Quest's End: The Broken Key #3 by Brian S. Pratt

anticipated. In fact, they had been told the crossroads were only a half day from the inn where they spent the night before, yet it had failed to materialize thus far. Now they were caught outside in a night that was quickly losing what little warmth the sun had given earlier that day.
    “C…can’t be much f…further,” Chad was saying for the tenth time. Ever since the sun had gone down, he had been making some comment or other to that effect. Glancing to the stars above, he saw a sky all but devoid of cloud cover. If it wasn’t for the fact that his teeth were chattering so badly, he would have enjoyed its beauty.
    “Cold?” asked Bart. In the moonlight he turned his head back toward Chad and grinned. He saw the shadowy bob of Chad’s head as he silently agreed. He was cold too, but unlike the others, Chad was bemoaning the situation.
    His father had always told him that there came times when you were put into an unpleasant situation that you couldn’t escape. Either you pushed on and made it through, or you whined and made the situation worse. Chad, he discovered, could be a whiner at times. Though it mainly manifested when he was cold.
    Turning his attention back to the road, Bart saw an all but imperceptible glow coming from up ahead. “I think we may have arrived,” he announced to the others. Bart couldn’t help but chuckle to himself when he heard Chad give out with a sigh of relief.
    Chad’s relief was short lived for they soon came to realize that the glow ahead of them was coming from a man carrying a lantern. If Bart hadn’t been cold himself, he would have laughed at Chad’s discomfort. Truth to tell, he had been just as hopeful as Chad that they had reached the inn.
    As they continued riding closer, they saw that the man was moving across their path toward the right. Bundled in warm clothes as he was, it was hard to tell anything about him other than he was about six feet tall.
    The man had moved a ways off the road before he became aware of their approach. Stopping, he raised his lantern high as he turned to stare in their direction. “Burdy?” he asked.
    “No sir,” Bart replied as he came to a stop on the road near where the man had crossed.
    “Damn!” the man exclaimed angrily. “Did anyone pass you going north?”
    The others came to a stop behind Bart as he replied, “Haven’t seen anyone else all day.”
    “How far is the crossroads?” Chad asked.
    The man glanced in his direction, glared, then pointed down the road. “Not too much further,” he said.
    “Thank you,” Bart said.
    The man nodded and watched as they rode off.
    When they had put some distance between themselves and the man, Riyan came abreast of Bart and asked, “Why didn’t we offer to help him?”
    “He could have asked for help had he desired it,” he replied. “Besides, what help could we give, if any was in fact needed? We don’t know the area.”
    Riyan glanced back to the where the glow of the man’s lantern continued to move off to their right. “Hope he’ll be alright,” he said.
    “If he’s a local,” offered Soth, “I’m sure he knows the area well enough.”
    “If not,” added Seth, “he’s a fool to go off by himself in the dark.” And from his tone of voice, he had little sympathy with fools.
    By the time the glow from the buildings at the crossroads came into view, they had all manner of theories on who the man was, what he was doing, etc. None of which had any basis in fact.
    The crossroads held little more than a couple inns and other auxiliary buildings that surrounded the junction where their road merged with the one running along the northern slopes of the Tinderlock Mountains. Their tall peaks were but shadows against the backdrop of stars.
    It was quiet as they entered the collection of buildings. Not a person was about and both of the inns were subdued. “Must not get much business this time of year,” suggested Chyfe.
    “I wouldn’t think so,” replied Soth.