It took the guards all of twenty seconds to burst through the cafe door. It took them another ten to push Merlin face down into a nearby table. There were four of them, each wearing the blue and grey armor they’d seen at the gate.

Merlin struggled. “Wait! I’m innocent! This is all just a misunderstanding!”

“He’s telling the truth!” Charlie tried to say.

“Ugobah!” the guards heard. They exchanged a look. Two of them wrestled Merlin toward the door to take him away. But it was slow progress. Merlin kept wrapping around tables and chairs with his legs to delay them.

One of the guards looked at Charlie with worried eyes. He looked like he wanted to pick him up, but another guard approached and put his hand on his shoulder. “You know the rules.”

The worried guard shook the man’s hand off and reached for Charlie. “He’s just a baby.”

“What about your wife?” the other guard said.

The guard reaching for Charlie froze. He looked up, a horrified expression on his face. “What?”

“Think about what they’ll do. It’s…not worth it.”

The guard’s face fell, and he turned apologetically to Charlie. “I…alright.” The two guards went to join the others.

Merlin and the guards restraining him had stopped fighting for a moment to watch the exchange. Merlin looked at his captors. “What? What rules? You can’t just leave him here, he’s a baby! What are you doing?” The guards tightened their grip and finally wrestled Merlin to the door. He stretched his legs to cling to the doorframe.

Charlie reached a hand out for Merlin. “Don’t worry Merlin! I’ll attack them and then we can escape!” he said, projecting the thought to Merlin.

“No! Don’t!” Merlin said. The guards ignored him, thinking he was protesting. He paused and then looked right into Charlie’s eyes. “Act normal,” he mouthed. With that, he stopped resisting. His legs went slack. The guards hauled him outside and out of sight into the street.

“Uh… what just happened?” Orb asked. He floated upward from a hiding spot under the table. He reached eye level with Charlie.

Charlie turned to look at him. “I dunno…what do we do now?” he asked.

“Hmm. Maybe we should call Bleedy. You can’t get out of here on your own.”

Charlie nodded.

A door slammed, hitting the wall with a loud thud. Orb dove into Charlie’s onesie pocket, dimming his usual light. Charlie turned to look. It wasn’t the cafe’s front door. It was the door in the kitchen, behind the shop’s counter. The cafe owner was missing. A newcomer stepped into the room. He was a massive, brown-skinned man with a shiny, bald head. He straightened, and Charlie realized he had been forced to duck to enter through the doorway. The man was tall, and his muscles were visible through a shirt that stretched over his chest.

“Where is he?” a deep voice asked. The cafe owner followed after him.

“I… guess the guards came already.”

The man looked around and realized they were the only ones in the shop. His eyes met Charlies. “What? Then why the hell did they leave the baby?” he asked.

The woman didn’t answer. There was a weird silence between them. An uncomfortable silence. In the quiet, their faces communicated something that went unsaid. It bothered Charlie a lot.

The man yawned, filling the silence. “I guess it took me a minute to wake up. Too bad I couldn’t get here sooner.”

“Orb, what do we do?” Charlie asked.

“Just act normal, for now. Like Merlin said. We need to be careful,” Orb said. “That man has a weird aura. Not sure how I feel about it yet.”

Charlie swallowed. He kept his eyes on the man. But the man was staring past him, into the street. Charlie turned to look through the street facing window as well.

What he saw scared him.

There was a man staring inside the shop from across the road. He wasn’t waiting for someone. He wasn’t looking to see what all the commotion was about. The man was staring.

He was staring directly at Charlie.

His face wasn’t covered, but even then, it was hard to make out. Like shadows clung to him, obscuring portions of it. Charlie could just barely notice a large scar that ran from one cheek to the other. On his waist, there was a short, but well sharpened blade. He broke his gaze for only a moment, to look both ways, before approaching the shop. Charlie wanted to crawl out of his skin and hide.

“Orb! He’s coming for me!” Charlie shrieked.

“What?” Orb asked. Orb peeked out from the Charlie’s pocket to see and noticed the man as well. “Oh my god! Charlie, can you walk yet? It’s time to get the heck out of here! That man is freaking terrifying!”

Geron beckoned the cafe owner. She ran past, knocking over a table as she went. She locked the door to the cafe and hastened to the windows, drawing the curtains closed.

“Are you sure about this, Geron?” she asked the tall man. He waited behind the counter.

