Page 7 of The Glass Unicorn: Part 1
My heart was racing so hard that I thought it was going to play face-hugger and rip through my chest. But I didn’t have time to be squeamish. I brought up another arrow, but the ogre started to tumble forward and Thornhold let go one more swing, landing the lethal blow.
Meanwhile Brynn and Reggie were battling the second ogre. She was using her sword, and as she did a spin-jump, she brought it cleanly around to cleave through the ogre’s back. The gash bit deep and long. Reggie held out his hands and an orb of sputtering fire appeared, flying directly into the ogre’s face. The ogre shrieked again, clawing at his face, and Brynn took the opportunity to thrust her sword into his chest, piercing his heart. The ogre froze, then began to topple, landing next to his friend.
I stared at them, then—trying to keep my lunch down—I said, “We’d better get out of here now. We don’t know if they have any friends?—”
But before I could finish, Brynn and Reggie were looting the bodies. They finished while I kept a nervous watch, and when they finished we made tracks, heading back toward the inn that we had passed.
The foot traffic in the streets grew as dusk settled into evening. Darkness came early here in Abarria—there wasn’t any electricity to stave off the darkness. Only lanterns and magic, and we hadn’t seen a great deal of the latter yet.
Vendors from the town square headed home, pulling small carts or pushing wheelbarrows of their unsold wares. Whiletheir stalls were generally safe in the market square, it would have been foolhardy to leave their wares there.
Up ahead, the inn waited like a beacon. Even though it was a dive joint in a sketchy town, it beckoned like a safe haven in this rat-infested village.
I was so conflicted about the day that all I wanted to do was sleep. I’d never thought about what it actually meant tokillcreatures. It was all so academic when we were gaming, but here—here we were responsible for taking life, and we saw it face to face. No guns, no distance…just blades and spells and blood and severed flesh. And even though I knew they were constructs of the game, it was real. They died. But it was also a very real thing thatwewould be dead if we didn’t fight back. Right now, I just wanted a place to decompress and to reconcile myself to the reality I’d chosen for myself…Well, at least for the next couple weeks.
“Here we go,” Thornhold said. “We need baths, by the way.”
I nodded. Ray had managed to avoid being caught in the gore, but the rest of us, even Reggie, were splattered with brains, blood, and other questionable substances. We’d be reeking before long.
“Agreed. All right, let me talk to the innkeeper, okay? I’m diplomatic,” I said.
Reggie snorted. “You just go on thinking that, Erenye.”
“Hey!” I glared at him. “Then why did you guys elect me leader of the group?”
“Because you’re the least likely to get us killed on sight,” he said.
“Hence, I’m the most diplomatic one.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re good with it,” he countered, but then just laughed. “I’m just pulling your chain. We all know you’re the best choice. Okay, go get us a room and some bread and cheese or whatever we can afford.”
We pushed through the rustic doors to the inn. The building stood three stories tall. As we entered the building, I noticed a beam propped against the nearest wall, ready to bar the doors if the need arose. That alone told me this wasn’t a safe place, but it was probably the safest we could manage under the circumstances.
The others hung back as I sauntered up to the counter. Several grizzled types were at the bar, slugging back the booze. One, a man around forty, with a scruffy beard and hair that hung in a braid down his back, gave me a long look from head to toe. He was wearing a gray cloak with the hood thrown back, and what looked like a black tunic and trousers beneath the cape. He caught my gaze, then looked away and motioned to one of the serving girls for another ale. For some reason, I felt a spark of connection, but I turned to the innkeeper. Well, Iassumedit was the innkeeper—he was behind the bar, after all.
“Are you the innkeeper?” I asked.
“Aye. What can I do for you?” the burly man asked. He was wearing a vest over a poet’s shirt and a pair of linen trousers, buttoned up the front. His long, bushy hair was caught back in a ribbon. He looked tidy compared to everyone else in the room. The serving girls looked a little frazzled, with flour smudges on their aprons that covered the ankle length dresses. But they didn’t look dirty. I had a feeling they were all employees in the game.
“How much for a room and a bath?” I asked. I was holding everybody’s money at this point.
“Twenty copper for the room and five for a bath. But we only have two rooms open right now, at least that have bathtubs.”
I hadn’t planned on us splitting up, but the cost was a lot less than I’d expected. “How many beds per room?”
“Two,” the innkeeper said.
I turned to the others. Reggie was the smallest, in terms of space he took up, and I was next. “Reggie, you mind sharing a bed with me?”
He laughed. “No problem.”
I turned back to the innkeeper. If we could avoid sleeping on the floor, so much the better. “We’ll take both rooms. We’ll each need a bath, so…”
“Forty copper for the rooms, twenty-five for the baths. Do you want food?” The innkeeper asked.
I nodded. “What’s on the menu?” I didn’t want to get stuck with something none of us would eat, but the aroma drifting out from the kitchen was making my mouth salivate.
“Beef stew. Comes with bread and cheese. Five copper each. You can eat in the dining room,” he nodded at the tables scattered around the room. Kitchen’s open till ten.” He pointed to a cuckoo clock. The Abarria Game-Guides company had elected to use a twenty-four hour day in the game. It just made it easier.
