Page 44 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

“Hi. I’m hoping you can help me locate some stolen goods that have fallen into your hands.”

Calder stammered and attempted to scramble to his feet, but Fenric snagged his jerkin at the collar and shoved him back into his seat.

“I-I assure you I don’t deal in stolen goods,” Calder finally coughed up. His eyes were bugging out of his skinny head so far that they looked about to burst. “All-all of my items are lawfully acquired and⁠—”

“Cut the horseshit.” Fenric dropped into the seat opposite him. He released the man’s clothes but kept his fist on the knife in the center of the table. “You purchased some jewelry off a group of heroes. Particularly Lance Carrington and Gale Reeve.”

Calder swallowed loud enough to be heard across the room. “Um…they told me…”

“I don’t give a damn what they told you. They killed my mother and stole several valuable items from her. I want them back. All of them.” With his free hand, Fenric reached into his pocket, pulled out a worn piece of folded paper, and gave it to Calder. “This is a list of what I’m searching for. What do you have?”

Trembling fingers caught the paper and struggled to open it. Fenric’s heart had started to hammer. He was close this time. After four long years, he was so close to having back all the bloodstained treasures taken from his mother. His disillusionment with the heroes might have started well before then, but her murder had shattered his world completely. He just wanted to salvage a few pieces and pull something of his old self together again.

He summoned up the last of his patience as he watched Calder’s watery eyes dart across the paper.

The man licked his lips. “Um…I didn’t receive a number of these items. But the brooch…the brooch I still have⁠—”

“I want it. Now.”

Calder swallowed again. “O-okay. And the sapphire necklace. I’ve promised it to⁠—”

“I want it back. Now. Or I can kill you.”

“O-okay. It’s yours. But Lady Ester will be…”

“You can explain to Lady Ester how the rightful owner claimed the necklace, and if she has a problem with that, she can take it up with the murderous thieves who stole it.” Each word was low and ground out between Fenric’s clenched teeth. He was willing to go on a kingdom-wide killing spree to get back what belonged to his family. No one was going to stop him.

“I’d listen to him. He’s quite ruthless.”

Fenric’s heart skipped a beat at that playful voice. He twisted around to find Lirion seated directly behind him at the next table, wearing a pair a dark navy trousers and an airy white shirt that seemed to make his tanned skin glow. A tankard of ale sat in front of him as he slouched in his chair.

“Go away. I’m working,” Fenric snarled and turned his attention back to the fence. Lirion was the last person he wanted to see. Every time their paths crossed, something horrible went wrong. “What about the jewelry box?”

“I-I-I⁠—”

“I wouldn’t keep him waiting. His temper is quite frightening,” Lirion sang. The place was growing louder by the second, but Fenric could still make out Lirion’s annoying but melodious words.

“Stay out of this!” Fenric barked.

“I sold it already!” Calder sobbed. Tears ran down his face and dripped into his lunch. “It’s not my fault. I didn’t know the heroes had stolen it. If I had⁠—”

“If you had, you wouldn’t have given them so much money for their goods,” Fenric growled. Calder was a fence of illegal goods. He might claim to be a harmless dealer in unique items, but all of Moorwood knew what he really was. “Who did you sell the box to?”

“Lord Mire!”

Fenric sat back and blinked. “You’re shitting me.”

Calder shook his head. His panicked crying stopped and words gushed from his lips. “That vile man was in town a few days ago, searching for help against the finfolk, who had started to flood his land. He had one of his people post a job on the board.” A bony hand shot out and pointed at the far wall. “While he was here, he demanded I show him the wares I’d just acquired from some heroes. He became ecstatic the moment he set eyes on the box and offered me an absurd amount. There was no way I could pass it up. I was afraid if I turned him down, he’d kill me for it.”

Something cold slithered through Fenric’s stomach and chilled the blood in his veins. Lord Mire wouldn’t have gotten so excited about a jewelry box unless he could identify who it had once belonged to. He knew there was something special about the box, making it all the more imperative that Fenric got it back.

Taking the Lord Mire job could come with a double payoff if it worked out. He could travel to Lord Mire’s village of Dunley, get back his mother’s treasure box, and take care of the finfolk.

“Fine. Give me the goods,” Fenric demanded as he snatched the paper from Calder’s fingertips and shoved it into his pocket again.

The fence nodded and quickly picked up a small box with a tiny lock from the floor by his feet, then dug through it. Just as the poor lamplight of the tavern touched the glittering gems of the brooch and necklace, Fenric snatched them up and shoved them into his pockets before returning the knife to its sheath. He longed to inspect them, but not here. It wasn’t safe. For now, it was enough to have the jewelry in his possession again.

The old ache in his chest and the permanent pressure on his lungs eased to the point where he could finally breathe deeper. There were still a few things on the list he wanted back, but the most important of them now lay in Lord Mire’s hands. Only once he had his mother’s old jewelry box back would she be able to rest in peace.