The Krakos: Book Two of The Legend of the Artificer

Chapter 24

"This is insane," Elmer hissed as they turned down the street towards the wharf. "Do we even have money for this?"

"Yes, I have money," Tibalt drawled as he tucked his hands into his pocket. "Worry about your own finances."

"I think you're putting too much faith in Charm," Grim said dubiously. "He's good, but not that good. We only have less than a day."

"Well, I'm not going in blind. Any information is relevant," Tibalt said stubbornly. "If he gets an advantage, so should I."

"Tibalt, aren't you being weirdly proactive?" Angel asked cautiously and Tibalt shot him a glance. "I'm just saying, putting a crunch time on Charm... isn't necessarily going to get the information you need."

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?" Tibalt demanded. "A savant challenged me to a fight, and knew enough to ban living creatures. I have no choice."

"Even so..." Angel trailed off as they reached the storefront of Taro's business. A general goods store. Tibalt was honestly still confused that it wasn't the club.

"Charm will probably have good reason to do it," Tibalt said after an awkward pause. "The rest of you haven't noticed, have you?"

"What?"

"The closer you get to the wharf district, the more puddles there are," Tibalt drawled and pointed to a broken sign on the other end of the street. "There's still debris. Broken windows, ripped off shutters, clogged drainage. Alleys down here are still six inches in water. There's a reason Taro wanted us to get rid of the Ultimas siblings."

"You can't blame that on them. They're probably not even on clean up," Angel pointed out and Tibalt rolled his eyes.

"That's not the point," he muttered and pulled open the door. The bell tinkled, and the four of them piled in over each other.

"You're back?" the shopkeeper, a glum wolf beastman asked with a glum expression. "Not a good time."

"Well, unfortunately, we're on a tight schedule, and not here for Taro," Tibalt replied cheerfully. "Is Charm around?"

"Nope," the shopkeeper replied and popped the 'p'. "Smelled a storm brewing and took off. You four caused enough trouble today for Taro. Wouldn't recommend hanging around here."

"We literally did what Taro asked," Tibalt pointed out, and the shopkeeper's eye twitched.

"Taro didn't ask you to provoke that insect into trial by combat. You'd better hope you die or walk out of there with blood on your hands."

"Seriously?" Tibalt asked in disbelief. "Did he expect Jamison to handle it diplomatically?"

"Eh, it's not my business to figure out how someone else is supposed to handle a job," the wolf replied and leaned on the counter. "Just get outta here before Taro drags you down there to fess up to what happened."

"This is a dead end," Grim said and laid a hand on Tibalt's shoulder. "Let's go. I know where Charm would be if he's ducking out."

"Heh. Bet he's regretting vouching for you four right about now," the wolf drawled and picked up a cloth to start wiping down his counter. "Good fucking luck. Damn cat's slippier than an eel when he's keeping his head down."

"Yeah, I know," Grim gritted out and dragged Tibalt back. "We'll get going. Sorry to cause trouble for you."

"Eh. S'fine," the wolf replied with a half shrug. "It'll blow over if you hand his ass to him. Just remember: Jamison's a proper combatant and has never fought a gunslinger before. If you got tricks up your sleeve, you'd better use them. Follow the proper rules of magical combat and you won't survive, so you better be a little batshit."

"Well, Tibalt has 'certified insane' down pat, so we're not worried about that," Grim said with an awkward smile. "Thanks for the tip; we'll be on our way."

"Rooting for ya!" the wolf called lazily and waved as Grim pulled open the door and shoved Tibalt back out into the street.

"You don't have to manhandle me," Tibalt hissed and Grim put a firm hand on the top of his head and turned him around to frogmarch him down the street.

"Should I put you on a leash instead?"

"I'm not that bad!"

"Tibalt," Grim said and blew out a low breath. "While I get it's very satisfying to bait people and piss them off, especially when they're in the wrong, your personality is... It needs some work."

"Hey, I like Tibs' personality!" Elmer protested and Angel snorted.

"I'm a hot mess, I know," Tibalt said and reached up to pat Grim on his head. "It's fine."

Grim froze and stared down at Tibalt with wide, wide eyes, and Tibalt stared back up at him. A silence unfolded, and Angel cleared his throat.

"Don't let that idiot kill you," Grim said and turned on his heel. "We're finding Charm."

Well. At least someone around here had a plan, because Tibalt was pretty sure he had no idea what he was doing.