Chapter 4 – Golden prizes

Tammy Lombardi spent the early hours of the day curled on a corner of her cold cell, too distraught to even try to close her eyes and rest. The torrents of unanswered questions that were parading in her mind wouldn't allow it.

Why nobody remembered her father? She asked herself in the darkness. "That's impossible, he used to come here as often as every month! Or so he said…"

Memories went back to a very common scene. "Dad, I want to go with you! I want to travel to Pirate's hideout and Stone coffer! Pleaseeee Daddy!"

"Sorry dear!" Gerald would say as Bethany stuffed his backpack full of medicines, herbs and other concoctions. "The trip to the cave is a long one, we could run into humans, and I don't want you to catch any sickness from lies down in that dark and moist cave"

And then he would just say goodbye and leave for a week or so.

A tear rolled down the girl's cheek. "Dad… why nobody knows you? Perhaps… you used to go somewhere else? Perhaps… to another family?"

The young squirrel couldn't contain herself anymore. Not with the image of her father cheating on her and her mother. Clutching her knees to the chest, she started to cry inconsolably.

Tammy's sadness didn't go unnoticed by Foxglove, who was well awake and aware in the next cell.

"Tammy?" The bat plugged her ears against the wall and waited for a response.

A response which came as a whisper audible only by the keen ears of a bat. "Foxy? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, darling! Are you crying? Please don't!"

"I'm sorry!" Tammy apologized as she crawled toward their shared wall. I just… I just can't take it anymore! This has been the worst day of my life!"

"I know, honey! I know!" Foxy gently answered. "Just hold on a bit longer, I'm sure we will solve this in the morning! Come on, one would assume street brawls are light offenses in this town!"

The joke made Tammy smile for a moment. "I guess you are right. Perhaps they will let us go once the celebration ends. And… how is Dale doing?"

"Oh, my sweetie fell asleep a while ago! Brooding about the outcome of his duel with that horrible mockingbird drained his energies. Up to the point he didn't care anymore about falling asleep in the cold rock. I can even hear him snoring"

"He never changes, huh?"

"All the contrary, he never ceases to surprise me!"

Some minutes later, Foxglove's ears picked on the sound of steps on the corridor. One or two seconds afterwards, Tammy noticed them as well. The two girls quickly crawled away from the wall and to the corner of their cells, expecting a guard doing a routine check on the prisoners.

However, something was wrong with these step sounds, Foxglove noticed, as if they didn't match the weight of an armored guard. Her apprehension only increased as the wooden door of her cell suddenly got unlocked without the help of an inserted key.

And the one who opened the door was…

"Gadget!" The bat exclaimed and ran to hug her.

"Me, indeed!" The mouse said as she happily hugged back her friend.

Tammy, standing now and peering over the small barred window of her cell, felt her heart sink. Obviously, she was expecting a certain ranger chipmunk to come to her rescue.

And she barely hid her disappointment when the witch let her free. "Gadget, are you… alone? What about Chip?"

"He hasn't arrived yet" She answered with a hint of anxiety in her voice. Then proceeded to Dale's cell, which had no problems to find, as the red nose of the chipmunk was already protruding out the door's window.

The witch weaved her paw over the door's knob and whispered the magic word: "knock". On the instant, the door got unlocked and Dale jumped out ecstatic.

"Yes, I'm free, free at last!"

The girls, who didn't expect their friend to be that loud, promptly tackled him and put their paws on his mouth.

"Dale, for God's sake, have you forgotten where are we? Keep quiet!"

"Come on darling, don't sing victory until we are out of this place!"

"Mmph, mmfgh! I mean, sorry, sorry!"

"Guys, guys!" The female mouse promptly gripped their companions by the paws. "Get up! We gotta leave at once!"

"Gadget!" The pink bat sprung back to her feet. "Why the hurry and your racing heartbeats? Looks like you just saw a ghost!"

"A ghost? No, not since I left my home weeks ago" Gadget awkwardly said as she quickly tiptoed toward the exit door. Then, even more alarmed, she ran back to the cell's corridor. "Oh no! They are already here!"

Gadget pushed her friends back to Dale's cell, closed the door, and then cast a spell as fast as she could. "Keep quiet, we are invisible now!"

The warning came just in time, as a group of rodents came into the prison. "So, Arnold, is here where they are locked?" A baritone voice with a remarkable Italian accent spoke.

"Yes my king!" Affirmed another voice which the companions recognized as that of the officer who arrested them in the first place.

"Excellent! Show them to me at once! I want to take a good look at our walking treasures!"

