Adrian winced at the loud shouting coming from the hallway. His staff were better trained than that, and he could only hope Nikhal would calm down the storm quickly. It was clear someone had brought a child into the manor and that child was not happy at all. The screams he heard were not the playful sounds of someone dodging an early nap and closer to the frightened sounds monsters ripped from the dying.
Those sounds were better left on the battlefield instead of a hallway just a short walk from the training fields. He knew a few guards would be pacing the wall tonight unassigned. He might even be one of them.
"Did you have a kid and not tell me?" Celia asked, smirking, and set a fresh log in the fire.
Adrian rolled his eyes. Of course his sister had gone there. "Not hardly," he grumbled. His sister knew better. "You do know I don't need wood in the fireplace, right?" They’d been apart for a long time, but Celia wasn’t that dense.
She raised one blond eyebrow, looking very much like her brother had earlier in the day. "Just because it can run off your magic doesn't mean it should. Or do you want to die of magic strain before you see grandchildren?"
"There will be no grandchildren because you know as well as I do that the screaming tyrants give me headaches."
Barkley coughed over in the corner, hiding what Adrian suspected was a full-on grin behind his beard and his hand. Adrian was about to ask him what was worth smiling about when the child in the hall let out a devil-loud scream of "BARKLEY!"
Adrian laughed, "Oh, so he's yours!" Celia giggled at her brother's teasing of the captain, the grumpy look on his face not stopping the noble from continuing with: "I didn't know you had it in you, Barks." Barkley was happily married with multiple children already. Most of whom knew how to find him even on the gloomiest of rainy days.
"He certainly inherited his father's volume," Celia chimed in as she took a seat next to her brother. “Working on that air magic from the cradle.” Adrian's office was cluttered, bookshelves and cabinets overflowing, yet there always seemed to be space for the two siblings when they needed it.
"He's not my son," Barkley huffed as he went for the door. "My son is twenty-two now, and that is not a man's voice."
"Oh, so you're finally calling me a man?" Adrian asked. "I knew he'd give in one day and stop calling me 'boy'," he told his sister, shaking his head ruefully. "I thought he'd finally accept it after the battle of water's edge, or maybe the time we fought down in Creek's Ford, but no - ten foot tall spiders and weasels larger than a horse are just a boy's kill. They aren't impressive enough for a man."
Celia shook her head. "Men compare kills the way boys compare mud pies," she countered. "Someone else's is always bigger."
"I never made mud pies," Adrian protested as a small body slammed into Barkley's knees. "What?" he asked when his sister gave him a dubious look. "I didn't. Mine were made of dirt, not mud. And flowers. Mother preferred the yellow ones."
"I need to see Barkley!" the little tyke yelled through his tears, small fists gripping the captain's pants like he was afraid the man would disappear. "Please!" Nikhal soon followed and stood in the doorway in complete disarray while looking completely confused. He tried to gently pull the youngster off of Barkley while murmuring quietly but the young man was having none of it.
"Guess he isn't Barks' son," Adrian sighed. "Can't be grandson either, if he doesn't know he has the man by the trousers."
Black eyes shot towards him, a familiar color in eyes that were slightly more rounded than usual. With the dark hair and a skin tone matching the man Adrian had left just a few hours earlier, Adrian was beginning to suspect he knew who the boy was. A brief look across a crowded street wasn’t enough for him to be completely certain, however, and there had to be more than two foreigners in the entire city.
"What do you want, boy?" Barkley asked gruffly.
"To see Barkley. My brother - it's important." The kid sniffed, and rubbed his red nose on a sleeve. Nikhal looked absolutely horrified by the action and rushed to wipe the boy’s face with a handkerchief before cleaning the small sleeve.
"You're seeing Barkley, sweetie," Celia said gently. "You've got him in a pretty good grip too."
If anything the black eyes went wider, turning to look up at the big man who had arms thicker than the child's waist. "You're Captain Barkley?"
