Sly

Chapter Twenty Four

A/N warning: this one's sad

Sly

There was no gentle way to press through the busy street we had to traverse to get back. Even the back alleys were a mess of hung laundry and children playing to stay out from underfoot close to the docks. It was by now full evening and torches pinpricked the streets as we went.

We finally rounded to the street where I could see the Snoring Dragon. Through the front doors in a panic, all I found was a small crowd that kept Abe busy behind the bar and Addah was in the kitchen.

I made a straight line for the kitchen, a winded Orchid behind me.

"Is everything okay here?" I asked Addah.

Her hands were busy, never moving from their task as she peeled carrots for the next batch of soup, but her face turned my way. "Yes, a normal evening. Sly, are you alright? Your face is all red."

"Running," Orchid puffed.

"Where's Davery?" I asked. "Is he back yet?"

"No," Addah answered, now concerned enough to put down her knife and wipe her hands on her apron. "What's going on?"

I ran out of the kitchen, Addah calling after me. "Sly! What's the matter?"

The tavern room's crowd, which I hadn't looked through before other than to confirm Davery wasn't a part of it, had a couple of familiar faces. Dirk and Jexa were at the far end of the bar nursing a pint each of a heady amber beer. They looked up, as if sensing my distress.

Uneasy. Everything felt wrong and strained and empty. What whisper of a warning brought me here with such urgency only to let me struggle to find the problem?

Turning on my heels and nearly slamming into Orchid, I dodged her and slipped through the kitchen again and out the back door.

Something moved to the side of the building. My hand flew to my side for the familiar handle of a blade, but my hand groped air as I cursed at not bringing something with me on my outing with Orchid. In the heartbeat that I spent looking for a blade, it allowed an arm to grab my shoulders and slam me into the side of the building.

"Where is he? And where is the map?" A gruff voice spat the vicious tone into my ear as I winced. My ribs cried out in pain, possibly bruised from the assault just now.

"Grethan." It wasn't a question, it was all the little pieces of a puzzle that had irked me about him falling into place. The arm at my back pressed me harder into the wall.

"Where is he?" Grethan snarled, then a cry of outrage and pain. The pressure on my back eased up and I sucked in a breath, spinning to see what happened.

My brother stood behind me and Grethan, the butt of his blade red with blood and a matching gash on the back of my assailant's head.

"Davery!" I cried as my brother stepped back, the blade now aimed at Greathan's heart.

"Get Jexa," he ordered.

Grethan snatched towards me, but I ducked under his reach and yanked open the kitchen door.

"Jexa!" I called, but Orchid was already talking to Dirk and Jexa both, likely filling them in on my strange encounter in the alley. Both men looked my way, and whatever was written on my face had them sprinting my direction. Good, they'd catch up. I whirled around and searched the yard for my brother and Grethan. They had drifted away from the building in their fight, but still easy to spot and I gasped as I watched Grethan swing at my brother with his knife.