to the Archmagister.
“You’re friend done in for already?” the smith asked, sitting down.
“No, he spilled wine on himself and went to change,” Treace explained.
“That young lady is quite the looker,” the smith said.
“Yes, but she’s with someone,” Treace said, knowing he was talking about Sharrah. He hoped the smith would let it end there.
“Sometimes pretty young things like that find the best they can for a while. If something better comes along, they find their way to them instead. Not that you can blame them for it though.”
“Uh huh,” was all Treace could say.
“I’ll tell you what,” the smith said. “You bring me half a jin in the morning, and I’ll let you use the forge for a couple of hours in the evenings until you make me a piece that I would call decent. If you do that, I’ll bring you on, though my current apprentices won’t like it much. You never mind them though, I’ll take care of that.”
“Thank you, sir. I promise you won’t be disappointed,” Treace said, glad to have a break. He could easily afford the cost, even though he knew the price to still be too high. He could run Jensen’s forge all day for over a month and still not use that much in fuel costs. But, he figured, since Drevic had given him the kaden, he could afford to be a bit frivolous.
“I’ve got a feeling that I won’t be,” the smith said.
“To the forge,” Treace said, raising his glass. “May the fires always be hot.”
“Always,” the smith said, and they both drank deep.
They discussed a few things about forges, techniques, and different metals for a short while before Moff returned.
“Much better,” Moff said, sitting down and stealing Treace’s drink.
“You’re buying the next round for that,” Treace told him.
“I’ve bought all the rounds so far.”
“Good, then you won’t mind continuing to do so,” Treace said, happy Moff fell for it.
“Oh, nice one,” Moff said, obviously impressed.
“Heh,” the smith said. “You two are funny.”
“You should be around us when our friend Heral is with us,” Moff said.
“I can’t keep up with the two of you, I wouldn’t bother trying if there were more like you.”
“Oh, he’s nothing like Moff,” Treace said happily. “Heral’s smart, funny, and gets the ladies.”
“Perhaps,” Moff said, seemingly unfazed. “But neither of you can keep up with my drinking.”
“Don’t I know it,” Treace said.
“But, because you’ve wounded my pride, tonight you’re going to try.”
“Leave me out of that,” the smith said, smiling.
Moff twirled his finger in the air and had an odd gleam in his eye that Treace hadn’t seen before. He guessed Moff was starting to really like how much The Wolf drank.
“I’ll have no part of it. See you in the morning,” the smith said, getting out of his seat.
“Take care,” Moff told him.
“Goodbye,” Treace said.
“What did he mean by see him in the morning?” Moff asked when the smith walked out the door.
“He agreed to let me use the forge for half a jin.”
“Nice!�
�� Moff said, and then finished off the drink he stole from him.
“I thought so, too. If I make him a decent piece with the time he’s given me, he’ll take me on as an apprentice.”
“Even better.”
“I’ll finally have some income after that,” Treace said, happy at the prospect of having paying work so he could remain in Haven for the next four months.
“That’ll be good,” Moff said.
“Speaking of money, how’s your situation looking?”
“Not quite as good as it did yesterday,” Moff said.
“We’re spending too much on drink,” Treace told him.
“You can never spend too much on drink.”
“Your family is from around Kadenton, not Haven. How will you get more if you run out?”
“Funny you should mention that, I forgot you don’t always pay attention to me when you drink.”
“What now?”
“I have secured passage to Kadenton first thing tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving?”
“I have to get money from my family if we’re to remain in Haven and keep The Wolf in high regard.”
“We can stop drinking and stop this wolf nonsense. We’ll be fine,” Treace told him.
“Not happening. Besides, I’ve already paid for the ship.”
“What does it have to do with how much I drink?”
“I talked to a guy last night and he set me up with another ship captain that was here. Granted, he wasn’t at our table, but you must have seen me talking to him.”
“Marn probably knows him. He seemed like a nice man and might be able to help you get your money back.”
“Like I said, not going to happen. I’ll be back in a few weeks, don’t worry.”
“The Archmagister wouldn’t approve of that,” Treace told him, trying to get him to stay. He knew he was being childish, but Moff was his only real connection here. He didn’t want his friend to leave.
“The Archmagister said I could help you in any way that didn’t hurt the College’s reputation or damage your ability to gather information. My leaving does neither. And, the Archmagister doesn’t need to know.”
“Fine,” Treace said, knowing he couldn’t talk his friend out of it. He thought it would at least allow him to let the whole charade about The Wolf drop while he was gone.
“What do you think he meant when he said men of God?” Moff said after thinking for a moment.
“I don’t know. I was thinking about that myself. I’m guessing because we can heal.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Moff said.
“But still, members of the Church are usually referred to as men of God,” Treace said.
“I know, that’s why it doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, let’s just leave it at that for now, but we might want to ask about it more later on.”
Moff nodded his head and went silent for a few moments. He looked around as if he was looking for someone, but Treace didn’t know who.
“Moff, how many wealthy families in Kadenton know about the College?”
“All of them, why?”
“I think I know why we aren’t getting any real opinions of the College here,” Treace said.
“Why’s that?”
“Where I come from, the poor families don’t know much about the College. And that’s most of the families in my town. I suspect it’s the same here. No one from the commoners has been to the College, or had family attend.”
“That would explain it,” Moff said.
“I think it might,” Treace said absently; he was busy thinking it over.
“Hey, let’s go back to your inn and see Red,” Moff said, drawing Treace from his thoughts. “We’ll build upon your fame there.”
