The bandit lord’s eyes shifted from dreamy to angry in a flash as he smacked both hands on the desk and leaned forward toward the crab.

“You won’t ruin her plans,” he growled. “I won’t allow it, ya hear me?!”

“Who in the world is this ‘her’ you are talking about?” Olivia said.

Onion Jake’s manic gaze darted to her.

“That’s none of your business! You already asked too much! I’m not supposed to talk about her. You two need to get out of here before I change my mind!”

“But we were just—” Balthazar started.

“Out!” the thug yelled, standing up and pointing toward the door.

The crustacean frowned. Something was wrong. His dialogue skill had failed before, but it had never been blocked. Whatever that even meant.

What could have caused that? This guy doesn’t look like the type to have some kind of psychic skills.

Looking at his erratic attitude and crazy eyes, the crab knew something was off with whom he was sure to be an otherwise delightful bandit chief with a wonderful personality.

Maybe it was all the onion affecting his mind.

Leading the intruders out and back to the hall, the man yelled to his crew, “Let them go, but if you so much as catch a whiff of them skulking about anywhere near our turf again, teach them a proper lesson!”

Next thing they knew, the woman and the crab were back outside, under the night sky, as the heavy door slammed shut on their faces.

“And if I so much as catch another whiff of that onion stench, I’ll probably barf,” said Olivia, making a disgusted face.

“Why does that guy smell so much of fried onions anyway?” Balthazar asked.

“Do you really need to ask?!”

The crab shrugged.

“Either way, there was definitely something wrong with him. Did you notice what happened when he was about to tell me who this mystery person pulling the strings was?”

“Yeah,” the young woman said. “Very odd. At least now we know there’s someone else orchestrating this whole thing.”

Balthazar looked around. “We should probably not hang around here for too long.”

They walked back to the main street, with its lit lanterns and braziers, but not a soul in sight.

“Any idea who he could have been talking about?” the crab asked.

“Not really,” the mayor’s niece responded. “One thing I’m certain of, though. The Onion Crew are the ones stealing all the mangoes, but whatever they are doing with them, it’s not in their hideout. That place is not big enough to store them, and most of it was just the improvised tavern we saw.”

The merchant nodded as they continued up the sidewalk. “True, but then where do you think they’re taking the stolen cargo?”

“Again, no idea,” said Olivia. “It could be anywhere. Marquessa is a big place.”

“I know where they’re taking the mangoes,” a little girl’s voice exclaimed from between them, startling the human and the crab.

Suze had suddenly reappeared alongside the two of them, holding a large rolled up piece of parchment behind her back and sporting a cheeky smile on her face.

“What the… Where have you been?!” exclaimed the befuddled crustacean.

“I snuck around the hall while you two were busy arguing and making the bandits angry,” she replied. “Thanks for being good distractions!”

“You little…” said Olivia, looking more impressed than mad. “And where did you go?”

“I slipped into Onion Jake’s office while he was yelling at you and his crew, and from there into his private quarters to look for something useful.”

Balthazar snapped his pincer in excitement. “Clever girl! And did you find anything useful?”

“Yeah,” Suze said. “I found this box of matches. Pretty neat!”

The crab looked at the little carton she was shaking in her hand and rolled his eyes. “Something a bit more useful than that?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Hmm, I also found this funny roll of stuff. I don’t know what it is, but it looked interesting, so I took it too.”

The little girl held up a cigar between her fingers for the other two to see.

“Uh, that’s… not for kids,” Olivia said, quickly snatching the roll from her hand.

“Hey!” exclaimed Suze. “Give it back! I stole it fair and square! At least I wanna figure out what it is.”

The child hopped up and down trying to reach the young woman’s hand, which she was holding above her head.

“This is a… Stick of Unhealth,” the baroness’s niece said, struggling to keep the little girl away. “You really don’t want it, trust me.”

“That… sounds… valuable,” said Suze, still trying to jump high enough to grab the cigar. “Gimme!”

“I’ll buy you a puff pastry roll later instead,” the crab said. “Now tell us what that piece of paper you got tucked to your belt is already!”

“Oh, this?” said the street urchin, turning and pulling the roll of parchment from her waist like she had completely forgotten all about the cigar in the blink of an eye. “I think it’s some kind of map. It looked pretty important, so… I took it.”

