Chapter Eight

When Jay woke, early morning sunlight was filtering through the window shutters. Yawning, he sat up and rolled out of bed. Quickly, he washed his face and scrubbed his teeth with what he believed was baking soda, before strolling out of his room, down the stairs and into the common room where nine faces quickly turned to greet him. The tenth, Nuriel, the niece of the innkeeper, soon brought out a breakfast plate of food heaped with eggs, bacon and sausage, as well as a mug of thin beer, before retreating back into the kitchens with a blush at his thanks. After wolfing down the entire plate and draining his mug, Jay turned to the patiently waiting pairs of eyes. Vivien spoke as he surveyed those in front of him.

“M’lord, what’s going to happen to us now?”

“I’m not a lord. Jay is fine. Or Mister Trinity, if you feel like you have to be polite.” Jay absentmindedly corrected as he collected his thoughts.

“The captain of the guard has graciously allowed you all to stay here one more night on the governor’s coin to give you time to adjust or make plans for what you want to do now that you’re free. I’ve already been assured, the children with no relatives will be taken in by one of the local orphanages as well.” Jay paused, reading reactions. Most were distraught. Two of the children had started to cry. “With that said, I am working on plans that you all may be interested in.”

Hope sprung back into all of their eyes. If this man could save them from the bandits, surely he could save them from a life of almost assured begging or whoring. “I won’t go into any details at the moment, as I’m not entirely sure it will all work out, however, for now, if you have any skills such as needlework or you know your letters, let me know now. I will be spending most of the day attending some business matters. You are all welcome to stay here or explore the city.” Jay finished. All the women were capable seamstresses, Peri and Faith, both in their late twenties, had worked the kitchens of an inn before, and were passable chefs, while Heidi was able to read and write. It was a wider variety of skills than Jay had hoped, and made his plans much, much easier to accomplish.

Naturally, none of the children had any skills they could leverage, but Jay promised them that he would not force them to go to the orphanage if they did not want to. With the preliminary investigation taken care of, Jay headed out. He had already given Dennis two gold to hire a scribe to teach him, and he was already off diligently studying under a local man’s tutelage who the innkeeper had suggested, or so the women told him. Jay realized he could have let Heidi teach Dennis, but the man needed to make his own way now.

His first stop was the north gate guardhouse, where he was able to collect a princely sum of ten gold coins for his major role in eradicating a wanted band of criminals, five of which was for the death of Agerik the Lion. The guards informed him they’d all been briefed on his Drenz companions, and they would be allowed to enter and leave the city with no problems, but to ‘please be discreet’, prompting him to visit the stable next door.

Walking through the doors, he was met with a sudden inexplicable pressure as he found himself staring up at the stable loft. Some large creature subjected him to several rounds of torture as a rough, wet object was repeatedly dragged across his face. He was pleased to learn that despite being big cats, their tongues were not barbed like those of his world, or at least they could soften the barbs, Jay wasn’t sure which, but his face wasn’t being sliced open so for that he was moderately grateful.

“Kara!” Jay gasped in between grooming sessions. “Let me up! I can’t breathe!” The car sized Drenz grudgingly rolled off him. Bane sat off to the side, attempting to look aloof but failing miserably as he looked all too happy to see Jay back. Jay groaned as he sat up. “Be a bit more careful, you little shit. You weigh like, two tons.” Kara just licked his face again fondly, causing Jay to grin despite his harsh words.

“You guys are free to leave and enter the city whenever you want. The guards all know about you now, so you can go hunt as you please.” Kara nudged him with her nose, eyes downcast. “I know, I know! I’m working on it. We’ll probably be in the city for a while, but don’t worry. If everything goes to plan, we’ll be back together soon.” Jay scratched the cat’s big head. So needy, he thought to himself with a chuckle. One night away and you turn from vicious man-killing beasts into giant kittens. Jay stood up and rubbed Bane down before making his way back to the door. “I’ll be back tonight and we can go hunting nearby,” he promised. Much of the area within a day’s walk of the city was cultivated farmland, but there were a few areas which had yet to be claimed from the wilderness.

