Leo

With the rain now pouring with renewed vigor, Leo hurried around the corner of the house next to Beth Silverstone’s. He turned just in time to spot a male figure in the thick rain cloak making another turn that took them out of sight. Leo quickened his pace, trusting to his balance and Prowess to avoid slipping or tripping on the slick cobblestones. Of all the nights for a cursed rainstorm!

Lightning snapped overhead, followed by a peal of thunder. Leo rounded the corner of the next house and spotted the cloaked figure skulking close to the inside of the town wall, sticking to the shadows. Leo oriented himself based on the mental map he’d formed of Wolfpine and realized the man was heading straight for the town gates. Hoping to head out and escape, no doubt.

Leo smiled grimly as he followed, keeping pace but also keeping to the shadows. As tempting as it was to try and overtake Alan Starshine, the man might hear Leo’s [Steel Boots] even over the ruckus of the storm. If Alan ran, the chase could become complicated. Joanne Dewcrest stood now at the gates of Wolfpine, and she wouldn’t let anyone out without identifying them first.

Yet once both Leo and his quarry were in sight of the gates, the man slowed and paused. Leo crouched in the shadow of the deck overhanging the cobblestones off the town wall and watched the man mentally debate. Did he fear the Town Guards at the gate were onto him?

The man rose and headed off, but not toward the gate. He headed north again, toward the center of town and the town square. He would have little cover there, so Leo hurried after him only once it felt safe to do so. As Leo walked around the last building between him and his quarry, he expected to find the man somewhere ahead.

What he found, instead, was an empty square.

He froze only a moment before he spotted a discarded rain cloak in the shadows by an alley leading east, away from the Silverstone house. He’d been spotted! Leo leapt into a sprint and reached the alley in almost no time at all. He skidded to a stop in the rain and looked for his quarry just ahead.

The alley was empty. When Leo snatched up the cloak, one side was wet while the other was warm. Yet how had his quarry eluded him? Even moving at a sprint, there was no way the man he was chasing could have vanished so quickly and silently in a completely unoccupied town square...

Unless he had the ability to vanish by other means. A Shadower. Silverstone! Leo clenched the cloak as he realized how foolish he’d just been.

It wasn’t Alan who’d emerged from that window. It had been Silverstone, intent on leading whoever was watching his house on a wild chase while Anna and Alan, still inside, left to hide somewhere else. And he, like an idiot, had taken the bait.

In this storm, in a town this empty, Leo knew he’d never track down Silverstone. Worse, he couldn’t actually prove who had worn this cloak. The one thing Silverstone hadn’t counted on was Leo leaving a Town Guard to watch the house during the chase ... yet he needed to get back immediately. There was a chance Town Guard Redwood might also have been tricked.

Leo sprinted through the mostly empty town of Wolfpine, boots splashing in puddles as he kept his balance and avoided going down. He was huffing by the time he returned to the street on which Beth Silverstone and Barry Dewcrest’s houses faced off. He arrived to find the lamps in the Silverstone house still lit and the door still closed.

He glanced up and spotted Redwood waving from the roof. The man didn’t look to have moved, which made Leo question his earlier belief about Zack leading him away. If Anna and Alan had left the house while he was chasing Silverstone, why hadn’t Redwood followed them?

Redwood mouthed “I’ll come down!” and disappeared from sight. Leo stood in the pouring rain holding a discarded cloak and questioned everything he’d seen tonight. As improbable as it might be ... what if Town Guard Redwood was working with Silverstone? Was it possible?

Leo knew what the books said about Town Guards. The Gods themselves chose them, and they chose only the most loyal, selfless, and honest souls to safeguard Townsfolk and Adventurers alike. Yet when one was forced to choose between loyalty to one’s Gods and loyalty to one’s friends ... where would a person land? Most importantly, where would the loyalties of Glenn Redwood land?

Redwood emerged from Barry Dewcrest’s house wearing his own thick cloak and hurried over. “Did you find him?” he asked hopefully.

“Vanished,” Leo said. “It wasn’t Alan. I’m fairly sure it was your friend Zack.”

Redwood’s eyes widened. “You saw him?”

Leo grimaced. He hadn’t seen Silverstone, technically, though he was certain who he’d chased. “What of the house? Has anyone else emerged?”

“Not since that person slipped out of the window,” Redwood said. “Are you sure it wasn’t Alan you chased? Is it possible he evaded you somehow? It’s easy to get turned around in this town if you don’t know it well, and those two have been living here for over three months.”

“I wasn’t eluded,” Leo said grimly. “My quarry used [-Shadow Walk-] to escape.”

“Devilspit,” Glenn said, as his expression grew dark. “We’d best go inside right now.”

Despite the urgency now animating him, Leo hesitated. “We can’t do that.” He might have authority to detain Anna Bronzelight and Alan Starshine, but he had no authority to enter a private home.

