Quick Author Note: I changed part of chapter eleven,
so you all might want to re-read the conference with Slash, Flea, Garret, and
His Majesty.
The wind howled outside the house, the storm rising
to a fever pitch. Mina clasped her
hands to her breasts, awaiting her love.
He had never been this late before.
Mina was worried he might have been caught in the storm. Perhaps he was laying somewhere, even now,
crying her name, his body wracked with pain.
She looked out the window, hoping, but not
expecting, to see him. But there,
coming up the path, was a figure. It
had its head bent down in a futile attempt to escape the rain, but it was
recognizable.
Mina flung herself into the storm, oblivious to the
downpour that drenched her instantly, and flung herself into her lover's
arms. He welcomed her with all his
love, but something was different. She
smelled on the air, under the rain, a new scent. It was a woman's perfume.
She backed away from him, shaking her head in denial. The one she loved the most, the one she
trusted the most, had betrayed her.
Flea slammed the book shut and looked at Slash. "She knows."
"What?" Slash asked incredulously. "How did she find out?"
"I don't know," Flea answered, looking at the
book. "But I doubt that she left this
here on this particular page by accident.
No, she knows."
"But what are we going to do? Without her, the Mystics will revolt. They follow her even more loyally than they
did Magus."
"I know, I know.
I wish I knew why." Flea bit the
knuckle of his first finger, deep in thought.
"There are only imps living in the castle. We'll tell everyone else that she's sick and threaten all the
imps who might know she's gone."
Slash nodded.
"Sounds good. I'll take care of
the imps; you handle the army." Flea
watched Slash leave the library and took one last look at the book before
leaving himself.
In an attempt to finish as soon as possible, Slash
gathered all the imps in the castle into a single room where he addressed
them. "Now, you all know why you're
here, I'm sure," he began, not realizing that of the twenty imps, only three of
them had noticed Mariel's absence. "Mariel
has gone missing. Now, if any of you
tell that to anyone outside this room, every one of you dies. Got it?"
The imps gulped and nodded.
"Good." Slash nodded once and
walked out of the room.
The imps sat around for a few minutes looking at each
other. Finally, one spoke. "Mariel's gone?"
"Yep," said another.
"I was suppose to take her lunch and she was gone."
"I was suppose to take her breakfast, and she was gone
then, too," said a third.
"Well," said a fourth, not wanting to be outdone. "I saw her leave."
The poor imp was instantly bombarded by
questions. How had she left? When was it? Why hadn't he told anyone?
Finally, one imp stood and walked to where Slash had been standing. He cleared his throat for silence, but he
didn't get it. He cleared his throat a
little louder, but everyone continued talking at once. Finally fed up, he shouted, "Quiet!" Any
listener could have heard a pin drop.
The imp nodded decisively, imitating Slash, and said,
"You know what we have to do, right?"
"Smile and nod?"
"Act like nothing happened?"
"Run around screaming?"
"No, no, and no," said the apparent leader. "We have to find her. We have to know why she left, or if she was
kidnapped."
"But Slash said he kill us if we told anyone!"
"Anyone outside this room. That's what he said. So,
we'll bring someone into this room."
The imps looked at each other nodding. That was the best plan. They hurried to find the best trackers the
Mystic army had to offer. The imps may
have been weak cowards, but they were devious, weak cowards.
Rat peeked carefully out the window of Mariel's
room. They were on the third floor of
the inn, but she didn't want to take the chance that someone might see
her. There was a small bar across the
street, and a suspicious looking man had just walked in. Rat could just see him sitting near the
door, possibly waiting for someone.
"Is he still there?" asked Mariel. She was sitting on the bed, reading.
Rat lashed her tail.
"Yep," she answered in agitation.
"Been…what? Two hours now?"
"Something like that."
"Could he be waiting for us?" Frog asked, joining Rat
at the window. "He appeareth to be
watching the inn's door."
"You can see that from here?"
"Frogs have superb vision," Mariel answered for
him. "Hearing, too, if I'm not mistaken. Not as good as Glenn's, but I theorize that
his senses are relative to his size."
