“That’s it!” she said. “I will no longer hide. It was selfish of me to agree to this ridiculous plan, and now Ivy is paying the price!”
“We’ll find her,” Leo said.
“You had better!” she angrily replied, instantly regretting her tone when she saw Leo recoil, appearing hurt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to react like that. It wasn’t your fault. It’s just that…” Megan shook her head and sighed. “It’s just that so many lives have been turned upside down lately and it’s all because of others’ concern for my safety. Well, it ends now.”
Leo placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right. We’ve all been through a rough patch lately, but we’ll find her. Still, I’d feel better if you stayed here for the night.”
“Whoever kidnapped Ivy already believes she is me,” Megan said. “I secretly gave her my royal medallion in the back room of the candle shop, so I don’t imagine I’m in any danger at the moment.” She noted the apprehension in Leo’s eyes. “But for your peace of mind, I’ll remain here until daylight.”
Leo smiled. “It’d make me feel a whole lot better.”
“And I’ll feel better when we nab the scoundrels who did this,” Aubrey said, repeatedly pounding a fist into his other hand. He promised to help Nicholas and Leo after he contacted his two sons. One he would send to Laurel Corners to inform Ivy’s parents of the situation while the other would join him in the search. He promised to round up some of his other friends and the local authorities to help, too. If they had no success by midnight, they agreed to return here to figure out their next course of action.
“We’re operating on the assumption that Ivy is still in Boros,” Nicholas said, hoping with all his heart that it was true. “But what if they transported her out of the village? What do we do then? She could be anywhere.”
No one knew how to answer his concern, though everyone feared that that possibility might have to be faced. Leo tapped Nicholas on the shoulder, wanting to divert his thoughts to the immediate search. “We’ll figure it out,” he said, heading to the front door. “But we best get going now.”
“All right,” he replied as he stepped outside into the autumn darkness, putting on a brave face though his confidence steadily waned. He felt cold and helpless, wondering if they were just going through the motions for the sake of doing something. Where would they even begin to look?
The Fox Moon, just shy of full, had since risen in the east, combining its light with the nearly first quarter Bear Moon hanging in the western sky. The extra illumination along the streets and shore provided Nicholas and Leo with a burst of added hope, though it faded quickly as they checked inside a string of empty fishing huts along the beach and received a series of shrugs and blank stares from passersby whom they had questioned.
“This is getting us nowhere!” Nicholas sputtered. “She could be anywhere in Kent County by now.” They stood on a dirt road near the bay as a series of gentle waves lapped upon the shoreline. He glanced at Leo, feeling frightened and empty. “Tell me what we should do.”
Leo was at a loss for words. He, too, wondered if their efforts were in vain but didn’t reveal his thoughts to Nicholas. When he struggled to find some words of encouragement, an unexpected voice called to them in the darkness.
“Apparently your search isn’t going well,” a man said, walking toward them through the shadows along the dirt road. “I’ve been following you for some time.”
“Who are you?” Nicholas asked, staring suspiciously at the individual dressed in a dark coat with stringy hair down to his shoulders. When the stranger stepped into the full moonlight, revealing his thin eyebrows and sunken cheeks, Nicholas’ jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide with anger. He leaped at the man, grabbing the folds of his coat and shaking him. “Where is she!” he shouted as a stunned Leo looked on. “What’d you do to her?”
Leo pulled him away from the stranger as the man tried to break free. “What are you doing, Nicholas?”
“It’s him, Leo!”
“Who?” he asked, holding Nicholas back. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s one of the men who attacked us on the street earlier! I caught a glimpse of his face in the candlelight.” Nicholas broke free of Leo’s grip and lunged at the man once again, tackling him to the ground. “Where’d you take–Megan!” he shouted, his thoughts racing and his face as hot as fire. “Tell me now or I’ll beat it out of you!”
“Hold it!” Leo said, grabbing Nicholas’ clenched fist as he raised it in the air. “Let’s question him first.”
