Showdown City by Todd Berger

Author:Todd Berger [Berger, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682300657
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2016-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Ernie trailed behind Huey and Val, along with the rest of the citizens of New Roux City, up a path on the west side of town. This path led to Castle Roux, where The Feast of Roux would soon begin. Ernie noticed that the townsfolk, who had dressed in their finest for the occasion, weren’t paying the strangers much attention anymore. He wondered if it was because their new digs were truly amazing camouflage, or if the strangers were now just yesterday’s news.

“Do we really have to go to this thing?” Val said.

“Probably,” Huey said. “Or I’m sure they’ll threaten to shoot us. Or maybe they’ll threaten to shoot us for going, who the fuck knows anymore.”

“You’re probably right. Did we need to bring a bottle of wine or something?”

“I’m sure we’ll be all right.”

They continued to walk, and after a few moments Huey glanced back at Ernie with a curious look. “You all right, Ernie?” Huey said. Ernie realized he hadn’t spoken for a while. Not since they had escaped Darling’s clothing store. “How’s the arm?”

“It’s fine,” Ernie said. “Hurts a little.”

“You got any of Dr. Thundercloud’s magic powder left?”

“Yeah.” This wasn’t true. Ernie had finished the last of the powder up earlier in the dressing room at Darling’s, right before the Silk Specter had shown up. He would have to figure out how to get more later, but right now his mind was on the Dragoon. Earlier, when Ernie saw that Miller Roux wore it as his personal revolver, he was caught off guard and opted to keep his mouth shut. He understood that in business you never want a seller to know how badly you want to buy their commodity, because then you’ll never get a good price. You want to pull off what grifters call “the long con.” Make the seller think that giving you exactly what you want is their idea. Now that they were going to Castle Roux, Ernie’s mind was racing with ways to pull a long con off.

The three turned a corner on the path, following the lead of everyone else, and stopped in their tracks at the sight before them. Ernie immediately understood why the locals called the home “Castle Roux.”

Because it was an actual castle.

The place was gigantic, the size of a square block, and built entirely of stone. A large spire stuck up out the middle of the structure, and a series of towers lined the roof. A moat surrounded the building, a drawbridge currently lowered over it to allow visitors up into the torch-lined entranceway.

“This is great,” Ernie said. He himself had thought of building a castle on a plot of land he owned out near Marfa, Texas. Partly for the fun of it, but more importantly to use as a doomsday prepper location in case the shit ever went down.

He started to walk up the entranceway, a new spring his step, and the others followed. They passed under a giant coat of arms emblazoned above the castle entrance that read “Roux” over a shield.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.