Heart of Dorkness

I shift back a bit so that I’m sitting properly in the dining chair, then I bring my head down. My forehead hits first, of course, with a fairly loud bang.

A few of the patrons of the inn are looking my way, but I can’t find it in me to care much.

“I can’t think of anything,” I say as my head bangs on the table again. I bring my arms up and wrap them over my hood; maybe I can hide from my shame.

“It’s okay?” Felix tries.

She’s a great friend, trying to comfort me past my obvious stupidity.

“We can’t just go to the guard and ask. That’s just going to cause trouble. We can’t break in, because I’m frankly not strong enough for that. I don’t have any spies, and I don’t know how to get spies. In the books, the cool spymaster characters already have spies, or they have blackmail material or something.”

“I guess?” Felix says.

“And... and I don’t know what to do.”

I feel a hand patting me on the head. Felix, of course. “That’s okay? Sometimes I don’t know what to do. Things can be hard like that. Uh. We just need to... what do we need to do? Find those books, right?”

I nod. Raising my head a bit, I peek past the plates on our table to Felix who is returning to her seat from stretching out across the table. “Yeah, that’s about it.”

“Well, they’re probably hiding the books at the Yellow Castle. That’s where they bring everything important.”

I sit up straighter. “The Yellow Castle?” I repeat. Some niggling detail comes back to me. “That’s the fortress in the middle of the city.”

“It’s where the guard is,” Felix says. “That, and all the really important nobles. I heard that the entire thing is covered in precious stones, and there are statues all over it.”

So, the local seat of government, and the guard’s barracks. Probably also where the national army resides when they have a detachment in Santafaria. “That’s not a bad idea,” I say.

“I haven’t said any ideas, have I?” Felix asks.

I stand up. “Come on, we’re going to prison.”

“Um.”

“No, not like that,” I say. “I mean... well, I’ll explain on the way over.” That’s the best way to go about it, I figure. It’ll give me time to actually come up with something, because my current plans are mostly a jumble of disconnected ideas.

Maybe I can distract my way in? But I don’t know where the prisons are. Really, a lot of my problems could either be fixed by knowing more, or by having a whole bunch more power.

But then, if Mom really wanted me to stomp over everything to get her books, she’d have sent a Calamity or two, not me. I think she wants me to be a little more subtle than her usual monsters.

Felix rises up and, with her usual grin on, follows after me as I leave the dining room and step outside with just a nod to the concierge by the door.

“Okay,” I say. “The Yellow Castle. That’s where we’re going to start.”

“Is that smart? There are a lot of guards there.”

“Yeah, but we’re just two girls. We shouldn’t be too obvious. As long as I can keep my hood up, we should be fine.”

“I don’t like this plan,” Felix says.

“Well, it’s less a plan, more the sort of ‘make it up as you go’ kind of situation that really gets my anxiety running high.” I smile towards Felix, and I’m quite happy she can’t tell how nervous it looks.

Then her hand grabs my wrist just as I’m reaching for the door in the hedge-covered fence that leads onto the street. “Wait,” Felix says. “You’re acting a bit dumb.”

“Dumb?” I repeat.

“Yeah. Sometimes, in the Roughs, someone gets all... crazy in their head. They start talking about stealing from someone rich, or attacking a noble. They talk all grand and dreamy about how they’ll make it big, and have plenty to eat, and how they’ll return like kings. They never come back.”

“I’m not, I’m not that kind of person,” I say.

“You’re not, but you’re talking a bit like one of them. All ideas and no plans.”

I huff, insult boiling inside me until it turns into a burning inferno and... and pops like a balloon. My shoulders droop and I let out a long sigh. “I can’t fail,” I say.

“Fail what?” Felix asks.

“Mom will be disappointed. I don’t want that.”

“I think she’d be a lot more disappointed if you get beaten by the guard.”

There wouldn’t be any beatings. I’m a monster, and they’d discover that and likely try to kill me, or give me to one of the churches, who’d probably do worse. I was sure Mom would step in at that point, and that would be... so much worse.

“Okay, okay, you’re right,” I say. “Thanks.”

Felix’s grin is bright and cheerful, despite a couple of missing baby teeth. “Sure thing. So, we need to find your books. Do you think the guards are the only ones that know?”

“Wouldn’t they?” I ask.

“I dunno, the guards are pretty stupid sometimes. Would anyone else know?”

I squeeze my eyes shut and think as hard as I can. Javier Juárez should know, I think. And if he knows...

“Oh,” I say.

“Oh?”

I grin, then yank Felix into a hug. She gasps, then laughs and pats my back. “You’re a genius,” I say.

“Thank you?”

“Javier Juárez was a businessman. He worked both here, and in the capital, but he spent a lot of time here.”

“Okay?” Felix asks.

“I don’t think he only did business with Mom! I mean, the dark... whatever, I mean he had to trade other things too. He’s too rich to only be into books, and he’s a member of the Merchant’s Guild. So he has to be trading other stuff.”

“Alright.”

“And that means...” I spin on a heel and run back into the inn.

The concierge at the front jumps as I barge in, and stares in wide-eyed shock for a moment as I run up to his podium and press both hands onto the edge of it. “May I help you?”

“I need to know where the Merchant’s Guild is located in this city, and... does Javier Juárez have a business here? An office or an estate where he worked from?”

The concierge adjusts his tie. “I know the address of the Merchant’s Guild, yes. As for Mister Juárez, I am only aware that he conducted business within the Merchanthome district of Santafaria. I believe he has a home there where he and his employees ran his business when he was in the city.”

“Wonderful,” I say. It’s awesome news! I can find someone who knows things, and get some answers.

“Do you wish for the address? I could have one of the washboys guide you.”

“Just write the address down. I can figure it out from there,” I say.

The concierge bows a little, and leaves. I tap my feet for the few seconds it takes for him to return with a notepad in one hand and a quill and pot in the other. He scribbles a few things down, then hands a page to me. “There you are, miss.”

“Thank you!” I say.

I grab Felix’s hand on the way out, and this time I’m not quite as nervous as I set out. This is a much, much better plan than trying to sneak into a prison.

“I know where the Merchanthome district is,” Felix says. She points ahead of us, down the length of the main road with all of the inns and taverns on it. “That way, then towards the water. It’s not far from the docks.”

“Probably because a lot of the merchants own some ships or the like,” I say.

The main streets of Santafaria are as busy as ever, people in plain but serviceable garb moving up and down them, chatting together and enjoying the surprisingly warm day. There’s a cool breeze from the waterfront sometimes, one that makes the air smell like seaweed and fish, but it’s not entirely unpleasant. Better than the more sulphury wind from the north.

Felix is a good guide, and she leads me into an area with fewer shops and inns, but a lot more businesses. I see notaries and lawyers and accountants, as well as a few small clinics, and even a bookstore that I slow down in front of before noticing the ‘closed’ sign hanging on the door.

It’s on that street we find the Merchant’s Guild. A tall, stately building of pale stone, with large pillars before it and steps leading up to a door guarded by two men who are distinctly not city guards.

“Alright then,” I say. “Let’s figure this out.”

***