and sat with the escort of waiting merchants, chatting about nonsense. It wasn’t until evening that we left the inn. Merchants were setting up in the square, and it seemed as though the whole town had turned out. We wandered about a bit, and suddenly three lads about Caim’s age approached him and started greeting him.’
‘Well, that was a bit odd,’ the younger Watchman shook his head slightly. ‘They seemed to be on first-name terms and all that... but Caim was a bit... distant.’
‘Maybe they had a bad run-in when they were kids.’ McKinnon brushed aside his friend’s uncertainty. ‘In any case, they said their goodbyes quickly and went their separate ways. Then I suggested again that we go to Caim’s house.’
‘And he almost jumped at us.’ Ethman was clearly moved by the memory. ‘He quickly bit his tongue and said to leave him alone for a moment.’
‘So we went off to browse the stalls.’ The older Watchman seemed unhappy for some reason. ‘When we met up again, Caim was arguing with a soldier off on the side. We headed straight towards them, but as soon as the fellow saw us, he said something quietly and jabbed Caim in the chest with his finger.’
‘When we got to him, Caim was furious.’ The younger of the Watchmen lowered his head. ‘We didn’t even ask what was wrong, and he snapped that it was nothing important. We didn’t want to press the issue, so… well, we didn’t bring it up again.’
‘Later, we went to the inn, and the men from the escort invited us to their table.’
Darius raised an eyebrow in curiosity. It wasn’t often that strangers offered a seat beside them of their own accord, and certainly not mercenaries from merchant escorts.
‘Albert is an ice mage, so you know, Colonel.’ McKinnon tried to wriggle out of it, not wanting to admit what they used the magic for.
Bleist almost laughed. Indeed, in that case, he could harbour no suspicions about the truth of the story being told. In this heat, he himself wouldn’t
