The Hunchback's Perfect Family ✔

24 THE MOB

Nightfall saw nearly half the village gathered in that little clearing before Pest's house, crying for blood. Salvation didn't come until the hunchback pushed his way through the crowd.

The werewolves flanked him.

Once he reached the front of the mob and turned to address the wrath of the people, the werewolves turned and growled.

All fell silent.

"He's a fairy! The only way to save our daughters is by killing him!" someone screamed.

The hunchback raised his hands. "That may well be true but nothing's going to happen tonight. This is not the proper way to conduct business. Make your complaints and then come back in the morning to see to it. That is how a civilized society works."

"Fuck civilized. He slept with my wife! What civilized bastard enchants a man's wife!"

Fanli kept her eyes on the ground. While people cursed and murmured, her mind was elsewhere—on why she wasn't falling into an ogre's lament.

"We'll take the complaints," the hunchback repeated. "And that's as far as we'll go tonight. Are we clear?" Hate wafted from the crowd and the werewolves at his side growled and he said, "Or you can take it up with the night patrol."

Reluctant grumbles followed from the men who lowered their swords. One werewolf transformed into a man. Though naked, he found some parchment from somewhere and went around taking names.

Fanli worried for Pest—her thoughts stayed squarely on him the whole time.

Name after name came, each one making Fanli feel worse. But it was the final name that made Fanli pick her head up.

A dragon. She scanned the crowd for the familiar clothing of black leather and spotted the woman in question. Solair. But instead of her being with the other two, she stood on her own.

Now everything made sense, and it was more than clear how Pest's mischief got out and spread so fast in the course of one day.

Fanli didn't need to look, she knew the dragon glared at her.

"The hunters," a werewolf said, nearing Wyrn. "That's how everyone knows. And the mob ain't letting up. Boss, they've sworn to come back until you offer that fairy up."

For a long while, not even the grumbles and occasional shouts of the townsfolk permeated the grimness.

"Where is he?" the werewolf asked.

Wyrn opened and closed his mouth before confessing. "Gone. There's no fairy to offer them. He's gone."

After a brief hesitation, the werewolf bowed his head and hurried back to his other comrades. Wyrn was too distraught to watch his path, but Fanli noticed when that same wolf scribbled yet another name on the paper—perhaps Pest had encountered that wolf's own sister, cousin...or wife.

Thirty minutes later, in front of the hunchback's home, his family gathered—all in varying degrees of distress.

They loaded a wagon pulled by two donkeys.

Fanli, though well aware of their departure, felt as equally abandoned as Pest by his own parents.

"We must see The Living Goddess," the hunchback's wife said. She took Fanli by the arms, rubbing them in a gruff manner. "Whatever's happened to him, we'll find out. People know of your friendship with him. Please stay in our house, you'll be safe there. The night patrol have their strict instructions."

But Fanli had her doubts. Still, the fact that Wen's father climbed into the wagon but didn't have the strength to lift the reigns shut her up. There was no need to add to their distress.