baby swappers (working title lol)

Chapter Four

Four floors underground in the Agency building was a maze of prison cells where the most dangerous criminals were kept in for questioning and trails. In one of these cells, lit by three torches (barred, of course) on the walls, Dominic Elefry was crouched on the floor, a dirty chicken bone in his hand, tracing a map in the dust.

"You turn left at the T, and you'll hit a dead end – they do that to trick you, but I know all the tricks – I'm a Trickster myself, to be honest with you boys-" Dominic spoke in a tense, hectic voice, his words tumbling over one another.

Suddenly, he whipped his head around, hearing the echoes of footsteps coming towards the cell, and whispered down. "Stay silent boys, you don't have answer anything they say!"

Arlot with Gerry, his dedicated assistant, stopped outside of Dominic's cell. Seeing them, Dominic leapt up and brushed down his turquoise suit, neatening himself for the crowd.

"Good evening, gentlemen. So good to see you." He smiled his charming smile, gave a little bow, and indicated behind him. "And thank you, for the delightful company!"

Gerry peered through the bars with a frown, and saw two moulding potatoes with sticks for arms placed lovingly along the back wall. Dominic grinned and rubbed his hands together.

"They don't talk much, but great listeners..."

Arlot held back a sigh, and thought that maybe the high security cellar cell was wasted on this man. Madness had taken just a week to set in.

He adjusted his spectacles and spoke. "Dominic Elefry, we have come to let you know that you'll be brought up for questioning again in three days time."

"Oh really? Wonderful! The air in here is so stagnant." His eyes wandered as he spoke, although there was nothing to look at in the dim earth passage ways.

"Your wife, Melissa, will be questioned tomorrow." Gerry read from his clipboard, opening his mouth to speak again when Dominic grabbed the bars and shook them, all craziness gone, only fury.

"Let me see her!"

"Sir, I can't!" Gerry quaked, stumbling back and away from him. Arlot stepped in between them, laying a hand on the Gerry's shoulder for comfort. He could see through the façade that Dominic had been playing - and very well up to this moment.

"For startlingly obvious reasons, Mr Elefry, you cannot be allowed to see your wife. I shall be down to see you in three days, when the judge will hear you." He looked at the sad, rotting potatoes in back of the cramped cell. "Don't play with your dinner. Dirty habit." Arlot hurried Gerry away, and Dominic hurled insults and threats in their wake, and then one of his potato companions when the words were ignored.

***

There is a hundred mile forest that lies between two planes – one of ice and the other of sand and heat. This place has a walled city, with the tallest castle that's turrets reached into the clouds.

This castle is almost impossible to reach for its non-inhabitants – the forest is filled with packs of fairies who sharpen their daggers on the steely bark of the trees, the opposing deserts either side so arid most travellers would not dare to cross them.

This is where the illegal baby trade takes place – the sort of operation that everyone who stayed there knew about and everyone who stayed there pretended they did not.

The reigning magical creatures who held seats in the castle had given themselves false titles – the woman who called herself Queen spent her nights selling the human babes she received into slave trades across the earth, her secret game. Humans were the most sought after commodity, and she had her trusted operation outside of her Realm to keep her in constant supply.