“You are perfectly capable of going on alone,” Pasha agreed. “You’re past the tricky part of the journey, and as long as you have coins in your purse, you’ll find a warm welcome in the mountain village tonight.”
“It’s decided then,” I said with a smile. “I’ll go this leg of the journey on my own.”
I’d never done anything half as bold and daring on my own before. As I packed up my things and counted out the coins I would need for the rest of my trip to Royersford, I thought of what my friends would think of me. Neil, Peter, and Jace had had their adventure in the cities over the winter, now it seemed I would have my stories of braving the mountain pass alone to tell them when we all saw each other in a year.
I set out before Uriah, Pasha, and the traveling family had finished breakfast. I didn’t want to wait. I said my goodbyes, then started off with a pack on my back, money in my pocket, and excitement fueling me.
Surprisingly, that excitement carried me all through the morning, even though the road was constantly uphill, and on into the afternoon. I met few other travelers on the road, but there were some. I was surprised at how many people appeared to be fleeing the Old Realm entirely. I’d been raised to believe the Old Realm was the height of advancement and sophistication, that they still retained ties to the days before the breaking of the world, and that life was just better there.
The people I passed on the road seemed to tell a different story. They were dressed well, but it looked as though they’d seen better days. All of them seemed to be relieved to have made it over the mountains, though few of them did more than nod at me as our paths crossed.
As Uriah had predicted, I made it to the mountain village just as dusk was settling. And it was a village in every sense of the word. I’d wondered why Uriah hadn’t named it, and as soon as I saw the dozen sturdy but plain buildings clustered together around a well, I knew.
The village wasn’t big enough to have a name. At first glance, I didn’t think it was big enough to survive.
“Hello?” I called out as I walked into the crossroads that made up the center of the village. “Is anybody here?”
My question was immediately answered by a shuttered window in the largest building of the village, a three-story inn, opening and a weathered, grey-haired man sticking his head out.
“Traveler?” he asked looking me up and down quickly.
“Yes,” I said, heading toward the inn. “Is this the village where I can hire a guide to take me the rest of the way into the Old Realm?”
“It is indeed,” the man said with a nod. “Come in and we’ll get you sorted.”
The bulk of my anxiety about being out on the road by myself settled as I ducked into the old-fashioned inn. It had low ceilings and rough furnishings, but it was clean and cozy. The air had grown progressively cooler as I’d walked higher into the mountains, but the common room of the inn was warm and cozy.
Several tables sat in the common room. I was surprised to see fellow travelers at some of them. I hadn’t encountered many people on the road, but there were people other than me traveling through the mountains. A cozy fire burned in a large fireplace at one end of the room as well, and to one side of it was a door through which I could see a busy kitchen.
The scents that wafted from the kitchen had my stomach growling.
“You must be hungry and weary,” the man I’d spoken to through the window said, coming down a set of stairs off to one side of the common room. “Come. Sit down and rest. We’ll get you sorted with supper and a room. If you can pay, of course,” he said, pausing as he stopped in front of me.
The man was shorter than me by a few inches, but broad around the middle, which indicated the inn was prosperous. That surprised me, considering how tiny the village was, not to mention the way travel between the Old Realm and the frontier had been rumored to be almost nonexistent now.
“I can pay,” I said, allowing the man to show me to one of the tables.
“Good, good.” The man nodded and held a chair out for me. “My name is Larth Papathnas. Welcome to my inn. Where are you coming from and where are you going?”
I was pleased by the man’s friendliness, but the last few years had taught me to be highly suspicious of everyone and to guard myself as much as possible.
“Conrad Kettering,” I replied, shaking the man’s hand when he offered it. “I’m on my way to Royersford to take up a spot I’ve been offered in a healer’s course.”
“A healer,” Larth said with a smile, evidently impressed. “You have my greatest respect, sir. Agnes!” He turned toward the kitchen, gesturing to a young woman who stood in the doorway, peeking shyly out at the common room. “Bring Master Conrad a mug of ale and a bowl of our finest stew. He’s a healer.”
“Well, I’m about to study to be a healer,” I corrected him as I shrugged my pack off my shoulders and set it on the floor beside my chair. “Although I have assisted other healers in…at home.” There was no need to go blabbing every last detail about where I was from and how I’d gained my healing skills. I wasn’t Lefric, after all.
“I’m surprised that you haven’t been hired as a camp healer for King Julius’s army,” Larth said, helping himself to one of the chairs at my table. “It didn’t look as though they had one when they passed through here a few months ago.”
I straightened so quickly I bumped my hand against the table. “King Julius’s army?” I asked, trying not to look too startled. I hadn’t heard a single thing about an army from the Old Realm on the frontier. The only army I’d heard of recently was Yuri’s and Bela’s.
Larth looked just as surprised as I was. “Hasn’t the army made itself known in the cities?” he asked.
I wasn’t certain how to reply. “Not where I’ve come from,” I said carefully. “How long ago did you say they came through? And how many men were there?”
“Three hundred at least,” Larth said, looking baffled at how little I knew. “They marched through about a fortnight before the summer solstice. Of course, we were ill-equipped to serve them all, but it hardly seemed to matter, since General Rufus had brought along plenty of provisions for his men.”
Everything Larth said was news to me. I needed to find out more, and to figure out a way to get the information back to Dushka. Or better still, Magnus.