"The guards didn"t even look at us," said Bridgette in surprise as they entered the gates to the town."That"s the first time demons haven"t run from us," said Josephine, glancing at Aella suspiciously.
"They are paid to guard the gates, and we"re not a threat," Aella shrugged.
"I don"t like the way you seem to get along with these," began Robert when Alfred grabbed him by the back of the shirt.
"We are guests, and guests don"t insult their hosts," he hissed in Roberts face.
"What"s your problem? None of these demons can take us!" Robert spat back, gearing up for another fight.
Aella rubbed her forehead and punched the man in the back of the head.
Alfred caught him as he crumpled, looking down at him and then back up at her in surprise.
"I didn"t feel like listening to his rant right now," she said, turning to head into the inn.
Josephine and Bridgette looked at each other, before turning to follow her, leaving Alfred to carry Robert into the inn. As they entered, the demons sitting at the tables looked up and froze. Aella ignored them, leading the group of humans to the stairs and headed up, pulling out the keys and starting to match them to the doors they went to.
"Robert can have the first one," said Aella, throwing the door open to expose a small room that had a bed, a table, and a chair.
Alfred dropped him on the bed and they pulled the door shut.
"He should wake up in a short while, and I"ll give him the key then," said Aella, opening the next door.
"I claim this one," said Bridgette, darting inside and taking the key before gently shutting the door with a smile.
"Which room do you want, Josephine?" asked Curt with a smile.
"Do you really want to die?" she sighed in annoyance, giving him a look that should have conveyed her aggravation with him, but he only smiled, waiting for an answer.
"This room is yours, Curt," said Alfred, pushing the man inside and pulling the door shut. Aella tossed his key to him before it shut completely, and he caught it in disappointment.
"Thanks, Alfred," said Josephine, taking her key and opening her door. "You don"t always have to rescue me, you know. I am the Water Hero after all."
"I know, but it"s the best I can do for you, considering you won"t let me help you with…well, you know," he said, glancing at Aella before looking back at Josephine.
She glanced at Aella as well, before looking down and gently shutting the door.
"Do I want to know?" asked Aella, handing him his key, after opening the last door.
He glanced back down the hall, then raised an eyebrow. "Not planning to sleep at the inn with us?" he asked, ignoring her question.
Aella knew that was his way of telling her it wasn"t his story to tell.
"I"ll be back in the morning, to join back up with you guys. I have to check in with some friends, in a bit."
They both turned as two serving girls came up the stairs carrying their food on trays.
"Want to eat in my room? Since we have to eat up here, instead of down there?" he asked with a smile.
"I was hoping to eat with one of you, so I could ask some questions," Aella said with a laugh.
"Go get Robert up, so he can have his key and eat, and I"ll rearrange the room a bit," said Alfred, turning to scoot the table closer to the bed so one of them could sit on the bed and eat at the table still.
Aella nodded and jogged down to open Robert"s door for the girl that was knocking on his door without much luck.
"Here, I"ll get it for you," Aella said with a smile, opening the door for the girl. Her skin was a lovely purple, and she had cute little horns that curled back around her jaw.
"Thank you, we don"t have a lot of humans that stay here," said the girl, setting the food down on the table and glancing at Robert curiously.
"He"ll be fine, just wanted a nap after walking all day. There were several monsters we had to fight to get here," explained Aella, setting the key to the door down on the table.
"Oh, I know! There are so many monsters everywhere, it"s just not safe to travel outside the gates anymore! We"ve had to employ two guards at each gate to keep the monsters from coming inside and wrecking things."
"Well, there should be fewer now then before. I hear the king is trying to do something about all of the monsters."
"That would be nice, to have a king that actually did something, rather than just dying to some heroes and leaving the kingdom to be run by those corrupt Advisors. Do you know how hard it is to get food on the table when the military keeps s.n.a.t.c.hing every last little bit to feed themselves? There"s barely enough left over to get through winter! It"s going to be a lean winter this year!"
