Chapter 3

The four women entered the large city and quickly blended in with the rest of the inhabitants.

Suzan was just a little unhappy Dusty wasn't with her though it had only been a little over a week since she left Dusty and headed out for the mission. Although she missed her husband, she was also really charged up to be here and was well ready to take on a new mission like this.

It took them several days of travel by ship and a few more days of hard riding and just barely stopping for anything to get to this city because of how behind they were, and it was well worth it once they saw the city.

The city of Stockworth was "huge".

It had two massive black iron gates that looked as if it took two men to open and close them, but was probably designed well enough so that one man could do it. The wall were thick and one could see the guards as they walked along the top looking over the sides from time to time both inside and outside the city to make sure all was well.

The city was well situated in thick forest and was the perfect spot to be before one traveled over the surrounding mountain range headed out of the kingdom and into the next.

They women were lightly challenged when they entered. Joi introduced their team and said they were there for food, lodging, and rest after a long travel. They planned to rest up in the city and then move on. That was accepted and they were granted entry.

If one didn't know any better they would never know that the Earl's son was missing by how the lax the guards were.

Once inside the sounds, smells, and sights assaulted the women. It was easy to see that the city was cram packed to the gills with people who were bustling around, and everyone seemed to have somewhere to go and something to do. The women tried to stay together so that they didn't get lost.

As large as the city of Stockton was it sported an even larger merchant's area.

At the entrance to the city Suzan noticed a blacksmith's shop, but as the group headed deeper into the cities merchant's quarter she noticed no less than five more shops. That many was unheard of in most towns and none seemed to be hurting for business.

There was heavy duplication of everything from cobblers, bakers, shipping and trading, to stables. She found countless Inn and Tavern's, some side by side, that didn't seem to be hurting for business.

With all the people that seemed to be in the city there appeared to be plenty of commerce for everyone.

Suzan was prepared for the Earl to live in a Keep or at least a small castle somewhere outside the city, but as they traveled on it was apparent in the distance that a large manor home rested at the center of the city. It looked as if the city sprang up around the ancestral home of the Earl.

"Shake a leg girls, we need to be at the Pig's Poke Inn by sundown," said Joi as she rode her horse further into the Merchant's quarter.

"How will we know which Inn it is?" asked Katie

"I was told it would have a sign on the ground in front of the door with both sides showing a pig getting poked by a stick," smiled Joi

Suzan smiled because that would make it easier.

While reading wasn't something everyone did, Dusty has been teaching Suzan the basics.

She felt a little out of place and stupid at times because Lori knew how, not to mention that Rachel and Marie also knew how to read as well. She had always ignored caring about learning how to do it in favor of weapons training, but mainly because she never really had anyone to teach her.

Now that she really wanted to learn Dusty appeared very eager to do it.

"Our contact will have the table in the back corner. Let me do all the talking and we'll go from there," said Joi.

The rest of the ride through the huge city was done in quiet as the women rode on. Thankfully no one seemed to take note of them and they rode on unmolested.

Having reached the Inn without any issue the ladies found that someone had rented a room for each of them and paid for two weeks worth of time. Joi reasoned if they didn't have this solved by then it wouldn't matter anyway.

The four women went down to the tavern, but strangely the Inn was half empty given that it was starting to get dark soon.

Taking a seat at the table as requested the women sat and waited after placing an order for four short beers. Suzan wondered off hand if the people would be interested in any of her husband's beer. She would check in with him after this mission to see.

The sound of a chair being pulled back snapped Suzan out of her thoughts and then she was all ears.

"You're late!" said a raspy voice from underneath a hooded cowl.

"Yes we are, and I'm very sorry for that. You know I always liked to see the face of whomever I'm talking too," said Joi sweetly.

Pulling back his hood they could see a wizened old man seated in the chair. He was wearing a shapeless set of robes that were clearly too large for him. He was trying to disguise his appearance.

"Fine, happy? What took you so long? Maybe this was a bad idea," said the man

"We had a small accident with a member and we needed to get the right person to fill in for her. You didn't want just anyone and we didn't want to accept just anyone either. Want to fill us in so we can get started?" asked Joi.

Scowling the man looked around at all four of them before he began.

"Lord Byron was taken in the middle of the night and no clues were left behind. His nurse was frantic and said she was afraid she would be beaten, even though our Lord the Earl has never done anything like that before, and waited to report his being missing.

"The Earl has tried to accommodate everything asked of him to insure the safe return of his son, but now fears the worst. You are our last hope, there is no where else for us to turn," said the man.

"Ok, but what else can you tell us about what happened? We need something to work with here, this isn't much to go on," said Joi.

"What else is there?" asked the man exasperated.

Suzan could see that Joi was getting just as exasperated as the man was. Clearing her throat, and catching Joi's eye, she started talking. Her husband always said, sometimes when talking with people you need to help them along to help themselves.

"If I may, where are they requesting you drop off the items? I mean I'm not going to insult your intelligences by suggesting you've not been watching what gets picked up. What have you learned that way?" asked Suzan.

"That's the strange part. At first some of the items, like the money and jewelry just "disappeared" but this city has no mages. Some of the other items like livestock and grain were picked up by people who said they had traded for it, but it was a deep series of trades that had taken place well before the drop was made. Even when we checked into it we never saw a pattern, as it was never the same person twice," said the man.

"Hmm, no magic. I wonder," thought Suzan.

Spending time with Dusty was definitely paying off. She was filling in blanks before she realized that was what she was doing.

"Let me guess, since you said that you have no mages I'm willing to bet that the items were asked to be left in a few different "open" areas, probably the same few spots for those earlier drops, but always at odd hours, probably when a fog was rolling in, or on moonless nights, or possibly in the early hours? Would that be a safe guess?" asked Suzan.

