The Backworlds by M. Pax Page B

aviarmen’s ship.
    The lawman jabbered on. “This
wasn’t some small scam taking a few chips off a citizen, this crime threatens
all the Backworlds. The Assembled Authorities have been notified. Frizzers bad
news.”
    Shit. “I didn’t know it was
frizzers.” Craze had to try some truth. “You better have found every one of
those guns. I don’t ever want to run into one of them things out on the Edge. I
wouldn’t touch the things. Honest. I was here for the chocolate.”
    “There’s no chocolate here,” the
patroller said.
    “The bars. The foil bars.” Craze
thrust his chin toward the small red and gold items strewn over the floor.
    The lawman picked one up. “These?”
His small, meaty hands unwrapped the bar, holding it out under Craze’s wide
nose. “Mealworm cakes, son. That’s all these is.”
    Craze smelled the brine, gawking at
the red crumbly cake in the patroller’s hand. That couldn’t be right. That
couldn’t be what was protected by the foils and gelatin casings. The seal ...
the seal embossed on the foils was used for chocolates. Yet he couldn’t argue
with the reality in front of his face.
    His breath suddenly left him. “No!”
    The squat man in brown laughed. “He
didn’t know. He honestly thought he was buying chocolate.”
    The patrollers joined in the mocking.
The leader said. “Verkinn sure can be gullible. Guess the aviars was right
then.” He shook a finger at Craze. “Deal through legit channels, boy, ‘n only
from folks you know. This clandestine shit only leads to bothers.”
    Sometimes to great profits, but
Craze kept that to himself. The aviars had to be Talos and Lepsi. Phew. They
hadn’t abandoned him to battle these legal woes in order to get a bigger cut of
the loot. Despite being cuffed by the patrollers and probably on his way to
prison, Craze felt pretty good.
    He regained some sense of
belonging, which Bast and the council had stolen by ostracizing him. Things
would be OK. He had two good friends. Craze knew that without a doubt, and he
also knew the patrollers didn’t think him very bright. He’d use that. “I never
tasted chocolate before. Just wanted to see what all the fuss is about.”
    “That’s what your captain said.
Said you often a dipshit,” the patroller replied.
    “ Cappy’s never wrong.” Craze was impressed by the aviarmen’s skill at manipulating the legal authorities.
    “You not getting off easy, you
understand.” The lawman nodded, satisfied and smug. “Your captain is pretty
hot, promised us you’d help in chasing after these thugs. After he’s punished
you.”
    “I’m sure. The brig for me.” Craze
enjoyed playing along, careful not to go too far and blow what Talos and Lepsi
had accomplished, wondering how he was supposed to assist the Elstwhere law,
but he didn’t press. Sooner or later he’d know everything.
    “The Backworld Assembled
Authorities gave me the OK to track these barbarians down,” the man in brown
said. He grabbed Craze’s wrist, tugging him onto his feet. “I’ll see he finds
his way to his ship. Consider youself deputized,
Verkinn.”
    Deputized? A funny thought came to
Craze. The aviars’ promises, the Backworlds Assembled Authorities’ approval,
being deputized; perhaps Talos and Lepsi’s ship had been hired to pursue the
smugglers. Shit. The reach of the law was long if it was to follow them out to
the Edge.
    The patroller leader nodded. “All
right, Dactyl. You’ll find half the agreed on pay in your account when you get
to the docks. If not, ping me.”
    “I expect the rest when I haul
those smugglers back here for interrogation ‘n trial,” Dactyl said.
    “Good hunting.” The patroller
saluted. “We want that scum. Want them bad. Get in contact if you need anything
from us.”
    Dactyl nodded. His iron grip
tightened on Craze’s shackles, dragging him out into the street and toward the
docks. He led Craze in such a way that folks stopped gape-jawed, pointing and
whispering.
    Craze