Quest's End: The Broken Key #3 by Brian S. Pratt Read Free Book Online Page B

Hunter’s Reach or else melted. Either way, the dirt streets were a veritable mess of mud and ruts. The carriages and wagons moving about town were bouncing along so badly, Bart was surprised they hadn’t broken an axle yet. He was amused by the circumstances of one fine looking lady who was riding in a carriage. Every time the carriage hit a rut, which was about every other second, she would bounce in her seat. It looked as if she was holding on for dear life to the window frame of the carriage door.
    Similar sights continued to be seen as they continued their search for Tinton’s shop. When the eastern gate finally appeared down the street, they had yet to find the place. They asked one of the local townspeople and were directed down a side street. It wasn’t far before they saw what the proprietress of the Tradewynd had meant when she said you couldn’t miss it.
    The storefront had to take up one full block of the street. There were three separate doorways just on this one side through which people could enter Tinton’s establishment.
    “Is there enough business in this town to make it worthwhile to maintain such a shop?” asked Chyfe. He had seen some large businesses back in Catha, but what he saw before him dwarfed them all.
    “I doubt it,” replied Bart. Moving toward the closest doorway, he led the others into the building.
    Just within the entrance were two small children, neither could have been more than six or seven. When they saw their group enter, they immediately came forward and began wiping the mud from off their boots.
    “Here now,” Bart said as the younger of the two boys grabbed the calf of his leg and began cleaning his boot with a less than clean rag. The boy paid him no heed. Once he finished with one, he began with the other.
    Riyan glanced to the other entrances and saw similar pairs of children stationed at each of them. One such pair was doing the same to another group of three men that had just entered. “Looks like they do this to everyone,” he said.
    “Son,” Chad said as the older of the two boys came to him for his turn, “I don’t think this is necessary.”
    The lad looked up at him. “Master Tinton doesn’t like mud tracked through his shop,” the lad explained. When Chad drew his boot away from the child’s grasp, the child looked up at him again. “Tracking mud inside is very bad,” the child said. He again started reaching for Chad’s boot.
    Riyan, who had just had his boots wiped clean, said, “Just let him do it Chad.”
    “Yes, Chad,” Seth said with a grin. “We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
    Chad gazed down at the lad waiting to wipe his boots, then relented. “This feels odd,” he said as the child raised his boot off the floor and commenced cleaning it.
    “Different places, different customs,” offered Kevik. He was grinning at Chad’s expense when he felt his staff being grabbed by the other child. The grin vanished from his face in a flash and he snatched his staff out of the child’s hand. “What are you doing?” he demanded. He definitely didn’t like anyone touching his staff but himself.
    The child pointed to the lower end and said, “Master Tinton doesn’t like mud tracked through his shop.”
    That’s when Kevik looked down and saw the lower end had a small amount of mud attached to it.
    “Come on Kevik,” Chad said. “We don’t want to cause any trouble.”
    “Yes Kevik,” Seth grinned. “Different places, different customs.”
    Kevik glanced at him then down to the child who was waiting patiently. “Can I clean it myself?” he asked. The child offered him his rag and he soon had the lower end of the staff clean. Once everyone was suitably clean, the boys returned to their stations adjacent to the doorway.
    “You have to admit,” Soth said as they moved further into the shop, “he keeps a clean place.” And in fact, it was one of the cleanest shops any of them had ever been in.
    From the inside, this place