AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm really sorry that I haven't updated for a long time! Just my own general slackness getting in the way, and I'm having a case of writer's block with this story. I know what happens in the end, but I'm having trouble getting them to Kelke's castle. Any ideas? Please?
Chapter Six
"Kelke?" asked the man with a frown. He thought briefly, shook his head. "Never heard of him."
"Kelke Peatsar?" Crono pressed anxiously. "Blonde, little bit taller than Magus here..." Crono held up a hand to show the man how tall he estimated Kelke to be. "He's an evil wizard! He's apparently the most evil wizard in this universe?"
"No, sorry, we don't have any evil wizards here. Well, not that I know of," shrugged the man. "Derron, give the pretty lady the keys already," he instructed the tall thin man who was glaring at Schala. "She doesn't have to sign for them in her own blood, you know. This is an inn, the purpose is to rent the rooms out... oh, I'll do it. Derron, go talk to Cookie. I presume you'll want a meal tonight?" the man asked them, his eyes flicking from Schala to Lucca to Ayla to Marle and back to the man called Derron. "Tell Cookie we have guests for dinner."
Derron nodded and, with a final glare at Schala, went into some back room. The man - Crono never did find out his name - went to a drawer and tossed Schala some keys. "There you go, two rooms for the night. You might try Tarreiz if you're looking for a magical person," he called to Crono. "Lives at the south end of the village, Tarreiz does," and with that the man followed Derron to wherever he had gone.
"Okay," said Schala in a tone of voice that indicated that there would be no arguing. "Magus, Lucca, Alfador and myself will be in one room. Crono, you, Marle, Frog, Robo and Ayla will be in the other. You may be a little squished but you should be fine, put Robo up against a wall or something, you'll be right."
"How come you get to say who rooms with who?" Crono demanded.
"Because I said so."
"That's not fair!"
Schala tossed her hair over her shoulders and gave him a stern Look. "Because I happen to be the heir of the throne of Zeal... although at the moment the throne of Zeal is at the bottom of the ocean, and I don't mean in the underwater palace... and I possess enough power in my little fingernail to destroy you." She thought for a moment. "How did that sound? Do you think that was a pretty good reason?"
"It was fairly good, but I'd leave out the bit about the throne being underwater," Magus advised.
"I wasn't asking you," his sister snapped back. "And anyway, because I'm older than you, so there. Now. We'll have a nice little night at this inn, and then we'll go and talk to whoever Tarreiz is. Okay?"
Everyone nodded. Crono was technically the leader of the group - well, he decided where they were going anyway - but Marle knew that if Schala said something was going to happen, it would happen. She had a very forceful personality.
Food was provided for them and the man named Derron seemed very determined to make them eat it. "May as well eat something," Schala shrugged, sitting down at the longest table with her plate. The others joined her. Marle in particular looked doubtful at the food that had been supplied and Schala glared at her. "Eat."
Lucca was somewhat reluctantly lifting a forkful of... whatever when she felt something cold brush against her neck and jumped. Schala looked up and Magus, seated across the table, dropped his fork.
"What?" Crono demanded. "Something about the black wind?"
Magus muttered something about being clumsy as he retrieved his fork. Schala pointed hers at Crono. "It was nothing. Just eat the food that those men so nicely gave us, okay? We don't know if we're going to get any food when we go and find Kelke."
Crono ignored her to look with some concern at Lucca. "You all right?"
"Not used to it, is all," Lucca explained somewhat guiltily, rubbing the back of her neck. Schala had explained to her that people close to those who felt the black wind could sometimes feel it too. Lucca didn't at all mind being close to Magus, but she wasn't too fond of the black wind that apparently came with him. Ah well, everything has a catch.
Ayla had no such forebodings about the food. She ate hers, most of Marle's, Lucca's leftovers, and the bits that Schala couldn't identify and therefore wasn't going to eat. Lucca was amazed to see the prehistoric woman eyeing Magus' mostly untouched meal.
Schala asked the once-evil-now-attempting-to-be-good wizard, "What's wrong with it?"
"My fork's dirty," Magus explained, laying it carefully down on the table and not looking up.
"Janus," said Schala gently. "If you have a concern about something, you really ought to share it with the rest of us. We're all part of the team now."
"I don't like these people," Magus admitted, looking up. "They have... I don't know, a bad feel about them." He tried a smile (that failed). "Maybe it's just because they're from Kelke's world. Maybe I'm just prejudiced. It's probably nothing."
