“Hold!” the carriage driver shouted. “What in the Six Hells?”

A Cliff Spider thumped into Glenn’s armor. Glenn instinctively swatted it off. Yet the moment he stomped on it, what squished wetly beneath his boot wasn’t a Cliff Spider. It was a ... tomato?

More Cliff Spiders—were they Cliff Spiders?—rained down from above, and Glenn heard a young, female shriek from ahead. To his horror, Renee Fallowpeak’s terrified horse took off at a full gallop, running for its life. The animal galloped right off the Safe Road.

“Devilspit!” Bruce cursed. He slapped his mount’s flank hard with a switch.

Yet Glenn was already moving at a full sprint, with each long stride multiplied by four thanks to his [Fleet Boots]. He soon passed Bruce’s horse. Glenn heard the man shout something, but with his heart pounding in his ears and the wind rushing past his helmet, he couldn’t make it out.

Ahead, Renee Fallowpeak clung for dear life to her horse. As she rode deeper into the Dewdrop Hills, Glenn kept his eyes peeled for a Gloamwolf or Grass Boar. Either could prove deadly to this young girl. He was almost caught up with Renee and her frothing horse when both simply ... vanished.

Glenn stumbled to a stop. It was a bright, clear day, in a bright open field. He dashed to the top of the nearest hill and cast about for the missing girl. Yet she was nowhere to be seen, nor was her horse. How was this possible?

Moreover, why had Cliff Spiders been raining from the sky? They were on a Safe Road!

Glenn hated turning back, yet he had no idea where Renee had gone and no way to track her. His best course of action, at this point, was to return to the caravan, which was smaller than a toy in the distance. He turned and jogged back, using his [Fleet Boots] to imbue himself with speed, and reached the carriage. He returned just in time to find two dismounted Adventurers arguing loudly.

Preceptor Fallowpeak was also out of his carriage, looking between his two Adventurer escorts. The Preceptor looked to be in his mid-forties, with the portly frame of a man who ate more than worked. He also had a kind face, large nose, and thick white beard. He wore a fine [Nobleman’s Robe] that was blue with green bursts of color.

As for Master Fallowpeak’s driver, an older woman with now frazzled red hair, she still sat atop the wagon. She looked bored. Perhaps she was simply tired of listening to the arguing.

“...telling you she’s been taken by bandits!” a slender, dark-haired woman in her early twenties yelled. “Those were rotten tomatoes, not Cliff Spiders. This was obviously an abduction prepared well in advance by a Party of never-do-wells!”

“And I told you, there’s no way a Guilecaster could change that many tomatoes!” Bruce shouted back. He looked younger than the woman, though still older than Glenn. “Those were illusions! It’s Demons again, the same we fought in the Pale Moon Ruins!”

“I could [-Transpose-] that many tomatoes!” the woman yelled. “You idiot!”

The shouting woman must be Natalie Runefall. It seemed she didn’t get along with Bruce. Yet both ceased arguing as Glenn ran up, and then they spun on him together.

“Where is she?” Preceptor Fallowpeak demanded, obviously panicked. “Where’s Renee?”

“Vanished,” Glenn said calmly. “But I don’t believe she’s hurt.”

“I told you!” Natalie shouted, and slapped Bruce’s arm angrily. “Some time after they terrified her horse, their Guilecaster created an illusion of Renee and used it to lead off the Town Guard while they abducted the real one. No doubt we’ll receive a ransom note in moments.”

Natalie Runefall, now that he got a good look at her, was tall and willowy, like Erika, with dark hair falling to her shoulders. She wore [Moonlight Robes], white and gray, a pricey yet popular set of armor popular with literally all casters between Level 10 and 20. On men, the robes covered everything, but on women, the midriff vanished entirely.

Still, at least Natalie didn’t have to suffer the constant chill that came from a cleavage window. The Gods had spared her that. Yet the gaze she turned now on Glenn threatened trouble if he disagreed with her, so it was a good thing Glenn didn’t. He raised one hand to draw their attention.

“A Guilecaster makes sense,” he said calmly. “It’s one of the best ways to explain how I lost Renee, and there’s no place to hide a horse and woman in the Dewdrop Hills. There’s visibility for days. If I had abducted her, I’d lure her escorts toward the Dewdrop Hills and drag her into the Deepscorn.”

Bruce held his [Steel Helmet] in the crook of one arm and glowered. “Do you often have bandit attacks on your Safe Road, Town Guard?”

