The Defender: Elderwood

Four

“Get us out of here!” the slender boy said.

Allan swung the boy around so that he faced him. “Answer my questions, or I’ll toss you into the fire.”

“Yeah! Anything!”

“Who do you take your orders from?”

“Merrick! Merrick, on the Street of the Bass.”

“Who is he?”

“He has the pawn shop, on the Street of the Bass!”

“What’s his cut of what you steal?”

“One-quarter.”

“When do you give him his cut?”

“I was going to take him his cut tomorrow night. Tonight, I guess!”

“What else do you do for him?”

“Let me go! We’ll burn up!”

Allan shook the boy. “What else?”

“If you have a sister, who looks fair, he’ll take her in.”

“Fine. Sleep.”

Allan cast a sleep spell on the boy. In a moment the boy’s face went from fearful, to dull, to asleep. Allan drew his flying wand with his left hand. He dragged the boy into the room. He tapped the wand. He wrapped his right arm around the boy’s left arm. The two rose through the open roof.

Allan looked around. The children had fled the building and gathered in the street. A couple of them saw him still holding their leader. He guided his flight path so he and his prisoner flew over the children. None of them did anything to stop him. They looked, stunned into silence.

Allan tried to think of what he might say to them. The weight of his prisoner shoved his attention back to flying. He carried the sleeping youth over the city in the predawn darkness. He headed for an abandoned farmhouse about a quarter of a day’s walk from the city. Allan had chosen the house as a hiding place for when he didn’t want to return to the castle.

He pushed the front door to the house open. He laid the boy down on the floor of the cooking area. Allan picked up a chair and sat down to rest.

He’ll be asleep for several hours. Still, I’d better tied him up now, since I need to get some sleep. Once I’m rested, and he’s woken up, I’ll try to get more out of him.

Then, tonight, I’ll pay a visit to this Merrick on the Street of Bass. 

***

Allan knocked on the back door to Merrick’s shop. He knocked twice, paused for an instant, then knocked once more. He waited for a moment, then repeated the pattern.

Allan was certain, as soon as he questioned the skinny boy about his boss, that the boy would have some sort of signal to let Merrick know he was at the man’s door. Rather than wait for the boy to offer the information, Allan asked. Suspending the boy upside down in the air was enough to get the boy to tell Allan the signal.

Not long after repeating the signal, the door opened. A man about Allan’s height stood just past the doorway. Allan cast a wind spell to blow the man back into his shop. Allan dashed through the doorway, slamming the door behind him.

The man had been through against an interior door. The room was lit with a single candle. It was a typical owner’s room, with a table, a chair, and parchments and small boxes on the floor and the table. The walls were unadorned.

Allan took a look at the man. There were a few lines around the man’s eyes. His brown hair was thin on top. His belly appeared stout through his dressing gown. However, his arms and legs were muscular. The man’s limbs were the only aspect of him that was remarkable.