“Yeah. I’m sure. Screw those guys. I’m not letting them take a freaking baby.” He hurried over and scooped Charlie up. Orb nearly fell out of his pocket, but quickly zipped back in. Thankfully, neither the cafe owner nor Geron noticed. Geron nodded for the woman to hurry up. She hurried past and went back through the backdoor in the kitchen. The man, with Charlie in hand, hurried after her. He paused, noting the untouched donut Merlin had purchased on the table.

Thud.

There was a banging on the door.

Thud.

A shoulder rammed against it.

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Geron grabbed the donut, put it in his mouth for safekeeping, and then gave Charlie one last look. Satisfied the baby was still in one piece, he hurried after the woman and through the backdoor.

“Orb! What do we do!” Charlie asked. He shook with each step the large man took.

“What direction are we moving? Is it away from the scary man?” Orb asked.

“Yes!”

“Then we don’t do anything! We’re getting out of here! We’ll figure it out later!”

***

Charlie was wrapped snugly inside a warm blanket in Geron’s arms. Geron kept his head down low to avoid recognition and looked down to check on Charlie every few seconds. Almost as if he was worried the baby would evaporate in his arms. Charlie wasn’t quite sure where they were going. The shopkeeper had gone her own way as soon as they exited the cafe.

“Bleedy, Mousifer? Can you guys hear me?” he called out in his mind.

No answer. Apparently, they were too far to communicate telepathically. It was the first time he’d tried to contact anyone that wasn’t in his immediate vicinity. It meant they were cut off from the others.

“I can’t talk with any of the others,” Charlie told Orb.

“Me neither. Well…escape isn’t an option for now. Without Merlin or Bleedy, traveling through the city would be impossible. That’s not great. But it could be worse. We could’ve been taken by the man with the scar.”

Charlie shivered. He didn’t like that thought. “Geron seems nice.”

“He kidnapped you!” Orb said.

“Yes, but in a good way. Like Hilda’s grandmother did.” Charlie pointed out.

“Charlie, I cannot stress this enough. There is no such thing as a good kidnapping.”

Geron leaned against a doorway and knocked a few times in quick succession. Charlie looked up. Behind the door, glass shattered, and someone swore under their breath. The person on the other side of the door undid a series of latches, one after the other. The door swung open. A brunette man with frazzled hair and a matching beard rested against the now open doorway.

“Geron,” his words slurred. “I was hoping you were Vicke…he ran to the shop.” The drunk man looked at the pool of alcohol at his feet. “We’re out of booze! Oh. Boss has been asking for ya.” He hiccuped.

“Roan, seriously? We have a job tomorrow. Is he upstairs?”

Roan raised a hand to cut Geron off. “I don’t need any judgement from you, just because you’re too big for doorways doesn’t mean—” he hiccupped. “Doesn’t mean you can look down on me for having a good time, okay?”

Geron shook his head. He used his foot to push the door closed, and redid a couple, but not all, of the locks. He shot Roan a look and then brushed past him into the room.

The building was oddly small. To the left was a tiny room containing a single toilet. The room was so tiny that Charlie imagined that the knees of anyone who sat in there would press against the wall. To his right was an equally awkward room. A woman leaned in a plush chair large enough for two people to sit beside each other. She wore a fluffy black jacket and dark leggings to match. Another woman, this one much younger, was sprawled out on a couch reading a book. She noticed Geron in the doorway and turned to look at him, accidentally dropping the book. On her face.

“Ow.”

Geron pulled the blanket over Charlie’s face to obscure him. He seemed to be trying to keep Charlie a secret for some reason.

“Are you alright, Tirille?” Geron asked.

“Just trying to beat the knowledge into myself. Apparently. I’m fine. What’s that?” she asked, probably talking about Charlie.

“It’s… something for Axel. I’ll talk to you in a bit.” Geron was moving again.

“Charlie, what’s going on?” Orb asked.

“Dunno. I can’t see anything now!”

Wood creaked and groaned as Geron seemingly ascended a set of old wooden stairs. Charlie lifted a hand to raise a part of the blanket, just enough so he could peek out from underneath it without Geron seeing. At the top of the steps was a single, wooden door. Geron didn’t bother knocking this time. He tried the handle, and seeing it was unlocked, pushed his way through the doorway.

The first thing Charlie noticed about the man was his hair. Long, red dreadlocks flowed from his head all the way down to the bed he sat on. The dark green blanket under him was far too large for the bed and skirted against the floor. The room smelled… old. Like one of the antiques Mary kept around her home. Like people didn’t normally live in here.

