Skulduggery

by Logan Jacobs

  Then we were in the Warehouse District, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I had never actually seen the warehouses in this area before, but they were impressive and much larger than I imagined. Each one was a good eighty-feet tall, and while most were lacking windows, a few had stained glass windows, and rainbows of colored light poured out of them and lit the street like someone spilled their paints on the cobblestone.

  We avoided those splatters of light as we crept toward our destination.

  I placed a hand on the key and realized it had grown warm again. This place’s magic was strong, and I’d once heard the buildings were all warded against fire, and the runes traced beneath their ivy-covered walls made them more impenetrable than any steel.

  We ducked behind the first set of buildings, and then we sank into the dark shadows. Dar motioned for us to follow with a finger on his lips, and we trailed him away from the guards at the gate and toward a deserted part of the grounds.

  “Alright Penny, you got us in, now did your imp friend happen to tell you which building the booze was in?” Dar asked.

  “No, he didn’t,” Penny replied with an arched brow, “but I also expected your scouting report to be done weeks ago.”

  “It might have been if someone hadn’t pushed up the date of the heist. We all know I always wait until the last minute,” Dar joked, “and even then it’s never good enough for Princess Penny.”

  Penny flipped off the halfling as she glared at him, and Dar stuck out his tongue at the pretty redhead.

  “I think we can use the key to find it,” I cut in. “It spoke to me when I found it in the chest, so I’m sure now would be no different. It’s our only option. If we don’t find it, we are all going to be dead by morning anyway.”

  I pulled the key out of my pocket and was a bit relieved to find it was still warm. Then I whispered to it in my mind.

  Take us to the door we seek filled with the forbidden treasure.

  The answered song in my bones told me enough about its intentions. How it planned to guide me there, I had no idea, so I walked in the direction headed away from the gates and prayed to the ancients for some sort of sign or signal.

  At first I felt nothing, but I was certain the key wouldn’t fail me. I trekked on as I took the key’s continued warmth as a sign it was still willing to help us.

  I stopped when its warmth began to dim, and I panicked as my worst fear came to light.

  “What’s wrong?” Penny whispered behind me.

  “It’s warmth isn’t as strong,” I fretted. “I thought it was helping me, but now I’m not so sure.”

  I tapped the key against my leg and blew on it with my mouth. I even prayed to the ancients for it to work, but nothing made the key return to its warmth of before.

  “We can’t stand here all day. Let’s keep moving and see if we can find anything,” Dar suggested.

  I nodded in response, and as we turned, the liquid sunshine warmth of the key rushed back and nearly burned my fingertips.

  I gasped as it struck me how the key was trying to communicate with me. I spun one more time to be sure, but as its warmth shifted, I knew I had figured it out.

  “Penny, Dar, follow me,” I whispered excitedly. “I know how it works.”

  “You got it, boss,” Dar whispered, but Penny didn’t say anything.

  There were a few elven guards posted on assorted street corners, but they were more interested in conversing with each other than actually doing any guarding, so we were able to easily avoid them as we followed the warmth of my key.

  As we drew closer to our prize, the key heated up until it was almost unbearable to hold, and my mind became foggy as the magic took over my senses.

  “Wade, you okay?” Penny asked, and I felt her nails dig into my shoulder.

  “We are close,” I whispered.

  “You look like you are gonna pass out,” Dar hissed.

  “Naw,” I scoffed as I tried to ignore the spinning blackness. “I’m--”

  Then my vision faded to black as unconsciousness whisked me away with its dark hand.

  Chapter 5

  I realized I was lying in the dirt, and I opened my eyes as my friends looked down upon me with mild concern.

  The magic held within the key had taken over my senses, and then my mind entered a cavernous black hole I couldn’t escape. The power beckoned me with an open angelic hand, but the second I’d grabbed on, it turned to nothing but bone. It was all a ruse to give it control, and somehow I had returned from its endless depths.

  How, I had no idea, but all that mattered was that I did.

