The Unwilling Aviator (Book 4) (6 page)

"We are just some humble travelers in need of food and lodgings for a few nights," Ned answered her.

The woman laughed, dropped a hand on Ned's shoulder, and turned him toward the door of the inn. "You're as good a liar as I ever heard one, but I won't pry. Sinny never tells me anything, either. Now let's get you inside and see what rooms we have. They aren't very comfortable or fancy, but so long as you're not that heavy the floor won't fall out from beneath you."

"That sounds perfect for our pocket book, Miss McGee," Ned agreed.

"You can call me Ti," she told him.

CHAPTER 7

"Ti!" came a voice from the inn. A tall, hefty man appeared in the doorway. He wore a stained apron and the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt were rolled up to the elbows. The man had a butcher's knife in one hand, a cleaver in the other, and a wild look in his eyes. He peered into the square and noticed the woman among the strangers. "Ti, you all right?" he shouted at her.

Ti smiled. "I'm fine, Hugh. These people helped me out," she told him. Ti turned to the group and gestured to the swarthy gentleman. "My new friends, meet my old one. Mr. Hugh Land."

Ned walked over and bowed to the man. "A pleasure to meet the owner of such a well-known establishment."

The proprietor looked askance at the old, wizened man in the strange garb. "Um, the pleasure's all mine," Hugh replied. He glanced at Ti. "So those cheap men are gone, Ti?"

"Yes, thanks to these folks, but I could have handled myself," Ti insisted. Sins scoffed behind her. She whirled around and put her hands on her hips. "I would have ducked that knife," she argued.

"Don't be fighting with the customers, Ti," Hugh scolded. He paused and looked to Ned. "You are customers, aren't ya?"

"Paying customers who want rooms for the tournament," Ned added.

Hugh's face brightened. He stepped aside and swept his hand with the cleaver into the dark room. "Then welcome, paying customers, to Hugh's Tracts of Land!" Fred didn't think that was such a comforting greeting, but Ned again bowed.

"A pleasure being here, good sir." Ned turned around to the rest of the group. "Let us enter and partake of Mr. Land's-"

"Call me Hugh," Hugh insisted.

"Hugh's hospitality," Ned rephrased. The old castor stepped inside and Hugh followed him. Pat, Fred, Ruth and Percy secured their steeds and hurried into the inn after the pair.

Ti turned to her older brother and grabbed his gloves hand. "Come on, Sinny. I have a bottle of your favorite drink stashed in the cellar."

Canto strolled up beside Sins and chuckled. "Ya have an interesting little sister there, Sinny," he snorted. Canto walked into the inn with Sins' narrowed eyes boring a hole into the back of the short dwarf's head.

Then Sins was yanked forward by his persistent sister. "Don't let your friends wait for you," she scolded.

Sins growled, but let himself be dragged into the dark inn.

Fred, Pat, Percy and Ruth stuck close together as they entered the dark, shadowed inn. They stepped from the square street into a large, square room filled with smoke and round tables. The walls were made of a dark wood stained by a couple hundred years of smoke and grimy hands. The only natural light came from the holes in the wall caused by knife blades and punches. Seated at the round tables was a fine example of cutthroats, beggars, thieves, murders, and the occasional tax collector. Several one-eyed gentlemen sneered at them, and half of the customers slipped a hand beneath the table to clutch the handles of their knives hidden in their waists and boots.

Candles flickered across their gaunt, scarred appearances, and many of them leered at Pat and Ruth. Along the dark-paneled walls were lit torches, and at the far back to the left was a door that swung on its hinges and led to the back rooms. Hugh guided them through the mess to the back wall.

As Ti swept through the tables behind Sins one of the men leaned out to give her behind an appreciative whack. Sins swung around and grabbed the man by the wrist. The assassin pulled the man out of his chair, pinned him against his dark clothes, and pressed his dagger against the lecherous man's throat. "Don't do that," Sins warned the man.

"N-no, sir," his captive squeaked.

Ti stood off to the side with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. "Sinny, stop that!" she commanded her brother. Sins tossed the man aside and the stranger crashed head-first into his table.

Hugh turned and scowled at the mess. "You make a big enough mess of this place and you buy it," he threatened Sins.

Ti pressed her hands against Sins back and pushed him forward past the broken table and dazed man. "I'll make sure he doesn't do it again, Hugh," she assured him.

While that mess happened Ned led the rest of the strange parade that was their group to the far back of the room where stood a long, narrow desk that was waist high. Beside the desk was a winding flight of wooden stairs fashioned in late-century termite. The teenagers bumped up against Ned's rear while Canto swaggered up behind them.

Hugh hurried around the other side of the desk and pushed an open book toward Ned. "If you would sign here then I can show you to your rooms," he told Ned.

Ned took a quill offered by Hugh and flourished his signature across both pages. The old castor pushed the book back to Hugh, who admired the signature and raised a brow. "Quite a unique way of writing your name," Hugh commented.

"Yes, I call it my Signature Ned," Ned replied.

Pat rolled her eyes. "Phaeton give me patience," Fred heard her mutter.

"Well, Mr. Ned-" Hugh began.

"Just Ned, if you please," Ned corrected him.

"Ned," Hugh rephrased. "How many friends do you have here?"

"There are seven of us," he replied.

"And how many rooms will you be needing?"

"What are the rates for your fine establishment?" Ned wondered.

"Ten gold pieces per room, per day," Hugh told him.

Pat's mouth dropped open, and even Percy was aghast. "That's robbery!" she exclaimed.

"That's supply and demand. If you aren't willing to meet my demands then I'm not going to supply any rooms to ya," Hugh replied. "The tournament means there's not many rooms left in the city, so prices have gone up for the ones that are left."