He stopped by Talli’s shop next to check in on the girl. Talli nearly beat him over the head with a potted plant when he surprised her in the back room, as she did not initially recognize him from the night before. The good news was the girl would live, as long as she still desired to. She had yet to wake up, but all her injuries had been properly treated. The great news was, while Talli had been yelling, jumping and swinging objects in his general direction, Jay received a fantastic view of the body that was hidden beneath her rather plain attire. It. Was. Spectacular. She could very well be old enough to be his mother several times over, but that didn’t stop him from admiring a work of art when he saw one. Besides, she looked his age, or so he justified. Like most fantasy lands Jay was familiar with, the elves of this world maintained exceedingly long life spans, and Jay was a courteous man, who treasured his life, and just naturally assumed she was older than she appeared without asking.

Jay spent a short while at the girl’s bedside, reading one of Talli’s books on medicine. She had permitted him to peruse her manuals while he was visiting, and he promptly returned the book to its proper place when he left the shop.

He finally arrived at the Golden Lute around midday, where he hoped to catch Nial and Carl. He was in luck, as both were sitting at a booth in the corner discussing preparations for the next stretch of their journey. Carl was looking to hire additional guards to replace the previously lost men, while Nial was setting budgets while calculating travel costs and merchandise profits. Both looked happy to see him, and after telling the story of his adventure over a mug of beer, which attracted the attention of the rest of the afternoon patrons, the three settled into business. Carl repeatedly tried to recruit Jay to join his guards, but Jay just smiled and politely declined each time, stating his current business affairs would not allow the travel. Nial had remained strangely silent throughout the exchange, studying Jay with a critical eye until Carl finally conceded.

“Jay, I am by no means a priest, but I believe you should visit the temple of Shira when you can.” A serious tone hung in the air. “Speak to the local Cardinal of Shira when you have a moment, call it a hunch, or perhaps merchant’s intuition, but I believe it will greatly benefit you.” Jay exhaled softly, looked to the ceiling. More mention of the goddess Shira. He would have to investigate later, but he had more important things to handle at the moment.

“I will follow your advice when I can,” Jay promised. “However, I did actually seek you out today for more official reasons,” he continued with a smile. Nial let out a small exclamation before digging around the folds of his jacket, jiggling all the while, before procuring a purse that jingled merrily. “I think you’ll be pleased with the amount.” Nial gave Jay a jovial grin. Jay laughed, having completely forgotten the money owed for his tenure with the caravan, which he promptly informed Nial and Carl to their amusement. Inside the pouch he found, not the five silver he was owed, but ten large gold coins. Surprise was evident on his face as he looked up to the smug expressions of Carl and Master Gemstone.

“Five is for saving my life, the lives of my men, and the cargo we carried. The other five was a reward from the guard to the men for the bandit bounty. They all agreed you should have it, since you and your beasts did most of the work.” Jay was left momentarily speechless at the generosity, causing both caravan leader’s smug expressions to deepen into satisfied grins. Shaking himself into action, he profusely thanked them, knowing that refusal of such a gift would be more of an insult than an attempt at humility.

“As grateful as I am, I do have other business I’d like to discuss as well. As you both now know, I have a small entourage of displaced women and children that I’ve come to feel responsible for.” Jay paused as the explanation sunk in, Carl and Nial both frowning in understanding. “As such, I was wondering if either of you held any knowledge of well sized buildings that I might purchase.” Carl almost immediately responded with a negative. However, Nial sat for several moments, tapping his jiggling chin in thought.

“Come to think of it, the last time the caravan passed through, about a year ago, there was a rather elderly gentleman I remember who was looking for potential buyers for his inn. I believe he went by the name of Hagus. The place is supposedly located on a side street off of Market Circle.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth before Jay drained his remaining beer, excused himself and was off running to find this Hagus.