  My hand felt empty, so I looked around and saw the key laying in the dirt beside my prone body. The magic still called to me, despite my poor ability to wield it, and my heart started to beat normally as soon as my fingers closed around it again.

  “You alright?” Dar whispered, and worry was etched into the lines of his face.

  I sat up, and my head still spun with the effects of magic, but I knew I’d made it to the right location with every fiber of my being, even if I didn’t remember the last half of the walk to get there.

  “This is the place,” I whispered to my friends. “I can feel magic coming through that door.”

  “This door?” Dar asked, and the three of us looked toward the door of the closest warehouse building as I picked myself off the ground.

  “Aye, that’s the one,” I said as we all crept closer to the hunk of thick wood wrapped in metal bands. “I can almost taste the magic coming off it.”

  “You can taste magic now?” Penny hissed.

  “Well, the key,” I whispered.

  “That key is cursed,” she replied.

  “Hey, it got us here,” I argued. “Look at that lock would ya? That’s the kind of lock I’d use to protect blessed wine.”

  “He’s right,” Dar agreed.

  We all stared at the lock in wonder, and I leaned in close to inspect the intricate details. Even in the darkness of night and the even darker shadow of the building’s awning, the lock glittered as golden as the sun on a summer day, and it was covered in symbols whose meanings I couldn’t even begin to guess.

  “Can you pick that?” Penny murmured.

  “Sure,” I huffed as I inserted my tools.

  Then the ends of my pick and tension rod melted as soon as they encountered the lock’s surface.

  “Uhhh, maybe not?” Dar groaned.

  “Ehhh, I expected as much, but I figured it was worth a shot,” I whispered. “We only have one magic key, and I don’t want to waste it if I don’t have to. But … I guess I have to.”

  “What if the key goes away when you use it?” Dar asked with a frown.

  “What if the key sounds an alarm?” Penny pressed.

  “We’ll find out,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster, and then I reached into my pocket, pulled the almost fire-poker hot magical item from my pants, and pushed it into the lock.

  The key disintegrated in my hands as I finished the final turn, and the ancient wooden door swung open.

  “Woah.” Dar’s mouth hung open as we stared into the dim light of the entryway.

  “Told you it would work,” Penny scoffed, and then she sauntered past him and into the building.

  “Ya didn’t though,” Dar grumbled as we both followed her lead into the dim light of the entrance hallway.

  My ears were met with the grunts of workers and the sounds of movement coming from the end of the hall. I looked at my two friends, and they were just as surprised as I was.

  “I thought this warehouse was empty?” Penny hissed.

  “I guess not, “ I answered.

  “How did we not hear this from outside?” Dar asked.

  “Uhh, magic door?” I said as I gestured over my shoulder at the door we had just entered through.

  “This throws a wrench in our plans,” Dar muttered as we crept forward into the light of the bustling warehouse.

  It smelled
like the rotten flesh of an orc’s last meal, mixed with fruity tones of what I assumed was wine. The main area of the warehouse was gargantuan, and the walls were lined with numerous wooden kegs. The cacophony of working orcs, centaurs, and halflings filled my ears, though it was still muted from the magic fog which blurred my senses.

  I sat and watched from an enclosed corner, surrounded by kegs of aromatic wine. There was so much activity, I wasn’t sure how we would manage to steal even one lowly keg.

  “This is a suicide mission,” Dar whispered to himself.

  I almost agreed with him, but then I noticed a pattern. The supervisors were all halflings, and the wheels turned inside my head as I focused on the trend of activity before me.

  “Penny, can you steal a clipboard from one of those halflings?” I asked.

  “With pleasure,” she purred with a smirk. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

  She stuck to the shadows, and her movements were agile and quick even in the shapeless servant’s clothing. She snuck up behind a halfling who had leaned against a stack of barrels with his clipboard out of sight on the cask behind him. Penny snatched it with ease and was able to slink back to us without even the slightest detection of the halfling.