Ned pulled out a drawstring bag from his cloak and reached inside. He pulled out a handful of coins, and Fred recognized them as pay-dirt. "We will take five rooms."

Hugh took one of the coins and pulled an eyeglass from his apron pocket. He peered at the coin through the glass, sneered, and tossed it onto the desk. "Keep your pay-dirt, and don't try handing me more of that stuff. My eye glass will see right through your funny money. It was made by those elves who fixed up the Swearing Stone."

Ned smiled and bowed his head. "I see I can't fool a wise man." He reached into his purse and dropped thirty coins onto the desk. "We will take three rooms."

Hugh put his eye glass into his eye and leaned down to inspect the pile. He straightened and nodded. "Everything looks in order. I'll show you the way to yer rooms." He walked around the desk and to the stairs.

Ned and the others followed, but Percy paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned to see Sins standing close to the tables. The assassin's eyes were on Ti. She worked the tables and served drinks to the rough crowd, but the ever-watchful eye of her brother kept the men from risking a more physical appreciation of her serving. "Are you coming?" Percy asked the assassin.

Ti glanced over her shoulder and frowned at her older brother. "I'll be fine," she assured him. Sins' eyes narrowed, but he turned away and strode past Percy. Percy looked to Ti, smiled and shrugged, and followed the assassin up the stairs.

The upper floor was filled with small rooms separated by narrow, dark hallways. Pat cringed when she noticed small shadows skitter across the floor and into large holes at the bottom of the walls. Hugh led them to the rear of the building to the very end of a long hall and stopped in front of a window that looked out on the back alley. He turned around so the window was to his back gestured to two doors on his left, and one on his right. There was a final door to the man's immediate right and against the exterior wall, but Hugh didn't indicate that as a prospective room.

"These are yours. Some of the best in the house," he told them.

Ned opened the door to the one nearest the exterior rear wall and everyone got a peak inside. The room was a ten-by-ten foot box with a single window on the left wall. A narrow, short bed was stuck against the far right wall with a small nightstand beside it. Opposite the door was a table with a washstand and a mirror on the wall above it. Something small and with many legs scrambled under the tattered and holed bed sheet that hung from the bed.

The corners of Ned's mouth twitched. "What an interesting room," he commented.

"Only if you're interested in bugs," Pat muttered. Ruth smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

"Glad you like it!" Hugh chortled. He opened the other two doors and showed that the rooms were much the same as the first. "Did you need anything else?" he asked his customers.

Pat's eyes swept over the dry tinder that made up the walls. "A match," she mumbled.

This time Hugh heard her and frowned. "What for?" he growled.

"For the candles," Ruth spoke up. "The rooms are very dark."

Hugh's face brightened and he nodded his head. "Those are in the nightstands beside the beds. I'll just let you folks get comfortable, but if you need anything just holler and have your purse ready!" He strolled down the hall, and out of sight and hearing.

Pat swung around to Ned and her teeth ground together so hard sparks flew out. "What in the world are you thinking having us stay here?" she growled.

"We need some place to stay," he pointed out.

Pat slammed her fist into the wall to her right and her fingers sunk several inches into the wood. "But this rotten, disgusting place?"

"It's all we can afford unless Sins can supply us with money to go to a better place," Percy suggested. The party turned to the assassin, who merely glared back at them.

"I believe we should accept that as a 'no' and make ourselves comfortable here," Ned insisted.

"I will keep the bugs away from you," Ruth promised Pat as she led the furious girl into their room beside the first one shown.

"That's no comfort, Ruth," Pat replied. They shut the door behind them and the five men were left to divvy up the remaining two rooms.

"As the youngest I suppose Fred and I should take a room," Percy suggested.

"Apprenticeship supersedes age affiliation, so I will keep Fred with me," Ned replied.

Canto glanced between Percy and Sins, then looked to Ned with a deep scowl. "Ah'm not sharing a room with them," he argued.

Sins strode past the group, opened the window at the end of the hall, and slipped out into the darkness. Percy turned to Canto and shrugged. "It seems it will only be the two of us."

Canto continued to frown, but Percy and he willingly went into their room across the hall from that of the girls. That left Ned and Fred with the first room shown, the one with the fine view of the dank alley one floor below them.

CHAPTER 8

Ned led Fred inside and quietly shut the door behind them. Fred looked at the bed, shuddered and turned to Ned. "I can take the floor-" Ned put his wizened hand over Fred's mouth and pressed a finger to his own lips. Ned's eyes dodged over to the wall that adjoined the one with the girls. Fred's eyes widened when he clearly heard their voices drift through the thin wood.

Inside the room Ruth sat on the bed while Pat paced the floor, though carefully. A wrong step and she would have practiced walking on air with one foot. Ruth turned her head to and fro watching her agitated friend wear holes in the existing holes. "If I ever get a hold of that castor without his staff I'll-" Pat punctuated her sentence with another punch into a wall. It left a dent.

"He means well," Ruth argued.

Pat turned to her with her mouth agape. "Means well? He means to kill us all! That has been his very intention since I first met him at the temple!"

Ruth covered her mouth to hide her smile. She composed herself, set her hands in her lap, and straightened. "I am sure if he had meant to kill us then we would be dead," she argued.

"He seeks to do us in in the most painful way possible, and this filth of a place may be it," Pat insisted. In the other room Ned glanced at Fred and quietly chuckled.

"Our stay here will be short. I promise I will not rest tonight until I find the stone. Then I will try my best to win it in the tournament," Ruth promised.

Pat stopped her pacing, sighed, and strode over to plop herself on the bed. She grasped Ruth's hands in her own and looked the girl in the eye. "You don't have to go through with this insane plan if you don't wish to," Pat reassured her.

Ruth smiled at her worried friend. "But this is what I wish."

Pat tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "You wish to fly in one of those death machines?" she wondered.