I saw Owen tackle Duvessa, the muffler he carried muffled her scream for the half second until he could get a hand over her mouth. Booth grabbed them both and dragged them quickly behind the sofa and out of sight of the stairs. The front door wasn't an option because of the guard, and to get out the back they'd have to cross in full sight of the stairs.

Owen wrapped his arms around Duvessa and held her still despite her attempts to flail at the tiny spiders. Booth did a quick brush of both her arms before all three held still. The three of them huddled there and waited for inevitable doom. If they spoke at all, I couldn't hear it from where I was.

I heard a creak from the stairs and held my breath. Poor kids must be melting down. Owen still hugged Duvessa tightly and Booth kept a hand firmly over her mouth.

The moments ticked by very slowly.

There was no bright light. No shout of discovery.

I heard a noise from out front where the guard was. I risked getting down to go check on him. I shouldn't have worried though. The guy was tossing a knife and catching it, clearly bored out of his skull. And that's when I noticed that from the back of his belt hung a black bandana with a skull on it.

Could Booth's buddies be running a protection racket?

I left the guy to his knife juggling and hopped back up to the window.

Owen had finally let go of Duvessa and Booth was peeking over the sofa.

Duvessa created a shadow sparrow and sent it to investigate. While it was gone she wiped herself off, any place where she imagined a spider, and her face where she had tear tracks. When the sparrow returned, she shook her head. There was no one there.

Could the shopkeeper have really slept through the spider alarm and Duvessa's screech?

Booth got up and carefully crept to the stairs and listened. I quickly scooted to a window further down the building. Booth waved the others over. He handed Duvessa and Owen light stones. "Find it quickly. Our crazy good luck can't last."

The two of them immediately headed to the back rooms to find the office and started looking through the papers there. Duvessa quickly started casting the copy spell on everything in a pile. Owen added some documents to the pile to be copied. I knew the plan was to sort through all that later.

Booth watched them get to work, and with a final look up the stairs, crept back into the store where the display cases were.

I moved to the roof. I wanted to see anyone approaching, and the building seemed empty. I did wonder if Seth might have something to do with that. Duvessa screaming would have gotten them caught for sure.

I was surprised they hadn't been caught yet. A well researched job would go off smooth as a frog's ass. This one was as smooth as a pineapple nose picker.

And then I saw someone carefully climbing down a trellis on the back of the building. If I hadn't been on the roof, I might have missed it. I poked my paw four times, the signal for disaster. I got my bearings and leapt to the ground. Seth should be on his way, and now I had my own work to do.

There had been someone in there. And they just went for help.

----------------------------------------

Seth fled down the alleys as fast and as silently as he could and skidded to a stop behind the carver shop. He knew there was an outside door here. It was concealed, but since he knew it was there he spotted it. Right, the latch. Stupid! Of course the door was locked. Did he risk knocking?

He didn't need to. The light from Owen's and Duvessa's light stones flooded into the alley when Duvessa opened the door.

"You've been caught," Seth gasped out. "Someone ran out a few minutes ago and is heading to the guard, you've got to get out of here now."

Duvessa looked at the pile of documents she hadn't finished yet. She started to shove the originals into her bag, then stopped and dropped them on the desk. She only kept the copies she and Owen had made.

Booth silently appeared behind them. "Out, now," he whispered.

The three of them followed Seth to the far end of the alley, at the edge of the market square. Seth turned to direct them when a large man grabbed Booth by the back of the neck.

"I thought I told you 'No' scumstain?" the man growled in Booth's face.

A second bruiser grabbed Owen and Duvessa by their arms. Owen swung at him with his free arm. The bruiser leaned away from the punch, shoved Duvessa hard enough for her to fall, and whipped out a knife and held it to Owen's throat. "Wanna try that again?"

Owen held still. Duvessa sat up, but didn't stand. "Don't you dare hurt him," she said.

Seth had been so worried about the guards approaching from the square, he never noticed the men waiting behind an alley gate. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He pinched himself hard four times, short pause, then once more. He turned to get enough distance for a spell and found himself face to face with another bruiser.

This one was dressed better than the other two. His suit was tailored, with discreet skulls embroidered on a handkerchief in his pocket. He looked like a newly appointed lordling, displaying the latest in fashion but without quite the same posh that made up true money. The other two bruisers were more typical of East End thugs with somewhat shabby clothes and worn boots. The one holding Booth was wearing a gray shirt with skulls embroidered on the collar, Both wore skulls on bandanas. Seth knew about the Skull Gang, which meant the man in front of him was probably Matthius, the crime boss himself. Was this who Booth wanted to 'borrow' the skeleton key from?

