Revolting Rose

Chapter 5/Part 2 - Letter From a Friend

No doorknob. Vrye had gone all the way to the cellar, to find its door defiled, stripped of a handle with which to open it. It was too heavy for him to try pulling it open without one, but he could hear Saloonka behind it. His son's shoes clicked loudly on the slate tiles of the floor, and he seemed to be consumed by a single sided conversation which Vrye dropped some eves on, like the responsible parent he intended to be.

"Perhaps he is the wrong one for the job, but given the position I was in, I didn't have much choice," Saloonka muttered. This was followed by the squeak of a critter. Vrye would have to send Ginolo in to investigate a possible infestation.

"If I had done that, how would I have known said stranger wouldn't scream at the sight of me and get me sent back?"

Squeak squeak. The creature responsible sounded oddly chatty, almost as if it were responding to Sally.

"No, they haven't, but I didn't know that, did I? I've been called a monster all my life, I expected to be treated like one. But no matter, the white haired one gave me maps that you couldn't."

Hiss, spit, squeak. Now Vrye was certain his son was conversing with the squeaky beast.

"No need to be so jealous, Duskerro. You have still done much more for me than anyone else. But we can't accomplish anything alone in a world neither of us understands. It's nothing like the magazines or television led me to believe. The people don't have round ears, there is no light in the sky and the grass is not greener on the other side, it's not there at all! But I hear there are goblins, so at least my books aren't lying to me."

Squeakety Squeak Squeak Squeak.

"Quite right. All these years plotting the perfect plot and I'll have to throw it all to the wind. But there is no wind to speak of, is there?!"

Squeak.

"The disguise did work somewhat, but that angry, spotted thing was determined to keep me from the white fluffy one."

That was quite enough nonsense before supper. Who knows what ideas were being put in his poor son's head.

"Who's down there?!" Vrye called, hoping it might draw Saloonka out.

"I am! What's it to you?" Sally shouted back.

"Who else? Who are you speaking to?" Vrye returned fire. He had to be sure a rat involved, and not some beau in the basement.

"What's it to you?!" It sounded as though his son might finally emerge from the cellar by the approaching shoe-clicks.

"If you're smuggling anyone in my basement, I would like to hear about it so I know how many to expect at the table," Vrye said as the cellar opened.

Saloonka stared out of the darkness at him with a black rat hanging from his blue section of hair. The critter squeaked something in his son's ear and gave Vrye a dirty look with its fiery little peepers.

"By the by, my boy, if there's anything at all you need, I'd be glad to help," he offered, craning his neck to check behind the lad.

"Do you have books?" Sally asked.

What a relief. There was nobody else in the cellar, and the request was simple for a learned fellow such as Vrye. "I have a small collection in my private study. There might be something there of use to you," he replied as he coaxed Saloonka out of the gloom. "Come with me, I'll show you where it is."

Vrye led the way to his boudoir, where his study was hidden behind a—where his study had previously been hidden away behind a curtain. Now his collection of letters and secret business was exposed to anyone he might invite into his bedroom.