Sean frowned at the communication unit. We stood in the narrow alley just outside the door leading to Baha-char, dressed in our travel innkeeper robes, simple garments that hid our clothes. His resolve to not look for Wilmos lasted about as long as his piece of cake.
“Nothing?” I guessed.
“It’s not even picking him up.”
He pulled his hood on, hiding his face. I did the same, and we started down the alley toward the wide street, where the myriad of Galactic shoppers of all shapes, colors, and species flowed like a river through the canyon of tall, terraced buildings.
Wilmos’ shop lay off the beaten path, just inside an alley branching off from the main street, its door sheltered by an archway. Sean turned into the alley and stopped. I stopped too.
He inhaled. A second passed. Another.
“What is it?” I asked him softly.
“It smells like Michael.”
Dread washed over me. My fingers went ice cold. Michael Braswell had been my older brother’s best friend. He’d become an ad-hal, an innkeeper enforcer, one of many responsible for neutralizing threats the innkeepers couldn’t handle, then he’d disappeared. Nobody saw him for over a year until he blocked our way on the street at Baha-char and tried to kill us. He was no longer the Michael I knew. He was decay and rot, a living corruption oozing foul magic. He’d almost killed me, and then his corpse had infected Gertrude Hunt and tried to kill another ad-hal.
“The scent is old,” Sean said. “Stay behind me.”
I followed him to the door. Sean keyed a long code into the electronic lock. It clicked, and the thick reinforced door swung open. He stepped into the gloom and the automated lights came on, bathing the store in a sharp artificial glow.
The shop was in shambles. Wilmos had a place for everything, and his wares were arranged with military precision. The place looked like a bomb had gone off inside it. Weapons littered the floor among shards of glass. Store shelves hung half torn from the walls. Ahead a counter had been split in two and by it, on a pile of glass, sprawled a large lupine body covered with blue-green fur. Gorvar, Wilmos’ pet and guard, one of the last Auul wolves.
Dear universe, what the hell happened here?
“Clear,” Sean said.
I rushed to Gorvar. His fur was matted with congealing blood, still viscous but old. I put my hand on his neck, searching for a pulse. His eyelids trembled. He raised his head, trying to snap, but he had nothing left.
“It’s me,” I told him.
Recognition sparked in his green eyes. Gorvar whined softly.
“Hold on, big guy.” I spun to Sean. “We have to get him to the inn.”
Sean scooped the massive beast into his arms and carried him out like a puppy. I followed, pushing the door shut behind me. The lock clicked.
We hurried through the streets, dodging traffic. The shoppers of Baha-char had seen everything, and nobody paid us any mind. In fifteen minutes, we reached the inn’s entrance. Sean handed Gorvar to the inn.
“I have to go back.”
I brushed a kiss against his lips. “Be careful.”
He nodded and took off at superhuman speed.
I entered Gertrude Hunt. “To the infirmary. Quickly.”
The inn gulped Gorvar’s body and opened the stairs. I took them two at a time. I had no idea how, but I had to save Wilmos’ wolf.
#
I looked at Gorvar sprawled on the medical table. He had four deep lacerations that carved him from his belly halfway up his side. Something had dug into his stomach with its claws and dragged them up, ripping gashes in his flesh. The edges of the wounds were trying their best to turn necrotic, but Auul wolves had insane immune systems. It was part of the reason their DNA had been used to bioengineer werewolfism. Whatever contamination had invaded his body had to be very potent, because normally the wounds would’ve closed by the time we found him.
Gorvar had lost a lot of blood. The medical unit wasn’t specifically calibrated for Auul wolves, but it was pretty good at biological analysis and extrapolating the proper course of treatment. It had pumped him full of antibiotics. I had used the robotic surgery system to repair a cut in his liver, cleaned his wounds, cut off a very thin sliver of the injured tissue to combat the worst of the necrosis, and sealed the wounds. His pulse was weak but steady, and the medical unit’s read outs assured me that in its opinion, he was stable.
Now I just had to wait for Sean to come back.
He had smelled corruption by Wilmos’ store. Corrupted Michael had thick yellowed claws. Sometimes I had nightmares of him chasing me through Red Deer dripping decay and reaching for me with those claws while I desperately tried to find my way back to the inn. My distorted memory made them much bigger in my mind, but objectively speaking, the wounds on Gorvar could have been made by claws just like those.
After I brought Michael’s corpse to the inn to analyze it, the corruption that inhabited his body acted almost like a living thing, a pathogen that actively tried to contaminate the inn. I had purged that infection from Gertrude Hunt, but I had done it in my inn, where I was strongest. Fighting Michael outside of the inn’s boundaries had nearly ended me. Both Sean and I had gone against him, and we’d nearly lost. In fact, we might have if Wilmos hadn’t intervened and sapped some of Michael’s defenses with an alien Gatling gun.
Sean would be fine. He was strong and fast, and if he realized he was losing the fight, he would retreat to the inn. Instead of making a heroic last stand, he would draw the creature to Gertrude Hunt, where we had a million ways to deal with it.
Of course he would be fine.
There was no reason to worry.
There was definitely no reason to rush to Baha-char. I had a responsibility to the inn and its guests. If another thing like Michael was out there and it tried to invade Gertrude Hunt, I needed to be here to defend it.
