by DB King
“What’s your name?” he asked in a low voice as he worked.
“Ella,” she replied immediately. “You?”
“Marcus,” he answered, finishing his task and moving to the next box.
“Marcus,” she said before repeating the word a couple of times as if getting a feel for it.
“That’s right,” he said. There was nothing in the second box worth stealing, nor the third. Well, that was no problem. Even at black market prices, old Salla down at the Ragged Sail tavern would be able to sell it for more gold than Marcus had ever seen.
“Are you quite done?” she asked pointedly as he stood.
He slapped the bag. “All done.”
She grimaced, then to his surprise two wings unfolded from her back. They were as fine as a butterfly’s wings and clear as glass, but they didn’t flap. All the same, the faerie rose from her perch on the top of the cage and hovered about the level of his shoulder.
“That’s a neat trick!” he said quietly.
She shrugged. “Magic wings. It’s how most fae get about. The wings act as a vector for the magic of flight. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Sounds good to me,” he said, smiling at his little companion.
They made their way up the stairs, Marcus in front and Ella floating up gently behind him, her head at a level with his shoulder. When he got to the top, Marcus pushed the door ajar and peered out. “All clear,” he whispered, before ducking out of the door into the dark corridor beyond.
They passed the room where Marcus had hidden the body, and he saw Ella glance knowingly through the open doorway at the sofa as they passed. He would go out the way he had come in, he decided, and he was making his way toward the foot of the stairs when a sudden movement made him turn his head.
A dark shape lumbered out of one of the sitting rooms. There was a sound of heavy breathing, and then a wet nose jostled Marcus’s hand and began to explore his pocket. A stubby tail wagged enthusiastically in the dimness.
The dog.
“Hey buddy,” Marcus said quietly, reaching out to scratch the old dog’s ears. “I thought you would be asleep by now after eating that sausage.” The sausage he’d given the dog had been treated with a sleeping draught, but the big dog showed no signs of falling asleep.
Marcus thought back over his preparations for this trip. His sleeping draught was freshly made, and he’d dosed the sausage carefully. He looked quizzically at the dog, who seemed to grin at him mischievously.
I can’t explain it, Marcus thought to himself. But there it is.
The dog whined quietly.
“He says he wants to come with us,” Ella said in his ear.
Marcus turned to her. “What? You can talk to him?”
The dog whined again.
“That’s right,” Ella said. “I can talk to him, and he says it’s boring here.” Another whine. “And the food is rubbish. He wants to come with us.”
“He can’t,” Marcus said, feeling exasperated. “I mean to climb out the upstairs window and down the ivy. I can’t bring him.”
The dog tilted his head and cocked an ear as if he understood, then whined again, turning toward the corridor.
“He says you don’t need to climb,” Ella said. “He says there’s an easy way out. It’s his way out to the garden for when he… ah, for when he needs to do his business in the night. No one watches the dog’s way out, he’s saying.”
The dog looked Marcus in the eye and wagged.
Marcus shrugged. “Well, just when I thought tonight couldn’t get any weirder, a talking dog wants to show us the way out. Alright. Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 3
The dog led Marcus and Ella toward the cellar, then turned right. He took them confidently through a door and they found themselves in a second corridor. This one was stone-flagged and stone-walled, where the other had been carpeted and plaster-walled. The passage sloped slightly downward, and Marcus smelled fresh bread and a hint of woodsmoke.
The kitchens, he thought. That’s the one place where people are most likely to be awake at this time in the morning. Is the dog betraying us?
But before they could reach the kitchens, the dog turned left and walked up to a closed door. He heaved himself up on his hind legs and pushed with his paws, and the door swung open.
Beyond, there was a small pantry that looked disused. A part of one wall had fallen in, to reveal the night sky and the shaded garden. A stack of bricks sat outside the breach in the wall, as if laid there ready for the repair work. When Marcus looked closer, however, he saw a tendril of trailing vine making its way up one side of the brick pile, and the remains of a last year’s birds nest wedged into the other. Apparently, the repair work had been due for some time.
The dog shot a look over his shoulder, gave them a wag, and vanished through the gap. Marcus had to crouch to get through, but Ella was able to float along behind him on her magic wings.
And just like that, they were outside. The moon had descended beyond the horizon, but there was no sign of light yet in the sky. It was the darkest hour, the hour before dawn.
The dog wagged his tail and his eyes gleamed with satisfaction at having been able to help.
“Thanks, dog,” Marcus whispered, leaning over to scratch the dog’s ears, “but how are you going to get out of the grounds?”
Ella laid a hand on Marcus’s shoulder.
“Oh, I’ll just use the gate,” the dog replied unconcernedly, “they’re used to me going in and out.”
Marcus nodded, then nearly fell over from surprise. The dog had spoken to him! Directly, not through Ella translating. He had a deep, growly voice, exactly as you’d expect a dog to have if it could speak human language.
What was going on?
Ella seemed to pick up on his confusion. She lifted her hand from his shoulder again. “You really don’t know much about faeries, do you?” she asked. “That’s how this works! We’re allied now, and that means my powers begin to pass to you. I was already able to boost your lockpicking skill, and now you’re starting to pick up on my power to understand the languages of beasts. It requires a physical touch at the moment, but in time our bond will strengthen.”
