I must have fallen asleep after my second or third brew because all of a sudden I was jerking awake to Gabby’s violent shaking.

“What?” I bellowed, swatting at the infuriating woman.

“There’s someone here who wants to see you.”

I leaped from the chair and almost fell face-first into the still-burning fireplace as my foot caught on Stella’s warm furry body. I righted myself, blurting out a quick apology to the still-snoozing dog before spinning around, rubbing the blurryness from my eyes.

“Where is she?” I yelled into the gently lit main hall.

“Shut the hell up!”

And just like that, my excitement died. Frank spread his ebony wings from his place on the bar before folding them back into place and eyeing me with a beady little eye. Shadows flickered around the room cast by the dying fire behind me. It didn’t seem all that long ago that the shadows had haunted me, bringing with them all sorts of dangers I was not ready to face. Now they brought me comfort in their mystery, offering me endless places to hide and strike from.

Roska and Affald were nowhere to be seen which was not surprising given the late hour. No doubt the pair were sequestered in their private bedroom doing whatever it was goblin couples did in the dead of night.

It was Gabby’s presence that was surprising. She should be upstairs in a frustratingly expensive but completely safe rented room, tucked under heavy warm blankets with her hair sprawled over her pillow. Frank was more than capable of waking me up without her help and I refused to consider the idea that she’d been watching me sleep in the armchair because that was just plain creepy.

“Shut the hell up!” Frank repeated louder than before clearly infuriated that I’d yet to properly acknowledge him.

I eyed Gabby as I approached the bar, not sure how to go about this without breaking the second rule. I cleared my throat and asked the bird, “Did you find him?”

“Frank!”

I sighed and leaned back, rubbing at my eyes. The action did nothing to alleviate the throbbing building right behind them.

“Are you going to tell me why you sent him off now?” Gabby asked squeezing onto a barstool beside me.

“I told you, I sent him to find some… ahh… unique resources for our safe house.”

“Yeah, and like I said last time, that doesn’t help me much,” she grumbled.

“Let a man have his secrets, would you?” I begged.

“No. Tell me.”

“Shut the hell up!”

“Thank you, Frank,” I said.

Silence descended again much to my relief. I eyed the raven’s leg looking for a note in response to the one I’d tied there six days earlier. There was nothing there. Either Frank hadn’t found Kendrick or the man was purposefully ignoring me. We’d parted on awkward terms the last time we’d been together but I thought for sure he’d still answer me. The man wasn’t always entirely forthright and yet I’d come to rely on him. Maybe a little more than I should considering he wasn’t really one of us.

“You should go get some sleep,” I said to Gabby.

“What about you?” she asked.

“I’m going to stay up for a little while longer. I already had a nap after all.”

Gabby lifted a pale eyebrow at me, her piercing eyes searching my face for the secrets I was keeping to myself. The look made me uncomfortable. If I didn’t know better I’d think she was using the Identify skill on me. I did not doubt that she had it the same way I did.

“Fine,” she said finally. “I’ll go to sleep. Promise me you won’t do anything stupid though.”

“When have I ever done anything stupid?”

She almost toppled off the stool as a violent wave of laughter took her over. I sneered as she snorted and convulsed, stumbling awkwardly up the stairs half bent over. The near-constant string of glee didn’t stop until I heard a door bang shut upstairs. I stuck my tongue out at her, grateful that she was nowhere in view. I didn’t need my ass peppered with arrows. Sob’s violent jolts of lightning were bad enough. My backside deserved better than that.

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I turned my eyes to Frank and watched as he spread his wings and flapped up to a thick wooden beam hanging over the door.

“Get down you idiot,” I barked, turning back toward my comfy chair.

“Shut the hell up!”

I flinched at the harsh sound. Frank was always loud but in the dead of night, that particular screech seemed so much louder. I turned, glaring at the black-feathered demon.

“Frank, it’s…”

I paused, watching as the bird dropped down from his perch to clamber onto the heavy iron door latch. He was too big to sit on it comfortably so instead he squawked and spread his wings, beating them and scratching at the door with his talons in an attempt to stay upright.

I rushed over, grabbing him and shoving him onto his proper place on my shoulder. It was harder to glare at him in that position but I think he got the message anyway.

“I don’t know why I always miss you when you go away. All you do is torment me when you’re here.”

