Chapter 11: Consequences

 

By the time I made it back to the Shop, I no longer felt as if I was being followed.  That fear had melted into sheer excitement, or concern, or terror.  I wasn't able to process any of it until I was certain whether the ring in my hands was the stone they were looking for.

Before I opened the door to the Shop I removed the hat from my head and the herb from my shirt.  

I saw within, Pendragon at the front desk and Aine beside him.  They both looked at me with the same immediacy, which to me meant she was fully informed of the situation.

Without a word I walked up to the counter and placed the man's ring on top.  It looked pathetic, the clouded yellow stone, wrought with imperfection and poorly set onto the tarnished silver setting.  We all looked at it briefly, with myself waiting to see what Pendragon had to say.

"Explain," was all.  As I told the story, his eyes fixed on the ring.  Aine, on the other hand, watched me tell the story.

"Once I got to the building I was able to get into the lobby without a key," and here I paused.  I wanted to see if Pendragon reacted but he didn't.  "Front door unlocked for me, too.  Only there were guys inside already, two of them."  Still no reaction from Pendragon, but Aine was looking increasingly nervous.  I put the hat and herb on the table and scratched my head, "One of them pulled a gun on me when I walked in."

Aine gasped and covered her mouth, fearful eyes  looking for a wound on my abdomen.

"Well obviously I didn't get shot..."

She relaxed with an, "Oh."

I moved behind the counter and wrapped my arm around her shoulder to pull her in.  She hugged me tightly like I imagine a little sister would've.  So, rocking her, I continued, "The one guy told the other guy, whose name was Coop, that they had to find a rock."

Still no reaction from Pendragon, himself just staring at the ring, so I finished the story.  "I figured I'd look for something that belonged in The Shop.  This is what I found."

Aine and I stood, rocking back and forth like idiots, for what seemed like hours.  In reality we only waited two minutes for him to stop eyeballing the ring. 

He cleared his throat and transferred his gaze up to me.  "I'm afraid it's bad news."

"Damn.  I thought I found what they wanted."  I separated from Aine and stepped forward to look at the ring more closely.

"Yes, bad news, you did," said Pendragon with certainty, "And now it's going to be our responsibility to protect it from them."