The Way of Thieves

by K.N. Lee

  The guard’s face twisted with displeasure. “Yeah, I wish they’d get some dried bison for us.”

  “I’ll tell yah what.” Uriah reached into his sash with three sticks of dried meat. “I’ll let yah have a few of mine. I seasoned them myself.”

  The guard grinned, snatching the three jerky sticks from Uriah’s grasp. He handed one to each of the other two guards. “We appreciate it.”

  “Ain’t no problem. Y’all deserve a treat now and then, I mean, without you, this city would fall into chaos. I don’t see anyone else stepping up to help protect this city.”

  The guard’s smile disappeared. “We are often under-appreciated.”

  “It’s been nice talking with yah.”

  “Mind if I have a look?” the guard said.

  “Go ahead.” Uriah gestured to the back where all their merchandise was covered with tarps over the caravan.

  The guard walked to the back and lifted a corner.

  Keira tensed. If he took the entire cover off, he would see Brenden and the three others.

  “Oh, hey, do you like jam?” Uriah asked.

  The guard peeked into the corner of the back, then tucked the tarps back into place. He walked over to Uriah.

  “Jam? Yes. I love some strawberry and blackberry.”

  “I have some my wife made that you may enjoy. It has figs, raspberries, orange, and ginger. It’s quite delicious.”

  “Hmm. That does sound good.”

  Uriah uncovered three small jars of jam next to him on the seat. He handed the jars to the guard.

  “Thank you,” the guard said.

  “Anytime. You’ll have to let me know what you think of it when we see each other next.”

  “I will.”

  The guard handed two of the jars to the other guards, then stepped aside, motioning for the gate to be opened.

  “You have a great day, sir,” the guard said.

  “Thank you. You do the same,” Uriah said. He flicked the reins and the wyverns entered the city.

  Keira was flabbergasted to say the least at their entrance into Haedrael. It was a complicated, yet easy entry to what should have been an impenetrable city. She looked at Uriah with more respect than ever before, but also fear. He was old and had lived in the world for a long time. How many secrets did he hold. Was he truly the man who killed her parents? If so, why? And why stay close to the children of the people he murdered.

  “Impressive,” she whispered.

  Uriah grinned. “There are two keys to getting past any obstacle,” he said. “Open up everything and show them what they want, or show kindness where it normally doesn’t reside.”

  “Show them what they want?” Keira asked.

  “If we had a way to keep them hidden, and expose all the goods for them to see plainly, they’d look right over them, not looking deeper. Which might work for one extra person, but not four. Therefore, I had to use the other approach.”

  Keira nodded. She turned her attention to the city. Compared to most of the cities Keira had been in, Haedrael was quite different. She didn’t see peasants or serfs around the streets. No beggars or homeless either. Sorcerers and Sorceresses walked everywhere.

  There weren’t hundreds of them like she expected, or like the nobles that littered the streets of a city in the Nobles Guild, but instead there were dozens. Each wore a thick robe of a ceremonial color. Keira didn’t know what the difference between each color was, but she assumed it had to do with their rank or their type of magic. She had heard some sorcerers used different elements than others, but she didn’t know a whole lot about the semantics of it.

  The ground was clean, all small rocks pounded into the ground and sealed together rather than dirt. It looked too perfect to be natural and she wondered if the red and black stones wedged between gray pebbles was done with magic. It all appeared connected and nothing was loose. The wagon didn’t rock as they entered the city, noting the smoothness of the ground below them.

  A few nobles roamed the streets, their presence noted by the silk and linen shirts and fine pants with a shawl draped over their shoulder. The few she saw looked like they were there on business. She wondered what business the nobles had with the sorcerers guild. Keira knew they were allied in some kind of way, but she was in the dark about the affairs of any but the Thieves Guild. Yet, she realized, she was in the dark about the Theives Guild as well. She had no idea they were planning a hostile takeover until a few days ago.

