Adventure of Eowyn 1

Before Fetren can touch the latch, hurried steps climb from below. The tavern keeper appears on the stair, clutching a folded scrap sealed in red wax.

The wax bears the king’s sign, pressed deep enough to fracture the parchment beneath it. The keeper extends the message toward the closed door.

From within, something scrapes softly across wood. A second movement follows, measured and near the door, while lamplight trembles beneath the threshold.

Eowyn catches Fetren’s sleeve before the keeper reaches the latch. Her fingers point toward the red-sealed scrap, then toward the closed room, asking without sound whether it is their prize or merely bait.

Eowyn listens past the keeper’s approaching boots. Inside, one person breathes steadily near the door; another shifts farther back, cloth brushing wood, while a faint chain clicks against stone.

The tavern keeper steps onto the landing and raises the sealed message toward the door. The lamplight beneath it shifts as someone inside comes directly before the threshold.

Eowyn slips behind the sharp corner beside the rear stair, drawing her white hair and cloak into the deeper shadow. The closed room keeps her position concealed.

Fetren shifts a pace toward the opposite wall, appearing to study the warped plaster. The keeper, focused on the sealed message, notices neither movement nor concealment.

The latch lifts from within. Lamplight spills across the threshold, stopping short of Eowyn’s corner. A narrow-faced man peers out, one hand hidden beneath his coat.

The keeper places the red-sealed scrap on the floor and retreats down one stair. Inside, the second occupant shifts; the faint chain answers with a dull click.

As the keeper lumbers down the stairs, Eowyn slips from the corner’s shadow. Her twin blades leave their sheaths without a whisper, their edges catching the thin lamplight.

The keeper disappears below, still grumbling. Eowyn settles beside the threshold, balanced and silent, both blades angled to command the doorway if either occupant lunges.

Fetren’s gaze cuts toward Eowyn, then returns to the door. He lowers his center of gravity, ready to follow her first movement without crowding the narrow landing.

Behind the nearer man, chain scrapes stone again. The room’s lamplight throws two shadows across the floor, while Eowyn’s blades remain poised for the violent opening.

Eowyn’s boot sends the red-sealed letter skimming across the boards toward Fetren. He catches it beneath his coat as her dagger leaves her hand in the same breath.

The blade strikes the nearer occupant squarely in the sternum, driving him backward against the doorframe. His hidden hand opens, and his demand breaks into a stunned gasp.

He remains standing, though badly wounded, one hand clamped over the dagger’s hilt. The door bangs wide, revealing a cramped room, overturned stool, and iron chain fixed to a black reliquary.

The deeper figure jerks the chain toward himself, dragging the reliquary across the floor. Fetren steps into the landing, the royal message secured, and bars the clearest escape.

Eowyn drives her boot into the nearer occupant’s lower body. He folds with a strangled gasp, his grip loosening from the dagger’s hilt.

She wrenches the dagger free from his sternum and catches his collar before he can collapse, forcing him face-first against the doorframe.

Eowyn twists his arms behind him and pins his wrists with practiced efficiency. The courier is captive, conscious, and unable to reach the fallen weapon.

Fetren passes through the doorway after the retreating figure. Inside, the chain rasps over stone as the reliquary is dragged toward the room’s rear passage.

Eowyn’s free hand snaps forward. The dagger crosses the room well clear of Fetren and strikes Veyr high at the neck, driving him against the rear wall as the chain falls slack.

Fetren keeps the reliquary between himself and the fallen courier. Eowyn crosses to Veyr, removes the dagger, and loops rope around his wrists behind his back.

The bound deserter remains conscious but subdued. His narrow sword lies beneath the overturned stool, while a concealed passage yawns behind a hanging tapestry at the room’s rear.

Eowyn surveys the cramped chamber: two cups, fresh river mud, a royal courier’s satchel, chalk marks around the reliquary, and a bloodless sigil carved into the floor.

Leaving bound Veyr in the room’s center, Eowyn searches the drawers, satchel, overturned stool, and both couriers’ belongings. She finds a river-ferry token, three silver royals, a black feather, and a folded route marked with Ashen Choir signs.

Orsik’s coat yields a hidden key and a court summons bearing tomorrow’s date. One drawer sticks; forcing it splinters the wood with a sharp crack, and footsteps murmur faintly below.

Eowyn gathers the three silver royals, river-ferry token, hidden key, court summons, and royal satchel, pocketing anything with value. The black feather remains on the floor.

The drawer’s splintered crack carries down the stairwell, a small cost that stirs murmurs below. Eowyn leaves the valuables secured and turns toward bound Veyr.

Fetren studies the chalk, then the chained reliquary. He tests the tapestry’s edge without touching the vessel and finds a narrow service passage descending toward the river lanes.

The passage offers darkness, broken masonry, and a concealed exit beyond the lodge’s rear wall. Fetren takes position by the reliquary while Veyr remains bound and conscious, ready to move.

Eowyn tightens Veyr’s bonds until his wrists cannot slip free, then fastens a short lead to him. The bound deserter remains conscious and wary.

She gives the lead to Fetren while taking the reliquary’s chain. Together they lift and drag the black vessel through the concealed passage, keeping its chalked ward undisturbed.

Eowyn reaches back and draws the tapestry closed. Its frayed hem settles over the hidden entrance, concealing the chamber, the motionless body within, and their route from the stair.

They hurry downward through broken masonry. Veyr follows under the short lead, forced to match their pace, while Fetren guides the reliquary toward the shuttered cooper’s yard.