Sky Warriors: Poleuthan’s Thief
BY Nicole M. Pendragon
Copyright © 2014 by Nicole M. Rodarte
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
I dedicate this book to the true Ange who was the initial inspiration for the series, its characters, and the fiery spirit that encourage me to explore my writing in new ways. And to my surrogate sister who without her passion and unwavering support the characters of this story would not be half as real.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Thieves and Honesty
Chapter 2: Odd Men and Fruit
Chapter 3: Foxes and Ferrets
Chapter 4: Thievery Gone Awry
Chapter 5: Lands of Barren Snow
Chapter 6: Mark of the Dragonbound
Chapter 7: A Blade Encased in Ice
Chapter 8: Boundless
Chapter 9: Detours and Knowledge
Chapter 10: Memories of an Aeterna Vas
Chapter 11: Cat Eyes and Ale
Chapter 12: Betrayed
Chapter 13: Ice before Night and Day
Chapter 14: A Sense of Time
Chapter 15: Palace in a Volcano
Chapter 16: Words with Meaning
Chapter 17: At the Heart of the Council
Chapter 18: Educating the Rebellious
Chapter 19: A Tower Enshrouded by Mist
Chapter 20: Sealed Pages
Chapter 21: Silk and Deception
Chapter 22: Lost Answers
Chapter 23: Dancing in Shadows
Chapter 1: Thieves and Honesty
Snow planed the vast expanse of wilderness from one icy sea to the other in the northern ancient lands that man rarely traveled. A great dark stone mountain marked the empty, rolling cold landscape to the east with its back to the rising suns. Binaries that twisted around each other in an everlasting dance, one brilliant white that contrasted its smaller companion’s red warm light. They shadowed the mountain that climbed high and traveled along the land for miles in a wide crescent shape that shielded a vast city in the south from the harsh northern winds and its blistering blizzards that came from the frigid sea.
Though they stood tall, the edifice ruled metropolis still suffered the cold that gripped most of the northern world. Even the moons seemed chilled in the night sky accompanied by thousands of tiny glittering stars in an uncommonly clear and tranquil night.
High in the mountains in its most northwestern point facing the bright city laid a wide cavern with a small inadequate ledge, and high up on an unnatural flat round clearing was curled a giant beast in the shadow of the mountain. As it shifted, white feathers with tiny black flecks were betrayed in the light, long ebony talons and gracefully curling horns lustered even in the dark. Golden-xanthous eyes gleamed in the darkness as it passively watched the night sky, its massive body curled around a gleaming object illuminated by moonlight that resembled a large gemstone.
It glinted and fractured the light, around it danced thin spinning spectrums as waves of eerie mist slowly floated from its surface and twirled around in a miniature galaxy of dusty stars. The object over five feet tall was no stone, but a large article of ice. Within its glassy structure, encrusted in eternal cold was a blade that splendored with far greater beauty and ferocity than the eyes that guarded it as it seemed to glow with its own light. Its icy length waiting resolutely for the destined hand that would wield and warm its frosty hilt.
***
The guards were close. Too close.
Peering from the shadows of a building was a pair of hazel eyes, gazing out into the busy street of animal automatons trotting up and down the cold stone bricks with their riders. Silently the eyes entered the wash of crystal lantern light that poured over the night city revealing a young girl’s angular face framed with short light brown hair and a mischievous grin.
Her frame was simple, she was short, around five feet in height and she was thin and in her opinion her body was below average in the chest and rear department. But that didn’t matter to her, a flatter chest meant less weight and air resistance when she had to run for cover. She was thin, all the poor people were, but she was well built with taut muscles like all the thieves in the city.
“Ange, we’ve got to hurry! Or we’re definitely going to be caught this time,” whispered a voice from the silent shadows behind her.
She turned her attention quickly behind her to a pair of anxious green eyes barely visible in the darkness. The eyes moved forward and the boy’s face was partially reveled in the weak light, his features were still roundish with youth and innocent looking as ever.
They were the same height but he wasn’t as thin as her but equally muscled. They were often mistaken for siblings, sometimes even twins and it wasn’t helpful that Ange was sometimes confused for a boy with her uncomely figure and wild boyish hair. But they were both orphans and had been friends since Ange was seven and she had found him wandering the streets after his parents had died in a fire and the orphanage she had lived in was closed.
Both had become inseparable in the past ten years, stealing food to survive before the leader of the Black Owls, the city’s largest thief’s guild, had taken them under her wing and taught them to be proper thieves.
She smiled. “You worry too much Daren, when have we ever gotten caught?” she whispered confidently flicking his forehead.
He scowled and rubbed his forehead quickly, brushing aside some of his curly brown hair from his face as he glared at her seriously.
“Not yet we haven’t, but there have certainly been close calls!” he snapped.
She winked. “And we won’t get any closer to jail than that.”
“You mean executed,” he corrected dryly.
