when they were being taught their geography. But Denney was under the impression that since she’d fallen from an active path, she had traveled most of the distance. But this gets better: you see, she has no sense of direction.”
Hammon blinked. “At all?”
Wolf snorted. “The girl can, and has, gotten herself lost just going up the stairs.”
“If not for the dogs, I wouldn’t let her go out of the guildhall by herself for fear we’d never see her again,” Siobhan added sourly. “Why she thought she could navigate all the way to Cymer, I haven’t the foggiest notion. So, instead of going toward Cymer as she intended, she instead headed west and ended up in the marshland near Priyam’s Waters. If not for Tran, we’d never have found her.”
“Why Tran especially?”
“Oh, he’s an amazing runner.”
“Most Teheranians are,” Fei added.
“Tran can run great distances and speeds without tiring. When I realized that Denney had gotten herself lost, I had him track her down and bring her back so we could travel by path to Cymer. Even with his help, what should have taken an hour or so took four days. We had to wander in every direction looking for her, as with Denney, you never know what direction she’ll take.”
Hammon coughed in a poor attempt to disguise a laugh. “She’s never going to live it down, either.”
“Never,” Siobhan agreed with a genteel smile.
Conli chose that moment to come downstairs, stifling a yawn behind one hand. “Morning, everyone.”
Everyone returned the greeting in their own way and Siobhan called back to the kitchen for another plate of food to be brought out.
As Conli sat, she caught his eye and said, “We’ll be delayed here a day as the storm hasn’t passed yet. Since that’s so, I think we should speak to the guards and get more information about Lirah’s party. Were they in good condition when they passed through? Any signs of trouble before she came or after she left? Any information right now will help.”
“You think you’ll need me,” Conli held up his left hand and the bejeweled bridge ring he wore, “to find all that out?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted frankly. “But I do know that we’ll need your help to get Hammon a ring while we’re here. So why don’t the three of us go get that done and ask questions while we’re about it?”
“It’s not a bad plan,” he agreed readily. “Although I’m a little surprised, Hammon, that you don’t already have one.”
“I was very young when I left Robarge and traveled elsewhere,” he explained. “After I turned ten, I never really went anywhere else until a few months ago, when I left home.”
“Ahh, is that right? Then we’ll get a ring for you and show you what you can use it for. We occasionally take side jobs separate from the guild, and when we do, the rings come in handy as we travel.”
“You can take on side jobs in this guild?”
“I don’t prohibit it, as long as it doesn’t interfere with guild work,” Siobhan explained absently. Her attention was on the second floor, as half of her guild had yet made no signs of wanting to wake up. “Errr…” She looked up at the stairs, debating on how to handle the slumbering dragons still in their beds. “Wolf?”
“I’m not waking any of them up,” he said vehemently. “And you can’t make me.”
Hammon paused mid-bite and looked at Wolf with mild alarm. “Are they truly that bad?”
Wolf nodded several times in vigorous confirmation.
Rolling her eyes, Siobhan said patiently, “I was about to say, sic the dogs on ‘em.”
“Oh. That I’ll do.” Relieved, Wolf whistled for both of them and headed up the stairs, the dogs climbing ahead of him with happy bounces. But then, for them, waking up sleeping people counted as ‘fun.’
Ignoring the outraged yells coming from the second floor, Siobhan prudently decided to hunt down Gramms and settle their account. She’d worry about looking for information after the three grumps had breakfast.
The storm passed by noon, leaving traces of snow behind that collected along the sides of the streets and in shadowy corners. By that point, they’d gone through all the bothersome paperwork and procedures to get Hammon a ring of his own. Since she had Conli with her, they inquired about the Blackstone party, even going so far as to cross from the eastern gate over to the western gate, questioning the gatekeepers themselves and looking at the records.