The Shadow Dragons - James A. Owen [16]
“Oh!” the boy exclaimed, before dropping back to a whisper. “I forgot! I’m supposed to give you a kiss.”
Charles choked on his ale. “Pardon me?”
“A kiss,” Flannery repeated as he fumbled around in his pocket. “The Valkyrie said if I gave you a kiss, you’d know I could be trusted.” He held out his hand and showed them a small silver thimble.
“The kiss,” Flannery repeated quietly. “From one of the novice Valkyries of Paralon—Laura Glue.”
Instantly the companions’ demeanor changed. “He’s with us,” John said to Ransom.
“What would you have us do, Flannery?” Jack whispered.
“They’re outside,” he replied. “They’re waiting for their leader to come before they take you.”
“Who is waiting, Flannery?” Jack pressed. “They who?”
“Men. Un-Men. I—I can’t really say,” the boy replied. “But I don’t like them. They in’t natural.”
Ransom sat bolt upright. “Not natural? What do they look like?”
The boy scratched his head. “Big bird heads, but on thin bodies of men. And they’re dressed like they’re in a Shakespeare play.”
Grimacing, Ransom slowly rose from his seat. “Yoricks. This will be difficult, I fear.”
“Bar the door,” Flannery whispered. “It will hold them back a few moments.”
Together John and Ransom rose and made as if to approach the bar—then, in a single fluid motion, both men leaped to the door and threw down the large crossbeam. An instant later something slammed against it with a heavy whump. The creature outside the door let out a terrible shriek and threw itself against the door again and again. The crossbrace held—but only just.
“No time to waste!” cried Flannery, jumping to his feet. “Quickly! Follow me!”
Protectively shepherding Rose ahead of them, Charles and Jack dashed to the bar, followed by John and Ransom. Flannery led them around an open door to a short corridor lined with doorways. He bypassed nearly all of them, then opened the last one on the right. It showed a dark, candlelit stairway to the cellar.
“Hang on,” Jack said cautiously. “If we go down there, we’ll be trapped.”
Flannery shook his head. “There’s a secret passage hidden under a barrel of ginger beer. It leads to my secret storeroom. Even Lampwick doesn’t know how to find it.”
If the companions were still hesitant to follow the boy, a crashing and splintering sound from the front of the inn convinced them otherwise. The stomping of boots and an otherworldly shrieking from the creatures Ransom called Yoricks was all the motivation they needed.
They all moved down the steps, and Jack and Charles bolted the door, then moved several large crates in front of it to buy more time from their pursuers.
Flannery grabbed a lamp from one of the walls and indicated a barrel among a dozen as the one that concealed his hiding place.
“Lots of travelers come through and need something hid,” he explained as Charles and Ransom moved the barrel aside. “I have a place that’s secure, and I make a bit of coin on the side. Lampwick doesn’t care, because it keeps the customers happy.”
“And they trust you to keep the items safe?” asked Charles.
The boy nodded emphatically. “The kind of people who need things secreted away in one of the Soft Places in’t the kind of people you want to betray.”
“I understand completely,” said Charles. “Lead the way, Flannery.”
The last of the companions clambered down into the tunnel just as the Yoricks began banging on the door above.
“Won’t they find this place eventually too?” asked John. “The room above isn’t that large, and the entrance isn’t that well concealed.”
“I couldn’t give a fig if they find this tunnel,” Flannery said as he led them down an earthen passage. “Once they get here, they could spend a year looking and never know where we went.”
The passage opened into a massive underground cavern that was literally riddled with passageways. It was a honeycomb reimagined for men, and it was a daunting thought to even consider entering one of the holes.
“Did you build this, Flannery?” asked Charles. “Most impressive.”
The boy shrugged. “I had help. It’s a lot like the place I used to live, so it don’t scare