Patrol 2: Lost & Found

Chapter 28

Everyone in the streets hastily jumped out of the way, then stood, mouths agape, as two riders on horseback, a third on a griffin, and a large bear with black and silver fur galloped through the cobblestone streets. A hawk shrieked as it circled and soared above the group, keeping pace.

A group of enforcers stood in a huddle near the harbormaster's building, people in the regalia of the military, as well as the city guard and the wizard council, were mixed in the enforcer circle. Two figures stood off a little apart from the group.

"Derry! Bergin!" Vania pulled hard on the reins and jumped from the horse before it fully stopped. She winced as tingling jolted up her legs from the impact of her feet on the cobblestones. She hurried to the duo; "Have they found anything yet?"

"No," Derry replied quietly, face grey. He looked at her with bloodshot eyes. "Vania. Good to see you again. Buccareth taking good care of you?"

"Very hospitable," Vania replied quickly. "How's Licia and the kids?"

"Tired. Worried," he replied simply. "I... I left them at the bakery, with a few friends. I thought it'd be best for Kuran and Licia to stay home with Grava and Rantin..."

"Yes, Derry, that was a good idea," Vania smiled grimly, hand on his shoulder. "How are you?"

"I—"

The shocked voice of Lady Buccareth cut him off as she came up from behind Vania, dismounting from her griffin, "Derryl?"

He stopped and slowly turned to look up at the a'marlon woman. "Hello, A'lei'iana."

Eddin silently slid off his tall bay mare, Taric landing on his outstretched hand. He joined them silently, transferring the hawk to his shoulder.

"It really is you! Derryl, it's good that you're here. We could use your genius for our planning. How long have you been back in the city?"

"I never left," Derry replied simply. "And it's Derry now, not Derryl."

"It's his daughter that was taken," Eddin murmured to his mother.

A'lei'iana's eyes widened. "Oh," she whispered. "Never fear, Derryl. My son and his companions successfully rescued one child—they'll rescue yours, too."

"Bergin, is the harbormaster here?" Vania asked. "Laria might have inherited a knack for premonition from her father—she said the wizard is on a ship that has yellow flags with red x's. Would record of what flag a ship's flying be in the records?"

"I can ask." Bergin turned toward the building.

"Vania. Bergin. The yellow flag with red x's isn't a country flag or any type of flag showing allegiance. It's a signal flag." Eddin looked out to the water. "When a ship raises a flag like that, it means contagion is aboard. No one is allowed on and anyone on the ship is not allowed to leave, until the disease is gone... or all who suffer from it are dead."

"So the wizard may be hiding amongst a bunch of sick people or corpses?" Bergin asked.

"Or he may have snuck on the ship and raised the flag himself," Vania conjectured. "A place no one dares go seems like a good place to hide..."

"I'll go ask the harbormaster. See if there's a record of a ship of sick people coming into port," Bergin replied. "Knowing which ship and where it is in the harbor will at least let us aim our ship for the right boat bobbing on the waves."

"And it may change how we approach this," Eddin added after Bergin left. "If the wizard boarded a quarantine ship, then there's the chance the contagion is still aboard... Anyone who goes to rescue Cianna takes the chance of contracting the illness."