Eolisti watched Sophie and Khalil leave, glaring at the latter as he ascended the staircase. He can’t tell me what to do. I’m not going to be imprisoned in that room all day. She understood why Sophie needed to be hidden, out of sight, but there was absolutely no reason for Eolisti to be locked away in some tiny room. She could take care of herself. She didn’t need to be treated like a child.
The handsome Anai was watching her with those intense blue eyes as she turned her glare to the disgusting ale. “There has to be a better place to get a drink than this,” she said, mostly to herself.
The Anai’s lips curled up in a genuine smile. Eolisti was convinced that she’d never seen someone so attractive in her entire life. “I know somewhere we can go,” he said in that alluring voice of his. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a gold coin. “Allow me to get the tab.” He smiled a radiant smile at her. “My name is Elindiir, by the way.”
“I’m Eolisti,” she said, feeling her stomach jump when he grinned at her. Elindiir… That was such a pleasant-sounding name.
Elindiir set the coin on the table and stood up, straightening his clothes. “Shall we?”
Eolisti hesitated. Khalil never explicitly said she had to stay there. He’d only told her to come up when she was done. He wouldn’t like it, but if he didn’t want her to leave, he should have been more specific. She stood and grinned at Elindiir, following him through the crowd and out of the inn.
The streets were busier than when her group had ridden into town. Men and women had set up stalls on either side of the road and were shouting what wares they had as carts rolled past. Men carried crates and boxes into and out of buildings, delivering goods that had come by sea. Ragged-looking little boys and girls ran in either direction, holding bundles and waving sticks at each other, and the slight smell of fish and salt of the sea permeated the air. The inn was only a few streets away from the docks. She assumed that Khalil wanted to be close so that when their ship was ready, they could leave right away, but Eolisti could really do without the smell. She imagined it was going to be even worse on the ship.
The two Anai headed to the left, Elindiir in the lead. He took Eolisti up a few streets, getting further and further away from the docks. The buildings gradually became nicer and more well-kept, with fewer vendors trying to sell things to them. Elindiir eventually turned into a narrow alley with three-story buildings on either side. Looking around, some part of her realizing that she was following a perfect stranger to some unknown location, Eolisti briefly wished that she had retrieved her sword before she’d left but followed the other Anai anyway.
Halfway down the alley, there was a plain black door set below street level, with steps leading down to it and a guard rail to keep the unobservant from falling in. Elindiir descended the stairs and knocked on the door three times while Eolisti waited a few steps up, just out of arm’s reach. The blond Anai was pretty and all, but Eolisti wasn’t stupid. She knew this could go wrong if Elindiir was only pretending to be kind to her and was actually leading her into a trap. Eolisti was determined not to let that happen. If it did, she’d never hear the end of it from that hooded jerk.
The lock clicked and a tall, muscular man opened the door. He had black hair, dark skin, and his ears came to a point in the telltale way of an Anai. Eolisti frowned. Wait, that wasn’t quite right. His ears were pointed, but they were smaller than an Anai’s and more rounded. His face wasn’t angular, and his body was a bit too stocky. Eolisti had never met a Sul-Anai before, half Anai and half human, but she guessed this man was just that.
He took one look at Elindiir and nodded, then looked at Eolisti and scowled. Elindiir held up a placating hand. “She’s with me, Corym.”
Corym the Sul-Anai glanced at Elindiir and nodded, then took a step back from the door so they could pass. A man of few words. Elindiir looked back at her with one eyebrow raised and a smirk dancing at the corners of his mouth, then walked through the door.
Well, it was too late to turn back now. Eolisti sized up Corym. He looked strong but slow, and she pegged him as a brawler, not a real fighter. Confident that she could take him, she strode in after Elindiir.
They walked down a few more flights of stone stairs, lit only by a few torches in their brackets. That small part of her that warned this might be a bad idea tried to surface again. Where was he taking her?
Elindiir stopped in front of another unmarked black door that gleamed in the torchlight. He looked over his shoulder at Eolisti and winked one of those glistening blue eyes. Eolisti felt her heart leap. He really was the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on. With a loud creak that echoed off the stone, he pulled the heavy door open.
Eolisti shielded her eyes as a burst of sunlight temporarily blinded her. When she was able to see again, she stared in amazement at the room beyond the black door. It was much bigger than the tavern they had come from. It could have fit the inn where they were staying twice over with room to spare. The walls here were made of stone, but it looked like the area had been carved out of the rock rather than placed stone by stone like the buildings that lined the streets above. The sunlight came from four large crystals that were attached to the middle of the ceiling by gold fittings. It gave the place the illusion of being outside on a pleasantly sunny day instead of being underground. Eolisti couldn’t believe a place like this was under the streets of Nobarum, of all cities. Being this close to the sea, how was this not underwater?
People milled about or sat at tables situated around the room, laughing and drinking. There were two bars on either side of the space, and each had a sizable number of patrons sitting at them. Eolisti scrutinized the crowd. They were loud, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the best part of all was that none of them were human. There were Anai like her and Elindiir drinking a dark violet liquid out of crystal glasses, and short, stout creatures drinking a frothy substance out of large tankards. Eolisti suspected they were Dal Korra, but she couldn’t be sure since she’d never actually seen one. All she knew was that no human looked like that.
There were a Dal Korra and a Sul-Anai, like Corym, sitting at a table near the middle of the room. Their right elbows were on the table, their hands clasped together, each trying to force the other’s arm down to the side. Bystanders cheered and placed shot glasses filled with an amber drink on the table in front of both men. The competitors took the shots with their left hands and continued struggling against each other while the spectators whooped and hollered. In the back corner, there was a group of people, mostly Anai, two of whom had skin as dark as the Abbot’s, throwing daggers at a target while sipping from their glasses and chatting among themselves. They threw dirty glances at the table with the Dal Korra and the Sul-Anai after a particularly loud roar, but just shook their heads and kept drinking.
Eolisti was almost shaking in anticipation. This was the most exciting place she had ever been!
A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her reverie. Elindiir grinned at her, obviously taking pleasure at the look of amazement on her face. He gestured toward the bar, and she nodded eagerly. She wanted to try all of it.
“What kind of better drink would you like?” he asked as they made their way through the room and up to one of the bars. “They serve a lot of unique concoctions here that humans usually don’t consume.”
Eolisti shrugged, not wanting to let her ignorance of Anaiian beverages show. “What would you recommend?”
Elindiir casually leaned against the bar, smirking at her. “That’s a dangerous question,” he mused, his eyes smoldering. “You know, you shouldn’t let strangers lead you down dark alleys or pick your drinks.”
In response, Eolisti leaned against the bar as casually as she could and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She grinned at the other Anai. “What can I say? I like to live dangerously.”