"Walking treasures?" The squirrel wondered in a whisper. Then, the door of the cell opened again. Arnold and a rat of short stature with grey fur and prominent lips peeked in and their mouths fell open.

"Where is the prisoner!?" The short grey rat demanded to know, even though the group of friends was right in front of him. They didn't dare to move or even breath.

"I… He should be here, my king! The alarmed guard then ran to the other cells, only to find them opened. "Impossible! They've… escaped!"

"Escaped!?" Rat Capone, the king of thieves, raised his arm as high as he could and slapped Arnold on the face. "Are you kidding me? The squirrel and the chipmunk are worth almost one thousand gold nuggets together! Dammit! this can't be happening to me!"

A third, feminine voice - this one delivering words with a strong French accent - joined the discussion. "How could they escape? Aren't these the only keys for the cells?"

The hulking rat glanced down at the collection of keys hanging from his belt. "I… yes, these are the only keys. Wait, lady Desiree, I didn't let them out! I've been patrolling the town the whole night!"

"Indeed you have, ma chérie" The slender female mouse called Desiree crossed her arms and looked with suspicion at the exit door. "And we just reprimanded a pair of sleeping guards on our way here. How suspicious…"

"Enough babbling you two!" King Capone threw a tantrum at his servants. "Go and find the chipmunk and his friends right now, don't come back without them!"

"At once, my king!" Both rodents stood straight for a moment and then hurried outside. The king quickly followed them, leaving the prison again shrouded in darkness and silence.

"We are clear!" The voice of the invisible witch sounded. "Come on, let's go out!"

"We are still invisible, right?" Dale wondered stepping into the corridor. "So we can just walk past every guard we find on our way out?"

"Beware of us bats, though" Foxglove quickly pointed out. "I can still see you as clear as day!" Then, she turned to her squirrel friend, who was stretching her arms forward clumsily.

"Gadget, wait!" Tammy tried again and again to catch the invisible witch. "What does that rat meant by one thousand gold nuggets?"

"There are bounties on you and Dale's heads" She calmly answered, as if that was a matter of no importance at that moment. "There is another one for me, even bigger"

"What? Who posted them?"

"The French inquisition, of course! It all started with an offhand comment made by a provider of liquors that arrived not long ago. From there his words ran among the population in a beautiful logarithmical spread model. However, once a guard got aware of your real monetary value, he ran to inform the king directly, thus breaking the natural course of the rumour. Ah yes, that's also when I realized I had to stop searching for Chip and hurry down here to get you out"

"T-thanks I guess?"

"A bounty on me?" Dale was shocked to learn that. "That's bad publicity! Wait, how much are we talking about again?"

"Dale, shush!"

"Just saying! Perhaps my mother won't be so mad at me if the bounty overwhelms her first"

Upon the uncomfortable silence of his friends, Dale opted to change the topic. "Uhh anyway, can we go get my lute on our way out?"

The group made their silent way through the castle's stone carved corridors and toward the nearest exit. Once they got to the doors, they had to wait until a guard walked in and then slip out as fast as they could. Gadget was the last one, but her oversized silk cloak was caught by the closing door making her stumble and fall backwards. Foxglove freed her by daring to knock at the door and facing a disgruntled guard as he answered and glanced sideways looking for the visitor, even though the bat was standing right in front of him, invisible.

The castle grounds were still crowded with rodents at these early hours of the day. King Capone had called off the festivity but by then the citizens were too much into the party as to just walk away to their holes and keep quiet until further notice. And so the whole town of bandits, pirates and highwaymen just kept on partying and drinking and fighting the time away. This rebellious attitude turned out to be exactly what Tammy and company needed in order to reach the walls and its gates unnoticed by the bats fluttering above them. No bat was able to tell them apart from the rest of the bustling, alcohol-crazed crowd.

Of course, the most difficult step of the escape was at the end. Get through the reinforced doors. The ones that a trio of armed mice in rogue attires were now guarding. To make things worse, that slender female mouse who a while ago had accompanied the king to the prison was also there, engaged in an argument with a merchant while a group of rodents – no doubt, his slaves - were waiting behind his rodent-sized cart in solemn silence.

Meanwhile, Gadget led her friends behind some empty kegs.

"What do we do now?" Tammy asked glancing sideways.

"Oh I know!" Dale interjected. "Gadget will cast some flying spell on us and we'll jump over the gate! Easy!"

"Not a good idea, darling. They might not be visible in this barely lit cave but there is a party of bats gathering right above the gate, no doubt waiting for us to appear. So even if we are invisible, their inner senses may locate us if we make such a crazy move like flying over the heads of the guards"

"I see… bats are amazing!"

