Page 2 of The Night Prince 3
Over Snaglak’s chortling, Declan said, “That’s good. He must have moved fast. I didn’t expect you to get here so quickly since you had to look for Finley first.”
Snaglak patted the side of the naki’s scaly neck. “Glom got scent. Glom take us here.”
At that moment, the naki’s very long tongue snaked out and aimed right for Finley. There was a crack of lightning as Rhalyf interceded between them. Glom let out an angry hiss and the frill around his neck stood up, showing the poisoned barbs, as he retracted his snaky tongue.
“Get your naki under control!” Rhalyf glared at Snaglak. “He nearly took a chunk out of Finley!”
Finley grasped Rhalyf’s forearm. “It’s okay. Glom wasn’t going to hurt me. I mean, he would like to eat me. But he won’t.” Looking over at Snaglak, he asked, “You promised him food if he found me, yes?”
“Ham.” Snaglak tipped his head to Helgrom who dug out a whole ham from his saddlebags and gestured for Finley to take it.
“You’d best freed him, lad,” Helgrom said. “He needs to know he’ll be rewarded for finding you even if it isn’t you in his stomach.”
Rhalyf was glaring at the naki with slitted eyes, not convinced whatsoever that the naki wouldn’t have eaten Finley whole. Aquilan had never seen him so protective except perhaps of himself. But Finley moved without fear in front of Glom and took the ham from Helgrom. The naki strained on the reins for it, but Snaglak held him firmly. Finley stood a foot away and held the ham out, but didn’t quite give it to him yet.
“Glom?” Finley said the naki’s name softly but firmly. Finally, the creature looked away from the ham to Finley’s face. “Thank you for finding me, Glom. Here. This is for you.”
He offered Glom the ham. The naki carefully took it from his hands.
“I saw that lick!” Rhalyf muttered and wagged his finger at the naki. Evidently, the creature had licked Finley’s palms as he had taken the ham. “That’s all you get or into the Void with you!”
Unrepentant, Glom chewed the ham only a handful of times before swallowing it mostly whole.
“Good, Glom!” Snaglak chortled.
Recovering from his ill mood with the naki, Rhalyf gave Aquilan a rakish smile and said, “Well, well, well, this looks like a party! I do hope I’ve been invited!”
“If you consider going to the ruins of the human city a party,” Elasha said a little repressively, “then I suppose you’re right.”
“Chicago?” Finley perked up. “Why are you going there?”
“We are going there,” Declan said authoritatively. “We need your navigation skills, Finley. I know coming with us might interfere with your game tonight–”
But before Declan could say more, Finley was waving that problem away, “If you’re asking then it must be important.”
“Very important. My brother… Darcassan went there last night and he… he didn’t return,” Elasha explained, her face paling again.
To Aquilan’s surprise, Rhalyf and Finley exchanged a quick glance as if this wasn’t news to them.
“Oh, have you spoken to any of the Separatists perhaps? They might have seen him as they are very active in the ruins,” Rhalyf suggested.
Elasha strangely pinked. “Uhm, I, ah, have reached out. But I don’t think we can wait to hear back from them. Besides, they’ve indicated that they think something might have come through from the Under Dark that is frightening the Leviathan. I can’t imagine what that could be, but–”
“No need to explain, girl!” Helgrom said as he reached down and patted HT’s neck. The sturdy pony paused in his chewing of grass to give a whiny of pleasure. “The ruins are no place to be even at the best of times.”
“How did you get roped into this, Helgrom?” Aquilan asked.
“Snaglak needed a ham,” Helgrom shrugged. “And when I heard that Declan required both Snaglak and Finley with him, I knew something was bubbling in the pot.” He brought up his right hand where a dark red jewel was set into the pauldron. Similar to a ridwin, this was a Sending Stone that allowed the dwarves to send messages to others who had a Receiving Stone. “And, don’t worry, Finley, I’ll send word to Lily about the game. We’ll reschedule.”
Finley nodded. “Yes, I’m so sorry about the trouble you’ve gone through to–”
“Ach, lad! They’ll eat and drink their weight in my inn tonight and then do it all over again in the park when you do hold your game,” Helgrom scoffed.
“Thanks, Helgrom.” Finley smiled broadly. “Besides,” and here he glanced over at Rhalyf, “I think I want to work a bit more on the scene with the Big Bad. I have something special planned.”
Rhalyf smirked only once, but said nothing.
“We are in your debt, Finley, for doing this,” Aquilan said as Helgrom spoke to Lily. “I would offer you–”
