I Built This City Chapter 44: Chapter 44

Read chapter 44 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Edmund Briar Edmund looked up as the door swung open, letting a cold draft into the room. It was a momentary buffet, so he merely shivered and turned toward the fire before nodding to Miriam. The house had a proper foyer, so not too much of the warm air escaped. Miriam huffed as she strode across the room to hang her cloak up. She’d already shaken it off, but the snowfall outside was getting bad enough that it had gotten damp. Edmund held his tongue, as he saw that she was in a serious mood. Not that most could tell… but he could. Vincent looked up from where he was whittling a stick into something, and he frowned at her. “You were gone a long while,” Edmund noted carefully. “And I’m guessing there’s some bad news? What’s wrong?” Slumping into a chair, Miriam put her head in her hands with a heavy sigh. “That little brat you kept trying to recruit!” Abruptly, Vincent stopped with the precise, careful swipes of his knife and looked up. The quiet man didn’t say anything, but Miriam had his full attention. She had Edmund’s, as well. “What do you mean?” Edmund prodded. “We got paid, we got the credit for the first exploration of the dungeon… seems to me like we got everything we wanted.” Miriam rubbed her temples and took a deep breath. The mage wasn’t scowling, for once… that was how Edmund knew this was serious. His question had been from genuine worry. “I looked into the area around the dungeon, to see who really owned it.” She tried to calm as she spoke, placing her hands on the table. “They’d made a request to keep it private, so I had to call in some favors. I finally managed to get a family name, at least. The whole mountain is owned by the Greylans.” Even Edmund had to flinch at that. He knew Miriam hated leaning on her family connections… even if the nice house they were staying in over the winter was her family’s. Comfort tended to make one pragmatic about one’s pride. “Someone aside from Anroll, I assume? I can’t imagine he’d buy up land, he doesn’t seem the type.” Edmund rubbed his chin, scratching at the beard that had grown in. “I don’t know the rest of the family though. I think I heard there were others who didn’t adventure? Anroll probably has some illegitimate kids, too…” “I’m getting to that,” Miriam grumbled. “And you’re right. Anroll is the younger of two brothers. Gabriel had three kids, but the middle child died young. The ones who are left are Anroll and his older brother Rance. Rance didn’t become an adventurer, he owns some property just outside the capital.” This time Edmund didn’t interrupt. He could see Miriam was leading somewhere. Miriam gestured to the side. “Rance married a young woman from Cambrath. I couldn’t find her name—the family hasn’t done anything of note—but I have a guess. What I did find out was that their daughter recently came of age. Now, Rance is still out by the capital, and Anroll was until recently in Kalten. Yet someone bought the land just before we went to the dungeon. In fact, they bought it just before the dungeon was announced. Pretty shrewd, don’t you think?” By now, Edmund was getting an uncomfortable feeling that he knew where she was headed with this. Miriam looked at him expectantly, leading him into a heavy sigh. “Yeah… red hair is common in Cambrath, I get what you’re saying. And now some of the other things she said while I was working on the report make a lot of sense.” He rubbed at his forehead. “She also mentioned her uncle being ‘fairly successful’ so there’s that, too. The pieces line up a little too cleanly. You’re saying Ellen and her sister are Greylans and Ellen owns the dungeon, too?” Miriam nodded, then frowned as she crossed her arms. “At least, that’s what makes sense from everything I’ve seen. It even makes sense she’d want to keep her family name secret. I know I can relate to that. The only thing that doesn’t match up is that my source said Rance only had one child. You’d think twins would have gotten the attention of everyone.” “Quintuplets.” Edmund