***

  The sun had set and an eerie quiet now enveloped the edge of the woods, the pale silver light of the full moon glistening through the droplets of dew hanging in the air like tiny sprites.

  It was quiet. Way too quiet.

  The kind of quiet that would make one proo dozing off when idly vat.

  Or at least it would, if it wasn’t for the manor.

  The dark, haunting house looming over the hill not too far away from the edge of the forest.

  Its foreboding presence felt as if a watchful eye observed everything around it with malicious i, sending a sense of unease down the spine of those dwelling around its grounds.

  The young man couldn’t wait to leave that pce.

  He had been givey of patrolling the outer fence of the property all day because he was the you of his unit. What the novice town guard still did not uand was what busihey had proteg such a creepy pce all the way out there, far away from the city.

  He did not openly question it, of course. He knew better than to make himself a target, being of the newer recruits of Marquessa’s prestigious city guard.

  But it still felt wrong that after months of training and preparation to take on the job, and after finally getting it, they would be sent there to guard that pce, despite nobody knowing who exactly lived there.

  The young man couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss with that whole situation. He signed up because he wao serve his city, to help protect the people. Not stand in the middle of some woods keeping watch over some strange house all night with no idea if he should be more worried about what might e out of the woods or whatever lived in the manor itself.

  But he also k was not his pce to question the ahe orders were ing straight from him, and to challenge his instrus would be treason. He had not spent years w to bee a Marquessian guard just to fall into dishonor because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

  Not to mentioill had a few payments left on his new horse carriage. It was definitely not the time to be out of a job.

  The ret visitors to the manor weren’t making it any easier, however. At first the young Marquessian chalked it up to paranoia, too many shifts spent around that creepy pce making him imagihings. But now he had little doubt the rough-looking individuals he had spotted ing in and out of the celr ie hours were in fact bandits.

  Why would the ander have city guards statio a property way out of the city and then allow bandits to e and go from it? What reason could the city guard have to be colborating with lowlifes like that?

  The novice did not know, but if his fellow guards were not speaking up either, why should he? Best to keep his head down and follow orders like he lear boot camp. That was his job after all. Just a grunt. A cog in the mae.

  Whatever bigger design was happening there was clearly above his pay grade anyway. Surely the ander knew better. Maybe he was under specifistrus from the mayor herself. Maybe this was all a very clever undercover operation because of all the stolen cargo cases retly.

  Yes, that had to be it. It certainly made him feel a lot better, so that was the clusion he would be stig with.

  Just another half hour and his shift would be over anyway. Best to put all those paranoid thoughts away.

  There was nothing nefarious happeniween guards and bandits behind the ses. There was no evil figure living in that old manor. And definitely no danger was going to emerge from those dark woods while he atrolling.

  Everything was fine and soon someone would e so he could finally go get some shut-eye.

  A twig snapped somewhere behind the bushes and the young man jumped in pce.

  “W-who goes there?” the guard asked with a cra his voiervously tightening his grip on his spear.

  No answer came, aried to trol his breathing, assuring himself that it was just an animal. Or the wind. Or maybe nothing at all.

  “Just my imagination…” he muttered.

  As he was about to turn away, leaves ruffled nearby and a rge bush shook with movement.

  The novice guardsman nearly dropped his spear in fright, but bravery or merely training kicked in, aood his ground, ign the initial instinct to run away.

  “Who’s there? Reveal yourself!” he loudly called, trying to sound anding.

  But nobody responded.

  Fighting his better judgment, the novice sloroached the bushes, spear pointed forward.

  As he got closer, the guard could hear what seemed to be breathing from behind the foliage.

  Reag forward with a hesitant hand, he moved aside some shrubs to look behind them.

  “Boo!”

  With a gasp, the young man fell ba his bottom as a skinny greeure with big eyes poked its head out of the bushes with a big smile on its face. For whatever strange reason, it was wearing a wizard hat on its head.

  As he fumbled to stand back up, the guard realized something else stood behind the goblin.

  A rger creature lurked from the darkness of the woods, rearing itself over the other, its eyes two pierg yellow slits fixed on the human with an iy that made his legs tremble.

  “Oh mama, I’m not getting paid enough for this!” the young boy cried as he dropped his spear and started running away toward the manor.

