The Last Inn, Page 3

  “Not bad,” he remarked and walked away to bark orders at the guards.

  Erin nodded, her mind still revolving around the money in her hand. The guards would be staying with the wagon of course, but none of the merchants were about to share rooms no matter how much they complained about the price. She went inside to find Kota hovering near the door.

  “Someone has a fan,” he joked, earning a scowl from Erin.

  “You could have helped, you know.”

  “I'm not the money person,” Kota replied with a shrug. “You may want to put that somewhere safe, by the way. Now if you'll excuse me, there is cooking to be done since someone left the pot boiling.”

  “I can't take care of everything!”

  Kota bowed just like the mercenary and went in the back just as the guards entered with the merchants' luggage. Erin retrieved the keys from behind the counter and directed them up the stairs. As much as she hated the cleaning, especially the way Kota nagged her whenever she tried to cut corners, it was a relief now. She didn't doubt that if they had seen it three days ago, not one of these well-dressed, prim merchants would have even bothered to stop.

  The mercenary came up the stairs last, waiting until the merchants checked out their rooms before dropping his own bag at the room he chose for himself, the one situated at the end of the hall next to the stairs. Without even pausing to look at his own room he strolled the length of the hall and back, and Erin thought he might be counting beneath his breath.

  “It's a habit,” he explained when he caught Erin's stare. “I don't like surprises.”

  Not knowing how to respond to that, Erin just nodded and went downstairs where the merchants had already gathered around the tables at the promise of food. When Kota entered the room with trays laden with food and a cheer went up around the common room, Erin found herself thinking for the first time that this might actually work.

  Entry 8: Accusations

  The next morning, Erin woke up in her bedroom to the smell of breakfast cooking. She dragged herself out of bed and dressed in between jaw-cracking yawns and rubbing her eyes.

  “Morning,” Kota said as Erin walked out of her bedroom and into the maelstrom of activity going on in the kitchen. “Sorry if I woke you, the merchants were already awake and expecting breakfast so I thought I would put something together.”

  “How long have you been up?” Erin asked as she watched Kota neatly break open a handful of eggs over the sizzling pan without dropping a single shell.

  “Night shift, remember?” Kota said over his shoulder as he piled up toast on a plate along with a stack of bacon. “Speaking of which, could you take this food out to them? I’m afraid they opened the shutters.”

  “What? Oh, right, the sun.” Erin cracked the door open and looked out on the men and women talking around a couple of tables. “How are you going to get back to your room?”

  “They’re going to head into town soon for some trading and selling,” Kota replied, stifling a yawn as he lifted the cooked eggs onto a platter and placed it with the other food. “I think I can hold out for that long.”

  “Right,” Erin muttered as she went through the door with the food.

  While the guests were eating, Erin went out the front door and looked around. The morning sun hovered just above the tree line in front of her, and to her left the guards in charge of the caravans were busy preparing for the day under the direction of the mercenary.

  “Hey, Erin!”

  An older man dressed in working clothes that looked as if they’d already seen a day’s use strolled up to the porch where Erin stood and smiled up at her.

  “Hi, Joe,” she said, breaking out into a real smile. The farmer and his family had been a regular fixture in her life growing up, and he could often be found around her father’s forge on rainy days. “What are you doing around here?”

  “Oh, same as everybody else, checking to see what’s going on,” he said in that slow voice of his. “Looks like you’re busy today.”

  “Yeah, a caravan arrived yesterday,” she said and Joe nodded.

  “Good to hear. Always good for business,” he said. He hesitated and rubbed his neck before saying, “So, how’s that new partner of yours working out?”

  “My dad asked you to come by, didn’t he?” Erin said and Joe grinned. “Well, you can tell him we’re doing fine, and the inn is running smoothly. You can see how many guests we already have.”

  The farmer shrugged. “You don’t have to prove anything to me. But while I’m here, I did want to warn you to watch out for wild animals this close to the forest. Something’s been bothering my chickens, and we lost a cow last night.”

  “A cow?”

  “Yeah, it was pretty bad. I told Delilah she couldn’t go out into the field until we could take care of it, don’t want her getting upset again.” Joe sighed.

  “Do you know what did it?”

  Erin and Joe looked around to find the mercenary standing by, his permanently intense eyes on them.

  “No, there weren’t any tracks,” Joe said. “The cow looked like a bear’s work, but we don’t get them around here anymore.”

  The mercenary thought for a moment and said, “Well, some of the men reported seeing a large wolf hanging around the wagons on our way here. Probably not the same one, but if you have wolves around then one of them might be desperate enough to go after livestock.”

  “Huh. Still doesn’t explain the chickens,” Joe said. “We went over the whole coop and still don’t know how it got in. I swear there wasn’t a hole there big enough for a skinny mouse, and I’d hate to meet the wolf that could get in and out like that.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Erin said quietly. The two men talked for a bit longer before she finally made an excuse to go back in and said goodbye to the farmer.

