Page 47 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
CHAPTER 26
That’s Right I’m Right
Julian
“The North Sumbrian Mercenary Guild is a foolish place to start looking.” Barry told Julian as he led their group through the city. “Besides, that will bejustwhat the spies are expecting us to do!”
Back at the palace, Suki and Barry had argued extensively about where to search. The fox wanted to go to the Mercenary Guild. She’d reasoned they could look for clues and find quests that matched previous Blackfog contracts. Hiring from the various mercenary, assassin, and adventuring guilds had been the norm for the spies up until this point. Since Julia was an elite, there could very well be a legal contract registered at the guild, making it a good place to start looking.
Barry disagreed, saying they should directly search the northeast gate as it was closest to the port. Since the Void mage wasn’t able to portal in and out of the city due to Grand Duchess Calisto’s new security enchantments, she would need to use one of the gates. The merchant quarters frequently had large transport caravans coming and going: an easy place to smuggle out a spy and a missing countess. There were also rentable warehouses and plenty of spots to hide Julia if she hadn’t been moved out of the city yet.
Julian thought that anyone skilled enough to kidnap Julia without getting caught by his mother’s overwhelming security, might be able to walk out of any city gate just fine. But he held his tongue.
Instead of wasting more time, multiple search parties had been formed.
Julian, Rufus and Bronwynn were currently following Barry and Lomen to the port city gate. Chloe, Wendy, and Hana went with Suki to the Mercenary Guild. Henrietta and Keith went to the Adventurer’s Guild, and Visha, Pram, and Tully were sent to watch the other city gates just in case.
“If the Blackfog think we’ll be focusing on the guilds, isn’t it a good idea to send a search party there?” Bronwynn pipped up, “They can draw attention away from us.”
“Wellactually—,”
“Here we go,” Lomen whispered under his breath.
“—The second Suki walks through those doors, it’s going to tell the Blackfog two things: that you’re officially looking for the countessandthat you’re with mercenaries who’ve worked with the Blackfog before.” Barry frowned. “We’ll have to hurry now that they know someone whoactuallyknows what they’re doing has joined the search. No offense.”
“None taken,” Julian answered for everyone.
Barry added, “The gate inspectors are mercantile and easier to subdue. Any merchant worth their salt could slip out a kidnapped countess.”
“He’s right,” Lomen sighed.
“That’s right I’m right!” Barry smiled.
“We’ve arrived,” Julian said, coming to a stop when they were in view of the gate. “Now what?”
There were two wagons loading at the storage bays nearby, and at least twenty people were going about their day’s work this side of the gate.
“Now we should divide and conquer.” Barry made a circle with his thumb and index finger and scanned the area. He sighed. “What weshouldhave done was create two teams—having one come this way and the other go out another gate to search the docks separately.”
“But we didn’t do that,” Julian pointed out.
“Brownie and I can handle the docks.” Rufus spoke for the first time. There was a suddenpop, and Rufus puffed into his folk form. He was still blond with gold eyes, but he was shorter and furless.
“Leave this to us.” Brownie took her partner’s arm and then pitched her voicejust soas they walked away. “Do youreallythink we can find work during the festival? Who needs more guards when the city is already crawling with them?”
Rufus replied, “There’s always work at the docks; you know that.”
“Alright.” She sighed wistfully. “But we should save up more next year. I want to celebrate the entireweek.”
“Now that’s taken care of, we should hurry. So try to keep up.” Barry settled one hand comfortably on his sword, bent his knees, and jumped, landing easily on the rooftop directly overhead.
Lomen cursed under his breath and started whispering a spell. Soon, he was levitating up to the second-story roof and disappearing out of sight. Julian activated his own movement ability and caught up with a quietly arguing Barry and Lomen.
“Your Grace.” Barry turned and pointed at the two wagons inside the city gate. “Lomen is going to search those while you follow me.”
“Where?”
Barry pointed at one particular building of storage bays. “I’ve done three smuggling trips through North Sumbria, and we’ve always used that—” The sentence ended in a muffled mumble as Lomen’s hand whipped out and covered the human’s mouth. The elf shouted an impressively quiet whisper. “Don’t say it!”
