10. Raven #2
I dragged my finger through the dust, cutting a deep line to the table’s surface.
We locked our belongings inside a cabinet on the side wall, and Mr. Aldine collected the keys from Aoes. Aoes then grabbed an additional set of keys from a desk shoved against the back wall and handed those over as well.
With our travel bags supposedly safe and secured, we headed out to explore the citadel.
“Hey.” Aoes raced after us and pulled us to a stop at the door. “I forgot to mention, watch out for the RFYLs. You seriously want to avoid those.”
“What’s an RFYL?” we all asked in unison.
“Run for your life specters. They first showed up close to a hundred or so years ago, and they bring nothing but misery, so avoid them at all costs.”
It took some effort to keep my responding frown from creasing my forehead. For as old as Aoes likely was, I found his use of acronyms rather ridiculous. Why not simply call the elements what they were? Specter or demon or whatever. Definitely rolled off the tongue easier than RFYL.
And the chance of me remembering that acronym… Not likely.
Mr. Aldine jerked straight. “Do you know what they are or where they came from?”
Aoes shook his head. “No one does. They’re an enigma. But they’re what happened to old Earl and many others. They’re the reason for the condition you see, and their presence has been seriously bad for business.”
Zombies. Specters. Magical barriers that turn people into monsters. What is going on with this place?
“Thank you for the warning,” Mr. Aldine said with a nod.
We strode out into the street, leaving Aoes alone at the pub with zombie Earl.
The sign above the pub’s door read Bridge Crossings. I took a moment to memorize the name and location, making sure we could return to the proper place for our belongings.
Beyond Aoes’s establishment, a large, open square spread out before us, lit by soft glowing lanterns. In the center of the square, a once tall statue now stood as nothing more than a base and lower body. The image of the one once represented had long ago broken off at the knees.
Located near the citadel’s massive, closed gate, businesses outlined the surrounding open area.
A once fine hotel, now boarded up and abandoned, nestled among them.
No doubt, the public square had bustled with the daily coming and going of people and provided the first welcome zone for newly arrived travelers—in the days before whatever curse that now plagued the citadel had forced the gates closed to outside civilization.
Back then, the pub was probably a happening place. Full of opportunity and income.
Now, the square and streets, humming with confining magic, evoked a ghostly area image—eerily absent of life and noise.
Could be the late hour or could be the curse.
Above, stars provided a dull gleam, and the moon, settled high, complemented the glow of the lamplight-illuminated street.
Plus… I tilted my head… The shimmer of the magical barrier stretched overhead, a rainbow of color…
like the Aurora Borealis. Only tattered and torn, with thin patches and jagged holes.
Holes through which flying creatures escaped the citadel.
I gnawed on my lower lip and filed the condition of the barrier magic away for later consideration.
A black bird, little more than a shadow against the night, flew overhead. I dropped my gaze to the retreating forms of my fellow reapers, momentarily snagging on Chace’s backside.
So unfortunate, his drool-worthy good looks.
A crisp breeze brushed my cheek, clearing my thoughts and returning me to my senses.
Redirecting my attention to the path ahead, I placed the pub at my back. Our reaper team walked beyond the square and up the main street in silence. We covered a block, then two. And everywhere we looked―all quiet with no apparent signs of life.
No tug towards uncollected death. No souls in need of reaping.
Chace’s hands hung at his sides, clenching and opening, clenching and opening. “If no one in this place has been dying, where is everyone?”
I tapped, tapped, tapped my fingers against my thigh and scrutinized one dark space after the other. “Hiding from the specters Aoes mentioned? What did he call them? The RFYLs.”
If these things scared the citizens to such a level that they called them run-for-your-life, what should we, as reapers, be prepared to face?
I silently recited one of my father’s mantras, I will not be taken by surprise, and I will see the big picture.
Chace shook his head, a motion filled with incredulity. “That acronym isn’t working for me.”
Hadn’t I thought something similar? My lips twitched, fighting an upward tug. A strange, but oddly entertaining, tension existed between Chace and Aoes, and it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that “tension” affected Chace’s opinion.
But…yeah…the acronym…wholly nonsensical.
“I have it on good authority,” Mr. Aldine said, “that the key to rectifying this entire debacle of a situation can be found with or near the governance residing in the castle.”
In other words, with a bunch of stuck-up royals. That’s great.
I rubbed a developing ache in my shoulder. “Did this information come from the Collections Office?”
“A confidante.”
That isn’t oddly cryptic.
“So…” Mr. Aldine scratched his shoulder. “Our quest, or the first phase of our quest, is to physically locate said key.”
“It goes without saying,” Chace retorted.
We moved deeper into the citadel and paused briefly at a fork in the road.
To the right, a narrow alley with an enclosed overpass.
To the left, a wider path lined with private residences.
And straight ahead, clustered with closed businesses, the largest path of the three.
In the distance, an ornate, angled building divided the path yet again.
Mr. Aldine chose the avenue straight ahead. The one moving in the direction of the castle perched on the high ground in the citadel’s center.
Business after business slipped past—a shoe repair shop, a mason, a baker, a barber, a too-small bookstore, a knickknack dealer. Several shops up ahead, including a small café with three tables, nuzzled against the street side.
Four people, two men and two women, gathered at one of the tables, enjoying a conversation over mugs of steaming liquid.
My heart kicked up. With what? Relief? Concern? Nerves?
At our approach, the citizens turned their heads, and their chatter ceased. They stared for a solid count of one.
“Hello,” Mr. Aldine called out, his breath heavy and his hand waving above his head.
As if they understood minions of death stood among them, the group jumped to their feet and scattered.
“Well, that was less than friendly,” Chace deadpanned..
I snorted. “Maybe because the citadel’s welcoming committee stopped being a thing a century ago.” He tossed me a sideways glance, and I shrugged. “What? It’s a valid hunch.”
“Nevertheless, mentees,” Mr. Aldine said. “Do not be deterred and follow me.”