And on we go…
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Shadowchasers
Blue Blood
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Interlude
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Souled Out!
Part 4
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It only took a minute or so for Maddie to write the new riddle down from memory, her bad headache fading as she wrote it. It wasn't a verse this time, but it seemed just as cryptic:
"Throw away the outside and cook the inside, then eat the outside and throw away the inside. What is it?"
"Hmm…"
"Corn," said Fawley, who was looking over her shoulder. "Corn on the cob."
That did seem to be the answer. Before you cooked corn, you husked it (the husk being the outside) then cooked the rest, which had been inside the husk. Then you ate the kernels (now the outside) and threw the cob (the inside away).
"Maybe it's one of those 'riddles within riddles' things," said Maddie. "Corn, wheat, both are food crops…"
"And both are grains," said Fawley. "They -"
It hit them both at once, "CAMMY GRAINS!" they said in unison.
Now the first riddle made sense - "Bait to catch a fish, minnows… bigger fish…"
The message of the second riddler was meant to betray the first - Jigsaw's bombs were a distraction! One he knew that simply could not have been ignored.
As soon as Maddie realized this, her Duel Disk was buzzing, with a message coming in. For a moment she thought it was Sonya, but it wasn't.
"Francis?" she exclaimed, picking it up. "Where are you?"
"We're at the church," he answered, "where are YOU? What the devil is going on out there?"
"Uhm, uh…" Maddie started to gather up her things as she told him. "It's a long story, I'm going to be there at the House in a few minutes." She stopped and turned to Fawley, who nodded. She nodded back and said to the receiver, "I'll tell you on the way, and -" her face cracked a smile, "tell Havan there's two things I need when I get there."
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Cammy would never admit it to anyone, much less Maddie, but she was scared.
A Fist of Hextor would tell you they feared nothing, least of all death. Cammy knew otherwise. She was terrified of dying, she had simply been trained to ignore it.
She remembered that time she had been arrested in Nepal; the prison didn't have the best facilities, but the shrink they had brought in to talk to her was at least somewhat competent. He had told her that fear of death was, in fact, common among serial killers, that such people thought they were "appeasing" (as he put it) Death itself, convincing the Reaper to spare them by killing so many people as "offerings."
He probably knew from experience, seeing as he was a Fist of Hextor himself. So was the warden; that was the reason she was there. She almost regretted killing them.
As she pondered this, she heard her cell door being unlocked. What? she thought.
The door opened, and a supervisor - a mountain dwarf in a uniform - a formian (a tall, ant-like humanoid standing upright with four legs on its abdomen and two arms on its thorax - and three giff walked in. The three giff were armed to the teeth, each of them holding a wheellock rifle (a gnomish invention like a blunderbuss, but able to fire six rounds before reloading and able to reload faster) and two revolvers of similar design apiece in their belts. Each giff also had a combat knife and baton in his belt, and another knife in his boot - these guards were not taking chances.
"What do you want?" she said, rudely. The three giff pointed their weapons at her torso, and three loud clicks indicated they could - and would - fire on the supervisor's command.
Despite this, the supervisor did politely answer her question. "You're being moved to the cell at the end of the hall, Grains. No sudden moves."
"WHAT? I'm being hanged in less than three hours, what's the point?"
The formian grabbed hold of her right wrist with his left arm, then extended his clawed index finger on his right hand. This was a feature of Cauldron's corrections that even Cammy couldn't help but admire, the shackles used to hold the most dangerous criminals were designed so these Shadows could use their claws to open them. They were almost impossible to pick or force open otherwise.
"No idea," continued the dwarf, "just doing what they tell me to. So, keep your hands where we can see them."
After only three minutes, her hands were secured behind her back, and she was being led down the hall at gunpoint. Truthfully, she had a good idea as to why this was being done and who gave the order. Unfortunately, telling the guards would hardly benefit her at all, so she would manage it later…
…if there was a later…
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Half an hour earlier, the clock was at 2:50. One hour and 10 minutes to go.
Red Feather and Sonya had found the Moxy Maiden rather easily. It wasn't technically "near a stables" as the stables were an outdoor wing of the building. The owner made much of his profit by renting out horses and stables for patrons who had such animals.
