Chapter 9 – The Sorcerer and The Secret

“We could’ve been here an hour ago if you’d gotten back on the horse,” Shara said, her hand holding ButterBee’s bridle.

“I’m s…” Tel started, but choked off his words as Shara snapped her head in his direction. “…sure I would’ve killed myself trying to get back on,” he corrected.

“Then I could’ve slung your corpse over the back of the horse,” she said, but gently elbowed him in the arm to let him know she was joking. “At least the sun just set, so it’s not too late. There a good inn in this place? Maybe a tavern with cold beer?”

“I’ve only ever stayed in one inn,” Tel said quietly. “I’m not sure if there are more. Probably, now that I think about it. Gravelburg is a trade town, and with the number of people coming and going, there must be several. I wonder if anybody ever counted the traffic through in a given day…”

“Tel,” Shara said, cutting the Clocksmith off while quickly glancing around. There were people on the road ahead of them, the actually paved road, but none were close enough to hear them. “Does anybody here know what you are?”

Tel looked at her sideways the way he often did, without meeting her eyes. “Know what I am?”

“A Clocksmith?” she said out of the side of her mouth.

“No, nobody does. I’ve only been here a few times, but even the others from the enclave always came under disguise. No telling who would go to the Tailcoats,” he said.

“Then you should watch your words. Talk of counting or reading or…anything smart sounding will make you stand out,” she said.

“Smart sounding? At least you’re at no risk then,” he said.

Shara slowly turned her entire body until she was looking at Tel, and he actually cowered back from her. “Did you…” she started in a growl. “…just make a joke? I’m so proud of you!” she finished and gently punched him in the shoulder.

“I’m actually very funny,” Tel said, though he was looking at his feet, and rubbed his shoulder.

“I mean…of course you are. I don’t know how I missed something so obvious,” she said flatly. “Anyway, back to important topics.”

“I told you, nobody knows I’m a Clocksmith, we should be fine,” Tel said.

“Not that. Cold beer. Show me the way to this inn you stayed at before,” Shara said. “It has a stable for ButterBee, right?”

“Butter…bean?” Tel asked.

“ButterBee, like the yellow and black, flying thing. Stinger? Honey?” Shara said.

“That’s not a real thing,” Tel said.

Shara turned her back on the man and took her horse’s long, beautiful, brown and white head in both her hands. “Don’t listen to him my darling. You are very much real. He’s just jealous of your sheen.”

“Sheen?” Tel asked. “Not the horse, a Butter..bee…isn’t…never mind. The inn is this way,” Tel said, and his footsteps started ahead.

“See? Jealous,” she whispered to her horse then nuzzled against his nose. His teeth clicked the way they always did when she got close, and she pulled an apple out of her pack and gave it to him before turning to follow Tel.

The man had already scooted over to the side of the street, his shoulders so curled in he was almost inside out, and his head twitching at every loud sound. And, there was a lot of sound. Gravelburg wasn’t exactly large, but it was lively.

“Busy place,” Shara said, coming up beside Tel and using ButterBee’s majestic body to shield them both from most of the hustle.

“It’s on the crossroads between three major cities. Bastion a few days to the northwest, Little Rock about two weeks south, and Okenfort a bit further than that east. Just outside all of their territories, the rules on trade are more relaxed, and none of the cities take a cut,” Tel said. “Didn’t you stop here on your way down to…save us? Save me, I guess.”

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Shara shook her head. “I stayed on the main highway. Speaking of which, why is this street paved, like we’re in a major city, but the highway wasn’t?”

“A major operation like paving a highway requires the…p…word,” Tel said.

Shara raised an eyebrow at him. “Excuuuuuuse me?”

“Planning,” Tel whispered.

“Oh, no wonder it didn’t work,” Shara said and went back to looking around at the crowd. There was money in this town. Why hadn’t she ever come here before? Mainly private guards from the looks of things, and most of the lower levels of the buildings had bars over their windows. But, almost all of the upper-floor windows were appetizingly naked. Waaaaait. Upper levels and the buildings didn’t look like they were going to fall over?

