Jace sat up straighter and leaned forward in his chair. “What job?”
“Since I’m stuck in here,” the guildmaster told him. “You’re going to dish out a little payback for us.”
Jace raised an eyebrow, and the guildmaster grinned. “One of my contacts found our wayward captain and where his ship is berthed.” Webley paused, seemingly for dramatic effect. “You’re going to steal back the tiara and frame our good friend, Sir Tiebaut.”
Jace could scarcely believe his ears. “When? And don’t you mean Lord Tiebaut?”
“He fancies himself a lord, but he’s just a Baronet,” Webley looked at him. “Tonight. We have word that he will be making a handoff sometime tomorrow, so we need to move now. Get to the Wyvern’s Tail at dock 17. The sailor said the captain keeps it in his cabin, so you’ll need to get in, get the tiara and get out. If you can cause some damage to send him a message, all the better. Got it?”
Jace nodded mutely, still trying to absorb what the guildmaster was saying.
“Once you have it, make your way back to the wall,” Webley continued. “Our inside man is there. I called in a lot of favors to get him put on twice in a row. Go back to Tiebaut’s house and stash the tiara somewhere where he won’t find it. When you get back here, we’ll make sure the guard gets a tip. Questions?”
Jace had a million questions. As he tried to sort them out, Mika raised her hand.
The guildmaster shook his head and smiled. “You have a question?”
“Yes!” Mika beamed. “Can I help?”
Webley chuckled and then looked thoughtful. “Normally, we don’t like outside help. But he did vouch for you so I don’t see why not.”
Almost as soon as he said it, new quests appeared in his HUD and he saw they were group quests. He was still grouped with Mika, so he accepted them.
Webley the Snake has offered your group the quest, “Rescue the Princess’ Tiara”
Reward: +100 faction with Whitecliff Thieves Guild, 100 gold.
Level: 9
Accept quest? (Yes or No)
Webley the Snake has offered your group the quest, “Turnabout is Fair Play”
Reward: +100 faction with Whitecliff Thieves Guild, 100 gold.
Level: 9
Accept quest? (Yes or No)
Jace accepted the quests. As soon as he did, Webley looked at them both. “Same rules as last time with the wall. You need to be back to our man on the wall before sunrise or you’re on your own.”
Chapter 27
Twenty minutes later Jace and Mika were heading to the docks with Luna trailing them. He couldn’t believe it when the guildmaster had given him the quest. He was supposed to find the princess’ tiara, steal it back, and do some damage to the captain in the process. Then, he was supposed to go back to the wall, get over it, stash the tiara somewhere in Tiebaut’s house and then get back over the wall - all before sunrise.
“We are robbing a pirate?” Mika said.
Jace glanced over at the young woman and smiled. “That’s the plan. We need to check out the area first.”
Checking his gnomish timepiece, he saw that it was 12:14am. The twin moons were high in the sky and Jace knew he would need to hurry. They needed to finish both quests before daybreak or their man on the wall would be gone and they would be trapped in the Noble District. He snickered to himself. No pressure.
The two of them made it to the docks and walked south until they found dock 17. Moored there they found the Wyvern’s Tail. Looking at it, it was much smaller than Jace had imagined based on the old pirate vidstreams he’d watched. In fact, he doubted it was more than 100 feet long.
The docks had plenty of crates and other cargo laying around and this dock was no exception, he steered Mika between some crates so they could get a better look at the ship without looking suspicious.
“Is that the ship?” she whispered as they ducked down.
He’d seen the name painted on the rear of the ship, just under the windows of what he guessed was the captain’s cabin.
“The ship is dark. I can barely make out anything,” she told him.
Jace nodded. It was dark and normally he’d be in the same situation. But with his Cat-Vision, it was almost like it was daytime. He reached down and scratched Luna behind the ears as he took in the ship.
The gangplank was down, that was good. At first he thought it might be deserted or that everyone was asleep but just as he had that thought, he glimpsed one of the pirates coming down the stairs from the upper deck of the ship’s rear, he thought it was called the stern but wasn’t sure.
The pirate looked like a man, but it had a long, fluffy tail and Jace could just make out triangular ears poking through a mop of unkempt hair. It had to be either a dog-kin or fox-kin. That meant it had good night-vision, like him.
As he watched, another pirate came down the steps from the front of the ship. Was that called the bow? He could never remember. The second pirate appeared to be human, which meant his night vision would be limited.
The two seemed to be mirroring each other, making a full circuit around the ship. They must be the night watch and as far as he could see, they were the only ones awake.
“There’s two guards,” he whispered to Mika. “One is human, the other is either fox or dog-kin.”
“Careful,” Mika said and moved close to his ear. “Fox-kin and dog-kin have keen noses. They can track by scent.”
He felt her breath on his ear and couldn’t suppress a little shiver. Suddenly his mind was thinking of other things, things that involved Mika, but he forced himself to think of the job.
Besides, he was with Charlena. Wasn’t he? They hadn’t made anything official, but they had kissed. Did that mean they were together? He wasn’t sure and now wasn’t the time to figure it out.
