CHAPTER 38
I managed to avoid another trip to the sluice room, but only just, and not for the first time I wondered how and why I had ended up in such a job. There was more, but Matt’s summary covered it rather neatly. Discounting the possibility of an utterly bizarre and complicated accident, our man had been beaten and badly wounded with axes. Not swords; Matt went into rather too much detail about the different wounds he would have expected if someone had been channelling some Japanese ninja film.

Smile

My father was admitted to the hospital and I, without any fight, was admitted into a cell at juvenile hall. I wasn’t as miserable as I thought I would be. I was held over the weekend without visitors.

It was a contentious meeting.

General Food Products was trying to acquire Matilda's, a leading name in the custom lingerie industry. The lawyers were negotiating while the principals sat there patiently trying to stay awake.

"It figures that someone would want me to tell the story of the fight with the giant cats again. I've told this one a dozen times or more now!"

Jarg was sitting on his homemade stump stool near the kitchen of Madame Benrime's excellent establishment, the Journeyman's Inn.

He had recently moved into a room behind the blacksmith's, sharing the living space with Vansel, his brother Argen and Vansel's wife Twist. Even with that, though, when Jarg wasn't busy helping the smith or the carpenter, he could be found relaxing in the inn over a mug of ale.