The big guys and another two more didn’t make it to the end of the block before allowing me to know they were following me. They were not very good at stealth nor inconspicuously tailing a mark. I played it cool and kept watching. They probably wouldn’t capture me out here in the public’s view but every step further from the Nobel’s Bet was a step closer to people who wouldn’t care if I was nabbed out in the open. I watched the people’s faces as I walked past, their eyes instantly going from me to my pursuers.
I made it to out of the Upper District and into the lower. The city was separated by upper and lower districts, higher being for those born to wealth, the bottom being for everyone not carrying a heavy purse. At least not without the risk of being mugged. I made it into the Low-Tide markets just as the hair the back of my neck was sticking up. Low-Tide markets where were the fisherman and traders with goods that didn’t fair as well aboard the ships sold at almost cost. The look on a fish wife’s eyes told me, I had seconds left to live.
I darted down an alleyway, just where they wanted me. I dashed half way down the alley between the store houses, the lane getting darker the further down I got. The two buildings cut out most the light, and I fought well in the dark. The sound of their boots not far behind me. Just as one was close enough to reach me within another step I spun around and plunged a dagger I had hidden in my sleeve up under the man’s chin and into his head. I let the blade fall away with the man who didn’t even know he was dead yet, as he took a step past me arms going slack before collapsing. I ran at the next man, my speed allowing me to move a few feet across the wall of the alley, gaining me the vertical advantage. I slammed a dagger into the man’s face and pulled another blade landing smoothly in a crouched position. The thump of the man’s body hitting the ground brought a smug smile to my face. I honestly hate killing when it’s not necessary, but sometimes I surprised myself at the feeling of satisfaction when I lived and the other man didn’t.
“The Baron not man enough to come himself?” I snarled. I was only better at one thing than gambling, and that was knife fighting. I didn’t enjoy the first near as much, though. Too bad knife fighting was illegal as a sport. The last two men stopped and pulled short swords. They were brutes but not used to fast fights or fast opponents. The one on the left was already wheezing heavily from the pursuit.
“You could both live. Just turn around, and you can walk out of here.” I promised them, hoping they wouldn’t listen. There was two already dead, no need for more to die. I didn’t want to kill them, although I did enjoy the adrenaline rush of the fight, and there was always the chance no matter, however, unlikely that they could be the final chapter written in my life. The Historian God, closing the book on me and storing it away on the countless shelves of books that accounted for all the lives ever lived.
The hired thug, the one not still wheezing, tightened his grip and stepped forward, his intentions betrayed with a look past me. I spun expertly and caught the blade coming down at me between crossed daggers. I slid the lower of the knives softly between my assailant’s ribs. I dodged behind the man with my knife in his chest causing him to choke on his blood as he fought to breathe. Slamming his arm forward, I skewering the bastard who lounged at me when he thought he’d catch me from behind.
I turned and checked the back alley to see two more hulking brutes coming down the alleyway behind me, and two more entered from the front of the aisle. The fight now totaled five more souls the Baron had sent to their death, but any more than that and I might have to come up with another plan. An escape plan.
Grabbing the short sword, I flung it at wheezy as he walked up slowly, the bodies around me forcing him to caution. He flicked the blade aside with his own with deceptive agility but still not fast enough and it sunk into his hip with a sickening sound. The blade dug deep and was followed by his scream of pain. I charged him easily deflecting his blade. Blood sprayed across the sleeve of my shirt and the alley’s wall as I slit his throat. His blade nicked my arm, but it wasn’t anything serious. Still, I must be getting more tired than I thought. Just as I readied myself for the next assault, another man entered the alleyway from behind poor dead wheezy and the next two souls on my list.
“Enough.” His voice commanded. The same voice who had accused me a cheat last night.
“Well well, Baron,” I said my voice light and airy like I could do this all day. “Tired of losing me. To my blades?” I asked. My taunts were stalling while my eyes searched for an escape route. I settled with the three on the opposite end from the Baron; further down and deeper into the dark. Although killing the Baron would end the threat of him coming after me, it would cause the Guardsmen to investigate the death of a noble born.