“Yes! Listen to your friend!” the man said, gasping for breath. “I have information about your friend. I can tell you where she is.”
Nicholas released the man and stood up, signaling to Leo that he was sufficiently calmed down. Leo nodded and stepped back.
“Tell us your name,” Leo said.
“You can call me Sims.”
“You know where Megan is?” Nicholas bluntly added.
“Yes,” he said, still catching his breath.
“And you’ll tell us?”
“Yes,” he repeated, standing up and brushing himself off. He stared at Nicholas and Leo as his eyes narrowed. “For a price.”
Nicholas’ face tightened. He clenched a fist at his side. “What’d you say?”
“Yeah, I don’t think we heard you correctly,” Leo added, his anger rising.
The stranger, brimming with smugness, smiled. “You both heard me. You’ll get the information for a price.” He raised a hand as Nicholas and Leo simultaneously stepped forward. “I know you could both attack me right now and beat me to near death–and I suppose I couldn’t blame you. And I don’t have my hired hands with me either. They’ve been paid off and dispersed.”
“So you’re at a disadvantage,” Nicholas said.
“Not entirely,” Sims replied. “I have the information you seek and time is fast running out.”
“What do you mean?” Leo asked, glancing at Nicholas whose eyes welled with concern.
The man tucked his hands into his coat pockets to keep warm. “Though your friend is safe for the moment, she’s not in the area. Your search of Boros is in vain.”
“Tell us where you took her,” Nicholas implored.
“Three of the men I hired transported her to an arranged location due west, though she will only remain there for a short while,” he said. “Sometime before dawn she’ll be picked up and taken away, though what her ultimate destination is, I cannot say.”
“I suppose you’re the one who planted the two spies on the bridge near Castella’s house?” Nicholas asked.
“Of course. I had to keep an eye on my quarry, after all.”
Leo fumed. “Why’d you kidnap Megan?”
“I was simply hired to do a job,” he explained, recalling how Dell Hawks had recruited him the previous night in a local seedy tavern, paying him an advance of five silver half-pieces. “My employer has since paid me the balance for a job well done before fleeing south for more lucrative opportunities where the war rages.”
“I hope a sword finds him swiftly,” Nicholas said, restraining himself from attacking the man again.
“I don’t understand,” Leo said. “If the man hired you to kidnap our friend, then why did he head south without her?”
Sims chuckled. “He didn’t have the girl kidnapped for himself, but for two other individuals. I don’t know all the particulars of why he did so–nor wanted to, frankly–but I do know where your friend is being taken. And since my employer is no longer in the vicinity, I find that I have another lucrative opportunity before me.”
Nicholas shook his head with disgust. “You think you’re going to make money at both ends of your sick deal?”
“Why not?” he asked. “Though I’m certain you two don’t have the financial means of that other gentleman, I’ll wager you should be able to scrape up, say–forty copper pieces in a hurry? Your dear friend is worth that at least, right?”
&nbs
p; Before Nicholas could lunge at the man, Leo stepped in front of his friend to calm him down. “This is no time to lose your temper.”
“Wise policy,” Sims remarked.
Then Leo spun around and plunged a fist into the man’s gut, causing him to buckle to his knees. “Allow me instead.”
“Leo!” Nicholas said in stunned amazement. He then addressed Sims who was bent over in agony. “You sure about those forty copper pieces?”
The man took several deep and difficult breaths while slowly getting to his feet, eyeing Leo and Nicholas with contempt. Then a snake-like smile spread across his face. “You got off a nice hit–and maybe I deserved it–but you won’t get a second chance. More importantly though, I’m not easily intimidated. I still have the information you need, but now it’ll cost you fifty copper pieces. And the miles between you and your friend are increasing. So care to make it sixty, or are you ready to deal?”
Nicholas and Leo both realized they had little bargaining power, and as precious time was running out, they agreed to Sims’ demand. And though Nicholas at first objected, Leo insisted that he would use some of the money from his apple sales to cover the fifty copper pieces.
“We’ll reimburse my parents the first chance we get,” he said.
