Page 97 of Sword & Shadow
The village was sleepy, with few citizens moving through the main thoroughfares. Evylin wondered if the emptiness was due to the presence of the guards or the poor weather. Or perhaps there just weren’t enough people to populate the settlement well.
In the main square of the village, Evylin and Auden dismounted, tying their horses to the post. They scanned the square, readily finding the smith at the far corner to ask for directions to purchase tents. Auden dropped his hood once they were under the awning of the smithy, but Evylin kept hers up to hide her Ephrian features. The smith spoke in some strangedialect that Evylin couldn’t begin to understand, and she was suddenly grateful that she’d promised not to say a word on their trip.
“Yes, I understand,” Auden replied, evidently able to translate the smith’s garbled words into something resembling sense. “But my boss,hewouldn’t understand.” He leaned forward conspiratorially, lowering his voice. “He’s not the most reputable man, aye?”
Evylin watched with interest as the smith’s eyes twinkled. He rattled off some more words, his fingers twitching at his side.
With a deft hand, Auden slipped the man some coins. “I’d be greatly appreciative,” he said.
The smith grunted, scanned Evylin—heavily shrouded in her cloak—and turned to forage through his shop.
Evylin shifted closer to Auden. “What was that about?” she asked.
“We’re in a village,” he replied. “There are no merchants who sell tents. So he’s going to do us a favor for a few extra silvers on the side.”
“On the side?”
“Off his tax books,” he said. “While he can’t provideallthe materials for us, he has the supplies we need for frames, and his friend at the docks has the canvas and rope we need for the shelter-halfs themselves. He’ll give us the frames and a note for his friend, and we’ll head to the docks.”
“Ah.” Evylin nodded. She began to shift away when a stranger ducked under the smith’s awning.
“Pard’n,” he said to her in a thick Waulden accent.
Though her hood was too low for him to get a good look at her, Evylin drifted to Auden’s other side to ensure her anonymity.
The stranger and the smith exchanged rapid, unintelligible words. Then the smith kept on with his work, and the stranger waited patiently.
Broad-shouldered but with a narrow waist, the newcomer carried the distinct Waulden features of numerous freckles and sharp cheekbones that gave his face an especially gaunt look. He was young, perhaps in his mid-twenties, with shaggy white-blond hair. His leather jerkin had a hole by the hem, and his tunic was stained with grease. He scratched his cheek, glancing at Auden. The men exchanged polite smiles but otherwise ignored one another.
But then the man looked at Auden again.
Evylin shifted, sliding her hand to the back of her belt, where she kept a blade hidden. Though this stranger had no apparent weapons on him, she didn’t like the way he was studying Auden.
“’Cuse me,” the man said in his clipped accent. “Ya look familiar. ’Ave we met?”
Auden gave the stranger a steady scan as though seeing him for the first time. Then he shook his head. “I can’t imagine that we have,” he said.
The man raised his chin. “Ya from the Moorlands?”
Auden’s brow furrowed. “Actually,” he said lightly, “I am.”
“Yeh, me too,” the man said, his gap-toothed smile wide. He held out his hand good-naturedly. “Name’s Nev, and I can always spot one of our kin. What’re ya doin’ this far east?”
“Work,” Auden said as they shook hands. “Or, more accurately, paying off a debt, if you know what I mean.”
Nev chuckled knowingly. “Aye, that I do.” He tapped the side of his nose. “Same for me. Pays to sell, ya know?”
Though Evylin didn’t know, it seemed that Auden did. He grinned, joining the man’s chuckle.
The smith returned, arms loaded down with several poles of wood, forestalling any further conversation. He rambled in hisindecipherable dialect, and Auden paid him readily, accepting the note for the dockworker. The Moorlander, Nev, wished them good travels, then they left the cover of the awning into the misty day.
After securing their purchase to their saddles, they led the horses to the docks. It took several minutes of asking around to find the smith’s friend. Auden proceeded to haggle with the dockworker, who had nearly as thick an accent as the smith. Finally, they came away with the three canvases and the plentiful rope they needed to make shelters.
Auden shook his head, frowning at his lightened purse. “We’re running through our means faster than we should,” he said warily.
Evylin frowned. “I thought Ephren gave us enough to last the whole trip.”
“He didn’t account for the exchange rate,” he said, sighing. “We’ll have to be careful if we want to make it through the rest of our travels in Wauld.”
