“So, you are not sure you saw anyone, neither now nor then?”
“I would say nay, but it felt real. He—somehow—felt real.”
Annoyance sparked the blue specks in his gray eyes. “I won’t dare send my men in there. They are fierce Hunters who catch their prey, but they are no match against sorcery.” He closed his hand around hers. “Come, the dark clouds will soon open and deliver rain. My men fill their bellies at the inn while they wait for me to join them and tell me what they have learned so far. You will tell me later what you and Dea discussed.”
The sharp dictate in his tone had Elara saying, “I understand you command the Hunters, Dar, but you do not command me. I have lived free as an herb-scribe and I will not see that change because I am now a wife, though I will find a way to accommodate that change so it will benefit us both.”
He looked about to argue, his brow narrowing, then he let out a huff and said, “Then I will do the same.”
Elara smiled. “You can be strange at times, demanding one moment and easily surrendering the next.”
He glared at her. “Hunters never surrender.”
“Not true,” she said with a chuckle.
“It is. There is not one Hun—” Dar shook his head. “You refer to Gorman losing his heart to his wife Regina.”
“Proving that what is said about Hunters is not always true.”
“And what is that?”
“That Hunters have no hearts. You have hearts, you just need to open them and feel.”
“Feelings do not serve Hunters well,” he said and stopped at the inn’s door. “There will be no talk of feelings once inside.”
“Later then,” Elara said and opened the door and entered.
The room was filled with talk and laughter, the awkward moments from earlier gone. Bella even wore a smile as she helped the lone servant maid refill pitchers and tankards and deliver platters of endless food that the Hunters devoured in no time.
Elara sat quietly at a small table in a corner where Dar had tucked her while he sat at a table not far from her to speak with his men. She took no offense to it, and besides, they were close enough for her to hear most of what they discussed.
“A wanderer and a seeker came through here as well as two travelers on route to Caerith to see family.”
“No one looked suspicious.”
“The wanderer entertained with tales in exchange for a meal.”
“The seeker annoyed everyone with questions.”
“Who cares why the sun rises as long as it rises.”
“Glad to see him leave.”
Dar listened, hearing much the same from Adelar, the village greeter.
“Maybe this fellow didn’t pass this way.”
Dar was beginning to think the same but there was the one fellow Bella mentioned who inquired about the old paths no longer traveled. Was he one of the travelers or pretending to be?
Then it struck him. Something he had told Elara.
Wanderers avoided Wedderlie. So, what was a wanderer doing here?
“Bella,” Dar called out and the woman hurried over to him. “Did the wander mention where he was going next?”
“Said he was headed south, though where he stopped would be anyone’s guess, since wanderers don’t keep any destination in mind.”
“Had this wander ever stopped here before?”