Skulduggery 8: Building a Criminal Empire

by Logan Jacobs

  But since he probably would have seen the dead assassin, then, I was pretty sure that he would know his eyes hadn’t played tricks on him this time. Just because we got away from him in the bar didn’t mean we could just keep disappearing right in front of him.

  Well, we could, but that might cause us more problems than I wanted to deal with right now.

  “Fuck, I definitely thought we were done for,” Dar sighed.

  “You make a good pretend assassin, Dar,” Ava said with a smirk.

  “You know, I felt pretty good about that, too,” the halfling replied. “I thought I was a damn fine actor just now, thank you very much.”

  “You really were,” Penny said. “Maybe you missed your calling in the theatre.”

  “I’ll put in a good word for you with Cim,” I laughed. “But for now, why don’t we have Ava go down first, so she can check everything out and make sure that the coast is clear before we all come down, too?”

  “Of course,” the blonde assassin replied. “You three just stay right here.”

  There wasn’t much chance that we would go anywhere. We were all so tangled up in the branches where we had hidden from Tevian that my elbow was in Dar’s ribs, Penny’s foot was on my shoulder, and Ava’s back was pressed up against my shins.

  But as soon as I asked her to scope out the situation, Ava disentangled herself from the rest of us, slipped gracefully down through the mess of branches like a snake threading through grass, and landed on the ground without a noise. She disappeared from view below, but she was only gone for a few minutes before she came back, pulled herself up into the lower branches, and then tilted her head back.

  “We’re all clear,” she called. “He went back inside, but then he left again just a second later, and he headed in the opposite direction.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “Thanks, Ava.”

  Penny was the first to pick her way down the branches and back to the ground below, but since she was the best climber out of all four of us, that wasn’t much of a surprise. I let Dar go next, and once he safely reached the bottom, I moved carefully down the branches, around the dead man, and then finally swung my feet to the ground.

  “Well, that was fun,” Penny said, “but since I’d rather not get skewered by one of the soldiers that Skeevy-an Tevian left behind, do you think there’s any chance that we could head back to our apartment before we get caught out in the open like this?”

  “You bet,” I said. “We can talk about everything else once we get there. For now, I’m just glad we fooled him into thinking that his assassin was still alive.”

  Before we headed back through the streets toward the apartment that we’d been renting, we split up again, and this time, Penny walked with Ava, and Dar walked on the same side of the street as me. Pairs of people drew less attention than a group of four, so it made more sense to travel like this, anyway.

  The apartment that we’d rented when we first came to the Gold City wasn’t close, but we moved quickly through the streets until we reached the busy district. I had wanted to rent some place in the heart of everything, so we would always have a good idea of any important events in the city, plus it helped that it was pretty close to the warehouse that I’d bought to house our whiskey.

  By the time we reached the apartment, I could feel how long of a day it had been, so I knew I wasn’t far from bed. But first, I wanted to talk about what had happened with Tevian.

  We went up the backstairs to our second-floor apartment, and as soon as we were safely inside, I locked the door, checked all the closets and cabinets, and then sank down into one of the large sofas.

  While our apartment wasn’t anything like Tevian’s gaudy mansion, it was because we didn’t want it to be. We wanted to be comfortable and to look like we were well-off, but we didn’t want to sling our money around so much that it knocked someone the wrong way. That was why we had rented the entire second floor, so there were five bedrooms, two bathrooms, an impressive kitchen that only Dar really used, and several different spaces for living areas.

  It was more than I had ever imagined that I would have as a kid or even as an adult, but here we were, and I’d be damned if we hadn’t fucking earned our place here.

  Penny and Ava sank onto the couch on either side of me, and Dar sat across from us in one of the plush armchairs.

  “So we know we can’t kill Tevian,” my halfling friend sighed. “But we will have to get rid of him eventually, right?”

  “Definitely,” I said. “I’m not sure what that will look like yet, but he’ll get in our way if we’re not careful, so we’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

  “Too bad the city just threw a whole party for him,” Penny said. “I guess he managed to charm them, somehow.”

  “It probably didn’t hurt his chances that he stamped out the wild orcs,” Ava said. “That would be enough to make anyone pay attention to him.”

  “Fair enough,” I said. “But even if they hadn’t just thrown that whole celebration in his honor, remember that he’s too dangerous for us to just come right out and kill. He’s surrounded by soldiers and assassins, and he has magic of his own, so that’s a lot for us to be on our guard against.”

  “Then I’m glad it’s not a problem for today,” Penny sighed. “I don’t know about you all, but I could really use some sleep.”

  “Well, I--” Dar started.

  “And before you contradict me,” the pixie thief interrupted, “let me remind you that our darling Ava is currently growing a baby inside her! And that means she needs her fucking rest, so I don’t want to hear any arguments. Got it?”

  “You’re the boss,” I said with a grin. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”

  I let Penny help Ava get to bed, and even though the blonde assassin certainly didn’t need any help, she seemed glad that someone wanted to take care of her, so I was happy for my two women to help each other. Dar and I followed them to sleep before long, and I managed to sleep through almost the whole night without any dreams to interrupt me.

