Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

“Right,” she said but was quiet for a long time after that.

My nonchalance toward her stung, but not being able to have children was something I was grateful for. This world is too dark for children. And us players aren’t fit to be parents anyway.

We stopped for lunch at a quaint restaurant about fifteen minutes later when the sun was highest overhead. Eris was still in her head and didn’t touch her food, but I savored the spicy sausages I ordered and half a loaf of fresh bread with butter. I drank my fill of their local ale and paid a gold for our food to the ecstatic owner.

We lingered for an hour or so until the lunchtime rush abated, and the roads cleared as the populace went back to work. We climbed back on Lacuna, and I pushed her a little faster to make up for the lost time. As the hours went by, Eris still hadn’t come back to her usual self. I knew what troubled her, but there was nothing I could do, nothing she could either, that would fix it.

“I know it sucks, and I’m sorry. I wish I could do something to cheer you up.”

“Thank you, but it’s not like even if we could conceive that it would change anything. My race was doomed the moment we raised our hands in war. I’m the last one left, maybe the last of the entire Hive. Nothing I can do will ever restore us to what we were. I’m the queen of a dead kingdom.”

After that, we didn’t speak for a long time, but she perked up a little as it got twilight. The streetlights were lit, and Eris marveled at the many flickering flames as we rode past.

The traffic thinned to almost nothing as darkness crept in. Except for the occasional guard or drunkard, the streets were barren. Most career thieves and criminals wouldn’t dare let themselves be caught on the main roads. I started to look for a place to stop and rest, and before we’d gone a hundred feet, we passed by an inn.

It was a large white building, built in the half-timbered style so common in the Compass Kingdom, the wooden support beams flush to fresh white plaster and freshly stained bay windows. A gray shingled roof that looked easy to climb, and the makeshift ladder bolted to the side only confirmed it. If you needed a quick escape route, there were several options here. From the quick glance, it looked like a Trapped Lodge, an establishment built and operated with the sole purpose of relieving their patrons of their coin…by any means necessary.

These places thrived on the tourist traffic that came and went like wildfires. The people who lived in the city or frequented enough times knew to avoid these places like the plague. They paid hefty dues to the Merchants Guild to keep their operations running, which is the only reason the Alliance let them continue.

No way in the nine Hells am I risking Eris or myself by tempting fate that hard. I guided Lacuna through the dead streets, keeping a low profile as much as I could, though more than one pair of eyes peered at us from the rooftops or out from darkened alleyways. Thieves Guild oculars. That didn’t take long. 

I withdrew and dropped three gold coins in purposeful succession—one after the other. The coins pinged off the stone like the cracks of a whip and destroyed the thin silence. A message and a toll rolled into one payment.

“Phineas Carn, Crescent Rose, noon.”

The absence was like a vacuum when they departed, and when I turned back, the coins had vanished—three taps on a nearby windowpane. Message received.

No further trouble followed us as we made our way deeper into the East Kingdom, past the sleeping houses and places of business. After maybe another ten minutes of riding through the sleepy streets, we came across another inn.

It was a rather boisterous place, as through the large bay window, I could see many a patron drinking and dancing, and the muffled sounds of music crept through the glass.

A glance at the vaulted, dark, wooden roof told me this place was as free of danger as I was likely to find inside the kingdom. I made my way around the small barn by the side of the stone building and stabled Lacuna. It wasn’t my ideal location to house her for the evening, but she was smarter than the average criminal, so I wasn’t worried about horse thieves.

I gingerly climbed off her and helped Eris down. She held my hand tightly as I opened the door. The first thing that hit me was the loud music. It was audible from outside, but I wasn’t prepared for how noisy it would be once we stepped inside. A mixture of drums and a lute with the soft vocals of a woman.

She was thin, with long golden blonde hair and sharp eyes. Her face held delicate features, high cheeks, and a round chin. She wasn’t beautiful, but I’d call her cute.

What stood out was her voice. It was soft, yet clear enough to resonate through the tavern, and it lent itself well to singing. The lute player and the drummer were both handsome men with similar features as the woman. All blond with slight looks and wearing matching blue and white clothes. A family of musicians?

I ignored them and focused on maneuvering my way through the bustling tavern, not so easy when I was dragging Eris through the crowd and kept having to stop or collide with drunken or dancing fools. I finally reached the check in station.

A stocky, handsome woman operated the counter. She was built large, not with fat but with a decent amount of muscle on her. She wasn’t a former adventurer, no. Her build came