by Charley Case
Mila closed her eyes, shaking her head and trying to make what he had said work. “If he had a son with a Peabr…human, wouldn’t that child be half-human, half-dwarf?”
Finn looked past the two elves when movement at the bar caught his eye. Three people had come in some time ago, two men and a woman, and they had taken up residence at the bar. The woman was seated between the two young men, who were obviously making advances toward her. He hadn’t taken much notice at first because she seemed fine with the attention, but as the night had gone on, she had become more uncomfortable. It looked as though the two men were trying to pressure her into something she wasn’t down for.
The blond elf continued explaining the details of mixed races without noticing Finn’s distracted manner.
Finn watched the woman and two men, reading body language and not liking what he was seeing. Finally, the woman spun on her stool and hopped off. He saw one of the guys starting to reach for her arm, which made Finn tense for action, but the other guy shook his head and they let her go. He leaned out of the booth slightly and saw that she was heading for the bathrooms.
The two men quietly argued for a second, then one of them pulled a small tube out of his pocket and glanced around, not noticing Finn from across the room. He popped the top off the tube and pulled a pill out, which he quickly and discreetly dropped into the woman’s drink. He quickly stuffed the tube back into his pocket, and the two men smiled knowingly before clinking beer bottles and taking drinks.
“Excuse me,” Finn interrupted the elves’ lecture on the mating habits of, well…everything. “Mila. Is there some custom here where men will drop a tablet into a woman’s drink?”
Mila’s eyes went wide. “Yeah, it’s called date rape. Did you see that happen just now?” she half-stood, but the table was in the way, and the two elves, who both had disgusted looks on their faces as they scanned the room, were blocking her view.
“I did.” Finn pushed out of the booth, Penny scrambling to get onto his shoulder before he was up. Gently guiding the elves to the side, he held out a hand for Mila and helped her out of the booth. “The woman is in the bathroom right now. If you would go in and tell her what is happening, I will take care of the assholes. She has red hair and is wearing a short black dress.”
Mila gritted her teeth, looking past Finn at the two men at the bar. “Fucking pieces of shit,” she spat at them before making a beeline for the bathroom.
“Can you two help me?” he asked the wood elf and the high elf standing next to him. “I assume there is an easy way to get hold of the authorities?”
“Yeah, I can call.” The blond one nodded and pulled out a phone. “What should I tell them?”
Finn smiled. “Tell them that two guys just attacked a third while the three were having a conversation at a bar.”
“Lying to the cops isn’t a good idea.” He hesitated, his thumb over the call button, then 911 dialed.
“Oh, that won’t be a problem.” Finn cracked the knuckles on each hand. “They’re going to be the aggressors. Don’t worry about that.” He started forward, but stopped and turned back to the wood elf, who waited while his friend held the phone to his ear. “Before this gets out of hand, would you happen to know where I can find a Huldu?”
The wood elf blinked a couple of times, processing the question that had come out of the blue. “Uh, there’s a market for Magicals just across the street. You’ll need to go down the alley between Blake and Wazee streets. You can’t miss it; it’s about halfway down on the brick wall behind the bodega.”
“Thanks, that helps a lot.” Finn gave him a nod.
“Oh, there’s a password,” the elf added. “It’s ‘Peabrains are forgetful.’”
Finn smiled. “Thanks again.”
He saw that the two guys at the bar were now looking his way after all the commotion. Or they might have just been staring at Penny, who now perched on his shoulder in plain view. Finn didn’t really care. The fact that they’d noticed him was an advantage.
He walked up to the two and looked them over. He knew their type. They were the same on every world. Their buttons were going to be easy to push.
“Can we help you, fella?” the bald one on the left said, his thin mustache and short-cropped beard an offense to bearded men everywhere.
His friend, the one who had done the dosing, sneered and ran his hand through his short curly black hair.