“Fine…” Nicholas agreed, slowly steaming as he glared at the man who held Ivy’s fate in his hands. “Let’s get this over with.”
Leo explained to Sims that he first had to return to Castella’s house to retrieve the money and get his two horses for the journey. The man agreed.
“Hurry back. I’ll only wait here a short while,” he said. “And remember, if you bring the authorities with you, you’ll never see your friend again.”
“We won’t,” Leo promised before hurrying off into the darkness with Nicholas. “I have a better plan,” he whispered when they were out of the man’s earshot. As they stood underneath an oil lamp on a deserted street corner, Leo quickly told Nicholas what they each had to do, sending him off to find Aubrey and his two sons while he returned to Castella’s house. “Hurry back here as soon as possible so we can make the deal with Sims.”
“All right,” Nicholas said, sprinting down a cobblestone lane. “Hurry back yourself!”
“I plan to,” he replied, disappearing into the darkness in the opposite direction.
A cool breeze rolled off the bay a short time later, brushing through a patch of tall dry grass along the dirt road. Nicholas and Leo emerged from the nearby shadows atop the two horses that once pulled Leo’s apple cart. Stabs of moonlight revealed the subdued satisfaction upon Sims’ face when he greeted them. Leo clutched a tiny cloth pouch and tossed it to him. The man caught it, nodding when he heard the muffled jingle of coins inside. He untied the leather drawstrings, poured a few of the copper pieces into his palm and counted them before briefly peering inside the pouch.
“Seems to be fifty pieces here,” he said. “I’ll trust you and won’t count the rest.”
“Oh, so that makes you an honorable thief and kidnapper?” Leo muttered.
“Where’s Megan!” Nicholas demanded as he and Leo dismounted. “Tell us now.”
Sims looked around to make certain they were alone. “Your lady friend was taken to an abandoned farm just outside the village of Cavara Beach,” he said, giving them specific directions. “She’s inside an old root cellar on the property. But like I said, the two individuals who paid for her kidnapping are supposed to retrieve her sometime before dawn. They’re probably on their way there now. I was told they have a schedule to keep.”
“Where are they taking her?” Leo asked. “Why do they want her?”
Sims pocketed the money and shrugged. “Those answers are beyond my knowledge, gentlemen. You wanted to know where she was taken and I told you. Our deal is completed.”
Nicholas took a quick step toward Sims, tempted to grab him by the collar a second time, but restrained himself. The horses restlessly bobbed their heads in the cool autumn air. “You know nothing else? How could you not?”
Sims sighed and shook his head. “Look, I was only hired to grab the girl and transport her to a designated location. Nothing more, nothing less.” He noted Nicholas’ clenched fist, and wanting to end this transaction on a painless note, he relented a bit. “My employer did mention something about a waiting ship when we chatted, so I assume whoever arrives at the root cellar to get the girl will probably travel close to shore. But I can’t tell you anything more because I know nothing more. Your best bet is to find the farmhouse before the others get there first. You have no other option.”
Leo agreed and glanced at Nicholas, his expression indicating that they had garnered as much information as they were going to get. Now it was time to leave.
“Spend that money fast,” Nicholas warned as he and Leo climbed back on their horses. “Because if we ever see your face again…”
“I think he gets the point,” Leo said, gathering the reins as he stared down at Sims. “Now let’s get out of here.” He and Nicholas quickly trotted away as Sims looked on and chuckled.
“Fine work,” he whispered to himself, patting the pouch of coins in his coat pocket.
He swiftly headed back into town to grab a bite to eat in a tavern and plan his journey south the following morning, anticipating better opportunities abroad. But as he turned a corner onto a narrow dirt lane a few minutes later, he thought he saw a dark shape dart though the shadows up ahead. He paused for a moment and spun around, sensing that someone was following him. Another figure slowly emerged into the moonlight filtering down in the lane directly in front of him.
“Now just where are you off to in such a hurry, Mr. Sims?” a deep voice asked.