Besides Caldenia and Orro, we had four other guests in residence, the Koshai. Solitary, sponge-like beings, they rarely travelled outside their world, but due to an emergency, they’d had to make an interstellar trip. It had depleted their inner resources, and they required a suitable environment to recuperate before setting out on their return journey. They needed a marine environment and complete silence. We had buried their chamber deep within the inn, but I couldn’t just leave it unsupervised.
Not to mention that the inn was branching. Shortly after Maud and Helen left the inn, Gertrude Hunt began to grow. Inns branched for reasons known only to them. Right now in the far corner of Gertrude Hunt, a simple hallway formed of the striated wood that was the essence of the inn led to a barrier glowing with pale silver. Eventually that barrier would vanish, and a door would form, opening to another world or possibly a different dimension. That’s why the inn had been gobbling up firewood by the cord. When that door opened, which could be any minute, one of us needed to be there because we had no idea what lay on the other side of it.
So chasing after Sean was out of the question.
How long did it take to inspect the store anyway? He should have been back by now.
Magic chimed in my mind. The Baha-char door opened, and Sean entered the inn. Finally.
I jumped up. The inn dropped a staircase in front of me and I climbed it into the kitchen.
By the island, Orro drew himself up to his full seven feet. His dark quills rose slightly.
“You have made a cake,” he said.
“Not now,” I told him and hurried into the hallway.
Sean was waiting by the door. It was still open. Sean’s eyes had that focused, clear look they got just before he expected to jump into a fight. My pulse speed up.
“I need your help.”
My robe was still on. The inn dropped my broom into my hand. I jogged out the door back into the Baha-char sunshine, and we rushed through the streets, dodging passersby.
“Gorvar?” he asked.
“Stable. Where are we going?”
“Something took Wilmos out of his store. It went through a portal gate. The gate has a guardian. He won’t tell me where it goes.”
Walking through that kind of door without knowing where it led could get you killed. You could end up in the middle of a volcano or out in space.
The bazaar had many gates and entrances, some obvious like the huge stone arch leading to Teegarden’s Star, others hidden like the simple length of worn canvas in a dusty tent that hid an entrance to Luyten 98-59 f. Most of them were guarded.
There was no point in asking more until I saw it.
#
The gate lay far from the center of the bazaar. We’d been walking and jogging for over twenty minutes, and we had left the brightly decorated streets behind awhile ago. Here the air was ominous, the canvas roofs of the stalls faded and tattered, and trash littered the cobblestones. This wasn’t the fun-shopping part of Baha-char. You didn’t come to this place unless you wanted something specific you could only get here, and the grim-faced vendors gave us dark looks as we passed.
A merchant on our left, a strange creature with the shaggy body of a sloth, a massive beak, and furry tentacles instead of limbs, screeched as we passed. It was hanging upside down off the top frame of its shop, anchored to it by its hind tentacles, and I had no idea what species it was, which almost never happened. When we got home, I would have to look it up.
A large stone arch loomed ahead, its brown stone worn and scarred. Remnants of red banners hung from it, bleached by the sun to a dirty pink and torn to shreds by the desert wind. Tall buildings with barred windows crowded the arch on both sides, creating a long gloomy tunnel.
We strode through it. A draft fanned us, bringing a thick, potent scent, an off-putting musk. Some kind of animal had marked its territory here.
The musk grew stronger. I fought the urge to clear my throat. I could taste it on the back of my tongue. Next to me, Sean grimaced and kept going.
The tunnel ended and we emerged into a round plaza formed by a single circular building. Three oversized stories high, the building stretched to the sky, offering rows and rows of balconies and stone benches. Strange creatures and elaborate glyphs had been carved into its sandy stone façade, once sharp, but now smoothed and blurred by time.
The plaza itself was perfectly round, formed with remarkable precision and paved with giant triangular slabs of stone that radiated from its center. In the middle of it two stone towers rose. The base of each was a tall trapezoidal prism that flowed into a three-dimensional crescent toward the top. The two crescents faced each other, crowned with green flames burning in metal braziers.
“This is the Old Arena,” I whispered.
Sean glanced at me.
“They used to have gladiator fights here thousands of years ago. There are three of them in Baha-char. Two are still active. See that gate across from us? The gladiators entered there and then fought to the death. When a fighter died, their flame would go out.”
Each of the stone spires sported a network of delicate blue veins, metal yet liquid. They glistened weakly in the sunshine. The portal vines. One of the easiest ways to set up a teleportation gate. This had to be a recent addition.
Directly opposite us, something stirred in the gloom of the gate. Something large.
A massive leonine paw moved into the light, easily five feet across. Claws shot out and struck the stone.
Oh no.
A colossal shoulder followed, then the other, then the broad muscular chest sheathed in sandy fur, a thick neck crowned with a dark rust mane, and finally the giant head, a strange, disturbing mix of lion and human, anthropomorphic, horrifying, yet cohesive. This wasn’t a mishmash of two species. This was a naturally evolved being, who just happened to resemble a huge predatory cat with human eyes on its face.
Sean’s upper lip wrinkled in a precursor to a snarl. If there ever was a monster designed to terrify his people, an Auul kaiju guaranteed to evoke instant revulsion among the werewolves, the creature in front of us would be it.
“Is that the guardian?” I asked.
“Yep.”
A sphinx. Crap.
Thank you! Really enjoying Fridays even more with Innkeeper.
Certified (in high dispute today hehe)
Dang it. I must have missed the posting by a few minutes when I checked the site earlier today.