  Everywhere she looked, there were people all around them. The city wasn’t crowded, but she didn’t see a quiet part of the city, a place they could lay low and discuss plans for breaking into the castle. She paused, her eyes glancing to the eastern part of the city. A large castle stood in the distance. She’d never see the castle. The Sorcerers Guild had a lot of keeps and manors across Tynaereal, but their castle daunted her. Majestic and divine in appearance, it stood hundreds of feet tall, three cylinders stretched into the sky, white marble, with purple roofs and a thin, tall metal pole with a sharp arrowhead at its tip. A few windows could be seen facing the city near the top, and a few more heading down the shafts. In appearance alone, it made the Nobles Guild castle in Cappria look like a child’s toy. For a castle that large, there had to be a lot of sorcerers in Haedrael, or at least, a lot of people inside. It was no wonder why Mirabelle ordered at least six of them to steal the scepter. Keira wondered if it would be enough.

  The caravan veered to the left, and Keira turned her attention to their destination. Haedrael became a bit quieter as they headed deeper into the city. But there were still too many people to keep hidden, and she wondered how many people were watching the merchant caravan as they entered. Not to mention whoever was waiting on it to arrive. She hoped Uriah knew what he was doing, but she suspected he did. Confidence radiated out of him, arrogance plastered across his face. They turned left down an alley, then right on another one, then left, left, right. Keira was having a hard time keeping track of their location. She’d studied the map before their departure, but they were in a part of the city she hadn’t spent a lot of time studying.

  “Where are we going?” she whispered.

  “We’re heading to the northeast corner of the city.”

  “Why? What’s there?”

  Uriah smirked. “Hopelessness.”

  She raised a brow.

  “This city is in a strategic location. It is the right point of a star with the other cities that makes up the Sorcerers Guild. To the south is the merchants guild, to the east—the sea, and to the north is the wildlands.”

  Keira wrinkled her nose. “I’ve heard of the wildlands, but I’m unfamiliar of what they are.”

  “The wildlands are outcasts. They’re the poorest of the poor. They don’t fit into any specific guild. Even the nobles won’t have them as peasants or slaves. They’re uneducated and simple folk with no written language and no towns or cities. They live in tents and in the wilderness.”

  “What does that have to do with where we’re going?”

  Uriah grinned. “They’ve been known to attack Haedrael from time to time. They climb the wall, drop in, and attack whoever they find. Most of the time they’re harmless. But on occasion, they’ve been known to kill one or two people before stopped.”

  Keira’s eyes bulged. “And you said they’re in the north?”

  He nodded. “Northeast.”

  “So not many people would be on this side of the city. They don’t want to chance being a victim,” she said.

  “Correct,” he said.

  “But won’t that mean we have a chance to become a victim?”

  He laughed. “Don’t fret, Keira. The least of our worries are a few wildlanders. Compared to the sorcerers, they’re nothing. We’ll be keeping watch the entire time anyway. Besides, we aren’t staying long.”

  They continued on until they reached the tall stone wall at the northeastern side. True to his word, people were scarce near the wall. Keira glanced around and didn’t see a
nyone.

  Uriah pulled the reins tight and the wyverns slowed to a stop. He climbed off the caravan and staggered over to a door. He opened it and disappeared into the building for a few minutes. Keira watched, waiting for his return. He returned with a smile.

  “No one’s home. This will be a good place to make camp and begin preparations,” Uriah said.

  Keira looked around one last time before pulling the blankets and tarps off of the caravan. Brenden yawned as he looked at her. Him and the three others looked relieved. They slid off the caravan, and began bringing crates off the caravan and into the building. Brenden stretched, hopped off the caravan, and hugged Keira. She embraced him, missing his company.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Fine,” she responded.

  His eyes moved back and forth cautiously before leaning closer to her ear. “I know you don’t trust him, but I’m glad he’s with us on this mission. He’s brilliant. I wouldn’t have thought of most of this to get us this far.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  Brenden brushed her forehead with his fingers. “I’ll see you inside.”