Barkley nodded, and gave a small wave that had the guards in the hallway backing away. Adrian made a mental note that they needed to be better trained in dealing with threats around ankle-level. He knew they were skilled for an attack, but it seemed they were under-prepared for an infiltration under three feet tall. Nikhal was the only one to ignore the command and continued doing his best to at least make the munchkin presentable. "Then you have to come! My brother's in trouble!"
"You should go to the guard-"
"He said to get you!" the child interrupted. "He said you and to say-" the tears were thick and he was hiccuping and he'd obviously forgotten something because the distress on his face wasn't letting up. "To say he needs you!"
"I don't know you or your brother," Barkley grunted, trying to disengage the little fists from his clothing. The small tyke wasn't giving up though.
“Careful,” Nikhal said softly. “He’s young.”
“I can see that!”
"You have to!" the kid screamed.
“You can’t just ask a stranger-“ Barkley grumbled.
“Little mister, calm down please. This is Lord Fyre’s manor and this behavior can’t continue,” was Nikhal’s almost too soft scolding underscoring a startling shout:
"Anubis needs you!"
Barkley stilled, and Adrian's chair scraped the floor as he stood and rushed over to his captain. He pulled Nikhal away and knelt down to be at the boy's level before he put a hand on a shaking shoulder to see if the crying would calm down. "You need to settle down," Adrian said. He couldn't quite manage a soothing voice; instead the words came out more like an order. "Are you Ken?"
The little boy nodded frantically. "You have to- you have to help. Please."
"What happened?" Adrian pressed.
"Jay came to pick me up, and said tomorrow we were going to meet Captain Barkley and he was going to show us a new place to live. We had to hurry out of the church or Father Magus was going to yell at Jay again, cause Jay changed the days he works there. So he could do more-" Ken suddenly stopped and glanced around, biting his lip. Celia and Nikhal - not to mention Barkley and Adrian - were all watching intently. Ken debated hard about what to say next. "Jay helps people," he finally said.
Adrian could guess that was their code for Dog Services. "I know what he does," Adrian offered. "Keep going."
"When we got home, Terron was there. He drinks stuff that makes his breath stink and makes him act stupid. He saw something pretty Jay had, and Jay told me to come get Barkley, and I ran - but I didn't know where to go cause I never got a guard before so I looked to see-"
"Ken," Adrian said slowly, turning the small boy to face him. "What did you see?"
"Terron hit Jay. He hit him, and Jay didn't get up."
Adrian stood sharply. "Captain, let's go. Get as many as you think necessary. Ken can show us the way."
“Ken is a child,” Nikhal reminded again. “I doubt he knows the way himself.”
“He’s a smart kid, with a smart older brother,” Adrian growled. “We’ll make it work.”
"I didn't think we were making his role obvious," Barkley added his protest. "I can go alone. One man shouldn't be hard to subdue. Anubis won't run. The kid can tell me where and I’ll find it."
“You think the kid knows his own address?” Celia scoffed. “You’d be better off letting him lead. Children can find their way back home surprisingly well when they’re left alone.”
"The problem is Jay. He might not be able to come back on his own," the nobleman growled. The fire blazed suddenly, eating up the log in an instant and letting out an angry snap. "And this Terron fellow might panic if he's cornered. No, at least the two of us and one or two more. Celia, think you can do a judging tonight?"
His sister seemed intrigued by the situation; he was actually surprised she hadn't forced her way into the trip yet. "Judging is completed before at least ten public witnesses," Celia stated. "And before you ask, no I will not hold a special session just for this. Not unless you give me a good reason. But we do have one tomorrow morning, where everyone in holding is set to be reviewed. Put him in a cell overnight and he will be judged then."
"Celia-"
"It's better this way," Celia interrupted. "Heads clear after the rush passes. And you need to know what state this person is in before we take action. It could still be a misunderstanding."
Adrian nodded. "Fine. Barkley, get who and what you need. Ken, you stay with Nikhal for now. He’ll get you a drink and some clean clothes. I need to get a few things and then we are going to go rescue your brother."
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