😂 my favorite is that it went to someone who didn’t ask for/about it!
I feel there’s a life lesson somewhere in there 😂😂
I agree…
Why does this matter to people?! LOL
+1
Very exciting! I love the Innkeeper Series! I am so happy a new Innkeeper novel is coming. This one looks to be thrilling. A very interesting beginning. I love the first three chapters. I am looking forward to next Friday for the new installment!
First?
No.
darn!
now – I’ll get to reading
*rubs hands manically*
1st? 🙂
No.
First! I won!
Not even close, sorry hehe
Hahahaha, one day soon, I’ll win again.
Sigh… never mind. 🙁
I, too, feel as a sponge-like being in need of a marine environment and silence 🤣
I bet the Inn would do a beautiful floatation tank!
+1!
Definitely! I would love to float in comfort and silence for a day or three. Bet the inn would have an awesome float tank.
Is the inn growing a branch to the holy anocracy’s world so Maud and Helen can visit? 😆
This is what I am hoping for SO MUCH!
I love Helen.
Thank you for giving me something to look forward to!!
Sphinx! And now i’m wondering what Derek is up to. . .
I would *love* that! Would also fix the “what happens when Dina + Sean are gone and the door opens” question. 😁
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Hope you’re right.
While that would be awesome, I have to wonder. Nexus? Wherever the ad-hal train, or the Arbitrators? I’m forgetting — and not going to look up right now — the place where they run the Inns? Where they award the stars and where Dina asks for help at one point (or reports wrongness, I think specifically Michael’s wrongness).
The Innkeeper Assembly. It’s a gathering of Innkeepers and it is on Earth 🙂
That’s what I am hoping for!
I was thinking it was growing to wherever Dina’s parents are. Maybe the Inn figured out where they are.
Oh! I was thinking Maud and Helen, but the parents would be good too! Maybe the Inn hasn’t told Dina because it’s not completely sure that they’re there? 😊
But that would be a little anticlimactic wouldn’t it lol. All this mystery on finding the parents and wallah magic! The inn did all the work 😂
Oooh what is wallah magic? I really really need to retread! Have forgotten so many things!
There is no such thing as “wallah magic” in the Innkeeper 🙂 . I think maybe Sleepy means “and voilà! magic” if there would be a deus ex machina resolution to the missing parents plot line.
That is indeed the case. I don’t know what my brain was thinking when I spelled it that way 😂
That’s an intriguing idea.
That was my first thought/hope as well. It would allow Dina to attend the wedding whenever it happens.
Right? The Inn wants them to visit more!
Or wants Helen as heir to Dina.
That was my first thought.
Will be a great story regardless of where the branch leads – HA delivers on the twists. At first thought all the wood (and magic bolus from Adira’s battle) meant a seed was coming (but guess that title would have been Sweep the Cradle 🙂 instead).
Rock a bye Inn seed on the Inn top,
When the wind blows the cradle will sweep,
When the branch breaks the cradle will fall,
And down won’t come seed, cause it doesn’t need a cradle and all. Cause it’s a seed 😛
rofl
Or how about
When the branch breaks the cradle will fall,
And down comes the seed to plant itself in the ground and all. 😀
(Just not on the grounds of Gertrude Hunt.)
My thoughts too! Please be to Maud!
I love waking up Saturday mornings to read new innkeeper (in Australia)
OH MY GOSH. I love that idea. Love love love.
I like your thinking! I was thinking it would lead to place where the powerful beings were from in the last book. I like your idea better. It makes sense the inn would find a way to Maud.
That would be cool.
I also thought this might be happening. Wouldn’t that be lovely!? 😊
But because we want it to, it won’t. 😈But it will lead somewhere cool and exciting!
And hopefully it might lead to Sebastian North. 😎
Yes! Me too! I think it is growing toward Maud and Helen!!!!! I mean, Klaus is also there right? Or was. The inn is going to grow near the family right?
Oooo! I love it!
AWESOME!!!
Poor Grover!
Oooh, this is good. Thank you so much.
Oh goodness, is Wilmos being forced to fight gladiator style? Is this related to what happened to Dina’s parents? I hope Gorvar gets better, poor thing. And even in the midst of worry for Wilmos, Orro makes me smile… Thanks for this week’s chapter!
Gasp!
Yay! Couldn’t resist reading now, so will just have to use rereading all three chapters as my prod to get the workday done …
Things are getting interesting 😁
I had forgotten what a highlight to my week this was! The entirety of my reading I kept saying, “slow down”. Thanks for a great start to the new year.
I have been haunting this blog page for hours today in the never-ending BDH race to be first ………
The ending of the chapter ……. DUN DUN DUN…… the suspense is killing me.
Imagine I already wish it was next friday already and it is only the 1st week of January 2022!!
Thanks so much! I love this story!
A new branch/portal! What fun! I find myself wondering if it leads to that desert with the methane winds (a snippet I will have to look at again).
Thanks for making Fridays something to look forward to besides the weekend! I am really enjoying this.
So very intriguing. I am loving this new story. We even have new creations.
Friday is my favorite day of the week for a third week in a row. Wonder why 😉.
Awesome!! Thank you so much.. 🙃
Out of curiosity that will likely never get an answer, is the door to Baha-char also an inn branch?
Yes 🙂, that is the first branching for every Inn.
