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faint smile to the old mage's face. It looked like Magnus wouldn't get lost, so he stepped back inside his house and shut the door with the ghostly face, on which raindrops were now rolling down like tears.

 
    III. The Haunting Of Ragna
     
     
    The raindrops got heavier.
    As the storm rose Magnus felt them hitting him harder and more frequently. He tried to keep his eyes fixed on the road, but the cold raindrops splattering on his face forced him to bend his head so low that he almost couldn't see where he was going.
    He narrowed his eyes and looked up, but the dark cobblestone lane he was walking made his legs stop suddenly, as though they didn't want to go any farther.
    Magnus felt a great dread fall on him. What could have been happening in Ragna at night that Valezar didn't want to talk about? And why couldn't he let Magnus stay overnight at his house, saying it was not safe outside?
    He trembled with cold. Just as he was about to step forward again, a clangorous sound broke into his ears.
    Faster than he thought he could, he turned in the direction from where he heard the sound. His bulged eyes surveyed each corner in his vicinity but here was no sign of anything alive close to where he was standing.
    Magnus breathed out in relief. It was just his fantasy! But then-
    “AAAAH!” he shrieked abruptly. Before he could even realise what happened, he jumped in terror.
    So, it was not just his imagination after all! For quite a while, he was peering out between his fingers and standing on one leg, just in case there was something nasty crawling on the ground.
    When he assured himself that nothing was going to attack him, he saw an animal quickly disappear in the shadows and for the very first time in this spooky evening he was glad it had been so dead out there. He surely didn't want anyone to see him being scared of a common cat!
    H is wild breath and heart that was hammering fiercely like a drum calmed down and he finally acquired the ability to think rationally.
    “ Valezar has definitely fooled me. There's no danger here. He just wanted to scare me,” growled Magnus under his nose, refusing to admit that the fear he just felt was well-founded.
    As he came to perceive his surroundings again, he realized the rain became excruciatingly cold. He felt his blood slowly freezing in his veins. Moreover, he still had the feeling that someone or something was watching him.
    Thunder rumbled over the town.
    This fired him up to continue his trek because in that moment he finally saw a battered wooden sign hanging from a rusty bracket on the left side of the dark street, as though fighting the storm. There was faint lettering which read “Merry Pigeon” and a drawing of the same meaning on its opposite side. The sign creaked in the wind as he quickly approached and crossed the rivers of water running down the lane.
    Magnus didn't care if he had found the exact place that Valezar referred to. He felt like he wouldn't be able to stay in the rain any longer. He turned around for the last time and saw a few people closing the remaining windows which were open. It almost looked as if they were scared of something.
    With an unsettling feeling squirming in his stomach, Magnus rounded back on the tavern's door which creaked audibly as he pushed it open. That sound obviously caught the attention of all the guests inside, because the whole inn was now quietly staring at Magnus who was gaping back at them from the entrance door. There was a long and painful silence. A ten-year-old boy without the escort of an adult probably wasn't a common sight here!
    Magnus couldn't take all those stares so he lowered his gaze to his big shoes which were completely soaked with water .
    The banging sound of the door closing made him jump.
    “You were lucky it was still open,” said the inn keeper brightly. “I was just about ter lock the door.”
    When Magnus looked up at the inn keeper, he thought he had found himself in the realm of giants. He was