After unfurling the large page, the trio leaned close together to look at its contents.

“It’s a map of Marquessa and its outskirts,” said Olivia.

“And what are these marked locations around it?” Balthazar asked, using his pincer to point the little X’s dotted throughout the paper.

The mayor’s niece stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“I know some of these places. Some are abandoned farms, mines, and old storage barns. They’re all in pretty remote areas most folk wouldn’t pass through.”

The crab smacked one claw against the other. “One of these places must be where the bandits are taking the stolen mangoes!”

“Right,” the young woman agreed. “This must be a map of their stash locations. It makes sense.”

Suze held the map open, her head snapping from left to right as she looked up at the crab and human while they talked.

“It does?” she said. “Why would anyone keep a map of their secret spots if they’re secret? Are they dumb?”

“Well… yeah?” Olivia said. “They’re bandits.”

“We need to show this to the baroness,” said Balthazar.

“What we need is to investigate these places soon before Jake realizes the map is missing and they have time to move anything,” the Marquessa girl said.

“Alright, either way, we won’t be doing much more tonight,” the crab said. “I say we get some rest and pick things back up tomorrow when there’s sunlight again. I’ll report this in the morning.”

“And I’ll scope out some of these closer locations,” the mayor’s niece added. “How about we meet again by the guildhall entrance around lunchtime?”

Balthazar nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Heeey,” Suze said. “What about me? You’re not thinking of leaving me out, are you?”

The young woman and the merchant exchanged a glance.

“I’m the one who led you to the Onion Crew’s hideout!” the little girl said to the crab. “And if it wasn’t for me, you guys would have walked out of that place empty-handed. I’m the one who got the map!”

“She’s not wrong,” Olivia said to Balthazar, tilting her head slightly.

The crab crossed his arms and tapped a few of his feet while pondering.

“You have been pretty useful…” He rolled his eyes and threw his pincers up. “Oh, fine! You can come along with us tomorrow.”

Suze threw her arms up in celebration. “Yay!”

After lowering her arms, the little girl smiled and threw her tongue out. “I would have followed you tomorrow even if you didn’t agree anyway.”

***

Balthazar made it back to the city hall just as the big clock at the end of the town square was about to strike midnight. Luckily for him, it seemed the guilds never closed their doors and kept some staff members by the counter all day and night.

After asking one of the nice girls by the front desk where his two companions had gone, the crab found that the baroness’s people had arranged a room for him and his crew in the inn next door.

Skittering out of the hall and into the other building in a hurry, the traveler was more than ready to tuck in for the night and get some sleep. The day had been long and eventful enough for a creature used to the quietude of a peaceful pond out in the middle of nowhere.

After being told which room his friends were in, Balthazar opened the door quietly, finding inside what he already expected.

Both the goblin and the drake were already fast asleep. Blue was sprawled on the floor, her entire body moving up and down slowly as she breathed in and out. Druma was lying on his back over a stack of hay the crab had no doubt he asked the innkeeper to provide, as the goblin seemed unable to sleep on anything else. The protruding belly on the little green guy also told him his two companions must have had a busy day filling themselves up with an all-you-can-eat buffet provided by the mayor’s people.

Heh. They deserved it.

A little envious, but also happy for them, the crab crept his way to the other side of the room, where a large, comfy cushion waited for him. Knowing his loyal assistant, Balthazar was certain it had been Druma who carefully instructed the staff on what kind of bedding his boss preferred.

It didn’t take long for the merchant to make himself comfortable and feel his eyestalks growing heavy. The warm glow of the streetlights coming in through the glass window grew blurry as the crab gently drifted to the land of dreams, his mind filling with images of all the many mango pies he’d get if he solved the mayor’s case, and the faces on everyone back home when he returned with a big trade deal from the other side of the continent.

As he stared out the window at the night sky and envisioned how he’d soon find the wizard and learn how to bring Bouldy back, how he’d somehow find a way to rescue Madeleine, and then everything would be great and back to normal, a small shadow suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass.

A black cat had hopped onto the windowsill and sat on it, staring inside with its big blue eyes fixed on the crab.

Nearly gone into a slumber, Balthazar observed the feline through his blurry vision as a growing feeling of uneasiness crept into him.

Where have I seen you before?