Not surprisingly Joe hadn't taken the hint,and so by the time Lady Celia caught up with the
group ahain Joey had reverted to an even bigger
dragon body whilst sleeping in one of the rooms
at a inn.
There was plenty of yelling,shouting and roaring going on and after
the Sheriff Sorceress had had got Joey out of the ruins of the inn
she finally had time to listen to what the dwarf innkeeper
was shouting about.
It appeared the nephew of the Emeror of Constantinople
had been staying in the inn and he was nowhere to be found amongst the injured who'd been hauled
to the local hospice or amongst those milling about.
Which meant he was still in the ruins somewhere.
Lady Celia promptly deputized Mike,Brian and Christine to help her search through the rubble
for the missing nephew and after three hours it was
Christine who found LeCroix's stiffening body in a space under the wooden slats of a main floor bed.
Celia,(who had a voice,just didn't use it that often) barked at
Christine to not disturb the evidence.
Celia reached over carefully with her claws and slowly turned over the cadaver.
Christine gasped
Ebedded in the back of the murder victim was a silver dagger,with the letters
D.C. engraved on its grip.
The dragoness immediately turned to the human
"You've seen this before" she hissed
"Yes" said Christine
"It belongs to Dustin Cleaver,the brother of the wizard who transported us here in the beginning"
"In that case,I'll have to ask for you three to remain in the Kingdom for a while longer" said the
Sheriff Sorceress"
"A murder has beencommitted"