He glanced back at the ship and watched the guards. The two occasionally paused and Jace thought he even saw one of them light up a pipe for a few minutes before continuing his circuit around the deck.
“What are they doing?” Mika asked, still unable to make out any real details.
“They’re just patrolling the deck,” he replied. “Maybe I can hide and sneak up the gangplank while the dog-kin is on the far side.”
Mika shook her head. “As soon as it came near you, it would scent you and know you were onboard.”
Jace frowned. She was right. He remembered how good Luna’s nose was and dogs had even better senses of smell than cats.
“If we had a distraction,” he told her. “Something that will get the guard’s attention.”
“A bomb?” Mika asked hopefully.
Jace chuckled softly. “Even if we could find a bomb, that might be a bit much. We need something that would get the captain out of his cabin. Just for a few minutes.”
“I could pretend to be a guard,” she suggested. “And ask for their permit or whatever it is they need to dock.”
“Not bad,” he told her. But even though there were female guards, he doubted any were as petite as Mika. Plus, guards would work in pairs, maybe even more if boarding a ship. “I’m not sure if we could pull that off.”
Mika seemed to think about the problem for a bit before coming up with another suggestion. “What about fireworks! Everyone loves fireworks!”
Jace was about to dismiss the idea but it didn’t give him an idea. In all the pirate movies he’d ever watched, the sailors were always worried about the ships catching fire. If Jace just set the ship on fire, that would surely put them on alert. But, if he could make it look like an accident, say… a misfired firework, then they’d be more concerned with the fire than looking for a culprit.
Without thinking he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re a genius. Come on, let’s go!”
Before he knew what was happening, Mika had grabbed him and pressed her lips to his. At first, he was stunned, but her lips were insistent, and he found himself returning her kiss. When they broke away, they were both breathless.
Mik
a looked away. “I’m sorry. I should not have done that.”
Jace was speechless for a moment but he didn’t have time to figure this new situation out. “We can talk about it later. We have a ship to break into.”
He crept back out from behind the crates and ducked into a nearby alleyway. Behind him, he heard Mika’s light footfalls but didn’t trust himself to turn around. He’d really enjoyed that kiss and now he was feeling guilty because of Charlena.
He shook his head to clear it. Jace needed to stay sharp. His time was running out. He needed to focus. Keeping his mind on his task, he led them to the Central Market. Jace knew from experience the large markets were always open. Some vendors closed but most of them had someone manning their booth 24 hours a day.
Jace went from booth to booth as quickly as possible, looking for the items he needed. He bought several vials of oil from one vendor, gnomish firesticks from another and then a crossbow and bolts from yet another vendor. When he finally found the last item he was looking for, he swore.
Gnomish rockets were the game equivalent of fireworks. Unfortunately, because they were gnomish, they were also expensive. At 100 gold each, he could only afford 3 of them and that was too little.
“What is it?” Mika asked softly. They were the first words she’d said since she apologized for their kiss.
“I have a plan,” he told her. “But I need more than 3 fireworks. Unfortunately, that’s all the money I have.”
Without a word, she pulled forth several pouches with money. “Here.”
“No,” he protested. It looked like all the money she had. “I can’t…”
“It’s my quest too,” she said, thrusting the money at him. “We both win or we both lose.”
Jace looked at her for a moment and then took the money. He counted it up. With the little bit he had left over plus the money from Mika, it would be enough for five more fireworks. He looked back at her. “Are you sure?”
She smiled and nodded. “I’m sure!”
Jace looked at her for a moment longer and then turned back to the vendor and bought eight of the fireworks. Once he paid for his purchase, he stuffed the items in his inventory.
“Okay,” he said, “let’s go back and make this work!”
They made their way back to the dock and then to their hiding spot behind the crates. Making sure to stay hidden, he began setting out the items he bought. First, he brought out the crossbow and bolt. Next, he brought out two of the vials of oil and some twine he’d been carrying around for some time. Finally, he brought out the gnomish rockets and firesticks.
Mika looked at the items array on the cobblestones and then looked at Jace. “These are part of your plan?”
Nodding, Jace took the vials of oil and, using the twine, he began attaching the flasks to the ends of the crossbow bolts. After the first one, Mika got the idea and attached the second one while he finished the first.
With the flasks attached to the crossbow bolts, he had set them and the crossbow aside and motioned Mika to lean in and explained his plan.
“You were right about the distraction,” he whispered. “But we need something that will keep their attention. Here’s what we can do. I’m going to sneak around to the back of the ship.”
She started to object but he held up his hand. “I’m higher level and I have a higher Defense. If there’s trouble, I’ll have a better chance of making it out of there.”
Mika didn’t seem convinced and opened her mouth, but he continued. “And I need you here for the best part of the plan.”
She closed her mouth and looked at him expectantly.
“When I send a signal to Luna,” he continued. “I want you to fire off the first firework over the ships here. Wait about 10 seconds, then fire off the second one.”
She looked down in confusion at the fireworks laid out. “How do I light them?”
Grinning Jace pointed to the small pile of sticks. “These are gnomish firesticks. They’re basically matches. Strike them against the stone or even one of the crates and they will light instantly.”
Mika looked at the firesticks and then nodded.
