
"So you fired your arch-mage..." Desmene prompted.
"Yes..." replied Duke Ardlenton. He insisted on meeting the group of people who had come from far and wide to answer his request for help. He insisted on wearing his heavy chains of office too.
"But when, after that falling out, he sent your daughter a painting as a birthday present..." Desmene didn't finish the rest of the sentence. She imagined it would have angered the man.
"Well..." he explained, shaking his jowly face. "...it was on amicable-ish terms."
The look on his butler's face said otherwise.
Desmene spent most of her time looking for lost elven treasures. She didn't normally deal with men like this. The story had piqued her interest.
Behind the Duke and his man was a strange assortment of people who had also taken an interest in the story or - more likely - the reward.
"And you send a soldier in to get her out?" Desmene asked, turning to look at the painting. She leaned forwards, getting as close as she could without touching the enchanted canvas.
"Damned fool probably got lost in that hedge maze."
"He wore a blue tabard?"
"Yes! How do you know?"
Desmene pointed to a small speck outside the hedge maze in the painting. A small body, in blue, lying in a pool of red.
"Oh dear."