In one of the inn keepers it explains that the first inn seed was thought to come from baha char, so that’s why most inns go to that one first.
Source: in process of re-reading all innkeepers in prep for this 😆
Sweep in peace chapter 6…
“A holy tree of the ancient Norse,” George said. “It extends into all nine realms of their mythology.”
“The problem is that innkeepers have no control over the direction of the branches,” I said. “We know when the inn extends into a particular world, and after a while we can access it, but we can’t make the inn grow a branch to the place of our choosing. Most inns instinctively seek out Baha-char. That’s usually the first world that opens to us.”
Excerpt From
The Innkeeper Chronicles, Volume One
Ilona Andrews
Hope that helps😀
I replied to a page I loaded this am so when I replied (much later) I still looked like the page 10 hours earlier and didn’t see the other answers…
Regardless now you know exactly where the answer to your question is.
Have a good 1!!!
Nice one!!
Brilliant – thank you.
Can I get a Star or a Wolf Stamp for saying I am NOT first? LOL
(Still have to say thank you for making me look forward to Fridays for other reasons than end of the week.)
This getting to be first confuses me. As long as I get here, it’s all good…well, actually it’s downright awesome especially now.
+1 on the First 🙃 being a confusing thing.
Love the arena, gladiators, ugh on offensive musky odour.. hopefully the wounded Auul Wolf survives. (Get this, can’t in certainty recall the name but remember the background, lol)
I read on Saturday after work. Many Thanks, stay safe all.
Thank you!!
Thank you for the awesome reading. When I read about Grovar, I thought “please let him not be dead”. Breathed a sigh of relief when he wasn’t dead just injured really bad. Oh to be one of the sponges. 🙂
*Announcer voice*: What will the sphinx do with Sean and Dina? Will the guardian let them pass? Where is Wilmos? Will Dina need to answer Orro about the cake? Tune in next week for more of Sweep of the Heart! Brought to you by House Andrews.
Is it a vicious, man-eating Greek sphinx or a wise, benevolent Egyptian sphinx?
I think I probably know the answer to this question.
I just want to say thank you. Your snippet brought a moment of joy to a day otherwise devoid of it. Sincerely, thank you.
Thank you. Did the tentacle vendor not have a name because you couldn’t agree on one? Also…last time we got space chickens, this time we got a space sponge, what is next space eggplants?
Thank you again and have a great weekend.
My name is Murielle, i’m a french canadian living alone in Montréal.
I can express my gratitude enough for youre writing .I read mostly all youre series
(except Kinsmen)you bring me joy in this dark time.
Thank you
+1!
Thank you…I needed that!
It’s been such an odd week. Thank you for posting this today. It’s a little piece of normalcy and it was needed.
Thank you so much! It’s our wedding anniversary and my hubby’s birthday today, and this installment is abso-delish to the ult! Got for a reread!
Thank you! That was wonderful and I know you aren’t feeling well.
More! I have been re-reading Nalini Singh series, but now I need to read Ilona Andrews. Your ability to write is awesome. Thank you!
Sponge aliens. Amazing.
A new door….maybe to connect innkeeper families? 😀
Damn this guardian is gonna be tough
Oh wow, I forgot it’s Friday, or let’s make that FriYAY!
Thanks for the chapter. Another great read. My cats curled up with me to enjoy it.
My vote for the door (not serious, but wouldn’t it be fun): The Edge!
A vote would be fun. Maybe even just a poll of if we (BDH) could have our own doorway to somewhere else in our homes where would it be to?
I want a door to the Baylor’s new compound. It seems like it would be a fun place to hang out.
Of course, a door to the Inn would be a good cheat- lots of places to get to from there. Seems like you’d need an armed escort for a lot of them, though.
That would be fun, but Dina already explained to George why that wasn’t possible in Sweep in Peace.
My vote is to Daesyn. The inn misses Maude and Helen.
It could also be to wherever Sebastian North told the inn where to go.
I HATE it when it just stops! Rats! Y’all are too danged good for my heart to take! That was the last thing I expected, of course.
I need more!!!! I love the Innkeeper series and the relationship between Sean and Dina. I love her relationship with the Inn and its inhabitants. It’s a story that keeps growing in cooler and cooler ways. Thank you for sharing your writing with the world
Ahh, a nice swallow of Andrew’s nectar, words distilled to satisfy the many tastes of the BDH.
I’m loving the story, but I don’t recall reading about a “kaiju” in earlier Innkeepers. I get the probable meaning, but would appreciate clarification if possible. Help, Mod R? Thanks.
It is not a term specific to Innkeeper 🙂.
Kaiju (怪獣) in literal translation is “strange beast” and is a popular culture term that refers specifically to giant monsters in various forms of entertainment. Godzilla is probably the best known kaiju.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju
Thank you, Mod R. You’re the best!
Good spot of that in the “name” of the guardian … a fun detail …
A fairly recent usage of the term is in Pacific Rim movie …if you like Charlie Hunnam & Idris Elba it’s a fun watch.
It’s a descriptor 🙂
Ya my bad not “name” I used that incorrectly
If I could edit post … I would have adjusted
Thank you! Such a great thing to read while eating lunch of a Friday.
PS, I don’t even TRY to be first. 😉
Thank you
Thank you – that certainly took my mind off of other things.
