He turned into a mouse and scampered directly into my coat pocket.
I opened the door, the boys were already packed and ready to go. We went to the carriage stop. I told them to feed and hydrate the Murghoda while I released one of the rodents, and let Zabulon take its place in the cage.
Joey and I sat inside the carriage, and Jack was in the driver's seat outside.
At nearly ten minutes to six in the morning, we left the carriage stop. The security was high everywhere, guards stood posted at every intersection. By the time we reached the city gates, there were already two huge lines in the queue,one for coming into the city and one for going out. The guards were thoroughly inspecting every single cart, crate and traveler passing through.
Finally it was our turn.
"Leaving already, Mr. Jack?" the guard asked, recognising Jack and our lead-lined carriage.
Jack nodded at the guard. handing over our adventure card. "Yes, sir. We need to reach Crickford before the sunset, so we need to leave early."
The guards also checked our carriage. Everything was as it was when it came in, a total of three humans and two rodents.
They confirmed the authenticity of our Adventure Cards and let us out with a salute for some reason.
We cleared the heavy iron gates without a hitch.
For two whole hours after we left the city, I stayed silent. Now it was time to explain to them what I have done.
I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Guys… I have something to tell you."
Joey turned his head toward me, and Jack peeked through the front strips of lead. "What is it, Mr. Darcy?" they asked.
"You see…" I reached down and picked up one of the iron cages "This isn't actually a rodent. It's the spell mas–"
The other rodent suddenly bit me on my leg through the cage and said, "You picked the wrong Cage fool!"
"Ouch–my bad, old man. Why did you bite me? you could have just said that!" I said as I freed him from his cage.
With a faint glow, the rodent expanded, morphing back into the spell master. seeing that Joey and Jack made a face that I had never seen them make, and I didn't even know what that face meant.
"Oof–this cage is way too small," Zabulon groaned, pressing a hand against his lower back as he stretched out his cramped limbs.
"The cage isn't small! the rodents are just huge!!" I said.
"Ah, Mr. Darcy care to explain what's going on?" Joey said while Jack stopped the carriage and came in.
"So, he is the guy who made the duke bald…" I said.
Both of them looked at him with wide, blank eyes on him.
"A pleasure to properly make your acquaintance," Zabulon said smoothly. "I am Zabulon Skuwënzêr Delæric, a spell master and unfortunately the man who is responsible for the duke's sudden lack of hair by an accident."
The brothers suddenly freaked out.
"What are you doing here ?!" Joey yelled.
"And why did our rodent turn into you ?!" Jack shouted, gripping his head.
"Guys, calm down,let me explain!"
It took me nearly half an hour to walk them through the entire sequence of events. Not telling them about this while we were inside the city was the right call.
"Now that he is outside and quite far from the city, he's going to part away from us and hand over two million lochu each!" I said grinning, in excitement because we were about to earn some good money.
"Alright, old man, give us our lochu!" I said, unable to hide the excitement in my voice.
"Hand over your Adventure Cards. I will transfer the funds directly to your accounts," Zabulon said, reaching into his robes and pulling out his own adventure card.
Wait, he is an adventure too?
We pulled out our cards and gave them to him.
"Alright everyone, I will now transfer the money," he tapped his cards against ours to initiate the transfer.
As Zabulon was trying to transfer the money, suddenly his face paled and his mouth hung wide open. "Oh fuck… Oh shit,Oh God, we are so fucked now."
The boys flinched, my heart sank.
"What happened ?! Why such a reaction ?!" I asked in shock.
Zabulon slowly lowered the cards, burying his face in his trembling palm. "They froze my account."
Cold goosebumps erupted across my arms. "What?!"
"And… they now know where I am," he added softly.
Silence. A long heavy silence, suffocating silence.
I grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him."What do you mean, they know where you are ?!"
"Mr. Darcy, are we going to prison ?" Joey asked, scared, Jack was also visibly scared.
"I don't know!" I yelled, spinning back to Zabulon. " And you, tell us why they suddenly know your location."
"Well, to transfer the money I had to activate my adventure card," Zabulon explained, his voice shaking. "The moment I did, the system flagged my account as frozen. Also, the location where I activated the card was known to them through the Adventure Guild, as they are the middle link between all the other services connected to the cards…. And now that the card is activated, I can't deactivate it, so it's continuously sharing my card's location with the concerned authority." he explained.
I didn't say another word. I exited the carriage and kneeled beside the side of the road, where there was a lot of grass. I touched some grass and screamed.
"Fuuuuuuuck!!"
Damn it!! All this happened because I got greedy..
The carriage creaked as Zabulon stepped down after me, followed closely by Joey and Jack.
Zabulon squatted down beside me in the dirt, idly running his fingers through the grass as well. He placed his hand on my shoulder. "Look…I know the situation appears grim, but we can still salvage this."
I glared sideways at him, my eyes bloodshot."How?"
"I can enchant my card to fly off down the opposite fork in the road," Zabulon explained, pointing toward an upcoming intersection.
"It will move at the exact speed of the carriage for a few miles, then I will send it flying into the sky, making them think I turned into a bird and flew away. It will give us a lot of time to escape from their range."
He took a quick breath and added. "And don't worry, I won't run away without properly rewarding you for your help."
"You mean you are going to stay with us for now ?" Jack asked.
Zabulon frowned. "Well, you want me to leave without paying you?"
No, God… please no, what if we get caught now ? But two million each… I can't just let him walk away without paying us!!!
"So, when are you going to send the card away?" I asked, pushing myself up from the dirt.
Zabulon chuckled, standing up beside me."Oh, I already did while I was explaining it to you. A spell master must think and act fast."
I stared at him for a second. "...Alright, then let's go," I said, walking towards the carriage.
We all took our respective seats.
"Jack! Get this thing moving!!" I said after drinking some water.
Joey looked at Zabulon and asked. "By the way, Mr… Zabulon ? Did I say it correctly?"
"Yes," he replied.
"Do you know where we are going ?"
"Yes, Crickford, correct?"
"No, I mean the final destination."
"No, I don't know. Where are we going?"
"Decayspire."
His face went pale, his wrinkles froze. "Where the fuck are we going?!?!"