Crow straightened his posture and turned to Olivia as she announced that they should split up. He nodded in agreement, having already expected they would part ways to cover ground more quickly. In addition to that, he also knew it would be better for them to speak with the people in the tavern either individually or in pairs, since approaching them all together might cause the villagers to be warier of answering their questions honestly. Splitting up was their best option if they wanted to have any chance of finding out if the thieves they were after had passed through Whitebridge.

[color=fdc68a][b]“Do you mind if I stick with you, Penelope?”[/b][/color]

The thief stiffened slightly as Gavin spoke up. He turned towards him with a narrowed gaze, already catching on to the game the knight was playing. He had been hoping to work with Penelope and pair Gavin off with Olivia, but that plan obviously wasn’t going to work now that the female knight had already wandered off to interrogate villagers on her own. Glancing towards Penelope, he frowned as she agreed to work with her former suitor. The thought of the two knights going off alone together sent a pang of annoyance through him, but, unable to think of a good excuse to separate them, he just shrugged.

“I guess so,” he muttered, unable to stop the hint of jealousy that slipped into his voice. Casting one last irritable glance at Gavin, he headed over to another table of peasants, brushing the knight’s shoulder with his own as he walked past him.

Not wanting to use the same method twice, he slid into an open seat at their table with a friendly grin. “Anyone up for a few rounds of passe-dix?” he said challengingly, holding up the coin purse he had snatched from Gavin’s pocket as he had passed him earlier. He smirked to himself. The knight may have won Penelope’s time once, but that didn’t mean the thief was going to let him get away with it.

Of course, the villagers were more than willing to gamble—especially after they saw how much money Crow was putting on the table—so they had more than enough participants to start the game. As they played, even more people gathered around the table to watch. This worked in Crow’s favor, as he added in a rule that any time someone lost a stake—which happened quite often—everyone had to take a shot. Naturally, he only pretended to drink as the game wore on, since he wanted to be clearheaded enough to interrogate them, but all of the men and women who had joined the table quickly lost themselves to the alcohol’s effects.

After a while, when it looked like they were all good and drunk, Crow stood up from the table. “I have to say, luck wasn’t in my favor tonight,” he sighed, stifling a smirk as he retrieved the coin purse, which had been emptied aside from a few silver coins.

“Better luck next time, eh, thief?” one of the men shot him an intoxicated grin as he flaunted his winnings.

“I hope so,” he shook his head, holding out his hands in a helpless shrug. “Either way, next time won’t be tonight. I’m all out.” He paused, as if struck with another thought, and turned back to the small crowd of villagers. “By the way, have any of you seen a group of travelers pass through recently? They’d be about ten or more people from this kingdom. I’m looking for a man amongst them who owes me some money. If I find him, I’ll come back for another game of passe-dix.” He grinned at them challengingly, hoping they would take the bait.

“Sorry,” the man shook his head. “Haven’t seen anyone like that.”

“I saw a group of seven three days ago,” a woman spoke up with a frown. “But they were all from Gorm.”

“Oh yeah, I remember them,” another woman nodded. “I also remember there was quite a good-looking man among them.”

“Ooh, you mean the one with those gorgeous blue eyes, right?”

“Yes, yes! That’s the one. I nearly swooned when he looked at me…”

Crow sighed as the conversation quickly derailed. It seemed like no one had run into the thieves he was looking for after all. [i]They must not have traveled through Whitebridge,[/i] he thought contemplatively. [i]Maybe they went south after all… or straight to Younis.[/i] He knitted his brow in concern. It was still possible that Jaxon had decided to go right to the Younisian baron for his pay. If they had traveled without stopping, there would have been no reason for them to make a detour by any of the villages.

Having finished questioning the villagers at his table, he headed back to the front of the tavern to meet up with the others and find out if they’d had better luck.