Continued from S3-5-1: The Target of the Inquisition. The ruckus outside drew the tavern’s other patrons attention, while Rynard and Syn exchanged a knowing glance, sure that if there was trouble to be found Nykira would be in center of it, as they bolted toward the door. But by the time they pushed through thong that blocked the door, they saw little sign of what had caused all the commotion, only a tide of humanity seemingly fleeing from a single point. Turning into that tide, which parted at the sight of a Dragon Lord as most crowds did, they scanned for Nykira, or signs of what ever trouble she had gotten herself into. Finding the apparent source, amid overturned stalls and clear signs of a struggle, they still saw no sign of her until Rynard noticed something half buried under a pile of cloth that had been knocked to the ground; Nykira broadsword. “What happened here?” he asked the merchant who was trying to rescue the wares he could from the ruins of his smash stall, as he rose with her sword in hand. “They ruined everything… That’s what happened!” the merchant barked in reply, as he stopped to surveyed the wreckage around him, clearly more concerned with his lost inventory then anything else. Pushing past Rynard, Syn grabbed the man by his throat and brought him eye to eye with him. He was well aware that few Vilmirians had ever seen a Melnibonean, and that the church of Law painted his people as depraved, amoral monsters… and at that moment, he was prepared to prove them right! “What happened to the woman who bore that sword?” he demanded his eyes ablaze with fury as he fixed the man with a stare that seemed to bore straight through to his soul. “The Inquisition… They took them,” the terrified man stammered. “That woman tired to help Nadjana, the Duke’s bodyguard, so they took her too.” “Where did they take her?” Syn growled. He knew of the Lawful fanatics called the Inquisition; the Knights of the Cleansing Flame. They terrorized Vilmir unchecked by either the crown or the church of Law they claimed to serve, and if they had Nykira, she was in greater peril then he had thought. “Toward the docks,” the merchant chocked in replied, struggling against Syn’s grasp, which he had not realized he had tightened to near the point of strangling the man. Releasing the merchant as he turned to pursue Nykira’s abductors, Syn and Rynard found themselves facing a tall, square jawed man of impressive demeanor dressed in fine cloths, with half a dozen marines at his back. “It’s too late!” Duke Avan Astran announced fuming with rage. “This was well planed. They had a boat waiting to row them to a ship in the bay ready to go to sail. They’re half way to the Straits by now, Chardros be damned!” Then he settled himself and addressed them in a calmer tone; “Your friend faces the Inquisition only because she tried to help my bodyguard, Nadjana… and her only crime is being Mabden!” To be continued on S3-5-3: The Duke's Dilemma. The second installment in the fifth book of my Stormbringer characters' adventures. Thanks for looking... Hope you enjoy! Comments and suggestions always welcome and appreciated!