We piled Varys's body into a cart without trouble, and we made the rest of the journey to Beorne without trouble. The corpse stench had only just started to set in when we approached the outskirts of the city.

  Beorne had expanded gradually over the centuries of its existence. The outer ring of the city was practically a slum, albeit a relatively nice one; it was poorly maintained and the residents were certainly poor, but the streets seemed safe enough for people to be out and about, hawking wares and playing and working without the obvious fear and discomfort typical of the dangerous parts of other large cities. Guards were infrequent, but present, and we were only approached to buy fruits and trinkets.

  We passed through this outer ring quickly and reached the outer palisade, where city officials were inspecting merchant groups such as ours for taxable goods. Beorne did not have a particularly egregious tax regime, but the Regency tended towards slowly increasing taxes on non-vital goods over time. A large quantity of alcohol, in particular, was causing an argument just ahead of us.

  For our part Orwyn had managed to sell off most of his taxable goods on the way to the city so our main interaction with the guards had us explaining that we were claiming the bounty on Varys. They were surprised, but our proof was rather convincing.

  The guards informed us that we would be escorted to the central garrison to claim our reward, and they set about moving Varys' body from Orwyn's cart to their own. While we waited Orwyn talked with me. "What are your plans after getting paid?"

  I shrugged in response. "Keep heading south, probably. I don't think we have much to do here. Thanks to you we're good on both supplies and money."

  "Glad I could help." Orwyn looked over to Drifter, who was watching Varys get dragged across the ground by a pair of guards. "Who is he, really? He's too impressive of a figure to just be wandering around the north, unknown to the world."

  "I still don't know. But you're right; he is impressive. I'm hoping to convince him to climb Mount Bromid."

  Orwyn's eyes widened, and he looked between Drifter and I, trying to determine whether I was crazy. He chewed on his next words for a minute, knowing that a response to such a statement would either need to be an outright dismissal or something substantial. "I don't think combat prowess is all there is to godhood, and that's all I know of Drifter," he started, "but there is something odd about him. I hope you can find out what qualifies him."

  He was right, of course. Drifter remained an enigma to me, only truly appearing to excel in fighting. But he was also right in that I was drawn to the swordsman anyways.

  Perhaps it was simple sentiment; Drifter had saved my life, and so I put him on a pedestal in my mind. But I wanted to believe it was more than that.

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  Orwyn gave me the name of the inn they would be staying at, Heron's Rest, and told me to stop by in the next few days if we had time. We talked about inconsequential things for a bit until the guards finally finagled the mountainous corpse onto their cart.

  Drifter and I were escorted by four guards through the streets of Beorne. Between the outer palisade and the inner wall the city seemed to be a cleaned up version of the outer slums. The people were poor, but not destitute; the roads were rough, but clean and maintained; the homes were made of cheap materials, but even so they appeared well-constructed and repaired. It was, if not a rich part of town, a nice part.

  As we walked along I saw the sign for the Heron's Rest hanging over the entrance of a nice two-story building with a guard out front and curtains drawn on all the upper windows. Orwyn seemed to like a bit of privacy when he could get it.

  The inner city was clearly of a higher class, with clean cobblestone paths along every road and buildings constructed of white stone framed by wood from local trees. There was evidence of the unorganized sprawl of a natural expansion, but work had been done to clean up the inner city's layout over the centuries, putting it in a typical state of being laid out just well enough for people to do their work. The market was bustling, and I was impressed by a large marble fountain in the middle, carved in the appearance of a lively tree. I had never been these deep into Beorne before, lacking the funds to justify visiting the inner city, and the artworks placed at street corners and in public squares amazed me. Few cities could afford such a display of wealth.

  The central garrison lay just outside of the castle keep, a large building standing as tall as the keep's walls. Guards shuffled in and out in groups for their patrols, citizens lined up at a doorway for complaints and consultations, and a set of large openings on one side seemed to be arranged for vehicle use. Our guards directed us over there, where our cart was brought into an empty bay and we were instructed to wait.

  We didn't have to wait long until a tall, bald man walked in, clad in the guard's uniform of a chain mail hauberk covered by a tabard emblazoned with the Beorne city flag. The only uniform differences were a pin on his chest, fancy enough to mark him as a higher-up, and a rather nice red cape hanging off his shoulder. Behind him was another man, a few inches shorter and lacking the cape, who appeared to be a more studious, quiet type.

  The bald man reached out his hand to me and introduced himself as Even Svalbard, the guard captain on shift at the moment. "My men tell me you have come to claim the bounty on Varys," he said while looking over at the body on the cart, "And I would say it's hard to argue otherwise. I've never seen a man as large as Varys, nor as ragged, and no one has cast even a shred of doubt on that corpse over there."

  I nodded, realizing this was going to be more than a simple bounty claim. "Yes, we ran into him on the way into town and Drifter finished him off. We'll be happy to get our reward and get out of your hair." I was not in a rush, per se, but I also did not want to spend all my time in a city garrison. Guards, although often friendly, made me mildly uncomfortable.

  "Of course. The reward is quite large, and was issued by the Regent, so it will take us a day or two to get it together. I hope that doesn't impact your plans." I shook my head. "Excellent. I will leave you with Alex here to get you settled in the city - on us, the delay is our fault - and we'll contact you soon."

  This all seemed normal, I thought. Drifter had no reaction to any of it. And I think that Even and Alex knew nothing, themselves. But the chaos the Regent would cause us was far beyond my expectations of this visit to Beorne.