“I doubt it,” Finn said in a calm but condescending tone. “I’m betting that the two of you put together are dumber than the stools you’re sitting on. More worthless, too. At least the stool is good for something, even if it’s to keep your ugly asses from hitting the floor.”
“Excuse me?” Curly said, his eyes narrowing.
“Did you fart?” Finn asked, raising an eyebrow and staring the man down.
Baldy stood up, nearly bumping chests with Finn. He was taller than Finn had originally thought, standing almost an inch taller than him. But where this guy was tall, he was also a little lanky.
“I don't think I like your tone, asshole.” Baldy leaned into Finn’s face, trying to intimidate him, but Finn just smiled.
“Well, I don’t like that you’re wasting valuable resources existing, but the real question is, what are you going to do about it, little fella?”
A talon poked into his shoulder from the very still dragon was all the warning he needed. He and Penny had long ago set up a system when confronting two people. He got in one’s face, and Penny watched the other one. More times than not, the sucker punch came from the second guy, like this time.
Finn had to give Curly props for how fast he could move, but Finn was faster. While his friend had been in Finn’s face, Curly stood and swung a punch at him, using Baldy to block most of his movements.
Instead of stepping back to avoid the punch, Finn just flexed his jaw tight and bowed his head. Turning slightly, he lined up so that Curly’s fist would hit him on the crown of his head instead of the face.
Dwarves have very thick skulls and extremely strong neck muscles, so there was no give for Curly’s fist. A loud cracking sound told Finn that his hand was broken in at least one place.
A blood-curdling scream from Curly cut through the music and made everyone in the bar turn to see Finn standing face to face with the bald man and his friend holding a hand with two of the digits pointing the wrong way.
Baldy blinked, not entirely sure what had just happened but willing to play. He stepped back and threw a punch at Finn.
Finn snapped his own fist out and hit Baldy’s incoming fist square on. The move was so weird that Baldy didn’t see it coming, and again the denser dwarf won the contest. Baldy’s wrist snapped as if he had just punched a moving car, and Baldy joined his friend in screaming.
Finn reached past them and held the woman’s drink between the two men. “I just want you to be sure you know why this is happening to you.”
The wide-eyed looks on their faces told the whole story.
“Oi, what the feck is go’n on ‘ere?” Danny shouted, coming down the bar, his paperback replaced by a bat.
Finn set the drink back down and slid it to Danny. “These two assholes just drugged a woman’s drink when she went to the restroom.”
“They’ve been pushing me to sleep with both of them all night,” the redheaded woman said, stomping toward Finn and the other two. Mila jogged to catch up, and Danica was behind her. “I can't believe you would do that, Tony!” She stepped past Finn and punched the curly-haired guy in the nose.
Finn was impressed. It was a solid punch and made Tony stumble back to fall over a stool, clutching his face with his unbroken hand.
Baldy knew the jig was up. He took off for the door, but Finn tripped him as he passed, and he tumbled to the floor. Not used to a broken wrist, he threw both arms out to stop himself, and screamed again when his awkwardly bent wrist bent even farther and something snapped further up in his arm. He rolled over, clutching the now-broken arm, tears of pain
welling in his eyes.
Mila stepped up next to Finn with a smile on her face. “Damn, Finn. When you said you’d take care of it, I thought you meant you were going to have them kicked out, not kick their asses.”
“I didn’t kick anyone’s ass. They did this to themselves. Mostly.” Finn shrugged his indifference.
Danny came around the bar to stand over the two beaten and bloody men. He frowned, looking at the two, then at the redheaded woman. “Lass, I’m sorry this happened in my establishment. Believe me, I’ll be sure the coppers handle this proper.” He turned to Finn and Mila. “You two better get out of ‘ere before I call ‘em. No need havin’ ya two bogged down in all this. Plus, at this time eh night, they like to just take in everyone involved and sart it out in te marnin. Come ‘round again, an’ I’ll be buyin’ the drinks.”