"Just try to act natural here, Red," said Sonya. She pushed open the doors to the Moxy Maiden, thinking to herself, Says the woman with green body paint and a slave girl outfit…
Inside, the bar seemed mostly average and mostly empty right now. Most of the town's blue-collar workers hadn't punched out, and only a few customers had come in early, many of them the tough and thuggish types. Most of them disregarded the two mainlanders, focused on drinking and playing cards - typical barroom stuff. The mermaid-shaped figurehead was in plain sight.
"Okay, this shouldn't be hard," said Sonya.
"Well, well, well, look who's here!" said a surly, brutish, angry voice.
"You should stop tempting Fate, Sonya."
"Oh, I've never been able to tempt Fate, Red, nobody can. The man's had serious ED for centuries, why do you think he obsesses so much over minutiae?"
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Ferid was nervous.
This area of town was, in fact, one of the safest, and the storekeepers and merchants were among the most honest. Few criminals were willing to ply their illegal actions when the courts and barracks were right next door. That wasn't the reason he was nervous.
Right now, he was again, on a rooftop, in view of his true target, alternating his eyes between that and the clock tower. He reached into his shirt and lifted out an odd pendant her was wearing – it was a four-pointed star, the four spires of different colors, blue, red, green, and brown.
He barely even heard the dark, shadowy assassin approach from behind him. Barely, that is.
"What, Khama? I you -"
It seemed his mentor wasn't in the mood for a conversation now, as she grabbed him by the collar, and then slammed him against the chimney behind him. Causing it to crack.
It seemed his spine was a little more durable, as he still managed to sputter out, "I, er, I thought you folks couldn't come out during the day…"
"I never said I couldn't come out during the day, I said I shouldn't, there's a difference." She lifted him up higher, roughly. "Being out in the sunlight does make me a little cranky though."
"Look," he grunted, "I suppose you're upset because -"
"I'm upset because," she snarled, "this little game of yours is jeopardizing the mission. You said the success of your idea hinged on at least one of those crystals going off, and right now, you're zero for four."
"Oh, and your idea was better?"
Khama was about to respond, but then looked him in the eye - then she dropped him. "There's something about this you aren't telling me, right?"
Ferid stood up, brushing his coat off as he did. "We all have our strengths, Khama. You are the type who stalks your mark in the dead of night, striking by surprise when he least expects it." He motioned with his hand how one would strike with a dagger. "By the time they see you, they're already dead. Effective, maybe, but not satisfying. You see…"
"All I see is that you're an attention-hog. You seem far more confident of this plan working than Xokiek is right now, and in case you forgot, I only agreed to this because he did, and his patience is wearing thin."
"Well then… If you're going to be my teacher, Khama, I suppose I should be more… open…"
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The bar patron who had recognized Sonya was none other than her opponent of the Flood Festival Mixed Martial Arts tournament, the loxoda Shma-Gomo. To visualize this species of Shadow, start with a centaur but replace the lower horse torso with that of an elephant and the upper human torso with that of a bald ogre with grey skin and a lower jaw having two upward-pointing tusks, and you get an idea. Given what Sonya had seen of him before, it came as no surprise that he was a sore loser. He wasn't alone - Sonya also noticed the rum gremlin from Clubber's Club Pub standing on the table nearby.
"Hold my beer, Goim," grunted Shma-Gomo, and slammed the mug he had been drinking from on the table. He turned to Sonya, looking down upon her and cracked his knuckles. "Of all the beer joints in all of Cauldron, you had to come into mine!"
"RED! Find the crystal!" shouted Sonya. She barely ducked the thrown chair the angry loxoda hurled at her. "I'll deal with this."
Of course, she wasn't exactly sure how she would do so. Although she easily dodged his fist as he punched downward - causing the floor to shake and the other patrons to cheer and throw coins - taking him down would be another matter entirely. At least Red was able to use the distraction to dive behind the bar where she could get within reach of the figurehead.
"Shma-Goma, listen to me, you're drunk. You're going to regret this later."
"Like hell I will," growled the brute, "at least when I sober up, I'll be in a lot better shape than you'll be."
"I've fought a lot of sore losers in my time, but you really take the cake.'
"Sore loser nothing! Losing that match got me docked three days' pay!"
"Wait, what? Someone was paying you to fight?"
"Uh… maybe better you forget I said that…"
He aimed his left at Sonya's face, and unfortunately, as she dodged it, she realized it was a set-up for a lower blow from his right. She couldn't dodge that one, taking the torso hit that propelled her backwards causing her to land on top of a table, which broke from the impact.
