"Which of these houses belongs to the widow, Gladys?" Marcus asked Orville as the three men arrived at the small village of Amdell. The town was a small collection of crude, low buildings surrounded by a wooden palisade. Orville led the Inquisitors to a house near the eastern gate and then left to return to his own home.

Marcus and Alexander dismounted and tied their horses to a nearby post before knocking on the door. A moment passed before a middle-aged woman with black hair answered, eyes widening at the sight of two Inquisitors in their armor.

"Are you Gladys?" Marcus asked as he removed his helmet. The woman shook her head but said nothing. She stepped back and gestured for the men to enter.

Inside the cramped house half a dozen women were assembled, some sat on chairs, some stood, two sat on the bed. One of the women on the bed was slender, middle-aged woman with a black bonnet on her head. The woman beside her was about the same age, heavy-set with dark brown hair. All of the women wore their hair loose, braiding or styling of any kind was inappropriate during a mourning period.

"Gladys?" Marcus said as he stood in front of the woman wearing the black bonnet. The woman looked up and nodded.

"I am very sorry for what has happened to you and your family." He said. After a moment of silence he continued, saying "With your permission, I would like to examine your husband and son."

"Can't." Gladys replied. "Burned them this morning."

"Ah." Marcus replied with a frown.

"We had to, Inquisitor," the plump woman beside Gladys said, "it's no good leaving men who met bad ends for long without their proper rites, brings bad luck."

"I understand, I don't fault you for wanting to honor your family, Gladys." Marcus said. "We'll spend the night at the inn and then return to speak with you in the morning, if that's alright."

Gladys nodded but said nothing.

"If you'll be needing the inn, I best take you there." The other woman on the bed said as she stood and smoothed her dress. "Gladys, I'll come by to check on you tomorrow."

The woman led the two men out of Gladys' home while another woman took her place on the bed beside the grieving widow.

"You don't remember me, do you, Inquisitor?" The woman asked as she walked towards the inn a few buildings down from Gladys' home. "I'm Hattie, the tavernkeeper."

"Oh, yes, I am sorry, Hattie. I thought you looked familiar but I couldn't place my finger on where I knew you from."

"Can't say I'm surprised, you only come up here a few times a year. I'm sure you meet more people each time you make your rounds than folks in this town meet in their entire lives, can't be expected to keep track of every face."

"You two wait out here, I'll have my husband come 'round and take care of your horses." Hattie said as she entered the inn. A few drops of rain began to fall, the dark clouds that had been gathering since the prior day finally making good on their threat. A tall, heavy-set man with a bald head and round face emerged from the inn and took the reins from Marcus and Alexander.

"I'll take care of these, you get yourselves out of the rain." the man said.

"You don't need any help with them?" Marcus asked.

"Me? Nah, go on and get inside."

The Amdell inn was a large home that had been converted to a public house. Wooden tables and chairs filled most of the space. A fireplace was set in the eastern wall with a metal pot suspended above the flames, beside it was a small oven. A handful of men sat at different tables, eyeing the Inquisitors warily as they entered before turning their attentions back to their meals.

"Sit yourselves down wherever you'd like, I'll bring you some food shortly." Hattie called out from behind the counter. Marcus and Alexander sat at a table in the corner, the men nearby eating in silence and avoiding eye contact with the Inquisitors. After a few moments Hattie arrived at the table with a pair of bowls and a plate.

"You can start eating now, don't worry about payment, this is on the house." the woman said as she set the food down in front of the Inquisitors. "Now, for drink, do either of you take Bitter Kiss tonic?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Both men shook their heads in response.

"Ok, I just had to check. I've started infusing the beer I serve here in town with it for our health."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not the amount I use, even if a man drank a whole keg by himself in one sitting he'd be fine. Still, can't be too careful. If a man's drinking the tonic itself we don't want to risk him having too much by accident."

"We'll have regular beer, if it's all the same." Marcus replied.

"Suit yourselves." Hattie replied before heading off to fetch the drinks.

"I'll go and make up the room for you two while you eat," Hattie called out as she filled a pair of mugs. "Not often we get visitors who need a place to stay, most who do are here to stay with family anyways."

Marcus and Alexander began to eat. One by one the men in the tavern finished their meals and left without saying a word. Marcus attempted to strike up conversations with the men who remained but got only simple replies to any questions he asked.