“Oh, I already had my friends over there call the authorities. They should be here any minute.” Finn pointed to the two elves, who gave Danny a wave.
“Right, then we should go now,” Mila said, pulling Finn’s arm and heading for the door. “The last thing I need at work is to answer why I ended up spending the night in jail.”
“Hey, I’m coming with you!” A melodic voice rang out behind them, followed by the tapping of heels.
Finn looked back and saw Danica quickly walking their way, waving for them to slow down.
“Oh, shit.” Mila hung her head but kept walking until they were out the door and on the sidewalk.
“Do you not like your roommate?” Finn asked, confused as to why she seemed so reluctant to let Danica join them.
“No, I love her!” she quickly corrected. “I just don’t know how I will explain who you are to her. She’s pretty sheltered when it comes to anything but flirting or medical stuff.”
The night was cool and quiet, but a city as big as Denver was never really silent, as the approaching sirens attested.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” She tried to pull him down the street, back toward where she had parked her car, but Finn stopped her.
“Actually, I want to make a stop if you don’t mind. It shouldn’t take long.” She held onto his arm but followed instead of led as he crossed the empty street.
The door to the bar swung open, and the clicking of heels on concrete told them that Danica had made it outside. “Guys! Wait up.”
Finn stopped and waited for the tall elven woman. She was beautiful and lithe, like most elves, and her blonde hair and long ears told Finn that she was either a high elf, or a moon elf. She wore a frilly, white top that exposed her collarbone and shoulders and was held up by some sort of elastic band. The shirt exposed her midriff, which complemented her low-rise blue jeans. She topped the whole thing off with a pair of white stilettos. They had to be some of the most impractical shoes Finn had ever seen, but he had to admit they did wonders for her long legs.
Mila sighed and waited, not seeming to notice that she hadn’t let go of Finn’s arm.
“Hey, guys.” Danica’s smile faltered when she got a good look at Finn. She stared, then leaned to the side to read the runes tattooed below the short hair on the sides of his head. Presumably they would be visible to her.
Finn turned his head slightly so she would have an uninterrupted view. “Hello. I’m Finnegan Dragonbender, or Finn to my friends. And this is Penny.” Penny gave a small burst of flame in greeting.
Danica jumped a little at the flame, but it wasn’t nearly the reaction Mila had had—which, by the look on her face, annoyed her more than a little.
“Oh, hello, sir.” Danica almost bowed, but stopped herself and instead held out a hand to shake. “I’m Danica Meadows, Mila’s roommate. I suspect she’s already told you that.” Her smile was wooden as she turned to Mila. “So, where exactly did you meet?”
“I just arrived in town,” Finn answered instead, “and am in a similar line of work as Mila. So we decided to team up for a bit.” He shook Danica’s hand.
This not being the first time he’d had to twist the truth to fit the situation in a pinch, he thought that one was pretty good.
“Oh. Well, that’s just grand. Perchance, will you be stopping by the house later?” Danica seemed to be having a slight meltdown since her voice had risen in tone and speed.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Mila asked, cocking her head and screwing up her face. “Why are you talking like a Victorian all of a sudden?”
“Oh, am I?” Danica seemed to not know what to do with her hands, and eventually put them on her hips in a Wonder Woman pose. “I was just a little nervous meeting your handsome new friend is all.”
“Well, stop it. You’re freaking me out.” Mila shook her head slowly.
“Danica, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Trust me when I say there is no need to be nervous. I’m just a traveler. I have no intention of throwing my weight around.”
He realized it was an odd thing to say from Mila’s point of view, but the relief on Danica’s face told him that she had gotten the message. He was not here in the capacity of his royal birth.
Danica deflated visibly and smiled. “That is so good to hear. Where are you traveling from?”
“Canada,” Finn said with a smile.
Danica smiled back. “Canada? I wasn’t aware there were any… important people in Canada.”
Mila’s jaw dropped. “Danica! I can’t believe you would say something like that.”
