With the priest gone Isa looked around her. Thorn lay dead, as did 2 of her guards. The third was, presumably still sleeping. Sleeping! The whole reason she’d come was to rescue the children. As she whirled around to look at the dark area across the way, 2 small heads poked out of the doorway there. One said, “Where’s Boji? He promised me water.” The other said, “Why were you fighting? Are you bad?”

The first child pointed at the dead guard near her. “Why is Lew sleeping here?”

That question got Isa moving. She hurried to the children. She knelt beside the little girl, blocking her view of the dead man. “He’s…. Um, he’s not well. But we’re here to help you. Who all is sleeping right now? Can you count out all your friends for me?”

“She’s too little to know,” said the second child, another little girl. “Are you bad?” She held her fists clenched at her sides.

“No, we’re not bad. My name is Isa, and these are my friends. We heard that people were hurting children, and we wanted to help.” She gave the second girl a smile.

“You know me, don’t you?” Wat was standing beside Isa. “I been here before. And since some of ya have families to go back to, I wanted to help these people.”

Isa clasped the hand of the first little girl. “Let’s get you some water and then get everyone up. OK?” She stood and looked around.

“That way,” said Wat, pointing to the left.

As she and the girl walked toward the kitchen area, Mery and Joth joined Wat. Mery crouched to talk with the second girl, and Joth and Wat picked up the dead guard and started toward where Thorn lay.

When Isa and the girl came back, Isa saw that about a dozen children stood or sat near the entrance to the warehouse. Wat was gone, and Joth and Mery stood talking quietly. They turned to her as Isa approached. To the little girl Isa said, “Jana, will you go join the others? We’ll see about getting a snack for everyone, OK?”

To Mery and Joth she quietly said, “Hi. What did I miss? Where’s Wat?”

“I sent him to the Temple of Ganaysus. He’s the god of bards and tricksters. I figure he’ll know how to handle a dozen kids for a few days.” She shrugged. “A donation to the temple - maybe a couple of these black pearls - should grease the way.” Mery opened her hand to reveal 5 black pearls.

“They’re pretty but are they enough?” Isa touched one with her forefinger.

“They’re 500 gold each,” Joth said. “That Thorn, she had about 3,000 in gems on her. She was ready to step through the gate--”

“With her fortune,” Isa finished. “I heard her say that. Hey, I’m going to take the kids to the kitchen, OK?”

“Do you need a hand?” Mery pulled a flute from her bag. “How about a tune then? A marching tune to march our bellies to the kitchen.” A jaunty melody filled the air. Mery began to high step toward the kitchen, and the children giggled and followed in her wake.

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“I’ll just, um, stay here and,” Joth held out his arms, “loot the place.”

Soon Wat was back with several clerics and acolytes of Ganaysus. They gathered up the children and took them back to the temple. Mery promised to come in the morning to help sort out where they all belonged. The main priest, a plump man in a purple robe, took 3 black pearls from Mery with whispered thanks.

As he left, a different group came in and took the bodies away. Mery nodded at the men as they covered Thorn and the guards in white cloth. “Filius will make sure they get a proper burial. If you needed a god, Ganaysus isn’t a bad sort.”

When the 4 of them were alone again, Mery looked at the few things Joth had collected. “No offense, wizard, but that’s not much of a fortune,” Mery said. “Not nearly enough for Rose.”

“Well,” he said, “she had the rings and the pearls. The rings are probably 500 gold apiece. There’s a scroll - another scroll - and a healing potion. This hourglass. Dunno why. Oh and the one guy. He had a set of dice on him.” He held up a small black bag. “They look pretty. Might be loaded for all I know.”

“Loaded?” Wat held out his hand. “What’s that mean?”

Isa answered. “That they’ve been doctored, weighted, to make them turn up certain numbers more than others.”

Wat looked inside. “They’re black! They’ll be lucky for me; I can just feel it.”

“Try ‘em in some friendly games first, eh lad? Test ‘em out, like.” Mery smiled at him. “Well, there’s Wat settled. Now about….” She grinned as he started to protest. Mery rubbed her hands together. “No offense to the wizard - well done in the fighting, by the way. All around. Very nice inspiration you gave me, Watty. Thank you kindly.” She paused. “What was I saying? Oh! Yes, no offense to Joth Windbane but leave it to a bardic rogue to look for the loot!”

Wat pocketed the dice and stood up. “Or a roguish bard,” he said as he joined her.

“Did you really have a scroll? In the fight, I mean. For just a moment, I thought that maybe you’d lied to me back at the cabin, and that maybe you had the gate scroll.” She felt her face getting red. “I’m sorry.”

“Minor illusion. I don’t know why I did that. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course,” he flipped one of the rips in his robe, “I almost died because of it.”

“Leave the cleverness to us fighters, right?”

He laughed. “Right.”

“But really, Joth. I’m sorry. This has all been so crazy, and you being friends with Fedru, and the way you were right there my first day, and how--” She’d been about to say, and how so many people dislike you, but she’d caught herself.

“I’m not the most popular guy. I’m not really a people person. Me and Fedru, we have that in common.”

Isa said, “Now that we have the scroll, I realize I’m going to miss this place.” She looked over to where Mery and Wat were moving boxes and laughing. “It has some good people. I have a lot of good memories. How about you?”

“Oh sure. Yeah.”

“Do you mind if we wait until tomorrow?” Isa quickly glanced at Joth and then away. “I want to say goodbye.”

“Tomorrow is fine.” He handed Isa the scroll. “Because I have no business reading this.”

“What?” Isa smoothed out the scroll. The writing was all symbols and squiggles. “Can’t you read it, though? You’re a wizard.”

“We want this to be successful for you - for us - so we should have Ealda read it.”

“Because she’s a class 9, and it’s a class 9. And we don’t need a diamond!”

“But diamonds are always nice to have.” Joth smiled.

“You don’t think Thorn had a sack of diamonds squirreled away, do you?”

Joth shrugged. “Let’s see what our roguish bards have found!”

“You mean our bardic rogues.” Isa laughed and walked over to join Mery and Wat.