"Yes we are, darling" A flattered Foxglove answered.

"Whatever we do, got to do it soon!" Gadget reminded them. "My invisibility spell expires at dawn!"

Suddenly, Tammy pulled the witch by her cloak. "Hey look!"

The entire group held their breath as the sturdy gate opened in front of them with croaking sounds. Soon it became clear that the merchant had won the argument and was clear to leave the castle.

Tammy grabbed her friends by what she guessed where their shoulders and stood up. "New plan, guys! We will walk quietly next to the merchant's cart. With some luck the bats above us will think we are part of that company"

"Understood!"

The four invisible companions walked as casually as they could to the yard and to the cart's side, right where the group of mice slaves were stoically waiting for orders. Gadget and the others joined them in their formation, stood straight and waited for any signal from above. A signal that never came. They had successfully fooled the bats!

Then the merchant, an old and overweight shrew dressed in clothes so flamboyant that made Dale squirm in jealousy, shook palms with Desiree and called for his entourage to help him get on the cart's seat. The servants quickly lifted him onboard – with the help of some extra, reluctant paws- and once he got comfortable enough on the driver's seat, the aged master addressed Desiree again. "I'm glad my piece of information changed your mind, my lady"

"Adelaide Revenot's crypt at Les innocents, eh?" The rogue cupped her chin and stepped to the side. "Jewelry buried in graveyards will always pick my attention, Sir. As I use to say, the dead have no need for treasures, not as much as I do"

"Agreed, just beware of the evil spirits! Les innocents is overwhelmed with them!" He winked with a cocky smile and then turned to his troupe. "All right, you lowly creatures! Let's get going before the lady here changes her mind!"

At the shrew's command, four mice took positions at the cart's yoke. Clearly, they were going to pull the cart with their boss on in the same way horses do for humans. Another pair of well fit servants were to push the cart from behind, and the rest would walk along at the sides. Such was the positions Gadget, Dale and foxglove chose to better blend in. Tammy, all the contrary, decided to help to push the cart along with the pair of mice at the rear. All for the sake of leaving that castle as soon as possible.

By mere coincidence, Gadget walked by Desiree and looked up at her. To her horror, the rogue was following her with the gaze.

Her facade exposed, the rogue gripped and twisted the witch's arm backwards. "Gotcha!"

"Agh!" The blonde mouse yelled in pain, pain that made her lose her concentration. The invisibility spell faded and the party, as result, appeared to the sight of everyone around.

"Gadget!" They cried out and rallied to her friend.

But Desiree was faster. By the moment the heroes were upon her, she had a knife on the mouse's throat. "Halt, all of you! Or your witch dies!"

Meanwhile, the merchant was, rightly so, frozen to the bone. "W-what, in the name of God, is happening? These people, just appeared out of thin air!"

"Oh, nothing of concern, ma cherie!" She declared with a triumphant smile. "Move along, my men and I have everything under control!"

The merchant took heed of Desiree words, aided by the sight of the guards getting ready to close the gates again. He and his troupe of servants rode away hurriedly and without looking back.

The guards then closed the gate and secured it with heavy logs.

The slender rogue pressed the blade on her hostage's throat, causing her to whimper. "Now, you naughty kids, go back to your cells. Nobody has to get hurt tonight"

Dale, Tammy and Foxglove raised their paws in surrender. One second later, something at Desiree's feet caught their attention and made them gasp.

The french rogue frowned. "What are you looking at?" And only then noticed a slimy tentacle creeping up her right ankle. "Sacre blue!" She jumped backwards but tripped and fell on the ground, with the tentacle stubbornly gripping her leg. "Oh god, oh god, oh god!"

Her astonishment only grew when she saw seven more cephalopod's appendages protruding out from Gadget's velvet cloak.

"Help our boss!" One of her soldiers yelled. "Kill the witch, kill them all!"

"Stand back, Pietro!" Desiree countered as she tried to get on her feet again. "Stand back, all of you! The inquisition wants these people alive! Leave this to me!"

To show everyone her commitment, the rogue stomped the heel of her boot on the tentacle. The limb released the leg immediately and trashed around undoubtedly hurt – much to Gadget's dismay- then recoiled back to the safety of the magical cloak.

"You want to do this the hard way, huh?" She addressed the witch and the others menacingly, her paw unsheathing another long knife. "Fine by me"

On the opposite side, Tammy was also eager to fight. "Come on guys, we have fought against worse, namely Gadget's sister! Let's beat them down and get out of here!"

