We followed. In the gloom, the Treasury stood out like a beacon. The crystal walls had their own sconces, unextinguished, which caused the whole thing to glow brightly. The gold inside glittered in the flickering torchlight.
The lead escort came to the barred door of the Treasury and stamped his left foot twice.
“Who goes there?” asked the first guard.
“Me, Willis the Cobbler.”
“No, you're not a cobbler tonight,” Howadzer said, impatiently. “You are a guard!” He shook his head. “Try again.”
The sentry at the door of the Treasury scratched his head. “Er, all right. Who goes there?”
This time the erstwhile cobbler rose to the occasion.
“Willis the Guard! And some friends. Marit, from the sheep farm, only he's a guard tonight, too. Braddock from the Fishermen's Guild, and Corrie the Woodworker. He's my neighbor, and a dab hand with a chisel, let me tell you.” At an exasperated “ahem!” from Howadzer, he added, “They're guards, too.”
“Well, pass, Willis, Marit, and you other two, and you, my lord,” added the sentry. “He sort of forgot to mention you, but hell get it next time, won't you, Willis?”
“Sure, sure. Sorry, my lord.”
“Not one of 'em was ever in uniform, or I'll eat my hat,” Nunzio whispered to his cousin.
“Your hat is safe,” Guido whispered back. “While you were runnin' a check through the aisles a little while ago, I was readin' the employee roster, such as it is. To tell you the truth, it consists mostly of a list of names, professions, and villages, plus some comments penciled in on the side. Not real systematic, and it don't take into account strengths and weaknesses, not like what we keep in the Mob. These are all what you might call the little people who make everything possible.”
We watched as the newcomers replaced the daytime guards, who stamped their left feet in unison, and marched away. The four night guards took up their posts as Howadzer upended the little chest and spilled coins on top of the pile already there.
“Wouldn't it make more sense to leave the money in the boxes?” Guido asked the chancellor.
“His majesty likes the public to see the amassing of King-Mart profits,” Howadzer said, with a grimace. “I think it is a risk, especially under the circumstances.”
He took his leave.
“Well be right over there,” Guido said. “Just go about your business like we wasn't here.”
We withdrew to a point that Guido had identified as an excellent coign of vantage inside a tent in a display of camping gear several yards distant. We had a good view of the entrance to the lighted tower. The guards were notably nervous, knowing that they would be under constant scrutiny. They fidgeted and glanced at one another, whispering. Guido put up with this for fifteen minutes or so, then he stormed out of the tent, and lowered his face until it was nearly touching theirs.
“Awright, you mugs,” he barked. “Tenn-HUTT! Eyes forward! Backs straight! No talking' in the ranks. I don't want to hear another peep outta you guys unless it's to tell me that the monster's eatin' your leg. You got me?”
“Yes, my lord!” they chorused.
“I ain't your lord,” Guido snarled. “I work for a livin'! Now, pay attention! You're guardin' the king's gold!”
He stomped back to the tent.
The guards became stalwart, silent, and upright. If they slewed their eyes sideways at one another now and again, Guido pretended not to notice.
Up in the rafters, my keen hearing detected the rustle of the Shutterbugs' wings as they flew about taking images.
Hours passed. Dinner was long past, and my stomach emitted rumblings audible in the silence of the aisles. At each emission, Guido and Nunzio removed themselves to the extreme other end of the tent. At the sound, the guards shifted from foot to foot, but they kept their eyes forward, and their right hands on sword hilt or spear haft. If they had been responsible for the theft of gold, they would not repeat their pilfering tonight, not with the eyes of the enforcers upon them. I was more curious to see the beast that had left the scent on the aisle floor and on the pillar of the king's audience chamber.
In the darkest hour, I heard the hiss of feet on the tiles.
I sprang up and shot out of the tent. Guido and Nunzio barely had time to don their hats and follow me. WHAM!
By the time they caught up with me, I was standing on the intruder's chest, glaring into his face. Guido held a torch aloft and looked down into the perpetrator's face.
“Lord Howadzer! Gleep, let him have some air.”
I realized my mistake and hastily vacated the chancellor's ribcage.
“Gleep!” I said, and licked his face by way of apology.
“Pthah!” he said, wiping his visage vigorously. “I was only coming in to see if everything was all right! Is this how you run a security check, by jumping on your employers?”
“When they come upon us unawares in the middle of the night, we do,” Guido said, replacing his miniature crossbow in his inside breast pocket. “Gleep did exactly what I would have expected him to do. You didn't announce yourself, and I would have heard footsteps louder than a tiptoe myself.”
“I still don't like it,” the chancellor said. With a disdainful look at me, he turned on his heel and marched away. His retreating footsteps were twice as loud as the approaching ones. Nunzio and Guido looked thoughtful.
“I do not like that guy,” Nunzio said. “He is just too self-righteous for his own good.”
No further intrusions marked our night of surveillance.
In the morning, the blare of trumpets heralded the arrival of King Petherwick. With heralds and pages trotting ahead of him, his majesty made a visit to the Treasury.
He was accompanied by Lord Dalhailey and a handful of attendants.
“We are most pleased to see that no one was hurt overnight,” he said. “And my gold is safe!”
He patted the pile of coins. With a clang, it shifted and collapsed in on itself. It was hollow! Petherwick let out a wail.
“My gold! The monster must have come up through the floor and stolen it!” He rounded upon the enforcers. “You were supposed to prevent this! I want reimbursement for every coin that went missing! Lord Howadzer will make up a reckoning. Your organization will make me restitution, as per our agreement.”
“That remains to be seen,” Nunzio said. “Naturally, we hope to recover your gold.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer looked harried, but the Minister of Marketing looked secretly pleased. I remarked upon the expression. Perhaps it was a sign of a rivalry between the two lordlings.
“We were supposed to keep an eye out for a monster that was causing loss of life,” Guido said. “The Shutter-bugs saw nothing. We saw nothing.”
But I smelled something. That elusive scent touched my nostrils, and I went on alert. Determined to track it to its source, I dragged Nunzio behind me on my leash.
Sniff, sniff sniff sniff!
The enforcer's voice behind me was encouraging. “Find anything, boy? Whatcha got there, eh?”
Guido and the chancellor followed in our wake as I raced up the aisle. A memory was stirring. I couldn't really place my claw upon it, but I know I had smelled it before. But in a moment I should see the source, and my mystery would be solved!