The Way of Thieves

by K.N. Lee

  “As you can see, the most important positions are Seraphina, Rycroft, and Brenden. Keira, you can assist Brenden on the inside with deactivating the magical barriers after securing the key to unlock the main entrance. I will accompany Seraphina and Rycroft all the while. As you can see, we should take two separate paths to the vault. We don’t want all six of us traveling down the same path, otherwise we may arise suspicion. Tedlyha will accompany you two, posed as a guard all the while, and he won’t follow us all the way into the vault. Instead, his main task will be to keep an eye out for everything going on the inside of the castle, so we can make a clean escape when we done. Is everyone clear on their task and our overall objective?” Uriah said.

  “Yes,” everyone except Keira chimed.

  “How exactly did you get a map of this castle?” Keira asked.

  Uriah’s eyes twinkled. “I stole it.”

  36

  Uriah crouched on the rooftops in Haedrael.

  For an old man, he was spry when it came to getting around. It had been a while since he’d been on a mission like this, but his training had never stopped. He looked down at the streets around the castle, watching the guards, studying them.

  He leapt from rooftop to rooftop, almost as skillfully as Seraphina, who was also on the rooftops helping him collect data. In fact, Seraphina had been impressed with Uriah’s agility. They each had a sight-glass which they used to watch for patterns. It was their third day on observation.

  Everything was about patterns. Noticing the patterns was the most useful skill to have as a thief. Patterns were something everyone had. No matter who they were. The most successful thieves always looked for patterns. And Uriah was a successful thief. He didn’t trust anyone else to seek out patterns from the guards or sorcerers. Brenden and Keira were good, true, but they weren’t skilled at being thieves.

  They had done a fine job stealing merchandise for a few years, especially for being so young, but it wasn’t their skill as a thief that aided them. He had taught them a lot over the years, but he was careful not to teach them too much. Uriah didn’t want them understanding patterns fully, or they may notice his patterns, or Mirabelle’s, and he didn’t need that. Besides, it was more of their instincts, their innate magical ability that helped them through their missions, though, they didn’t know it. They were both about to find out though. Their abilities was the entire reason they were here.

  Uriah watched the guards near the castle closely. They wore indistinct, brown leather armor, leather caps, short shorts at their hip, and hard leather boots. Not all of them had access to the castle though. Most of them were for the city itself, and the castle had several guards on the outside, but it was only a select few guards who were able to go inside.

  At first, Uriah couldn’t tell the difference between the guards, but after close observation for days, he discovered the difference. The guards who were permitted to go inside of the castle were the ones who had a thin arrow on the left breast of their leather armor. At first, he hadn’t seen it, but when he used his sight glass, he could make out the small, indistinct symbol. He watched as the guards with those symbols approached the castle. The other guards would immediately step out of the way, most of the time; they wouldn’t even look too closely at the men who wore the symbol. It was the symbol itself that held the importance.

  He also paid attention to the sorcerers and when they went to the castle. Most of them were like clockwork. The ones who weren’t, varied on their time of day because of their previous events; usually meetings with the guards and things of that nature. Uriah made sure to go into the city and grab as much information as he could.

  Seraphina leapt from one rooftop to the one Uriah crouched on. She skidded to a halt and knelt next to Uriah.

  “What have you discovered?”

  “I found three guards who wear the symbols we require. All of them travel with each other. I don’t know if they’re together because that is how they were assigned, or if they’re together because their friends. Either way, they’ll be easy targets. They all drink ale at the Dancing Donkey every night. One goes home an hour before the others, and is in the alleys alone. The other two, go home at the same time, both drunker than a goat, stumbling all the while. We could probably even spare their life if you would like. It doesn’t look like it’ll be hard to incapacitate them.”

  Uriah shook his head. “There’s no need for that. Let’s play this as safe as we can, but, make sure to render them unconscious first to remove their clothes before we slit their throats and drop them in a dark alley. We wouldn’t want blood on our new uniforms.”

  Seraphina grinned. “Of course. When should we acquire our new uniforms?”

  “Tonight. I’m ready to be out of this cursed place.”

  “Excellent.”

  “What about my other request?” Uriah asked.

  “Ah, yes, a guard captain. One with full access and keys to the inside of the castle. None are quite as careless as those three, but a captain will be needed. Those three are obviously not trusted with keys. I found one who is lonely, and visits a brothel every other night. He went last night though … I don’t know if he’ll visit it two nights in a row.”

  “We’ll just have to convince him to go again tonight. Perhaps a chance meeting with Keira’s flirtations will prompt him to take another visit tonight.”

  Seraphina raised her brows. “It looks like everything is coming together.”

  “I do love it when a plan comes together.” Uriah rubbed his hands together.

  37

  Brenden watched the castle from the rooftops.

  The breeze was cool, adding a bit of relief to the warm summer air. Brenden didn’t much like summer. Especially humid summer, and Haedrael was definitely humid. Most of the land to the north and south blocked the breeze. The rest was blocked by the forest to the west. They were only luck if they had a western wind coming into the bay, which didn’t seem often.