I love the innkeeper series, and I know that the IA universe is not happening but when it said that the Inn was branching I first thought Kate Daniel’s universe and then Hidden legacy 🤣 We can only dream. Can’t wait to read all this story
Thanks, and Happy Friday!
“…one of the last Auul wolves.”
Ooh! I thought he was a “last chance to see.” Can there be a mate and cubs? Maybe beast needs a playmate…. Apologies, but I really love Govar. He always seemed more partner than pet.
I am so excited to see where this leads. GH is branching and has guests. More corrupt beings are skulking and Orro may be pouting. Yay!!! Business as usual.
Thank you so very much for all you do!!!
Another exceptional installment. Your creativity leads us to so many wonderful places. Thank you for sharing them with us!!!
And Thanks, ModR, for the kaiju explanation.
Awesome. I do so love Innkeeper chapters! Life sucks in many ways right now and the joy of this universe is like a mood panacea. I hope writing it is twice as rewarding for you guys as it is for me to read. Thanks so much.
I agree with you completely, Stacy. These Innkeeper chapters make me happy. Remembering to check for one is the best part of Fridays lately.
So fun! Worst part about reading as it comes out is I don’t get to enjoy it all at the same time. 😂
So… branchings go to doors (Baha-Char) but Dina can open a portal to wherever?
I think they’ve said before that she can only open doors to places the Inn has already mapped/branched to.
If you or I were staying at the Inn, we could not because we aren’t (sadly) Innkeepers.
Can any Innkeeper open a door or does it have to be someone who belongs to that Inn?
Dina (and now Sean) can only open portals to the place the Inn has branched to :).
Once the branching is complete, the door is fixed within the architecture of the inn, but a portal can be opened anywhere on the grounds of the inn. The easiest way to imagine it is if you have a piece of fabric with a door drawn on one end and Dina on another. Dina can travel across the length of the fabric on foot or she can fold the fabric to bring that door right to her.
“Folding” the fabric takes more energy, so most of the time Sean and Dina will cross the inn to the Baha-char door, for example, rather than actually move the door toward them.
Hope this helps 🙂
Yes! Thank you.
You don’t go back to chapter 1, read it again, same to chapter 2 and then read the next chapter? #HAfan4life
Or you can go back to book one and start over that way, I’m just finished with book 2, starting on book three for this reread. Audible is great for this on my drive to and fro going to work.
Thank you! I really appreciate getting the new chapters on Friday.
Making Fridays more enjoyable! Thank you
I also believe the inn is growing towards the Holy Anocracy, maybe because of the bond it was forming with Helen and that Maud was a temporary Innkeeper while Dina was down. That would mean that Orro *could* cater the wedding after all. (I also believe that whatever is controlling Michael is what has Dina’s parents).
Ohhhh, I love that!
Yeah, there’s probably a connection. I have a feeling the corrupted ad-hals (like Michael) have something to do with the missing inn (and probably an entity’s or group’s desire to attack/control Earth and break/destroy the treaty). Innkeepers are being targeted; other books mentioned only the ad-hals fight to protect them, Earth and the treaty. What happens if all the ad-hals are gone? How many of them can there be?
…Also, I’d LOVE seeing Orro cater that vampire wedding. Or Dina’s, should she and her werewolf decide to tie the knot.
Oh yikes! I hadn’t considered that! This seems too terrible, as how can the elder Demilles maintain a barrier from being permanently corrupted for this many years if they are captive to the malevolence of Michael’s Corruption?!?!?!! It feels to be a fate worse than death!
My only hope/possible protection for the Demilles is that Gerard has experience being sealed in a binding in the heart of this inn for a long stretch. Hoping the in might instinctively rewrap them both for the duration til their kids can get there and rescue them!!
Squeee!
That is all.
Very satisfying, thanks
Thank you!!! So good!!!
I’m so happy to have Friday innkeeper chapters to look forward to again. Thank you!
So did that werewolf chick just leave Gorvar there in a heap? Not cool, chickie.
She probably didn’t know the code to enter Wilmos’s shop
+1. I agree, if you cannot enter yourself, get help for Gorvar.
Loving this. Thank you.
Thank you
A much anticipated treat after a long week 🙂
I am making that cake this afternoon. Wish me luck!
😂 I’m ordering mixers in the mail in order to make the cake! (We can all giggle at my kitchen discoveries as I acclimate to living alone instead of with roommates for years!)
Thank you !!! Those three chapters are freaking awesome !! I love Dina and Sean very much, I can’t count how many time I’ve read the Innkeepers series. You sharing it with us is such a gift, we’re very grateful. I’m incredibly eager for what’s to come, the ending of the chapter left me wanting more.
Love it! Thanks!
I just got the email that the full cast audio version of Clean Sweep is now available from Graphic Audio! 🥳💃💃🥳
Squeee!!! Thank you! Made my friday!
Love this so much! Cannot handle how amazing this story already is. 😍
Love it! Thank you!
I foresee a riddle in our future…
Oh, the plot is thickening, great chapter. Thanks a lot.
I’m also currently rereading Kate Daniels and have several questions pertaining this universe.
1. Who are mages in this universe? They are mentioned in passing, except for medmages. Are they taught or is their magic hereditary? 2. How magic beings increase their magic, can it be through training or do you consume other magic beings (shudder 😩)?
3. In the earlier books it was mentioned that sleeping with Kate can also “give you” some of her powers? Has it happened to Curran?