Crono wasn't so sure. If something was unsettling Magus that much, then it would need careful consideration. Nothing of note happened at all that night and when they retired to their rooms, he fell asleep quite easily.
Magus didn't manage to get to sleep quite so easily. Schala had suggested that he and Lucca share the double bed, a suggestion with which he was quite happy to oblige. Lucca had put her gun on the table, gotten into the bed and fallen asleep almost instantly. He knew Schala was asleep too, and wondered how they could just get to sleep so easily when it was cold.
There was a noise in the next room and he was instantly alert. What was happening over there? He faintly heard unfamiliar voices talking. Now why was that? He knew that Crono and the others were in that room, and none of their voices sounded like that.
"Alfador?" he whispered, and was given a soft meow in response. Magus got out of the bed, looked around for his cloak, remembered he'd lent it to Ayla, and reached for his scythe. Wait. Maybe that wouldn't be the best of weapons in this scenario. He went for Lucca's gun instead. He didn't exactly know how to use it but maybe it'd be more intimidating. Then he thought again and positioned the scythe where he could grab it quickly if he needed to fight.
The door opened to a voice grumbling, "Well, you can carry 'em to the market in Synalair," and then Magus recognised Derron, entering the room with a sack.
"What are you doing?" the wizard demanded, but Derron dropped what he was carrying - it hit the floor with an audible thump - and ran away. Magus followed him, falling down the unfamiliar stairs in the dark. By the time he sorted out which foot was which and how to get to the front room of the inn, he found the front door open but no one in sight. He ran out onto the dark street but couldn't see anyone. Returning to the room, he went to look in the sack and found Ayla, looking quite comfortable and fast asleep. The previously evil wizard took his scythe along for the ride as he went to the other room to check his suspicions.
The room looked very peaceful. Crono was snoring on one of the double beds, Frog lying on his back on the other, Robo propped against a wall. No sign of Marle.
Instinctively knowing that trying to wake the others would be useless, Magus went to kick Robo, who being a robot wouldn't have eaten anything. "Wake up, you useless lump of malfunctioning metal!"
"Good evening, I am pleased to see you too," Robo remarked. "What is the matter?"
"I think Marle's been kidnapped," Magus explained, scanning the room. "They put some kind of drug in the food to make everyone fall asleep and I think they were going to kidnap all the girls. One of them mentioned some kind of market. I tried to follow them but he knew this place better than I do and the stairs... anyway, he mentioned a place called 'Synalair'. We have to get there and get Marle back."
"Loyalty to the team, Magus?"
"Not exactly," Magus responded, shifting the scythe from one hand to the other. They still hurt a bit, but at least he could use them. "Crono will be useless with worrying about her if we don't fetch her and I want to find Kelke quickly to make him sorry for even thinking about propositioning my sister. And anyway, everyone else will want to go after her, and she doesn't deserve to be kidnapped. She's irritating at times but she's basically all right."
"Perhaps we should go to see Tarreiz," Robo suggested. "We will need a guide to find Synalair quickly, or someone from whom we can get directions. If we ask him, we can ask about Kelke at the same time."
"I like that. Good robot," said Magus absently. "Now... about waking up the others..."
"Perhaps an ether would work?"
"We could do that," the currently powerless wizard allowed. "I was thinking about throwing them down the stairs myself, but..."
"Why don't you go to Tarreiz alone, while I attempt to wake the others?" Robo suggested. "It will save time, and I think we will need to get to Synalair quickly. He lives at the south end of the village, if you remember."
"I don't, actually, but I do now. You trust me to do that all by myself?"
"I believe that you can defend yourself even without your magic, and yes, Magus, I trust you."
"Oh." Magus was surprised but pleased. He was trying to be good now, after all, and being trusted helped, even if it was only by a machine to which he rarely spoke. "It's late, but I'll wake him up anyway. You'll stay here?"
"Yes. I will bring Schala and Lucca to this room so I can keep an eye on the whole group," the robot responded. "I do not know how successful I will be in waking them, so you may as well take your time."
"Oh, and Ayla's in a sack," Magus remembered. "Bring her too." He nodded to the robot and headed downstairs, making his way more carefully. He was almost tripped over by something small and fluffy. "Alfador! Get back up the stairs!"
"Meow!" Alfador shot back defiantly.
"Okay, then," Magus allowed, finding the front room more easily than before. "But stay close to me. I don't want you to get stolen or stepped on," and with that, Magus and his cat stepped out onto the dark street.
