The Mercenary Knight by Elyzabeth M. VaLey Page A

people scurried to safety.
    The stranger nodded grimly.
    “Hold that side, I’ll grab this one. On the count of three: one, two, three.”
    With a groan, they lifted the heavy container in unison. A step at a time, they carefully moved down the remaining steps. When they were almost at the bottom, a man and his wife tried to sweep past them, but Conrad stilled them with a glare.
    Breathing heavily from the exertion, they finally made it to the bottom floor. They placed the chest to a side where it wouldn’t bother anyone. A stream of people rushed down the freed passage, the body of the dead man trampled over without a thought. Conrad watched them go, but Tanya was not with them. A sense of foreboding invaded him and he glanced up, hoping that she was where he had left her. She was not. Taking two steps at a time, he hurried back up the wooden staircase.
    “Tanya!” he bellowed.
    Conrad raced down the hallway, dodging the few remaining lodgers who were trying to flee. He kept peeking into every room in hopes that she was in one of them but they were all empty and abandoned. Finally, he reached their suite. It was also empty.
    “Tanya.”
    Conrad turned a full circle inside the empty chamber. Despair threatened to overcome him. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss of what to do. The window and the burning fire without caught his eye and he stepped towards it. The sight he saw sent his heart leaping into his throat. A man, hooded by a cloak, dragged a slumped, unconscious Tanya over his shoulder. Conrad glanced downwards into the courtyard and saw a fallen ladder.
    Fury and determination flowed through his veins. The empty helplessness that had assaulted him moments before vanished. They had taken Tanya, and his mission was clear: get her back. He ran outside into the empty hallway and down into the common room. The innkeeper was hoarding his remaining precious coins into a bag behind the long bar before leaving his establishment. He looked up startled as Conrad pounded a fist on the bar.
    “The door to the courtyard?” He demanded.
    The man’s eyes widened in apprehension and he tried to hide his purse from Conrad’s view.
    Grasping him by the neck of his gown Conrad shook him slightly.
    “The door, man!”
    “In the kitchen, to the left, but that will lead you---” Conrad didn’t hear the rest as he leaped behind the bar and burst through the double doors that led to the kitchen. The kitchen was eerily quiet and dark after the commotion in the hall and common room. It was late at night when the fire had started and the inn’s employees had not yet started their morning routine. Conrad observed a shaft of light entering from the far corner of the room near an assortment of empty baskets. He rushed towards it, certain that it was the door left partially open by a worker in his haste to flee.
    The glare of the flames welcomed him as he stepped into the courtyard. The fire had spread quicker than he thought possible and the main building was already beginning to catch on.
    He hurried across the empty space towards the direction in which he’d seen Tanya and the stranger escape. They had entered the building to the far left, the addition to the inn that looked nearly finished.
    Conrad passed through a pair of double doors thrown wide open. He slowed his pace and cautiously drew his sword. Light snuck from above and he realized that the ceiling was not completed. Calmly, he surveyed his surroundings. He was in a room of some sort. His boots struck the stone floor loudly as he inspected the small chamber. Timber lay piled in stacks, along with other materials that he could not distinguish in the gloom. There were no windows and two doors.
    The one to his left held a solid wooden door, firmly closed. He guessed that its purpose would have been to lead into the main building or perhaps a new kitchen. To his right, an entrance yawned into a dark passage. Conrad bit the inside of his cheek. He had no way if