They ate a warm breakfast of oatmeal and rolls served by Esmeralda. She chatted with them and discussed the winnings of Mullet and Kevin. The tournament news spread fast. Then Esmeralda handed them a stunning necklace.

  “You guys did get second place, so I believe this belongs to you. A small fleet of pixies came in the middle of the night and dropped it off for me to give to you. It’s a nice piece. Congrats. So what’s on your agenda today?” she asked.

  “A miserable day of cleaning leftover garbage out of a building. Probably followed by several more weeks of the same,” grumbled Jayde.

  “Sounds fun. Though, if I were you, I’d get the hobgoblins to do it,” Esmeralda answered.

  “The who-with-the-what now?” Jayde asked.

  “The hobgoblins. They’re the garbage workers in Grandeur. Every day they go down a different route and put all the garbage into their giant containers. Then they take it out of town to their secret location and sift through it all. They use anything they find. Broken furniture, twine, week-old rolls—they find a use for all of it. The DATT pays them a small amount, and they get to keep all the garbage. Both groups think they are suckering the other, which is the best arrangement possible.”

  “Do you think they’d clean a building?” Marie asked.

  “Well, that depends on how much garbage and what you’d pay them,” she said.

  “Well, the entire place is pretty much buried in filth, so they should do it for cheap,” said Jayde.

  “Not likely. They’re great cleaners. Don’t get me wrong, but they’re tricky, and they will try to rob you blind. But if it’s really that bad, it might be worth it,” said Esmeralda.

  “How do we contact the hobgoblins?” asked Cameron.

  “Ask the Splurgs,” said Esmeralda.

  After eating, Cameron headed back to his room to apply a cream Esmeralda had suggested to keep the sun from penetrating his skin. The cloak he wore only helped so much. Along with being an innkeeper, she also sold a multitude of magical wares, and Cameron was not the first vampire she had come across.

  They headed back to their garbage-filled building. It had a mud trough at the front, similar to the one at Happy Smyle Inn. Marie picked up the large wooden plank and shoved it into the slots. A Splurg appeared seconds later.

  “Was’sup, dudette? How can I assist?” said the mudman.

  “Could you tell us when and where we might find the hobgoblins?” Marie asked.

  “Totally, chicarino. Gotta charge yah somethin’ for it though, you know. I feel kinda bad for doin’ it,” said the Splurg, holding out a muddy arm. Marie dropped a copper into the arm, and it sunk into the mud.

  “Why do you feel bad about helping?” Marie asked.

  “Cause, like, they’re comin’ down this road in about an hour. But, if I don’t charge yah, then I have to give favors to, like, everyone. It’s not cool to play favorites, dudette. Rock on! You know how to get me if you need me. Peace out!” it said, lifting the wooden slat and disappearing into the trough.

  Cameron stayed inside the house, but the rest decided to wait for the hobgoblins outside the smelly building. After an hour, an enormous wagon appeared. It covered nearly the entire road, as it slowly lurched down the street. Large musk-oxen hauled the cart forward, as a filthy hobgoblin guided the cart from a high seat.

  A fleet of small gray horn-covered creatures pitched garbage into the wagon as it continued its slow procession. Most of the shops had piles of garbage out front. The vehicle and its odd inhabitants slowly made its way toward the clinic.

  Marie and Jayde stood in front of the cart, signaling it to stop. It continued onward at its slow pace, nearly running over them both.

  “Oi, I speak a bit of der talk. Dey speak like you, just with bad word choice,” said Marl from the side. He then ran inside and came out holding a handful of silver pennies in the air.

  “Vas issa joobie thinkin’ dare vissa bling-bling?” said the creature leading the cart.

  “Trash, cash, house, clean,” said Marl, while jingling a big handful of silver pennies.

  “Yoosah payin’ mucha penny for us be takin’ allsa dat trash outta yer house ands hauls zah masser of stinkin’ rubbish awayz for goods now. Eh? Eh?” said the leader in the cart.

  “Yah,” said Marl.

