Chapter 16

Deanna knocked on the locked door, confused. She'd ridden up and had been in the process of dismounting when the Inn doors had slammed shut, and the windows locked up.
She had stopped ,mid-dismount, in confusion before continuing, wondering what on earth that was about.
There wasn't a soul on the street, and all the windows were shut tight, and no light seeped through. All was silent.
When she got no answer at the door, she walked back down the stairs to Krennan, who was looking around at the seemingly deserted town.
"This is kind of spooky." She commented. There wasn't even a rat in the alley-ways. "Do you see anyone?"
Krennan snorted and shook his head. Nope.
She picked up his reins and led him through the town to the other side where the woods began again, all the while looking at the buildings, all boarded up with no sign of life.
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Cayle opened his eyes. He'd come up the stairs to his room and had collapsed on the bed in total exhaustion and had immediately fallen asleep.
He sat up and stretched, coming to his feet to look out the window. It was mid-morning at least.
"I must have been even more tired than I thought..." He said, turning away from the window and heading to the door and down the stairs.
"Morning, sleeping beauty." Cadman's voice called to him from one of the tables. "What caused you to come awake to spend some time with us worthless peasants?"
"Do you ever shut up?" Cayle responded, sitting at the table.
Cadman thought a moment before shaking his head.
Cayle rolled his eyes.
"Where's the coffee?" He asked.
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Deanna sat by her fire, pondering what she had seen at the town. She chewed distractedly on her food, not really tasting it.
Krennan started snorting and stopping his feet, shaking Deanna from her revere.
"Whats wrong?" She asked, jumping to her feet. Krennan neighed loudly and stopped some more and tried to run towards her.
She turned to see what was making him so upset. A bag was thrown over her head, making the world go dark.
She started struggling and her captor hit her over the head with something, and she slowly slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing she heard was Krennan's panicked neighing.