“I admit, I underestimated you.” He said slowly progressing down the alleyway.
“Twice,” I added in with pride.
“No last night Abby underestimated you and she paid for it on her back and with my pride.” He corrected, in a detached voice that said he only cared about the ladder.
“Paid this morning too,” I stated with a snicker. Now I was just childish. I tensed up as the men continued to walk from both ends and a few feet more, and I would be fighting again. I decided I would send a dagger the Baron’s way and split for the other end.
“I have a job for you. You’re a cheat and most probably a thief too unless I am wrong?” He said the last in a voice that was more assumptive than questioning. He was right; I was both.
“Not saying you are correct, but I’ll listen,” I answered, my interest peaked; not that I could trust him. There would be a double cross somewhere down the line, his pride demanded it, but this was all part of the game I was playing.
“The Uncle Reagent delegated it to me to hire man or woman to steal the Princess’s Crown jewels and frame Mu for it.” The Baron finished, and I couldn’t help but stare. This job, if I chose to accept, was the filch of a lifetime but could well start a war. Mu was a prosperous island continent. We had had several wars with our neighbor in the last hundred years. If the King, well Uncle Reagent, blamed Mu, the people would believe it. The Uncle Reagent had been running the affairs of the kingdom for the last six years since his brother the King, and all but one daughter had died during a battle at one of the southern cities. If I remembered correctly, a stone from a catapult assault landed in the Royal apartments where a war meeting was taking place. That lucky shot, if it was luck, took out the king and a good number of his most loyal supporters.
“Listen Baron you throw a good pitch, minus the whole starting a war thing. It’s us here in the cities mainly, the Lower district that fights your wars and it is us that die for your cause. No thanks.” I finished.
“Die here, die on a field what difference does it make.
“Well no, been busy you know, gambling, stealing, fucking haven’t put my mind to meet some royal tart. In fact, I haven’t cared one bit about some royal snippet till now. One ruler or another it only matters once we start getting affected.” I said shrugging.
“The Princess is a child, barely grown. She knows nothing of ruling and the actual important details can’t be looked to until we have someone on the throne, the Uncle Regent should be the king, not that child. As you put it, it doesn’t matter to you who rules as long as things don’t change. She won’t even be in her apartments. She’s going to be away on some holiday to visit a country home near the border of Dentral. It’ll be easy in and out. Drop a few arrows on the escape or feather a guard, and you’re done. You get rich; the Uncle becomes King, and I become a Duke.” The Baron’s plan was laid out seemingly simple like saying it aloud was the hard part, but he was lying. The Princess would be crowned Queen at the end of the following month. Did the Baron assume me an ignorant foreigner?
“Burgled before have you? Make it all sound so easy, but it isn’t otherwise you wouldn’t need me. I take all the risk, and you get the benefits.” I said shaking my head. “You ever filch anything? Break into a home, let alone a palace?” I asked, all the questions a part of the game. I wanted the job, but If I went all in, too willingly he would buy it, but it wouldn’t sit right with him, he’d have expected it to be harder.
“Look if your worth my time you can find out which summer home I use while in the city. Meet me there tomorrow evening, and I’ll have the details laid out. Maps. Keys. Everything you’ll need.” The Baron looked to thugs who had stopped advancing on me at his signal. “Boys gather our wounded and let’s move before the city guards arrive and start asking questions.” The Baron said the last turning around trusting my interest was peaked and I wouldn’t stab him in the back. I won’t lie I was tempted to throw a dagger his way, despite my dislike of needless killing. I didn’t wait around to see if anyone still held a grudge for a fallen friend or comrade, as the hulks bent to check those who had fallen I split.
Finding the place wasn’t hard, wasn’t even a challenge. About everyone who owned a tavern or coach had had him stay or drove him from one place or another and back to his summer home. Not that I needed to ask. Johnathon had briefed me the night before last on where it was and told me to make contact. He didn’t specify how, just that the Baroness was the real brains of the two and that she gave the orders just not in the public’s view. The card game and fucking her was just a bonus.