4. How come Roland and Erra are immortal? Erra hints that Kate can be to? Does it happen because of the amount of magic in you?
Sorry, if the questions are repetitive, I’m a little bit late to the game)
You aren’t alone in your question to number three haha. I feel like I remembered there are mentions of Curran gaining in strength after being with Kate (separate from when he was hunting and eating divine animals in the last few books) and I wondered if this was due to him sleeping with the daughter of a nearly immortal wizard. It was never fully explained so I’m not sure if that’s the case but I’m guessing Kate has the power to make him live forever with her if she feels like it like Roland does with his minions.
It has in fact been explained several times that Kate can grant immortality to those she cares about 🙂
They survive experiences and wounds they wouldn’t otherwise live through. Curran will not die.
Yes, I remember she promises this to Gastek.
WOW! Thank you so much.
Wow – thank you!
First guess for the branch – a Doorway right to the corridor outside Helen’s room, hidden behind a Tapestry – so she can sneak over and steal the Bacon without ripper cushions!
Alternatively, with all the denials of creating a multiverse…perhaps into another dimension which has yet to be written?
Wow,just wow. Now we know why house Andrews got all that firewood recently….*lol”.
This is great – thank you!
It’s not fair. I want more…please.
Oh my do we see a gladiator fight in Sean’s future to save Blabber Mouth Vilmos?
My feeling is that we will see the evil that’s Mukama having undeclared war on innkeepers as they work biohazards to weaponize the innkeepers against each other and the Arbitrators. In the approximately 23 centuries since the Anocracy drove them from Daesyn what angles might they have pursued to get their teeth on more young ones? Surely if the entire race was banned from Earth and Inns, the Mukama population must have been told what happened when Maud’s parents defended her? Snapping up her parents’s Inn to experiment on seems quite logical in that light. It also makes Earth a very tempting larder.
That could make a branch to House Krahr even more needed. I have no doubt that the Anocracy would band together to fight Mukama no matter where they were found.
I’m still hoping to hear what Klaus had to say on Daesyn.
As fantastic as House Andrews work always is, I get some joy from speculating too.
Interesting theory!
I’m very curious to see if it will be a race/entity/planet previously mentioned or something/someone entirely new behind the attacks on ad-hal mages (and ultimately against Earth).
My first thought was Curran😜.
Awesome chapter. Thank you HA.
Same! They said “leonine paw” and I went right to Curran! But sphinx is good, too…
Cue scary music!
Love it!!! ❤️ I do have to say, when they first got into the shop and saw Gorvar’s body, the “they killed the dog???” despair and betrayal that rolled through my whole being was absolute. 😭 I’m so glad he’s alive!
Low-key hoping he joins Beast and Olasard as part of Dina’s growing collection of probably-most-definitely-not-normal pets.
They wouldn’t kill the dog. One important reason they’re safe to read.
I had this same thought about Gorvar joining the Inn family! Then remembered that would require Wilmos’ death. Not a Wilmos fan, but hardly wishing for his death, either. Nevertheless, if someone must be sacrificed for dramatic reasons, he is a good choice. I’m so bad.
Thanks, Daisy, your comment made me laugh out loud. Funny!
Gorgeous! Thank you!
Having one of those really crappy years. I mean, this one has started out near the bottom of the outhouse hole and is digging deeper. But I was happy to remember it’s Friday and there would be a new chapter. (and a zoom meeting)
Thanks, made a bad day a little better.
O Wilmos, where hast you disappeared to? You better not be dragging Sean and Dina into some Nexus level nonsense. Loved the chapter. 😀
I keep expecting Klaus to show up. We’ve heard him mentioned several times in previous books and since his BFF the former Michael Braswell whose corrupt reanimated corpse was featured so prominently in the last one, it just makes sense. You think he’d want to check on his sister who had to battle with his friend’s corpse and whose inn was almost infected by the weird evil in it. One of my fun predictions, we’ll see if it comes true!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Thank you so much. I truly love this series and each excerpt is to die for!
I sometimes wonder if the AdHols could hear Maude’s Adhol voice. She used it three times in her book: when Helen walked into the duel, when the dragon swallowed Helen and when Helen snuck into the final battle.
Thank you! Friday is now my favorite day of the week. I go to bed Thursday night with a smile on my face and a little thrill of anticipation for the coming day.
My very favorite series. I like to read in all at once. Will this eventually be available in ebook? Ty so much for continuing with the story.
Yes 🙂
Well,
That was darn good.
I loved it.
House Andrews, you are wonderful!
I’m on pins and needles in anticipation of next Friday’s drop.
Reading the comments makes me smile, the BDH is definitely invested in these fictional people. I just sit back and enjoy the ride. You have such a fertile imagination!
Very interesting I enjoyed this chapter and did not want it to end as usual you have kept me sitting on the edge of my seat – didn’t want it to end The story leaves me wanting more which is so exciting Thank you for sharing you two are amazing just like the stories you write
Thank you! Awesome as always!
Can’t wait to find out if there will be a tricksy riddle coming up…🤔
Thank you!
I guess she didn’t need to defend it for long.
Thank you so much for this.
Thank you sooo much for doing this
Ooh! I hope the Inn finds Maud and Helen. Maud can use the Inn for functions and the chairs will all be the right size, and Orro can cook the food right.
Thank you, I am drawn in as soon as I start reading a chapter.
I wanted to keep reading. It made my day to see this new chapter. So good!!
