Jack paused when the tracking spell that looked like a firebird landed on the roof of the

inn down the street from the Hall. He waved at some of the adventurers he saw heading

into the building to pick up jobs, or work on their skills.

He went inside and looked around. A few of the patrons glanced his way, but none made

a move that looked like someone who knew the jig was up. Maybe the people he wanted

were upstairs, keeping an eye out for the kids.

If the watchers had been on the job long enough, they knew the girls weren’t coming

back unless something happened. They could take the rest of the day off unless they saw

the dust up outside and decided to take off before they were exposed.

He thought it would be hard to miss Bea and Laura throwing their powers around at a

crowd of armed men. If he had seen that, he would have packed his things and started

looking for a way out of town.

They were still in the building. Maybe they were still packing.

His version of Makkari was still a speedster even if he couldn’t break the sound barrier,

and the girls hadn’t thought about a spy. He, or she, could be packing up while he was

considering what to do.

The easiest thing to do was to go upstairs and see if the bird entered a room to let him

know that was the room he was looking for since he seemed to have struck out in the

common room.

If that happened, he could talk to the occupant.

The counterman had his eye on Jack. He moved to the end of the common room bar as

this stranger headed for the stairs leading to the rented rooms. He frowned at someone

not paying, but heading for one of his guests’ rooms.

“Hey!,” he called. “What are you doing?”

Jack paused and indicated himself with a thumb.

“Yes, you,” said the counterman. “What are you doing?”

“My friend, Josie, asked me to come down and see if I could find the idiot who set some

adventurers on her sisters before she came down here and burned the place down,” said

Jack. He grinned. “She might decide to take someone’s ears as souvenirs. You never

know.”

“Your friend, Josie?,” asked the counterman.

“But she likes Ear Ripper for short,” said Jack. “It lets people know what she does

without having her explain it if you know what I mean.”

“He’s talking about that group of girls with Emily Budd,” said one of the adventurers

at the bar. “The ones who hacked up those out of towners. Sir Darry did a good job with

them.”

“Did you see what happened?,” asked Jack.

“Yep,” said the adventurer. “Those clowns from up north accosted Madam Witch’s

Ducklings and their nanny in the street. Some of us were about to tell them to march on,

but then the nanny shoots one in the giblets with her crossbow. He won’t ever have any

kids if he doesn’t by now. Then Em and her friend pulled swords and went at it. Next

thing I know, bodies are flying through the air, some of those woodenheads are on fire,

and one of the younger girls was breaking bones.”

“That was my beloved with the crossbow,” said Jack. “We plan to get married

sometime.”

“I advise you not to make her mad,” said the adventurer. He sipped his beer. “It won’t

end well for you.”

“In the giblets?,” asked Jack.

“The bolt went right through,” said the adventurer.

“You guys wouldn’t happen to know if there is some people from up north upstairs?,”

asked Jack.

“There is a man and his wife up there,” said the counterman. “They have rented the

room to the end of the month.”

“I have to go up and talk to them,” said Jack. “If this is the wrong place; no harm, no

foul. I’ll just search somewhere else.”

“Do you need a knife?,” asked the adventurer.

“I got one,” said Jack. “Which room is our lovebirds in?”

“Number six,” said the counterman. “It’s at the end of the hall, on the right.”

“Facing the street?,” asked Jack.

“Yes,” said the counterman.

“If they were looking out the window,” said the adventurer. “They saw what happened

to their comrades.”

“Hopefully they won’t see me coming,” said Jack. “Thanks for your help.”

“It’s nothing,” said the adventurer. “Everyone knows what happens if they make Madam

Witch mad. We’ve seen and heard things.”

“Everyone?,” said Jack. He looked at the room. The adventurers nodded at his scan.

“And she helped us get our pay when the manager for the Hall vanished,” said the

adventurer. “She didn’t have to do that, but that kind of thing builds good will from us.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Thanks, guys,” said Jack. “I’ll tell Josie you think fondly of her.”

He climbed the stairs, whistling an odd tune about giants and sobriety as he went.

He walked down the hall, listening as he whistled. Most of the rooms seemed quiet, but

there were people in Number Six, and they were talking about what they should be

doing.

He knocked on the door. He might as well let them know he was there to take them in.

He expected some resistance to the idea of being hung for threatening the princess.

He wondered if they had an idea about the larger dragon they had poked.

He was familiar enough with the failure of intelligence to think some recriminations

were being passed back and forth. Unfortunately he couldn’t just let them fight it out.

He still had to deal with the rest of the quest he was on.

Silence answered his knock. He wondered if they were getting ideas and were deciding

to go out the window and climb down the front of the inn.

“Hello?,” asked Jack. “The adventurers downstairs said you were here. Can you open

the door? I don’t want to shout through it.”

Jack touched his watch as the door started to open. He slammed into it with a shoulder.

That was enough to knock the door away from him and send the person opening the

door across the room.

“Don’t pull the sword, lady,” said Jack. “I’m willing to let things go easily, but I’m in

a foul mood, and I don’t mind taking it out on you two before we talk to the king.”

She dropped the swordbelt she held in her hand. It thumped against the floor. She went

to her partner, and started looking for any serious injuries.