Marcus nodded thoughtfully.
It was true that he didn’t know much about faeries, and in fact he hadn’t fully understood what was meant by the alliance she seemed to think they had forged. He’d had no idea that it might involve him taking on some of the faerie’s powers.
I’ll reward you with everything I have, she had said. He’d thought it was just a form of words, the kind of symbolic way of speaking that the faerie folk were supposed to have. He hadn’t considered for a moment that it might literally mean a full-scale transfer of power from the faerie to him. Just what powers did this faerie have to give?
Another thought occurred to him. A vivid memory coursed through his mind. The vision of power he’d seen when he first looked into the cage that held Ella. The massive power he’d felt, the huge vista of monsters and elemental energy surging through him and around him. He had stood at the top of it all.
Marcus glanced at Ella. It was hard to imagine her as the vector for immense power, but appearances could be deceiving. The faerie’s round green eyes were set far apart on her face, and her pointed features made her face bird-like. Her hair stuck up around her head like dry straw, and her limbs were stick-thin, like those of an insect, and her dark green skin was thick and textured, like the bark of a tree.
For all that, her expressions and her mannerisms were very human. She glared at him now in obvious annoyance. “What are you looking at?” she demanded, and he realized he had been staring.
Well, this was no time to debate the point further. They had to get going.
“Uh, nothing,” he said. “Later. Come on, if the dog can go out the gate, let’s you and I go over the wall. We’ll meet up in the square just down the hill from here, where the market is.”
The dog wagged his tail, loll
ed his tongue at them in a grin, and headed off unconcernedly toward the main gate, his stubby tail wagging as he went. Ella and Marcus made their way carefully toward the garden wall, and Marcus pressed himself against it, listening for the sound of the guard passing. After a moment, the steady tramp of sandals passed the wall on the other side.
“Now,” Marcus whispered. He flung himself up, caught the edge of the wall, and vaulted up. He held his position for a split second, crouched on top of the wall. A glance from side to side showed him that there was no one near.
“Stealthy Tread,” he said, activating his enchantment again, then dropped off the wall onto the other side. As his feet hit the ground, he heard a sudden shout from the direction of the gate.
“Hey! Stop! Stop, thief!”
Marcus glanced toward the shouting but instead of seeing guards rushing toward him, he saw guards rushing away in the other direction. Not stopping to question what was happening, he dashed through the bushes, the faerie flying along close behind him.
He reached the buildings where he’d staked out the manse earlier and scrambled up onto the flat surface of the roof as he felt his Stealthy Tread spell wear off, then he lay flat on his belly. Ella was beside him, lying flat on the roof as well. Together, they shuffled around to get a look at what was going on at the manse gate.
What was happening? From this vantage point, Marcus could see a small group of guards chasing three black-clad figures away from the main gate. He peered through the gloom. The figures were clad head-to-toe in tight black costumes, with only their eyes visible.
Those were thieves guild uniforms! Marcus would have known them anywhere. So the guild was making an attempt against Diremage Xeron’s house as well. What could they be after other than the valuable cargo which Marcus himself had successfully stolen? Marcus grinned at the thought of it. The thieves guild generally worked for hire, with clients paying high prices for stolen loot. Whoever the client was, he would be disappointed. Diremage Xeron’s valuables were in Marcus’s pack already.
And, he thought, looking at Ella, lying on the roof beside me.
The guards waved their spears and shouted, and the dark figures ran quickly away, vaulting up the walls of the buildings and vanishing into the shadows. The dog, Marcus saw, was with the guards, barking gleefully as he joined the chase. Then Marcus saw something that made him smile.
Over by the near wall of the manse garden, a single black-clad figure was moving rapidly up the side of the wall. He paused, and his head swung from side to side as he looked for any threats. Then, silent as a shadow, he dropped over the wall and began flitting swiftly from tree to tree toward the house.
“Do you see?” Marcus said to Ella, pointing to the figure who had sneaked in while the guards were distracted.
“Oh, that’s clever,” she said with a smile. “And good for you as well, I guess.”
“It’s true,” he said. “When the robbery is discovered, they will be looking for men from the thieves guild. The guild will get the blame for it, not a lone operator like me.”
“Won’t Xeron go after the guild then?”
Marcus shook his head. “The guilds are protected by virtue of their long history as institutions in the city. Xeron might try to go after whoever hired them to do the job, but no one goes after the guild themselves. Either way, this attempt takes the heat off me, at least for the time being. I wonder who hired the guild to raid Xeron’s house?”
“Look, the guards are going back to their posts,” Ella said.
The guards, slapping each other on the back and talking loudly, were returning to the wall, secure in the belief that they had chased away the villains. The dog left them, and it was now wandering toward the building where Marcus and Ella hid. No one paid the dog any attention.
* * *
The first light of dawn was beginning to color the eastern sky when Ella, the dog, and Marcus found themselves looking around the edge of a wall at the courtyard by the little guardhouse that kept the gate through Middle Watch. They’d walked back through the silent Merchants’ Town without encountering anyone, but now they had to pass the Middle Watch again.
