The Slime Farmer

Chapter 66: Break-in

It felt like a long time since Defi last poled his way up the Treachery. Subconsciously, his shoulders relaxed for the first time in days as he neared the pier to the Garge homestead.

The quiet sound of the flowing river, hiding deep undercurrents, was peaceful.

He was alone, with only Turq as his companion.

Natan and the soldiers left after making sure he wasn't going to be imprisoned for something or other, and after they talked to the mayor themselves. He assured them he wasn't that much trouble, but to his annoyance they were sceptical. Lergen eyed Defi speculatively, then disappeared in the soldiers' general direction with a face that told Defi he would regret not stopping the man.

Warriors gossiped as much as little girls, to Defi's experience. He already dreaded the eventual distorted tales that would make their way across the Lowpool. He decided to spend most of the next month or two on the homestead; he had a farm that needed him anyway.

The children went back to the orphanage, Mureil and her friends smiling in farewell after chatting gaily in his direction. Bree waved at him cheerfully while Markar argued vehemently with Aire and Falie, with Renne looking horrified at something her brother said.

Defi waved back; they would be fine.

Sarel returned to concocting mystic dishes for those people who participated in the raid on the Groaning Cliff, at the request of the mayor. A single healing dish, no matter how miraculous, could not restore everything. The severely injured people who returned today needed more care. Not to mention, those who were able to walk from Genlet did so even with minor to serious wounds.

Defi surmised that apart from a few people, no one knew the Lowpool was hiding a master mystic chef like a cheap cooking adventure story plot. Otherwise the mayor of Genlet would not have spent half a fortune on hiring a chef from elsewhere.

Defi's eye twitched; he was specifically ordered to not work and eat various things every day for a week.

The annoyance was expelled with a faint sigh.

The care of others was stifling, but it was not a bad feeling at all.

Even if Sarel would be able to tell that his body healed faster than usual if he protested.

The problem was that he needed the zaziphos for the slimes.

Being away for days, he was slightly worried. Kern's herbs would have sucked the life out of the land near the herb plot again. The sansu that needed to be sustained by the Current might have had a setback and withered a little. Then the slimes might even have eaten through the house, he added satirically.

Why were all the things he decided to farm so greedy?

After one last push, he lifted the pole from the water as the flat-bottomed boat glided into place at the pier. He braced it against the weathered wood to avoid a collision. He stowed the pole, jumped onto the pier and tied off the boat.

He paused to look around, feeling something was wrong.

Where were the workers?

There were usually at least six people visible, with the sounds of construction and the occasional shouted instruction or joking.

The warehouse was littered with the usual tools and materials. If the workers had left early, all of the jumble would be tidied up and kept dry under canvas sheets, not left out in the open.

He caught a curl of smoke above the trees and his breath caught.

He ran toward the house.

Rounding the screen of trees, he was relieved to see Karles and the others. One side of the house was charred, dark soot splashed against grey stone and still burning wood.

"What happened?"

"Someone broke through the wards," Karles answered, face dark.

Defi's jaw clenched. "Definitely?"

"Yes," said one of the others. Wesler, Karles' youngest brother, Defi recalled.

They had been introduced when the full complement of builders who would be working on the warehouse came to the homestead. His eyes were always curious, and his build was slight. He had the same purple highlights in his dark hair as Karles did, but his face was more expressive than his stoic older brother. By his soft face and inquiring eyes alone, people would say he was a scholar. But the rough clothes and the callus and roughness of his hands betrayed his profession as a carver.

In fact, he was a skilled craftsman in a profession where a high literacy rate was needed. Defi knew that compared to the people who studied how to make paper emblems, those who learned to carve emblems into wood or stone were relatively few.

"They used something to draw the protections to here," Wesler indicated the charred part of the house. "then cracked the weakened protections on the other side. There's a window broken there. After they were done, they exploded whatever they used."

"We didn't hear anything until then," said Tholme, apologetic.

"It is not your fault. I imagine they took care not to alert you." Defi waved away the apology. "Are wards so easy to break into?"

Wesler shook his head. "They would have needed to study the configuration thoroughly. There are several sets that are used in the Lowpool, for different types of dwellings."

Defi paused. "The one used for the farms is the same?"

"Yes. Uh, the wards we use are not precisely 'barriers' in the usual sense of 'shields' but are" Wesler motioned with his hands, a sphere. "like a freeflowing"

"Cloud." Defi supplied helpfully. With him constantly sending the Current through the land, it was impossible for him not to have grasped the truth that the protection over the house was like a mass of patrolling dust particles. It was a fairly interesting discovery.

His Current-enhanced sensing was poor unless he was sending Current through the land or using the higher Circles, but as a low-adept he could at least perceive the mass of controlled power emitted by a powerful protection emblem. He already knew that if he concentrated while using the Third Circle, he could faintly sense vitality in non-living objects. It was useful for picking out mystic ingredients.

"Exactly! It's like a cloud of freeflowing water around the house, that solidifies into ice when the protection is threatened. The weakness of this cloud protection is that in some parts of the configuration there are spots that are deemed priorities, and if that particular part is threatened, the emblem reacts too assiduously."

