Chương 26: The Nag’s Head

One of the dogs bounded into the air, punting a woman to the floor, with the beast landing on top of her. She just about caught the brunt of the beast's weight by bracing with her arms, but both of them were now in her face with their tentacle-like protrusions sniffing around her. One of the dogs opened its mouth, and snapped at the lady. The canine's mouth started to glow a deep blue as it opened its jaws. Tiny specs of blue mana came swirling out of the woman's chest and absorbed into the dog's open mouth.

The woman thrashing stopped and her body went rigid. She looked like she was trying to scream, but only a muffled breath came out. Aaron instantly knew what it was doing. It was the same spell that Aaron had learned and used on Harrold's guard. It was draining her vitality.

"Filthy cursed peasants infecting our town" the man said as he scooped her lifeless body over his shoulder and walked back away down the street. Aaron took a deep breath of relief as the dogs skulked out of sight, with their keepers trailing after. Aaron's heart still raced at the thought of getting attacked. Giddeon's words echoed in his head, you reek of corruption." Aaron turned to Paige, "Mana hounds, huh?"

"Yep," she said. She was up on her toes looking down the alley towards the dogs.

"This is bad." She looked around for a few moments then continued, "We need to get off the street. Let's go." The crowd was flowing again in a way that made it possible to leave. They snuck away from the market square down a narrow winding side alley. They must have walked no more than a few hundred paces, but the streets around them looked completely different. The old buildings towered over them, making the daytime feel more dark and gloomy. And there were very few people around.

They walked into an unassuming looking tavern. It was a standard building made of stone with a wooden sign hanging out front.

"The Nag's Head" was written on it, with a picture of an old woman. It would do for a while as they waited to make sure the hounds were long gone. The tavern was nothing special, but nothing special was exactly what they needed right now. It was reasonably busy for midday. Various patrons sat around wooden benches. They were mostly adult men who must have been on a break from work. The serving area was neat and well kept. A well dressed man stood behind the bar, polishing metal tankards.

Only the finest establishments could afford real glass. The flask Aaron used for his mana potion had cost him a few months of pay. Hops and malt filled the air with a yeasty sweetness. It smelled like the streets near the Sacred Library. He would visit sometimes after work with his fellow apprentices. But he never imagined there to be well kept establishments outside of the city walls. His view of the world had been shattered ever since he laid eyes on the settlement from the top of the hill.

The rumours made it sound like it was impossible to survive outside the city, let alone set up businesses like markets, and taverns.

"Two flagons of mead," Paige said to the smartly dressed barman.

"Easthills or Hivehops?"

"Eashills, please." The barman walked to the back of the bar where there were a series of kegs upright on a counter. There was a metal tap on the side of each one. He grabbed two metal flagons in one hand and poured the golden fluid into each of them without spilling a drop. He placed them on the bar.

"That'll be twenty coppers." Paige reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of dirty bronze coins and handed them over. It felt unchivalrous for letting Paige buy him a drink, but they weren't here for leisure so it didn't matter. They took the drinks to a quiet corner of the tavern and sat in a booth with a circular table surrounded by a horseshoe shaped bench. There was a wooden divider either side between adjacent booths. It was perfect to give them a bit of privacy.

"Should we really be drinking right now? We have a lot to do." Aaron asked. He was usually so busy with work and study that he never made much time for drinking in the city. It would probably only take a couple of drinks to ruin his focus.

"The last thing we want is to draw attention to ourselves. How do you think it would look if we were drinking glasses of milk?" Paige's point was blunt, but true. They already looked like outsiders based on their finer, less worn out clothes. And a drink might help him calm his nerves. They were rattled after seeing that woman attacked and dragged off.

"Why are they hunting people in the streets with those dogs? What are they looking for?"

"They're hunting corruption," she said. Aaron had heard rumours of corrupted beasts in the Desolate Lands, but the woman didn't look abnormal.

"You know about dragonfire, right?"

"Yes, of course. I saw it first hand."

"Then you know what it does to the land?" Aaron nodded. Dragonfire is so powerful that it burns the very soul of the land. He had heard that the areas scorched by the eastern drake still hadn't recovered a decade later. Although, he wasn't sure what to believe anymore. But he knew for sure that the corruption spread to the souls of creatures nearby making them ill and twisted. He'd seen it himself.

"I just didn't know it would affect people too." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Paige nodded with a severe stare.

"It seeps into the soil and affects the food. It's more common up north and I wasn't expecting to see them patrolling with mana hounds this far south. It must be spreading."

"And they can sense my magic? Giddeon said I reeked of corruption."

"I wouldn't take him at his word. He had a personal vendetta against Necromancers and might have been saying it to get under your skin."

"Might?" Aaron asked, accidentally raising his voice more than he should have. He looked around, but luckily hadn't drawn any attention to himself.

"Yes, he is secretive about his powers, even to me. But I wouldn't want to try my luck with the hounds if I was you."

"And who were the men patrolling with the hounds?" Aaron asked.

"The baron's lackeys. Well, he calls himself the baron. He's a power hungry son of a noble whose family assumed control of most of the Northern Expanse once everyone else fled from the dragon." They were interrupted by booming laughter from the other end of the room. Four men stomped through, each with a tankard of ale in hand. They wore matching green-brown trousers and blazers, with a white tunics underneath. They had black black belts which matched their shiny black boots.

