Crow could already tell he wasn’t going to like this interrogation. As he sat down at the table of peasants with Gavin, he could see the knight eyeing him suspiciously from the corner of his eye. It seemed like even though he had relented and given the man his pick of the villagers to question, he still wasn’t going to be given any grace. He let out his breath in a quiet sigh of exasperation and glanced across the tavern at Olivia and Penelope, who seemed to be enjoying themselves much more than he was with Gavin. It felt unfair that he had to get stuck with the uptight knight while they were drinking and generally having a good time.

Fortunately, the men at their table didn’t question his gloomy behavior, since they were all drinking to wash away their own sorrows. In fact, they didn’t even greet him or Gavin when they sat down to join them. The only one who interacted with them at all was a wench, who came over to ask if they wanted anything to drink. Seeing an opportunity, Crow turned to her with a dull expression, “Two mugs of your strongest ale, please.” He caught sight of Gavin giving him a questioning look, but he kicked the knight beneath the table before he could open his mouth to say anything and ruin his act.

“This war’s even got you down, huh, thief?” one of the men finally spoke up as the wench walked off to take his request.

“Yep,” Crow shrugged dolefully, propping his elbow on the table and resting his cheek against the palm of his hand. “Things aren’t much better in the northern villages.”

“Wait, you recognize him?” Gavin interjected suddenly, grasping at the tail of what he seemed to think was a lead. His eyes flickered to the thief for a moment before returning to the villagers. “When was the last time he was here?”

Crow narrowed his eyes at the knight, picking up right away on where he was going with the question. However, before he could speak up, another man answered the question first, “It’s been a while, huh?” He turned to his companions, who nodded in agreement, before meeting the knight’s gaze. “He and some other thieves tried to help us out during the war before things got so bad, but it’s been a few seasons now since I last saw his face around here.”

“See?” Crow turned to Gavin smugly, leaning back in his chair as the wench returned with their drinks. “It wasn’t me. Now would you stop trying to accuse me of something I didn’t do and focus on the real enemy here?”

“I’m still not convinced there’s another enemy at all,” Gavin glared at him and took a sip of his drink, wrinkling his nose slightly at the strength of the ale.

Crow scoffed and shook his head, lifting his mug to his lips as he downed a draught of the bitter liquid. He fought back the urge to make a face as well. Since he didn’t like to get drunk, he usually didn’t order ale this potent. However, it was for the sake of blending in with the people of Aramoor, so he couldn’t give away his distaste. Setting the mug down again, he looked up at the villagers across the table, “I don’t suppose any of you blokes have seen a group of travelers pass through recently, have you?” He jabbed a thumb at Gavin. “This moron lost his coin purse, and he’s convinced that one of them stole it.”

Gavin shot him a cold look, to which the thief just winked slyly in return. The story was already out, so there wasn’t much the knight could do about it.

“Come to think of it, I did see some men come through last week,” one of the peasants stroked his beard in thought. “There were about five of ‘em.”

Crow and Gavin turned to him with interest. Jaxon’s group was much larger than just five men the last time the thief had seen it, but he supposed that only a few of them could have come into town for some drinks. “Is that so?” he said, leaning forward in his seat. “What did they look like?”

“I don’t remember,” the man shook his head. “I just remember that they were speaking a strange language. Nothing I’ve ever heard the likes of before.”

“I see,” Crow frowned. If the travelers had been speaking another language, it couldn’t have been Jaxon’s thieves.

“I take it these weren’t the men you’re lookin’ for?” another villager said, noticing his expression.

“No,” he sighed, lifting his mug again.

“Interesting,” Gavin said dryly, swirling the remains of his half-filled glass. “Another dead lead.”

“It was a longshot that we would hear anything about them in any village,” Crow shot him a glower. “They could have traveled through the forest without stopping.”

“Sounds like an excuse to lead us around in circles while your friends make off with our supplies,” Gavin growled.

Crow groaned and leaned back in his chair, tilting his head back as he raked both of his hands through his hair, “Gods, what is it going to take to get it through that thick skull of yours that it wasn’t me?”

“You can say that as many times as you want, but I know the truth,” Gavin said stubbornly. “You just don’t want Penelope to find out what kind of man you really are, so you can keep up your ridiculous charade. Unfortunately for you, it’s only a matter of time now before she realizes it for herself.”

“I’m too sober for this nonsense,” Crow muttered, downing another sizeable portion of his ale.

“You might as well give up now,” Gavin went on, a bit looser with his words now that he had finished off most of his drink. “Your game is over. I’m going to show her that you’re no different than any other criminal and make sure you get what you deserve after what you did to our comrades.”

“Good luck with that, since I didn’t do anything,” Crow snapped. His eyes flickered towards the villagers, who were now getting up from their table to get away from the fight, and he felt a pang of embarrassment as he realized that he and the knight were causing a scene. “You’ll see when we find the thieves we’re looking for,” he went on in a more tamed voice, downing the rest of his drink and setting the empty mug on the table. He could feel the alcohol dull his senses, but he was still self-aware enough to think straight, so he stood up from the table and glanced over his shoulder at the door.

“We should see if the others heard anything more useful than we did,” he said, looking back down at the knight.

“You’re never going to let go of this story about mystery thieves, are you?” Gavin shook his head as he rose to his feet as well.

“Not as long as I’m convinced it was them,” he shrugged.

“Touche.”

Crow shot him one more glare, but held his tongue. He had much more of a reason to believe that Jaxon was behind the raid than Gavin had to believe it had been him. However, knowing that anything more he had to say would just fall on deaf ears, he decided to save his breath. Instead, he turned his back on the knight and headed to their meeting spot near the tavern entrance to find out what Olivia and Penelope had learned from the villagers they had spoken with.