Yes it’s exciting and excellent 🙂
Oh, thank you for this exciting chapter! I’ve had an absolutely terrible day, so it was wonderful to escape to the Innkeeper universe.
Soo good. More please 😃 loved it 💝💝💝
Thank you
So a gateway with a guardian….
I seem to remember a posting “sneak peak” “teaser” or something of that ilk from House Andrews that was just a picture ….
Of Dina??? and Sean?? In a magic bubble above a planet …. Floating in space
Was that for something else that I missed … or maybe the story of that image is about to appear!!
Thanks all …
Not to mention that this chapter specifically mentions exactly that…
I wish I could edit or add to my comments….lol
My mistake … the post was in July … and it looked like JUST Dina (to me)
My brain forgot about the text and for some reason I had 2 people in bubble (in my head) when it was just one.
https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/we-must-find-him/
The post I referenced above … so y’all don’t have to go looking
Yikes!! I had forgotten all about this teaser! Thank you for posting the link!
Is that Sebastion North in the bubble? Would the Inn be branching to Karron?
Today has been a horrible day. This made it a lot better. Good enough that I can go sleep. Thank you so much!
Just gets better and better , love it
“You have made a cake.” I love it.
I love how Dina effectively aborts Orro’s drama by saying, “Not now!” and taking care of business.
wow, what a great chapter.
So glad Innkeeper is back, it helps make the weeks brighter! Maybe I missed a discussion about this at some point, but I’d also be interested to hear more about how you prep to write a serial like this. How much is planned ahead of time, how much is on the fly, that sort of thing.
I’m not used to looking for the new Innkeeper chapter yet.
I looked yesterday and meant to check later, but forgot…
Luckily, it doesn’t go away if you miss it.
Thank you for the new chapter.
I was accidentally first once. I had even read the post, assuming I would be several posts down page by the time my comment went up.
It’s still a neat feeling.
Oh boy!
Well thats fun
Now time to go train horses….lol
Thank you so much. Loved every chapter so far. And now I’m looking forward to some good riddles 🧐
Just reread the entire Innkeeper series in anticipation! Love, love, love this series! Thank you for sharing chapters.
You have made a cake, hahaha.
This was great. Thank you.
I can’t tell you how much I love this blog. Being able to read the chapters. Thank you!
Hmm
We have corruption of ad hals, we have a missing Inn along with Dina’s parents, we know the mukama are somewhere, Sebastion North and now the corruption has taken Wilmos and left a sphinx guard.
I don’t think GH would open a door to the bad guys but maybe some allies or answers? Why take Wilmot? Bait?
oh ! this sooooo good ! Thank you so much for taking me away to a world of adventures and wonders !
awesome thankyou so much. Unfortunately the addict in me is now fully awake and craving another fix lol.
+1…..
HA dispensing bibliocrack to the BDH…..
The timing could not be better. A report was just leaked that our university is preparing for no more than 1,600 new covid cases among students a day. (A senior friend in the department opines that really, this is just pragmatic.)
I’m not teaching, I can do my job from home, I have delightful feline companions… but I know I am going to be missing the energy from actually working with folks in person. A new story, plus the discussion section here? Yes please.
Youch! Wishing you continued and increasing stamina for work-from-home. This pandemic just drags on…
I feel like I seriously have the long end of the stick on this one. In my ideal world I’d probably be on campus twice a week, and work from home the rest of the time. I like social contact, but I also like to work without being interrupted all the time. Meanwhile, I don’t think the faculty who are teaching are really in a position to protect themselves. (Masks are mandatory, and we have a high vaccination rate, which helps a lot, I’ll grant.)
I’m trying to make sure I have some social outlets – and might meet up with a friend to spin or work on setting up my loom in person? (Though the plan to meet with a third person for dyeing with mushrooms and jamming while the dye does its thing is on hold until the numbers are down.) One of my best students from last semester* also wants to join the lab – I’m not sure I’m in a place for her to join my space project, but I promised to have her back, at least.
My friend across town who is still teaching and I will probably be going to phone calls for the duration, but still. And then there’s TTRPG via zoom, and talking with my gf, and the family text group… Actually, what I probably need is more bullshitting about research – and a dear friend and collaborator and I have been talking about zoom cocktail hour, so maybe that’s a thing.
* For her final project she wrote together this whole game where you are a corona virus fighting your way past the (biologically accurate, if cartoonishly cute) body’s defenses. If things come together right, she’ll be releasing it as a free phone game, so we’ll be working on that together at the very least. She’d never written code at all before taking the class – I’m so proud 🙂
Thank you again for Innkeeper Fridays!
I’m excited about the reason Gertrude Hunt needs all that wood. I hope a new door opens near Maud, Arland and Helen – not that they’d need one, but still, for convenience sake. (Or for story sake, maybe it’ll bring them somewhere closer to solving the mystery of Dina’s parents, Sebastien North, the corrupted innkeepers/ad-hals, etc.
Also, you guys really like your sphinxes as guardians in novels. Does this one eat hearts, too?
“Also, you guys really like your sphinxes as guardians in novels”
This is the second appearance of a sphinx character in 23+ novels of House Andrews.
Sphinges have been mythologically and historically (in representations) been portrayed as guardians https://www.history.com/.amp/topics/ancient-egypt/the-sphinx
I hope this helps 🙂
Fair enough!