“I can,” Glenn said calmly. “I’m a Town Guard. My [Guard’s Key] can open every lock in this city, though given how well I know Beth, we’ll offer her the courtesy of a knock. We can’t know who you chased, but we must know if these fugitives are still inside the house. Or if they were there at all.”

Leo had simply assumed Anna and Alan would be in Silverstone’s residence. Had that been a mistaken assumption? “You think they’re hiding somewhere else?”

“Did anyone tell you they were there?” Glenn asked. “Did Zack say that explicitly?”

Leo mentally cursed himself. “I didn’t know anywhere else they might go.”

Redwood was already past him and walking toward the door. “Well, one way or the other, we need to search the house tonight. I’ll take responsibility. Just follow my lead.”

Leo followed Redwood as the man raised one fist and knocked, firmly and loudly, on the door. No one inside that house could fail to hear such a knock. They waited only a moment before the sound of locks clicking came from inside. The door opened once more.

The eyes of the dark-skinned woman inside the house widened. “Glenn?” She visibly sucked in her breath. “Oh Gods, is Zack all right?”

Of course, upon seeing a Town Guard standing outside her door in the middle of a rainstorm, Beth Silverstone immediately worried for her son. Leo sensed no subterfuge in her reaction. She really did look genuinely shocked to see the two of them outside her house.

“Zack’s absolutely find, Beth,” Redwood said quickly. “I’m truly sorry to bother you so late, but we need to speak about your lodgers. About Anna.”

Beth frowned. “Don’t tell me something’s happened to the poor girl.”

“We don’t think so,” Redwood said. “Is she here?”

“In the spare room. Erika came by to drop off some clothing Anna ordered, then left about ten minutes ago.” Beth tilted her head quizzically. “What business have you with her?”

Redwood glanced at Leo. Leo, seeing the opportunity, decided he’d best take it. He approached and briefly inclined his head. “Leopold Silverstone, Level 10 Skirmisher. I’m also a Junior Blazer, and while I can’t share everything, it’s vital we speak to Anna or Alan at once.”

Now Beth’s features clouded. “A Town Guard and a Blazer on my doorstep this late isn’t good. You’d best come inside immediately.” She stepped back. “Please. Both of you.”

Leo gratefully stepped out of the rain, though he regretted walking inside with the soles of his [Steel Boots] still sopping wet. He couldn’t easily remove them, unlike Redwood, who leaned against the wall and pulled off his boots at once and set them by the door. As the door swung closed behind him, he remained just beyond the threshold, dripping water off his cloak.

“Where’s your spare room?” Redwood asked.

“This way,” Beth said, then glanced at Leo. “Are you coming?”

Leo hesitated. Would she truly be okay with him tracking mud all over her house? He didn’t feel right about tracking mud all over her house.

Redwood raised one hand. “It’s fine, Leo. I’ll bring her out of there. We’ll speak to her together.”

Leo, relieved, just nodded. Beth Silverstone had rugs in here that looked both soft and expensive, but such luxuries were not out of the ordinary for a successful Merchant. Leo would simply hate to cause her further trouble.

Redwood followed Beth to the end of the hall, remaining in sight. Leo mentally recognized as being past and next to Zack’s room. That must have been convenient for both of them. Glenn knocked firmly on the closed door to the spare room.

“Beth?” a woman called from inside.

At the end of the hall, Glenn frowned. “Erika?”

Leo’s senses all snapped alert as the door opened. A moment later, a blond-haired woman with a slim build stepped from Beth’s spare room ... but it was not Anna Bronzelight. Leo’s stomach sank as he realized just how badly he’d mucked all this up. If Erika hadn’t left after arriving earlier...

That suggested the woman who’d left wearing Erika Willowbraid’s thin rain cloak had been Anna Bronzelight. Erika’s hair was bright blond, not dyed, and shoulder-length, not bobbed like Anna’s. From his place at the door, Leo had no trouble overhearing their conversation.

“What’s going on?” Erika sounded truly surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Where’s Anna?” Glenn asked.

“Left to fetch her coin purse,” Erika said. “She left about ten minutes ago. Is something wrong?”

“She left wearing your cloak?” Glenn demanded.

Erika glanced toward Leo, toward the door. “She didn’t have one of her own, so I let her borrow mine. It’s an absolute deluge out there.”

Oh, that was clever. After Silverstone warned her Leo was looking for her, Anna had summoned Erika to deliver her clothing and then convinced her that she needed a spare rain cloak. She’d then slipped out in full view of Leo with him none the wiser, all because he didn’t trust his instincts.

Leo should have verified the identity of the woman leaving for himself. He hadn’t. Given that failure ... perhaps Alan Starshine truly had eluded him.

“Is Anna in trouble?” Erika demanded. “And who’s that man at the door?”

Leo rubbed his cold face with one hand. It wasn’t just that he’d been completely outmaneuvered by his fugitives. He knew, now, that he’d let down a woman who trusted him.

Jenny had entrusted him with this Quest. He’d told her he had. And now that both had literally slipped through his fingers, she was going to be so incredibly disappointed in him.