"Lay off," Booth snarled back, as he tried to jerk away.

The big man holding Booth, one of Matthius' lieutenants, grabbed Booth's hand and pulled a ring from it. "This isn't it." He held up a plain gold ring to Matthius before turning back to Booth. "You stole from us, you piece of trash. Where's the real ring?"

"I didn't take nothing."

"You are going to be paying for this," Matthius said. "I told you this square is under protection. And you decided to knock it over anyway. And on top of that, you stole from me."

The lieutenant yanked a bag from Booth and handed it to Matthius, along with the phony ring.

Seth frantically tried to think of what he could do. He could make a mana ball, but they generally weren't dangerous. Wind blade was the only attack spell he knew, but he wasn't good at it and hadn't practiced it at all since coming to school. Even if he could get the spell to cut, it was more likely to hit one of his friends. Breeze wouldn't help here either.

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"Go ahead and break bones if anyone tries any funny business," Matthius said. He examined the ring before putting it in a pocket and looked in the bag. "Quite the haul. You picked the stuff easiest to move too." Matthius tucked the bag away and smiled menacingly at the captured teenagers. "Let's all take a walk, shall we? Behave, and we might allow you to go home."

A shadow dove directly into the face of the bruiser holding Owen. The shadow squawked "Freedom!" as it collided. Seth had the stray thought that Reginald was finally making sense. In an instant Owen was loose and Duvessa was on her feet.

They were still surrounded. Seth started summoning air for a spell when Matthius stepped forward and punched him in the gut. Seth hit the ground unable to breathe. Damn, but he really needed to learn how to fight, or at least dodge. Not that he could do much at his age against a full grown adult, but still, getting stomped on the regular was really getting old.

"Stop right there!"

If Seth could breathe, he'd have sighed in relief. The guards had followed Mau right here like he'd planned. They were out of the pot, now to get out of the flame.

The four town guards that Seth had talked to several minutes before were in the market square. However, the paid protection guard, who worked for Matthius, was also in the market square, and was currently talking to a teenage girl who was pointing at the back of the shop.

That flame of impending consequences suddenly felt really hot.

"Excellent timing, gentlemen," Matthius said. "We've caught ourselves a pack of thieves."

"Liar," Seth gasped out. He was on his knees still. "He hit me for no reason. I'm just looking for my cat. These are the friends I already told you about."

"Master Wulrind has engaged us as security for his business. I had heard of a plan to steal from Master Wulrind, and came personally to fulfill our contract. I caught these thieves sneaking out the alley door of Master Wulrind's shop," Matthius told the guards.

"I couldn't have been in that shop. I was talking to you, sir, just a few minutes ago," Seth said. "He's lying and trying to move blame. We don't have anything, and didn't steal anything."

The sergeant turned to the protection guard that had been outside the shop. "What do you know about this?"

"Uh," the guard looked at Matthius, clearly trying to get a clue about what he should say. The sergeant noticed it too and moved on. "And you are?" he asked the teenage girl.

"My name is Selendrith, and I am Master Wulrind's granddaughter."

"Who did you see in your shop?" the sergeant asked the girl.

"I didn't see them. I woke up when the alarm went off. Then I snuck out the back window while they were in the front room looting it. I came directly to find you."

"Where is this loot now?"

"I have it here," Matthius said. "I took it from that one," he indicated Booth.

The sergeant frowned. "Four teenagers are looting a magic shop and there is only one bag of stolen items?" He gestured to one of the other guards. "Search them. All of them."

"I will demonstrate that I have nothing on me, but you will keep your hands off my person," Duvessa declared.

"You will do as you're told, girl," the sergeant said.

"I am Duvessa Ravenshroud of Lilandrium, granddaughter of Countess Duvonica Ravenshroud. You will keep your hands off my person." Duvessa spread her arms wide and shifted her coat side to side. "As you can see, I am not carrying anything." The bag she had of copied papers was lying forgotten on the ground a short distance away.

"Countess," Booth whispered, giving Duvessa an alarmed glare. The Skull Gang thugs shifted uneasily also.

The sergeant studied her then gave a short bow. "My apologies, Lady Duvessa. You haven't been to the palace at all."