More like a small palace itself. I cased the place twice and decided I’d go in through the gardens as one of the servants. Their uniforms were drying out in the open air. I decided I would return in the evening.
Under cover of darkness, I entered through the garden. I had entered through the hidden door behind the vine trellis on the wall. I had dressed as a serving man. I made it up to his study without notice, grabbing a tray of silver cups and a picture of mulled wine along the way.
The Baron and Baroness sat on a lavish long chair with a high back facing the room and their guests. The light coming from a chandelier lit up the Baroness’s scarlet ringlets. I smiled to myself; she had been fun. Her exhausting appetite fuel my desires for more which begged caution, but fun. Their guests seemed to be members of the salt guild and were delivering a report on the salt they had sold on the Baron’s behalf. I served the Baron first then his guests, neither bothered even to look at me. Then the Baroness took two sips before spraying warmed wine everywhere as the Baron and their guests jumped back to avoid the red mist.
“Wrong tube my Lady? Shall I send for a healer?” I asked in mock concern just obvious enough for her to catch but real enough for the guests not to suspect.
“No. No Jeffrey.” She coughed. “Just help me up.” She coughed again then looked at the mantle clock, an expensive item on display to show their wealth “Valued friends if you could excuse me for the evening I’m are expecting a guest soon, I only just remembered seeing the time.” She Profusely apologized again and again as the Baroness led me out of the room and down the stairs.
“Well well, the rogue returns.” The Baroness chuckled. “You caused me no end of grief might I add. I told him you were perfect gentlemen and slept on the floor; you had just wanted to teach him a lesson in gambling and cheating. Then he asks all kinds of questions after you killed half a dozen of his men. What did you tell him?” She accused her arms folded under those delectable breasts, her frown almost pouty.
“I merely defended myself from an unwarranted assault, as far as what I told your husband, ” I smiled roguishly “I didn’t boast or fabricate, every single word the truth.” I finished as she stared at me crossly. I could tell she wanted to say more, but as she opened her mouth to speak, the Baron arrived.
“Honestly man! Have you no decency. I barely made an excuse enough to excuse myself as well?” he asked his voice raising.
“My Lord was I mistaken in coming? I shall leave if so. I had thought you had requested my services in the form of a verbal challenge to find this, your lavish home, and visit this eve.” I said my hands were sweeping to take in the grandeur of the room the Baroness had led me to. I watched as the gears and cogs fought each other in his head, it was the Baroness who spoke saving him from sounding a fool again.
“Husband, you can’t mean to hire him? He can’t be trusted.” her look of shock matched the disbelief of my trustworthiness written across her face.
“My Lady” I intervened before the Baron could speak. “I am cable of stealing the crown jewels; I am the man you seek,” I promised her, as I walked to the desk and eyed the papers that lay there. I recognized several rough drawings of the royal palace, some of them showed details Johnathon’s maps did not show. The Baron walked over and spread the sheets further.
“Here look, is it possible for you to get and out without being noticed?” he asked apparently ignoring the advice of the Baroness. We discussed the maps late into the evening and then the schedule of the Princess, the guards and finally settled on when I would steal the jewels; three days time from now. The night following the next is when I actually planned to steal the crown jewels, the greatest heist in the history of this kingdom, and frame the country of Mu for the crime.
As I bid the Baron and Baroness goodnight, the Baroness offered to walk me out. The look of suspicion on the Baron’s face only slightly less than the apparent jealousy, maybe I should not have fucked the Baroness.
“My lady good evening,” I said at the door hoping she did not complicate things. “I can and will steal the crown jewels, don’t worry. I am excellent at what I do,” I reassured her.
“I have no doubt Master Rogue, and I am very sure of your talents,” she said bringing the door nearly closed except for a small crack. “Just be weary, my husband meant to betray you and had I not spoke against you, he might have changed his mind or been longer in the decision. With me voting against hiring you he instantly would accept no other person. You wounded his pride last night, and I crippled it this morning when I lied to him. He will do anything now to prove me wrong and himself the better man.” she smiled at me, and I saw in her a wolf stalking prey. Johnathon was right; she was the brains in their relationship and probably the most dangerous woman I had ever met.