She shrugged. “Or that,” she agreed unworried with a wider smile. She may be a year older than Daren but he had always been the more serious and mature individual and she enjoyed teasing him for it.
Daren sighed and shook his head in defeat. “Let’s go then.”
He turned away and began to stealth against the shadowy walls of the building toward one of the guild’s many secret entrances through the sewers. Ange quickly followed him, both their thin frames pressed against the cold walls as their years of silent sneaking spoke for them.
“Over there!” shouted a voice.
Daren and Ange glanced back to the alleyway’s entrance where a guard stood waving his arm to his out of sight comrades.
“Run!” Ange exclaimed thrilled.
She sprinted ahead feeling exuberant with the chase, of course her more serious friend had an anxious gleam in his eyes and a set frown of concentration on his face as they ran through the alley and to the street.
Her gut coiled with anticipation as they ran straight into the busy pedestrian street and in front of an iron horse with its rider. The mechanical horse reared up as its sensors detected them, the woman on its back shouted in surprise. A blue crystal gleamed from the mechanical beast’s breast, blinding Ange momentarily as she skidded out of the way and leapt over a sewer hatch and sprinted for another alley with Daren at her heels.
“You just passed one!” he protested bemused.
“They’ll see us!” she shouted back as the soldiers erupted into the street from the alley further startling the on looking citizens.
“Over there! Don’t lose them!” shouted the lead soldier in his black uniform.
Ange smirked challengingly and ran faster for the alley shrouded in shadows.
“Wait up, Ange!” Daren protested as he tried to catch up.
Ange didn’t slow the pace, she knew Daren could catch up easily, she sprinted straight into the dark passage and ran straight for the hatch, she knew where it was even in the dark. She skidded to a halt and snapped the hatch open and spun the loose lock out of the way and jerked the lid open with a mighty heave. It screeched in protest as she leapt straight in, landing with a splash of cold reeking water up her shins as she moved out of the way. A moment later another splash followed her own, followed by darkness as the boom of the lid coming down echoed in the metal and stone corridors as well as the spinning of the lock as it clicked into place.
She leaned against the wall panting, her best friend’s heavy breathing accompanying hers as they rested and caught their breaths. Above them a minute later came the pounding of feet and shouting that slowly faded into silence as the soldiers kept running past.
Ange swung her pack from her back and shuffled through it in the inky darkness, feeling for her illuminator. She pulled it out and flipped the switch of the small hand size lantern, the small blue crystal blazed into existence with a brilliant blue-white glow as the mechanism inside snapped and spun the metal petals away from the glass encased crystal.
She shone the light down the large corridor and deep into the unknown they knew well.
The crystals were the self-sustaining energy source of their very civilization, defined as crystalized suns. One crystal could last over ten years or more, the larger its size the longer its lifespan. It was unclear in history who had truly perfected the crystals’ use, some stories claimed it was the mighty dragon civilization who shared their technology and wisdom with man. Though no proof existed to establish the myth as fact or fiction, since the dragons had long been wiped out for centuries according to the legends.
Not many stories really existed concerning them, since it was arguable that anybody could have made them up. But the few that did exist, which Ange loved to hear about, spoke of the great and terrible deeds the mighty beasts had been capable of. Ange loved to consider the possibilities when she could, but now wasn’t the time.
Ange swung the illuminator’s beam of light back at them as she grinned widely at Daren.
He shook his head with disbelief, while a huge smile spreading across his face as he laughed breathlessly.
“Ange, you are something else. You could have gotten run over by that Model-LSS!”
Ange laughed before sighing. “Just say iron horse, Daren. I never know what the heck you’re talking about with model types and yutta yutta.”
He smiled. “You should know what that is by now, Ange. A Luxury Steel Steed. It actually looked like the new model too, the CR10.”
“Again with the acronyms!” she groaned exasperated.
He chuckled. “Come on, I told you like what? Five-hundred times? That means Comfort Ride.”
She sighed with a smile. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Come on, Vera will kill us if we hold up the meeting.”
He nodded in agreement. “The Justice Guard and the military sure have been cracking down,” he observed mildly. “That’s the fourth time we’ve almost been caught this month.”
Ange sighed tiredly, feeling worn out. “They sure have,” she agreed. “It’s getting harder to get away with scandals. At least we didn’t have a bad run,” she added satisfied. “We got a total of five loaves, ten snow apples, and twelve cooked fish.”
“You forgot the feathered walrus steaks,” he reminded as they walked down the memorized maze of the sewer system they had called home for the last ten years.
She chortled. “Without the feathers.”
He laughed along with her. “Well of course,” he suddenly became serious and very quiet. “Ange…I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” he started rather awkwardly, his voice worried.
“What is it?” she asked, all the laughter leaving her voice.
“Well, you’re not going to like this but…” he sighed tiredly as he continued. “I’ve been thinking about going clean.”
“What?!” she yelled surprised and stopped walking. “Why?” she asked feeling hurt. “We’re about to become full members!”