Looking at her strangely the man said "Sometimes..."

"I'm also betting that later the other times the request was made for it to happen during and in the busiest part of the day, and by the time you made it to where you needed to be to drop off what was requested the pockets or items were gone and the people who transported them had no idea what happened, right?" asked Suzan.

By now everyone was just staring at her, but she appeared to be lost in thought.

"And if I was to hazard a guess, it would be that most of the trades where you couldn't trace back how the trades were made always happened with travelers who happened to have made a trade "weeks" before with some random third party, well before the boy went missing, and they had proof to back it up, right?" asked Suzan.

"Your in on it aren't you?" said the man harshly as she leaned in to look at her. "How could you some how know what was going on without inside knowledge?"

Suzan, becoming more aware of her surroundings, noticed that the few people around them were listening in and appeared to have their hands near some form of weapon to be ready to come to this man's aid. Even Joi looked to be a touch upset with her.

Katie and Lena looked worried, as they tried to casually look around to see how strong their chances at getting out of the Inn without dying really were.

Smiling, Suzan spoke "No I'm not. My husband is Dusty Reynolds the Battlemage. This is normally his specialty and I guess he's rubbed off on me over the last four seasons. Looking at it as an outsider this is what I would have done. You have a mole in your manner and either the nanny is in on it or it's her," said Suzan.

"How do you figure that? She's been with the family for seasons. She's taken charge of the boy from the day he was born. Why wait until now when earlier when he was much younger would have been more advantageous for her if she was going to do this?" asked the man.

"Does she have any family? Anyone who died within the last season? Maybe doing something that should have been routine but they still died while doing it?" asked Suzan looking intently at the man.

"Her son's youngest boy died riding his horse home. It threw a shoe but that never should have happened with all the smiths we have in this city, but he was far away from the city when it happened the horse came back later without him, and they later found his body with his neck broken. It was about three months back. But you know her family was the one who paid your contract, so I trust her," said the man looking at her curiously.

"Then she's being forced to do this against her will. Whoever did this needed time to get away so they made her waited to report something that should have been reported immediately. She had a close family member killed to prove that they were serious about their plans and they needed her to get on board with them.

"Whoever it is, is still close by or she would have spoken up by now without having to resort to getting us into the city this way, and is probably still close by to her family as well. I can only think of one group that would do this. I'm willing to bet someone has upset the local thieves guild lately," said Suzan as she looked at the man.

"Well, the Earl had his mother's brooch taken from his manor and he started cracking down on thievery. A few heads in the noose of the gallows here a few hands removed there, nothing that any other city hasn't had happen inside of them before," said the old man sitting back and looking thoughtful.

"Yet something special has happened here and this is personal payback. They are making the Earl feel desperate before they do something to the boy. For now he's still alive because they want whatever they do to be public and your keeping everything under wraps like they've demanded only helps them," said Suzan.

"What do we do? If your right, and I have nothing to base your conjecture on but a table side conversation in an Inn, but let's say your right. How do we proceed? How do you plan on saving the boy?" asked the old man.

"What I'd suggest is this, Joi and Katie check out the area's where stuff just up and disappeared and then put wards around the house to watch for where people go. I'm willing to bet if you check magically you'll find that there were traps doors, false bottoms, hollow walls, and such in the areas where the items appeared to disappear. Later you'll need those same wards to find out where the person we flush out of the house is going," said Suzan with a smile.

"Ok, but that won't help them get back their stuff. But what will you and Lena be doing while we're doing this?' asked Joi.

"I never did tell you guys this because it really doesn't matter or change who I really am deep down. But I'm currently the Baroness Reynolds from the kingdom of Patenenall. I think it's time that I paid my respects to the Earl in the company of my retainer Lena. This way we can have a good look around without suspicion," said Suzan with a smile.

She tried to not feel out of place while the four of them stared at her in shock.

"Is that for real? Are you really a Baroness?" asked Joi in awe.

Very few people ever discussed their background within the guild and it was considered taboo to ask.

"Yes it's really true, and while we could make up a title as a lie to possibly get in the door, someone might check and we're screwed if they do and it is in fact a lie. But in this case it isn't. Joi, you know that Dusty is a Battlemage right? Well he was knighted and later awarded the title a few seasons back for saving a King's life.

"That's why we now travel to that home a few times a season. It's also why Dusty has been working on his brewery. It's a form of income for our lands. We've been really busy for a while if you think about it," said Suzan.

"Why didn't you bring the Battlemage with you if you're truly his wife? We could have really used his help. Why didn't we rate someone like that?" asked the old man giving a look that alternated between shocked and bitterness.

Now he wanted to know if they had someone like this in reserve why didn't they bring him and solve their problems quickly. They were talking about a boy's life here.

"I think we are more than capable of solving this on our own, and he can't fix every problem in the world. I wouldn't be worth being called his wife if I had to have him hold my hand every time something went wrong. He's just one man and has a few other things he's working on," said Suzan smiling.

While Suzan really wanted Dusty close by as well, it wasn't because she couldn't solve missions without him, but because she loved him, and his presence always soothed her.

"I just hope your right and Lord Byron doesn't pay for your over confidence," said the old man sourly.

"Unless I'm wrong and they did him in before we got her, and I'm sure they've not, we should be golden. So trust me, this will be fine and we'll have him back home before you know it. Let's get me and Lena in the manor to find your mole. Besides if I know my husband he's working on a few deep problems of his own," said Suzan with a brilliant smile that seemed to carry a lot of confidence.