Chapter 132: Short Changed
Crowvar still bore the ugly scars of its failed defense against the orcish attack that had succeeded without Simon’s defense. That wasn’t a surprise. He’d seen them when he was last here with Murphy. Still, it was disappointing. Pretty much every city and town he’d been to had grown as it moved into the future, but Crowvar looked worse than ever.
Is it that the centaurs grew too strong or that the men of the region grew too weak? He found himself wondering as they walked through the gates.
The guards that were standing there looked at his group with hard eyes, but Simon could see that the warriors of Crowvar had no chance of stopping him if they tried to keep him out, and he decided to force the issue. It turned out that wouldn’t be necessary, though; as soon as they asked his business, and he told the stern-faced men that they were mercenaries here to collect on centaur bounties, the guards brightened immediately.
“We’ve been hearing about you, but we wasn’t sure if it was just a tall tale or not. People have been known to exaggerate these things.” the guard captain said looking through their sack of bloody trophies, “Say, that’s a hell of a haul. You’re all going to be rich men at the end of this!”
“It is,” Simon agreed. He stood there chatting with the guards for the next few minutes about where the best place was to stay in town for a night or two and how the best way might be to ask for a meeting with Baron Raithewait before they proceeded into the city.
There were a couple of inns left in the city, but there probably weren’t any big enough to accommodate all of Simon’s men. So, instead, they camped in a burned-out lot next to the Happy Harlot and used their common room for a bout of celebratory drinking and to plan their next steps.
Some of his men were definitely leaving after their payday, but Simon didn’t begrudge them that. They’d signed on to make a little gold, and after they got it, they were welcome to do whatever they wanted. He was pretty sure they could get another volunteer or two here anyway, especially after Simon bought the bar a round or two and stories of their exploits started to spread. Crowvar wasn’t a large town, but even in its current condition, there were a couple thousand people that lived there. Surely, some of them would want more than to eke out a meager existence in this grim place.
The size was helpful in any case because they needed to resupply. Simon’s crew was desperately short on things besides food. They needed arrows, rope, weapons, and more than a few repairs made on their armor. Fortunately, Crowvar had all of that, even if it didn’t have much else.
Simon waited until everyone was drunk and having a good time, and then he slipped away to go pay a visit to where his wife’s grave should have been for a few hours. Of course, it was still a blank spot, not far from the graves of nameless strangers. Someday, he’d come back here only to find a stranger buried in her place. Still, for now, he felt connected to her in this place, and he spent a couple of hours just quietly talking to her as he filled her in on his quest. He told her about the places he’d been and the people he’d saved, and when he was done, he was surprised to find it didn’t hurt as bad as it did before.