He wore not a single piece of visible weapon, but every finger adorned with golden rings. He even had a nose ring with attached chains that connected ...t with his left ear, also adorned with jewelry.That he was not unprotected became quite clear, by two large non-humanoid guards. I recognized them to be Jakone, both beings were well armed.The flamboyant, perfumes Dai stopped before us both.“Pander-Go, what brings a rug and pottery dealer into my tent.“Panculag did not wait for an answer and. “What have we done wrong?” she asked.“I have no idea,” I admitted.“Did you know there’s a rumour going around that the police are looking for Joanna Kafkasian and you were the last person to see her?”I groaned. How did the Drama Club grapevine get such good intel? “The police came to my house last night,” I admitted. “I told them what I knew, that the last time I saw her was in the town centre. I hoped she would have turned up by now but she missed our Math class this morning.”“What happened to. ‘You look really nice,’ I say, almost impulsively. ‘Why, thank you,’ Ashley says, and her smile grows bigger. ‘I didn’t want to look like a slob when I gave you the cake.’ ‘You didn’t have to go through all this trouble…’ ‘No, I wanted to,’ she says, interrupting me. ‘I can imagine it’s not easy, you know… with your family… uh…’ ‘You’re right,’ I say, giving her another sheepish grin, and holding up my hand as if to tell her I understand what she was trying to say. Ashley notices the picture. She sounded like a squeaking bird being strangled.Both Amanda and I looked at my sister, and she fondly returned our gaze with a big wink. I felt relieved, as I wasn't sure how Kelsey was going to react after Amanda laid claim to me. From what I knew around school, most girls were absolutely not thrilled with the idea of their brothers hanging out with their friends, so I made a mental note to ask my sister about it as soon as I had the chance. I took another gulp of beer and managed to keep.