"I saw the blue diamond in that boy's pocket, and in one of the chests in the back I saw the rest of the stolen valuables. We better get the group and move in fast." I knew that if we did not act fast that they would melt everything down by dawn. I hadn't any doubts that my spry friend, Caerulean could steal it all back like he suggested but I had a feeling they wouldn't leave the shop until their work was done, until it was all melted and unrecognizable.
Back at the Ambiguous Unicorn, we met up with our friends that were put in the very back of the tavern by Maverick as to draw the least attention to them. They stuck out like blood on snow in this crowd. I pulled on my collar feeling a bit choked with all these eyes on my person. I was used to the wild with nothing at my back but the wind running through the brush. In my opinion, cities were cesspools of people with all their blustering noises as they go about their hackneyed and humdrum lives. It was restrictive in the city with so many eyes watching and not seeing as you pass by. I found cities rather suffocating. People were suffocating.
"You are telling me you saw the stolen items and did nothing? Why didn't you arrest them?" The little cleric child seemed rather hot about those stolen goods that were taken from her god's temple. I was a bit territorial of my things too but she needed to cool down before she made a scene here.
"Alright miss holy-two-shoes what do you propose we should have done back there. We were out numbered and came back to get you guys. Don't you want to arrest them for yourself?" Caerulean raised his eyebrows to challenge Daisy who simply folded her arms stubbornly across her chest.
"I'll tell you what I like to do-"
"We should kill them" Gordon cut in abruptly, "I think its only fair."
"I think you've had plenty of these." Jörg took his mug of ale away from him and downed the rest of its continents. Gordon opened his mouth to protest but he hiccuped instead proving Jörg's theory all to clearly. All this bantering was going to give me head ache.
"Lets just go now. All of us will outnumber them and hopefully they won't run or put up a fight. You four go in front since they don't know you guys. Caerulean, Daisy, and myself will hide in the side alley just in case anyone tries to run out the back." I also thought that it was better if we kept the cleric outside just in case she still felt in the smiting mood. No one disagreed, and we left immediately going towards the smithy shop once more.
I crouched near the back door and pressed my ear to the splintering wooden wall of the shop. Daisy and Caerulean were hidden between the crates and boxes that congested the side alley. I could hear the Bard's uproarious slurred words.
"WE ARE HERE FERYOAR ARRIS. PU' YOAR WEAPEN DOEN SLOWEY!"
"What's the meaning of this? Under what grounds are we being arrested?" Hickory was displeased grumbling something I couldn't exactly hear.
"You have stolen goods from the Temple of Pelor and we are taking all of you to the keep for questioning." It was Jörg's gravelly voice followed by a shuffling of feet.
"My friends will be verra put out to learn of my arrest I'll tell ya that for sure! Hey Cotter where you goin!" Then the door to left burst open. Cotter, the boy who had sharpened my sword flew passed me so quick, I snatched the air failing to grab hold of him. He leaped up into the air from a crate and Caerulean jumped with him, clutching on to the boy's foot, and then pulled him down with a force that knocked the wind out of him as the boy slammed onto the wooden floor. The boy thrashed beneath Caerulean trying to keep him pinned down. As I came to help steady the slippery cussing kid, his movements stilled. His dark eyes rounded as he looked into the point of an arrow from a crossbow held by a voracious looking halfling. Daisy stood by the kids head glaring down at him with hatred that screwed up her face that no longer had its childlike glow to it.
"Who hired you to rob thy lord and god Pelor?"
"I-i dont know what your talk-" Daisy kicked the kid in the side hard and I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her from continuing. This was not a pretty side for the little cleric I thought.
"I said give me his name?" Daisy gritted her teeth. The boy chuckled and coughed at once as Caerulean put on shackles around his wrists.
"You will never beat him. He's going to kill all of you." I lowered the crossbow for Daisy and gave her a stern shake of my head to tell her to let it go. She looked away. Caerulean stood the kid up and pushed him forward into me and held him by the scruff as we joined the others.
"He isn't going to be happy-"
"Shut it!" I copped him upside the head and pushed him forward once more. Whoever his boss was would be dealt with in time. My feelings about it were let the man come out and get us like the boy said he would. Less work for me if all I have to do was sharpen my blade as I wait.
It was dawn when I arose to the sound of a bells ringing from far away. It was the bell tower in the town square, calling the people's attention for the sentencing of Hickory, Cotter, and that other poor bloke we snatched up yesterday on the wharf. I moseyed my way towards the court in the center of town. We were supposed to be there as witnesses since we were the ones who accused them. When I got there though the crowd was thick as bear's fur and I yanked on my collar out of habit. I saw the mage's ebony quaffed hair poking out among the unkempt and unwashed commoners that shouted for a hanging. These people were bitter that the gods had given them a worse fate than those who ruled over them. Bloodthirsty wasn't an appropriate word for it though, they were just grasping at anything that pulled them out of their ordinary lives. Seeing death of one to enliven themselves, it was just another social failure within a city, the mob mentality.
A man with a pontifical air about him stood up, his shoulders squared, on the stage with the three accused of theft of divine property. He must be of some wealth and prestige because when he spoke he commanded the crowd's attention instantly.
"I am Dickory Dock here to speak on behalf of these men, my men, under my employment, have been wrongly accused of thievery.We regret the unfortunate misplacement of the temple's valuables, but my men do business with all kinds of men without questions asked. All kinds of cargo go through my brother's shop and onto barges or ships coming and going of all different matters. We can not just go pointing finger's simply because these items were found in some boxes by their smithy. Everyone knows my brothers good word, Hickory is a good company is he not?" His orotund voice carried over the crowd who nodded and murmured agreeing words to one another like sheep. Next to me Charming, the mage, held the piece of cloth he had found among the ransacked temple with the symbol of the man holding the whip and dagger. His gaze was calculating and studying something I must be missing. Charming walked off towards the stairs to get to the stage holding up the piece of cloth to one of the judges.
"I believe this belongs to that lanky man there besides Hickory's right." Charming pointed to the boy Cotter who had sharpened my sword. He was clearly in an anxious state as the one of the judges held up the torn cloth to his shoulder where his tunic had clearly been patched up. The end of the whip and the man's foot that was still on his green tunic fit to the torn piece of cloth like a puzzle. In a second he bolted, but before he took a third step a dagger plunged into his gut by Dickory who suddenly lost his agreeable disposition. As the boy dropped to the ground and the crowd's gasps dissipated the man wiped his hands together as if to wipe off something dusty from his palms.
"My apologies, I had never trusted that fool, and perhaps I was a fool to take him under my wing but I will not condone thievery and lies." I saw something then in that man's hawk like eyes as he stared at us in the crowd, it was malice. I hurried to Charming's side as Dickory came down from the stage shaking the judges hands, formally thanking them like gentlemen should, and smiling facetiously at each of them. When he set his gaze on Charming it was like talons sinking into his skin and even more hair-raising he kept the facetious smile and held out his hand to Charming who was forced to shake it.
"This isn't over. I'll be be seeing you soon." He said with honeyed words that would make a death threat sound like pleasant business. Obviously, Dickory had been the one to hire the thieves and it was even more blatant was the fact that this man did not like loose ends from the pool of blood Cotter laid in.
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