  As he tripped and staggered through the branches and bushes in his mad dash for help, he suddenly saw a human figure appear from around a rge tree.

  “Hey!” he called, running toward the man. “Over here! There’s…”

  The runaway guard came to a stop in front of the taller man and his expression turned into a frown.

  “Wait, you’re not a guard. You’re—”

  With a quick blow to the neck using the side of his hand, the older mahe young boy sprawling limply to the ground, his eyes rolling as he lost sciousness.

  “Sorry, son,” Captain Leander said. “It’s nothing personal, but we just ’t have you sounding the arm on us.”

  ***

  “He looked tired anyway,” said Balthazar, stepping out of the woods with Olivia and Suze. “He deserved some nap time.”

  Captain Leander dragged the young guard behind a tree and carefully sat him against it before searg his pockets.

  “Here, catch it,” he said, tossing a rge iro Olivia, who caught it in her hand. “That must open the side gate.”

  “he girl said as she turhe key and the small iron gate unlocked. “Let’s go, before someone else es and finds him.”

  Balthazar hung back for a moment as the others marched into the manrounds. Looking up through the dark wrought iron bars of the fehe crab saw Damask Manainst the moonlit night sky.

  It was an imposing pce, its bck roof shingles like a sinister over a haunting facade with more windows than the mert cared to t. One in particur stood out for being lit. It was the window at the very top of the st floor, the ohe blueprints showed as the master bedroom.

  She’s home.

  “e on, Mr. Balthazar,” Leander said, heading to the gate. “No time to dawdle now.”

  With o g the creepy manor up on the hill, the crab followed the old captain into the gardens.

  “Whoever lives here,” Suze said, “they’re not big on gardening.”

  The group navigated through a dense mess of branches and viall grass c most of the ground where they stepped, with not a flower in sight, only weeds.

  “Maybe she likes it this way,” Balthazar muttered as he focused on where he stepped.

  Arriving at an u hedge by the end of the garden, the crab’s team crouched behind it—except for Balthazar, who was already at the perfect level to peek over it.

  They could see the front door across the open area of the driveway. It was a short distance away, but there was no cover to hide them from watchful eyes.

  “No guards here,” Leander observed.

  “They must be inside,” Olivia whispered. “Probably don’t like being out here after dark. I still don’t get why you wouldn’t bring your men from the to help us, Lee. It would make this a lot easier.”

  “Strategic thinking, my impatient girl,” the captain responded. “Not enough men to mount a proper assault, but too many to carry an effit stealth approach. I’d rather have them watch over your aunt until we finish this here tonight.”

  “That key we got from the guard won’t work on that door,” the little girl o the crab said.

  “How do you know?” asked Olivia, looking at the kid with a raised eyebrow.

  “I see from here that the keyhole is totally different,” the other responded with fident sass. “Trust me, I know locks.”

  “Alright, we’re going to need another way to get ihen,” Balthazar said.

  “We could just kick the door open and jump them,” the mayor’s niece said. “We already have the surprise factor, let’s just use it before we lose it!”

  “Or you could boost me through one of the windows and I unlock it from the inside,” Suze suggested.

  “My idea is better,” said Olivia.

  “No it’s not!”

  Balthazar sighed. “Both of your ideas are bad.”

  “Perhaps,” Leaarted while sing the building carefully, “we could chee of the backdoors first.”

  “That’s a good idea,” the crab said with a nod. “I could have Druma check—Hey, where’s Olivia?!”

  The group looked around, searg for the young woman, when they realized she had already made a run across the driveway and was by the front door of the manor.

  “What is she doing?!” Balthazar muttered with exasperation.

  The niece of the baroness looked at the door with a frown and then tried the handle.

  Captain Leander let out a tired sigh. “This girl…”

  “Get back here!” the crusta tried to call in a hushed tone.

  Olivia eyed the handle and the lock pt on the door before taking a few steps backward.

  “Is she gonna…” said Suze.

  Leander dropped his shoulders. “She is.”

  “Oh no…” Balthazar mouthed.

  Breaking into a sprint, the Marquessa girl ran toward the entrance, putting all her weight into a kick that hit the wht uhe handle, sending splinters flying as the door broke open.

  “e on, you scumbags, let’s rumble!”