Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 7: A color saturation issue

It was no use. The doors to the town hall were impossibly sturdy, and after slamming his fists against them for the tenth time Damien had to give up.

The others watched in silence. They didn't quite believe this was as serious as Damien made it out to be. Frey was just with his father. Sure, a furious, increasingly unstable father, but still his father.

"Why isn't he coming out?" Damien growled at the door, as if expecting a reply. "He can't stop him from leaving!"

"Damien, calm down," Lucius said. "Lord Clausson's the last person who would hurt Frey. Possibly one of the few who've never wished to actually. He'll be alright."

"He's not alright if he's not allowed to leave."

"And we'll come back for him. But right now Lord Clausson's in a terrible mood. Luna's found something unfortunate in his basement and the town's only getting worse. So I suggest we start handling this from outside the town hall."

"How?"

"Lord Clausson talked about the farms. The outskirts of town have been hit pretty badly by whatever this is. Even if we're not investigating for his sake, he might let us in if we figure something out. Not to mention we could actually find out what's going on."

"We know what's going on!" Luna threw her arms out. "Lord Clausson's been keeping all the town's money to himself!"

"Yes, about that, what exactly did you find?" Lucius finally turned to his daughter.

"Money, gold, the lot of it! And all sorts of valuables. They're all stacked in his basement."

She turned to Damien.

"Damien, that dream. It really meant something!"

"I don't know about that," he began, but she'd already turned back to her father.

"At least it's not too late! He doesn't seem to spend anything either. He barely has any servants left, and that tea was horrible."

Lucius nodded slowly at the new information.

"That tea was horrible... So he's got no servants left?"

"Aside from those armed fellows we didn't see any," Vincent chimed in.

"And you're sure about this? We can't go around accusing a town chief of something like this if it's not true."

"It was way too much, Father!" Luna insisted and received a frown from Lucius, who very much liked to keep his identity secret when in a dress. "I mean, uh, Mother... But you saw how he acted and—And Frey's even been abducted now!"

"This is... A serious matter then," Lucius agreed. "So the town is going under because he's not distributing any money to make it go around but... The farms should be able to go around on their own, shouldn't they? They could make their own food for a start, and if Lord Clausson knew their situation was because of him he wouldn't want us to go over there."

"So it's... Something else as well?"

"Who knows... I suppose we'll find out."

They turned around to get to their carriage, and Luna walked next to her brother.

"You've been so quiet," she said. "And you look horribly uncomfortable. Did you see something in there as well?"

Noah smiled weakly.

"Don't worry, it was nothing."

"Really?"

"Just... Well, something felt really off about Lord Clausson but... I suppose we know why now."