“Excuse me, ing through,” a girl’s voice said from around the er. “Don’t miting myself in.”

  Pulling on the iron bars with his pincers, Balthazar stretched his eyestalks out of the cell to see Olivia Marquessa joining the young guard and his ander in the dungeon corridor.

  “You ’t be down here, young dy!” the ander excimed.

  “You’re absolutely right,” the mayor’s niece responded. “And that crab over there shouldn’t be here either, so let’s get him out of that cell and we’ll be out of your dungeon in no time.”

  The tall man in a cape scowled and stretched his neck forward at the young woman. “Get him out? That crab is under arrest at my and, and in this pce, I call the shots.”

  Olivia stretched her own neck up at the ander and pced her hands on her hips defiantly, despite being much smaller than him. “Arrested under what charges?”

  “Multiple!” the ander said. “Disturbing the peace. Trespassing on private property. Breaking aering with his aplices who are still at rge. And above all that, assault on two i citizens!”

  “You mean two bandits?” the girl said, crossing her arms.

  “Do you have any proof to back your snder, Ms. Olivia?” the spiteful man said with a snarky smile.

  “None you’d care to take seriously,” she replied. “But you don’t have any proof against Balthazar either, so we’re leaving.”

  “Yeah!” excimed the crab from behind the bars. “I still don’t know what a wyer is, but I wao be mine!”

  Turning a couple of shades redder, the ander exhaled sharply before raising his voice. “This is my prison! You have no authority to release anyone here.”

  “No, I don’t,” said Olivia, her eyes rolling briefly and her voice hesitating a moment before tinuing, as if her sentence felt painful to say. “But my aunt does, and she ordered Mr. Balthazar’s release immediately.”

  The young ulled out a rolled-up piece of part with a red ribbon around it and held it up in her hand for the other two to see.

  “What?!” the ander barked, his face turning another few shades redder. “Why would the mayor interfere with my… with the guardsmen work?! This should be none of her !”

  The niece of the baroness simply shrugged.

  “Don’t ask me. I’m just the messenger, here to deliver the orders.” She turo the younger guard. “So let’s hurry up with it. Go on, unlock his cell a him out already.”

  The visibly nervous young man jumped in pce, as if startled by the aowledgement of his presehere. He quickly grabbed the rge metal ring attached to his belt, fumbling with the many keys on it as he looked for the corree.

  “You’ll do no such thing,” the ander anded from his anding position of and.

  Balthazar groaned from his spectator spot. That man was starting to really annoy him. Who could this mysterious “she” figure be that had him so ferociously determio keep him locked up in there?

  “I’m still your superior,” the caped man tinued, “and in here you do as I say.”

  The nervous young man looked bad forth between the girl and his ander, visibly flicted over what he should do.

  “Sure, he’s your ander,” Olivia said. “But may I remind you that you owe loyalty to this city above all else? The city, which is represented by the mayor, Baroness Marquessa herself, who expressly ordered the release of this i crab from the city’s jail. So I reend you let him go now, unless you wao inform the mayor’s office of your treason.”

  The young guard gulped, his eyes wide as he rushed down the corridor to Balthazar’s cell, which he quickly unlocked and opened with trembling hands.

  “This is an e!” shouted the ander. “She will—I mean, I will not stand by this! The mayor interfering with the execution of the w is an absolute breach of power. On what basis would she undermihe authority of this city’s guardsme me see that decree!”

  “Be my guest,” the young woman said in an ung tone as she hahe scroll to him. “Now e o’s go Balthazar, we have urgent busio tend to.”

  “We do?” the surprised crab said as he walked out of the cell to a very hurried Olivia who promptly started pulling him toward the exit.

  “Oh yes, lots!” she replied, walking fast past the younger guard and the ander, who was unfurling the piece of part with a frown.

  “Wait, my backpack!” Balthazar said, stretg his pio grab his baggage as they passed the shelf at the er.

  “Eggs and flour?!” the caped guard muttered as his eyes squi the paper he was reading. “Wait just a mihis is not a decree from the mayor. This is a shopping list!”

