The Missing Library, Chapter Twelve
🐁 The Ratcatchers | The errant husband was a routine where couriers would say they were hired to deliver a message to a shiftless husband from his wife so they were checking the hotels.
THE RATCATCHERS: The Missing Library
© 2025 Liam Armitage
As we headed across town I wanted to hire a carriage and rest my feet. Youngji said I needed to keep my abdomen from getting more robust.
“It is the privilege of wizards to be lazy,” I told her.
“Not if they may need to run from golems.”
I despise it when pugilists take more logical positions than I do, so I stopped complaining and walked.
“So, who are these Gangham Gang?”
“A courier service.”
She scratched her chin as we had to walk around a minotaur searching his pockets for something. “How does a courier service help?”
“Well, they are a courier service but they also keep eyes and ears open and are very… sociable.”
“Sociable?”
“They pick up gossip and people’s comings and goings.”
Youngi nodded as if in confirmation. “For a fee, I imagine.”
“Or favors. They find it useful to have favors owed to them.”
“I assume this secondary revenue stream is not public knowledge.”
“No, not at all.”
“But you know?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
She was eyeing me.
“What?”
“You just seem to know a lot of, how do you say, convenient people.”
A chuckle escaped me before I could hold it back.
“Well, in this case I used to be one of the couriers. A lot of the convenient people I know, I met working with the Gangham Gang.”
“It is an odd name isn’t it? Aren’t gangs usually criminal groups?”
“The neighborhood is called Gangham, home to a lot of barristers and businessmen. They need documents run all over the city, and as for the word gang, I asked Hamish once and he said he liked alliteration. Hamish is the business owner, Hamish Grimm.”
“Hamish Grimm. Grimm, Hamish.” Youngji sounded like she was feeling how the name sounded in her mouth. “Is he going to be another one of your colorful folks? Is he related to the Grimms of the horse trade?”
“Huh? What Grimms?”
“There is a large Grimms family that owns a lot of stables outside the west walls.”
“Maybe, I don’t know.”
“You know who to ask about shoe repairs, but don’t know a major local family?”
All I could do was shrug. “It’s not a thing that has come up.” The backpack of books was not light, but after Youngji’s comment about exercise earlier, I wasn’t going to let her know it.
We arrived at the building the Gangham Gang used and I made my way through the rooms, saying hi and giving brief hugs to a few familiar faces as I went. Eyes followed Youngji, and more than a few looked curious.
The maze of rooms terminated at a large office mostly filled with months of undeliverable packages, spare clothing, medical gear and empty liquor bottles. I knew, because it was his first of year’s ritual to clean the place out, except for the undeliverable packages which were in piles. He only discarded them if they hadn’t been picked up after a full year.
“Morning Hamish.” I waved.
His eyes had been on us since we entered. His hair was deeply receding and his skin pale, with just a hint of yellow from not getting outside enough. His scraggy beard was a measure of how busy he was. It appeared to have about five days of uninterrupted growth at this point which wasn’t bad for him.
“As I live and breathe, it’s the cultured night eyes, Smythe. You left for that university work. Tired of wiping rich brats’ asses and need a job?” He talked to me but his eyes were on Youngji, assessing.
I gestured with my hand. “This is my partner, Youngji.”
His eyes went a little wider. “You pulled well, boy.”
My face reddened just a bit and Youngji laughed. “No, no, we’re adventuring partners.” She pointed to her lead insignia and I to mine.
“Ah, I’d heard the rumors.” He grinned. “So, a life of adventure. I didn’t peg you as a guilder.”
“It’s a means to an end, sir.” I added the honorifics out of habit.
“So are wealth, power and for a lot of people, sex. Still, what brings you back here?”
“I have an errant husband.”
“Don’t we all!” He laughed heartily. His own husband’s tendency to be gone for extended stretches was well known but that’s what happens when you marry a warden who travels the peninsula. The errant husband was a routine where couriers would say they were hired to deliver a message to a shiftless husband from his wife so they were checking the hotels. We had always used it for that general work of checking places for someone. Hammish motioned for me to hand him something and I knew what he wanted. I gave him the sheet I’d written everything out on.
After a moment of evaluating it, he nodded. “We can manage this within the day. Payment?”
My hands shifted a bit. “I was hoping to arrange something.”
He waved as if dismissing something. “We’re friends aren’t we?”
“Of course, I replied.”
His eyes went to Youngji. “A friend of Smythe’s is good enough for me.”
“All right, friends help each other out. I’ll take care of this.” He wrote a few instructions on it and tapped a sharp bell on his desk. Quickly a teenage girl, looked Ravian by the tint of her orange skin and split sinuses, dashed in, grabbed the paper and then exited so fast I barely saw her.
We made our goodbyes and then it was time to head to the guild.
Where Do You Want to Go Next?
🏠 The Ratcatchers
⬅️ The Missing Library, Chapter 11
➡️ The Missing Library, Chapter 13. Coming on Wednesday 2 July. Probably.
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