“No, I understand what she means,” Finn assured the small woman, whose temper was rising fast. “Maybe we can talk more at length about that when I see you next?”
“That would be wonderful,” Danica said, then looked down the street as the sirens suddenly became very loud. Three police cars came around the corner, their lights painting the street red and blue. “I should probably get out of here. It’s been a long night, and I have to work in the morning. Finn, it was nice to meet you. I hope we can talk more soon.”
“Same, Danica.” Finn shook her hand again.
Penny stuck out a taloned hand, and without missing a beat, Danica offered her a finger to shake. She then turned and walked down the sidewalk, glancing back only once before crossing to the other side and continuing on.
“I swear that girl is at the same time the most brilliant person I know and the densest.” Mila was still shaking her head. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“I want to stop at the market. It should only take half an hour or so.” He again led the way down the street.
She fell into step beside him, and they made their way, pointedly not looking at the cops piling out of their cars and into the bar.
Chapter Ten
Finn led Mila around the corner and into the alley. It wasn’t so narrow that it felt dangerous, but it was narrow enough that no cars drove down it. A few lights lit the corridor, but it was mostly in darkness, which wasn’t a problem for Finn and his dark vision. Mila, on the other hand, was hesitant to go down the dark passage with him.
“I thought you wanted to go to the market? This alley doesn’t go anywhere like that. I think there’s a bodega around the corner,” she said, stopping at the mouth of the alley, still in the light of the streetlamps.
“Bodega?” Finn asked, glancing at Penny, who just shrugged.
“Yeah, like a little market. They sell beer and smokes and snacks and stuff? You’ve never heard of a bodega?” She stopped and held up a finger. “Oh, right. Not from around here. That’s going to take a lot of time to get used to.”
“Ah, I see. When I said market, I meant a market for my kind of people. A magical market, if you will.” Finn smiled and took her hand, leading her down the alley.
“How do you even know where this place is?” Mila protested but followed.
“The elves told me about it.”
“You know that sounds insane, right?” She laughed.
Finn frowned. “Does it? It just sounds like a fact to me.” He saw a section of brick wall that had a glowing magical script about halfway up, and he knew h
e had found the right place. “Here we are.”
Mila looked left, then right, then gave him a sour face. “This is a blank wall, Finn.”
“Only to your forgetful eyes,” he said with a wink.
The script read LO-DO Market. He rapped on the brick as if knocking on a door and stood back to wait.
“What does ‘lo-do’ mean?” he asked while they waited.
“That’s the name of this district. It’s short for lower downtown. It’s pretty small but it’s nice. Why?”
Finn pointed at the glowing magical sign. “That’s what they call this place. LO-DO Market.”
“What are you point—”
She was cut off when a section of brick slid to the side, revealing a black space that was quickly filled by two large catlike eyes.
“What the fuck…” Mila murmured, unconsciously stepping closer to Finn in case she needed to use him as a shield.
The eyes regarded all three of them for a second before rumbling, “Password.”
Finn gave a smile and leaned in. “Peabrains are forgetful.”
The eyes swiveled back to Mila. “Not Peabrains that ain’t been woke.”
Finn didn’t lose his smile, but ran his hand through his hair and held it up, turning so the eyes could see the markings. “She’s with me. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“You’re a fucking dwarf king?” The rumbling voice sounded a little surprised. “Thought you all died a thousand years ago or sumpin’.”
Finn just shook his head. “We’re harder to get rid of than you might think.”
“Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth.” The big thing sighed. “All right, fine, but keep her on a short leash. Don’t want the boss coming down on me.”
“If you get any flack, just send him my way.” Finn gave the eyes a half-bow.
A sound like gravel tumbling down a mountain came out of the slot. It took Finn a second to understand it was laughter. “I fuckin’ will, Your Highness. I fuckin’ will. Right. Come on in. Mind your step.”
The slot banged closed, and nothing happened.