The middle of the square is empty. Just a broad expanse of well-trampled grass and mud. It’s scraggly-looking and sad, but maybe I'm projecting.

“We should really see about putting a fountain in or something,” I say as Wendy, Caedi, and I step onto it, ten yards away from the front porch of the sheriff’s office.

“Oh! Or a nice green space,” says Wendy. “A garden of some kind? Or both?” She sounds almost normal, and I'm proud of her. Proud to be with her.

Caedi looks at us like we’re crazy. Her hands are white on her quarterstaff.

Gorminiel hasn’t moved. I’m a little worried that the torch he’s holding will drop a bit of ash onto the floorboards of the sidewalk and start the fire he’s threatening before he’s ready. The elf is trying to smile but failing.

“He’s scared,” says Wendy under her breath.

Okay,  none of this makes sense. What can he possibly be planning to do here that will get him out of trouble? I mean, we can’t really prove he’s even involved. Maybe he thinks we know more than what we do? I can’t see how. He must know where we've been and who we've talked to. He should have a pretty good idea about the limits of what we can show the sheriff. This desperate ploy here? Why? 

“Morning, Mr. Gorminiel,” I say. “We haven’t met.  Would you care to tell us what it is that you're doing?”

Gorminiel looks at Manver Teeg.

Teeg doesn’t look at him but must’ve caught the glance out of the corner of his eye. He shrugs, unconcerned.

“Teeg’s angry,” says Wendy, just as quietly as before. “I think he’s pissed we caught him.”

Yeah, we've got enough on Teeg. That's for sure. When I look at him, the man looks resigned and maybe a little bored, but Wendy's the queen of Perception.

Why?

Why’s Gorminiel doing this?

I need more time. More data.

“I presume the sheriff’s locked inside with Deputy Swyft?” I say. “And Sinda Summerleaf?”

Gorminiel doesn’t look inclined to reply. Not to me, at any rate. He takes a big breath and shouts, “These new deputies are working with the bandits to raid the caravans!”

“So, you’re going to torch the sheriff?” I ask, scratching my head, hoping I can play to the crowd better than he can. “How’s that make sense?”

Gorminiel hesitates.

Teeg rolls his eyes.

“You’ve corrupted the sheriff too,” says the elf. Then he remembers he’s talking to the town. Louder he says, “They’ve corrupted Sheriff Cronk! Bought him off with his bloody proceeds of their evil actions!”

I shake my head in wonder. 

“Mark?” comes the sheriff’s voice from inside the office. “Is that you out there?”

“Yeah, Sheriff. You okay in there?”

“Yep. Could you kindly tell me what the fuck is going on? And tell Heck and his pet Teeg that they’re under arrest?” Cronk shouts.

Gorminiel flourishes the torch. At first I think he's about to fire the building but no. He doesn’t want to do it yet. Why? 

He's waiting for something. What?

Oh. He needs more information too.

He doesn’t know what we’ve told the sheriff. He’s got to kill us all to keep us quiet because…. Oh.

“It's not you,” I say.

“What?” says Gorminiel.

“The only way this insanity remotely makes sense is if you’re afraid someone else will find out,” I say. “You have to find out who knows what and you have to make a show of it. To protect yourself from your boss. You have a boss.”

“Yeah, and whoever that is isn't here,” says Wendy. “Or they’d already know he’s caught. Distance will confuse the story by the time he hears it. So long as there aren't any credible witnesses left to contradict his story.”

I shake my head and start talking to the crowd. “Here’s what’s going on, everybody” I say. I point at Teeg. “Manver Teeg is working with the bandits to raid Mr. Gorminiel’s own caravans.”

Gorminiel forces a laugh. “Shut up, you little shit.”

More people are making their way to the square. All of them are either adventurer types not overmuch worried about all the hostility and hardware on display, or they're mercenaries Gorminiel’s hired to kill us. There's no way to tell which is which. I mean, it's not like the bad guys are wearing evil t-shirts or something.

“You’re the one that wanted to have this out right here,” I say. “Let’s have it out then. We have evidence that just about every shipment between here and Truhaven, either on the first leg of the journey between here and Bull’s Tavern, or on the second between the Tavern and Truhaven, were hit by the bandits. The ones that weren’t hit were either heavily insured because they were chock full of items for the King’s Bounty or they were barely insured because whatever they were hauling wasn’t worth much. So, after Gorminiel buys the stuff some of you risk your lives to pry out of the ruins at rock bottom prices, he pays bandits to kill caravan guards and steal it, then he collects the insurance money even as his agents sell that stuff on the black market and he gets paid again.”

People are looking at each other. I can’t tell if I’m winning them over or not, which is probably a bad sign.

