A/N: Shout outs to my anonymous reviewer and James Birdsong! Glad you liked the last chapter. More on our brothel workers now. :)
Chapter 25
"How bad is it?" Fiyero wanted to know. Word had spread back to the Palace via Flying Monkey that something had happened down at the brothel.
"Candy is missing and Madame Butterfly has been bashed in the head. The blood on her clothes appeared to be her own. Some of the other girls escaped out the back but a few of them were beaten when they wouldn't tell the men who busted in where Candy was," Elphaba explained to him. They were having this discussion out in the hall, so the mill owner didn't hear them.
"Do they think that Candy was kidnapped?" He asked.
"No one knows where she is. It's possible that the men got to her, but it's also possible that she escaped out the back of the brothel. Zetti has descriptions of the men and is getting medical transport for those that need it down to the hospital," Elphaba told him.
"All right. I'll order more troops to do a sweep of the city. We need to get to Candy before something bad happens. They fully intend to harm her as evidenced by their behavior," Fiyero said.
"Maybe I can track her using the crystal ball," Elphaba offered. While she did not know the woman who was in trouble, she might be able to find her quicker than flooding the streets with Gale Force.
"I thought you had to have something of the person you were looking for," the Prince was confused.
"Well, we have something," she pointed to the heavy Quoxwood door, beyond which sat Farhidi.
"You think that would work?" Fiyero asked.
"I think we won't know until we try," she admitted.
"All right. You get the crystal ball and I'll tell Farhidi. If he has any good bones left in his body, he'll want to help," the Prince told her before heading into the room. Either the mill owner had been less than cooperative or Fiyero had cracked him like an egg, revealing some dirt that only Farhidi knew about. Elphaba quickly hurried down the hall to where she kept her crystal ball.
A few minutes later, she entered the room to see that the mill owner was in tears. The green woman sat down at the table next to him and explained what she wanted to do. Farhidi was blubbering and she was surprised but refused to question it now. With his help, she carefully cast the spell and the crystal ball clouded over. As the clouding slowly cleared, they got a picture.
Fiyero watched in amazement. The spell was working even though they had nothing concrete that had been owned by Candy. The picture cleared and he immediately recognized the location and that poor Candy wasn't alone.
"The Corn Exchange. Are those the guys that people saw at the brothel?" Fiyero asked Elphaba.
"They would appear to be. Why bring her there though?" She was confused. If they wanted her dead, there was no good reason for her to have ever left the brothel.
"They're probably looking for me. They think that she knows where I am," Farhidi said.
"We made no attempt to hide your identity as the Gale Force arrested you. She must have something else that they want," Fiyero told him.
"I can't imagine what," the mill owner admitted. That's when Elphaba saw one of the men hit Candy.
"This isn't good. I'm taking some Monkeys. We'll flush them out," the green woman said.
"These guys could have guns. You're going to need more than Monkeys," he told her. She gave him a look, but internally she knew he was right. The Monkeys, while agile, did not carry guns and would be sitting ducks unless they could get up close. She couldn't protect all of them. This wasn't a mission where people needed to get hurt.
"We'll grab Schultz, Kaplan, Roth, and a few others. With our horses, we can be to the Corn Exchange quickly," Fiyero told her. The two left the room, tasking the soldier outside of it with watching Farhidi, while they were gone.
To Be Continued…