The rest of the night Shane showed me maps of the city; some were drawn by his brother; others were ancient and very brittle from a civilization long forgotten. Intently; I pored over the faded and brittle pages while Shane pointed out key entrances to the tunnels and locations where the most disappearances have occurred.

"Here", he said pointing to a spot about three streets to the east. "There is a collapsed building here that Jason said had buried an entrance to these tunnels". Looking up from the paper; "he found it about a year ago", he continued, " said he noticed rats scurry into this one hole and when he looked he could see that there was an opening under the rubble. Well, you know his curiosity gets the best of him";he said fondly, so he moved enough of the concrete to slide through and found a stairway down hidden away from sight".

I studied the map, then looked at a tunnel map; " I don’t see a connection between the tunnels and that street", I stated. " perhaps it was just a cellar".

"I wish it had been, Shane said sadly; "but Jason went back several times with torches to explore it and pointed out that there should be a connection somewhere but he couldn’t get his bearings down there to be sure where it was."

Looking at the pile of maps I thought it strange that Jason never made some sort of map of this discovery that fascinated him so. " Does anyone else know about these maps or have access to this room?" I questioned.

Shane arched an eyebrow puzzlingly. "well, I can’t say I’m overly cautious but I generally keep this office locked; Jason and I have the only keys. Oh, and Lailagha, the housekeeper, of course".

"Lailagha?"

"Yes, the housekeeper; and barmaid", he added. "Sweet young elf, you met her earlier; scared her half to death I might add; what with that dagger sticking in your back", he laughed heartily.

I sat back in the chair, looked at the maps, then back at the trusting face of the Ashgoroth standing at the desk. "Has Lailagha seen these maps?" I asked.

"Oh, that’s possible" he said, rather nonchalantly. " We never saw any reason to be secretive about them; I just lock them up because they damage so easily. Besides Lailagha been with us for many years; what use would she have for them".

"I don’t know", I said solemnly, "but I think you should be a bit more careful, these maps could prove extremely helpful to Burdrin to move about quickly and undetected."

"Yes", he agreed. " Things are very different now, I guess", he added sadly. " I really thought I could make a difference with my knowledge."

Reflecting on what I observed around the inn; I knew, if it weren’t for Burdrin Lyrch, the efforts of Shane and his brother would be improving this world; the light of hospitality would spread from this inn, person by person; community by community. Swallowing the last of the wine, I stood, "Well my friend, it’s almost morning I think we both need to get some rest, I have a busy night ahead of me".

"Yes, Volodya Taras, I know you do", he replied, gathering the maps and carefully binding them up and putting them back in the locked drawer in his desk.

"These will be here at your disposal", he stated. " I’ll keep the key to the drawer in this book", he said as he turned from the desk to place the book back on the shelf; making sure I clearly saw where it was. " Have a good sleep, my friend; if you need anything I will attend to it personally."

"Thank you", I replied earnestly. " To anyone but you this may sound strange; but at dusk could you have some raw meat brought to my room?"

Laughing; Shane replies, " Raw meat?, do you want it on the hoof ? Of course, consider it done".

With a shake of his hand I left Shane’s office and went back to my room. The hallway was empty and the building was quiet. Downstairs, the inn was closed and on this floor the guests were still asleep in their rooms. As I turned the key to unlock my room I thought of the maps and the disappearance of Jason; someone here had to tip off Burdrin. Opening the door I stepped inside and instantly felt a crushing THUD to the back of my head; falling to my knees I turned to see the young face of Lailagha whispering "I’m so sorry" as she brought down the heavy skillet one more time.