And yet, in Avery's eyes at least, Cadderly ranked far above Rufo, far above any except the ruling order in the library.
Rufo grabbed a sack of flour and pulled it to him so forcefully that a small white puff burst up at him, covering his face.
"Someone's not seeming a bit too happy," came a gruff, gravelly voice beside him.
"Uh-uh," agreed a voice on the other side.
The angular priest did not have to look sidelong or down to know that the Bouldershoulder brothers had flanked him, and that fact did little to improve his sour mood. He had known that the dwarves were coining to Carradoon, but he had hoped that he and Avery would be well on their way back to the library before these two ever arrived.
He turned toward Ivan and started to push past the dwarf, through the narrow aisle of the cramped store. Ivan did little to aid the angular man, and with the dwarfs considerable girth, Rufo had nowhere to go.
"Ye're in a hurry," Ivan remarked. "I thinked ye'd be glad to see me and me brother."
"Get out of my way, dwarf," Rufo said grimly.
"Dwarf?" Ivan echoed, feigning a mortal wound. "Ye saying that like it's an insult?"
"Take it for what you will," Rufo replied evenly, "but dp get out of my way. I am in Carradoon on important business, something you obviously could not understand."
"I always figured flour to be important," Ivan replied sarcastically, giving the bag a rough pat that sent another white burst into Rufo's face. The angular man trembled with mounting rage, but that only spurred Ivan to further taunts.
"Ye're acting like ye're not so glad to see me and me brother," the dwarf said.
"Should I be?" Rufo asked. "When have we ever claimed friendship to one another?"
"Vfe fought together in the wood," Ivan reminded him. "or at least, some of us fought. Others figured to hide in a tall tree, if me memory's working proper."
Rufo growled and pushed ahead, dislodging several packages in his attempt to get beyond Ivan. He had nearly made his way past when the dwarf threw out one strong arm, stopping Rufo as completely as a stone wall.
"Danica's in town, too," Ivan remarked, his other hand held high and balled into a fist.
"Boom," Pikel added grimly behind the angular man.
The reference to Danica's humiliating attack made Rufo's face flush red with rage. He growled again and shoved past Ivan, stumbling all the rest of the way down the narrow aisle and knocking many more items from the shelves.
"A fine day to ye," Ivan called behind him. Rufo dropped the sack of flour and passed right by the counter, fleeing for the street.
"Good to see him," Ivan said to Pikel. "Adds a bit of flavor to a dull trip."
"Hee hee hee," Pikel agreed.
Ivan's face went serious once more as he noticed a tall man selecting goods from a shelf behind Pikel. The man's gait and movements were easy and graceful, his eyes sharp and steady, and he hoisted a twenty-pound bag of meal easily with one hand. His tunic moved up from the back of his trousers as he moved, revealing a dagger tucked securely in the back of his belt.
That alone would not have fired off any alarms in Ivan; many people carried concealed weapons in Carradoon, and Ivan himself had a knife in one pocket.
But the dwarf was certain he 'd seen this man before, in a different guise. He watched the man for a few moments longer, until the man noticed him, snarled, and headed off the other way down the aisle.
"Eh?" Pikel asked, wondering what problem so obviously bothered his brother.
Ivan did not immediately reply, for he was too busy searching his memory. Then it came to him: he had seen a man closely resembling the shopper in the alley beside the Dragon's Codpiece. The man had been more disheveled then, wearing tattered clothing and seeming like an ordinary street beggar, of which Carradoon had its share. Even then, though, Ivan had noted the grace of the beggar's movements, a skilled and measured step.
The dwarf hadn't thought much about it, and wouldn't even have given it more than a passing thought now, except for the unpleasant incident on his journey into the city. Danica was convinced that the would-be bandits were not ordinary highwaymen and had been waiting to ambush the three companions. Ivan had little proof either way, and, while he held many private doubts, he knew Danica better than to openly disagree