Traveler Day 3
Having gone to bed early the previous night, Bartido was ready and raring to get out of Sallah. Sal and the driver had also been ready and raring, but all three of them came to a complete halt before they had even pulled the team out of the stable. Two of the magistrate's men stopped them. "No one will be leaving today, sir," the taller one said.
Bartido blinked. "On what grounds can you justify that?"
"Murder investigation," the shorter one said. "No entry or exit of the town until it's complete."
"I imagine we can come to an accord or something," Bartido said. "Perhaps we could be questioned first so that we could be eliminated from the list of possible suspects—"
"We don't make the rules, only enforce them," the taller one interrupted. "You'll have to take it up with the Magistrate. And he's busy. So I imagine he won't have all that much of a chance to talk to him."
The five of them — the two of the magistrate's men, Bartido, Sal, and the driver, all stood there staring at each other for a long moment.
"There's nothing that is preventing us from walking about the town, right? We just can't leave?" Bartido asked.
"Just about," the shorter one said. "No leaving, and no taking a horse or cart out of storage."
Bartido nodded. "Sal, I'll see if I can get in line for a meeting with the magistrate. You negotiate here for additional nights at the inn for a discount, since it is not our choice to be here."
Sal's eyes flashed. "Of course, my Lord."
One of the magistrate's men squinted for a moment. "I don't think we have the authority—"
"All yours, Sal."
Now the dangerous smile was on Sal's face, and Bartido had nothing to worry about. At least on that front. He stepped out of the stable as he practically heard the nervous energy rise among them.
So, first things first: the magistrate's building.
Rain in Sallah was not uncommon, but every time that rain had shown up while Bartido had been around in a visit to the crossroad town, he had left immediately. It was a sign that it was time to go, and always had been. He was glad that he had a good portion of his supplies traveling with them. A quick detour into the cart — well, not that quick, when one of the guards felt like he needed to remind Bartido that he wasn't able to leave repeatedly — and Bartido was then armed with his raincoat. He was going to get soaked anyway, but at least it would take longer for it to happen.
His destination was not unknown to him; he'd been to the Magistrate's a few times before. He headed directly to the building just off of the road by turning right out of the inn's campus and walking a short distance before it appeared on his right. But when he opened the door to enter the building itself, he walked right into someone who was just leaving.
"Oof," Bartido said, stumbling backward a few steps. In front of him was a middle-aged man with a pipe in his mouth and a very aristocratic demeanor. The two men blinked at each other for a moment, but the smoking man didn't seem like he was in much of a hurry to move out of the way of the entrance to the building.
"If you'll excuse me," Bartido said, trying to step around, but the man's chuckle gave him pause.
"And who have we here?" the man said around the pipe before taking it out of his mouth and tapping it with his thumb. It didn't go out, as if to spite the rain. "A visitor stuck in town who wants to petition the Magistrate?"
"Who wants to know?" Bartido said, swallowing a few less… polite replies.
"Councilor Bonarda, at your service," the man said, bowing and flourishing his hat even though the rain soaked his hair instantly.
"If we're going to have a conversation, could we have it inside?" Bartido asked. "Otherwise, I do have things to do, and I'd rather not do them out here in the rain."
"Hmm. Picky," Bonarda said. "Very well, I will hold you up no longer." He stepped out of the way, and Bartido immediately stepped into the Magistrate's building. "Oh, and young man…" Bartido turned around, once the two of them had effectively switched places. "Do be careful what you do in this town." And then he was walking away.
Bartido frowned as the man walked away, but eventually shrugged. There was no real reason to put any stock in the man's statement. But something about the Councilor bothered Bartido. He hoped that it was just a bad feeling, rather than a little thing about the man that was truly telling him something but…
He had a good chance of never seeing him again. So he could put his hope in that.
Unfortunately, even after waiting for quite a while, he was reasonably sure he wasn't going to be able to see the Magistrate again, either.
He had gotten impatient after only ten minutes waiting, but the guards that were in the building paid little to no attention to him when he tried to raise a stink. They really were as busy as implied. None of them even tried to stop him when he just walked up to the door of the inner area and pushed right through it after more than a half an hour of waiting.
