63. The Constable Ask
The Constable Ask
Kain spent the morning at the smokehouse pulling cured venison off the racks. Five slabs into the cellar. That gave him a few weeks of meat without thinking about it. He washed his hands at the basin, banked the smoker fires for the afternoon, and went to find Roan.
Kain thought about the tile work for the next several days. When he came into Tillamore and found a spare place in the stable, he took Roan up to the Martinson farm anyway. At the bar he kept an eye out for Carol. Mostly it was warriors. He could hope.
"And you're sure these disruptions start a mile and a half from the dungeon entrance."
Kain set his jaw at the man across the bar. It was evening, not late enough for the crowd to begin. The man was older and clearly a piece of a cartographer. Maps sticking out of his pack. A larger map of the area spread across the bar.
"I'm positive. Saw it with my own eyes."
"B-rank dungeons usually affect the perimeter out to two miles. Not a mile and a half." The man frowned at the map. "The only conclusion is that this is a strange dungeon, or there's something the matter with your observations."
"You're welcome to ride out and look it over yourself."
"I plan to. I'm trying to get a proper view of the situation before I set out on a potentially dangerous quest. Cartography is a hazardous business."
"I'm sure."
Kain had known a piece of cartographers in the mercenary work. They were folk who liked to poke a nose around every corner and under every rock and run at the first sight of a monster. There were exceptions. He didn't take the man across the bar for one.
A pair of warriors came in and beat on their chests.
"Behold the champions. We cleared Floor One in less than thirty."
"Only because it was cleared yesterday." A warrior at the other side of the room shifted the glasses on his nose. "Wasn't enough time for it to properly refill. Loose Clear."
"I'll loosely clear your head from your shoulders." The first warrior set a hand on the hilt of his sword. Posturing. The air thickened anyway.
"Hey," Kain said.
The warrior turned and growled. "What."
"No spilling blood unless you've spent at least five silver."
"I don't see that written anywhere."
"Look harder. Or better, sit down and buy a battered onion."
The warrior glowered and shrugged. "I've heard those are good. Get me one."
"Coming."
Kain went back into the kitchen. Sasha was working a new batch of batter. He took an onion off the rack and started slicing.
"I've never seen someone so good at breaking things apart as you." Sasha said it offhand. Kain knew it had been weeks coming. "Anything starts to wind up, you have a way of shutting it down."
"It's nothing." Kain dropped the rings into the batter. "Warriors are mostly hot air. They work the same way in a tavern as they do in a dungeon. Steady stream of attacks. Chains. Combos. You break the chain, they stumble. They have to build the momentum again. It gives a beat for a man to think."
"They wouldn't respect me if I did it. They respect you."
Kain took the battered onion out and dropped it into the oil. There was a steaming bloom as it expanded.
"You been down to the general store today."
Once again offhand. Not.
"No. Why. You have an ambush planned."
Sasha turned her face away over the bowl, mixing the batter.
"Sasha."
"Hmm. No ambush."
"Sasha. I know that bowl's fully mixed. I just dunked an onion in it." Kain pulled the now-fried onion out of the oil with the strainer. "You can't get one past me. What's waiting at the general store."
"Sam wants to talk to you."
"What about."
"Something."
Kain held the onion out over the pan to drip. When it stopped he plated it and carried it out to the warrior at the table. The warrior took it with both hands.
Kain went back into the kitchen and started pouring ale while Sasha took a slab of meat down off the hook to cut steaks for the evening.
"Am I going to want to know what that something is."
"I can't say. Go down. I can cover the bar an hour."
"Cover the bar." Kain set the pitcher down. "I'm here on my own time. I could stop coming if you and Sam are going to try to trip me into."
He stopped short.
Sasha looked at him over the cutting board.
Both of them knew what was coming.
Kain had been hoping to avoid it.
He helped Sasha round out the current sitting and went out the front of the Kettle. He walked down the boardwalk with his head up. He wasn't upset and he wasn't nervous. He just didn't want to do what they were about to ask him to do.
He owed them a hearing. He'd hear them out.
At the steps of the general store he paused a beat. Every instinct in him told him to walk back. He went up the steps and in.
Sam was at the counter. He lifted his head as Kain came in.
"Kain."
"No need to pretend. Sasha told me you were expecting me."
"Then I'll cut to it." Sam reached under the counter and pulled out a large ledger. "Come on."
He pushed through the curtain into the back room. Kain followed. The curtain settled behind them. Sam set the ledger down on the crate at the middle of the room.
"Seven pages. We have seven pages of complaints lodged by the people of Tillamore against the warriors who are running this town."
"They're not running it," Kain said.
"They might as well be. Pigs let loose. Fences down. Wagons broken."
"They're not doing it because they're malicious. They don't understand."
"You think that makes it right."
Kain didn't say a thing a beat.
"Look. I get it. I get that you want to be a farmer. We need you to be more than that. Most of us couldn't stop a charging boar. You took down a gryphon."
"Don't make me regret it any more than I already do."
"You don't regret it. You're uncomfortable with the attention.
I get that. We don't have another choice.
You say the warriors don't understand. They're having fun.
What happens when the warriors that come through aren't the having-fun kind.
What happens when the malicious kind starts walking up the road. "
Kain set his jaw.
"There's more." Sam folded his hands behind his back. "That's the real reason Sasha and I conspired to get you pinned. You know the Guild classified us as a Dungeon-Adjacent Municipality."
"Right."
"It's gotten better. We're now a Dungeon-Adjacent Settlement.
Sounds like nothing. Means we're on every regional board within two hundred miles.
Every B- and C-rank party within two weeks' travel knows where we are and knows the dungeon's still forming.
Floors no one has looted before. Riches.
Honor and glory no one else has touched. "
"I know what it means."
"It also means more regulation. The change from municipality to settlement comes with requirements.
A liaison officer is being dispatched to assist me.
We're being asked to standardize lodging rates.
We're being asked to enforce a code of conduct.
" Sam crossed his arms. "That code of conduct we have them sign.
Not one of them follows it. A few try. Even they break things. "
"I get it."
"Do you." Sam stepped in. Closer than the room was comfortable for. "Kain. We need help. We need a man with authority to make these rules stick."
"I'm not authority."
"The village needs a constable. The village needs a man who can look an armed warrior in the eye and tell him to shove it.
The village needs the telling to stick. There's one man in this village who can make the telling stick.
The asking has been the asking it has been for months, dressed in different words each time the asking comes around to the asking again. "
"They could all beat me in a fight."
"You have reputation. You're known. You solo'd a gryphon.
You've said yourself most of them couldn't do that.
You have what they don't. Respect. Every man who walks over the bridge into town knows your name.
They see you wearing a badge and staring them down, they'll behave whether they could beat you or not.
You're the only man who can do this. I'd ask someone else if there was someone else. "
Kain picked up the ledger.
It was full of complaints. Late-bell arguments. Horses through prized garden beds. Gear dropped haphazardly. Children finding throwing stars and daggers left in reach.
A town losing control of itself inch by inch.
"I'll think about it."
"Don't think about it too long. The next group rides in three days."