NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 2: One Cold Trail)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THELGAEWYNN

"Y'know what you need?" Grelin doesn't even look up from the tankard he's polishing, his heavy brow so deep I can barely even see his eyes under the thick hair, even from my angle. I'm perched on the stool at the bar but I still have to prop myself up with both elbows so I can get to my drink in the first place. This place ain't really built for the shorter races, I noticed. Then again, human-owned places don't tend to be. I've learned to make do.

I watch him for a long moment before answering, my mug hovering close to my lips in both hands since I was about to take a sip. "Daresay you're gonna tell me, so why don'tcha just get on with it?"

Now he lifts his chin and fixes his eye on me. Only one of them works, mind – he's blind in the right, much o' that side of his face mangled by some pretty nasty scars, a rebellion souvenir I suspect he's come to regret in the years since. Makes him damn intimidating, mind. Old man Grelin's a tough son of a bitch I wouldn't want to fuck with if you paid me to, even if that is what I get paid for in the first place. Not that I'd take this contract anyway, he's my friend.

His look's unreadable as ever. Even without the scars, doubt he'd ever be a particularly expressive man, the most I even think I might glean from that face is a little more testiness in light of my words, but even that's a real small thing. We've never had any problems in the past, I doubt my own frustration's going to change it now. He knows well enough what we're putting up with right now.

"You need yourself some outside help. Like you said, the local guard ain't shit, an' you're outta leads. Not that you would've had many to start with, mind. So you might wanna try some other source instead."

Raising my mug again with both hands, I take a deep pull of ale without taking my eyes off his own once. I swallow, lick my lips and just watch him for a few beats before I speak again. "Grel, what the fuck are you on about?"

No answer, he simply lets out a deep sigh as he gives the tankard one last wipe and pulls the cloth out before setting both under the bar. Planting both hands on the bar to lean forward he make the whole thing creak subtly as he flexes his shoulders, which bunch up bigger than ever. He's one of the biggest, most powerful-looking humans I ever come across, impressive and intimidating in equal measure as only a former soldier can be. But somehow this doesn't feel like a threat, I seen him do this enough times to know he's only getting comfortable. "You pray much, Thel?"

That makes me blink. I look left to Dumoli, who's paused with his own mug right in front of his mouth, watching me close now. Then right to Brung, who's just crouched on his own stool, too short to both sit there and set his own mugful on the bar, so he has to compromise. Right now he's got his claws dangling between his knees, bright eyes glowing from under his hood as he watches me too. Both clearly curious as to what I'm about to say, I imagine.

"When I got to. Thorin, mostly. I'm a fighter, can't really help it when shit goes off."

"There's more to religion than a little divine support in battle, lass." He reaches under the collar of his shirt, draws something out on a thong from round his neck. A small jumble of medallions, maybe half a dozen looks like, all dangling together on the same line. They all seem to be pretty cheap, made of brass and simple steel, looks like. There's the hammer and sword of Thorin the Stormlord, the spoked sun of Helios, even the crescent moon of Serena, but others I don't immediately recognise. One might be the black raven of the death goddess Corvina, the thought of which makes me a little uncomfortable in present circumstances. "You need help in other times, sometimes it's good to ask for it."

"Grel, you honestly reckon we're gonna find the solution for this by talking to a god? None of 'em are apt to answer in a crisis, far as I know, 'least not in any way you can recognise. There's times it's hard to even believe they really are out there, wherever they are."