  Inside, she gathered the empty plates from the chatting guests and went back into the kitchen with a vague plan on what to say. The young man’s back was to her, his attention on washing up the breakfast dishes.

  “Are they still here?” Kota asked.

  “Yeah,” Erin said. She put the plates down on the counter a little harder than necessary and said, “I thought you said you were going to watch the inn at night.”

  “What? I did,” Kota said. “Not much happened. One of the guards came in to ask about–”

  “Then what were you doing at Joe’s farm!”

  “Who?”

  “The Farmers, they own the big farm just over the hill, and someone has been attacking their animals!”

  “And you think it’s me?” Kota asked.

  “Well, they think it’s a wolf, and I know one who wouldn’t have much trouble with doors,” Erin said.

  “Could you please keep your voice down?” Kota asked, casting a glance at the door. “When did this happen?”

  “Joe said his chickens have been going missing over the past couple of days,” Erin answered. The mercenary had been interested in the details as well. “And apparently one of the cows got out last night and something got it in the field. You said you could control this whole wolf thing! This doesn’t sound like having it under control!”

  Kota sighed and put the dish rag down. “Erin, I turn into a wolf in the sunlight, remember? I couldn’t attack a cow at night as a wolf, and if I tried to do it like I am now, it would probably just sit on me or whatever it is cows do. I haven’t left this inn in days.”

  “Oh.” Erin paused as Kota’s logic sank in.

  She was saved from apologizing when one of the merchants knocked on the kitchen door and leaned in to say, “Just wanted to let you know we’re heading out. Thanks for the breakfast.”

  Erin stammered a reply and Kota nodded.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get some sleep,” Kota said once the merchants had finished parading out.

  He walked out and Erin heard the distinct sound of claws clicking across the wooden floor and up the stairs. She sighed and turned to finish the dishes alone.


  A few hours later, while Erin was in the front yard picking up the trash the careless guards had left behind, Kota slipped out the back door.

  Entry 9: Sniffing for Clues

  The wolf darted through the tall grass, looking left and right as he made his way over the hill. Kota’s heart sped up every time he heard the grass shift or the sounds of the town drifting across the field, the individual sounds indistinct even to his sharp hearing in this shape.

  The Farmers’ place was farther from the inn than he expected, and much larger. A huge tract of land was dotted with various crops, all in neat little rows, and a series of fields surrounded by fences were set aside for the animals that sent up their own obvious aroma. A house sat in the middle of it all, the doors and windows thrown open as a small woman went in and out about some business. Kota also spotted more than a few farmhands working in the fields and around the barn.

  A small whine escaped from the wolf and he froze for more than a few minutes before slowly making his way down the hill and around the outskirts of the Farmers’ land, where the wild grass grew tall enough to hide him from view. A wide circle brought him around to one of the pastures, where a murder of crows were already at work. After checking to make sure that the coast was clear of even the other farm animals, Kota slipped through the fence and as close to the crows as he dared.

  One croaked at him and he growled in return, only to be greeted by a fierce shrieking from the other birds. Kota sighed and sniffed around, trying to ignore the insulting scavengers as well as the other, more pervasive smell that drilled through his senses.

  A look around the field showed no sign of any tracks, aside from those of the farmer and all of the others who had come into the area to look upon the grisly sight. If there had been any markings, they would have been obliterated by the apparent mob, and as far out as he went from the center he could see nothing and his nose found no trace of anything other than the humans and livestock that made such a deep imprint on the field, in more ways than one.

  After working up his nerve, Kota dashed straight into the middle of the crows, sending them flying up into the air with a flurry of greasy black feathers and enough squawking to set the chickens going off in the distance. It wouldn’t be long before someone came to see what scared the crows off, or to deal with what was left of the poor dairy cow.

  Kota’s nose was overwhelmed by the smell. Even with the unmistakable scent of crow hanging around, the cow’s blood hammered on his sinuses. Whatever had done this had not been careful or choosy in its work, and had been hungry. Even keeping in mind the crows, over half of the cow was gone, including a few bones.

  The wolf moved away from the cow, searching in an ever widening circle with his nose pressed against the ground until he found the smell of the cow after the fact breaking away and moving toward the barn.

  A shout broke his concentration and Kota looked up to find a young man on the other side of the field, with more of the farmhands running up at his call.

  Kota’s legs started moving without waiting for directions from his brain, propelling him in a straight line toward the forest in the distance. More shouts followed in his wake, and he thought he saw more than one man trying to block him off from the other fields, as if he would actually try to go after a chicken at a time like this. Or, he realized a little too late, steering him in a particular direction.

  He turned his head and caught a flash of silver before hitting the ground with his paws over his head. A whistle between his shouders followed by a crack in the fence and a curse from the man holding the gun told him it was safe to start running again. Even the most advanced guns in the empire took nearly a minute to reload, and that was in the hands of an expert. This fool had wasted his one shot, and judging from the yells of the others he had not earned much favor for it.

