Five days later saw us at the outskirts of Santarus. I followed the directions that Thaddeus had given me as to where and what to do next. The Attorgron city of Santarus wasn't as sophisticated in its appearance as the Zoarinian cities I had seen were, but it certainly was as busy.
The city was broken into sections and was class restricted. There were poor slave class sections, middle class sections and wealthy class sections. The poorest sections were near the river front and industry centers. The middle class sections lay situated around the shops and places of entertainment, while the wealthiest sections were usually separate from the city entirely in their own communities.
After stopping to ask directions several times we found our way to the inn called Brassna House. I tied Flin to the railing and entered the main door of the inn with Zarsha by my side. We both wore traveling cloaks with hoods that helped obscure us from the probing looks we encountered from within the inn.
The occurrence of a man and child traveling together was a somewhat odd appearance in these lands and we received quite a few pointed looks of interest. I directed Zarsha toward the dining area of the inn, as I scanned the room looking for what Thaddeus had instructed me to.
I found it at the far end of the room in a darkened corner. Thaddeus had said to look for a mural of a Sarthan tree in full bloom. The room was full of murals, but the one I wanted was clearly distinguishable from the rest and we sat down at that table.
A serving girl approached, "Can I be of any help to you?" Looking up at her I said the words I had been instructed to.
"Whatever is readily available besides the oat crest."
I watched her for any visible sign of interest but couldn't find any on her pretty face as she answered. "I'll be getting you the house special then. Would you be wanting it to go or be delivered?"
"Delivered." I said.
She nodded deferentially and left us.
She had answered in code unless her words had been a complete coincidence, which I didn't rule out as a possibility. The denizens of the place had for the most part given up their study of us and I started to relax slightly. Then I noticed that the tables in front of us were filled suddenly, too suddenly for my taste. Just then the back wall of the booth swung open and I was startled to see the same serving girl beckoning to us from the darkened doorway that had been revealed.