by Cadman, Dean
He moved quietly down the long corridor, only creaking two floorboards as he went, but it was enough to stir one of the room's occupants to stick his head out of his door to see who was passing by at this time of night. The second Lusam heard the door open he spun around to face the danger, enveloping the man in a soundproof force-field. Quietly he walked back towards where the man was standing, and then manipulated his force-field to carry him back inside his room and away from the corridor. Once he was well inside the room, Lusam touched his arm and drained him of all but a tiny amount of his magic reserves. The man collapsed instantly and Lusam gently lowered him to the ground using his force-field, before cancelling it completely and returning to the corridor, making sure to quietly close the door behind himself.
When he reached the top of next set of stairs he stopped in his tracks. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, next to what must be the main entrance he could see two large men guarding the door. They were chatting between themselves mostly, but occasionally they seemed to be directing their conversation to someone else out of sight. Three, or even more people to deal with at the same time would be a big problem so close to the front of the building. The amount of magic he would need to use to project three or more force-fields at the same time, and at such distance apart, would certainly be detected by the Empire agents standing only a few paces away at the other side of the door.
He moved back away from the stairs to think of a way around it. It seemed the main problem wasn't the men at the bottom of the stairs, but the Empire agents outside. If he could time his attack to coincide with their absence from directly outside the building, he would stand a much better chance of succeeding without being discovered.
He quickly found a room likely to have a window that overlooked the street at the front of the building, and quietly opened the door. The room was thankfully unoccupied, and looked like some kind of storage area. Empty boxes and crates were strewn all over the floor, but no windows of any kind were to be seen. He closed the door gently and moved on to the next. This time he wasn't so lucky, the room had not one, but two occupants in it. Fortunately they were rather occupied together, not even noticing his entrance, and he was easily able to enclose them both within the same soundproof force-field before either of them reacted to his presence. He neutralised both of them quickly, as he had done the others, then he went to the window.
Carefully he peered around the edge of the curtain to the main street below. He watched as two Empire agents casually chatted between themselves, completely oblivious to his actions above. `Good.` He thought to himself, realising that maybe not all of these Empire agents were as powerful as he had been led to believe, although he had no desire to test that theory any time soon.
Ten minutes later they departed, heading in the same direction as the rest had done, and he knew he had less than ten minutes until the next group arrived to replace them. He moved swiftly to the door and listened for any movement outside, but nothing stirred. He opened the door and headed straight back to the staircase, finding the two large men in exactly the same place he had last seen them. He was still unable to see anyone else from where he stood, but felt sure there was at least one other person just out of sight to him.
From the top of the stairs he encased both of the large men in force-fields and moved swiftly down the staircase to their position. He ignored the two men and instead turned the corner to confront whoever else was out of sight, but to his surprise there was no one there. Returning to the two large men guarding the door, he quickly neutralised both, smiling to himself at the ridiculously small power reserves both men contained. He wasn't sure what to do with the two large men, if he moved them into a side room they may be missed because they were no longer guarding the door. But if they were left where they were, and someone spotted them there, the alarm would be raised for sure.
Lusam opened the closest door and found it to be an office of some kind. He was about to conceal the men inside the office, when he spotted a tray with three decanters half full of brandy on a desk at the far end of the room. He quickly retrieved two of the decanters, emptying most of their contents back into the third, then returned to the two unconscious men in the hallway. He poured a small amount of brandy into each of their mouths, and splashed a little onto their faces and clothes, then placed an almost empty decanter in each of their hands. If anyone passed by they would assume they were merely unconscious through drink, and hopefully not raise the alarm.
The man on the roof had described the door that would lead to the cells, and it seemed his description had been very accurate, as he found it exactly where he was told it would be. He opened the door and entered the room, before quietly closing it once again behind himself. He found himself standing in a well-lit room, which was obviously used as some kind of weapons storage. Weapons of all types lined the walls, even some strange implements that he guessed could only be used to torture people hung from the walls. Suddenly a familiar sight grabbed his attention. On the far wall hung Neala's knife belt, containing all but one of her knives; the one he still had. He retrieved the belt and replaced the missing knife, then he made his way to the far end of the room, where the door should lead to the cells.
He somehow expected the door to be locked, but it wasn't. When he opened it he was met with pitch-blackness beyond, and a stone staircase leading down into a basement of some kind. He created one of his light orbs and entered the darkness, closing the door quietly behind himself. Descending the staircase he couldn't help noticing the stench down there; it smelt almost as bad as the river outside Stelgad. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, and could see the room contained no guards, he called out quietly, “Neala...are you down here?” He heard some quiet rustling coming from one of the cells at the far end of the room, so he called once out again. “Neala...is that you?”
“Lusam...is that you?” Neala called back from the darkness.
“Yes, it's me. I've come to get you out of here,” Lusam replied as he approached the cell he heard her voice originate from. He reached out to test the strength of cell door, but was grabbed through the bars by a very excited Neala. She seemed almost intent on pulling him through the small gaps between the bars and into the cell with her, she hugged him so tightly.
