"Find them — or I'll put spears through every last one of you."
Mite's voice echoed through the alley. He was past patience now.
"How did they get out. How."
Jhed had been walking for a long time.
Too long. The guards' voices kept finding him — carried on the still city air, closer than he liked.
"Search everywhere. They can't have gone far."
"They can't leave the city. A hundred gold coins to get out — they don't have it."
They're looking for me, Jhed thought. His heart had stopped being calm a while ago. Sweat ran down his back. His legs felt wrong — not tired, just unsteady. Fear did that.
Keep moving. Just keep moving.
He tried.
His legs shook anyway.
"There — that one! Get him!"
Jhed spun around.
A guard, pointing. Others behind him, already moving.
Run.
He ran. Made it maybe twenty steps before his foot caught something and he went down — hands hitting stone, knee scraping hard.
The guards were closing in.
This is it. They've got me.
And then the ground disappeared.
Light. Warmth. Wood.
Jhed blinked.
He was inside a building. Large, dim, lit by rows of candles mounted along the walls. The walls themselves were covered in paintings — dark ones, strange ones, the kind that seemed to shift when you weren't looking directly at them. Every surface was wood: the floor, the ceiling, the shelves, the furniture.
He turned in a slow circle.
"Welcome, customer."
Jhed stumbled backward.
A man stepped out of the shadows.
Seven feet tall. Stick-thin. White hair. Red eyes. A long black jacket, black shoes, hands folded in front of him like a shopkeeper greeting his favorite regular. He had a mustache that somehow suited all of it.
He smiled.
"My name is Animal. I'm the owner of this establishment." He bowed — a proper, formal bow. "How can I help you today?"
Jhed stared at him.
"Who are you. Where am I. How did I get here."
"I did introduce myself just now, sir — Animal, owner. You're in my shop. And you arrived via teleportation." The smile didn't waver. "As for the how — that's a wonderful question. We can discuss it."
"Animal," Jhed repeated. "That's your name."
"It is."
What kind of name is— "How did I teleport. I've never teleported before."
"First time for everything, sir."
Jhed looked around the room again, slower this time.
"I was being chased," he said. "I escaped from Miruth's prison. Guards were right behind me."
"Ah." Animal nodded, as if this were a perfectly ordinary thing to hear. "So you came from his jail."
"You know him?"
"We worked together once. Some time ago." A pause. "It ended poorly. For him, mostly."
Jhed watched him.
"Here is what I'd suggest, sir." Animal gestured toward the staircase at the back of the room. "Come upstairs. Let me show you what I have. You purchase one adventurer — just one — and you'll have everything you need to deal with Miruth. The city gets freed. You get out safely." He tilted his head. "Everyone wins."
"You sell adventurers."
"I rent them. There's a distinction."
What is happening right now.
"And the guards won't find me here?"
"This location is entirely unknown to them. They couldn't find it if they tried." Animal was already moving toward the stairs. "Come, sir. Just take a look."
Jhed hesitated.
Then followed.
The staircase creaked under his feet. The candles threw long shadows up the walls. At the top, Animal opened a door and stepped aside.
Jhed walked through.
His eyes went wide.