"Ooh…" she said, holding her head.
"How ya like that, girlie? I was following the rules last time, but that ain't an issue here, cause there ain't no rules in bar brawling! So, I -"
His gloating was cut off as Red Feather leapt onto his lower torso. "What, I -" he started, and then was cut off a second time, this time by the barstool she was holding slamming down on the top of his skull.
Shma-Goma collapsed on his stomach with a loud crash. "Thank you for the tip," said Red Feather. The bar fell silent, everyone else looking at her. "WELL?"
Nobody dared to answer. Most went back to their drinking and card games as Red went to help her ally stand up.
"Did you get the -" started Sonya.
"It is not there," started Red, "it was a ruse, look at the hair."
"Uh…" Sonya looked towards the figurehead and saw what she meant. The figurehead's hair had been painted chestnut brown - it did not have "golden hair."
They could not be in the wrong bar - Sonya doubted Shma-Goma being here was a coincidence… But then Red added, "But, I think I know where it is."
Goim watched the two Shadowchasers heading for the exit. Then he looked at Shma-Goma and then at the mug of beer the loxoda had told him to hold.
He shrugged, then drank it in three gulps. "Heh, I get more beer that way," he chuckled.
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Back at Colfer Academy, Fawley was in the commissary - one advantage of having to evacuate the place was that there was no line, and he seriously needed coffee to calm his nerves right now. He noticed that sweet corn was on the menu today, something that only reminded him of the matter at hand and made him more nervous.
Case in point. "Professor Fawley!"
Fortunately, he was planning to throw his shirt into the laundry hamper as soon as he returned to his apartment later, but that didn't make spilling hot coffee on it any more pleasant. "Yes, Dr. Flores?" he replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
"I just went back to the planetarium to give it the standard scan. It's clean, by the way."
The "standard scan" was a routine procedure whenever there was an incident at the Academy, using detect evil, detect magic, detect curse, and the like. She would call for a more thorough one later, but Fawley realized she didn't rush over here just to give him an all clear.
"While I was there, I remembered this." She was holding the notebook so he could see it, the one that recorded every spell cast in that room, opened to the page that was currently recording. "Take a look."
The page had changed significantly since the crystal was recovered. Under torchlight, the last one that was there when Maddie got the crystal, were three new entries. The first was lightning bolt, the booby trap that Jigsaw had left, and the third was feather fall, which Fawley had used on Maddie.
The second, however…
"Bolts of bedevilment?" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I was surprised too."
Suffice to say, bolts of bedevilment was not the type of spell that would be taught at Colfer.
"Most likely," started Flores, "this… Jigsaw person who planted the fireball crystal also planted the lightning bolt crystal, setting it to go off when the first crystal was tampered with, and someone planted this third one to go off when the lightning bolt went off."
"By 'someone' I assume you are suggesting someone other than Jigsaw planted the third one?"
"It's not impossible that he could use both arcane and divine magic, but such a combination doesn't make sense."
Fawley knew what she was implying, and he had to agree. This only confirmed his suspicion that there was a third party in this conflict.
But who? he thought. And why?
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"HEY, watch it!"
The clock clicked to 3:12 as the pair of Shadowchasers rushed into the Moxie's Maiden's stable next door, almost knocking over the unfortunate attendant.
"Sorry!" shouted Sonya.
"Over there," said Red. She pointed to several large stacks of straw bales. "The 'Wanton Wench' in the riddle refers to the tavern, not the statue, and it said 'bales' of golden hair. It was referring to straw."
"Listen, ladies, I have to -" started the attendant.
Before Sonya could think up an excuse, her Duel Disk started to buzz again. "Get it," she said to Red, "I got this here."
"Lady, I mean it, I -" Then Sonya pushed a 10 Sovereign bill in front of him.
"Just pretend we aren't here for five minutes, okay?"
The attendant sighed and took it. "Fine, fine, but I'm still keeping an eye on your two."
She answered, "Go ahead Lieutenant."
"Glad I got a hold of you, Ms. Clarkson, anything new?"
Sonya watched Red Feather, who was trying to quickly dismantle the large stack of hay bales. "Well, we've been sidelined… A few times, but we have four of them -" She smiled, seeing that Red Feather had uncovered what she had been looking for. "-make that five of them, five of the Crystals."
