The Silver Horse (Petrichor 365)

On the road down the coast, on the opposite side of Port Imperial from Fort Ajzure is the Silver Horse, an inn and stables.  When the city wall is completed around Port Imperial, it will be outside the city and, honestly, the people of the Silver Horse are just as happy with that.

The inn is made of turf and wood and is a single room with a stone fireplace and chimney at one end.  The fireplace is used for cooking and there is usually something bubbling away over it for a hungry traveler.  There are long tables and benches, easily stack aside for those who wish to sleep inside the inn.  It is not fancy but it is warm and the food is hearty.

The stable nearby is built in a similar fashion but with some storage in the raters above to keep the fodder dry.

There are three round houses are where the people who run it all live when they are not actually working.  And there is a smokehouse for the preservation of meats.  They keep chickens, cows, goats, and pigs providing a variety of useful products ultimately including meat and hides.

The inn is owned by Cairbre Blackhand, a retired warrior, who came to Petrichor for a place of his own, and the Silver Horse became it.  He is a large man with a black beard shot through with grey while his hair has gone almost completely grey.  He is covered with both scars and tattoos and everyone has a story attached to it.  While the inn is his, he mostly works in the stable as he feels he is better with animals than people.

His niece Rathnait runs the inn, greeting people and overseeing the preparation of food.  She is tall and slender with dark brown hair falling to her hips and deep brown eyes that do not seem to miss anything.  She is good at talking to people  Rathnait is also a leader in the local Moon Sect, drawing upon the traditions of her people passed from generation to generation.  While nice enough, she also looks for any chance to make things more difficult for the Imperial forces or those of any Draconic Houses that pass by, nothing overt, just minor troubles, she is no fool.

The rest of the people who work the inn and its grounds are cousins or even more distant relatives, and a few complete outsiders who just fell in with them and fit.

Those who frequent the Silver Horse have no love for the Draconic Imperium, though they are careful not to express such feelings openly, it is just understood among the regulars.  It may be that they have help those escaping Imperial or Draconic “justice” to flee further into the hinterlands of Petrichor.  But you did not hear it from me.

Notes: Even under the watchful eye of the Imperium, there are those who oppose dragonrule, they just do so carefully.

Petrichor 365.  Previous entry:  The Cove Cat, a ship  Next Entry: Honeycutt’s Warehouse No. 2

Image photo found on Wikimedia Commons and is in the Public Domain.