“Geron? Whatcha got there?” the man asked, eyeing the bundle in Geron’s arm. Charlie let go of the blanket, so the man didn’t catch him spying.

Geron paused. “Well… actually, it’s a baby.”

The strange man laughed. “Right! Seriously, what is it?”

“Axel…I’m being serious.” Geron gently removed the blanket from Charlie’s face so Axel could see him.

Axel jumped to his feet. He’d had an intense look about him since they’d entered the room, but that look was even more intense now. “What the heck did you do? Whose child is that?”

Geron bounced Charlie in his arms. “His caretaker was arrested. The city guard just left him there on the table.” He paused. “There was a snatcher there, across the street.”

Axel swore. “Did they see you? Did they see your face?”

Geron shrugged.

“Damn it, Geron. We have a job to do tomorrow. Is that why? Are you sabotaging it?”

“You know that’s not it,” Geron said firmly. He approached and beckoned Axel with his head. Axel stepped to the side and made room for Geron to put Charlie on the bed.

It was comfortable. Not as comfortable as his bassinet mattress back home, but close enough. He hadn’t been anywhere this cozy since then.

“I’m sorry. I just, Katherine, trusted us with this mission. I can’t give up on it. You know that. Roan, Samantha, Tirille, Vicke. I’m responsible for them. It would reflect poorly on them if we went home in failure. Especially on a job like this.”

“Axel, relax. We can still do the job.”

Axel gestured to Charlie. “We can’t leave a baby here. Especially now that the snatchers are after it. They won’t try anything if we stick together, but going to the dungeon will be impossible now. I’m not splitting us up. Not again. Not after—”

Geron placed a hand on Axel’s shoulder. Charlie perked up at what he heard. This mystery job had something to do with a dungeon. Was it the dungeon the men in the cafe had been talking about? Did Geron and his friend have some reason to go there? He noticed Orb poking slightly out of his pocket. He was interested, too.

“What if we don’t need to split up or give up the job? What if…I know this sounds crazy. But what if we take the child with us?”

“Geron…”

“Listen, I know it’s wild. But think about it. It’s a low-level dungeon. We took the job to get our feet wet again. Something like this should be easy for us. I’ll babysit the kid, and we let Tirille and Vicke get some extra practice. It’s perfect. Then we just collect our pay, head back home, and find an orphanage well beyond their reach.”

Axel didn’t respond for a minute. He bit at one of his fingernails, and a foot tapped against the boarded wooden floor. He looked up at Geron, a smile plastered on his face. “Fine. If you think we can make it work, I’m in. But if we get there and something feels off, no matter how small, we call off the job. Deal?”

“Of course. Go tell the others, and… you might want to ask Samantha to brew up something for Roan.”

“He sick?”

“He will be,” Geron said.

Axel grimaced. He hurried out of the room.

Geron laughed softly and joined Charlie on the bed. He held up a large finger for Charlie, who instinctively reached up and grabbed it. Geron chuckled again. “Don’t worry, little one. I won’t let anyone lay a finger on you. I promise. I’m stronger than I look.” Geron smiled, and leaned his head against the wall, relaxing.

“Uh…I don’t think he knows what that phrase means. He looks strong as heck. What does he mean he’s stronger than he looks? Seriously?” Orb asked. He rolled over next to Charlie’s face. “Well, looks like ‘were going to the dungeon after all!’”

Charlie nodded. “Orb, this will be our first time in another dungeon. What do you think it’ll be like?”

“Probably not too different from our dungeon. I mean, I imagine there all pretty similar, right?”

Charlie twisted his mouth. “I guess so! We’ll find out tomorrow. I’m going to sleep.”

“What? Here?” Orb asked.

But Charlie was already snoring.

Merlin

“Ow!” Merlin landed hard on the cell room floor. He shook his head and looked up. The cell was small. There were two beds on either side, and a bucket in between them.

He tried not to think about what the bucket was for.

He stood, dusting himself off, and looked at the heavyset man sitting on the bed to his left. “Oh. Hello. What are you in for, my good man?” Merlin asked.

The man ignored him.

“Alright then.”

The guard locked the cell and returned the keyring to his waist. Merlin spun and hurried to the cell’s bars. He grabbed them. “Wait! I’m telling you this is all a misunderstanding.”

“Killed ten people.”

Merlin blinked. Looking back at his cellmate. “What?”

“I killed ten people.” The man said, looking up to meet Merlin’s gaze. “I was one away from a town record.”

Merlin tilted his head. He nodded. “I see. That is…GUARD!”