For Love of Mother-Not - Alan Dean Foster [96]
“I’ll be just a moment,” Symm assured him. “Wait here.” He vanished into a back room. When he returned, it was in the company of a tall young woman. He spoke softly to her for a minute, she nodding in response, then rejoined his visitors. He was wearing a slickertic not quite large enough to protect a medium-sized building.
“I’m ready,” he told them. “Nakina will watch business until I return. Unless you’d rather rest a while longer.”
“No, no.” Mother Mastiff struggled to her feet. “I’ll rest when I’m back home in my shop.”
It was not far from Small Symm’s place to the side street where Mother Mastiff’s stall was located. With Symm carrying her, they made good time.
“Seems empty,” the giant commented as he gently set the old woman on her feet. It was evening. Most of the shops were already shuttered, perhaps because the rain was falling harder than usual. In the marketplace, weather was often the most profound of economic arbiters.
“I guess it’s all right.” Mother Mastiff stepped toward the front door.
“Wait a minute.” Flinx put out an arm to hold her back. “Over there, to the left of the shop.”
Symm and Mother Mastiff stared in the indicated direction. “I don’t see anything,” the giant said.
“I thought I saw movement.” Flinx glanced down at Pip. The flying snake dozed peacefully beneath the cover of the slickertic. Of course, the snake’s moods were often unpredictable, but his continued calm was a good sign. Flinx gestured to his right. The giant nodded and moved off like a huge shadow to conceal himself in the darkness next to the vacant shop off to the left. Flinx went to his right—to starboard, as Lauren might have said. It had taken him awhile to forgive her for leaving—and Mother Mastiff for letting her leave—while he was still sound asleep. He wondered what she was doing, yet the memory of her was already beginning to fade. It would take somewhat longer to escape his emotions.
Mother Mastiff waited and watched as friend and son moved off in opposite directions. She did not mind standing in the rain. It was Drallarian rain, which was different somehow from the rain that fell anywhere else in the universe.
Flinx crept warily along the damp plastic walls of the shop fronts, making his way toward the alley that meandered behind their home. If the movement he thought he had spied signified the presence of some scout awaiting their return, he did not want that individual reporting back to his superiors until Flinx had drained him of information.
There—movement again, and no mistaking it this time! It was moving away from him. He increased his pace, keeping to the darkest shadows. The stiletto that slept in his boot was in his right hand now, cold and familiar.
Then a cry in the darkness ahead and a looming, massive shape. Flinx rushed forward, ready to help even though it was unlikely the giant would need any assistance. Then something new, something unexpected.
Nervous laughter?
“Hello, Flinx-boy.” In the dim light, Flinx made out the friendly face of their neighbor Arrapkha.
“Hello, yourself.” Flinx put the stiletto back where it belonged. “You gave me reason to worry. I thought we were finished with shapes in the night.”
“I gave you reason to worry?” The craftsman indicated the bulk of Small Symm standing behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Symm said apologetically. “We couldn’t see who you were.”
“You know now.” He looked back toward Flinx. “I’ve been watching your shop for you.” Symm went to reassure Mother Mastiff. “You know, making sure no one broke in and tried to steal anything.”
“That was good of you,” Flinx said as they started back toward the street.
“It’s good to see you back, Flinx-boy. I’d given you up not long after you left.”
“Then why have you kept watching the shop?”
The older man grinned. “Couldn’t stop hoping, I guess. What was it all about, anyway?”
“Something illegal that Mother Mastiff was involved in many years back,” Flinx explained. “She didn’t go into the details. Just told me that revenge