  Her freckled cheeks were flushed when she returned, and she handed me the clipboard.

  “Now that I stole it for you, what do you plan to do with it?” Penny asked. “Beat a centaur over the head or slice an orc’s throat?”

  “No,” I whispered. “I was just curious to see what was so important they forced the halflings to carry them around. But your idea sounds much more exciting.”

  Penny opened her mouth to retort when the halfling interrupted her thoughts with a wail.

  “Who took my clipboard?” the halfling supervisor fumed. “Come on, guys, I get it was funny the first time, but after the twentieth it gets old real quick. Absos! I see you laughing.”

  The centaur pointed to himself sarcastically as he mimicked the halfling’s ridiculous outburst.

  “That’s it!” the halfling supervisor screeched. “Absos, to my office, now. I know it was you. It’s always you. Bloody centaurs. I hate you all. You and your little games have gone far enough, damn it.”

  The centaur flicked the halfling in the face with his tail, and the rest of the workers roared with laughter as it knocked the supervisor on his ass.

  Then the plan formulated in my brain as the group’s supervisor left the orcs and centaurs to their own devices.

  “Penny, I need you.” I gave her a knowing half smile because I knew this plan was right up her alley. She loved a challenge, and this would be nothing short of impossible.

  “Of course you do,” she said, and I could see her struggling not to smirk.

  “But first, Dar, take the clipboard and distract the group of orcs and centaurs by the cart to our left,” I ordered. “Penny and I will sneak around to the cart, and your job is to get them to push it outside. Any objections?”

  “Sure, I’ll go face the hungry orcs and intelligent centaurs while you guys hide in the cart.” Dar snickered as he took the clipboard from my hands. “I would love to be torn limb from limb and then eaten for the sake of the mission.”

  “Look around. Do you see any centaur or orc supervisors?” Penny questioned. “The answer is no. All of the supervisors are halflings just like you, so--”

  “He knows,” I interrupted her. “He’s just baiting you.”

  “Oh, idiot,” she groaned as she rolled her eyes while Dar chuckled.

  “I’m off then,” my friend said. “Watch me order around these big oafs like I am a tiny elf noble.”

  We watched as he sauntered over to the orcs and centaurs around our target. Then Dar barked something to them, puffed out his chest, and made some gestures that would be considered “grotesque.” For half a second, the group just blinked at my friend, but then his acting seemed to take hold and the group of workers nodded at him.

  Best part was that all the workers’ attention was drawn away from the cart.

  Penny and I crept around the stacks of barrels, and we timed our runs from one stack to the next to avoid the gazes of the nearby workers as they loaded casks into carts. We easily made it to the cart I had picked, and Penny entered the back first, but I was about to climb in when I heard the damning words.

  “So, yer tellin’ me another halfling supervisor came down with ye elven flu and now yee self is in charge?” asked the centaur wearing a dirt stained vest. “We jus’ saw our supervisor cart off Absos for stealin’ his clipboard. Now here ye are, a new supervisor, talkin’ ‘bout an illness I’ve never heard of, and ye clipboard.”

  Dar managed to remain expressionless, but I knew he was preparing for a fight he knew he wouldn’t win.

  “Listen here bucko, I just do what I’m told. The elven flu is a serious condition, and my aunt died of it last year,” Dar choked out as he pretended to wipe his tears. “One day she woke, and it wasn’t my auntie anymore, but her blood turned blue and her ears grew pointy as the day came and went. Then all of a sudden she was gone.”

  “Gone?” the centaur asked skeptically.

  “Yep, her house went up in blue flames as her body exploded into a ball of deadly fire,” Dar informed the half-man-half-beast. “We think it was the luck of the ancients my uncle was at the store at the time.”

  The centaur looked even more skeptical than before. He raised his eyebrows at Dar, then looked back at his other centaur friends who had the same reaction.

  As usual, Dar was going too far with his storytelling, so I had to think fast before my best friend got murdered.