  Olivia pulled the mert harder through the door. “Really? Must have been a mix-up. Feel free to che with the mayor’s offi the m. Gotta go now, bye!”

  “Stop!” yelled the ander. “Seize them!”

  But by the time his yell fihe young woman and the crab were already skidding out of the guardsmen offid onto the open street.

  “How did you mix up a decree from the mayor with a shopping list?” Balthazar asked with a boung voice as he ran up the sidewalk, dragged behind the girl by his cw.

  “I didn’t,” she replied, gng back at the group of guards rushing out of the barracks.

  “What then?” said the mert.

  Olivia rolled her eyes as she sped up to a sprint. “I was sending the ao do my grocery shopping, obviously.”

  “Really?” the crab said. “That’s a bold power move, Olivia.”

  “No, of course I wasn’t, Balthazar! I was being sarcastic! I thought you were supposed to be clever.”

  “I don’t think very well when I’m hungry,” the crusta said as the girl dragged him around a er. “Or when I’m running!”

  “There’s no way my aunt would sign a decree interfering with the w,” the young woman said, stopping uhe archway of a building and pulling Balthazar out of sight as she watched the main road. “If I went to her for help, her stupid bureaucracy would take days to get you out, if it even did at all. When your friends found me I just had to improvise. So… I bluffed.”

  “Oooh,” said the panting crab. “Bluffing. I get it now. I like your style, girl. Well done.”

  “Yeah, well, you thaer,” she said, peeking around the er. “Because now you, me, and your friends are all being hunted by the city guard, on top of all the bandits who already wanted your hide.”

  “Nonsense,” said Balthazar. “I only have chitin. Much better. And e on, your aunt is the baroness, the very mayor of this pce. Surely she clear us out and make the guards stand down, no?”

  “As things are right now? I’m not so sure,” Olivia said with a worried expression. “Not all guards are dirty, but with whoever is pulling the strings having trol of the ander, it’s hard to know who is choosing to be loyal to him and who would stand for the city and its mayor. Titles only really mean something if you retain trol of whatever gives you power.”

  “Damn it,” the crab said. “I only came into this pce for dires! How does stuff like this keep happening to me?!”

  “Must be the mango pies. They’re a real tourist trap.” Olivia pulled her head back against the wall as two guards ran down the previous street. “Alright, I think we’re clear for now.”

  Balthazar poked his eyestalks out of the doorway, looking both ways. “And what do we do now? I’m way too good-looking for prison. I’ll end up being dropped into someone’s soup!”

  “I knoce where nobody will find us, not too far from here,” the young woman said. “Your friends are waiting there already.”

  Through alleys and side streets, the crab and the girl fled through the city, dodging the guards at every turn while trying to remain inspicuous.

  Or as inspicuous as a giant crab carrying a backpack look in a city.

  Which is not much.

  “I’m telling you, that woman was totally staring at me,” Balthazar said to Olivia as the pair rounded another er.

  “Yeah, because you had your eyes fixed ohe whole time,” the niece of the baroness responded. “You really o work on how to not act suspicious.”

  The mert threw his arms up in exasperation. “I’m a giant crusta that talk, my entire existence is suspicious!”

  “We’re here,” Olivia said with a loud sigh.

  She pushed open the backdoor of a small house at the edge of the city, away from the rge crowds and busy ercial areas. Inside, Balthazar found a mostly empty home, seemingly uninhabited for a while, judging by the thiess of the dust on every surface.

  Passing through the kit and into ay living room, they found Blue and Druma waiting for them.

  “Boss, boss!” the excited goblin excimed, hopping from the wooden bench he was sitting on. “Boss is alright!”

  “Yes, thanks to you,” the crab said to his assistant. “Good job on finding Olivia.”

  The small goblin swelled up with pride and his green cheeks turned slightly rosy as he smiled.

  “And…” Balthazar hesitantly said, turning to Blue, who was sitting very straight o the bench. “Thanks fetting Druma out of there when I asked. You know… instead of staying and burning stuff up like you wao.”