  The three others grabbed the rest of the crates and followed Brenden inside. Uriah stepped out the door again, a grin splitting his face in two, his thumbs tucked into his breeches. He strolled over to the wyverns, fed them each a carrot, then sent them off the way they’d come.

  Keira watched in disbelief as the two wyverns and the caravan disappeared into the alley.

  “Why’d you let them go for? If someone notices the merchant carriage, they’re going to be wondering where we are,” she said.

  He shook his head. “They’ll figure we’ve been robbed.”

  “Won’t we need the wyverns and caravan to escape this city?”

  “And how do you propose we take care of the wyverns for a week while we’re trying to break into the castle?”

  “What about the guards at the gate?”

  Uriah shrugged. “They’ll be dead in the morning.”

  Keira’s lip quivered. “The dried buffalo meat …”

  Uriah’s lips arched upward, but he showed no teeth. “And the jam.”

  “Poison?”

  “Untraceable.”

  Uriah turned around, heading back inside the door.

  Keira’s body trembled as she once again wondered what Brenden and her had gotten into with the Thieves Guild. She took a deep breath, then followed him inside.

  33

  Lanynor veered his boat to the eastern side of Forscythe.

  He’d traveled upstream, and if not for his ability to use magic, he didn’t know if he would have made it. The river wasn’t terribly wide, but its current was strong. The last time he was in Forscythe was more than ten years ago. For the most part, the Thieves Guild had kept quiet. They were still quiet, but lately, there were too many suspicions to brush off. Nadar had sent him to investigate.

  The problem was that Lanynor wasn’t a thief, or an assassin. He wasn’t used to keeping to the shadows. Sorcerers didn’t need to hide. They were well accepted in all the cities across Tynaereal. But there was fear now, and it sunk deep with most of the sorcerers in the Sorcerers Guild. Even the nobles were afraid.

  The Thieves Guild had always been respected like the other guilds across the land. Some people didn’t like thievery, but they were too powerful to eliminate, and with them being inside of a guild, there were rules to follow as well as regulations set by the nobles. They could be monitored this way.

  However, things were changing.

  No longer were they following regulations. There were certain things that were off limits. They may not be written down, but it was common knowledge. The fear could all be misplaced though. Just because items were stolen from the nobles and the sorcerers didn’t mean it was a direct order from the Thieves Guild. However, that was why Lanynor was here. He needed to find out. And the best way to do that was sneak into the city.

  He stashed his boat in the bushes near the river and began his trek northwest. Lanynor changed out of his blue sorcerers robes and into brown leathers with a cloak and hood. It was the best way he could find to fit in. He hoped it would be enough. Lanynor was unsure how many thieves there were inside of Forscythe, or if they were all in a tight-knit community.

  Instead of going through the main entrance, he circled around Forscythe and snuck in through the northern gate by the North Sea. He saw a few people fishing, but other than that, it was quite empty. The north was beautiful, though a bit too warm for Lanynor’s tastes. The humidity clung to his skin, giving him a nervous tick on his left cheek. He wiped his forehead every few minutes. It reminded him of the Sorcerers Guild city Kigam right on the bay.

  It seemed near the bay was always the most humid, and he wondered if it was because of how still the water was in the bay when compared to the rest of the land. There was a bay in the south near the Nobles Guild city of Tulini as well, but the weather was always colder in the south.

  When he stepped inside the city, he noticed how dirty everything was. Compared to the Nobles Guild and Sorcerers Guild, this place was full of grime. They didn’t have the same peasants and serfs to help clean the area, and he imagined they wouldn’t want to do it themselves with how humid the air was. He kept to the dark alleys to try and keep hidden, but he probably didn’t need to because every time he popped his head out, he noticed the city empty.

  Where was everyone? Was the city always this empty? Or was everyone gone?

