Chapter 87: Cashing Out

  Alabaster

  Alley and Darius stood at the gap in the hedge maze looking thoughtfully at the raft they had rented back in Rak town. It sat extremely low in the water, so much so that it didn’t bob there it just…sat.

  “I think we may have overloaded the boat a little.” Said Alley with a rueful grin.

  “Yeah…” Darius agreed. “I think we need to consider turning this into a multiple trips thing.”

  Alley snorted. “It's already a multiple trips thing, it's turning into “ The dark-haired boy made a circular gesture with his hand as he searched for and failed to find the right word. “Moreso.”

  The pair of boys fell silent once more as they contemplated solutions to their problem. There really weren’t any that ‘solved’ the issue.

  Alley and Darius couldn’t take everything they wanted from the swamp mansion with them, even as overloaded as the raft already was it hadn’t come close to holding all the crystals, books, and other assorted valuables the boys had identified as worth taking.

  “ARG! This sucks!” Darius roared after about twenty seconds of silent staring. “Do you have a better idea than taking a tiny portion of our loot, going north to Medius, selling it, and then coming back to get the rest?”

  Alley let out a long breath and dug his little palm-sized chip bag out of his backpack. Emptying the masonite coins into his hand Alley found they had not miraculously reproduced or recruited more members to their ranks while he’d been fighting for his life. Their present funds amounted to two white chips, one red and one blue. It was enough money to feed the boys for a few days, rent a room for maybe one more day, or…well really that was about it.

  “Uhhh no.” He said, dragging out the word slightly. “Best I can tell our only real option is several weeks of trudging about unless we can convince some people, people with a swamp boat to work for the promise of future pay.”

  That made Darius scoff. “ You’d have to be pretty desperate to agree to that from a pair of teens in worn travel clothes.”

  Alley found he couldn’t disagree with that assessment if two boys looking like them had turned up in Valeton promising future riches if only he committed to a journey across half of the country. There would have been no doubt in Alley’s mind that some chicanery was afoot, and the pair of teenagers were trying to make a fool of or rob him somehow.

  Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the idea had merit. “There are some pretty desperate people in Rak Town” He pondered aloud. “Maybe too desperate.” That was of course the other problem with this plan, you had to trust the workers you hired.

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  “I’d really rather not have to look over my shoulder the entire time,” Darius added. “I think we just do this the hard way if I’m honest.” Alley sighed he hated working harder rather than smarter and especially hated not utilizing potential resources he had access to. None of that changed that Darius was probably right.

  “Well, you were right about the mosquitoes.” Alley conceded before the two boys began to unload most of the raft’s cargo. Opting to hide the gems in the maze, Alley sadly had to return most of the books he had salvaged all the way to the house. He simply couldn’t risk a fall storm striking the swamp before he could return for the volumes. The Crystals at least only had to avoid being found by someone else as a little rain wouldn’t mean anything to them.

  Darius still kept his backpack which was teaming with the gems, and Alley brought the earliest volume of Lady Astley’s journal he had managed to find. It was a large leather-bound thing that took up altogether far more space in his backpack than he felt a book should especially as Alley’s own notebook was about a third the size of the tome. It was the fourth volume as evidently Astley had been keeping journals of some sort or another her entire life.

  First, the boys made their way back to Rak Town, a task that proved more challenging than either had thought. It was as if the grassy waterways through the swamp had changed over the course of the two days Alley and Darius had occupied the mansion full of now destroyed and no longer resurrecting Undead.

  Alley still wasn’t sure why the monsters had stopped pulling themselves back together. It seemed likely that they were connected to Lady Astley somehow, and had lost the ability when she died but that was only a guess. It had proven convenient whilst looting the mansion, though Alley had to admit to a little disappointment. If the zombies and such remained as piles of splintered bone and shredded flesh he couldn’t turn them into Cards. It had been one of the first things Alley tried after he had searched the library wing.

  So while it was probably for the best that the pair of boys didn’t have to contend with an ever-renewing horde of monsters, the lost opportunity to build his collection rankled at Alley. Especially given that he was going to need lots of duplicate Cards to reach Rank 10.

  By the time the boys had poled the raft back to town full dark had fallen. Fortunately for their funds, they had technically already paid for tonight’s stay at the old Frostlander lady’s inn of sorts.

  She was a little surprised to see them, having taken the boys for dead when they didn’t return the first night. Still, their food and board had been paid for, so she happily let them bathe and fed them.

  It was once again a Frostlander dish that Darius crooned over and Alley could barely stomach. Some kind of pig intestine stuffed with potatoes and served with strips of bacon. It was odd, to say the least, but having had a bath and enjoying a safe roof over his head, Alley was just happy to sit at the old wooden dining table and enjoy being warm and maybe not well fed, but fed.

  About halfway through picking at his meal Alley spotted Denderra for the first time since they had left the mansion. He assumed that the lower amount of local Undeath Resonance had hidden her while they were traversing the swamp, but if that was true why could he see her now? Yes, they had a backpack full of Resonance crystals, but they were hidden away upstairs. If the crystals had the range to reveal her from there, why hadn’t she appeared during the trip through the swamp? Something was going on that Alley didn’t understand, and he was hoping since she was here anyway Denderra might have answers.

  Standing quietly she watched the pair of boys and the elderly woman, It struck Alley almost as though she were spying on them. That suspicion was almost totally confirmed when the girl practically jumped out of her non-skin when Alley stood up and walked over to her.

  Sorry this chapter was about 12 hrs late. The last few days have been nutty on my end.