Frank pecked at my ear hard enough to lower my health bar. I swore and swatted at him before reaching for the door latch. I might not have been the most intelligent of men but it was plain enough that the bird wanted me outside. I called Stella’s name but all she did was let out an enormous huff and fling a paw over her eyes as she continued to bask in the warm glow of the fire. I shrugged, sure it would be safe enough without her for a short moment.

The lantern hanging by the door was strong enough to illuminate the front step. The rest of the court that housed the inn was deep in shadow. I paused to listen and used my Blindsense to scan the darkness. As far as I could tell Frank and I weren’t in immediate danger.

I would have liked the darkened serenity if it weren’t for the continued lack of a certain Master Shadow Walker.

I sighed, not much liking this game of hide and seek. “Go on, Frank. Show me where he is.”

The raven took flight, zooming into the darkness and up into one of the open windows of our soon-to-be safe house. Of course, he was in there. I jogged over and leaped onto the drainage pipe, scurrying up it with ease. My leathers pinched in sensitive places, forcing me to readjust everything before I followed Frank’s distant caws into the rooms below.

I yawned and absentmindedly used my Blindsense to navigate the darkness. It heightened my other senses and showed me two glowing green auras invading my looking glass room. I screwed up my nose at the name, not liking it very much. I would have to come up with something better than that. Naming things was not my strong suit.

I turned and marched through the doorway, not even attempting to sneak.

“Kendrick, I get you like to be mysterious and all that other bullshit but was this really necessary?” I asked.

Only Kendrick didn’t answer me. In fact, no one did.

I frowned and turned in a tight circle. The room was pitch black but I knew where they both were. Frank was sitting near the ceiling and the other aura that had to be Kendrick was sitting on the floor by my most ornate mirror. A man like Kendrick couldn’t sit by any old mirror after all.

“Gonna talk to me, or you’re just gonna sit there looking pretty?” I asked the darkness.

A muffled sort of screaming was my answer along with the pounding beats of something striking the floor. It was then that I noticed the smell. It wasn’t the foulest stench I’d ever been forced to breathe in but it did have that horrible pungent intensity that could make your eyes water if exposed to it for too long, a bit like chopping an onion with a pair of well-used socks thrown in the mix. I swore and dug my hand into my bum bag, summoning the torch I knew I had hidden in there somewhere. I rarely had to use the thing but now seemed like a good time. Friend or not, I needed to know what the hell was going on.

The torch wasn’t lit when I held it up but a simple thought was all it needed to fill the room with light. As if the torch itself wasn’t enough the multitude of mirrors we’d collected reflected the light over and over until I could have been standing out in the noonday sun. I hissed at the brightness, squinting my eyes to keep from setting my eyeballs on fire.

The torch hit the floor and clattered over it, bouncing and sputtering before it came to rest against the leg of a solid stone table.

I’d been so sure that Kendrick himself would come to see me or at the very least Sasye or Captain Fluffers. None of them was the gift Frank had brought for me.

It was the long pointed red hat that caught my attention first followed by the unkempt beard. A strip of bright red cloth that matched the creature's shirt was tied tight around his head, keeping him from letting out the vicious string of swear words that would make even me blush. His hands were likewise tied behind his back but his legs remained free, and that is what was pounding so angrily at the floor. A page of a yellow legal pad had been pinned to the gnome’s shirt. It might have been neat and straight at one point but now it was horribly crinkled, stained and even a little bit torn.

I rushed to the Hortus Gnome, hurridly unpinning the message before he could destroy it more.

Evening Sweetheart,

I love when you send me letters but you really need to stop asking for favors. It is not kind to the other players for me to spoil you so.

But, I did promise to get you some Croc-resistant toilets and let it never be said that I am not a man of my word.

This feisty little monkey will get you all set up in no time.

Oh, and before you let him run off into the wilderness, maybe you should ask him why he is called a Gatekeeper. Just a thought.

Anyway, I best return to my sulking. Don’t miss me too much.

Hugs and kisses,

Kendrick ♥

I snorted and tossed the note before bending down to yank the strip of fabric from the creature’s mouth.

“Howdy Nigel, how’s it hanging?” I asked.

Nigel howled like a vicious animal before screeching, “Where is he? I will kill him! I will slit his throat and feed him piece by piece to those hideous stick men from Hellas! Tell me Joe, where is the wretched flesh-bag?”