The rest of the day went just as well as Crow could have hoped. The peasants that they ran into throughout the village all either fed Gavin the same story about the thieves heading to Azmar or avoided being questioned by making up excuses to get away. As time went on, Gavin attempted to refine his questions to get more details about when the group had passed through, but since the story they all told had been fabricated by Crow, they didn’t tell him anything more than what the very first group had offered.

By the end of it all, Crow was feeling quite pleased with himself and with the villagers, but he could tell that Gavin had grown more and more frustrated with the outcome of the interrogation. It was clear that there had been several sightings of the group they were chasing down, but the lead they had come away with was just as flimsy as the last one had been. It certainly wasn’t enough to persuade the knights’ baroness to approve of yet another trip to the far-away village of Azmar.

As time wore on, Gavin also seemed to grow more suspicious of Crow as well. The thief noticed him glancing in his direction more often during questionings, and the knight didn’t let him wander as far away while they walked from one part of the village to the next. It felt like the man was more certain than ever that he had done something to sabotage their efforts, but he couldn’t find any way to prove it. So, instead of turning on him outright, he reigned in his tether to keep him under even closer watch than before.

Despite the Gavin’s added precautions, Crow knew that there was nothing the knight could do to confirm his silent accusation. He went along with everything with a nonchalant attitude, giving off an air that he had nothing to hide. Unfortunately, his confident mannerisms only seemed to further irritate the knight, who refused to believe that he was as innocent as he wanted everyone to think.

On the other hand, Olivia didn’t seem to catch on to the tension between the two men as she grew more impatient with the mission altogether. As the sun sank lower in the sky, her whining increased until Gavin finally caved and agreed that they could take their search to the local tavern, so she could go drinking. Having gotten her way, she finally lapsed into a content silence as the patrol made its way down the main road once more.

They reached the building at sunset, and Olivia wasted no time hurrying inside to order a drink. Crow rolled his eyes as he followed after her, finding her enthusiasm for alcohol distasteful although he said nothing about it aloud. When he stepped into the tavern, he did a quick sweep of the room only to find that Penelope’s group had arrived ahead of them. It looked like they were just finishing up questioning a group of drunken peasant men and women. He muttered a curse under his breath. It was early now, but if they stayed too long, one of the intoxicated villagers might let slip that the thief had been the one to tell them all to lie. He had to do something.

“What’s with that look?” Gavin’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. He turned to see that the knight was eyeing him warily. “You almost seem worried about something.”

Crow fought the urge to curl his lip at the nosey man as he replied, “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Gavin pressed.

“Just wondering if Penelope’s patrol had any better luck than we did,” Crow answered with a roll of his eyes as he gestured to her nearby group. “Don’t try to tell me you’re not curious. I know you’re just as eager as I am to find out what they learned.” He turned around again. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to ask her, myself.” Without waiting for a reply, he took off and left the knight behind.

Weaving between the tables, he made his way over to Penelope’s side and slipped his arm around her waist to get her attention. “Hey there, gorgeous,” he greeted her with a flirtatious smirk followed by a kiss on the cheek. “Did you find anything interesting?”