Caged: Book 2 Of the King's Hand Series

by B. A. Monaghan

  He went out onto the porch of the guild house and opened the letter. It said that three men would be having a meeting at one of the gambling dens. One of the men would be carrying a cane with a polished white marble handle. Roland was to get close enough to the men to listen in on their conversation. The meeting would be tonight.

  It didn’t give him much time to prepare. He decided to put on an illusion of an old man. He definitely didn’t want anyone knowing he was there. If his mother ever found out that he had gone into a gambling den, she would definitely kill him.

  He went home, shared a meal with Hazel, and helped her with her homework. Finally, she went off to bed. He and Shadow stepped out of the house and dropped the illusion of shadow upon them. It was like any other night in the city for the two of them. Roland was on the roofs and Shadow scouted the street. It was a rowdy night in the city. This was the big night of the week. Tomorrow would be the one day that most everyone got off work. That gave everyone a reason to go out and drink more than normal.

  The gambling den had been one known to him that had a tunnel going to it. The Thieves Guild ran it. It made Roland wonder if the meeting was guild related, or if this just so happened to be at a place the guild ran. Sometimes additional information complicated things. If he didn’t know this was controlled by the thieves, would he change the way he proceeded? Yes, it caused him to be more cautious.

  There was a guard at the back door. They went back two streets and Roland came down off the roof. He cast an illusion of an old man on himself. Shadow would stay in his shadow illusion. He found a place to watch the front entrance.

  Roland walked in with halting steps to act as if he were a decrepit old man. He ordered an ale, then tipped the girl two silvers so that he wouldn’t be bothered. She was more than happy to comply.

  In a dark corner were two men sitting at a table. Neither of the two men had a cane. If this was where the meeting was going to take place, the environment would be good for Roland. The tables in this gambling den were large, and the back area was so dark it was hard to see anything other than the two men sat in the back. With a shadow illusion, he should be able to stay hidden.

  It was almost an hour later when Shadow let Roland know that the man with the cane was walking down the street. He didn’t have a limp so the cane was either for identification, or a weapon. It might be both.

  The man walking into the building was a hard-looking man. He was deeply tanned, with wrinkles deep in his face. His clothes seemed new and he didn’t look comfortable in them. He wore nice black slacks. He had on a gentleman’s white shirt. He had a black coat on with a double row of brass buttons. His hair was black and greasy. It hung down past his shoulders.

  He paused after he entered and looked around, obviously looking for someone. Roland noticed this was the first man to enter the building who wasn’t immediately greeted by one of the ladies. He spied the men in the back and headed that way. If the ladies knew this man wasn’t to be bothered by them, then the Thieves Guild was part of whatever was happening.

  Drinks were brought over by one of the ladies. No order had been given, but two of the drinks were in a glass, and one was in a tankard. The bartender was aware of what all three men drank.

  Roland cast an illusion of the old man he looked like sitting in the chair. He cast invisibility on himself. He walked over to the area where the men were seated. He looked back and it looked as if he was still sitting at the table. He cast another illusion. This time he made it look like the old man had fallen asleep.

  When he got to the table next to the three men, Roland got under the table and cast shadow meld on himself. He was essentially invisible. He was just in time when the men started to converse.

  “Taft, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, Laird. I thought this was going to be a meeting just between the two of us?” Taft’s voice was strained and a bit angry.

  “Taft, now you know I wouldn’t come to this meeting without a little back up. This here is Hasse. He is muscle only. The big question I have is why the Pirates of Canistan Straights are here in the capitol?”

  “Well, normally we wouldn’t be here. Our biggest food source was in ships coming out of Port Orchard. With that new Crown’s ship, we have been light on the food we’ve brought in so far. Our numbers are growing and we need the extra food.”

  “You couldn’t buy from Port Richmond?”

  “Well, someone seemed to know who our buyers were. They put a stop to any purchases in the port. We are working on fixing the problem, but in the meantime we need a few shipments of food that isn’t known by the Crown. Buggers have stopped three legitimate caravans. We had a good thing going with the Merchant’s Guild, but someone had to go blabbing. So, whatever we decide tonight has to be kept secret. I know you can keep a secret, Laird, but I don’t know this Hasse and I don’t know if he can keep a secret.”

  “Don’t go worrying about old Hasse here. He will keep a secret. The big problem you have is that you stick out like a sore thumb here in town. You wear fancy clothes and everyone knows the man wearing them isn’t a fancy gentleman. That is why I insisted on meeting you here. I can keep everyone away from this table while we talk. If we assist you, then we are taking a risk too. When we are done here, you will be taken out of the city. We can get you in and out without anyone knowing about it. Next time you come to the city to meet with us, send a letter to this person. Tell her that you will meet her on a certain date. When you exit the city, you will know where to go. We will meet you there and we will take care of everything.” Laird handed Taft a piece of paper. Taft looked at it and put it in his front breast pocket.

  “Now what exactly do you need?”

