Page 5
Chapter Five
Corallin
I was wondering if I’d found the right establishment in the storm, but as I hear the scream, I realize that I must be in the right place.
After all, in a quest for ancient power, someone’s bound to get hurt. I just figured that it would all happen after I got here, not necessarily before.
Despite the late hour, there are still a few people in the inn’s front room. A man with impressive sideburns who I assume from his stained apron to be the innkeeper. There is a woman sitting at the bar in front of him and a bleary-eyed bearded man, who given the resemblance between him and the other man, I take to be the innkeeper’s son.
They all stare at me for a second in confusion, but then another scream pierces the air of the inn, and it quickly draws the attention away from me.
I feel the corner of my mouth turn up as the two men and the woman all rush to the back of the room in the direction of the scream. A useful distraction all the same.
As a Higher Elf, I’m usually immediately viewed with suspicion due to my people’s legacy as criminals and vagabonds. But as a vampire, sorceress, and assassin, it’s a necessity to not draw attention to myself. I usually utilize that by hiding amongst shadows, remaining unseen and unheard. Unfortunately, the storm forced me to enter the front door. I could barely find even that in the cold.
I shake out my cloak, dislodging the snow stuck to it and slip down the hall following the other people. Time to find out what I just walked in on.
My vampiric senses catch the smell of blood before I round the corner and find a gathering of people in the hallway. My heart sinks when I see that there are far more people at this inn than I would have liked. It will make it harder to locate my query and the spellbook he carries. It will also make it so there are more witnesses in case things get messy.
I’ve been tracking my prey for months, following a trail of mysterious cures to ailments until it brought me here.
The last healing happened just yesterday in this very town. With the storm, the healer could not escape with his spellbook, instead he must be staying the night here at the inn. But just who is he… or she for all I know.
I push to my tiptoes, trying to catch a glimpse of what is going on the other side of the crowd of half-dressed hysterical inn guests. I hear one girl sobbing and someone else trying to comfort her. Other people are asking, “Who could have done this?”
Unfortunately, I’m too short to see anything.
I feel a shadow pass over me and turn my head to see a latecomer to the commotion. It’s a tall, rugged looking man with half his head shaved and an entire arm inked with tattoos which I have an unobstructed view to because he is completely shirtless.
He towers over me, all toned muscles and golden hair.
He gasps, clearly not having a tough time seeing over the crowd. “By the gods,” he breathes.
“What is it?” I find myself asking.
I’m not actually asking him specifically, but he glances at me out of the corner of his eye and raises a brow as he takes me in “I’d offer to let you climb on my shoulders to see, but I’m afraid it’s not a pretty sight.”
I clamp my teeth together and press into the crowd. I shove aside an old man dressed in an orange robe and a shocked looking woman with her brown hair hanging loosely around her shoulders. Until I finally get a look at the scene before me.
It’s a man, and he’s dead. He’s a human wearing a uniform with an insignia of a guard. His eyes are wide and staring blankly at the ceiling until the younger man, who I presume to be the innkeeper’s son, leans forward and closes them.
The dead guard is lying in a puddle of his own blood. The copious amounts of blood seem to stem from several stab marks that have torn through his tunic and his flesh beneath. Whoever did this was sloppy, the stab wounds are uneven and there are far too many of them.
I count at least fourteen.
A skilled killer could have ended him with only a single thrust.
But skilled or not, it is obvious that there is a killer here with the rest of us. And it isn’t me.