say that someone hired someone else for a specific item to be removed from a certain rude gem merchant. And that hired talent was not only paid, but got to keep the gem as well.” He set the stone on the table.
“Pretty,” said Bouncer.
“By the Gods,” muttered James. “I know what that is.”
“It’s a big ruby,” Pantros said. “Or maybe a sapphire. It changes color sometimes.”
“No, lad,” James said, hobbling closer to the gem. “That is…” He stopped talking when Tara screamed from the kitchen. The door to the kitchen flew open and Tara and Dale rushed out into the taproom. “What’s wrong?” James asked.
A creature resembling a hairless wolf as tall at the shoulders as a man bound into the room, tearing the kitchen door from the hinges. It turned away from where Tara and Dale cowered and charged towards the three men at the end of the bar.
Pantros grabbed the gem and slipped it back into its pocket. “Run,” he shouted and dove over the bar and sprinted to the stairs.
James hopped off his barstool and leaned against it, raising his war hammer over his head while Bouncer ran over to Tara and Dale, placing himself between them and the beast.
The beast’s claws tore into the wood floor as it spun and followed Pantros towards the stairs.
“Run, Pan!” Tara yelled.
Pantros didn’t want to take the beast up to the guest rooms, so he stopped and leapt from the stairs, passing over the creature. The beast rose up and swatted Pantros from the air, tearing his shirt from his body and throwing him into the bar.
Bouncer dove at the beast wrapping his arms around the creature’s ribs. They rolled together across the floor to land at James’ feet. With a single swing of his hammer, James crushed the creature’s skull and the beast fell limp. A blue flame engulfed the creature's body. Bouncer jumped off before the flames could burn him.
By the time Pantros got to his feet and stepped over to join Bouncer and James, the beast was gone, without even a scorch mark on the floor. He was about to ask what it was when James said, “I hate fighting demons. No one ever believes the tales and there are no trophies to prove your valor.”
“That was a demon?” Pantros asked.
“It was a hellhound,” James hobbled back to the bar and took a deep drink from Bouncer’s mug of whiskey. “Son, you’ve got enemies in low places.”
“The man who hired me, he said to make sure that Darien didn’t get to keep the gem. Darien’s probably the one who sent this thing.”
“Yes, the beast was after the gem,” Bouncer said. Picking Pantros’ shirt up from the floor, He dug the gem out of its pocket. “It grabbed at the gem, taking Pantros’ shirt in the process.”
“It didn’t even scratch the boy with those claws.” James waved his hammer at Pantros’ bare chest. “Demons are wily and very strong and quick. If it had been out for blood, one of us would be dead.”
“Where did that gem come from?” Tara asked, taking the stone from Bouncer’s hand, she stepped up close to her brother. “Pan, I thought you said you were just into petty theft, little things, silver coins and the like.”
Pantros dropped his gaze to the floor. “I took a job to take this gem, it seemed to pay well. No one said anything about demons being after the gem though.”
“Demons would be after that,” James said. “Like I said, I know what it is.”
Pantros, with everyone else turned to look at James. The Matderi climbed onto a barstool and said, “In Grabarden, where I grew up we have this big magical gate that we don’t use. It takes keys and each key opens to another magic gate somewhere else. We don’t use it because we lost all our keys, but when I was a young, I saw the key to Melnith. It was a white stone of the same cut as the gem you hold.
“There were other keys, each to a different city, and some to cities across the oceans. But there were tales of keys that would open gates to places not of this world. There was supposed to be a diamond to open a door straight to paradise and a nightstone that opened a door straight to hell.”
“This is a nightstone?” Pantros asked, taking the gem from his sister and looking at it closely.
“That is a nightstone. It's a ruby that formed in a natural convex of magical energies. It's a never-ending source of power. By itself, just by its size, a nightstone like that would be worth the whole city of Grabarden. And there are whole buildings of solid gold in that city. But because it’s a key to hell, it’s worth far more than that.”
“I could sell it and be rich?”
“You’d damn us all. The demons know of it and want it. I don’t know what a direct door to hell would do for them, but I have to think it would be bad for us. All of us. Every living thing on Mealth.”
“What do I do with it then?” Pantros asked. “I don’t want to keep it if it’s just going to mean I have to fight off demons every day for the rest of my life.”
James upended his flagon and drained the last of his drink. “The Archmage of Vehlos is the Keeper of the Keys. It was in his possession that I saw the key to Melnith. He brought it down so we could open the gate for a very large shipment of ore. He’d be the one to take it and keep it safe. He’s powerful enough to defend against any demons.”
Pantros folded the gem back into its pouch and tucked it into the pocket inside his shirt. “Vehlos is far. Six weeks by boat, longer if we walk.”
“You’re going to want to walk,” James said. “Demons can pop up anywhere and after a couple pop up at sea, the captain will throw whatever is causing them overboard. That would be you.”
“You talk like you’re not coming with me?” Pantros had hoped the Matderi, who seemed too familiar with the gem and its meaning, would accompany him.
“Boy, I’m lame.” James tapped his bad leg with the shaft of his hammer. “I don’t walk anywhere. Maybe Bouncer will accompany you if you think you need muscle.”
Pantros’ sister Tara objected loudly. “No,” she said. “I need Bouncer here. With me and Pantros gone, I’ll need all my loyal help to remain here.”
“Sis,” Pantros said, “It’s better for you to stay too. It’s not going to be safe. Especially if we leave James and Bouncer here.”
Tara put a hand on Pantros shoulder and patted. “If it were going to be safe, I’d not have to go. You’re my ward, my brother. Until you see your twentieth summer, you are still a boy. I saw the hellhound. I know what danger is going to be out there. If we go by foot, we not only have demons to deal with but we have to go through some untamed lands like the Wyldes. There could be giants, trolls, Vulak and maybe even a dragon.”
Pantros let out a derisive snort at his sister’s mention of dragons. Dragons didn’t bother people unless provoked and he hadn’t heard of any in the Wyldes.
Tara poked his arm. “Don’t laugh. Sheillene travels by foot between Fork and here. She tells of her battles on the road.”
Pantros knew the stories. Sheillene travelled across the continent and spent a day or two at the hedgehog twice a year. She told the same stories for as long as Pantros could remember. In more than ten years of travelling through the Wyldes, Sheillene had only four tales of personal experience with Giants or Vulak and none with trolls.
“Isn’t she still here?” Pantros asked.
“She left a short while ago,” Tara said. “We should follow in her footsteps. With any luck, we’ll catch her during her stay at the Backwards Trout in Stonewall. If her tales are true, she’ll be all the escort we need.”
“You think she’ll drop her income as bard to offer us a hand?” Pantros asked.
“You’re going to pay her more than she’d make on the stage for whatever time we need her as a guard.” Tara said.
“Me?” Pantros asked. “What makes you think I have money?”
Tara rolled her eyes. “You really think I can run an Inn and not notice that I have more coin in the till than I could have made by selling every bowl of soup dale cooks and every mug of beer behind the bar? I know where the money comes from. I don’t mind the extra coin, but we’ve never needed it. I do know how to run an Inn. It’s just not good business to let everyone know exactly how well we are doing. I have a little stash of all the extra money you’ve given to the till, but it’s tiny compared to yours. I found two stashes of coins and jewelry so far and I’m sure you have more around here.”
Pantros had four. Other than the one in the basement, there was a sack stowed behind the ovens, the third