"Thank goodness. Do we have the next riddle? We're down to the wire and we must at least find out where the next location is."
Maddie knew what he meant. It was 3:17 and if they couldn't retrieve the last one, they could at least make sure it did the least amount of damage as possible.
Red unfolded the scroll, and the writing had indeed changed, one last time:
The Whetstone of town,
Look around,
What's to be found?
Seek a reflection,
Providing direction,
To minute confection,
Under the floor,
Under the floor,
Behind the square door.
"That's… different."
"Well, the first part is easy. Whetstone Boulevard is a square on the northeast part of town, due west of the Shrine of Pelor, between Obsidian and Magma Avenues, about two blocks north of the hospital. It has a lot of pricey and upscale stores, and -"
"Wait," said Sonya. "Northeast?"
It was obvious now why Jigsaw had sent them on this sojourn around the circumference of Cauldron. They were on the southwest side of the city, nearly as far away from the Shrine as possible without leaving the city. Getting to Whetstone Boulevard before time ran out would be almost impossible.
"Lieutenant," said Sonya, sadly, "as much as hate to give the bastard satisfaction, there is no way we can -"
Then Red Feather said to the attendant, "How much to rent two fast riding horses?"
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"A bold plan," said Khama.
Leaning against the chimney and listening to Ferid's explanation, she had to admit she was intrigued, but was still doubtful.
"So, you and Xokiek can calm yourselves," said Ferid. "As a wise man once said, from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success."
"I'd be interested in knowing just what 'wise man' said that. For your sake, I hope you're right. Oh, and he told me to give you this." With an underhand toss, she threw a small leather sack, which he almost instinctively caught. She turned to leave. "Just don't get so full of yourself that you make even more mistakes. You know what Murphy's Law says, if something can go wrong, it probably will…"
Ferid was about to say something, but then she turned and added, "...in the worst way possible."
Ferid clutched his fist and growled as she watched her leave. He hated her and hated Xokiek even more. Not nearly as much as he needed them, however, and for now, he preferred having them as allies than as enemies.
He opened the sack – always a good idea to check what she gave him. There were four small bottles inside, made of metal with stoppers that were the same colors of his pendant.
He nodded, then removed the pendant, placing it inside the sack, and then tied it shut again. He traced a sigil on the brick chimney with his finger while speaking a brief incarnation.
Wouldn't be wise to bring these with me, he thought. A small, dark hole started to open on the brick, and he carefully placed it inside. That interdimensional storage container has successfully kept the most priceless artifacts safe as he dealt with the most stringent of border guards, he was positive it would be no hassle to retrieve it later.
He waited for it to close again before again, turning to the clock tower. Almost there, he thought.
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Only 13 minutes after leaving the stable, with 30 minutes left on the clock, the two strong, fast stallions galloped into Whetstone Boulevard with the two Shadowchasers holding their reigns. "Whoa!" shouted Maddie, "Whoa!"
Fortunately, these horses were well-trained and obeyed, coming to a stop quickly. Still, while Red Feather leapt from her mount onto the pavement easily, she had to help Maddie dismount from hers.
Maddie rubbed her now sore behind once she had both feet on the ground. "You could have asked the guy to include saddles," she groaned.
"I did not want to take more advantage of Lieutenant Zhent's generosity than necessary. But it is fortunate he gave us that passcode."
Maddie nodded. "Okay, Jigsaw, game on. Let's see here, the Whetstone of Town, look around…"
Whetstone Boulevard was like a square-shaped cul-de-sac, the only road out the one they came in. There were stores on each of the four sides, most of them looking pricy and upscale. The place was very hectic now, as it seemed Zhent had already told his men to prepare for the worst. Several town sentries were in the process of evacuating shopkeepers and customers.
"Yo, you're finally here!" Sonya grimaced a little upon hearing the familiar voice - Baern was perched on her head again. "Say, I meant to ask, what sort of shampoo do you use here?"
"It's a wig, SHOO!"
"Uhm, Sonya?" stated Red.
"Right, right, focus," Sonya muttered. "Okay, seek a reflection… Something that reflects… a mirror?"
"Over there," said Red Feather. She was pointing to an antique store, where a mirror stood in a store window next to many an old easy chair, a fancy chest, and a crystal penguin.
