The city was full of people hurrying in every direction. We stopped at a crossroads and dismounted. It had been a long time since I had last been in a city. The change was suddenly uncomfortable. I could have left at any time, but I decided to stay a little longer. For a moment, I felt curious. I wanted to look around.
"Are you going to Pestor right away?" I asked.
Lasin looked at me. "No. We're meeting him tonight. He has his own duties."
"So I have time."
"If you're not planning to run, then yes," Lasin replied.
"Not yet. I'll look around."
"All right. You'll find the Archive in the main square."
I looked around. A jester stood on a small stage, performing magic for a crowd. It was long past time for people to evacuate, but he was still putting on his show.
"Behold, people of Theocran, and I shall show you a magical spell that will temporarily awaken another race hidden in your blood!"
That caught my attention. Transformations of that kind were not common magic. Shapeshifting was rare. And certainly not safe.
"Come closer. Is there a volunteer?" The jester carefully scanned the interested crowd. "You there, sir. The magic cabinet has chosen you," he said, pointing at the boy who seemed the least interested. The boy frowned, but stepped onto the stage. "What other race do you think runs in your blood?"
The boy hesitated for a moment. His ears were rounded, so he was probably just human.
"Maybe Cerpeir," he said uncertainly.
"And what do you think, dear audience? What will he become?"
"Relken!" "Dongr!" several people shouted from the crowd.
"Now step into the magic cabinet."
The boy took a few steps and stopped before a red oak cabinet, then climbed inside. The jester walked over and shut the doors. He muttered a spell in a foreign tongue. The doors flew open.
A figure the size of a small house stepped out through the smoke.
The boy looked around in shock. Suddenly he could see almost everything.
"Well, I didn't expect that," he muttered, his voice much deeper now.
"The effects last about five minutes," the jester warned.
The boy rushed into the street and moved through the crowd. It was a highly unusual spell. If it could turn different races into giants, it would make a powerful weapon.
"Any other volunteers?" the jester asked.
Then his eyes landed on me.
People around me turned in my direction.
I turned away and walked off at a smooth, quick pace. I had no desire to become the center of attention.
I moved a few streets farther, where things were quieter. I spotted a nearby tavern and headed there. A waitress was just taking down the sign outside. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders. The slightly protruding horns from her forehead marked her as a Variet.
Variet were a race with demonic ancestors. Her skin had a faint pinkish tint. I stepped inside and sat down at the bar. The tavern had just been cleaned.
"We're closed," the innkeeper said in my direction.
He was a Variet too.
"Just give me a moment," I replied, pulling out a copper coin for a beer.
"You have five minutes," he decided. He tilted a mug and began to pour.
"What's going on? Why is everyone running?" I asked.
"You haven't heard?" the innkeeper said. "Luskar crushed the Thesmar army. They could be here in two days."
So the fall of Thesmar was probably inevitable.
The innkeeper set the mug down in front of me. I took a sip and wiped the foam from my lips. The taste flooded my mouth. I was not used to that bitterness, so I frowned a little.
"Don't like it?" the innkeeper asked.
"No, it's good. I'm just not used to it yet." I turned to the waitress. "When are you planning to evacuate?"
The girl looked up from the bucket of water and fixed her eyes on me. Her brown eyes seemed to pull me in.
"Tomorrow morning," she said, a slight smile touching her face.
"If you're leaving tomorrow, do you want to go for a walk?" I asked.
The Variet girl nodded.
"She's my daughter. If you do anything to her, I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth," the innkeeper said quietly.
"It won't be anything serious," I assured him.
"See that it isn't." He still looked tense, though he relaxed a little.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Tessia, but you can call me Tes," she said. "And you?"
"I'm Daen. Outside in ten minutes?"
She turned to her father. He gave a helpless nod and looked away.
I finished my beer and stepped out of the tavern. The wind was battering the walls of the houses. A storm was coming. Within a few minutes, Tes appeared.
"Shall we go for a walk?" I suggested.
"I'd like that." She came over and leaned against my shoulder. Tes was about a head shorter than I was.
"What will you do after you evacuate?"
"We'll see. We'll probably run to Valderia and start a new business."
Valderia was the westernmost great power, probably the last one capable of resisting the Empire.
"And you? What will you do after that?" she asked curiously.
"I'll see. I suppose I'll just keep traveling."
We walked through street after street until we found ourselves back by the stage. There was no performance now. Only a few people were loading a corpse onto a wagon. At first I did not recognize him. His face had been completely disfigured.
The jester was dead.
"What happened here?" I asked one of the men nearby.
"He stepped away for a bit and never came back," the man said after a pause. "They found his body in a side alley."
I looked around in surprise.
"Let's go," Tes whispered.
I nodded.
It was strange.
Maybe someone wanted to silence him.