“When you get to the third one, I want you to fire it off and when it explodes, fire the first crossbow bolt at the front part of the ship. Hopefully, the sound of the rocket exploding will hide the noise of the crossbow.”
He paused to make sure she understood, and she motioned him to continue.
“Okay, so same thing with the next rocket. Fire the rocket, then the crossbow as it explodes,” he said. “The fire the fifth rocket at the same place as you shoot the oil. When the rocket hits, it should ignite the oil and that will set the ship on fire—at least for a little bit.”
She grinned at that and motioned for him to continue.
“Then go back to firing the rest over the ships,” he told her. “Hopefully, they’ll think it was a misfire and that will buy me some time. In the meantime, I’ll use my grapple to climb up the back of the ship. When I see the captain leave his quarters, I’ll break in, grab the tiara and then get out.”
Suddenly he remembered Webley’s admonishment about causing some damage. He thought about what he could do and remembered he had a few extra oil flasks. Maybe he could them set the captain’s cabin on fire.
“If I give the word to Luna to run,” he told her. “You run. If they leave the ship and come after you, you run. Meet me in the Merchant District, near the wall, at a place called Peacock Clothiers.”
Jace turned to Luna. “You relay my messages to her and her message to me. Can you do that?”
The cat, who had been quietly cleaning herself, looked up. “Yes.”
He smiled and scratched his familiar’s ears. “You do this and there’s extra fish tomorrow.”
The cat perked up at that suggestion. “Fish?”
“Yes,” he told her. “You relay our messages and stay with Mika and you get extra fish.”
“Yes,” the cat meowed enthusiastically.
“What if the captain doesn’t leave?” Mika asked.
Jace considered it and then spoke honestly. “Then we’re totally screwed.”
He smiled again. “Wait for my signal, then let them rip.”
She gave him a thumbs sign and he moved off into the shadows, praying whoever was listening that his plan worked.
Chapter 28
It was early morning and the docks were deserted except an occasional sailor stumbling back from a night of drunken carousing and the occasional guard patrol. Moving from shadow to shadow and trusting his Stealth skill to keep him hidden from prying eyes, Jace made his way around to a small foreman’s shed near the rear of the ship.
Looking up at the rear deck, he saw that it was taller than he originally thought. The upper deck was a good forty feet above the waterline and the captain’s cabin was right below it. The extra height would translate into extra time climbing. He hoped he could make it in time.
Removing his padded grapple attached to the knotted rope, he untangled the rope and made sure it was ready for him to throw. Once it was ready, Jace checked the dock for any patrols or wandering sailors. Satisfied that the coast was clear, he crept to the edge of the dock near the stern of the Wyvern’s Tail.
“Go!” Jace sent to Luna and began swinging the grapple.
From near Mika’s hiding place, Jace heard a whoosh as the gnomish rocket soared into the sky. A second later, there was a boom as the rocket exploded into a green and orange light that seemed to drift slowly down before burning away into nothingness.
Jace waited for the second rocket to go off and released his grapple. It soared upward and over the railing of the top deck. He pulled on the rope until the grapple caught on the railing. He tested his weight on it to make sure it would hold.
Above him, the third rocket went off and he let himself swing over the water and begin scaling the rope. If the captain heard him or happened to look out the window, he’d be screwed. He continued climbing and stopped short of the captai
n’s window as he heard the fourth rocket explode above him.
The next rocket whooshed and exploded much closer, it was immediately followed by shouts. “Captain! Captain! Fire!”
Risking a peek in the window, Jace saw the door opposite the window open. He watched as the figure stalked through the doorway and slammed the door behind him. He heard yelling and activity from the ship’s deck but there was too much yelling to make out. Above him, another firework exploded, and he used his dagger to shatter the window.
With some difficulty, he managed to pull himself through the window and into the captain’s cabin. He could still hear chaotic shouts and commotion out on the deck and those covered the sounds of his entry.
Standing inside the cabin, Jace scanned the room for any sign of the tiara. He didn’t see anything that resembled it but did see a large chest. Rushing over the chest, he tried the latch but, unsurprising, found that it was locked.
He dropped down and was about to pick the lock when he saw the keyhole glow. He quickly looked over the rest of the chest for any signs of a trap. When he found none, he guessed it was a poison needle trap that would jab and poison anyone opening the lock without a key.
In another place and another time, Jace would have disarmed the trap and picked the lock. Right now, he didn’t have time. He took out his dagger, wedged it between the lid and the base of the chest and twisted it, trying to break the lock. Instead, his dagger snapped off at the blade.
Silently, Jace swore. He brought out his saber, which was longer and thicker than the dagger and tried the same trick. The saber snapped too but so did the lock on the chest. Flipping open the lid, Jace saw a fancy round box that looked like a hat box. He opened it and saw that it contained the tiara. Replacing the lid of the box, he grabbed the entire box and stuffed it into the inventory.
You receive Princess Tiara.
Under the box was a sack with coins spilling out. Never one to waste an opportunity, Jace grabbed the sack as well and tossed into his inventory. There were several log books under the sack and he grabbed those as well. Maybe they would contain some information worth money to Webley.
Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure Page 18