“The king is going to want you to testify about how you kept an eye on the princess so

you could kidnap her again,” said Jack. He let his giant in homeless clothes go. “My

friend may want to put a hole in your heads first for endangering her sisters. And I am

thinking about doing something since you put my beloved in danger. How do you want

to handle this?”

“It was just a job,” said the woman. She cradled her partner in her arms. “We were

supposed to send messages back of what we saw. Eventually, if things went right, we

were to go home after the job was over.”

“Where were you supposed to send the messages?,” asked Jack.

“Coldwater, up on the border with Shemmaria,” said the woman. “Some place called the

Moon Inn.”

“Your contact is out of the picture,” said Jack. “I’m going to put you in the brig and do

something for him before I put him the brig with you. Then the king can make his own

ruling about what to do with you.”

“So we have a chance to live?,” asked the woman.

“My beloved said I should step back from vengeance related murder,” said Jack. “I am

trying to stick to it.”

She nodded.

“Enterprise,” said Jack.

“Acknowledged,” said the machine.

“I need you to beam this woman to a cell in the brig, and the other and I to Sick Bay,”

said Jack. “I need to take a look at him before he hits the brig too.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

The woman disappeared first. Then the Enterprise lit up Jack and his prisoner. He

nodded when he could move again.

He changed long enough to put his victim on a table and activate it. The Enterprise

recommended a couple of drugs to be replicated and he injected them in the arm of the

adventurer. He nodded as things settled down.

“Enterprise,” said Jack. “Please move this guy to the brig with the woman so they can

be together until we sort this out.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

The transporter worked its magic. Jack rubbed his face. He needed to check in with the

brain trust and Josie. Then they had to get the rest of the job done.

He had been right about the spies. He wondered if Josie had set her guy on fire.

The way this was going he would ready for another visit to the lake when it was over.

Maybe he and Elaine could go on their own. That would be great in his opinion.

He reviewed the situation in his head as he walked down to the lounge. Maybe the

others had come up with something they could use to do something. The books Josie

handed over should give them something as far as contacts up north if these adventurers

had come down from Coldwater.

The plan must have been in the works when Rustam had made the first try. Either that,

or they had put the spies in place when the original Hent had been turned into worm

food. Maybe they had been put in place as far back as when he and Josie had shown up

with the bar of gold at the Exchange.

Josie could figure that out when they had the timeline in hand. Maybe they had been

noticed the first day when they had run into Ken. He wondered how far the former

peddler had gone with his daughter. He decided to let it go. He had given the guy a

chance. That was the best he could do.

The alchemist had been executed for everything he had done to the city. Jack hadn’t

forgiven that at all.

He entered the lounge, admiring the twilight outside the windows. The Enterprise

was high enough to see the edge of the world. He smiled at that.

“How did it go?,” asked Mister Warner. He had a glass of milk and a ham sandwich in

front of him.

“I got a husband and wife team from across the adventurer hall,” said Jack. “The wife

said they were supposed to send their reports to Coldwater. I thought I would let Josie

have a crack at them.”

“The adventurers that the Ducklings captured were also from Coldwater and Solas,” said

Budd. He had a bowl of soup and some ale.

“We expect the seat of power for our enemies is also in Coldwater, or just across the

border,” said Rickard. He had steak and wine.

“Definite locations?,” asked Jack.

“No,” said Glunt. “But the reading so far has pointed to several places we can use to

secure evidence on our side of the border. At least some of this is going through Interior

Works and the minister Hax wants to question.”

“So we might have to take him and sweat him for answers,” said Jack. “We can do it.”

“It might lead to some political upheaval depending on how things play out,” said

Worldy. He had part of a casserole in front of him.

“I think Josie will be willing to let you have him with the understanding that this is his

only chance,” said Jack. “If we come across him in the field again, causing problems,

he’s burned up his one time to go straight. If I thought he had threatened Elaine, I would

have to take something as a reminder he should not be casting his eyes south.”

“We kind of know everything but the smallest cogs,” said Vin. He had chili and some

kind of cheese roll in front of him. “All we really need is to capture or kill all of them

and let the court deal with the rest.”

“Illheim being imprisoned will spark some unrest with the nobles,” said Rickard. “I am

glad we are handling things like this rather the usual way you do things.”

“Interior Works being under suspicion for abuse of power will also cause problems with

the various committees in action,” said Worldy. “The fact that he hired adventurers

instead of using our own forces will quell some of the outrage.”

“If we can’t clear this with legwork,” said Jack. “I will be glad to ask Josie to unleash

her birds on everyone we have already identified. I don’t have a problem with that.”

“Some of this might have to be handled that way,” said Hax. He had milk in front of

him. “Still we have marked out a conspiracy to ruin two countries for money and power.

If we can stop them, it might secure a peace for a small amount of time.”

“At least until Matilda and her dragon take over for us,” said Jack. He grinned. “One

thing for sure, ice cream will not be safe after we retire.”

“I guess we can protect her too,” said Vin.

“She will be protecting us,” said Markus. He studied the piece of cake on the plate in

front of him. “You will be older than dirt, and I will be naturally seasoned by avoiding

things like this.”

“Too bad you can’t avoid roller pins to the eye,” said Vin.