“Kammon, this is Alvrey.”

  Alvrey’s eyes went wide as she recognized the name, but Kammon gave her a small bow.

  “It is an honor to meet you, Alvrey. Ezo speaks very highly of you and he’s been worried for you. We found your wagon and hoped to return it at the end of our journey.”

  Alvrey made a graceful curtsy. “I thought my wagon was lost. We had no choice but to abandon it. It bought us time to get away from the raiders in the woods, but I’ve mented the loss. I never expected to get it back. Thank you.”

  “What made you come here?” Ezo interrupted.

  “It was a simple gamble,” she said. “You knew the path we were headed and Jaroh said you’d continue this way. He said you would find us here, or word of your magic would reach the city and we’d hear of you.”

  “Jaroh seems like a smart man,” Kammon offered. “But we had no word of a company of pyers in the city. We asked when we arrived.”

  She nodded. “We have been coming in quietly, asking questions. Trying to see if we could find you. Jaroh doesn’t like the look of this walled city. He wanted to investigate more before he offered Jaroh’s Traveling Pyers to the eques. He arranged an invitation for me with a friend so that I could see the eques firsthand.”

  “Jaroh must have a lot of friends.”

  Alvrey ughed. “He’s been guiding the pyers across Distria for a long time and he’s made many interesting companions along the way. I should join my partner for the evening before he grows upset and compins to Jaroh. I’ll be staying at the Builder’s Basket for the night and heading back to Jaroh in the morning. Will you join me?”

  Ezo smiled. “Of course. I’ll meet you there if I can’t steal you away before then.”

  Alvrey ughed as she walked away, but when Ezo looked at Kammon, he was looking away with a frown on his face.

  Horns blew from a side entrance and Ezo was stunned by the sheer volume in the dining hall. Everyone else took that as a sign to stand and Ezo followed their line of sight. Through the grand doors, the eques entered the feast. He wore a resplendent outfit of sapphire blue with rich embroidery over the hems and edges. His shirt was high-colred and sat stiffly against his neck to show off gold and scarlet designs.

  In all his travels, Ezo had never seen such a dispy of wealth, or such a waste of money.

  The entire dispy was extravagant, with servants running from table to table with no thanks and little notice from the people sitting at them. From the food set in front of them to the chilling of the wine, everything was rich and vish. His vilge had probably never seen half of the coin the eques spent on tonight’s dispy. It left a bad taste in his mouth that no amount of wine - expensive as it was - could cover.

  The eques stood at the table on the main dais and his family followed after him with little pomp; a wife with a sour look on her face, a son dressed in simir fre as his father, and three girls that settled as far from the eques as possible.

  When the eques sat, the room sat with him. Ezo sat and reached for his wine, but Kammon touched his wrist. When Ezo looked, the other elementalist shook his head. When he looked, the others were still waiting on the eques.

  Eques Lestan stood again, this time with a raised cup. “Good evening, Lords and Ladies, and visitors from across our fair Distria. We welcome you to the great city of Pramas.”

  Everyone drank then and Ezo decided to just follow Kammon’s lead. Kammon had been in Pramas previously and even if he didn’t get along with the eques, the man had tried to employ Kammon multiple times. He must have learned enough etiquette to get them through the night. And following Kammon’s direction had led them to fairly good results so far. What could go wrong tonight?

  ChrisBannor