  He puffed on his long-stem pipe, it held a Cavendish blend that helped him relax. It’d been a while since he’d pulled out a pipe to enjoy its aroma, but things were tense lately so he was glad he packed it. He wished he had packed some pipe weed as well to sooth his mind, but he had never smoked it too often. Brenden thought about changing that with recent events.

  Sorcerers moved through the city to the castle like ants to an ant bed. There were direct paths to and direct paths from the castle. At first, he hadn’t noticed, but when he soothed his mind, took a step back, and looked again, he saw it. He remembered as a child when he watched the fire ants.

  Brenden had made the mistake a few times trying to play with the ants. Their bite was strong, and his hands swelled. This was similar. He couldn’t play with the sorcerers. They would bite back. He needed to find a way to either kill those in his path, which Uriah would approve over, or a way to distract them.

  He thought back to his fire ant analogy. Brenden used to kill them with fire. At that time, he didn’t know he was a sorcerer. Well, was he even a sorcerer now? The reveal Uriah confessed to him had come as a surprise. But was it a surprise really? He was shocked, sure. But somehow, deep down, he’d always known. He knew he was special. He knew he was different. Brenden hadn’t known he was a sorcerer, but after the initial shock at Uriah’s confession, everything began to make sense. When he focused on a mission, and in particular, ways inside and ways to escape, it wasn’t like he had to do a lot of research. He put his mind to it, and somehow, through a little bit of research, and a lot of intuition, he was able to know what to do.

  If he had magic in his veins, then that meant Keira did as well. Growing up, they both knew they had abilities. At the time, they considered them qualities, not magical abilities. But they each had their strengths. Keira always knew where to go. When she set her mind to something, especially if she was searching for something specific, she always knew which direction to go to find it. Brenden, on the other hand, had never put too much energy into finding things. All of hi
s attention always went to finding a way in and out of a scenario. He was always afraid of being caught, or really, being noticed. Brenden didn’t like being noticed. He enjoyed being in the dark, away from wandering eyes.

  Now that he really thought about it, their talents weren’t just innate abilities, but the focused magic of a sorcerer. Sorcerers didn’t have unlimited abilities of course, but when they focused on something, they could usually accomplish it. It also drained them of energy when doing so, which would explain why Brenden was so tired after he escaped each mission. He wasn’t tired from running and dodging people, but also because he was using his own energy, his own magic, as intuition.

  If Brenden and Keira were both magical, and it seemed Uriah had specifically called him out to having power, that meant that their parents were as well, at least, that’s how Brenden thought it worked. Brenden ground his teeth together. Who were their parents? He’d been doubting the story Uriah and Mirabelle kept feeding him and Keira for a few months now, but it really began to eat at him. Surely their parents weren’t thieves. Thieves didn’t have magical abilities. And if there were thieves with magical abilities, they would be as skilled at theft as Brenden and Keira. And yet, it was Brenden and Keira who got all the difficult missions. Unless their parents really were thieves who could use magic like sorcerers, they were the only ones in the Thieves Guild with magical powers.

  Brenden found it more likely that the thieves, being thieves, captured Brenden and Keira. But why would they capture the two of them? The only reason Brenden could think of was they needed the them both. And with everything happening recently, Brenden imagined it had to do with the events unfolding. They were stealing something from the Sorcerers Guild. A scepter. A scepter that could reverse spells, and it went with the book of spell reversals that Brenden had already stolen for the Thieves Guild. They’d also been stealing protection pendants from the nobles. Brenden wondered if the Thieves Guild would have been able to do any of it if not for him and Keira.

  Who were their parents really? Were Brenden and Keira stolen from them, or was Keira’s dream actually a memory from the past. Had Uriah killed their parents, then stolen them to bring to the Thieves Guild to train as thieves. All because of a war between the Thieves Guild and the Nobles and Sorcerers Guild.

  He wanted answers, but he needed to get Uriah alone. Brenden would need to plan how to do that. For now, he needed to continue with their current mission. He would help them steal the scepter, and then very soon, he would get answers from them.

  He played with the square torch head in his hands. Brenden had taken it from one of the street torches. When he explored the city, he realized not all of the torches were fueled by magic. A few did use oil, but those were used by the more common folk—the nobles and guards. He looked at a firelight torch. He’d taken it from the pole and brought it to the rooftop. He kept it low so no one from the street could see him as he tinkered with it. The firelight was still active and he was trying to figure out how to reverse the spell. He concentrated on it. Brenden could feel the energy inside. It was hot, burning, and beautiful. It all connected together, like the fabric in a quilt. Using his mind, he tried to yank it, pull it, or stuff it out, but nothing worked.

  Brenden closed his eyes and opened his mind. He reached out with his senses. At first, he could only feel a vibration, and he almost gave up, but he felt something tug at him. He concentrated harder and searched for the flame. Brenden imagined it in his mind, as the blackness turned to a light. It was dim at first, but it was there. He imagined himself going closer to the light and he felt like he was moving, like he was running toward it.

