The Defender: Red Raymond

One

Allan walked through the door of the shop. He saw Davy cleaning the mourning statues that the shop sold. Allan shifted the sack under his arm so he could put it on the counter.

“You’re back,” Davy said to him.

“Indeed.”

Davy put down his rag. “You wouldn’t happen to have brought back anything that I can sell, would you?”

Allan reached into the sack. He pulled out a scabbarded short sword and two scabbarded combat knives. “I know you can’t sell these yourself, but you could take them down the street and sell them.”

Davy walked to the counter. He unsheathed the weapons and looked them over. “There’s no magic on these, yes?”

“Yes. I removed the enchantments cast onto them.”

“Anything important that we’re missing out on?”

Allan shook his head. “Preservation enchantments on all three. The enchantments were to keep them from shattering in battle. I did find a pair of interesting wands, but I don’t think you should put them up for sale.”

“Why not? If this is to be my shop, I should learn to judge merchandise.”

Allan tilted his head to the right. “Would you really want to be the man to sell a wand that shoots fire? That could be so much trouble for you.”

Davy sighed. “I suppose.” He waved at the weapons. “Selling those won’t be easy. I’ll have to explain how I got them.”

“I thought about that.”

“Which is why I let you marry my sister.”

Allan smiled and gave Davy a nod of respect. “Keep them in your room for a couple of weeks. Take the sword to one of the weapon-smiths first. You can easily say you accepted it in trade from a customer.”

“I see. Then one of the knives a few weeks later, and the other a few weeks after that.”

“I considered the idea of selling the knives together. The trouble with that would be that, while they look similar, they aren’t.”

“How so? I mean, yes, one has a longer blade than the other, but what of it?”

“From what I understand, a man who fights with knives will have at least one identical pair. One knife would be at his right hip, the other at his left. They’d be identical so that, if the first is lost in a fight, he could draw the other, and use it just like the first one.”

Davy was quiet for a moment or two. Allan thought he was imagining what Allan had described. At last he nodded his head. “I can see that. Very well. If you’ll watch the shop, I’ll take these up to my room.”

“Certainly. Where’s Nancy?”

“Out back, drying clothes.”

Allan chose not to think about why she’d be doing that. Instead he looked through the sack to make sure the wands and books hadn’t been damaged. When Davy appeared on the stairs again to come down, Allan picked up the sack and headed for the back door.

Outside he saw Nancy hanging up clothes on a line strung between her shop and one of the neighboring shops. He saw more shirts and dresses than he knew he, she, and Davy actually owned.

She saw him as soon as the door closed. She ran to him, embraced him, and kissed him. Only then did she appear to see the sack lying at his feet. “I take it your journey was a success.”

“It was.”

“Did you find anything interesting?”

“A few things, yes.” He waved in the direction of the clothes. “What’s that?”