"Maybe the king can do something about that," Aella said hopefully, watching the girl shake her head and leave the room.
Laying her hand on Robert"s head, she debated using her ring, but didn"t have to, when he started away with a jerk.
"Your food is on the table there, and I set your key beside it. See you in the morning," she said sweetly, and turned to leave, shutting his door on his confused face gently. Trying not to chuckle at the puzzled ideas he must have running through his head, she turned to Alfred"s room.
Alfred had already started eating his food, looking up from his bed when she got there.
"I wasn"t sure how long it would take you with Robert. He can be a real jerk sometimes."
"Only sometimes? It seemed like a lot more often than that."
Alfred chuckled his agreement, motioning for her to sit in the chair.
"So, I was thinking," said Aella, picking up her fork and stirring the gravy into the mashed potatoes.
"About?" asked Alfred, taking a bite of the string beans.
"Bridgette is a Sage, but doesn"t that mean she should be in a library, or something?"
"Oh, she grew up in the Church Library, but they decided to send her along with us because it was believed we needed her knowledge of the monsters we might encounter."
Aella chewed and swallowed her bite of potatoes, before saying, "But you already know about the monsters."
"Honestly, I think she was sent along to get killed because she was asking too many questions about how the church worked. She was pointing out that the ancient texts forbade the church leaders from having s.e.x or getting married, but many in the church leadership do so."
"That makes more sense. What about Curt? I"ve never heard of a Sword Hero before."
"The church actually made that one up. It started out about a hundred years ago, as an honor to the most skilled warriors, to name them as the sword hero, but that used to do nothing more than give them a higher position in the system, then the normal people would be able to achieve. It wasn"t until now, that they"ve decided to send the Sword Hero with the other Heroes, to help with killing the king. I"m honestly not even sure Curt is the true Sword Hero because he doesn"t seem to be that great in my opinion."
"So, just more cannon fodder to get rid of and out from under foot?" she asked, taking a bite of the meat. It wasn"t pork or beef, and she was wondering if it was a monster of some kind. It was a little chewy, but not bad.
"Pretty much. I try to let them have their moments to shine, and then deal with most everything else myself. What about you? Why are you here?"
"I told you, I was sent to check on the heroes. You guys are taking your sweet time getting to the castle, and the people in power are frustrated about it. If I didn"t know any better, I would think they were in cahoots with your church to get rid of the king, but I haven"t been able to figure out why, other then to keep everyone in a perpetual state of needing to bow before those who are currently in power."
"I would love to throw a stick in their plans. But I"m afraid there are things the church has done to force our hands. We are pretty much prisoners ourselves."
She looked at him as he stirred his potatoes around, not really eating any more.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, we all have family that the church keeps prisoner. If we do as they wish, they are supposed to stay safe. My sister was everything to me, but she died already. I can go off and do whatever I want, but the others, they still have loved ones being held by the church. I can"t stand the thought of just leaving them."
Taking another bite of her meat, Aella didn"t see why he had so many feelings for people he had never met. How did he even know that it wasn"t all faked? If the church had lied to him about one thing, how could he ever trust them about anything else?
"I don"t see Robert caring about his son, if he"s worse than Robert. It must be Josephine you"re talking about."
"You"ll have to talk to her about that. I won"t say any more about it."
She nodded in understanding, wondering if she would get a chance to meet with the Water Hero that night. Setting her fork down she stood up.
"I have to be going. I"ll see you in the morning."
He reached out and grabbed her hand.
"Promise me, you won"t kill any of them. Robert"s a pain in the b.u.t.t, but I don"t want his son to get his powers. That boy is a nightmare just waiting for an opportunity to do the church"s dirty work. The others aren"t bad people. I don"t want to have to kill you, Aella."
She smiled at him and pulled loose from his grasp.
"Don"t worry, you won"t."
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He didn"t say anything else as she left, pulling his door shut behind her. It was time to find that library door back in the palace.