  “After wezah finish, you gives eacha hobgobs that helps a halfa-silver penny fors zah job zat be well done. Right, yah?” said the hobgoblin, stopping the oversize cart in front of the clinic.

  “Yah,” said Marl.

  The hobgoblin jumped down from his cart. He came up to Marl’s knee. He spat a large amount of green mucous into his hand and held out his hand to Marl. Marl spat some white dust into his hand, and they shook. The hobgoblin nodded once toward the building.

  The creature hobbled back onto his cart and pulled out a twisted wooden horn larger than his head and blew. In less than a minute, hobgoblins appeared from all directions and flooded the street. Filth covered their bodies. The road could hardly be seen outside the clinic due to the mass of small creatures. The driver barked some orders, and they all ran into the house screaming.

  “Wow. They really take their job seriously, huh?” said Jayde.

  In a matter of minutes all the windows facing the street were open, and garbage began pouring out. The wall of hobgoblins formed a mass of wriggling forms, each diving eagerly into the trash and heaving it out the windows toward the cart. Cameron joined the rest of the group outside. He was covered in trash. Marie made him stand downwind.

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  “What happened?” she asked.

  “You try to get out of the way when hundreds of screaming hobgoblins run in, fill their arms with trash, and sprint out. They’re maniacs!” said Cameron.

  After twenty minutes, the loads of trash being brought out by the mass of creatures were reduced to small handfuls. The hobgoblins continued to sprint back inside after every trip. The driver waited another twenty minutes. Jayde looked into the mounting pile of odious slop in the gigantic wagon. Areas of trash were undulating with rats and maggots. Blurry waves of heat and odor hit her nostrils like a dead wet dog.

  “That’s the most disgusting thing I have ever seen,” said Jayde.

  Twenty more minutes passed, and the driver took out his horn and blew it again.

  “Okee now. Yoosa block-o checken seeya iffin cleen enuff foryah, right?” said the leader to Marl.

  “Uh … ’Kay,” said Marl.

  The rock troll went into the building. They could all hear his loud footsteps, as he did a thorough sweep through the entire place. They heard multiple doors opening and closing. After five minutes Marl came back out.

  “It look good. Way good. No trash to be seen. They do good job,” he said.

  “Let me check. No offense, Marl, but the whole ‘no nose’ thing is a strike against you in this matter,” said Jayde, as she ran into the clinic. They could hear her running around, opening and slamming doors. Her head popped out the second story window. “I can’t believe it!”

  “Yahsir, wesah makers places soopercleaner, yah. I counts 218 hobgobs. That beesah two gold and nine silvers,” said the driver.

  Marl looked over at Cameron, who was already calming down Marie. She was fervently arguing that they were being gouged by the tiny garbage men. Marl stepped forward.

  “We be say half per gob. Yar?” said Marl.

  “Oi, meesah beezer getting allzah mixedupin. Dassah one gold, five silver,” said the hobgoblin.

  Marie still fumed about paying that much to the creatures. Cameron paid the money to the head hobgoblin, and they filed into the building.

  The place was immaculate. All traces of filth had been erased. Somehow the hobgoblins had also eradicated the revolting odor as well. The place sparkled.

  “Wow. Amazing how creatures so gross got it this clean,” said Jayde. “I almost don’t want to puke when I think about them now.”

  The group spent the rest of the day moving all their equipment and belongings into the clinic. Marie’s amazing cabinet continued to produce supplies from its ever-expanding interior. Jayde spent much of her time exploring inside. Now that it was clean, she had fallen in love with the place.

  The clinic was three stories tall, like all the other buildings on the street. The main floor was open, with a ceiling over fifteen feet high. Jayde finished exploring the large open room in minutes. Upstairs, however, rooms twisted and turned on top of each other. The layout was confusing, with curves connecting the rooms together instead of straight lines. The doors on the far sides were cemented shut. After investigating and taking a few trips outside the building to figure out the true location, Jayde realized that the doors must have connected to the neighboring building at one time or another.

