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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 13, Written December 2011

===

Chapter 13 - A time to learn.

Darla and Ashley, as Dark Wind and Asha had begun to call themselves, left the inn by a side door, and came back in through the front door, with their coats held close around them, as if to ward off the growing chill of the early evening air.

Ashley nodded in the direction of the bar, indicating to Darla that it was there she should go to seek the innkeeper. Darla led the way, and approached a rather overweight otter that was tending the bar.

"Excuse me, sir? Would you be the inkeeper?" Darla asked politely. Her head was barely higher than the top of the bar, and the otter a good foot and a half taller than she was. But there were other furred folk and Humans in the inn of equally short stature.

"That I am, little Miss," he replied with a grin. "Duncan Mac Connacht, at your service." He looked at the two young vixens, and assumed they were someone's servant girls. "Will ye be fetching a meal to take back for your Mistress or Master?" he asked. "We have a fine hot stew tonight, and I can give it to ye in a warmed clay pot, to keep it hot for their table, if ye pay a deposit on the pot as well."

"I may order a meal for my maidservant and I, good sir, but at the moment I am more interested in lodging. How much are your rooms, and can I rent by the week?" Darla asked.

"Well! Your pardon, 'My Lady'," He said, stressing the title as if he didn't quite believe a girl barely into her teens could afford even two pots of stew, let alone a room for a week. "I must not have heard your carriage arrive, lass. Rooms are one silver coin per night, per bed, paid in advance. If ye pay for a full week in advance, it's five silver for a week. That includes one hot meal and one drink per bed that ye pay for, each day."

Darla opened her pouch, and placed a neat stack of ten silver coins on the bar, while holding a gold coin between her fingers, asking, "I saw many chimneys as we approached. Have you a room with one bed, and a fireplace? My maidservant needs no bed of her own, but we both like a warm fire." Her eyes glowed just enough for the innkeeper to see that they really were glowing, and not reflecting firelight.

The innkeeper touched a medallion on a chain around his neck, and cautioned, "Now now, My Lady," he said, this time sounding like he really meant the honor the title implied, "I meant no disrespect, and there be no need for magic. Your coin is compelling enough, and I be protected against compulsion charms an' the like. One gold coin per week will get ye a fine corner room with one bed and a fireplace, and I'll throw in a cot for your maid and two hot meals and two drinks per day, for each of ye. Fair?"

"And a bucket of coal, for the fire, yes?" Ashley asked, with a gleam in her eyes.

The innkeeper looked at Ashley's eyes, and shuddered slightly. "As ye wish... Miss..."

"The coal and two meals total per day will keep us quite content, good innkeeper," Darla said with a smile. "My maid has a very light appetite, and I would not want to take advantage of you. If we like it here, I will pay you for another three weeks, when this week is up. Please have someone show us to our room, and then my maid can fetch me a pot of that delicious smelling stew, and a small beer, or better yet, a simple apple cider, if you have any."

"Aye, M'Lady, we have a fine apple cider. Well chilled, even. Molly! Come over here wench, and show these ladies to their room!" he called out to a champaign-colored ferret girl who was serving beer and wine at a nearby table.

The ferret barmaid was smaller than Darla, and looked to possibly be the same age. She came at once, spoke quietly to the innkeeper, got the key from him and a bucket of coal from under the bar, and led them upstairs, to a room on the third floor, on an outside corner. They were a floor higher than Portia's room had been, and this one was nicer than what the canine mage had.

"Here ye are, M'Lady," the barmaid said, as she used a match to light an oil lamp on a small table beside the bed. "I'll fetch a cot fer yer maid as soon as I've kindled a fire for ye."

"No need. I've already lit the fire," Ashley said, as the room brightened considerably. Behind her the coal in the metal basket in the fireplace was burning as well as if it had been going for an hour.

"So... ye... have," The ferret said slowly. She curtsied to Darla and said, "My name be Molly, an' if ye need anything at all, just ask, M'Lady! I'll just be gettin' that cot now." Then she hustled out of the room as fast as her paws could carry her.

When she was gone, Ashley giggled, and the fire elemental said, "Can I help it if I prefer to make my own bed? Thank you, Mistress, for asking for a nice, snug coal-fired fireplace for me to rest in. That was most considerate of you." She picked up a small piece of coal and popped it into her mouth, like a child eating a piece of candy.

"I thought that would be pleasant for you. Just remember to muss up the cot so it looks used, as well. Now I really would appreciate a pot of stew. It smelled quite good," Darla said.

"At once, My MLady!" Ashley said, as she curtsied and then left to get the stew.

Molly returned soon, with a second barmaid who was a wolf carrying the other end of the cot. They set up the cot and blanket, and Darla thanked them, giving each two coppers for the fast service. Both maids brightly smiled at this generosity, and the wolf introduced herself as 'Merry', before they departed.

===

When Ashley returned, she disrobed and melted into the fire, until all that could be seen of her was two green eyes in the flames. Darla ate her stew and finished her cider, commenting that it was quite good. She looked around the room, found the chamber pot and a bowl with a pitcher of water on the commode in one corner. It was easy enough to deduce the purpose of the chamber pot from the slight residual smell. She used it and covered the pot, placing it back inside the commode stand before getting into her bed to sleep.

===

The next morning, Darla arose with dawn's first light. It struck her that this was the first night she had slept in a real bed since the night her family had been murdered. She got dressed, told Ashley to remain unseen and guard the room, and went down to the common room.

Keeping her coat close around her, she found Molly, and asked the barmaid, "Can you tell me the location of the nearest shop where I might be able to purchase a few new dresses and coats? Our carriage broke an axle along the way, and much of our luggage was lost. I fear my clothes are only barely presentable."