  “We need three loads of wheat, one load of corn, and a load of oil. If this works out, we would like to make it a regular shipment. We order every six months. We know you’re going to want premium prices for everything. We are willing to pay, as long as it is a premium price, and not an exorbitant price. You being thieves and all, could make 100% profit if you steal the stuff.”

  “We could get away with some theft, but for this much product we will have to swindle it away from the Merchant’s Guild. That is going to take a lot of time and effort.” The negotiations went on for over thirty minutes. Once they were satisfied, they all went to the back of the gambling den and disappeared. Roland was sure they were headed down into the tunnels.

  He went back to his illusion. He acted like he had just woken up. He staggered out into the street, where Shadow was waiting for him and they headed home. After Roland arrived home, he wrote up the conversation as close to word for word as best as he could recall it.

  The next day he went to the Mages Guild. Eli met him without too much waiting around. “Good morning Roland. Are you doing well today?”

  “I’m good. I’ve had some late nights, though. Here is the conversation that happened last night.” Roland handed over the notes he had made the night before. Eli spent several minutes reading over the conversation.

  “You close up one hole and the rats find another hole to get into. I don’t suppose you know how they are getting the rat in and out of the city do you?”

  “Through the tunnels.”

  Eli looked up with a look of surprise. “What do you mean through the tunnels? I assume you mean the sewers.”

  “No. They have their own tunnels. They parallel along the sewer lines at several points and they connect to the sewers in several places. Almost every Thieves Guild’s business is connected in some way to their tunnels. I don’t have all the tunnels scouted out yet, but I’m getting there. They don’t seem to be used all that much, and they are kept a secret.”

  “What do you mean they don’t use them all that much?”

  “Well I’ve been mapping the tunnels, I’ve just started, but I’ve only run into a few people in the tunnels. It’s like they had them dug, then they only use them if absolutely necessary. They keep t
he entrances hidden behind false walls or floor hatches hidden in closets.”

  “You seem very knowledgeable about the tunnels. How is it you even know about them? I had no idea they even existed.”

  “I just learned about the Thieves Guild about a week ago. So, I thought I would see if I could find them. It was by accident I found the tunnels so quickly. The tunnel entrance I first discovered was boarded up the next night by a fake wall. I then went to another business which had a tunnel going to it, and I entered through it. I’ve made a map of the tunnels. I’m still working on completing the map.”

  “How big are these tunnels?” Eli wanted to know.

  “They are about eight feet across. Heavy wooden beams along the walls and ceiling every 10 feet. The floors are dirt and rock. They go to taverns, gambling dens, an alchemist shop, and a few other places.”

  “So how long do you think it will take you to finish mapping the tunnels?”

  “I’m not sure. I have only been down there a few times. I haven’t explored all the tunnels yet. With the training I get from Gnorbit, and the other things I have been doing, it is going to take some time. Would it be possible to get a map of the sewers? That might help me figure out the complete highway system of the thieves.”

  “I’ll have a copy sent over to your house later today. If you could complete the mapping, I would greatly appreciate it. Consider it a job with the Adventures Guild. I’ll have the job announcement sent with the maps. To make it look like an adventures job, we will need you to eliminate any monsters you find in the sewers. We can never get rid of the things down there. The kobolds seem to like it. So, do be careful.”

  Eli reached into his desk and pulled out another leather bag. “This is your payment for the listening job. It is 20 silvers for you and 20 for Shadow. The rest of the money is a bonus for the amount of information you gave me today. You have a good day.” Roland took this as his dismissal. He grabbed the bag and headed to the guild hall.

  “Imala, it is good to see you today. Do you work every day?”

  “No Roland, I don’t work every day but most of them. I get paid for each day I work. So I work as many as possible. I do have a message for you.”

  “Really? I wasn’t expecting one.”

  “Oh, this one is from Mateo. I told him you had been busy with other jobs and he wanted to let you know they took a job without you. He didn’t want to make you mad, and since you were busy, and for this particular job they didn’t need a tracker, he didn’t think you would mind.”

  “I’m glad they got a job. I have been real busy as of late. In fact, I’m turning in my taxes for a job I just finished.”

  Roland went upstairs and turned in his taxes, along with Shadow’s. He hadn’t been paying attention to the leather bags he had been given by Eli. When he opened up the bag, it contained several gold coins. Thank goodness there were silvers as well. It would have been hard to explain why he had gold coins on him. They would have thought he had been holding out on his taxes.

  He then went to the bank and deposited several gold coins. He also cashed in a gold piece for silvers. It was easier to use silver than gold coins. Hardly anyone would have change for everyday items if you handed over a gold coin.

  That night, Roland and Shadow went to Gnorbit’s place. He was still in a good mood. They worked on trap detection and setting up traps. Gnorbit was insistent that placing traps taught a person more about how to avoid, and where to look for a trap, than actually searching for them. Roland was convinced by the end of the night he was right. Trying to figure out where a person would step or what direction they would take was very difficult. Gnorbit was insistent that when he entered a place that might contain a trap, he should think to himself, “Where would I place a trap, and what kind of trap would I place?”