“Oh, Lusam, I didn't think you'd come for me. I...I thought something terrible had happened to you in Helveel,” Neala said through tears of joy.
“How could I leave the girl I love?” Lusam said playfully, then almost jumped out of his skin when another voice spoke from the side of him.
“So, this is your lover-boy you've been telling me all about is it?”
“Yes it is, and you'd better be nice to him, or I'll have him leave you to rot in that cell of yours Alexia,” replied Neala, still squeezing the breath out of Lusam through the bars of her cell. “Friend of yours?” Lusam asked, nodding his head towards Alexia.
“Yes, she's a good friend from my old guild. It's a long story, but now probably isn't the best time to tell it,”
“I agree. Any minute now we may be surrounded by Shiva's men, or worse still Empire agents. Let's get you out of that cage, stand back while I blast the lock,” Lusam said.
“Hey, lover-boy,” Alexia said in a mocking tone. Lusam turned to see her smiling and pointing at something behind him, then she added, “The keys are over there,”
“Be nice Alexia,” said Neala, quietly laughing along with her friend. Lusam grabbed the keys and opened both cells releasing Neala and Alexia, then handed Neala her knife belt.
“Oh, thanks Lusam. I was wondering what Skelly had done with that,” she said taking the belt back and fastening it around her waist.
“Who's Skelly?” Lusam asked confused.
“Skelly is the one who brought me back here, the one I fought in Helveel.”
“Oh, I see,” Lusam said. “Do you know if there's another way out of this building other than the two main doors?” “I'm sure there is, all thieves' guilds have secret entrances
, but they're only known to the highest ranking members within the guild usually. I have no idea where to look for one here, sorry,” Neala replied.
“Okay, then we may have a problem. Do you remember that strange man in black robes that followed us in Helveel?” asked Lusam.
“Yes, I do, but I've seen a lot more of them since leaving Helveel. They did something creepy inside our heads too when we first left Helveel, but since then they've left us alone. They were even at the northern gate when I arrived here tonight, and also outside this building,” Neala replied.
“Yes that's right, they are everywhere, and they are all looking for me, to kill me. They can also read your mind, so I can't tell you how we plan to escape the city in case they learn it from you when we leave here, I'm sorry you'll just have to trust me,” he said looking at Neala apologetically.
“It's fine, I understand,” Neala replied.
“Thanks Neala. One other thing I must ask of you. When we leave this room, no matter what happens you must stay very close to me, both of you. And under no circumstances attack anyone. I can protect you both within my magical shield, but the further away from me you are, the more power I must use to maintain it, and that could quite easily lead to us being discovered by the men we just spoke of. Hopefully we can escape here without anyone noticing us leaving,” Lusam said. Both Neala and Alexia nodded their agreement, and all three headed for the stairs leading back up into the main building, Lusam leading the way with the other two very close behind him.
When they reached the door at the top of the staircase Lusam listened once again for any sounds coming from the other side of the door, but heard nothing. Opening the door quietly he stepped out into the well lit room with Neala close on his heels, and came face to face with over two dozen well armed men, who seemed to have been patiently waiting for them to re-emerge from the basement.
One of the men stepped forward and away from the main group of men. Lusam noticed four large men armed with crossbows take up positions behind him, ready to defend him against any sudden attacks they might make, and guessed he must be their leader, or at least a high ranking member of the guild.
“I really don't know which one of you to kill first: the one who thinks he can enter my property, attack my men at will and somehow casually walk away again, or the fool who thinks she can steal my property, and live to brag about it by simply moving cities,” the man said menacingly. Lusam glanced behind himself to make sure Neala and Alexia were both still close enough to be within his shield's protection, but to his surprise Alexia was nowhere to be seen. The man saw Lusam look behind himself and laughed out-loud.
“You have no where to run boy!”
“Never crossed my mind,” Lusam replied calmly. “I suggest you let us pass, unless you want to suffer the same fate as your other men.” The man's face turned scarlet with rage.
“Well, it looks like you just volunteered to be first boy.”
“So, I guess you're Shiva, the murdering sack of bile that killed my friends,” Neala said vehemently, emerging from behind Lusam to stand at his side.
“Yes I'm Shiva, and yes, I killed them all, like I’m about to kill you. Most of them screamed and begged for mercy as I slowly tortured them to death, but rest assured, your deaths will be far more unpleasant,” Shiva said through gritted teeth.
Neala noticed Skelly enter the room from the far doorway, pushing his way to the front of the crowd, whilst all the men made way for him without complaint.
“In that case, as the highest surviving member of the Crows' guild I invoke my right to blood vengeance. I challenge you to single combat to the death,” Neala said loud enough for all in the room to hear. “What?” Lusam exclaimed, looking sharply at Neala. Shiva burst out laughing, closely followed by all his men, except Skelly who stood silently watching the proceedings unfold.
