Topping a rise, Dmitri looked over the snow covered ground towards the village. There was a scattering of houses with two or three larger buildings interspersed amongst them, a larger building that had a church-like bearing and what appeared to be an inn or tavern were the only buildings formed with stone. The rest were log huts, with thatched roofs. Smoke issued from the inn and several of the smaller houses and in the middle of the village a great plume of thick black smoke rose.

“What a dismal little village,” observed Antonio.

“Antonio, humility!” said Dmitri sharply and nudged his horse in motion again and continued towards the village. As they walked their horses through the outskirts towards the centre of town where the inn was located, they noticed the people; they had a haunted look about them and Dmitri saw a woman ushering a child inside, all the while looking back in fear.

As Antonio watched them, he ran into something, turning, he saw two men carrying a long sack between them.

“Watch where you are going man!” cried Antonio imperiously.

The man he had run into raised his hand to cuff the impudent pup. Antonio; feeling threatened started to trace the glyph for water in the air.

“Antonio!” barked Dmitri, “You are not in your Father’s villa anymore, you are not better than these people.” He turned to the man Antonio had run into, who had lowered his hand and was watching them. “I’m sorry about my apprentice. He’s a bit impetuous at times. Humility isn’t an easy thing to come by in Italian nobility.”

The man shrugged and continued his task, he and the other man heaved the sack onto a fiercely burning pyre, already stacked high with sacks of a similar shape and size. As the flames took hold of the sack, it fell open and a foot slipped free, Dmitri could see that it too was covered in the black sores he had seen on poor Fyodor.

The two men looked at Dmitri and Antonio darkly, muttering under their breaths and crossing themselves. Dmitri lowered his head sadly and they continued towards the inn. They entered the stable yard where a young boy stood shivering, ready to take the horse of any traveller. His eyes widened in fear as he saw Dmitri though, and only calmed a small amount after Dmitri had handed over his horse’s reins. Antonio dismounted and started to hand the boy his reins as well, but Dmitri stopped him, “Antonio, consider this your lesson for now, stay with the boy. He will show you how to look after your horse correctly. The poor beast hasn’t been looked after too well since we’ve been on the road.” He turned back to the boy, "Can you rub her down with some straw, and see she has some oats, it's been a long trip, even for her."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The boy nodded numbly and took the reins. Antonio grumbled as Dmitri turned and walked towards the inn.

From outside, Dmitri could hear a hearty hubbub coming from inside, but the minute he opened the door and a gust of wind swept in, all sound stopped. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, Dmitri looked around. It was a pretty standard establishment; scuffed and scarred wooden tables about the room. Two fire places, one at either end of the great room, straw all over the floor that helped soak up the spills. A large round faced sweaty man with an apron was clearly the innkeeper and the two women bustling about, his waitresses. As Dmitri headed towards the bar and the innkeeper, he heard mutters from people, calling him sinner, evil and worse. The innkeeper, not wanting to bring anything untoward to his inn, loudly proclaimed "Stop this nonsense, all of you. He's here to help us. Right my lord? You are here to help us aren't you?" and he looked at Dmitri questioningly.

"Of course I am. It was why I was sent for," said Dmitri reassuringly, and towards the patrons, "You have nothing to fear from me. I will do what I can." The crowd settled somewhat, but not entirely, some patrons kept muttering under their breath.

The innkeeper sighed visibly at this and gathering himself, asked of Dmitri, "Is there anything I can get you my Lord? Should I send for the priest? No, surely you'd like some food first?"

Dmitri raised his hand to stall the Innkeeper, "Please, slow down. If you can show my apprentice and I up to our room, we'll get settled and see the priest. If you can send someone over to let him know I'm coming?"

“You have an apprentice? I didn’t know you people had apprentices, where is he?” the Innkeeper asked looking around.

“Outside cooling off,” replied Dmitri, “he is the son of a nobleman, he is used to ordering people around. I’ll get him.”

Dmitri walked back out the door and as he was leaving, he could hear the innkeeper talking to his patrons and telling them nothing but good things would happen with the magicker here. To his surprise, Antonio was rubbing down his horse, following the instructions of the young stable boy. When he told Antonio that their room was ready, Antonio surprised him again by saying that he would come up to the room after his horse was settled down for the day. Dmitri asked for the stable boy to show Antonio up to the room when he was done and then he walked back inside.

“He’s going to stay with your stable boy for a bit longer, I’ll head to the room now though if you don’t mind,” said Dmitri.

"Yes, yes of course, right this way," said the Innkeeper and started to lead Dmitri up the stairs to his room. As they passed the door to the kitchen, the Innkeeper looked in and called to the cook, "Hey, tell Ivan to go tell the priest that his man is here. And tell him to hurry." He then nodded to himself, satisfied and continued up the stairs.