13 Chapter 13: My Potato (1/2)

ELINA: I want lunch.

But there's something I want even more.

It's his secret. Why the hurry to make money? He must be doing it for someone. Someone who is more important to him than his own life.

A mother? Father? A sibling?

Or a lover?

I changed tactics. If an information exchange deal couldn't get it out of him, then I had to try something else.

I said, ”Fine.” Corn for lunch. I could deal with that. But in return I wanted to extract something else out of him. A promise.

It wasn't too hard to get him to say it. Promise me that he'll tell me someday. Of course I knew that he had no intention on keeping this promise, but for what it's worth, if it the time ever came, I could leverage it.

But there was one other thing I wanted to know. And I knew Salem didn't have the answer. He was just a hired sword.

What did the Church of Deliverance want from me?

Was I beautiful? Maybe.

Was my magic powerful? Probably.

But the Church usually wanted witches dead, not alive.

Which made Salem's contract odd. An exception.

I guess I'll have to wait for a chance to find out.

And that chance came sooner rather than later.

I noticed the war horses outside the travel inn. The armor. The insignia. I summoned a spark of magic to my eyes and looked closer.

A hand holding a candle.

Armored horses that belonged to the Church.

Why would the Church have combat horses? You wouldn't need swords and armor to spread prayers.

Whatever the case, maybe I could find the answer to my question here. How fortunate. This way I wouldn't need Salem to bring me all the way to Merkelborough.

I glanced at Salem. It looks like he hasn't noticed anything strange yet.

”Can we stay here?” I asked.

”No, too expensive.”

We got closer to the inn. Salem's eyes changed. A look of recognition. Realization. Confusion.