Frog looked at Mariel, who smiled.
"Know your enemy, as I always say."
"And am I thy enemy?"
"Once."
Rat shook her head at the two of them. When they had first met, Frog had seemed
rather distant and cold to Mariel. But
now, they acted like old friends. Rat
could feel something more in that short exchange than words alone, but she
couldn't place it. It made her feel a
little jealous, as though she would always be on the outside. But that wasn't a change from anything;
she'd always been on the outside, even with her rat friends.
"That's enough, you two," she said a little more
sharply than she intended. "We gots to
figure out how to get outta here."
"Mariel, canst thou cast illusions?" Frog asked, back
in business mode.
"Oh, I could only dream," was the exasperated
reply. "Flea never taught me how. He said it wasn't something I would ever
need to know." She scoffed.
"Then we shall have to find another way."
Rat sighed.
"Why don't ya ask Doreen? She
oughtta be able to, right?" Frog was
silent for a moment before shaking his head.
"She will not answer."
"Well, can't ya teleport, Mariel?"
"I can teleport myself. Last time I tried to take anyone with me, we were both trapped in
the void. Flea had to come rescue us."
"Well, then, that ain't going to work, is it?" Rat's whiskers drooped; she was out of
ideas. She looked out the window
again. "Hey, that guy's gone!"
"So he is," Frog confirmed. "Mayhap he was not waiting for us after all."
"Or maybe he's gone to report to someone…"
"Well, if he's gone to tell his boss we's here, we
need to leave, now."
Mariel closed her book with a sigh. "And go where?"
"Frog, you gots a place, don't ya?" Rat asked, leaving
the window.
"Aye, but it isn't exactly hidden."
"It isn't?"
"Several people know I live there."
"That won't work."
Mariel stood and stretched, wincing as her joints popped from being in
one position for so long. She
sighed. "Too bad we can't go back
ho…" She broke off suddenly.
"What?" Frog
and Rat both asked.
"Home…might be the one place they won't find us…"
"Don't Slash and Flea live there?" Rat asked
skeptically.
"No, no, no.
Not that home. The place I lived
before Flea found me. It's so small
that most people overlook it. It's on
the beach near the Magic Cave, but Slash and Flea found me trying to get
away. They wouldn't expect me to go
back. Of course, the people there hate
me, but I can wear my cloak. But we'll
have to disguise the two of you somehow."
Frog closed his eyes, trying once again to talk to
Doreen or Masa and Mune. But the three
siblings were silent except for a slight buzzing in the back of his head,
signifying that they were talking to each other. He wondered what they were talking about.
"You magic users," Rat said scornfully. "Ye're always thinkin' magic's the end-all
solution to ever'thing."
"Do you have a better idea?" Mariel asked
scornfully. Rat grinned, showing her
pointed teeth.
The King of Thieves was rather nervous. There had been no sign of Mariel in two
days, Adreagon was dead, Frog had escaped prison with the help of that
over-grown rodent Rat and vanished, and Garret, who had gone looking for them a
few hours earlier, had yet to return.
His Highness sighed and began pour a glass of bourbon, then changed his
mind and drank it from the bottle. A
hard knock on the door caused him to start and drop the bottle; it shattered on
the desk, sending bourbon in all directions.
The King cursed and jumped back, but it already spilled into his
lap. He sighed again before calling,
"Come in!"
Garret entered nervously and bowed. "Your Highness, I have located Frog and Rat
at the inn across from the Gilded Dove."
"Ah, wonderful," the King said jovially, brightening
considerably.
Garret relaxed since the King seemed appeased. "Yes, Your Highness. They are on the third floor. I don't believe they realized I could see
them. Flea's sight-enhancing spell
worked quite well."
"Good, good.
We'll send someone after them, then.
If we can catch them now, I can turn them in to Guardia for a reward and
stop them meddling in my affairs once and for all." The King laughed loud and long, bordering on mania. Garret joined in. Although he didn't think it was very funny, he always tried to be
as agreeable as possible. The King
liked to kill people who didn't suit him.