Of course, they probably knew that the Magistrate wasn't in his office. That they didn't bother to tell any of the four people that were apparently waiting for an appointment with the man didn't bother any of the guards. The other three looked at Bartido when he came out of the office. He shrugged, and two of the others who were waiting sighed and got up to brave the rain once again. The last ignored him, staring at the opposite wall.
Bartido himself shrugged. There was no need for him to stick around if the Magistrate was out doing something. Not when the only reason he came to the place was to try to get an exception from the man.
Like both of the others, Bartido shrugged on his coat and headed back into the rain.
He intended on heading back to the inn to see if there were any rumors from the innkeeper on where the magistrate might be, but he found that Councilor smoking his pipe right in the middle of the crossroad. In the rain.
Bartido couldn't help but comment on it. "Smoking in the rain is quite the skill," Bartido said.
While the councilor had not been facing Bartido, he only got a quick glance in his direction as a reaction. Then he said, "Ah, it's the young man again."
Bartido nodded to the man, who tapped the pipe with his thumb.
"Did you find what you were looking for at the magistrate's?" the man asked.
Bartido shrugged — an instinct told him to not be fully straight with the man. "I'm more interested in knowing how you keep your pipe lit in this rain." It was really coming down.
The man hmphed. But he also didn't answer Bartido's question, which was fair considering he hadn't answered the councilor's. "You're a very interesting young man. I will have to keep an eye on you while you're in this town."
"I hope not to be here much longer," Bartido muttered as the councilor walked away along the main road.
Suddenly Councilor Bonarda stopped and turned back to look at Bartido, right as he was about to turn to go into the inn. "Oh, and I would be less worried about leaving town than I would be about your… friend… who actually lives here." And then he was walking away again, as if he hadn't said anything.
Bartido narrowed his eyes. There was only one person that the councilor could have been referring to, and that was dangerous. Perhaps he already knew about the situation that had delayed Bartido in the first place. Perhaps he was the one that had caused the issue in the first place. Whatever the reason, Bartido suddenly felt like he had no reason to be at the inn anytime soon.
Instead, he headed back to Grot's house through the driving rain. Thankfully there wasn't much of a wind, but it was still annoying to head through. Bartido only noticed after he had reached the house. Something was driving him, and he didn't really want to think about it that hard. Instead he pounded on the front door once again. "There's no way you went out today," Bartido said along with his second set of knocks. "I shouldn't be out in it. But I am because you need to listen to me!"
There was, of course, no response.
Bartido sighed, but he continued his banging on the door anyway.
Even after trying several tacks — including calling the councilor's name through the door — despite Bartido suspecting the man was home, he didn't respond at all.
Bartido eventually gave up, and headed back through the rain to the inn. He was so lost in his thoughts, he had already sat down at one of the tables before he realized that he had nearly finished the trip.
The innkeeper came over to take his order and Bartido gave it to him without really thinking about it too much. Rather, he was looking over at Gertrude, who was giving him a strange look. He gave as saucy a wink he could manage in her direction, but he wasn't really feeling it.
She did give him the expected reaction, though. Her look of disgust was something he had seen many times before to his saucy wink when things weren't going well, so that wasn't a bad thing.
She even came over to where he was eating when she had finished eating her own lunch. "I was hoping you were gone before they closed the roads," she said by way of greeting.
Ouch. "No such luck there, honey," Bartido said, rallying. "Just for you, I even tried to talk to the Magistrate to get myself an exemption."
"Don't bother," she said. "It'll be a waste of your time."
"Oh? Do you know him better than I do?"
"Just…" she trailed off, looking away. "Trust me on this. Especially since you're a foreigner."
He raised his eyebrows. "There's something you're not telling me."
"We all have our secrets," she said. She was still looking anywhere but back at his face. Even when Bartido stooped a little to try to meet her eyes from his seat anyway, she looked further to the side. After a pause that got a little awkward, she continued. "Like why you've been hanging around far longer than you'd have to just to rest on your way home."
Bartido kept his reaction to a blink. "What, are you offering a trade?"
It was her turn to be taken aback, though Bartido wasn't fully sure that she had been surprised by his words. "No. No I am not. Just… the danger in this town can come from… unlikely places." And with that, she spun on her heel and strode out of the inn and ducked into the driving rain outside.
Bartido frowned as he gazed at the door to the inn long after it had closed after her. Something was definitely very odd about that woman. Intriguing. Just another weirdness about the town on this visit.
And what had she meant by 'unlikely places'?