It was their third night in Yahaestra and Kre was sleeping on a bench in the common room along with the other servants when Beleg’s hand grabbed him roughly by the shoulder. “Master Dain was not pleased with how his books were laid out,” he growled. “Apparently there was some water damage because you put them too close to the wash basin.”
Outwardly, Kre sighed and scrunched up his face. Inwardly, he appreciated that Beleg was gentle with his grip and wasn’t anywhere near as angry as he appeared to be despite the ferocious look on his face. He could tell that a couple of the nearby boys were awake and listening, but they still pretended to be asleep lest they incur the wrath of the giant man threatening one of their own. It was very likely they had woken upon the big man’s first step into the room, having grown so accustomed to needing to be ready for immediate fight or flight depending on the threat.
Kre could feel their pity… their certainty that he was likely to be beaten for his mistake, whether or not it was actually his fault. Kre tried not to disturb the others as he followed Beleg down the hall, which was little more than a carved-out tunnel in the mountainside. It ran back several dozen feet before splitting out into various branches. Two lefts and a right brought them to a wooden door that served as one of the inn’s private rooms. Beleg pushed his way through and Kre followed close behind.
Dain was sitting by a brighter than normal candle, scrawling notes in a book. He didn’t look up, but then, he never did when he had a book in front of him. “What did you find out today?”
“The gambler apparently doesn’t deal in slaves, just drugs. The kid… I forget his name… but he said that what he doesn’t smoke, he sells, and what he makes in profit gets lost to the dice.”
Beleg nodded. “Symon, his name is. The drug dealer, not the boy. Word around the caves is that he has some of the worst luck, but I think there’s something else to it. He’s fairly new to the scene though, so there isn’t too much to go on right now, but I don’t think he’s our guy despite that.”
Dain nodded, still scribbling in his book. “What of the twins? Do we have any information on them?”
“Nothing from my circle,” Beleg admitted. “No one seemed to want to talk about them.”
Kre nodded, “Even the two boys that work for them didn’t say much, but you could tell that it wasn’t fear keeping them from talking. They just knew better than to do so, as if out of loyalty.”
“I was hoping you’d have something more,” Dain sighed, finally looking up from his book. “Those two concern me the most with the very little history behind them. From all accounts, they have plenty of money at hand, but no cargo that anyone has seen. Though I can’t detect the traces of magic about them, I suspect they might be our rakshasa.”