After stopping several times to ask directions, he arrived in front of a large building called The Lucky Lady that was far past its prime, but would easily fit his requirements. He noted several patrons spread throughout the common room, while a stooped old gentleman manned the bar.

Jay approached the bar and politely asked the elder man if he was Hagus. After replying with a grunt in the affirmative, Jay stated his purpose, and requested the asking price for Hagus’ establishment. Thirty-three gold and a transfer of title deed later, Jay was officially the owner of a slightly grungy, nine room inn with a large back area, fenced by a stone wall. Hagus supplied him with the names of his beer and food suppliers, and after cleaning out his locked chest of valuables, took his small fortune of recently acquired gold and was later seen leaving the city entirely. It was rumored he had a small plot of land in an equally small village to the east that he had planned to retire to, or so the rumors went.

The common room had emptied by the time the deal was struck, and Jay took the liberty of closing early for the day before he returned to The Golden Lute to share the good news. Carl and Nial both congratulated him, promising to drop by as his first customers when he officially reopened. He returned to Forest Gate Inn where he promptly announced his new acquisition to the happy tears of all present, and escorted them to their new home. It didn’t look like much, but to all present it was home.

Upon entering, all the children immediately ran upstairs to claim beds while Heidi, who had become the unofficial leader and pillar of support for the other women, organized and set about cleaning the place up to fit a woman’s standards. Jay simply stayed out of the way of the determined squad of females. He was pleased to see them all staying strong, despite the recent tragedies all had experienced, which he was sure was in no small part to Heidi’s iron will. A few hours, a bit of elbow grease, and many buckets of dirty water later, the inside reminded Jay of the pants that used to be sold with wear and tear. The appearance was clean, as good as new, if slightly worn, but night was fast approaching and Jay had other appointments to keep.

Jay officially appointed Heidi as innkeeper matron in his absence, and handed her the majority of his remaining wealth. His plan as he outlined it to his new employees, was to change this inn to a laundromat bar and grill. Heidi would handle the management for the business, Peri and Faith would cook and Vivien would waitress, while the other women would wash, fold and repair clothing for customers. The children would help where they were able, and at night Heidi would teach both women and children how to read and write. Once enough of them were literate, they could perform additional tasks similar to scribe work for customers.

The idea of performing multiple functions at a single establishment was somewhat foreign to the women, along with the idea of doing other’s laundry for a fee, but all agreed it worked well with their skillsets and had good potential once Jay explained the concept. Heidi planned to use the money Jay had given her to repair both the outside and inside of the inn to make it more presentable, as well as order two new signs constructed, one to advertise the new name of the inn, Drenz Rest, in honor of Kara and Bane, and the second to advertise their services.

Left in Heidi’s capable hands, Jay returned to Forest Gate, where he met Guard Captain Andrews who was surprised by the lack of expected attendance. The meeting was quick, primarily an exchange of information. Shren’s governor was very interested in hiring Jay for a long term job, and had several suggestions about formal combat training according to Andrews. He thought he saw the captain shudder slightly, but accounted it to the night’s slight chill. He was scheduled to visit in the afternoon, two days hence. Jay filled the captain in about his daily errands. Andrews shook his head at how quickly Jay had found, purchased and moved shop. If he had a hundred men with the kind of work ethic and dedication of this one, his city would be cleaned up and functioning at peak efficiency in a week. If he had said anything to Jay, he probably would have laughed thinking back on how unmotivated he was just a few months prior. Survival has a way of kicking a person into high gear.

After retrieving his belongings from his upstairs room, Jay thanked Bart and Nuriel for their hospitality before departing, much to both of their disappointment. Jay met Kara and Bane at the stables as promised. Hiding his bag of valuables under a stack of loose hay, the three slipped out of the city with no one the wiser, and spent the night hunting together.