“Sure, at least it’s not as far of a walk to my bed,” Treace said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Moff said, although Treace didn’t understand what he meant by it.
#
“To Heral,” Moff said for what Treace thought was the fourth time.
“To Heral,” Treace said, hoisting his glass anyway.
They drank for their friend, and Treace did wish he was here with them. He knew Heral would find The Wolf quite entertaining.
“Hey,” Moff said, poking him. “You remember what I said about substituting drink for charm?”
“Yes.”
“From the looks she’s been giving you, I don’t think you’ll need to for much longer,” Moff said, motioning toward the bar.
Treace looked to see a fairly pretty woman staring at him. She did seem quite interested, now that Treace looked closer. She wore a purple dress with white trim and it hung loosely over her shoulder, showing a decent amount of cleavage. The curls of her dark hair were long enough to tickle the tops of her breasts.
“I’ve got to get going,” Moff said. “I need to be on the ship early.”
“Okay, my friend,” Treace said, trying hard not to slur his words. Moff had toasted nearly everything around them and made Treace drink to every toast. They used the free drink Red had promised; Moff toasting loudly to The Wolf when they received it. Treace knew he was close to as drunk as any other night, and thought he should probably be going to bed soon, too. But first he wanted to look at the pretty woman a bit more.
“Good luck,” Moff said, winking another of his lewd winks that Treace missed.
After Moff was gone, Treace sipped at the remaining contents of his glass, trying not to stare at the lady Moff pointed out. Every time Treace looked her way, she was looking at him with a smile. He looked away each time, not wanting her to think he was staring.
He looked her way again a short time later and she winked at him then nodded her head toward where the stairs were. It was close to the door and she could have been telling him to leave. He couldn’t be certain. He guessed he was quite drunk, and she knew it and was trying to tell him he should leave before he made an ass of himself by continuing to stare at her.
He smiled what he hoped she would take for an apology and decided to take her cue and went upstairs before he did something stupid for the second time in a week.
He closed the door and moved to his bed without removing any of his clothes. He paused only long enough to toss his coin purse in the direction of the table and to take off his shoes.
A few moments later the door to his room opened up and he opened his eyes to see the lady from the bar, wearing the purple dress, slip inside the room and close the door.
With the door closed, he couldn’t see her anymore due to the darkness; he hadn’t bothered lighting a candle. He could, however, see faint light under the door and he saw the bottom few inches of her dress in the light. He saw it bunch up near the floor and it didn’t register why. He first saw the outline of her lower legs come closer, then saw most of her naked form as she walked into the moonlight that filtered into the room through the window. He could barely hear her bare feet as they padded across the floor toward him.
“There you are,” she said, rubbing her hand up his back and onto his head and then running her fingers through his short hair.
He sat up and he felt her standing in front of him, rubbing her hands across his chest and shoulders. He couldn’t see her that well; she was out of the dim light cast by the moon’s glow.
“You have,” he said, trying to tell her she had the wrong room. He couldn’t speak very well and his mouth didn’t form the rest of the sentence.
“I’m clean,” she whispered.
“No, I mean…” he started to say, but was interrupted by gentle lips on his as she bent low to meet him.
“Shhh, it’s okay, it’s taken care of,” she said, still whispering.
He didn’t know what she meant, but he didn’t care too much at the time. Her hands deftly unbuttoned his shirt and slid it over his shoulders. Her hands on his bare skin made him tingle all over. She first rubbed around and then under his wolf charm and it felt wonderful to him.
“W
rong room,” he managed to say.
“No, it’s not,” she whispered hotly into his ear before nibbling on it.
His mind went blank.
A few moments later he realized his hands had found their way to her naked body and he was rubbing the soft curve of her buttocks. The side of his face was nestled against her belly. She was rubbing his back softly with one hand and was gently stroking his head with the other. He dropped his hands and pulled back, not sure of what it was he was doing.
“It’s okay, I like it when you touch me,” she said softly.
“But I…” he said before being interrupted with another kiss, this one much more firm than the last. She knelt in front of him to do so.
“I know, your friend told me. It’s okay, I’ve been the first for several young men.”
Treace realized what was happening then, even in his drunken and admittedly excited state, he knew what she was. He also knew who had sent her there.
He had to get out of there, he had to leave. His mind cleared enough for him to know that his first time with a woman wasn’t going to be with a prostitute. He cursed Moff for doing this to him and he cursed himself for getting drunk again.
He stood up, trying not to knock her over, but from the sound of it, he was unsuccessful. He moved for the door, using the soft light from underneath as his guide.
“Hey, where you going?” she asked, no longer using the sweet voice she had been using before.
“I can’t do this,” he said and fumbled with the door.
“Sure you can,” she said in her sweet voice again, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around him. He could feel her breasts against his back. Her skin was warm and inviting, but he knew he couldn’t go along with it.
“I can’t, I’m sorry,” he said.
“This says you can,” she said, grabbing his crotch.
He opened the door, pulling himself from her arms and rushed out, headed for the stairs. He ran down them as quickly as he dared in his current condition, both of his current conditions. He reached the bottom of the stairs and was thankful they were close to the door. He opened it and went out into the brisk night, ignoring the amused looks on the faces of many of the patrons.
He ran for a while, oblivious to the cold and to the way his wolf charm bounced and jounced around his neck and chest. It struck him in the face a few times, but he paid it no heed. The cold air felt good and he needed to get away from there.