Shara looked even more carefully at the buildings. They were all sturdy, with hard lines and doors that fit properly.

“There’s the inn,” Tel said, pulling Shara out of her thoughts, and pointed at a monstrous building that looked like some kind of castle built out of a rich, red wood.

“You know, Tel, I’ve been thinking…don’t give me that look. Anyway, the buildings here, they’re all really well put together. Not just that inn, you’re sure that’s the inn? Yeah, anyway, even the small stores, the homes, all of them. I’ve only seen neighbourhoods like this in the richest parts of cities. How?” she asked.

“The other benefit of being just far enough from the major cities. Like the streets,” Tel said, pointing at their feet, “they sort of look the other way about the chaos generated by building properly. Of course, they only build one new building a year or so. Any more would bring the Tailcoats down on them hard, even this far out. As long as they stay in line, the Tailcoats look the other way. Pretty sure there are some hefty bribes involved.”

“No Tailcoats here though, right?” Shara asked.

“Not usually, no. They pass through from time to time, like any traveller, so it’s best to be careful,” Tel said.

“What about the ones coming back from…you know…where you…?” Shara fumbled the words out. He’d already gone quite once at the mention of the enclave, and she was actually starting to get something out of him now.

Tel lifted his head enough to look around the town, then went back to examining the ground while he walked. “Look at the crowd,” he finally said. “If the Tailcoats were going to stop here, I don’t think we’d see so many people around. Those bribes I mentioned? I’m sure it would include at least a warning if a major Tailcoat force, or their groupies, were going to stop in.”

“They might just do it to shake things up,” Shara said. “Remind everybody here who is really in charge. We should keep a low profile and get out of here as soon as we can.”

“But, we might’ve gotten here ahead of the others. Shouldn’t we wait to see if anybody else arrives?” Tel asked.

“It’s a risk coming here at all, Tel,” Shara said. “How about this? The others from…your home…” she cut off and changed what she was going to say with another look at the crowd around them. “They’re pretty smart too? Like you?”

“Smarter,” Tel said. “All of them.”

Shara stared at Tel, something about that statement not ringing true to her ears, but whatever. “So, like you thought of, they might come here looking for others. Is there somebody we can leave a coded message with?”

The Clocksmith was silent again, but his eyes were moving the way they did when he was thinking. This guy would be a terrible poker player – his tells were as clear as day. Oh, maybe that explained the name?

“There is one merchant I could leave a simple message with. He handles all of our shipments, so he would recognize the others who come to town,” Tel finally said.

“Was he who you were going to check in with?” Shara asked as they got to the inn, then took a right when she spotted the stable. “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll have something delicious for you,” she whispered to ButterBee.

“One of three,” Tel said. “Four if you include the innkeeper. She would recognize the others too.”

“Okay, then we’ll get settled here at the inn, then head out right away to check with them. We’ll go to the trader last, in case we get a lead on the others before we leave a message that could be traced back to us.”

Tel slowly turned his head to look at her, his eyes unmoving for once as looked at her, then slowly nodded. “I’m sorry, Shara,” he finally said.

One of her eyebrows went up. “That’s three, you know,” she said, but there had been something very deliberate about that.

“It’s worth it,” he said. “I was wrong about you. You’re much smarter than I thought. Smarter than me, when it comes to things like this, by far. Even if I’d gotten away from…home…without you, I realize now I wouldn’t have gone much further. Thank you.”

An odd heat ran up her neck at the genuineness of the statement, and she bit her bottom lip while reminding herself over and over he was just a means to getting access to an enclave vault. She couldn’t afford to become friends with the awkward Tink, even if he didn’t seem like a bad guy.

“You’re welcome,” she said at the same time a young boy ambled out of the stable to meet them. “But don’t think that gets you out of the bet. You owe me a secret, and it better be a good one.”

Tel nodded without a second’s hesitation. “That’s what we agreed to,” he said.

“Good. Right after we get ButterBee settled,” she said, turning her attention to the stableboy.

“What’s a butter bean?” the kid asked.