The slimy old man stopped talking as Dominic knelt down to inspect the man sitting next to him on the dock. The younger man flinched as Dominic reached for his shirt and ripped it open.
"This blood is from an earlier wound."
"I . . "
"He cut himself working," crazy eyes hastily said.
"I will slit your throat from ear to ear if you speak out of turn again," Dominic said, fixing a dagger filled gaze directly on the crazy eyed man, the man squirmmed and shut up. "Now," Dominic said, turning his attention back to the wounded man, "talk! Or so help me you will not live to see tomorrow."
"We had nothing to do with it, some of your men they took her-!" the smaller one blurted out.
"Shut up, shut up!" the crazy eyed man shrieked viciously, "You idiot-! You are going to get us both killed."
"Put a gag in his mouth," Dominic said looking up at the port authority soldier. When this was done, he said quietly to the smaller man, "Now, you were telling me bout the men who took my wife. Which of my men are you talking about?"
The man nodded at the port authority soldier. "One of 'em had on a uniform like his, and there was one of them that was built like a boxer - I think he might work in one of the stables . . "
The man squealed as Dominic grabbed him by his wounded arm, dragging him to his feet. "Now, you're going to show me which stable the man worked in."
"What about this one?' the port authority soldier asked.
"Put him in irons under heavy guard," Dominic spat. Under his breath, he muttered "Those are words I had hoped I would never have to say. The fool had better pray that we find her or else he faces a date with the noose."
Dominic and his companions were taken to the stables by the younger of the two sailors, but the trail ran cold. There was a horse missing, the ground here was cobblestone which made it impossible to track. There was no trace of them or Alannah anywhere, it was almost as though they had vanished into thin air. For the remainder of the day Port Lira was searched high and low, every home, every business, everywhere they could think of - but no trace of Alannah was found, nor of the men who took her. With no sign of Alannah and her captors in Port Lira, Dominic was forced to widen his search. He began dividing the Army to search every nook and cranny of the island. In the meantime, Port Lira was shut down to all incoming and outgoing traffic; all approaches to the island were carefully watched, night and day.