  The only dream I had came right before dawn. I dreamed that I was in the middle of Falrion Forest back home, only when I blinked, all the trees turned into towers, and I flew high above them so they all seemed like tiny specks far below me on the ground.

  In my dream, I heard the cheers of a massive crowd beneath me, but I couldn’t see them. Instead, I only heard them chant the same thing over and over again, and the sound of their words sent a shiver down my spine.

  Long live the king! the voices cheered. Long live the king!

  I twisted around in my dream to try to see the crowd or how I was so high above them, but when I moved my body, I accidentally jerked myself awake, and I found myself back in the apartment in the Gold City.

  “Did you have anything to do with that dream?” I muttered to the Rainbow Keys.

  They didn’t answer, but I saw that it was light outside, so I rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the kitchen for some breakfast. As I walked down the hallway, I was surprised to smell sausage, but I was even more surprised when I walked into the kitchen and saw Dar in front of the stove beside a plateful of freshly cooked sausage and pancake fold-overs.

  “What’s all this?” I asked, but then I glanced toward the kitchen table and saw that Penny was also already up, so only Ava was still asleep.

  “One of your women dragged me out of bed and insisted that I make a hearty breakfast for your other woman,” Dar groaned. “Something about needing a shit-ton of food and everything, or maybe it was something about how much energy it takes to grow a baby-- you know, some shit like that.”

  “I’m gonna have to take Penny’s side on this one, my friend,” I said with a smile. “I want my child to be big and strong, so if a hearty breakfast is what Ava needs, then that’s exactly what she should get.”

  “Ha!” Penny jabbed her finger in our direction from her seat at the table. “See? What did I tell you?”

  “Yeah, yeah, you were right, I get it,�
� Dar said. “I just wish you didn’t have to be right so early in the morning.”

  “I wanted to make sure that breakfast would be ready by the time Ava wakes up,” the redheaded pixie said. “Otherwise, she might make some kind of excuse like how we should get right down to business, and then she wouldn’t eat as much food as she needs to.”

  “You’re very sweet, Penny,” I said. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

  “You’d better not,” the pixie thief warned. “That would ruin my fucking reputation.”

  “Your concern is noted,” I laughed.

  “Oh, what smells so good?” Ava asked as she wandered into the room and rubbed at her eyes.

  “You’re up!” I smiled. “Dar here made you breakfast. Well, I guess technically, he made all of us breakfast, but it’s especially for you.”

  “Well, that was very thoughtful,” Ava said. “Thank you, Dar.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” the halfling said with a wave. “I just thought you might need a little more energy, since you’re growing Wade’s baby and all. It was all my idea, definitely not Penny’s.”

  “You little shit,” the redhead laughed.

  “I appreciate the thought,” the beautiful assassin said as she walked over and kissed my cheek. Then she walked over to Penny, kissed her on the cheek, too, and smiled. “And I appreciate the fact that you made Dar make breakfast for me.”

  “Uh…” Penny blushed. “Well, I told you that I was going to take care of you, didn’t I? The least I can do is make sure you have a decent breakfast to start your day off with.”

  “I’m starving,” I said. “Dar, why don’t you bring everything over to the table, and we can get started?”

  My halfling friend carried the huge plate of sausage and fold-overs over to the table, and after we had all filled our pancakes, we sat down together and ate. Dar usually complained about how he wasn’t much of a cook, but breakfast was goddamn perfect, and we all started on our second round of food before we even began to make plans.

  “Okay, so what’s next?” Dar asked. “We have a bunch of new clients, we’ve got a bunch of whiskey to deliver later, and we think we’ll even be able to sell to the elves here.”

  “As long as we find an elf like Golierian to run our whiskey through, right?” Penny asked.

  “Exactly,” I said. “So we need to find an elf who’s got debts that we can exploit, but who still has a good enough reputation that he would be able to sell our product to other elves.”

  “Any ideas where to start looking for one of those?” Dar asked.

  “One of the casinos, probably,” Ava said and then bit off another piece of sausage.

  “I think that would be a good place to begin with,” I said. “After all, we’ll have a pretty good chance to find someone with gambling debts at a casino.”

  “Okay, so we’ll stake out a bunch of the casinos until we find an elf that we could use,” Penny said. “That sounds like a good plan to me.”

  “And then once we have our frontman, we’ll work with him to set up meetings with the elves to sell our whiskey to them,” I said.

  “So the elves will pay us for a product that they outlawed in the first place,” Dar snickered. “I like it.”

  “Well, if you like that, then you’ll love this,” I said. “We’re going to use the elves’ own money against them.”

  “What do you mean?” Ava asked.

  “So finding an elven frontman is just one step in the next phase that I have planned,” I said. “The other big step involves how we’re going to spend the elves’ coin.”

  “Fuck, yes to whatever your plan is, because I know it’s going to be a good one,” Dar said as he rubbed his hands together. “What did you have in mind?”

  “So listen,” I started, “if we’re ever going to be able to fight back against the elves, then we’re gonna need some armor and some more weapons.”

