Inn-cident

Conclusion or Prelude?

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Having, very carefully, retrieved a candle from the lobby's interior, Sapphire had again returned to the tree trunk entrance outside. Stepping slowly down the stairs within, it seemed the dim light from the candle she held aloft struggled just to illuminate the next stair ahead of her. Eventually, after several more steps, she thought she could just discern a faint glow ahead of her. As she finally reached the bottom of steep stairs, Sapphire saw a rock hewn tunnel ahead which was very faintly illuminated by what seemed like candles burning just a short distance off.

She pressed onwards, practically tiptoeing to ensure that she was not detected. Reaching the end of the short tunnel, she crouched behind a large stone boulder nearby. Peeking cautiously outward from behind this cover , she observed that this was a large, and well stocked, cellar. Barrels of ale were stacked practically from the floor to ceiling in many spots. The effect was such that only a few narrow lanes were left to walk in between the assortment of variously sized barrels. Jutting down from dark openings in the ceiling in several places were metal ramps much like playground slides, which she assumed to be the end point of the inn's trap doors. Sapphire thought she could also see something glinting brightly on a desk at the far end of the room. It appeared to be a pile of gold coins. Just then, a door situated near the desk opened with a loud clank. Sapphire quickly ducked lower behind the boulder, hearing footsteps followed by voices shortly afterwards.

"So you could find no trace of her?" said a voice in an English accent.

"Non...not inside, not outside." said a voice in a French accent.

"Are you sure she was helping the other one?" questioned the English accented man again.

"Absolument...and I would have caught her too, but she came in after the other one and seemed to know what had happened to him. I watched her from the peephole in your office." replied the French accented man.

Knowing that she risked detection if she raised her head to get a look at the two, Sapphire resolved to move to a better vantage point. She began to stealthily crawl out from behind the boulder and moved behind several rows of ale barrels which obscured her from view. All the while the men continued talking.

"Drat! If she figured things out she may have run off to fetch the local gendarmes! We'll have to speed things up. Tell your local contact to stop all deliveries for now." The English accented compatriot spoke up.

Sapphire had now reached a better vantage point, and was crouching behind two larger, vertically upright ale barrels and peered through the small space between the two. She could, at first, only see one of the men, who she recognised as one of the inn's chefs. He began to speak again in his French accent.

"What do you want me to do with them?" he questioned pointing at three barrels sitting near where they stood by the desk. Sapphire noticed that the first barrel seemed extra large, the one next to it more medium sized, and the third one slightly smaller than that. She also noticed that, somewhat peculiarly, all three barrels had three air holes punched through the top.

"Oh no... that must be what's become of Flicker and his friends!" she thought to herself as the realisation dawned on her. She at least took comfort in the idea that they were all probably still alive given the presence of ventilation holes.

"We'll ship them out to our safe house tonight...but be careful with them, my brother wants them alive." The English accented conspirator spoke.

Sapphire was shocked to see that the owner of this voice was none other than Monsieur De Bouillon. "So the thick French accent was just a charade to throw people off track." she thought to herself.