"No, sir. My grandmother believed it would distract me from my studies."

The sergeant glanced around at the situation. "I can't imagine why," he muttered too softly for Duvessa to hear.

"This one is a known thief," the Skull Gang lieutenant insisted, giving Booth a shove. "I can't speak for the company he keeps. He's the one we caught with stolen merchandise." He indicated the bag of loot Matthius still held.

The sergeant retrieved the bag and looked in it, then walked back to the girl. "Are these your goods?" he asked Selendrith and handed her the bag. She nodded. "Your grandfather has a protection contract with these people?"

"I believe so."

Seth got to his feet. This whole mess could easily fall either way. If he didn't get a handle on this he'd be expelled for sure.

"Sergeant Nathan, Sir," Seth said, his voice still gaspy from the gut hit. "We were talking just a couple of minutes ago. If I was part of a plan to steal from this store, would I have asked you to come here to help me find my familiar? Wouldn't it have been smarter to send you far away from where this 'crime' was happening?" Seth did his best earnest little kid look.

"I did see your familiar near here," the sergeant said. "And I've never known you to be a liar, Seth."

"I believe him," the girl said.

Seth was surprised and stared at her. He suddenly recognized her. Her hair was down and she wasn't wearing her earrings, but she was the girl from the Rainbow Tower. The same girl he'd been trying to have a conversation with on several occasions now.

"Seth is my friend," Selendrith said. "All of them are my friends. They wouldn't steal from me or my grandfather."

Seth wondered when they'd become friends. He hadn't even known her name until just now.

Mau chose at that moment to rub up against Selendrith's leg. She immediately scooped the cat up.

"Leave Lady Duvessa, and search the others. All of them," the sergeant ordered.

Seth cooperated, and the guard quickly found his pendant. "This?" the guard held it up.

"No," Selendrith said firmly. "That was a commission piece made by my grandfather. It belongs to Seth."

Seth put it back on as the guard moved on to Owen. When he finished he turned to the bruiser, who shoved the guard.

"No, let it happen," Matthius said and the bruiser reluctantly complied. The search went smoothly until the guard found the ring in Matthius' pocket.

"A Skull Ring," the guard announced and held it so the sergeant could see it.

Matthius was startled and snatched the ring. "How did you–"

The guard reached for the ring again and a fight broke out.

It was fast. The bruiser and the lieutenant rushed the other guards as Matthius sucker punched the guard holding him. He turned to flee and tripped over Seth, sending them both sprawling.

Duvessa sent sparrows flying in the faces of the Skull Gang members, including the one who had been on patrol. By the time Seth rolled over and sat up the town guard had the Skull Gang members on the ground. The sergeant held a sword to Matthius' throat. The gang members finally submitted and were bound.

The sergeant examined the ring he took from Matthius. "I recognize this. This is a magic tool that lets you into any locked door or chest. There's been a few of these floating around. I think I know who the real thieves are. You'll be explaining yourselves to his lordship. I'm sure he'll be interested in where the ring came from." He dropped the ring into his pocket.

Selendrith sneezed. Then sneezed again as Mau wriggled loose. "I'm so sorry, I can't hold her!"

Mau jumped down, then ran up the sergeant and leapt over to Seth who grabbed her and locked her to his chest. "I'm so sorry sir! She's new, and I'm still working on her training. "

The sergeant brushed off his coat and straightened it, then shook his head. "It's fine. It's not unusual for familiars to get aggressive or protective of their masters, and she was clearly eager to get to you. Do work on her behavior though. She had the four of you wandering the city in the middle of the night." He gestured at the bound gang members. "And put all of you in danger."

"I will, sir, thank you. And thank you for your help in finding her."

The sergeant turned first to Selendrith. "I will be reporting this to Lord Derinheld. He will likely be sending someone by tomorrow to take a statement from you. And you as well, Lady Duvessa."

Selendrith nodded. "Of course."

"I should think so," Duvessa said.

The sergeant looked back at Seth. "Give my regards to your brother, Seth. I was sorry to hear about your father."

"I will, sir. Thank you."

As the guards led Matthius and his men away, Matthius glared back at Booth.

After they had left Seth turned to Selendrith. "We–"

"Hey! I still got your book!" Owen announced. After a moment of awkward silence he muttered, "I've been meaning to give it back to you."

"Why don't you all come inside and I'll make tea." Selendrith glanced over Duvessa and then Booth. "And you can explain to me why you are covered in spiderlings."