"Did you see his face?" one man shouted.

"That was the best one of the week!"

"No, you're wrong, I'm not corrupted," one man said mockingly in a high-pitched tone. The four men bellowed with laughter. Their disregard for the other patrons at the tavern was obnoxious, yet everyone had their heads down. They looked afraid.

"You, move! You're in our spot." One of them pointed to a lone old man enjoying a meal two booths down from Aaron and Paige. He apologised profusely, bowed his head down and picked up his plate and left. One of them gave him a firm pat on the back as he walked off which almost sent him topping over. Paige rolled her eyes as soon as they were behind her. From the look in her face, this was a familiar annoyance.

The men gloated loudly about various people they had taxed which sounded like a euphemism for a bribe to not get assaulted. They also spoke about beating up a man for short changing a noble and falsely accusing a man of being corrupted and getting him banished to something called a corrupted colony because he allegedly gave his wife a funny glance. It was disgusting. These men were evil. Corruption and unfounded violence amongst the guards was unheard of in the city.

It was shocking to hear them talk so flippantly about it.

"Have you seen Gully's crow?" The smallest of the four men asked. He might have been the smallest but was still at least double the size of Aaron.

"Yeh, the whole towns talking about it. He caught the little bastard yesterday. Those things look vile up close! It's crazy what corruption does to animals." Aaron's ears pricked up. Could he be talking about Cuthbert? He didn't know what corrupted animals looked like, but imagined that missing flesh with exposed bone and muscle couldn't be far off. He felt a connection to the crow. It had been faint since he escaped his cage but it still tickled in the back of his mind. He could feel he wasn't too far away.

The thought of Cuthbert being kept here to be gawked at and poked by these apes sent a shiver down his spine. Tim was fond of Cuthbert. In the days he stayed in their home, he barely left his side. Guilt built up in Aaron's stomach, making him feel sick. He didn't know for sure that the bird was Cuthbert, but he wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that his friend might be rotting in a cage somewhere.

"Gully's been experimenting on him. He's looking for weapons we can use against the corrupted." Aaron couldn't take it anymore. His legs were burning as if they had to get him up and make him do something. He wanted to rush over and demand answers, but he knew it wouldn't end well for him. One of the men stood up abruptly, pushing the table hard and causing it to make a sharp screeching sound.

"Barkeep," he shouted, "where is my food?" The poor barkeep froze in fear. Aaron didn't envy him for having to deal with such brutish men, but he maintained an admirably professional demeanour, "Apologies gentleman, I will check with the chef for you right away." The men had only been waiting a few minutes and it was entirely unreasonable to start complaining about delays. The brute looked past the bar to the corner of the tavern.

A waitress was putting plates of roasted meat and potatoes in front of a group of men. They were dirty and covered in brick dust, probably because of construction work or labouring. He stormed over and snatched two plates off the table, practically knocking the poor woman off her feet in the process. He stomped back and put them on the table.

"You show some respect when your peacekeepers are in your establishment. Let that be a lesson to you." He pointed to the barkeep.

"To all of you!" He shouted.

"Hey!" One of the construction workers stood up from his table.

"You steal our money, steal our food. What are we left with? What reason do we have to respect you?" The man's friends were desperately trying to drag him back into his seat, but it was too late. The four thugs in the booth stood up and stared at the builders. They were grinning as if this is what they wanted.

"I'll show you why." The guard who stole the food stormed over toward the worker, clenched his fist and swung a fierce haymaker towards his jaw. The worker was fast to react. He quickly ducked toward the thug's fist avoiding the brunt of it. The punch glanced off his shoulder and slid to the side. Before he could back away, the worker swung upwards into his face, smashing his jaw with tremendous force. His teeth clacked together as it slammed his mouth shut. He was launched backwards and fell flat on his back.

All the nearby patrons had either left the tavern or scattered to give them some room. The other three peacekeepers charged across the room, one of them ran straight into the worker, shoulder first, tackling him to the floor. The two men flew backwards onto another construction worker, taking all three of them to the floor, smashing the chair into splinters. The three of them lay on a pile on the floor, fists clenched throwing rapid punches at each other wherever they could land a blow.

The remaining two grunts yanked their friend to his feet. He had been laying on his back clenching his hands on his jaw. With as much ferocity as the first punch, the worker ran forwards and threw his fist into the belly of the man being hauled off the floor. There was so much force behind it that all three men staggered backwards. The grunt spat out a ball of spit and yelled in pain. Around the worker's neck, Aaron noticed a small circular pendant had come untucked from his tunic.

It must have had some sort of strength enchantment. It would be very useful for building work. And also for punching idiots in the gut. Based on what Aaron had learned about Boonstones, this was likely to be a common one. They were widely used amongst workers in the town and contained weak magic. Aaron got up from his chair and walked over to the booth where the goons had been sitting and placed his hand on the table. He began to channel his mana.

"What are you doing?" Paige had got up behind him and was trying to drag him back to his seat.

"Teaching these bastards a lesson!"