  In the front corner on the main floor was a small room that had a pole which extended upward into the ceiling. Jayde could not understand the purpose of this until she found the same pole upstairs. She then realized that this pole allowed someone inside to slide all the way to the main floor. The stairs were located at the very back of the building, and the pole allowed easy access to get to the main floor quickly. She also found a miniature elevator in the back of the building by the kitchen. Marie explained that this was actually a dumbwaiter, used to bring supplies to the other floors, without having to traverse the narrow stairs. Jayde found that she could fit inside, and pull herself up and down in the dumbwaiter with ease. It slid noiselessly, and she amused herself by pulling herself up the dumbwaiter and sliding down the pole.

  By sunset, the clinic had been transformed from a rancid dump into a livable mess that no longer smelled like a sewer.

  “We still have a long way to go,” said Cameron.

  “You really want a fully functioning clinic again here, Cam? I mean, you were attacked just yesterday,” she said.

  “I know. Maybe someone from Verrara recognized me and put out a hit on me. Those men from yesterday were definitely from the Assassins’ Order, but were they connected to the ones in Haynis? I doubt the previous group of assassins could have tracked us here, considering I made sure each was quite dead. Also it has been just a few weeks. In a place this big, it could be decades before we are found, if ever.”

  “I hope you’re right. I really do. But that just brings up the next question. Was it a random attack or did someone actually order an attack by a dozen assassins?” she asked.

  Cameron looked out the window. Creatures of every shape and size made their way down the street, none of them stopping even to glance at the clinic. “I don’t know. Who here would care about vampire hierarchy? Who here would even know? There is so little communication between Tenland and Verrara. Each time we pick up and move, it’s farther and farther away from anyone who should know about such things, yet each time it seems I am discovered earlier. I’m done running, Marie. I wish we hadn’t killed all twelve, so I could get some answers from one of them.”

  “You and me both. How could someone recognize your face out of the millions who live here, organize some assassins, and then attack when we decided to go to the tourney only last night? It seems so implausible. I just feel like someone or something must be tracking us,” Marie said.

  “The Assassins’ Order wouldn’t do that. They track you just long enough to catch up with you. Once they’ve found you, they attack. That spiky bearded gambler might have been the target, and we might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was right. We did protect his stand,” Cameron said with a sigh. “Those guys were professionals. Granted, if I didn’t have to protect Jayde, I think I could have ended their little assault pretty quickly. But they did have a couple needle bombs. I thought those things were outlawed everywhere.”

  “They are. That didn’t seem to stop them. It was a pretty dumb choice for assassins as well, considering they explode and damage everything in all directions. Though, to their credit, they did receive the majority of the shards themselves.”

  “But it’s not them I’m worried about. They were sent by somebody. That’s what we need to find out.”

  “Should we tell the others? I mean, Marl’s so happy to have a few friends, he would not care about you being on the run from your past. It’s Jayde I’m worried about. She is used to being a little thief in a small town. She might leave us at any time, even though the poor thing’s just getting a hint of happiness in her life. That was the second assassination attempt she’s seen, and that’s a lot to ask of a little girl, even one as street-hardened as Jayde. Sooner or later she’ll find out the truth about your past,” Marie said.

  “True. But what if our suspicions about her are true as well? She conjured a potato twenty feet wide under incredible pressure with zero experience. She could kill herself accidentally if she had to fend for herself. Too bad we don’t know any seers in this city, then we could just find out for sure.”

  “Are you joking? How would we know if a seer is working for Zolf? Why don’t you just go flip a coin to see if you want to hand her right over to the Dark King? ‘Here you go. One potential Chosen wrapped up with a bow,’” Marie said.

  “I know. I know. But I’m sure there’s a clean seer in a town this size.”

  “We’ll just have to take it slowly. Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out some answers before we’re discovered. In the meantime we give Jayde some stability without terrifying her too much.”

  They walked out of the kitchen and back into the larger main floor of the clinic. After fifteen minutes the door to the dumbwaiter silently pushed open. Jayde peeked out to be sure no one saw her. She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to slow her racing heart. She felt happy that Cameron and Marie honestly cared for her, but what had just happened? Who were Cameron and Marie really?