  He stopped when he saw the manor. The place was large, though not as large as a castle, but it loomed high in the sky, with a foreboding presence. It looked like it was made from white marble, but with its lack of cleanliness, it looked more like a dark brown. This is where he saw people in the streets. There weren’t many, but there were enough that they would notice him if he were to enter the manor.

  Yet, Lanynor could feel that was where he needed to go. He reached out with his senses, and found some air elements around him. Using his magic, his eyes closed with concentration, he tied a few of the air spirits together and moved them around him. When he was done, he raised his arm in the air and realized he could see right through it.

  Lanynor smiled. He wasn’t invisible per say, but the air reflected all around him made it look like nothing was there. It could be seen of course, from a trained eye. The air would look a bit distorted, but other than that, there was very little that could be seen.

  Not wasting any time, he rushed out of the darkness and to the manor. He looked over his shoulder when he reached the door, and not seeing anyone near him, he opened it. The inside was much cleaner than the outside. He was actually quite impressed with its cleanliness. Perhaps that was why they gave little regard to their buildings outside, if all of them were that immaculate on the inside. He wandered through the halls aimlessly until he began hearing voices. Curious, he crept closer.

  A door was open, with candlelight shining through. Lanynor took a deep breath, then stepped next to the door, placing his good ear as close as he could.

  “Don’t worry, everything will go fine. We have our best thieves stealing the scepter now. When they return, we will begin,” came a fierce feminine voice.

  Lanynor’s eyes bulged. The scepter? He couldn’t be sure which scepter the voice spoke of, but it didn’t matter. Any scepter was magical, and every one of them dangerous, especially in the hands of the Thieves Guild. But Lanynor did recall the nervousness of the Sorcerers Guild’s leader. He had said something about … the Scepter of Reverium. His eyebrows raised all the way to his hairline. Could that be what the woman was speaking of? With the Scepter of Reverium, if they learned how to use it, they could overturn any spell the Sorcerers Guild used on them, or on anyone else. What were they planning? Lanynor shook his head. All he needed to know was they were planning it. He needed to get the information back to the Sorcerers Guild. Lanynor took one step away from the door when he froze, chill bumps crawling up his neck.

  “Where are
you going so fast, Lanynor?”

  It was the same voice he heard a minute ago, but this time he recognized it. Somewhere deep in the past, he knew this voice. He dared not turn around as he racked his brain for the knowledge hidden deep within. A part of him hoped if he remained still, with the air spirits still wrapped around him, that she wouldn’t notice him, though, she had said his name.

  He turned around. A woman with long red curly hair standing six foot tall grinned at him. She wore red sacramental sorceress robes and held a long metal staff, curled at the top. He knew her. And he was afraid.

  “Mirabelle?”

  “Very good, Lanynor. It has been a long time, hasn’t it?”

  “I thought you were dead. No one has heard from you in over ten years.”

  “Everyone was supposed to think I was dead,” Mirabelle purred.

  Lanynor’s forehead creased. “If I remember right, you attempted to take over the Sorcerers Guild, even fought against Nadar, but you lost. Your plan backfired, and in a final act of desperation, you rigged the entire castle to blow up using oil and fire spirits.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Nadar was able to save himself, but you—we found your clothes, all burnt to a crisp. There was little left of them but ashes, and we assumed the same happened to you.”

  “That’s exactly what you were supposed to think. I placed a protection of air spirit around my entire body, excluding my clothes. I wanted them to burn. I wanted you to find them.”

  “So, you’ve been playing dead for over ten years, why? And what are you doing here?” he asked.

  Mirabelle bit her lip. She sashayed toward him. “When I arrived over here, the former leader of the Thieves Guild mysteriously died. They needed someone to take his place. Who better?”

  “You’ve been controlling them …”

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t say that. More like, guiding them.” She shrugged. “They needed guidance. They needed me. And all the while, we’ve been growing more powerful. Soon, it will be the Thieves Guild at top. Soon, I will be on the throne. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”