Hi ModR! Can you tell me which book the first appearance of a sphinx is in? I love them!
There is another sphinx in Blood Heir 🙂.
Hope this helps.
I love Fridays. The description at the end raised goose bumps. Well done, now I, with a silly grim, will reread chapter 3. Thank you.
It is so great to check the blog and see any entry.
Thank you!!
Love the idea of Getrude Hunt working on a portal to Daesyn because it misses Helen.
With Klaus visiting Maud, we could finally get the Demille siblings reuniting to find their parents.
Sebastian North is the key, though, so he has to play a role and I suspect George does, too.
I just love it so much. Love. It.
wow! its been awhile. so nice! and that snippet of clean sweep? wonderful
Me: Yay, new innkeeper!
*thirty seconds later*
“NOT THE WOLF!”
Ugh. My heart. I need to go start this series from the beginning. Again.
Endlessly, almost unbelievably fun. A Sphinx, of course. You guys never, ever disappoint. Can’t wait to see where this goes. Thank you and Happy New Year !
House Andrews has taken the same ‘cliffhangers’ course as the Professors Foglio, haven’t they …….*starts counting the hours until next Friday*
I love reading your stories. I hope you will continue the kinsman series.
Apologies if this has already been answered, but is there a schedule for these installments?
Every Friday 🙂
Thank you for more Inkeeper. I plan to savor these upcoming chapters over the weekend instead of devouring them on Friday.
Oh, thank you for the New installment. I always forget to check the page and love the surprise. Still not used to this regular treat.
I don’t do the speculating, love the surprise the Authorlords provide on a regular base. But it’s fun to read all the theories in the comments. Always hope that nobody gets it right …
Part of me wonders if IA reads all the guesses and makes sure we are all wrong! Just for the fun of it. Because they are that good. 🙂
House Andrews have seen the guesses 🙂
Loved it Thank you for sharing with us. It always makes my day brighter when I come across a new chapter. I escape for a bit.
Wow, I had to sit with this chapter for a few days, but what’s percolating now for me is the enormity of these Auul archetypes. Now we know that Gorvar is of the species which they spliced werewolfism from, and he is torn apart. (Thankfully rescued in time!). The creature guarding the portal is distinctly feline in form…. Looking forward to meeting exiles from Mraar finally!!! But just…everything. For their own sake I don’t want Wilmos or Sean to have to fight in the gladiatorial arena, but that’s what feels like is brewing!
+ 1 on the Mraar. Maybe looking for a duel to death between the best of both species.
I was imagining if Curran came out of the gate and I wouldn’t know what to do if that kind of thing happened. I need a tank to soak and rest too.
I love this series the best! So glad I found the blog because I was wanting more books!!!
Wow.
And Gertrude Hunt hungry and mysteriously branching… sounds like she’s going through puberty!
Anything resembling lion and in an arena, makes me think of Curran. I know it’s different worlds and timeliness.. but what a crossover it will be
I am overjoyed you are creating the book. I love this story and eagerly await Maude’s next story as well.
Love it thank you!
Thank you for the free stories. I think that’s really nice of you. I love your books!
You’re welcome! Thank you for reading and for this comment. It is so appreciated.
It Taunts me, I can’t wait for chapter 4. When last we left Sean an Diana they were facing a Shpinx that is just so Riddle worthy.
Do we have a betting pool on where the new doorway opens up? I mean there are only a handful of things it could be for story progression. And the multiverse is only a thing in the minds of the BDH, I believe HA have nixed that idea so many times they stopped acknowledging it.
I have an informal tally hehe, so far a portal to Arland and Maud is kicking proverbial butt in first place guess.
If plants move is there any reason the door can’t open into a space ship?
If it is only plot progression I’d say the door opens into a new planet which holds the key to finding Diana’s parents. Inn magic knows what their innkeeper needs.
Have a good day HA and Mod R.
Oooh. Fabulous. Plus setting descriptions are wonderful. Can’t wait to read what happens next.
Did you call it kaiju because it’s a giant monster, or is it going to attack Baha Char and star in it’s own movie?
Love it! Can’t wait to read the entire thing.
Thank you for this! I’m going through something a bit rough right now and I just discovered these new innkeeper chapters. It definitely helps.
Don’t you just love that the werewolf planet is called Auul ?
I laugh every time I see the word and the song starts in my head-
“AUUUUUUL WEREWOLF IN LONDON”
I just love the Innkeepers book world. This is such a treat when we’re stuck in our bunkers again and are in great need of diversion.
Thank you so much ❣️
Enjoying the inn keeper series, thanks.
Please, please let the new inn door lead to Arland’s planet! After Sweep of the Blade, I was so afraid that Maud wouldn’t be able to spend time with her sister easily. Arland, Maud, and Helen are my favorite characters and I really hope they show up in this new serial!
+1!
First off thanks for the chapter, second, am I the only person hoping the door leads to Atlanta so Dina and Sean can meet Julie and Derek 🙂 ?
Thank you!
Ohhhhhh My. Every time you do this I have to start all of your books from the beginning. Thank you so much!!
Dear authors: THANK YOU and Wow! I just love the first three chapters – can’t wait for the forth or the book. Please please please you need to write faster. Suspense is killing me.
So happy to have Fridays with the newest Innkeeper. I have missed the series!
Thank you.
Thank you and happy new years to you and yours! It is wonderful to see Gertrude and our Innkeepers again:)