Page 89 of The Iron Hex

“Do you do breakfast?” Hugo asked.

“We do,” Carth said. “But if I’m being honest, the food here is not good.”

“Honest. I like that,” Hugo said, chuckling.

“It’s my best quality. There’s a pastry shop about a five-minute walk from here, right on the outskirts of town. You won’t miss it,” Carth said with a smile.

Hugo saluted with two fingers to his forehead as he turned, tossing his cloak on and heading onto the main road into Luwha.

Luwha was a much bigger city than Lichton. It was the main mining hub of Astra and the biggest city where people lived this far north. It was also the hardest place for the Iron Empire to have a hold over; the northerners were a wild people. Hugo remembered trying to rein them in right after the uprising, and it had been a challenge, to say the least.

The road was snow covered, packed down to make it easier to walk on. Hugo walked alongside a few miners who were likely heading from their forest homes to the central pillar of Luwha: the giant iron mine in the mountain.

While wild and raw, Luwha was one of Hugo’s favorite cities. Buildings scaled cliffsides, carved pathways and swinging bridges allowing people to travel to the upper levels of the city. They could have built the city just outside of the mountain, but Luwha’s people had decided to build onto it, as if the rock was a part of who they were. And it was a part of them, he supposed.

Curiously, Hugo noticed no Iron Retinue guards at the city gates, but he just hoped that the luck that hadn’t been on hisside for years was finally coming back and continued on, grateful he didn’t need to try to figure out how to not draw attention to himself.

Carth had been correct; Hugo could smell fresh bread as he approached the first buildings in the city, one of which had several people going in and out. He made a calculated guess that it had to be the bakery in question.

A few minutes later, two bags in hand, he headed back toward the Griffon’s Nest, still pondering why the city guard wouldn’t have been guarding this morning. It raised the hairs on the back of his neck. It was coincidental and fortuitous, but Hugo knew he wasn’t a lucky man.

Hugo’s answer was provided to him as he neared the Griffon’s Nest and saw the familiar shape of several Iron Retinue soldiers approaching him, heading into the city. He looked to his left and right; a few miners were walking alongside him toward their homes from the night shift. Each of them carried a pickaxe or had one strapped on their backs. Hugo didn’t blend in with his too-light cloak and a sword strapped to his belt.

He threw his hood up quickly as he formulated a plan, and just as he started to panic he noticed a pathway to his right. It wasn’t exceptionally busy based on how packed down the snow was, but it would seem relatively normal for someone to head down that path. Without thinking too hard he turned, following the winding path before turning into the brush and pausing to see if he could tell who was in the group of soldiers.

As they passed, Hugo crouched low. Three of them walked with a stiffness that he recognized... more Soulless Knights. All six wore full Iron Retinue plate armor, helmets and all. He watched, seeing if he could recognize the gait of any of the three, but all three of the walking soldiers looked Soulless. The other three sat astride horses, and from this distance, he couldn’t tell who any of them were. To make matters worse, he heard very little apart from one single sentence.

“Venton is apparently heading this way, so we’ll need to prepare for an execution once we capture him.”

Damned Sylvie and Sanders. Hugo was glad to have Sylvie and Asha on his side now, but they’d given the Iron Empire too much information. Hugo waited, quite possibly too long, to move once the squad of six had passed him. He turned onto the main road and came face-to-face with Carth, who was watching him walk out of the mostly unused pathway.

“We don’t like them here either,” Carth said, arms crossed as he watched Hugo. “But not enough to hide when we see them. Care to explain?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Hugo said, brushing past him.

The tavern keeper whipped an arm out, hand instantly on Hugo’s chest. It happened faster than Hugo would have expected him to react.

“If you want to stay in my tavern, you’re going to have to tell me if I need to worry about the safety of the other patrons,” he said, palm pressed to Hugo’s cold leathers.

“They’re looking for me and the women I’m traveling with. If we can get what we need and get out, we’ll be out of your hair and they’ll eventually leave this place.”

“Why are they looking for you?” Carth asked.

“It’s actually safer for you if you don’t know,” Hugo said, hoping the tavern keeper would bite. If he chose to kick them out Hugo, Eira, and Evangeline would have nowhere to turn except further into danger... or to leave without Eira’s memories intact. Both were bad options.

“Okay, well... what do you need?” Carth asked, precisely how Hugo had hoped he would. “I’d like you to get out as quickly as possible, respectfully.”

Hugo quickly weighed the pros and cons of telling the tavern keeper about the memory witch, almost instantly opting for the truth. This Carth person seemed trustworthy enough, andHugo needed to confide in someone in Luwha so they could find the witch and get out, fast.

“The memory witch,” he said.

Carth raised his eyebrow. “Now how would you know about her?”

“I can’t tell you,” Hugo said. “But I have a person who needs to get their memories back, badly.”

“And that’s why the Iron Empire is after you?” Carth asked.

“You don’t know that the Iron Empire is afterme,” Hugo said pointedly.