The sun was just starting to go down.

We’d walked the entire time with the princess and Krav talking about the places that he’d been. It seemed like the Grim had been almost everywhere on the planet at some point. I wasn’t sure what the life expectancy of a Grim was, but he had to be a few hundred years old at least. Mages did live longer than regular beings, I wasn’t quite sure how much longer, but this one had definitely taken advantage of it.

“Lesa, it has been an honor.” The Grim gave the princess a formal bow. “Starna, Sectum, I hope we see each other again sometime.” Krav waved at us and headed down the road without going into town.

I had been waiting for an ambush that never came and it seemed even less likely now that he was walking away.

“Sectum.” Starna snapped her fingers. “I’m going to go get us some supplies before the stores close.” She nodded at the princess, “Lesa will go to the tavern and rent us two rooms and get dinner. You need to see about getting us mounts.”

“Mounts, gotcha.” I looked around for the sign that said Stable.”Where are we staying?”

“The Drunk Crow is a Human tavern.” Starna pointed towards the northern end of town. “We’ll probably draw less attention there.”

“Okay.” I turned to the princess. “Should we really be leaving…” I was trying to force myself to say her name and not call her ‘the princess’.

“I’ll be fine.” The princess smiled, though she still looked weak.

“Okay.” I started towards the stables at a jog. The faster I could get the mounts reserved, the faster I could get back to protecting the princess.

The building smelled like hay, rotten meat, and a privy. A compost pile right outside the open back door seemed to be the culprit. I walked inside the open barn doors and looked at the stalls, but there weren’t horses in them like I’d expected.

They were drakes.

The large reptilians were bigger than a large horse. They were also a lot more dangerous and could fight off a pack of wolves with someone on their backs and never have their rider be in danger. Though if they weren’t fed properly, they might snack on that same rider instead.

“You need a ride?” A dirty red-haired Dwarf walked into the barn.

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“Tomorrow.” I swallowed and nodded at the setting sun. “We’re going to spend the night here and leave in the morning.”

“How many?” The Dwarf put a handful of something in their mouth and it sounded like they were chewing on rocks.

“Myself and two women.” I looked at the beasts. “How many do you think I need?”

“Depends on where you’re going.” They walked over to one of the stables and fished some meat out of a crate in front of the pen and threw it to the drake inside.

“Iron Forge.”

“Dwarf territory?” They stopped and looked at me. “Why you going there?”

“I’m Sectum Irongut.” I felt some pride saying my full name. “I’m…”

“You Garm’s kid?”

I nodded. “He wanted me on land for a bit.”

The stablemaster didn’t look like they believed me. “Going rate for a drake is a gold.” They jerked their thumb behind themselves. “I’ll give you a pair for a one and a half.”

I’d expected to need to haggle, but it seemed that they were cutting the price by a lot. Of course I was having to take their word that the prices they quoted were correct, but there was something about the way they’d referenced my father that made me believe them.

When I didn’t answer right away, the stablemaster felt the need to elaborate. “Your pa got me out of a jam a while back. Seems like a good way to repay the favor.”

I fished in my pocket for money. I had three gold coins that my father had given me and it seemed like a worthy investment. I fished two of them out. “I’ll take them.”

They took the coins and walked into the room on the side of the barn, then came out with five larger silver coins. Each one was worth ten regular silver coins, but they were a lot easier to carry that way.

“They’ll be ready to go at sunrise.” The Dwarf handed me my change.

“Thanks.” I started to leave, but realized that I hadn’t gotten their name. “Who do I tell my dad helped me out?”

“Velt Soberthinker.” The female Dwarf chomped on another handful of the hard things she’d been chewing.

“It was a pleasure meeting you Velt.” I waved at her as I hurried towards the tavern.

It didn’t take me long to find. Starna had already beaten me to it and the two women were sitting at a table. I ignored the small crowd and walked over to sit across from the two women.

“Did you get them?” Starna was looking around and motioned at the innkeeper.

“I reserved a pair of drakes.” I saw the surprise on the princess’ face. “They didn’t have horses.”

“Really?” Starna turned back around in her seat as the balding man brought three bowls of soup over.

I took a bite of the soup. It was spicy, but warm and had a good amount of vegetables and meat in it compared to the watered down version that we usually got on the ship. Phlek had a problem with making the soup too thick at the start of the voyage, then having to ration near the end. Though it often felt like near the end took up over half of the voyage.

“Yeah, it…” A wave of exhaustion washed over me. The princess yawned, which started a chain with me and Starna. “Wow, I didn’t realize how tired I was.” I started to eat faster, but the more I ate the more tired I felt. I looked down at the bowl then over at my companions who had both fallen asleep on the table. I tried to piece together what had happened, but my mind felt like mud. I yawned again as I tried to think and that was all it took to drag me into slumber.