Following Tammy's lead, Foxglove adopted a fighter stance. "I guess we have no choice but to charge forward, huh? But with Gadget and my darling on our side, we won't lose!"

"That's the spirit! Come on Dale, cast your ice spells on them!"

The bard jumped at these words. "Wait, What? I'm no mage!"

"What do you mean? You just summoned a winter storm three nights ago!"

Gadget, always the voice of reason, raised her paw to calm her friends down. "Tammy, Dale is right. He is not the one who caused the storm, but his lute did"

"What?" The squirrel couldn't hide her shock. "Well, anyway… your lute can do it again, right? Come on, we are in a dire situation here!"

Gadget then stepped in front of her companions and addressed Desiree, who had been following the argument back and forth in silence. "Hold on a second, I need to know… how did you saw through my invisibility spell? You are no mage either"

The female rogue grinned at that perfect chance to boast. "Easy! Turns out, you don't need to be a professional mage to do a magic trick"

Gadget's curiosity turned into concern the moment she saw her opponent take a rolled parchment sealed with wax from one of her many waist bags. "Wait, is that… a magic scroll?"

Desiree didn't immediately answer. Instead, she ripped the wax seal, unrolled the piece of paper and held it extended right in front of her face. "Oh, you are gonna love this one! A third level transmutation spell: Haste!"

As soon as the thief spelled these words, the scroll burnt to ashes. The young witch and her friends held their breath in dreadful anticipation.

"Ifeellikeafeathernow!" The words got yelled at such quick pace that turned them almost unintelligible.

"This is bad!" Gadget turned to warn her friends, and just then realized -by the sudden gust of wind that flushed across her face- that Desiree was now standing right next to her. By mere reflex she stepped back, only to be caught by a lightning-fast hook to the liver, thrown at her with the pommel of a knife. A blow that bent her over and lifted her off the ground for a full second, only to make her fall again on her knees in excruciating pain.

Foxglove was the next one to fall victim of the thief's martial prowess. Awestruck as she was by the impossible signals her sonar sense was sending, combined with the confusion of watching Gadget being struck with a knife, meant the bat was too distressed to evade the insanely fast roundhouse kick Desiree threw at her. The pink bat was sent away twirling around herself half unconscious, and ended up landing on the arms of an nearby guard.

"Foxy!" Her remaining friends shouted in unison. But while Tammy spent a second to spot their opponent's position, Dale quickly came to the aid of his loved one, thus falling into a trap.

For the magic-enhanced Desiree charged at the bard with a quick strike of her left arm.

And Dale barely dodged it. "Whoa!"

"Hmph!" The french rogue squinted her eyes. "Are these innate chipmunk reflexes at work?".

She kept pressing on, with the red nosed chipmunk spending all his energy on keeping him and his lute safe and away from any harm.

The rest of guards and thieves stood on their place, guarding the gate and cheering at their leader. On the other side of the courtyard, the whole keep had arrived to see the show Desiree and Dale were unwittingly performing.

Tammy, who was standing next to Gadget, gritted her teeth unable to withstand the situation anymore. "All right, I'll join the fight! Stay here, you!"

"Cough!" The injured mouse struggled to breath. "Wait! You are our healer… Cough! You gotta stay back and defend us!"

"Stay back? Hell no! I'm a girl of action! Look at this, witch!"

And on that moment, Dale came crashing down on her hard. "Ouch!"

"Tammy!"

But the bard and the cleric didn't respond or stand up again. It was a double knockout. Meanwhile, the amused crowd gave the winner an enthusiastic round of applauses.

Desiree approached Gadget fidgeting with her knife, an intense wolfish grin on her face which exuded dominance and power. "It's all over, sorcière" She said as lightly pressed the knife's blade against the skin and fur of the witch's throat. "Don't even think on fidgeting your fingers or whisper any strange words. The moment you do it I'll cut you down and your unconscious friends will be shot to death, got it?"

The pale Gadget took a last glance at friends, then bowed her head down and silently accepted defeat.

Morning came, and king Capone received it lying face down on the cold stone floor of the throne room, a result of the drunken stupor he indulged on upon learning of the recapture of the valuable prisoners and the seize of a third bounty: the blonde witch of Saint Pierre.

As soon as he could sit again on the throne, he commanded for a messenger to be brought to him. Later on, that same messenger departed to Rouen on the back of a dove, with orders to inform and squeeze some more hundreds of gold nuggets out of the lavish church's pockets in return for their wanted bounties.

If to take advantage of the inquisition was a sin, well… then the king of the thieves was indeed a sinner.