“We’ll have to cross this courtyard and get out the gate if we want to leave Merchants’ Town and get through the slum district back to the Underway,” said Marcus. “The Underway is where I live, and you’ll be safe there for the moment. We’ll want to lie low for a couple of days at least, I reckon.”
Ella shivered suddenly. “I feel something,” she said, and then to Marcus’s surprise, she vanished. It was as if she had never been. He stopped himself from crying out, but then she reappeared, looking pleased with herself.
“It worked!” she exclaimed in a low whisper. “I have a new power, a Brief Invisibility spell, and it’s thanks to my connection with you! Let’s see if you can do it too.”
Marcus tried. He couldn’t quite turn himself fully invisible, but he found that there was a new spell he could use. His old Stealthy Tread spell had evolved.
Spell: Stealthy Tread
Level: 6
Next level: n/a (no new levels available)
New Version: Ultimate Stealth
Level: 1
Progress to next level: 0%
“This is going to be very useful,” he said. “And now is the perfect opportunity to try it out. Ready? I’ll use my new spell, and you use yours. Dog, you’ll just be able to walk through, I guess.”
“It’s one of the advantages of being a dog,” the big canine agreed serenely. “Unless you’re trying to steal their food, no one ever suspects you of anything.”
Marcus grinned. It would certainly take him a bit of time to get used to hearing the dog speak to him like that.
“We’ll go first then,” he said. “Ready, Ella?”
“Let’s do it,” she said.
“Ultimate Stealth,” said Marcus.
He felt the power of the new spell rushing over him, a heady feeling of magical energy that almost took his breath away. Ella applied her Brief Invisibility spell simultaneously. He looked down at himself. He was not invisible, but his image quaked and rippled as if it were made of water that light would be able to shine though. It wasn’t full invisibility, but it felt pretty close. Marcus could feel that, like his Stealthy Tread spell, this new version was still a spell that relied more on deceiving a person’s mind, rather than their vision.
Marcus took a breath and walked out into the courtyard where three guards were posted. One of the guards glanced up at him, frowned as if he was trying to remember something, then shrugged, looking away. The second was polishing a leather boot with a grubby cloth, and he didn’t even look up from his task.
The third guard, a big sergeant with a striped cloak to denote his rank, glanced up at Marcus and stared. He looked confused, but he didn’t immediately drop his eyes. Like a man trying to remember something, he glanced around the courtyard, then back at Marcus. He frowned, blinked, then took a step forward and was about to speak.
This guard’s no fool, thought Marcus. Even a powerful misdirection spell can be countered by a strong will. I need a distraction to get his attention away from me.
At that moment, the dog wandered into the courtyard. The canine glanced around, taking in the scene, and seemed to understand exactly what was going on. A distraction was needed. Without hesitation, he walked up to the guards’ drinking fountain, raised his leg, and began to piss in the water.
“Ah, hey, get outta here!” yelled the sergeant in disgust. He turned, raised his spear, and ran over to the dog, waving the shaft at him to scare him off.
Marcus was forgotten.
As Marcus and Ella slipped through the gateway unnoticed, the dog leaped away from a swipe of the sergeant’s spear shaft. He growled, barked once, then dashed for the gate himself. Marcus slipped into the shadow of a nearby slum dwelling as the dog ran down the sloping ramp from the Middle Watch gate. The sergeant aimed a kick after the canine, missing by a yard.
The dog vani
shed into the gloom, and the sergeant came up and peered through the gate after him.
A flaming torch in a sconce outside the gate cast a circle of ruddy light into the gloom beyond. The light shone on the sergeant’s craggy face as the man looked out from the gate for a moment. “I could have sworn there was something…” he muttered, then he shrugged and walked away.
Spell: Ultimate Stealth Level 1
Level Increase: 11%
Progress to next level: 11%
“That was a good level increase,” Marcus said with satisfaction as his spell wore off. “We sneaked past three guards, and worked together with our magic, so my spell probably leveled up more because of that.”
It was expected that a spell would increase its power more at the beginning. As the progress toward the next level increased, the percentage progress became less dramatic with each use of the spell.
Ella’s Brief Invisibility had worn off as well, and together Marcus and Ella slipped out of their hiding place and the dog joined them.
Now that they were in the slum district, they had less need to be careful. The city guards did not come down here. The sight of the faerie might have given some of the residents a shock, but it was so early in the morning that no one was about. If anyone did show up, Ella would be able to use her Brief Invisibility power to hide herself until they were gone. The sight of Marcus and his dog would hardly arouse any suspicions.
“What’s your name, dog?” Marcus asked as they walked along the winding lanes of the slum district.
“They called me Hammer in the old place,” he said. “I like that well enough. You may continue to call me that if you like.”
“Hammer,” Marcus said thoughtfully. The big dog looked distinctly unlike a hammer. He looked more like a beer barrel than a hammer, with his big round body and his stubby legs, but no doubt that would change with time. It was clear from the shape of him that he hadn’t had much to do these past few years.
