Daydreams And Nightshade (DaN #1)

Chapter 7: A color saturation issue

It was no use. The doors to the town hall were impossibly sturdy, and after knocking for a tenth time, more a slam than a knock, Damien gave up.

The others had watched in silence in the meantime, mostly in disbelief that it was as serious as Damien seemed to find it, but they couldn't deny it was troubling either.

"Why isn't he coming out?" Damien growled at the door, as if expecting a reply. "Frey doesn't take orders, and his father never gave him any either. I don't know what's wrong with the man but we can't leave Frey in there."

"Damien, calm down," Lucius said. "Lord Clausson's the last person who would hurt Frey. Possibly one of the few who've never wished to, actually. He'll be alright."

"He's not alright if he's not allowed to leave."

"And we'll come back for him. But right now Lord Clausson's in a terrible mood." Lucius nodded in Luna's direction. "Luna found something unfortunate in his basement and the town is only getting worse. So I suggest we start handling this from outside the town hall."

"How?"

"Frey said something about the farms south of town, and yesterday Lord Clausson mentioned that farmers were reluctant to part with their produce so chances are they're faring better than others. Perhaps they'll have a clue how everything started and are hopefully willing to talk."

"We know how everything started!" Luna threw her arms out. "Lord Clausson's been keeping all the town's money to himself and now everyone's dying!"

"Yes, about that, what exactly did you find?" Lucius finally turned to face his daughter.

"Money, gold, the lot of it! And all sorts of valuables. They're all stacked in his basement."

She turned to Noah.

"Noah, that dream. It really meant something!"

"What dream?" Lucius looked between the two of them and Noah, who'd been occupied glancing up at the sky, looked hesitant. No one had believed him before, so did it matter what he had to say?

"We both had the same dream," Luna therefore continued when her beast of burden brother wouldn't speak up. "We both remember it the same and we saw the town hall all messed up, with a hole in the floor leading to a gold filled basement littered with corpses. It's got to mean something, right? I don't know why it was just me and Noah, but there has to be a connection."

Lucius and Damien exchanged a look, both looking more concerned than she'd expected.

"I don't know about that," Damien began, but Luna had already turned back to Noah.

"At least it's not too late. There were no corpses, and he's not spending the money, seeing how he barely has any servants left— or anything for that matter.

Lucius looked awfully reluctant to listen, but he still opened his mouth.

"So no servants left other than the ones we saw?"

"Aside from the three armed ones we didn't see any," Vincent confirmed.

"Well, if you're really speaking the truth— which I hope to Dyris that you are— then there's a chance to restore this town if we can get to it and distribute it." Lucius sighed, turning to Damien. "Let's reach out to the farmers. We'll need more people if we want to go back in there, and while I'd prefer to solve this without a blood bath, I reckon people would be willing to rise against him if there were enough of us."

Noah mumbled something, and while Luna would have liked to ignore it, the others chose to acknowledge it.

"What?" Lucius leaned closer, and Noah sucked in a breath to gather the courage to speak up.