The Fires of Esus - Ranger's Apprentice

Chapter 12: The Wicker Man

Will weaved between the diners that crowded the walkways and tables. Why did Jenny's restaurant have to be this full tonight? Can't people eat anywhere else, especially when there have been so many fires recently?

But as he passed a table with a huge stuck pig being carved into, the smell of the dripping fat wafting right under his nose, he gathered that no one could resist food like that, even under threat of imminent death. He definitely couldn't, at least.

His narrowed eyes darted back and forth, scanning every inch of the crowd searching for the woman. He was certain, without a doubt, that she had been the one to put the stone in his pot. There was no one else who looked suspicious enough to have done it. Call it instinct, or call it jumping to conclusions, but it was the only thing Will had to go on. And he would follow this lead until he reached the end or found a new one. He was not going to let this place, this wonderful restaurant owned by one of his dearest friends, go up in flames. He intended to stop it, and he knew that if he moved fast enough, he could. He had to believe he could.

That was why he hadn't told anyone else of his intentions or his discovery. He knew that if he wasted the time trying to fill them in on what he just witnessed, and the true meaning of the stone, it would reduce his chances of saving the building, and its occupants, from a very small chance to absolute zero. And he wasn't willing to sacrifice his chance.

There! The dark cloak he recognized from earlier had just passed through the swinging double doors to the kitchen, the corner of her cloak just barely visible as the wind carried it up and away before it dropped out of sight. He dashed for the kitchen, still moving as quietly and invisibly as he could so as not to arouse suspicion. The calmer everyone in the establishment was, the more likely he was to fix this. A panicked crowd stampeding in the dining room would also ruin his chances.

He slipped between the doors just as they swung shut, and he saw the woman, surprisingly, calmly speaking with Jenny across the kitchen. In front of the massive cooking fires that warmed the kitchen at least five degrees hotter than the dining room or the cooler night air coming in from the windows, the cloaked woman was holding what Will immediately recognized as a short silver dagger to Jenny's chest. Neither of them had harmed the other, from what Will could see, but Jenny was definitely being threatened.

The other kitchen staff had all stopped working and were watching the scene with fear in their wide eyes, none of them noticing Will's silent entrance. Some of them tried to get their hands on their kitchen knives, razor-sharp and very effective against the woman's tiny dagger, but she shouted, "Don't you dare raise a blade against me!" and brandished something in her other hands that made Will's throat close up.

Curled in her fingers was the neck of a large bottle of an unmistakeable liquid: kerosene. If she threw that into one of the already massive fires, the entire room would explode into more flames. It would burn the tables, the rafters of the ceiling, everything that wasn't stone, which was most things. And of course, it would burn the people there, too. Including Jenny and all the other kitchen staff. Will didn't know if the kerosene had been spiked with any explosive materials, but he didn't doubt the probability, and if it were the case, he would very likely be burned up too.

This result was not something Will wanted to see.

He crept up further through the abandoned work tables, covered in piles of chopped vegetables long forgotten. He knew that once any of the staff saw him, his cover would be blown. As soon as he heard the quiet gasp of the first worker behind him, he stood suddenly and called out across the room.

"Why are you threatening her?"

Both Jenny and the woman jumped visibly; to them, it seemed Will had just materialized out of thin air! Jenny's face shone with a mixture of utter terror and sweet relief at the sight of Will. Her hands were trembling and her chest heaving under the tip of the silver knife. "Will! Please, she's - "