"It's really starting to come down now," Hattie's husband announced as he entered the inn and stomped his boots on the floor. "That's good though, the crops need it."

The man walked over and stood by the table the Inquisitors were seated at.

"Enjoying your food and drink, Inquisitors?" the man asked.

"We are, thank you." Marcus replied. "My apologies but I have forgotten your name."

"No apologies needed, I couldn't keep track of as many names as you have to. I'm Alban."

"Right, right. Alban. I need to be sure I come up more frequently, I've been slacking in making my rounds of late."

"No need to worry yourself about that, Inquisitor. Amdell's a quiet town. Or, we were." Alban replied, his face darkening momentarily.

"Did you know Bernard?"

"Of course I did! Amdell's small, Inquisitor, everyone knows everyone. There aren't two people in the town who're strangers to each other."

"Do you know if Bernard had any feuds with anyone? Had any disputes with anyone over anything, no matter how trivial?"

"I can't think of anything like that, everyone got along with Bernard. He was hard working, generous, had a respectable family."

"What about his wife or son, could they have done anything to upset someone in town?"

"Not as far as I recall, Inquisitor."

"Everyone loved Bernard and his boy." Hattie said as she exited the guest room. The last remaining patron finished his food and exited the inn with a nod.

"Is it always this quiet in here at night?" Marcus asked.

"Usually the men who come here to eat stay a bit longer, but I imagine they don't feel much like staying here long. The death of the Bernards has put a damper on the mood of the whole town," Hattie replied, sadly shaking her head. "plus it's hard to enjoy yourself when you're worried about enjoying yourself too much in front of Inquisitors." Hattie said before quickly adding, "Not that we have people in here practicing vice, mind you."

"Plus I'm sure folks don't want to be out after dark with a killer about." Alban added quietly.

"Oh, hush with that talk," Hattie scolded, "I don't for a second believe that Bernard was killed by one of our own. You look me in the eye and say you think that any of our neighbors are capable of murdering in cold blood twice, Alban."

"I didn't say the killer was from the town, Hattie, I said he was about," Alban replied with an annoyed tone. "Could just be a robber who happened to catch a father and son on two separate occasions by chance, or it could be there's a lunatic gone mad and is murdering for reasons sane men can't understand. It was a full moon just a week ago, you know."

"We'll explore every possibility, start looking around and asking questions tomorrow." Marcus said.

"Very good, we'll leave you to your meal." Alban said.

"The guest room is just through that door," Hattie said, pointing. "Our room is behind that door," she said pointing to a second door on the other side of the room, behind the counter. "If you need anything, just come pound on the door or just shout. We only have one bed in the guest room so I hope you don't mind sharing."

"We'll be fine, thank you for everything." Marcus replied.

The Inquisitors finished their meal in silence while their two hosts puttered about the inn, cleaning and preparing for the next day. When they finished the two men retired to the guest room and closed the door behind them.

"Not the largest bed." Alexander commented as he and Marcus removed their armor.

"It's big enough for one, we'll sleep in shifts." Marcus replied as he lay himself down.

"You don't think we're safe here?" Alexander said as he peered out of the small window in the wall opposite the door. He could see very little, the clouds covering the sky blocking what little light the moon might have offered.

"I know folks in a town like this will refuse to believe that one of their own would be capable of cold-blooded murder but if it was someone from here they might not like us poking around. One of us will be on guard at all times while we're here."

"Sounds good to me."

"In the morning we'll talk to Gladys, see what she can tell us about her husband and son. Then we'll see what everyone else in town has to say. Someone will know something if the killer was from Amdell."

"What if it truly was a robber or madman who just happened to kill two members of the family by chance?" Alexander asked as he settled down on a wooden chair by the door, dagger resting on his lap in its sheath.

"We can't rule it out, though it feels unlikely. Robbers do whatever they can to minimize danger to themselves. Killing a boy out in the middle of nowhere could happen, but then why move closer to the boy's home only to kill again? And why would the younger Bernard even be out by himself on the road at night in the first place?"

Marcus sighed and shifted on the bed. "We'll come at this tomorrow with rested minds. Try to wait as long as you can before waking me up, you're still young, you'll have plenty of time to get caught up on sleep when you reach my age." With that Marcus snuffed out the candle on the table beside the bed and Alexander was left to keep watch in the dark, kept company only by the sound of rain and Marcus' breathing.