  Growing up, Roland had placed traps to catch the animals he wanted. He was always thinking, “Where would a beaver more than likely travel?” He also baited his traps. That brought up a good thought, “How would I bait a human into walking into my traps?” The question he needed to ask himself was, “If someone was baiting me what would they do to get me to spring a trap?” The old lessons learned from his father were paying off.

  Roland and Shadow were headed to the Alchemist shop controlled by the Thieves Guild. He would try and map out as much of the tunnels as possible tonight. The shop was empty and the entry way into the tunnels was dark. The smell of humans with bad hygiene could be smelled strongly in the tunnels.

  The tunnels had all the lamps going tonight. They could hear movement as they moved along the walls. They began putting out every other lamp they came across. There were people going through one of the cross tunnels. They were carrying bags of what smelled like grain. It must be the grain purchased by the pirates.

  The thieves were moving randomly. Some were faster than others, and some were just lazy, hoping everything got done before they had to haul another bag. One of the thieves was lagging behind the others. He was easy prey for Roland. He rapped the man on the head. They drug him back to a cross tunnel and tied the man up with cloth strips taken from his own shirt.

  Roland took a good look at the thief and cast illusion on himself. He was almost an exact copy of the thief laying at his feet. Shadow was sure they would notice the difference in the smell. It was extreme to him.

  Roland picked up the bag and headed down the tunnel. Shadow followed as he could. Roland cast navigate at an intersection he had mapped out before. He caught up to the thieves that were in front of him. They walked what seemed like a half of a mile. The tunnel was extremely long in this section. At the end of the tunnel was a ladder which they used to ascend, and came out in a grove of trees. Four wagons were being loaded. They were just inside the tree line on the outside of the city. Roland dropped his load and followed the men back down into the tunnel.

  He continued to follow the two thieves. They went back quite some ways into an area where Roland and Shadow had never been before. There were storage rooms built off to the sides of the tunnels. The rooms had heavy doors on them. Most of the doors were closed and had substantial locks on them. The room where they were picking up supplies was open.

  If this room was representative of the other storage rooms, they were in good condition. The rooms had stone floors, with mortar between the rocks to hold them in place. The walls were made of wooden boards. There wasn’t any dirt floor or dirt walls here. They obviously put a priority on storing items by maintaining cleanliness in these rooms.

  Roland was off again, but this time he disappeared down the original tunnel. The thief was still out, so he untied the man and put his head under a sack of wheat. It looked like he was taking a nap. If anyone found him here, maybe they would think he made the story up about being knocked out.

  Roland and Shadow headed out the way they had entered. He would need to let Eli know about the shipments. He would come back down again and take a look at the other storage rooms. Those were expensive locks on those doors. No one buys a lock that nice without wanting to keep people out.

  The next day they went straight to Eli’s office and reported everything they had found. He marked on a map of the Capitol where the tunnel exited. Roland had brought his maps with him this time. He put the city map down and then placed his onion skinned map of the tunnels over the top. The map showed most of the city covered in tunnels. He gave an extensive explanation about what had happened the night before.

  “Roland, this in wonderful. The Thieves Guild has been making life tough for law abiding citizens. This explains how they were getting in and out of areas we thought were secure. We had almost thought that Gnorbit was working again. How many rooms did you see down there?”

  “I saw six rooms. Five of them were locked up tight with heavy duty locks. The one room I was in was well built and all the wheat, corn, and oil being sent to the pirates had been stored in this room. Unless you knew where to look, you wouldn’t find the place where the tunnel ended. They have probably figur
ed out someone was down there that shouldn’t have been.”

  “That is why you aren’t to go down there for a while. They will probably be putting up measures to keep out the person who knocked out their man. They will be most alert to intrusions the next several days. So wait at least a week. Then, if you go back down there, be extra careful. How are your classes going with Gnorbit?”

  “Good. I’ve learned so much about locks and traps. The traps are the easiest for me because I used to use traps when I was younger. The traps I used were for animals, and the traps I work with now are for men. He says the mechanical traps are the hardest ones and that magical traps are the easiest to overcome. He still hasn’t shown me how to get around the magic traps yet.”

  “Well pay attention to him. We were after him for years. The amount of money he stole, and was never recovered, could keep the kingdom going for at least a year. The cost to catch him could have kept the kingdom going for an additional year.” Eli looked miffed. “Why don’t you go to Gnorbit’s class for the next couple of days then take a job at your guild. I know they have alchemist jobs that go into the Painted Desert for lizard parts. I have no idea what they use lizard parts for, but they are always needing them. I don’t believe you have ever been to the Painted Desert. This would be good for you. Get you back out doing some tracking and get you some experience working in a desert environment.”

  “Have you ever been to the desert?” Roland asked.

  “Heavens no, Roland. I’m an Elf, not a Half-Elf. We need to be around plants. Either that, or be in the city. I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to survive in that kind of place. You did join the Adventures Guild for adventure. This will give you good experience. I’m sure this will help you level up some more. Go by yourselves so you don’t have to share the experience. By the time you kill some of those lizards, you and Shadow should have a few more levels under your belt.”