Page 60 of The Time Of Queens

“You’re now quoting Shakespeare?” he remarked dubiously, making me smirk.

“What would you prefer, something from the Song of Solomon?” I asked, making him scoff a laugh.

“If that be the case, how about, ‘I have found the one whom my soul loves’.”

He raised a sceptical brow at me, making me shrug my shoulders and remind him,

“You asked my friend.”

“You can’t honestly believe that this maid and my brother are meant to be?” he asked, the disbelief easy to hear in his tone.

“I tend to believe what my eyes see.”

“Lucius, do not jest,” he assumed, and I suddenly felt like punching some sense into him, for was he really that blind to his brother’s actions?

“I do not. Think on it, Vincent, and ask yourself, have you ever seen your brother act this way about a woman? For I have not and unlike you, I only have two thousand years to go by.”

“Only,”he muttered, like this was but a drop in the ocean of time.

“You have much more than that, my friend, and despite the pity I extend you for such a sentence…” He laughed, knowing I did jest this time as I continued. “…Open your eyes for you too will see the truth.”

He shook his head at this and told me,

“I already did. I saw my brother’s reaction to finding his fated and I tell you now, Lucius, for it was not the maid.”

I shrugged, for I didn’t see the point in arguing my point further.

“Then if that be the case, let us prove such, starting with the use of the innkeeper’s mind,” I told him as we stepped up to the door and pushed it open.

Like most inns, the downstairs was an open room with low beamed ceilings and was used as a space for travellers to get a hot meal and a drink of ale during their stay.

We made our way through the multiple empty tables and chairs towards the lone man working behind a bar. He was what one would call a gundiguts, as he was a large fat fellow with pitted red skin and rotting teeth. Not a sight I could image would make many want to eat here. For even if he were to slit a vein right here and now, I wouldn’t have dropped my fangs for such a sight.

“Drinking time is over and if it’s a room you want, we are full.”

“And yet your door was open,” I pointed out, making him bluster. Because I knew what he was saying, for clearly he had a problem with being on the bottom of the social food chain. Which meant unless we had a coin to press into his palm, he wasn’t interested in aiding any gentlemen.

Lucky for me, I didn’t need any coin to get what I wanted.

“I was just getting round to locking that,” he replied in a gruff tone.

“Now is that any kind of welcome for one of the respectable landowners of this village? For Lord Draven is a busy man indeed,” I stated, leaning my weight against the wall as I casually looked at my fingers, already missing the stain of blood there from the last mortal I had to dispatch.

“Lord Draven… my mistake, sir, for I didn’t recognise you.”

The blundering response wasn’t surprising seeing as they owned the land his inn was on, and therefore that made him their tenant. But at this Vincent brushed off the offence with an impatient motion of his hand.

“We seek information,” Vincent told him, and the moment blood rushed to his face, I knew of the lies that would soon follow.

“Ah well, I am afraid I can’t help you fellows, as like I told the last man I spoke to on the matter, there has been no girl that has…”

I pushed from the wall faster than his eyes could track, grabbing his thick neck and yanked him closer.

“Who said anything about asking?”I said, the sadist in me relishing the way his fearful eyes bulged. I slapped a hand over his face and forced his eyes to roll back, then they started to flicker from side to side as I started to rape him of his memories.

“Ah now, this is something you failed to mention, along with the bribe you took,” I said when I reached in deep and flickered through his memories, focusing on the one I was looking for. However, what had me narrowing my gaze, was the unexpected complication. Making me soon question what Pip and Adam were doing paying off the innkeeper?

It didn’t make sense…unless…

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