When the lady is done, James steps to the counter and is greeted by the fat lady.
“Welcome, welcome. How may I help you today?” she asks with a warm and friendly attitude.
Patting Miko on the back he says, “My friend here tells me that you are famous for your tarts and I have come to see if he was correct.”
Beaming, the lady responds, “We do have the best tarts in town. Many of the nobles will only purchase from us because of the superior quality in all that we do.” She reaches behind her and takes a tart with red filling slightly oozing from one corner. Breaking it in two, she gives each of them half. Biting into it, James is impressed with the rich berry flavor of the filling and the flakiness of the crust.
Seeing that she is waiting expectantly for a response, he says, “This is a very good tart.” Looking over at Miko, he sees him nodding his head approvingly. “Give us a mixed variety of a dozen please,” he tells her.
Beaming with pride, she turns back to the counter and takes a sack, placing thirteen tarts of varying color and size inside. She then turns back to the counter and hands him the sack saying that it will be a silver and three coppers.
Miko nudges James in the side, who looks down. Miko mouths ‘Haggle’ silently.
James looks back at the lady and says, “Eighteen coppers.” Miko nods approvingly.
“A silver two coppers,” counters the lady.
“A silver,” James offers.
“Done,” the lady agrees. Handing over the silver, James and Miko leave the shop eating their tarts.
“Did I do it right?” James asks Miko.
“You did okay,” admits Miko, “with a little practice you can get them down even further.” Finishing off his first tart, Miko looks at James obviously wanting more so he gives him another. Saving the rest for later, he puts them in his backpack.
They stroll down the street eating their tarts, when James sees coming down the street toward them, a group of boys a little older than Miko. Feeling a tug on his sleeve, he looks at Miko who says, “C’mon, let’s go this way,” and begins dragging him down a side alley.
As they enter the ally, Miko glances around the corner at the group of boys worriedly. “What’s wrong,” James asks.
“Nothing,” replies Miko. Seeing the boys still coming in their direction, he takes James by the hand and hurries him down the alley.
“Then why are we moving quickly down this dirty alley?” he wonders, doing his best to keep up.
“It’s a shortcut,” replies Miko, his voice belying his attempt to appear casual.
“To where?” persists James.
“Wherever you’re going,” insists Miko.
As luck would have it, the group of boys enters the alley behind them. Seeing the boys coming up behind them, Miko breaks into a run as he releases James’ hand. James runs along behind Miko, not sure what is going on.
“There’s that sewer rat!” James hears from one of the boys behind them. Looking back he sees the group break into a run, racing after them.
“You’re dead, Miko!” shouts another.
“Friends of yours?” asks James as he breaks into a run, trying to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating Miko.
“No and we don’t want them to catch us either,” says Miko as he turns and leads James into another, much narrower alley. By this time Miko is in a dead run and James is doing his best to keep up but he’s never been very athletic. Dodging around corners, they try to lose them, but James realizes that they will never be able to shake them.
Racing around another corner, Miko abruptly comes to a stop. They’ve run into a dead end. A door in the left wall stands ajar; Miko pushes through it with James right behind. James glances back as he passes through the doorway and sees the boys turning into the alley, almost upon them. Slamming the door shut, he puts his weight against it to keep it closed. He no sooner gets the door closed then feels the weight of the boys slamming against it on the other side. It groaned under the impact, but held.
Looking around the dirty little room, he sees nothing that will help him with keeping the door shut. Miko has already rushed through the opposite door, leaving James in there alone. It doesn’t take him long to realize that he’ll not be able to hold the door very long against the weight of the boys.
“Open that door!” one of them yells.
“You’re not getting away from us,” another screams.
James frantically presses his weight against the door with all his might. Cracks begin forming in the wood of the door from the relentless pounding of the boys on the other side.
An idea comes to him. He concentrates and then says:
Door of wood have the strength of steel,
Allow no entry for those who would kill.
James feels the now familiar surge of power as he completes his spell. Maintaining his concentration and visualization of his desired affects, he gradually reduces the pressure he’s exerting on the door. Once he’s confident his spell is in affect and holding, he turns and practically trips over Miko, almost causing him to lose his concentration.
Miko is staring at him wide eyed and a little fearful. “You a mage!” he exclaims.
“Save it for later,” James insists. “This isn’t going to hold for long. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
As they leave the room through the other door, James says, “I thought you ran out on me.”
Looking hurt, Miko replies “I didn’t realize you weren’t following me. When I did, I came back.”
Passing through the doorway, they enter a smaller room, dirty and smelling like an outhouse. James realizes with trepidation that there is neither a window nor a door except for the one they just come through.
“Over here,” Miko hollers at him. He begins moving garbage out of the way and opens a trap door that had been concealed by the garbage covering the floor. The smell that fills the room when the trap door opens leaves little doubt as to where it leads. Miko begins to descend the ladder down into the hole when he looks over at James, almost laughing at the expression on his face. “Do you want to stay up here?” he asks.
“No,” replies James, doing his best not to breathe through his nose as he moves closer to the opening. When Miko climbs to the bottom, James begins his descent into the dark opening of the sewers.
Chapter Eight
The odors emerging from the entrance to the sewer assaulted James’ senses. His eyes begin watering and could barely breathe. Only the threat of the boys trying to break in the door and possibly doing them bodily harm convinces him of the wisdom to climb down. He sets a foot on the uppermost rung of the ladder that descends into the sewers. His foot slips a little on the slime coating the rung, making it slippery and treacherous.
Using great caution, he slowly makes his way down to the floor of the sewer, his hands becoming slick as the slime from the rungs coating them. Upon reaching the bottom, he steps onto the sewer floor only to slip on a slick, slimy patch. Losing his balance he tumbles backward into the stinking, oozing muck slowly making its way through the sewer.
The fall into the stream of nastiness breaks his concentration, causing the spell holding the door closed to fail. The sound of breaking wood filters its way through the opening above as Miko helps him to his feet. They proceed quickly down the dark sewer tunnel putting distance between themselves and the entrance. Thoroughly nauseated, James tries to scrape as much of the filth off him as he can while hurrying down the tunnel.
They proceed along the stream of filth for a ways before taking a moment to turn and see if pursuit materializes. James watches the faint light coming through the trapdoor they so recently fled through. He is sure that by now the boys would have found the sewer entrance and should be descending after them. They remain quiet for several seconds but don’t see or hear anything other than the constant dripping of water coming out of several ducts in the wall, spilling into the main flow of the sewer.
“I don’t think they followed us down here,” he whispers to Miko.