“There are no living Crows' guild members left, which means there's no longer a Crows' guild for you to lead, so your claim for blood vengeance is meaningless girl. They're all dead apart from you, and I plan to rectify that small oversight right now,” Shiva said, bringing forth another round of laughter from his men behind him.
Chapter Twenty Four
“That's not true,” Alexia said loudly, emerging from the shadows within the basement doorway. Shiva turned to one of his men and asked,
“Why does she still draw breath? I told you to kill her.” The man visibly paled at the question, obviously aware of what his failure would mean to his future well-being. He seemed to be trying to form some kind of reply, but never had the chance to voice it before Alexia once again regained everyone’s attention.
“My name is Alexia, and I am a current member of the Crows' guild, as I have been most of my life. I can confirm that Neala here is indeed currently the highest ranking member of the Crows' guild, and therefore she does have the right to claim blood vengeance on behalf of the Crows' guild. Her guild. I also bore witness to the execution of eight of our guild members. They approached your guild leader under the flag of truce. I saw them publicly declare their allegiance to the Hawks' guild if they would take them, and denounce their future rights to blood vengeance if they would not.
“Now, I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone in this room of how important our unwritten laws are as thieves. Without them we would cease to exist as guilds at all, and become nothing more than solo pick-pockets or petty murderers out there on the streets. The right of blood vengeance is one of our most important laws, as is our choice to waiver it. I fully understand that no guild is ever obliged to take on a member of an ousted guild, if that member however denounces his future right to blood vengeance, he should be spared and exiled from the city, under penalty of death should he ever return. That is our law, is it not?.” Alexia said looking at all the faces in the crowd before her. A rumble of accent broke forth from the armed men, many of them nodding their agreement.
“Well I can tell you what I witnessed with my own eyes, this man standing before you, the man you know as Shiva brutally cut down eight of my guild members, even after they had declared their allegiance to the Hawks' guild, and denounced any future rights to blood vengeance.” Alexia said, now standing beside Lusam. A low murmur broke out amongst the men, confusion at what to do about the accusations levelled at their leader, who by the looks of him was about to charge the three of them single handedly. “What are you doing?” Lusam whispered loud enough for Neala to hear. She turned her head and whispered back, but was cut short by the voice of Skelly calling for silence.
“Our laws are clear, and the rite of blood vengeance is certainly one of our most important laws, but I urge you to reconsider Neala. You simply can't win this battle, not when you are surrounded by brainless people,” Skelly said looking directly at Neala. The men chuckled at his comments, and even Shiva smiled at his insult. Neala almost spat back an insult of her own, until she suddenly remembered his words; Shiva surrounds himself with brainless people, ones who will blindly follow his orders.
Neala turned back to Lusam and whispered, “Can you divide the room with your force-field and keep Shiva separate from the rest of them?”
“I suppose so, but why would you want to do any of this?” Lusam asked confused.
“Lusam, I need to do this, for myself, and for my friends he tortured and killed. Alexia told me some of the horrible things Shiva did to them after I left Stelgad. I could never live with myself if I simply walked away and let him live for what he's done. I know it will be hard for you, but you must let me fight this man fairly, no tricks, no shields. But you must keep the others separated from us, most wouldn't interfere with our laws, but from what Skelly told me, a few of them would be more than happy for Shiva to gain an advantage, by any means possible.” Neala whispered to him. So many emotions ran through Lusam's mind at that moment he was hard pressed to know which one to address first. He was about to speak when Neala leaned in to him and kissed his cheek. She turned his head to face her and said, “Trust me Lusam, I know
what I'm doing.” Then she walked away from him to the centre of the room. Lusam did as she asked and cut the room in two with his force-field; all of them and Shiva on one side, and Shiva's men on the other.
“I invoke my right as leader of the Crows' guild to the rite of blood vengeance, do you accept my challenge Shiva, and agree to uphold our laws regarding the victor and vanquished?” Neala said, her voice carrying throughout the room.
“You are no challenge to me girl,” Shiva replied smirking. He removed his two knives from his belt, and positioned himself ready to attack Neala.
“We'll see,” Neala replied, readying her own enchanted knives. They began to circle each other, neither willing to make the first challenge, but Neala did notice he seemed to be trying to manoeuvre her towards his own men, leaving her exposed from behind. She hoped Lusam had her back covered with his shield, if not, she felt sure she was about to feel the stinging of a poisoned dart, or even a blade in her back.
Sure enough as they continued to circle each other, Neala noticed several of the tiny poisoned darts on the floor next to two of the men. They also had a confused look on their faces, and were trying to silently communicate something to Shiva as they continued their deadly dance. Three more times they circled, and three more times the number of tiny darts increased on the floor.
Shiva grew more and more impatient, and after the fourth unsuccessful pass he launched into an attack on Neala. Neala side-stepped his attack, and quickly countered with her own much more accurate attack, scoring a deep cut to his left arm. He grimaced with the pain, but didn't make a sound.