"Miss Keridwen makes some nice blouses and chemises, and other lady's underpinnings. Look for the sign with two pair of scissors, crossed over a threaded sewing needle. 'Tis but a few minutes walk along the road into town," Molly said cheerfully. "An' just down the street from her shop, Kendrew the Tailor has good coats, which he proudly displays, in his window and on his sign, an' across the street from his shop, down by the well is Miss Loreli's dress shop, with the thimble an' needle sign. She has all else ye might want, for yerself or yer maid, save for shoes. Cobbler Micah, down the second street after Kendrew's shop on the left, is the only shoe seller worth buyin' from, this side of the city walls, if ye ask me. Has a pair of brown boots for his sign."

"You are most helpful, Miss Molly. Any good pastry shops?" Darla asked.

"Oh, ye need go nowhere but here for that, Mistress! Our Miss Caroline makes some of the most tasty sticky buns an' the finest breads ye could ask for. She can make meat pies an' fruit pies, too!" the ferret girl said proudly.

"Good. Ummm, is there a time or place for the chamber pots to be emptied? Mine is soiled," Darla admitted.

"Oh? Just ask me, or any of the barmaids, any time ye have that need. We'll dump 'em for ye, Mistress. We're a high class inn, we are," Molly said. "I'll take care of that for ye right this minute, if it won't disturb yer maid. The other inns on the South road make ye dump yer own, but not here!"

"My maid is already out on other errands, and will not be disturbed. Do the maids each have a key to all the rooms?" Darla asked.

"Not that we keep. We have to get it from Master Duncan," Molly said. "He's most particular about the guests security, he is."

"It sounds as if fortune smiled on us them, in selecting this inn. Thank you, Molly. I will be back soon," Darla said.

===

Once Darla had obtained more suitable clothes for them, Darla took Ashley with her, and they started exploring the other shops along the road. There were two other inns and seventeen shops along this stretch of road, and then farmland for a distance of a mile or more before the shops outside the city walls began.

It was growing dark by the time they were ready to return, and both vixens' arms were laden with baskets, cloth sacks, and paper parcels tied with string. They were still two blocks from the inn when two rather large bears, armed with wicked-looking long knives, stepped in front of their path, and forced the vixens to turn into an alley.

"Oy! We'll just help lighten yer load a bit there, girls! Seems ta me you've got to much to carry there, right mate?" said one of the bears.

"Aye. A couple of maids what's run off wit' their Mistress' purse, an' don't know when ta stop spendin', looks like ta me. Cute little things, too. Let's see what ya got, girls," said the other.

"Don't... I'm warning you..." Darla said, as her eyes began to glow.

"No Mistress. Please. Allow me to handle these fellows," Ashley said. She calmly set down her two baskets and looked from one bear to the other, and then she winked at them. "So, you think you'll have a hot time with us, do you, boys? But can you handle it, when it gets really hot?"

"Ay! This one's got some fire in 'er, she has!" said the first bear, as he leered at Ashley's attractive young form.

"Why yes, I do," Ashley said demurely, as she made the slightest of hand gestures in the direction of the two thieves.

"What the? Ahhh! EAUGHHH! ME HAND!" The thief screamed in absolute agony, and soon was joined by the screams of the second thief.

The knives in their hands had heated in a heartbeat, and now were glowing white hot, brighter than a lamp's flame, hotter than the center of a blacksmith's forge, and burning the fur and flesh from their fingers so rapidly that they could not unclench their grip. The thieves ran screaming into the street, seeking to douse the bewitched blades in a horse trough.

And then their eyes went wider and they screamed worse, because even the water could not quench the burning metal, which Ashley's elemental pyromancy had caused to burn like magnesium, needing no air to burn, once ignited.

"You shall have to teach me that spell, Ashley dear," Darla said without the least trace of compassion for the pair that would have robbed and likely raped them.

"Gladly, Mistress. I was merciful, though I doubt they would see it so. They both were wearing chain mail vests, as well. Had I cast the same spell on their vests, it would have been quite fatal to them. Shall we return to our rooms?" Ashley asked.

===

An hour later, back in the inn, Darla was enjoying a meal in the common room when Portia stepped up to her table. "May I join you?" the canine mage asked.

"Of course. Do be seated," Darla replied.

"Seems there was a bit of excitement just down the road, just after sunset," Portia said quietly. "A couple of well-known ruffians got their right hands severely burned. They claimed their knives caught fire. By the time the authorities got there, the knives could not be found, and their burned hands were hopelessly crippled. Quite an interesting event, wouldn't you say?"

"Ruffians, you say? And they had knives in hand, and not peaceably in their sheaths, and these knives burned them? Sounds to me like they tried to rob the wrong person. What do these 'authorities' have to say about it?" Darla replied, with no more apparent care than if she was talking about the weather.

"They suspect it may have been elemental fire, but there were no witnesses, and no one saw an elemental. At least, none that cared to say anything that favored the ruffians. Those boys had a bad reputation in these parts, but no one had been willing, or able, to speak up against them," Portia said. "If you ask me, they got what they deserved. I believe they killed several travelers here recently, but they never left any witnesses alive. Still, if I had an elemental in my service, I would refrain from allowing it to be seen for a while. With no witnesses to a robbery, it would be difficult to justify what happened to them as self defense, even though I am certain that was the case. And they will live, though without their right hands, they will be hard pressed to rob anyone else. Assuming that was what they were up to."

"I will keep that in mind, if ever I run across an elemental, or one who commands such creatures. That was a most interesting tale, M'Lady Portia. Thank you for telling it to me," Darla replied.