way to clean it up. But dōmo, caro."
Forthwind smiled briefly, and then they fell silent as the shop once more came into view. Dante motioned with a roll of his head toward an alleyway. Slipping into it, they looped around to the shop so they'd come out behind it, well out of notice of the latest arrivals.
Acaeus and Selinah, and it didn't take daylight to see they were stressed—and scared to death.
Forthwind led the way back into the kitchen, crouching and creeping this time, though he honestly could have arrived as part of a full imperial parade and the trio in the dining area would not have noticed.
"Give me the key!" Aceaus snarled, and when Janshai had handed it over, stormed over to the storage room and opened it. He came back out a moment late, pale and shaking. "Where did it go? Janshai, you must have noticed something."
"No, Signore-don. Nothing amiss at all. No signs of break-in, no strangers, nothing. So far as I knew, all was well. If I had suspected even one thing, I would have sent word to you."
Acaeus made several incoherent noises of pure frustration, but they did nothing to hide the underlying fear.
"What's going on?" Selinah asked. "How is this possible? Who just comes in and runs off with all that—" she stopped, then finished awkwardly "—stuff. Father, we have to find it."
"You think I need you to tell me that, girl?" Acaeus snapped. He shoved Janshai out of his way, not even slowing his step as Janshai fell to the floor. Selinah followed him out of the building and together father and daughter headed quickly through the dark streets of Verona, the nearly-full moon gleaming with cold light above them.
Dante and Forthwind followed, careful to keep a suitable distance, though Ferro-donni were in such a hurry, so spurred by fear and anger, they were neglecting their usual cautions.
To Forthwind's surprise, though likely not Dante's, they left Isola delle Ossa, crossing the Harvest bridge to the Isola della vita. The smell of manure and other evidence of livestock washed over them, but they were scents Forthwind was long used to, even after all this time. Beside him, Dante seemed equally unaffected, but he'd said before that nothing stank worse than a prison.
Ferro-donni turned down a dirt path and headed down the winding way of it through fields of various crops and one filled with milling sheep and a few goats that probably weren't where they should be.
"Why are they meeting all the way out here? Can't they be angry and violent closer to my bed?"
Dante snorted softly. "Your bed? Or Brom's bed?"
"I will never be that lucky again, thanks for reminding me, you crusty old goat. Stop trying to be witty and answer the first question."
"Emergency meeting points are for problems, caro. Problems mean blood; blood means a mess to clean up. I'm pretty certain we're headed for a place that raises pigs."
Forthwind grimaced. Pigs would certainly take care of lingering problems. "I'm never eating pork on this stupid island again."
"How charming you think Verona is the only place that feeds inconvenient dead bodies to pigs. Be glad we're not in a place that throws them in while they're still alive."
"Every time I think you could not offer a possibly bleaker, more horrifying piece of information, Dante, you prove me wrong. Do I want to know how you came by this latest bit of morbid knowledge?"
"No."
Forthwind gladly let the matter drop, though he would have had to anyway, as the unmistakable stench of a pig farm reached his nose, and up ahead their quarry dipped out of sight as they walked down a small hill.
After that, it was only a few minutes more before they came to a stop in a field tucked behind a thick line of trees that were probably doing well because of all the fertilizer to be had on an island devoted entirely to farming.
Dante signaled, and they looped well around, following the trees until they came out on the western side, dead opposite where Ferro-donni had vanished. Creeping through the trees and other foliage, mindful of their steps, he and Dante finally halted at the edge. They were hidden from sight by some scraggly, thorny hedges.
In the middle of the field, Jinhai and Acaeus were already arguing, and with every word their voices climbed in volume.
"I didn't do it!" Ferro bellowed, sending some poor birds scattering from their beds. "Why would I? What do I stand to gain?"
"Clearly there