Sims grunted. “As if it’s any of your business? And how do you know my name?” He pulled out a dagger that glinted in the pale moonlight. “I don’t think you want to get in my way, old man.”
“Oh, but I think I do,” Uncle Aubrey replied with a throaty chuckle. “And so do they,” he added, pointing ahead.
Sims glanced over his shoulder as Aubrey’s two sons stepped into the light, each holding a large walking stick that they emphatically pounded once onto the ground. At the same time, Uncle Aubrey pulled out a large knife from underneath his coat, casually picking off bits of wax stuck to the blade.
“I believe you have some money that belongs to a friend of ours,” he softly said. “Fifty copper pieces? The three of us are hoping that you’ll return it without incident so we can all go home in peace. I’m looking forward to a slice of mince pie my wife baked and don’t want to keep her waiting.”
Sims glared at Aubrey and his sons, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He slowly returned the knife to its sheath, muttering under his breath in the bitter night air as he reluctantly fished the pouch of copper pieces out of his coat pocket. He tossed the bag to Aubrey, listening as his money disappeared and knowing he must do the same before the next rising sun.
CHAPTER 20
The Grasslands
Nicholas and Leo hurried to Castella’s house after leaving Sims. They grabbed a few provisions for their journey to Cavara Beach, hoping that Ivy would be there when they arrived at the farmhouse. Aunt Castella insisted that they eat first, so Nicholas and Leo sat down at the kitchen table for some soup, cheese and bread.
“Neither of you boys will be of any use if you don’t keep up your strength,” she said. “I’ve made up a sack with some dried beef, a few apples and several biscuits. That’ll sustain you to the next village and back. And there are two filled water skins, too.”
“Thanks, Castella,” Nicholas said. “With any luck we’ll have Ivy back here by noontime tomorrow.”
“May it be so,” she softly replied as she joined them at the table. She sipped from a cup of hot tea, steeped with worry. “I don’t think sleep will find me tonight.”
“Rest if you can. You need to keep up your strength as well,” Leo reminded her, finishing his soup. “Now we must be off. It’s past midnight and the Bear
Moon has already set. We only have the Fox to guide us now.”
“It’s nearly full, so there’ll be plenty of light unless the clouds roll in,” she said. “But be careful regardless. The night roads can be treacherous.”
“We will,” Nicholas said, putting on his coat and hugging her goodbye. Shortly after, he and Leo were on their horses in the cool night, heading for the main road.
“Be safe,” Castella whispered as she watched them disappear into the gloom from her front doorstep. Moments later she went back inside to take refuge from the darkness, closing the door as she wistfully wondered where the warm sweet days of summer had gone.
The main road to the village of Cavara Beach proved to be a cold, dark and bumpy stretch, overrun in parts with dried grass, deep ruts and sharp stones. Low scraggly bushes encroached upon the sides, tinted shades of deathly gray in the moonlight. Nicholas and Leo progressed slowly on horseback, riding carefully so their steeds wouldn’t injure themselves along the narrow course.
“Not the best maintained road in the county, is it,” Nicholas muttered.
“I haven’t made an apple delivery this way in two years,” Leo said. “A lot of people have moved east to Boros and Laurel Corners where the fishing and farming are better. There might not be a village of Cavara Beach in ten years.”
“Let’s just hope Ivy is there now,” he said as a cool wind off the water brushed against his face. Despite the risk, he urged his horse onward a little bit faster.
When they finally reached the village, it lay in a state of gloomy sleep. Windows were shuttered as a few flaming oil lamps in the narrow streets flickered and sputtered in the breeze. They passed silently along the main road and headed into the countryside, looking for the third turnoff to the right. Sims had instructed them that that would be their first turn. When a few clouds drifted in from the west and dimmed the moonlight, Nicholas feared they would be too late. They had already lost precious time on their way to the village and were now mired in the murky maze of undefined roads and footpaths that were difficult to navigate.
Nicholas Raven and the Wizards' Web (The Complete Epic Fantasy) Page 29