  “Okay, so I’m definitely with you,” Dar said, “but don’t we have time for all of that later?”

  “I don’t think we have as much time as we might have thought,” I said as I glanced at Ava. “After all, I don’t know about Ava, but this sure as shit isn’t the world that I want to raise my children in.”

  “Me neither,” the beautiful assassin murmured.

  “I don’t want them to ever feel like slaves,” I said. “I don’t want them to ever feel like they’re worth less than the elves, and I sure as hell don’t want them to look over their shoulders constantly to make sure they don’t piss off the wrong elf.”

  “So what does that look like?” Dar asked. “I mean, I understand that we’ll need armor and weapons, but first of all, how do we get them? And second, what do we do with them once we do get them?”

  “One thing at a time, my friend,” I laughed. “So the first thing we can do is order armor and weapons for an official human guard back home. You know, to replace the elven guard that had to leave the human district and go set up shop in the dwarven district.”

  “Yeah, only because you got rid of the whole dwarven guard organization,” Penny said with a grin. “Fucking bastards.”

  “Let me guess,” Ava said. “Our old friend Dryson will be in charge of the new human guard?”

  “Exactly,” I said. “He’s already formed a fire brigade for the human district, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to turn the fire brigade into part-time firefighters and part-time human guards.”

  “And I guess they would need armor and weapons to do their jobs,” Dar said.

  “That’s the idea,” I said. “Besides, the elves won’t be suspicious if that’s what they think the armor and weapons are for.”

  “But that would only be enough equipment for a handful of human guards,” Penny said. “And if we’re talking about overthrowing the elves one day, we’ll need a lot more than that, right?”

  “And that’s where the portals come into play,” I said. “We’re going to place orders with different blacksmith shops in each city, and we’re all going to tell them that it’s for a single human guard. The cities are all so far apart from each other that there will be no way for them to check up on it, and they’ll just be happy for the business.”

  “So we would place the same order with different blacksmiths all over the empire?” Penny asked.

  “Absolutely,” I said. “Think about it-- if we have fifty human guards, that means we can order fifty different sets of armor and weapons from one shop in each city, and that’s five hundred sets of equipment right there.”

  “Shit,” Dar murmured.

  “And that assumes that we only order from one blacksmith shop in each city,” I added. “If we order from rival shops, they won’t share information, so we could easily get one set from each of them.”

  “Plus, that only takes into account the legal orders that we place,” Ava said with a smile. “There are plenty of illegal smiths and weaponries in every city, and they’d be more than willing to sell to someone with enough coin, I’m sure.”

  “Even better,” I said. “As long as we’re careful about it, we should be able to stockpile a good amount of weapons and armor for our eventual army.”

  “I don’t know if that’s exciting or terrifying,” Penny said.

  “It can be both,” I laughed. “But as long as you all are with me, I know we can do it.”

  “So I guess that means we need to tell Dryson to whip his fire brigade into fighting shape,” Dar said.

  “I’d say that’s a good start,” I replied. “Actually, what I’d like to do is split up so we can accomplish more at once.”

  “Sure, just tell us what you need,” my halfling friend said. “Because you know, if you need me to visit every brothel and dancehall in town, I am willing to make that sacrifice for you, Wade.”

  “Yeah, I bet you are,” Penny said as she rolled her eyes.

  “Not exactly, even though it might come down to something like that,” I said. “I’d like Penny and Dar to stay here
in the Gold City for right now. I want you to keep setting up new business contacts, and start doing some real research to figure out which elf in this town we can exploit as our frontman.”

  “No problem,” Penny said. “Although I’ll be starting that research at a casino, not a dancehall, thank you very much.”

  “Oh, I don’t care where we start, Penny,” Dar laughed. “Just as long as I end up at a dancehall, I’ll be happy.”

  “We’ll see about that,” the redheaded pixie sighed.

  “So where will you and I be, while Penny and Dar stay here?” Ava asked.

  “We’re gonna go back home,” I said, “but just for right now, and then we’ll both come back as soon as we take care of our business there, okay?”

  “Alright,” the blonde assassin said with a nod. “And our business involves Dryson?”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I want to meet with him, and I also want to meet with Golierian to tell him that we want to form a human guard.”

  “It’s not like he’ll give you a hard time about that,” Penny said. “He’s always happy to do anything that you tell him.”

  “The captain of the guard does have his uses,” I said with a grin. “Oh, and while we’re there, we’ll also obviously need to bring Twila and Cimarra into our plans, so they can help take care of everything back home for us.”

  “And they’ll be able to place the order with the blacksmiths?” Ava asked. “For all the armor and weapons, I mean?”

  “That’s the plan,” I said. “I don’t want to stay away from here for too long, so I don’t want to have to place the order ourselves, but we’ll give them all the instructions that they need.”

  “So when do we leave?” the blonde asked. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Then let’s go ahead and leave now,” I said. “As long as you’ve had enough to eat, it’s not a bad idea to go while it’s still early. There won’t be many people around the Hanging Gardens at this time of day.”