  I ruffled up my neatly combed hair and rolled up my baggy sleeves. Then I opened the front of my jacket and rubbed some dirt on my clothes and face.

  The centaur began again. “What e’ the hell even is ye elven flu? I think yer full o’ halfling shit and until--”

  “Come o’ man,” I yelled across the driver’s seat, “stop giving ye newbie a hard time. I have deliveries to ma’ and yer holding up me progress. Lord Gormar will have yee head for this lad.”

  I positioned myself so my back half was covered by the dense wheels, and I looked up between the messy strands of my brown hair. I was always told I looked more centaur than human, and today I wished it was true.

  My brown hair had the same wavy texture when I let it run wild, and my torso was as muscled as theirs. My skin was tanned and dark as any centaur’s, and their faces always looked more humanoid than anything.

  The centaur turned toward me, and curiosity lined his worn features.

  My heart thundered away in my chest as sweat pricked at the back of my neck.

  “Ye lad have a delivery to ma’?” the centaur asked.

  “Are yee deaf or just as dense as a pile of yer own shit?” I snapped.

  He studied me for a few brief moments before he snorted and stamped his petulant hooves.

  “It’s yer lucky day halfling. If it wasn’t for yer centaur friend over yonder yer head would a’ been part of a delicious dish of orc soup,” the centaur claimed.

  “I think he told you exactly what I have been trying to tell you since I got here. People have jobs for a reason and there is a good reason I’m the one carrying the clipboard,” Dar snorted as he tapped his finger on the crisp page.

  The halfling gave him a smile that said “I told you so,” and the centaur’s long tail flicked the clipboard out of his hand before he headed in the opposite direction.

  “Alright, shows over folks! Everyone get back to work!” Dar commanded as he pointed to the few orcs and centaurs gathered around him.

  Then Dar briskly walked to the back of the cart as the onlookers occupied themselves with other tasks, and I clambered into the covered wagon where Penny hid.

  The back of the cart was filled with barrels, but there was a small path that allowed me to squeeze into the back. I shimmied to the rear end of the wagon and plopped down into the corner with Penny. I couldn’t see her in the dim
light, but her smell intoxicated me. Her strange floral scent continued to mystify me, and its effect was almost as bad as the key’s magic fog.

  “You there. Yeah, you!” I heard Dar order from my hiding spot inside the cart. “The orc with the ugly mole on your face. Find me a horse to pull this wagon so we can get this show on the road.”

  Good to know he didn’t lose his self-confidence after that scare.

  A few moments later, the cart lurched forward, and I counted thirty seconds until we were outside in the darkness. The crisp summer air helped stave off the musty aroma in our cramped hideaway, but I was still damp with sweat from our close call.

  I heard someone hitch up a horse to the front of the wagon, and the seat squeaked as someone climbed into the driver’s spot.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Dar yelled from the front seat. “I don’t need an orc’s help to deliver this to the elves. What do I look like to you?”

  “Me just try and help,” the guttural voice of an orc responded, too close to the cart for comfort.

  “Well I don’t care what you want. Go back and make yourself useful in the warehouse,” Dar ordered the orc.

  I heard the orc’s heavy footfalls fade away as he padded back into the warehouse. It amazed me that Dar managed to leave without becoming someone’s meal with the mouth he had on him.

  The cart began to move toward the exit, and as we passed through the gates onto the cobblestone path, I relaxed against the wooden back and rested my head on the billowing canvas top. I probably would have taken Penny’s hand, but I wasn’t positive she wouldn’t cut it off.

  A few minutes later, Dar slid beneath the canvas with a lit candle in hand.

  “We are in the clear,” the halfling proclaimed as he took his seat beside me in the bed of the cart.

  “Where did you get the candle?” I asked as Dar set the lit wax in front of us between the barrels.

  “I stole it off the warehouse shelves before I left,” Dar explained.

  “For once you actually thought ahead,” Penny mused. “I’m impressed.”

  “But if you’re in here, who is out there driving the horses?” I asked.