Glenn had never heard of any. Gods, was this really a coordinated attack? How had the bandits even launched those tomatoes? A catapult? And how had they spooked Renee’s horse so thoroughly? He needed to know more before he could say anything.

“Attack are unusual,” Glenn said. “Excuse me while I check into something. I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” Natalie demanded, yet Glenn was already jogging off.

He jogged back to where the first tomatoes had fallen. At least the bandits had left a clear reference for him to follow. Drawing on his memory, he estimated about where Renee’s horse had been when it spooked and galloped off.

Yet he needed no keen sense of direction to smell the strong scent. Gloamwolf musk, and enough that he caught the scent from paces off. How had it been so precisely delivered?

Glenn knelt, eyes sweeping the road, and soon spotted the remains of a shattered vial. Yet no catapult would deliver a vial so precisely to its target, and the remains of the tomatoes were scattered everywhere. How had the bandits done this?

As Glenn thought back to all the times Zack had popped in on him, and all his speculations with Becka about how Shadowers might use the loopholes in the Law of Consent, he understood.

Simply scaring the horse by making it think a Gloamwolf was behind it violated no laws of the Gods, since it didn’t cause the animal harm. Shattering a vial likely wasn’t even considered a hostile action. Also, Glenn imagined, scaring Renee’s horse wasn’t technically an attack on Renee.

And while Glenn chased an illusion, the bandit Guilecaster had hidden the real Renee, who the bandits had likely “rescued” from her panicked horse. The Gods wouldn’t stop an Adventurer from rescuing a young girl from harm on a panicked horse, now would they? And as all that went on, no one noticed ... because everyone was watching Cliff Spiders fall from the sky.

Subterfuge. Misdirection. And dancing dangerously around the rules. All were the hallmarks of a concerted attempt to abduct Renee Fallowpeak, something the Shadowers Guild was perfectly capable of undertaking. Especially given Preceptor Fallowpeak was likely filthy rich.

Despite his frustration, Glenn found he respected the cunning of this band of the bandits. Monsters couldn’t enter a Safe Road, so they’d tossed tomatoes and had their Guilecaster make them look like Cliff Spiders. The Law of Consent prevented the bandits from seizing Renee directly, and killing or injuring her horse would have alerted Bruce and Natalie to the problem.

These bandits understood loopholes in the Laws of the Gods. Glenn suspected they understood them all too well, yet the fact that they’d shown so much preparation suggested this was no random attack. They’d been too well coordinated and too prepared for this to be opportunistic.

He jogged back to the halted carriage, Natalie Runefall, Bruce Richbrand, and Master Fallowpeak. “Apologies for the delay. I’ve discovered a strong scent of Gloamwolf musk near where your daughter’s horse grew spooked. I believe a Shadower shattered it while we were distracted.”

“Devilspit,” Bruce said. Yet he wasn’t questioning Glenn’s account. He was simply annoyed.

Glenn continued. “I believe Natalie has the right of it, and I also believe these bandits were waiting for you, Preceptor Fallowpeak. Did you hire an escort because you expected trouble?”

The Preceptor went pale. “There have been rumblings. No direct threats, but I’ve been very successful with my potions in the last few years. I suspect word has reached the ears of many that I have coin to spare.”

Bruce thumped his own armor. “We’ll find your daughter and deal with the bandits, sir.”

Fallowpeak glanced at him, eyes wide. “Respectfully, Mister Richbrand, how?”

Bruce had no answer. He looked uncomfortable. Yet soon, the Preceptor shook his head, a rueful expression on his face.

“I do not blame you for my daughter’s abduction. Nor you, Miss Runefall. This is obviously a failing on my part. I believed I’d obscured my travel plans, but someone caught wind of them.” He sighed. “I just hope they don’t frighten Renee too badly before the ransom note arrives.”

Was Preceptor Fallowpeak actually taking responsibility for his own failures? The master Alchemist’s obviously good nature made Glenn all the more determined to help. And he could help, being a Town Guard. He was one of the few people in all Grassea who could help.

Preceptor Fallowpeak and all with him had come under the protection of one of her Town Guards—in this case, Glenn—the moment Glenn arrived to join the escorts. The bandits who’d abducted Renee Fallowpeak had obviously broken the law, and while a crime that occurred on the Safe Road normally wouldn’t be a Town Guard’s affair, his Escort Quest made it his business. Which meant if he found these bandits, he could actually ignore the Pantheon’s Law of Consent and arrest them.

And given a common age girl was now in danger, Glenn now intended to do just that.