Gorminiel starts to say something so I continue. “Mr. Crocus wrote a letter to Bea Greensward of Greensward’s Insurance agency in Bull’s Tavern. Ms. Greensward told us that her response detailed all that about the caravans. My guess is that you weren't supposed to hit Greensward's caravans, but you got greedy. If you hadn't, no one would've ever suspected. As it is, the coincidence is too much. Someone who knew when the caravans were leaving here and Bull's Tavern had to be working with the bandits. We have witnesses that have identified that inside man as Manver Teeg. Anyway, Greensward gave that letter to Captain Wilma Gray to give to Mr. Crocus. Captain Gray is now dead. Killed by Teeg's bandits. Crocus is dead. His body wasn’t discovered by Teeg. Teeg’s the one that killed him.”

If any of this is upsetting Teeg, I can’t tell. He looks bored, except for his eyes. His eyes are watching us, waiting.

Gorminiel takes a breath but I cut him off again, saying, “It certainly wasn't Sinda Summerleaf. We hired Sinda Summerleaf to ask around about the bandits, so Teeg sent Tim Bickle and Lidya the nekojin to frame her for theft and murder, believing that people would think Sinda's stupid enough to lift an empty purse and carry around Mr. Crocus’s fancy letter opener in her tunic. Bickle’s dead now and Lidya’s missing. I’m surprised that Sinda’s still alive, frankly. Is she okay in there, Sheriff Cronk?”

Cronk brays laughter. “I’m afraid not,” he shouts back. “She let herself out about twenty minutes ago.”

Gorminiel blinks. “What?” he says and leans in toward the barred window to peer inside.

When he does so, a green hand grabs him by the hair while another takes the hand holding the torch.

“You are under arrest, you son of a bitch,” snarls Cronk.

Gorminiel screams in pain.

Things begin to happen very fast.

Teeg hefts his sword and moves toward his boss.

I charge him, but he’s expecting this and turns to meet me instead, leaving his employer in Cronk’s hands, literally.

I hear a sigh beside me.

Wendy has two arrows in her chest. Her face is sad, her eyes fixed on mine as she slumps to he ground.

Caedi and I scream together and the whole world starts to darken, everything takes on a reddish hue, like it’s lit from the fires of Hell.

A man falls from the top of the Adventurer’s guild, an arrow through his neck.

There’s a scream from atop Thalion’s Haven, the inn where all three of us stayed.

Yenna is picking off snipers. The ones that shot Wendy.

Teeg is fast with his big sword. He blocks the first, second, third of my spear thrusts. His eyes are wide. I’ve scratched his face. I’m faster than he expected.

My throat hurts. I think I may still be screaming.

There’s a sudden shadow on my left.

I’m pulling back from another missed thrust and I use the backward momentum to fuel a back flip.

A huge two-handed mace plows into the dirt of the street where I was standing. I’m behind the guy now. He’s still bent with the force of his blow. I catch hold of his belt and use it to help me jump up onto him while he’s in the process of standing back up. My feet land on either side of his hips, finding purchase on a scabbarded sword and a sheathed dagger there. He begins to straighten. My free hand finds his collar and I leap again onto the man’s shoulder.

He looks up at me and I ram my spear into the v of his throat, sinking it deep into his chest cavity.

I twist and pluck it out before he knows he’s dead, thrusting it into the mercenary’s eye beside him. Then we’re all falling together. The spear gets twisted out of my grasp.

I let it go and roll down the dead man’s back before he hits the dirt, taking his dagger with me.

A sword arcs over my head. The attacker’s behind me.

I roll past his boots and deconstruct his leg, slicing through the Achilles tendon on his left leg and then his hamstring. He falls screaming in front of me, and I plant my borrowed dagger into his heart.

There’s movement all around so I do a series of back flips to get clear and see what’s what. I'm going to kill everybody and keep killing until I drop so I can join Wendy for wherever we’re going next. Fuck this place. I'm going to burn it down. They've taken my wife!

The first thing I notice is that I’m up against far fewer than I thought. Maybe my little Sherlock’s denouement worked to thin the herd. Maybe there was a greater percentage of spectators in the crowd than I figured. Still, there are more than twenty armed men and women of various races still on their feet, spreading out in a semicircle out in front of the sheriff’s office where Gorminiel is still struggling at the window.

The square emptying its people, is the second thing. There’s screaming and running around. An archer here and there lies in a heap where Yenna must’ve shot them down from her perch on the Goblin's Gambit's roof.

My legs buckle then and I nearly topple over. What the hell?

Something's really wrong. I look down at myself, see blood pooling under me. I feel my body burning from many wounds I don't remember taking. Fine. I’ll be with Wendy sooner.

Caedi kneels there, my wife’s head in her lap. Her hands glow with rose golden light, and she’s pressing them against Wendy’s chest, the arrows jutting from between her fingers. Caedi’s face writhes with effort and pain. She’s oblivious to Manver Teeg, who advances on her, sword aloft. He’s preparing to strike off her head. She has to know. A battle rages around her, and Teeg's in her peripheral vision, but she doesn’t care. She’ll die to save Wendy just as I’ll kill and die to remain with her.

That right there is when I fall in love with Caedi Gree.