  Kota leapt over the last fence in his way, and the final stretch gave way before his madly racing limbs, which did not slow until he was well within the shelter of the trees and far beyond being followed by the farmhands, who had hesitated at the treeline. Even then he kept running, at an angle that took him so far into the deep woods that the thickly wooded areas blocked out the sun entirely, and then Kota stumbled along on two legs as he tried to readjust to his human shape.

  He slowed, taking in deep breaths as he walked in the general direction of the inn. Something told him that could have gone better, but at least none of the men saw anything beyond a wolf hanging around. Of course, once word got back to Erin he would probably be out of a job and a place to live, at the very least.

  Kota sighed to himself as he neared the edge of the forest and caught sight of the inn. There had to be some way to prove that another animal was doing this, or at least a different wolf.

  The thought hung heavy on Kota’s mind and he never noticed the watcher in the deep woods, present from the moment he dashed away from the farm to when he broke from the cover of trees and fled to the Last Inn.

  Entry 10: Smile

  Erin did not see Kota return, breathless and covered in sweat after his escape from the farm. She even smiled at him when he came down the stairs a few hours later, after some uneasy rest.

  “Hello,” he said warily, wondering if she had not heard about the wolf running around the Farmers’ place or if she was trying to get him to drop his guard.

  “Hey, do you think you can watch this place while I take care of some errands in town?” Erin asked. “It won’t be for long, I just need to get a few things before the stores close.”

  “But what if...” Kota glanced in the direction of the merchants who were sprawled around the common room, relaxing after the business of the day and lowered his voice. “What if someone needs me to go outside? There’s a few more hours before the sun goes down.”

  “Well, you’re just going to have to think of something then. I’m not going to be gone that long,” she said, and walked out the door despite Kota’s continuing protests.

  Kota wondered how fast news traveled in such a small town. He then wondered if he should go ahead and pack now, or wait until Erin returned with the mob before sneaking out the back door. Then one of the guests asked him about the broken shower head in the bathroom, and he found himself fixing that along with the toilet that kept clogging up and the door that wouldn’t unlock, which turned out to be a problem of not knowing which way to turn the key. Then there was dinner, for a group of hungry guests who couldn’t agree on what they wanted. By the time he had more than a few seconds to string together another thought, Erin was trudging in the back door under the weight of several bags and packages.

  Kota looked in the kitchen at the sound of the door slamming and almost managed to back out again.

  “Don’t you dare. Come back in here, right now.” Erin’s level voice was betrayed by the way she dropped the bags on the counter and spun around on him. “I heard about the farm.”

  “Oh.” Kota bit his lip and waited, but Erin’s stare drove him into speaking. “After what you said this morning, about something attacking the farmer’s livestock—”

  “About you attacking them!” Erin’s finger came out and struck Kota’s chest. “What, you heard about the cow and thought you’d go for a snack? Free meat?”

  “No! I was trying to figure out what did it, but I couldn’t find anything,” Kota said. “No tracks, no scent, just the remains of a cow that looked like it had run into something much worse than some bear or wolf.”

  “You’re not helping your case there,” Erin replied.

  Kota frowned and for a moment, shorter than a breath, his expression darkened and his mouth thinned as it tried to hold back what he wanted to say.

  Erin ignored the warning signs and added, “Do you know, they’re talking about starting a hunt back in town? They say that if a wolf is willing to risk getting that close to humans in broad daylight for food, it won’t be worried about attacking humans.”

  “Well then, it’s a good thing it’s not a wolf, and it’s not looking for food,�
�� Kota answered.

  “You don’t understand! They’re looking for you now, and if anyone sees you, if they figure out what you are—”

  “Then it won’t be any different than if they figured it out before.” Kota turned and left the kitchen.

  Erin used one of the words her father saved for the forge and started emptying the bags for something to do. Her hands shook and she had to force herself to stop and calm down after she kept dropping everything. The image of Kota, that stick-thin young man who always looked like he was cowering from the world, turning into the wolf kept running through her head. She felt sick, but she couldn’t tell if it was from fear or worry.

  When she finally left the kitchen, Erin found the common room empty except for Kota, slowly sweeping his way around the room.

  He looked up and said, “The guests have all gone to their rooms.”

  Kota hesitated and then added, “I’m sorry to have caused you trouble, Erin. I only meant to help.”

  Erin flushed red, but her acidic reply was cut off by a knock at the door.

  They looked at each other and then Kota walked over and opened the door to find what appeared to be a well-dressed young man with bright blue eyes and strawberry-tinted blonde hair standing in the dark outside with a wide smile.

  “Hello,” he said in a rich voice that lingered on the ears. “May I come in?”

  “No,” Kota said and swiftly shut the door in his face.

  “Kota!” Shocked, Erin pushed him out of the way and opened the door, where the young man still stood with a slightly more fixed smile. “I’m so sorry about that. Please, come in, and welcome to the Last Inn.”

  Kota facepalmed as the young man walked in and said, “Thank you. So, the name of this place really is the Last Inn? Why is that?”