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be secretive then let him die of a cold."
    "That's a very cold thing to say," Ruth scolded him.
    "It's because Ah am cold. This mud's soaked me through," Canto replied.
    Ned pushed on a few yards ahead of the group and paused at the opening to a small square. "Then you will be pleased to know that we have arrived," he announced to the group.
    The companions forgot their quarrel and sloshed forward. The way opened and they found themselves staring at a square surrounded on two sides by two-story buildings hewn from the cliffs. The other two sides were made of two-story structures made from half-rotten wood boards. The shadow from the tall, forward-sloped cliffs hung over the square like a perpetual night sky. The only reprieve from the darkness came from lamps hung around the outer edges of the square. Even during the day they burned their oil to provide light.
    Their destination lay in the half of the square built from rotted material. An arched doorway stood open on the bottom floor, and above it swung a sign. In black, faded letters it read Tracts of Land . The tall, narrow windows that looked out on the square were so grimy magic couldn't make them clean, and through the door they glimpsed a dark, smoke-filled room filled with shadowy figures.
    Pat frowned and her eyes dodged over to Canto close beside her. "This is where you want to sleep?" she asked him.
    Before Canto could reply there was a noise inside the Tracts of Land. The party watched the shadows inside the building lift up chairs and bring them down on one another's heads. Men yelled and footsteps trampled across the wooden floor. The noise ended when two men flew through the door and landed face-first into the mud.
    Ned chuckled. "It certainly has atmosphere," he pointed out.
    A woman a head taller than Pat with thick arms and even thicker breasts stepped out of the doorway. She wore a red silk dress with a low-cut neck that showed off her ample assets. Her blond hair was pulled back in a braid and though her face wasn't entirely clean, anyone could see she was a beautiful woman.
    The woman put her fists on her hips and scowled at the two men who were struggling to free their faces from the mud. "Don't come back here until you've got some gold in your pockets!" she yelled at them.
    One of the men stood and whipped around to shake his fist at the woman. "You can't do this to us! We're honest men!" he shouted
    "I honesty don't care. Go whine to a twinner, for all the good it'll do for you. You're not getting back in here until you pay your bill," she argued.
    The man growled and pulled a knife from his boot. He leaned his arm back to throw it at her, but Sins pulled out his dagger and threw his weapon at the man. Sins' dagger sunk deep into the man's arm, and the stranger screamed and dropped his knife. He fell to his knees and clutched at his impaled arm.
    Sins dropped his reins into Percy's hand, strode through his companions, and walked up to kneel beside the man. He grabbed his dagger and yanked it from the stranger's arm. The man screamed and scrambled back. Blood poured from the wound and colored the mud red. "D-don't hurt me! P-please don't hurt me," he pleaded.
    Sins clutched his dagger to slice the man's neck open, but Percy frowned. "That's enough, Sins. He won't be throwing knives for a while," Percy called to him.
    Sins paused and looked over his shoulder. His eyes were narrowed, but he wiped his dagger on the man's pants and placed his dagger back into his cloak. The stranger scrambled to his feet and escaped his companion. Sins stood and his companions strode over to him.
    The woman stepped out from the doorway of the inn and peered at the group through the shadowy haze. Her eyes widened and a smile brightened her face. "Sinny!" the buxom young woman yelled. She scurried over to Sins just as he was standing and wrapped him in a tight, breast-crushing hug all the other men wished to be a part of.
    Canto snorted. "Sinny?" he repeated.
    The group