“I know Ange, but…stealing…it’s not something I want to base the rest of my life on,” he admitted blatantly. “Even you said it before, I’m not that good at it, not like you and Vera. I got my hands more into my books than into pickpocketing. I…I want to go to the college and get an education, Ange. Even you can’t disagree that I got a hand and mind for machinery and energy science.”
Ange stared at him speechless. “Well that’s exactly why you should stay with us! You can fix everything that breaks.”
He shook his head. “Ange, I don’t want to be a mechanic for a bunch of thieves the rest of my life, no offense,” he added carefully.
Ange fell silent, glaring at her best friend before she set off walking again, faster as she kept ahead not wanting to look at Daren. She felt utterly betrayed and angered by his news and she knew she could do nothing to stop him if that was what he really wanted. He would become a sophisticated scientist with no time for a petty thief. Their friendship would crumple and she knew that was what she truly feared and felt angered about.
“Does Vera know?” she asked tensely.
“Yeah,” he replied quietly. “She said I needed to decide before we become members, you know, once a thief always a thief motto. I would never be able to leave,” he stated thoughtfully.
They remained silent as they continued to walk, water splashing quietly under their feet for the next several minutes as they walked silently toward home base.
“Ange…I’m going to do it.”
She spun around and faced him angrily. “So you’re just going to leave me?”
“No, I mean I would visit you but obviously I can’t. You could come visit me…” he trailed off uncertainly.
The lantern was shaking in her fist. “I’m a thief, Daren, sorry if that doesn’t qualify with the people you want around,” she spat.
“That’s not what I mean!” he protested angrily. “You can pick another life other than this, Ange. Face it, stealing is wrong. You can do something good for a change.”
She felt her blood boil. “Thieving is the only thing I’m good at!”
“It’s not the only thing you’re good at, Ange,” he protested. “You’re an excellent dual swordsman, you hold daggers better than anybody else in the guild, even Vera said so. You could join the Justice Guard or the military,” Daren suggested.
“Is that it? I won’t be good enough for you once you’re a scientist and I’m a full-fledged thief?” she spat, angry tears suddenly swarming from her eyes.
He froze. “No, Ange. Is that what you’re afraid of? That we won’t be friends anymore?” he asked surprised.
“You’ll be too good for a lowlife like me, just like everyone else!” she hissed as she wiped the tears away furiously.
“No!” he shouted. He stepped toward her, she took a step back. “Angeline, you’ll always be my friend, even if you’re a thief and I’m a scientist,” he insisted placing a hand on her shoulder.
“It won’t work like that,” she replied crossly, slapping his hand away. “I will be a liability to you and you will be a liability to me. We’ll both get in trouble, with the Black Owls and the Justice Guard.”
“Only if we’re caught,” Daren cut in. “Besides, you haven’t heard the rest of my plan, Ange.”
She scowled and waited impatiently for him to share.
He sighed. “When I leave I want you to come with me and live with me. You can quit thievery,” he explained hopefully.
She glowered. “Daren…that won’t work. It’s like you said, once I join the Black Owls, I’m in it for life. I just can’t quit.”
&nb
sp; “Then don’t join,” he replied persuasively.
She groaned exasperated. “You’re forgetting one thing, Daren. You have no money!”
He looked away guiltily, his voice came out with chagrin. “Actually…I found my old nursemaid, all my family’s business, property, and money was transferred to her after I went missing. She’s been holding on to it in hope that I might return. I was the sole heir after all.”
He glanced up, Ange found herself staring speechlessly at her friend, her mouth hanging in disbelief, then another wave of outrage took her. “When did this happen? And why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded hurt.
“I didn’t know how,” he defended honestly. “And I wanted to keep it secret from the guild till I figured out what I wanted to do. It’s only been two months since-”
“Two months?!” Ange interrupted vehemently. “Since when did you start keeping secrets from me, Daren? I thought we were friends,” she accused.
His face became downcast at her accusation. “I’m sorry, Ange. I already feel rotten for not telling you, but in truth I was worried what danger it could put us in.”
She snorted doubtfully.
“Let’s go. Vera might kill us for being late,” she suggested cuttingly as she turned away and began to walk, the entrance to their hideout was not far.
“So will you think about it? About coming and living on the surface with me?” he pleaded.
Ange ignored him as she briskly walked the last stretch of sewer halls and turned for the grate-covered entrance. The current under their feet had picked up in speed.
Daren let out an audible sigh and fell silent.
Ange kicked the grate open, feeling her patience was at an end, the water that poured down hid metal ladder steps down the stone walls. She quickly pulled out a two foot metal door form the left side of the wall that blocked the water flow. She quickly shut the lantern and snapped it to one off the many loops on her belt before she flipped over the metal gate and found her hands holding her on the edge of the wet sewer drop, before her fingers could slip she grasped one of the moist ladder bars and began climbing down.
Sky Warriors: Poleuthan's Thief (Sky Warriors Saga Book 1) Page 1
