Crossing

Felony

“The essence of truism is that it is true.” Lord Peyton of Yeovil


3

Felony

Acadia sat in the miniscule parlour which looked as if it had never been used before and worried. She was safe she was sure of it but where had Fidayeen and the little gnome like man gone? Spider webs layered the ceiling and walls almost like wallpaper and dust clouds billowed every time Acadia moved about. She wondered where Estovers was, he had gone in one moment from caring brother to selfish stranger, there had never been a moment like that before. With another fidget Acadia sent some more grime into the air and so she gave up sitting sit and began to look around, dislodging the biggest swarm of dust yet as she got. There was not much that was interesting apart from a small bookshelf in the corner of the room. It held only a few dirty volumes but it was better than what was in Acadia’s mind. She picked up one and opened it but opted to stay standing for fear of choking on the onslaught which would follow. The book fell upon a page with the others before it ripped out. They had been ripped carefully to make sure that no sign of them would be but the vandal had failed to notice that page numbers give away an awful lot. Acadia looked at the title on the binding which was something pretty ordinary about breeding pigeons and looked again at the missing pages. They belonged to a chapter on the best type of beak and Acadia could not help stifling a mystified laugh. The other books on the shelf also had titles on the much the same subject and a couple had pages ripped out as well. It looked like a child’s play as the wreckage was all random but Acadia doubted a child could ever be so neat. Approaching footsteps startled her and she shoved the books back on the shelf. The door opened but Acadia with her back to the door guessed it was Fidayeen.
         “When will we leave Fidayeen? I doubt that Estovers will have stayed out this long so by now must be pretty worried for me.”
         “I’m sorry miss, but the gentlemen are still discussing terms.” Acadia spun round and saw that it was actually a serving maid who had entered the parlour. She immediately felt extremely stupid. “I was wondering if you would like some vittles, you know a bun or two.”
         “Is there anywhere I could sit which was a little less dusty? Then I’d gladly take your buns but right now I’d probably swallow a lot more dust than cake.”
         Acadia had meant it as a joke but the maid looked offended and said stiffly, “I do try my hardest but what with this being such a large house I often miss the rooms which aren’t viewed so regularly to make up my shortage of time. But if you feel so strongly about then follow me.” She walked off briskly out of the room and started through a myriad of corridors. Acadia quickly realised that it she didn’t keep up then she would probably never find her way out. Lifting up her skirts she started to scamper after the fierce maid only to bump into her when she stopped suddenly. “They’re coming, quick hide in this room. They won’t come in here. You’re not meant to be let out of the parlour but I thought they would at least be a couple more hours.” Her face went white and creased with fear. “I must learn to never listen to uppity girls again. A little dust can hardly matter in the face of this.”
         Acadia was so swept up in this worry that she hardly even thought about the fact that Fidayeen and Paeon had barely seemed to earn this level of fear from what she had gouged of them. True, she only knew them skin deep but if a man was truly evil wouldn’t the deeds show in his face? This was why as the two men passed by the insignificant room she listened more in curiosity than anything else, so she could know what these men were feared for. She caught only snatches as would be expected but what she heard puzzled her.
         “Paeon, this must be the last. I have to be above suspicion now I have taking these two charges on. The world will be watching me, at least for a while, Rhoe was well known and liked; people will be looking out for those children.”
         “I don’t care. I need the money, you promised me our deal would continue – charges or not.”
         Acadia’s interest was piqued as she heard Paeon take on the master role and beat Fidayeen into obedience. Fidayeen weakly argued their future reputations away as his quiet eavesdropper gasped with each pathetic reason that his mouth spilt out. Paeon obviously wasn’t the submissive weakling that Acadia had seen at the door. He had said this was meant to be the last time but for whatever reasons he clearly hadn’t meant what he said.
         “That’s settled then. We won’t meet as publicly as this again, but let us drink to the future while we can.” Paeon chinked glasses with Fidayeen with a sly grin. “Now you had better get back to your little girl and escort her home before her brother gets too worried.”
         “Yes, I shall. She is in the parlour right?”
         Acadia suddenly realised that the men thought she was still in the parlour and if they found out that she had listened to their conversation she was not sure what might happen to her. Turning around she became aware that the maid had left her in the room and alone for her fate. The room was small and Acadia hadn’t paid much attention to it until now. A dusty chair was placed in the corner and a smile played on Acadia’s lips as she thought about the amount of dust which must be in the house if every room was as dusty as the rooms she had been in. The room was pretty bare apart from the chair and the floor only had a threadbare rug covering it. It obviously wasn’t used much even for dark meetings about evil deeds. There was a door tucked away in a niche on the other side and Acadia thought she might give it a go as she knew that Fidayeen and Paeon were still close by wandering the corridors. With her hand on the door knob, Acadia wished she had not been an “uppity girl” and stayed where she was. Who knew what was behind this door? A quick flight of fantasy gave Acadia suggestions of man-eating tigers, a huge meeting of slavers and other evil people who might kill her and someone doing knife throwing practice and might just fancy her as a target. She dismissed these pretty quickly and it was only as the door was half open that she realised that it could just lead to another corridor on which the two men would be walking through. Too late, a half opened door would be suspicious she would have to carry on. It did lead to a corridor however it was such a small and slight one that she doubted if anyone other than small children and herself had ever walked through it. It was, as would be expected, dusty but Acadia went down it being careful not to breathe out too much in case she got stuck. She noticed that everywhere there were old picture frames lining the walls but each and every picture had been roughly cut out leaving only a jagged reminder of what had been. This was a strange place indeed, Acadia thought, or at least a strange vandal as she remembered the pages which had been cut out of the books. She went past doors and doors but was never sure which one to pick. After getting fed up of suffocating she decided to just choose the next left hand door which came along. There was one soon enough and Acadia pushed it open, not giving herself anytime to think about whatever might be in this room.