The Horserider (Part 2)

  The moon was beautiful, Philip thought, as he trudged slowly on the old foot path. The crunching leaves under him sounded hypnotically soothing. It was pure bliss being out of that claustrophobic city.
  The night air was cold and dense.Despite wearing a heavy coat, he still felt incredibly frosty.His fingers felt like they were going to drop off. Sure, the coat was old and has a couple of holes, here and there, but it should at least make him feel warm enough, Philip pondered to himself but he knew that he shouldn't expect any luxuries. 
  The area surrounding Higard was suspiciously bare with the closest tree being at least a few kilometres away. Philip grumbled at the paranoia that clutched the hearts of nearly all Higardians.  The trees, from what he heard, were cut down a long time ago to prevent armies from setting the city ablaze. Those fears were preposterous though.The city had no reason to be burnt down, anyway. Burning a holy site to the ground would definitely make you unpopular. He never had experience though,burning holy sites down,but he knew no sane person wanted flak from locals.
  His eyes soon rested on the rusted axe he was clutching in his hand. The handle was slightly rotten but it somehow manages to hold the heavy iron head. It should be enough to cut a few logs for the winter. It used to belong to one of his renters. He almost missed the poor sap. Almost.
  The old man's eyes were darting from left and to right, as if he was being hunted by someone, when he entered Philip's inn. His clothes were tattered, more so than Philip's. What made Philip quite heedful was that he had a large sack slung over his shoulder. No poor men that Philip knew would hide anything valuable in anything. He shuffled to Philip's desk slowly.
  "How may I help you, fine sir?" Philip enquired politely as he could while he tried to shake off the suspicion he felt in his heart.
  "I need a damn room." The man spat briskly with a raspy voice.
  Philip was slightly disturbed by the sudden outburst of the stranger. "That would be 3 Pecuniae." he stated. In normal circumstances, he would treat the customer he was attending to bitterly. But he can obviously sense that there was something unusual about him.
  The man peeked into his bag and Philip can heard loud clanking from it. He soon fished out 13 Pecuniae from it.
  "Extra privacy",he muttered as he handed the money to Philip .
  Philip motioned the man into a rather out of the way room and gave him the keys with a warm and welcoming smile. As the strange man limped his way into the room,Philip's face scrunched up. He hated dirty money. Moreover,the guards would happily pay four times more than the man at least.
  At nightfall, three guards menacingly entered the inn. Philip quietly hinted to the burly guard who had an aura of leadership, "The person you're looking for is in there" as he pointed at the man's room with as much energy as a sloth. The guards ran up to the door and knocked it down. Philip stayed near his desk, calmly looking on, as he made out the sound of a blade swishing through the air and spilt blood. A thud followed straight after.
  "Caught that bastard."
  "Pipe down," a powerful voice boomed from the room."You, drag him to the Pit."
  "Why me? I did this last time. It's suppose to be your turn doing the dirty work."
  "I just got promoted to Enforcer and it's undignified for a gentlemen to drag bodies around."
  "Fine. Just say you were lazy,Raul."
  " Lazy and a rank above you."
  "Shut up."
  Philip had a quick glance on the man as he was dragged out. His face had a big gaping wound and his nose was almost torn apart. The old man let out a soft whimper as the guards slowly pulled him away. The innman was convinced that the he practiced sorcery as no one
could survive from a wound that grave.
  The Enforcer heaped 42 octagonal coins on Philip's table. A handsome sum if Philip ever saw one. He offered Philip to take the man's belongings. Philip got off his wooden chair slowly and walked to the room as the door to his inn closed.
  The bed had a rather fowl stain and a rusted axe with blood splattered on the walls.
  Clip Clop
  "Huh"
  Philip jumped up and slipped on the smooth cobble when he landed.