Free Songreaver by Andrew Hunter

before they will clear it for
sale."
    Garrett's skin flushed hot, imagining
Lampwicke and Caleb sold off to the highest bidder like so much
furniture. His hand slipped inside his satchel, tightening around
the cold metal of his essence flask.
    "Where is it?" Dannen asked.
    "In the back," the auctioneer said, "but I
can't let you take it." he flinched as Dannen raised his fist
again. "The Templars..."
    "I am a Templar!" Garrett shouted,
"Ordained by the priestess Serepheni. I am also an officer in the
army of the Deathlord Zarathul. I have faced the black dragon and I
have faced the High Inquisitor of the Chadirian Empire." He raised
his left hand, now wreathed in rainbow flame and closed his fist,
snuffing it out. "Who are you to tell me anything?"
    Every eye in the room stared back at him in
amazement.
    Ghausse snarled, and the auctioneer let out a
little yelp of fear.
    ****
    "You sure you don't want us to have them put
everything back where they found it?" Dannen asked as he and
Garrett sat together on the loading dock in the gray light of
day.
    "Nah," Garrett said, still feeling a bit
lightheaded from his earlier outburst, "If they just take
everything to my uncle's house, we can make sure everybody gets
what belongs to them and there aren't any mix-ups."
    Dannen shrugged. "You need any help with
gettin' the zombies back?" he asked.
    "No, but thanks," Garrett said, looking down
at the pages of the heavy leather-bound ledger in his lap, "I think
my friends will be able to figure out who bought what, and we can
go get everything back then." He tried to make sense of the spidery
handwriting scrawled across the yellow pages, desperately searching
for any mention of a fairy. There were a great many entries for animate remains . One of them had to be Caleb.
    Dannen got to his feet. He offered his hand
to Garrett and shook it, a bit more gently this time. "Good luck,
Garrett," he said.
    "Thanks again," Garrett said, "If you ever
need anything from me..."
    Dannen laughed. "Don't worry about it. I just
hate seein' somebody get robbed when they're down... especially if
they go down fightin' for somebody else."
    Garrett nodded and closed the ledger,
standing up to wave goodbye as Dannen and his crew supervised the
loading of the auction house wagons. Crates full of furniture,
books, and what appeared to be a collection of birdhouses, were all
carefully bundled on to the wagons and sent trundling slowly off to
Uncle Tinjin's house in the Arcane Quarter.
    He shook Ghausse awake from where the wolf
had been napping in the crawlspace beneath the wooden loading dock.
Ghausse scooted out from beneath the dock and shook the dust and
cobwebs from his fur. Garrett patted him on the back and then
climbed up. He turned to see the auctioneer in the brown suit
glaring at him from the shadows of the auction house door. Compared
to Johann Prex, the man really wasn’t all that intimidating.
Garrett gave him a level stare and then rode out of the auction
yard and back toward the lifts to the Upper City.
    He arrived back at Uncle’s house to find Mrs.
Nash, Uncle Tinjin's favorite local cook, knocking at the door. Her
younger son Kent stood beside her, holding a large basket. The
wonderful smell of fresh-baked bread was drifting from beneath the
basket's blue striped cloth covering. Kent and his mother turned,
their eyes going wide at the sight of the big black wolf padding up
the street behind them.
    “Garrett?” Kent asked, cocking his head to
one side. Kent had grown a bit since Garrett had last seen him.
Perhaps Garrett had as well.
    “Hi, Kent. Hi, Mrs. Nash,” Garrett said.
    Mrs. Nash looked a bit flustered at the sight
of Ghausse as well, but she smiled and bid Garrett good
afternoon.
    “How’s Pierce doing?” Garrett asked.
    Mrs. Nash smiled. “He’s well,” she said,
“Away with his uncle for a few months.”
    “He’s learning to sail,” Kent said. Then his
expression turned from pride to disappointment. “Ma says I can’t