  His mind grew tired, but he continued on. He reached the light, and he stood before it. It was massive as he looked up at it. The flame stretched as tall as the castle. He stood in awe for several long minutes.

  Shaking his head, he readjusted his focus. The flame was massive. He hadn’t imagined a single torch firelight would be so large, but inside his mind, he was minuscule in comparison. Brenden needed to figure out how to extinguish the flame. He tried imagining water, and after a few minutes of concentration, water appeared in his hands. Brenden threw his hands out, willing the water to collide with the massive flame. The flame flickered, but otherwise looked undisturbed by the water, which was puny when compared.

  Brenden tried imagined more water, more than the flame, larger than the flame, a tsunami. And it came. It washed over him and the flame. The strength was so strong that he had to close his eyes, which was a bit odd to do when his eyes were already closed, but he had to close his other eyes. His senses. When the tsunami passed, he opened his senses, but the flame was still there. It was significantly smaller, but it remained in place.

  “What am I doing wrong?” he whispered.

  He thought back to the book. It was true that he read it, and memorized it. But the focus that he recalled was to imagine the opposite, hold it deep inside of you, and twist what was already there to what was opposite, or to fight the opposites together until neither stood. The firelight was fire, but water proved ineffective.

  Brenden almost gave up, when he decide to focus on the last part.

  Firelight. Light.

  Was it truly fire? Or was it just light? Instead of using water, he imagined a cloud of darkness twice as large as the flame, and he threw it at the firelight. At first, it looked like it consumed the firelight, and it did shrink again, but it still stood taller than himself.

  “What am I doing wrong?” Brenden asked through clenched teeth.

  Firelight.

  He rubbed his forehead. Firelight.

  His hands clenched, his teeth bared into each other. Firelight.

  He slammed his fist into his forehead. Firelight.

  His eyes opened. It couldn’t be that simple could it? He looked around and noticed he was still crouched on the rooftop alone, and the torch with the firelight still lay next to him, though much dimmer than it had been before.

  Brenden closed his eyes again. It was easier to find the firelight now that he knew what he was looking for. He looked at it, turned to his side, and commanded a massive tsunami to form. He saw its beautiful blue wave soar into the sky in the surrounding darkness, stretching higher than he could see, and still he stretched it farther.

  He smiled, and commanded the massive wave to turn from blue to black. It became invisible in the darkness surrounding it. Then he commanded it to obliterate the firelight. A loud pop echoed in his ears as he opened his eyes.

  The torch at his feet was no longer alight.

  Brenden smiled.

  38

  Keira stood in the alleyway and watched.

  Usually, she was thrilled for this type of mission, but today, all she felt was disgust. Not only was she supposed to seduce a captain of the guard, but she was supposed to play the common mistress of a brothel. She tightened the light-blue corset, looked at her skirt, and took a deep breath. This would be embarrassing, but she needed to convince the captain to return to his brothel tonight.

  She spotted him. He was tall, dark, and handsome. His hair was short, with a fro, and his dark brown skin and thick pink lips made her bite her own bottom lip. Muscles penetrated through his upper leather armor, and Keira imagined what it would feel like to have a man so handsome and defined, pin her against a wall. Her pelvis twitched as she thought about it, and she was ready to make her move.

  Keira stepped out of the shadows, carrying a handful of bead necklaces. She tripped over her own foot, and fell to the ground in front of the captain. Her eyes widened and mouth dropped open as she quickly gathered her things and looked up at the captain.

  “I’m so sorry, milord. I didn’t mean to—I tripped. Please forgive me.”

  The captain smiled. “There is no need to fret, mistress. It was clearly an accident. Perhaps a happy accident. What is your name?”

  “Katlyn,” she lied, using the false name a second time in recent months. “I’m sorry. I will be leaving.”


  “Not so fast, Katlyn.” The captain put his hand on her exposed shoulder. “Are you new in town?”

  Keira bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Yes, sir. I am.”

  “I would be happy to show you around.”

  “That is quite generous of you, sir. But I cannot right now. Dusk approaches, and I must get to work. I have been requested.”

  “Requested? Is that so?”

  She nodded. “Yes, sir. Apparently, redheads are popular, and um, I was asked to help fill in.”

  “Popular indeed. And a shy redhead at that. Tell me, is it the brothel you work at?”

  Keira looked at the ground and nodded.

  “Is it a new career for you?” he asked.

  Still looking at his feet, she nodded again. Her cheeks burned a deep crimson, and her hands trembled.

  “A shy redhead. Now that is indeed something interesting. Perhaps you just haven’t been broken out of your shell yet.”

  She shook her head.

  His eyes widened. “Tell me … are you still fresh?”

  “I—I …”

  He grinned.

  “Tonight will be my first night.”

  “You look scared,” he said.

  “I’m nervous … and, afraid.”

  “Why are you afraid?”

  “Will someone pick me? Am I beautiful enough?” she asked.

  His hands found her chin, and he brought it up to meet her gaze. “You are gorgeous. Men are going to be fighting over each other to be the first with you.”

  She gulped. “And will he be gentle?”

  He smirked. “Only at first.”