Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill (best classic books of all time .txt) 📕

days, but Forn Blackwell is a good man. He will look after you while you’re in Camylin. As we’ve discussed, I have arranged a position for you in the City Guard here in Berona. It’s nothing glamorous, but with time, you will do very well here.

 

Now, in your previous letter, you mentioned that you and your lady would be travelling via the port at Falstide. Rhett, Falstide is not a safe place to be, no matter how well you think you can handle yourself. And the journey across Illyanara is long and hard on even a hardened soldier.

I have reached out to my contacts at the port in Antiquar, and I have secured you two tickets through Gisa. I know you don’t have the money for that right now, but I have paid them in full. You can pay me back over time once you arrive. I just want to see you here safe, or my brother would never forgive me.

 

When you arrive at Gisa, go to the port and ask for a man named Jack Narys. Tell him I sent you.

Look after yourself, Rhett. I’m looking forward to seeing you and meeting your lady.

 

Stay safe,

Tanner

It was the fourth time that Rhett had read the letter. When he and Ella first thought about leaving The Glade, it was Tanner whom Rhett first contacted. His uncle was a good man. Rhett had only met him a handful of times – it was always difficult to get from the South to the North – but every time they had met, Tanner treated him as if he were his own child. Gisa?

Gisa was one of the wealthiest cities in all the southern lands, despite it being isolated from the rest of the mainland. Gisa was the principal port between the North and South, where the Lorian riches flowed into the southern land. It was also where the gold from Aonar was transported to Loria.

His uncle must have paid a small fortune for those tickets. It was an incredible act of kindness, but Rhett also cursed him, for it backed him into a corner. It left him with no options. He despised the idea of starting his new life on the back foot, paying back his uncle for a ticket he had never planned on getting himself.

Ella would not be happy. He would have to tell her. Pretending they had more coin than they did so she could enjoy the markets was one thing, but this was different.

Were it anyone else, he would just ride to Falstide anyway, and they would work out the issue when they got there. But he couldn’t do that to his uncle.

He sighed, exasperated. He sat back in his chair and took a deep draught of his ale. He grimaced as it hit the back of his mouth. It is a taste to be acquired.

His uncle was right. The Twisted Oak had seen better days. He could tell that it used to be a place of some esteem in its day. The ceilings were nearly twenty feet high, tall enough for three men to stand atop each other’s shoulders. The legends said that Camylin used to be a city of the giants, but Rhett had always assumed they were just that – legends.

All the tables were made of solid oak, which was expensive, even if they were now as worn as if they had been recovered from a sunken ship. The chairs were fitted with red velvet cushions, embroidered with fine weavings of gold. At least, he was sure that they were fine weavings at some point in time. They were now tattered and falling apart.

Massive slabs of stone decorated the bottom half of the walls, layered atop one another. It was probably the only thing in the inn that had stood the test of time. The top half was another story. Mould peeked through the layered scraps of peeling paint. He was sure that at some point, this inn was as grand as the city in which it resided, but right now, he could not wait to leave in the morning.

He jumped, broken out of his pensiveness by the chesty, phlegm-filled cough of an old man who sat in the other corner of the common room. He looked like he had been sitting there so long that he had been painted into the chair.

Rhett reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out his coin purse. He set it down on his lap, just below the table, so as not to attract any unwanted eyes. There were not many people in the common room – the old man who sounded like he was about to lose a lung, the drunk at the bar who was struggling to keep his eyes open, a handful of tired merchants, two serving girls, and the innkeeper, who was a nice man, if a little past his best. Rhett didn’t think any of them would be paying him much attention.

He opened the drawstrings of the purse, taking a quick count of his coin. He had half-hoped to magically find more than he expected. He was not pleasantly surprised.

The trip to Gisa would be far shorter than the trip to Falstide, maybe only a week and a half by horse. Their money would go a lot further. They wouldn’t have to ration the food. They could stay in nice beds every night. It would be safer.

He picked out a coin from his purse; a copper mark. Rolling it across his fingers, he looked over at the letter and then up nodding at the innkeeper, who nodded back and started pouring another tankard of ale.

“Here you go, young man. This one’s on the house. Just give my best to Tanner. I’m sure I owe him one at this stage.” Forn placed the ale down in front of Rhett. He picked up the empty tankard, his bony hands wrapping around the metal handle. Rhett looked closer and realised that, although his skin looked old