Naturally, the two Shadowchasers made straight for it. At first, it didn't seem like this mirror could reflect much. It was incredibly old, and the glass was covered with grime and dirt - except one small specific area on the right side. Looking closely at it, the small clean space showed the reflection of one store across the street.
Naturally, they turned around to look at it, the store name being Freddy's Frosted Flights of Fancy. A bakery.
Seek a reflection,
Providing direction,
To minute confection.
"Heh, I could think of worse places we could have had to search," said Baern.
It seemed they were on the right track, especially when they crossed the street towards the bakery and saw a sign on the window claiming, "We specialize in halfling pastry!"
When they went to open the door, they were nearly knocked over by it as it swung open. "Move, move!" shouted a deep male voice. followed by a woman and two young girls rushing out. "Uh, sorry!" said Maddie.
Inside the store, it did indeed seem to have a lot of merchandise halflings would love - she quickly recognized the strawberry puddings (same idea as plum pudding), the cupcake-sized Bundt cakes with icing, and the honey-drizzled cream puffs. This was the type of place where you'd swear you gained five pounds simply from taking a deep breath. It was surprising that the man behind the counter - a tall, chubby, middle-aged man with balding hair - seemed human, as it was exceedingly difficult for anyone other than actual halflings to master halfling culinary arts, a delicate means of cooking that required very steady hands and a lot of patience.
Upon seeing the two, he shouted, "We're closed! The guards said -"
"We know, we know,' interrupted Sonya. "We're with the town guards. Are you Freddy?"
The owner nodded. "This is unbelievable," he said, "we go on holiday for a couple of weeks, and when we get back, this."
Sonya took note of this, but there was time for that later. "Uh, look, does this building have any… square doors?"
"Uhm…" started Freddy.
"Possibly in the basement," added Red Feather, "supposedly it would be 'under the floor'."
"Uhm, now that you mention it… this way."
As they went to follow him, Sonya noticed Baern was poking around a plate of currant cakes on the counter. "No time for snacking!" she shouted, and grabbed the little elemental, though Baern was able to grab one of them first.
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Freddy led them down the stairs to the basement he used as a storeroom and pantry.
"When I first bought this place, it was a restaurant and had a wine cellar, but it flooded from a water leak a few years ago and I never bothered to get it fixed." He pointed to a stack of flour bags in a corner. "It's under there, good luck."
"Thanks, go help your wife and daughters."
Sonya didn't have to tell him twice, and by the time they pushed the stack over, Freddy had grabbed the strongbox holding his savings and had left the store. It seemed the "square door" part of the riddle was accurate, as it was a trap door that led to a sub-basement.
"Damn, more water," said Baern.
"Go back outside and wait for Zhent to come," said Sonya, "if his men are here, he'll show up soon."
Baern nodded, shoving the last of the cake into his mouth before heading for the stairs. Sonya realized she may have just literally let a kid into an unguarded candy store, but she doubted Baern could steal more of Feddy's inventory than would be destroyed if they didn't find that crystal.
The wooden stairway that had led down into the sub-basement had long rotted away, but a 15-foot leap down was no problem for the two Shadowchasers. Unfortunately, the flooded room was unlit, and almost pitch-black.
"Uh, don't suppose there's any truth about elves being able to see in the dark?" asked Sonya.
"Yes indeed, we can see a whole lot of dark."
Sonya groaned a little, that was an old joke elves (and gnomes, goblins, and ironically, orcs) often told to humans who thought they could do that. Still, Red Feather was prepared, quickly pulling a glowstick (which was a fancy name for a wooden rod with a continual flame cast on it) and held it aloft, illuminating the dark cellar.
The room was empty, other than empty and unused wine racks against the walls. A large crack was in the north wall in front of them, through which water from the sewers poured, draining through another hole in the floor on the south side.
But this did not distract them from the Crystal, which was in plain sight, wedged in the crack in the north wall.
Given the hellish day that Jigsaw had put them through, Sonya's actions were hardly unexpected or unjustified. Victory was in sight and with 20 minutes to spare! She leapt for the Crystal and grabbed it.
"Game over, Jigsaw! You lose!"
And then… the Crystal exploded…
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Wait… HUH? WTF? What happened? (Cue diabolical laughter.)
"Souled Out!" continues Sunday, and that is all I'm going to tell you!