  The drake’s brow flicked briefly with what seemed like surprise, but she quickly repced it with her usual haughty expression while giving the crab a short nod nition.

  “What’s up, fools?” a young voice said from nearby.

  Balthazar turo see a little girl ing dowairs, casually chewing on a lollipop as she joihem.

  “Suze?!” he said with surprise. “What are you doioo?”

  She shrugged. “I was sitting by the big fountain when I saw those three run by earlier. I was bored so I followed them here.”

  “What?!” Olivia excimed. “That was reckless! What if someone followed you here?!”

  The little girl pulled the piece of dy from her mouth with a loud smack of her lips. “You mean like I was following you without you notig?”

  Olivia scowled at the street ur and opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out.

  “Little girl keep Druma and Blue pany after miss leave to get boss!” the goblin said, cheerfully hopping from side to side. “She bring food too!”

  Balthazar’s eyestalks perked up. “She did?”

  “Yeah,” Suze said, pulling a rge paper bag from the alcove. “I went to that fancy bakery you took me to before. Told the dy you asked me to pick up an order of a bunch of pastries and sweets and said you’d drop by ter to pay.” She held the heavy bag up proudly. “And she believed me!”

  “You said what?!” the crab excimed, but the smell of fresh baked goods quickly reached him, ging his tone. “Actually, never mind. I’ll worry about that ter. I’m starving. Let me see what you got there!”

  As the hungry crusta dug into the paper bag, Olivia checked the windows, peeking to the outside through the blinds.

  “We ’t stay here forever,” she said, horizontal lines of sunlight hitting her face as she sed the street. “Sooner or ter we will have to leave, and now we’ve got the city guard after us on top of the mad bandits we already had.”

  “Ooh, the guards are after you?” Suze said, hopping up to sit on a ter. “Did you do something bad?”

  “No, the guards are just in on it with the bandits and arrested Balthazar unjustly,” the irl expined.

  “Yeah, totally unfair,” the crab added, his cheeks full of carrot cake. “And the aodations were awful. Not even a proper pillow. And don’t get me started on their bread!”

  “And you shouldn’t even be here!” Olivia said to Suze. “This is getting way too dangerous. Go bae!”

  “No way!” the little rascal responded, biting oick left by the lollipop. “I was bored and you guys are having all the fun. Besides, I don’t got a home anyway.”

  “Maybe Olivia is right,” said Balthazar. “I don’t want you getting into trouble because of me.”

  “Pfft,” the girl scoffed. “I don’t need you to get into trouble. Plus, you’re not my dad.”

  “Thankfully…”

  “I heard that,” Suze muttered, giving the crab the sti of side-eyes.

  “Alright, enough arguing,” the mayor’s niece said. “They’re probably already looking for her too anyway, since she’s been hanging around us so much. Best we keep her close. What we need now is a pn.”

  Balthazar nodded in agreement, his mouth too stuffed to speak. Suze just shrugged as she reached into the bag arieved a piece of toffee. Druma and Blue just watched on, clearly having little idea of what was going on, but gd to go along with it.

  “They’ll definitely expect it and see me ing if I try to reach my aunt,” Olivia said. “What I need is to get to Captain Leander. I trust him with my life. If someone help us, it will be him.”

  “It was tricky enough to get here from just a few streets away,” said the crab. “How do you pn to get all the way across town without getting caught?”

  The young woman nodded. “It won’t be easy, but if I wait fhttime and go alone, I know this city well enough to squeeze my way through the guards. Maybe.”

  “Hmm,” Balthazar said, wiping his as he pondered. “I also got a lead on how to tact the Thieves Guild in some pce called ‘The Rat’s Tail’ in the south part of town. At this point, I’m willing to turn to almost ao sort this situation out.”

  “Oh, I know where that pce is!” said Suze. “I show you how to get there through pces the guards will never find us.”

  “Alright, then that’s the pn,” the crab said. “We wait for the sun to go down and then Olivia will try to reach Captain Leander while we go seek out the Thieves Guild.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement aled down to wait fht, while Balthazar shoved his cw bato the paper bag for a sed serving of carrot cake.

  It was deliciously moist.