Trouble.

“Well, lookee here,” Shairi almost jumped as the voice rang out behind her. A group of half a dozen men had come up behind her. They were sweaty and dirty – which was to be expected of miners, but she guessed this lot wouldn’t bother to keep clean even if they could. Their leader was a burly, muscular man with an arrogant swagger.

“Bout time this shithole town got some new whores,” he continued.

“I’m no whore,” Shairi said coldly.

“Awe, don’t be like that, babe,” the miner said. “One frigid bitch in this town is enough. What we need is a hot little slut – and I bet I know how to thaw you out into one.” Amidst the laughter of his fellows, he put an arm round Shairi and grabbed her arse.

Shairi slammed the heel of her hand into his face. He staggered away, swearing. “Bitch! I’m gonna –”

“You’re going to do nothing, Torvar.” An authoritative voice rang out.

The miner turned. “No need to worry, ma’am,” he said, his voice dripping with false sincerity. “We were just having a little fun with the newcomer.”

“I’ve had enough of your sort of fun,” the woman replied. “Get the hell out of here.”

Torvar and his friends turned and left. He muttered something under his breath. To Shairi’s acute half-elf hearing, it sounded like “You’ll fucking get yours soon, bitch.”

Shairi examined her rescuer. The woman was certainly worth the look. Her face was more handsome than beautiful, but her body was fit and athletic. Her fine legs and arse were displayed by tight leather pants, and a sword hung on her belt. As the miners left, she removed her hand from its hilt.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “Torvar’s trouble. I’m Udina, Overseer for the Grey-Barrow mines.”

“Shairi.” Shairi shook her hand. “I’m here about the notice.”

“You’re an adventurer? We’d better talk in my office.”

Once they were there, Udina hung up her sword belt and sat behind a desk. “Thank you for coming,” she said. “I was a mercenary before I got this overseer job, so I can handle myself, but I daren’t leave the town unattended for long enough to investigate the problem.” She paused. “I’ve never seen a half elf adventurer before,” she added.

It occurred to Shairi that the woman’s interest seemed to be in more than just Shairi’s fighting skills. Her eyes kept alighting on the half-elf’s pretty face an small breasts, before darting away as her cheeks flushed. It was clear that the Overseer had a taste for women – at least women as lovely as Shairi. For her part, Shairi found the warrior’s shyness masquerading as professional detachment to be rather cute.

“The trouble started a month ago. We think one of the miners must have broken into the lower reaches of one of the barrows on the hill. At any rate, strange spirits started infesting the mine. Most of them are closed off now, ‘cause the miners won’t go down there. Of course, that means I now have a bunch of miners wandering round with nothing to do. And now they’ve drunk most of the booze and got sick of fucking the whores, things are starting to get ugly. Torvar’s the ringleader, and he doesn’t like taking orders from a woman. So, I need you to sort out the mine as quickly as possible. There’s plenty of gold in it for you.”

Shairi nodded. But before she could ask for details, there was a loud banging on the door. Udina rolled her eyes. “What now? You get into the back room, I’ll deal with this.”

Shairi obediently slipped into the other room. But she was curious, so she left the door open a crack, and looked through it so she could watch what was going on.