Protecting that one part while leaving the rest vulnerable; Defi understood.

"It's actually more useful than not," Wesler continued, frowning. "Which is why we've been using the configuration for so long. Most thieves have no way of seeing weaknesses in a protection emblem. And thieves that knowledgeable that target small farmhouses like this? Unheard of."

That was because the opponent this time was again too aggressive, Defi thought sardonically.

"More than one?"

Wesler nodded. "They would have needed at least two people to do this. If they did not know the configuration beforehand, at least one of them would have been a glyphmaster."

Should he feel flattered at the effort Calor Ducan was putting into this?

Defi's lips slanted in a half-amused smile. No, he was only involved because he acquired this particular homestead.

"The protective emblem itself has not been touched, as we could not get in to check," Wesler said. "In likelihood, only the outer anchors would need to be repaired. The protection itself is still intact."

He thanked Wesler for the explanation and moved to Karles' side.

The builder was staring at the house, glanced at Defi as he neared. "I'm entering first."

Defi shook his head. "There'll be no one inside."

"They could have left something behind." Karles glanced at the charred side of the house.

It was unlikely, but Karles was looking at him resolutely. Defi was eighteen years of age; did he truly look like he needed to be protected? He glared, but opened the door and let Karles in first.

Karles paused at the sight of the fish sculpture. It was the most eye-catching thing in the central hall. "Nice dcor. The books are a good touch."

Defi looked at him suspiciously. The man did not appear to be sarcastic or joking. "You're the first one to say that."

"Most people don't have my aesthetic sense."

"I really should remove the books later." Defi headed for the dining room he'd converted to a slime room.

Karles snorted, stuck his head into the room before Defi could enter. Defi sighed in resignation. "I do have the ability to protect myself."

"Hm. I sent a couple of people to get the town guards. Better do this quickly." He strode across the slime room and cautiously entered the doorway to the kitchen.

"How fine of you, sir, to attempt to protect this suspected criminal." Defi jibed sarcastically at the hint to hide what he needed to hide. "What is this?"

He checked the half-eaten baskets with a sigh, to see that only three slimes were in the room. He poked the mass of what looked like black tar on the floor.

Karles eyed it from the kitchen. "Slime jelly. Looks like they used fire."

Defi was silent for a moment. "Jelly?"

"You're raising slimes. Shouldn't you know the one product that can be made from them?" Karles opened the door to the back courtyard carefully, closed it again when he saw nothing. "Slimes are killed in heat to dry them out, powdered, used in desserts."

Defi had concentrated on habitat and diets of slimes, not the commercial potential despite his current plans. "Is it a lucrative market?"

"If you're planning to get rich on slime jelly, you're out of luck." Karles came out of the kitchen, chucked two slimes at him. Defi caught them quickly.

"Thank you." He checked to see that the two were fine one of them was Lar. With three others in the room and one reduced to jelly, he needed to find five slimes more.

He nudged together three baskets to make a holding pen and put the five slimes in. He put aside the jellified slime for further study.

Karles returned. He tossed another slime to Defi and stopped at the entrance to the underground storage, lifting a brow in enquiry. Defi nodded permission as he put Mal in with the rest of the others. Karles had already seen the place anyway.

He heard the man click his tongue in displeasure, followed to see what had the stoic man react in such a way.

"Oh."

The intruders had found the underground storage. His barrels and sacks had been broken and torn, jars had been smashed and bottles shattered. The contents were strewn around the space, crushed together in an unrecoverable mess of sauce, grain, and viand, with a side of wine and jam.

"Over here."

Karles was looking at a square hole in one of the large stones that made up an innocuous wall. Defi came up to Karles, studied it. He had not even known it was there. He had looked for hidden spaces but had missed it.

It had not been attached to the protection emblems.

"Nothing was taken."

Karles lifted a brow. "Oh?"

"If they got what they came here for, they wouldn't have done this." Defi waved a hand at the wreckage.

"It doesn't mean they left empty-handed, just that they didn't get what they were expecting."

Also true.

"Can we keep this storage room a secret from the guards?" The manner of entry was already too much of a suspicion. He did not want the town to be further embroiled in whatever that person was doing.

That gained a shrug from the man. "Of course."

"Thank you."

Though, if Calor Ducan had ceased to be subtle, it was likely that he was done with the Lowpool. It would be good if Agreine and Ducan left at the same time.

The builder eyed him. "You do not appear afraid that your home has been broken into."

The lord of Rimet had enemies. Defi had faced several threats to his life since he had been entered into the learning halls. This matter did not have the thick warning feel of a fatal threat in the Current.

"My life is not in trouble. These are only burglars."

Karles considered that, nodded. "I apologize that this happened while we were near, and we could do nothing to stop it."

"It is not your fault." Defi said again. "Though of course, if you insist, I do have a security emblem that needs recalibrating and added protective measures."

"No charge," Karles said wryly.

Defi smiled brightly. "You're very kind."