by Brian Keller
As everyone left the fire to start their tasks for the day, Birt had another topic to bring up, “Now that I know you’re ready to discuss some things again, there’s something else you’ll want to know.” Noting Birt’s satisfied and excited expression, Cooper set his plate down on his lap, “What’s that?” Birt’s voice became quiet, “I saw Mister Ysel.” Cooper had the presence of mind to toss his plate to one side before he sprang up, “Where?!” Birt waved his hands and made a shushing noise, then replied, “In the quarry. Chained to a few other folks of ours. He seemed none too handy or energetic with that pick they were making him swing though.”
Cooper sat back down and picked up his plate. He stared at the remains of his breakfast for a few seconds and Birt waited, sure that a reply was coming soon. Cooper used his spoon to push some of the food around his plate, then let it drop with a light clatter, “It would be a risk to reveal ourselves to the Watch and prison guards, but we need to at least look into whether we have the means to free our people. I’ll let everyone know that we need to meet up this afternoon, then you can tell us everything you can recall about the quarry and how it’s guarded.” Birt stood, “I’ll check in with our construction crews, then hand that supervision over to Dailen for the rest of the morning so I can come back and prepare my descriptions.” Cooper spoke as Birt turned away, “No need to spend too much time on it. Just enough to keep us out of trouble when we go look around.” Birt stopped and turned to see that Cooper was grinning. Birt asked, “When? Just looking, right?” Cooper shrugged, “Tonight. And yes, just looking… unless we notice something that’s just too good to pass up.” Birt looked only slightly relieved as he turned to leave.
Cooper’s mind quickly moved on to other things; there was another added wrinkle, and one that he couldn’t mention to the rest of them. There was still a Hunter assigned to locate him. What the University had planned, in the event of his capture, he didn’t know but he felt certain that it wouldn’t be to his benefit. Everything that Master Worthan had told him in past years was that the University, and the Hunters they employed, were intent on killing anyone they found that had a Gift. He already knew that Gifted people were extremely rare. From what he and Master Worthan had determined, the Gift stemmed from having Fae ancestry. He only knew of six people that were Gifted, seven if you counted the Mad Wizard and his ghost separately. For all he knew now, he might be the only one still living. Master Worthan had hinted that there were others in the Guild who were Gifted, but who they were and whether they’d survived, Cooper had no idea.
Sometime in the months to come, he felt certain there would be a need for him to Channel, a term used to describe the use of his Gift. This would announce his presence to the Hunter, or Hunters. He just needed to either plan carefully enough so he could accomplish what was needed without Channeling, or at least select the time and place, then be prepared for the University’s reaction. He considered his options and wondered, not for the first time, whether he should simply use his Gift, offering himself as bait to flush out the Hunters. He discarded the notion now, as he always had. He simply didn’t know how, or how strongly, they would react. The University had hundreds of mages whose Talents he couldn’t know or predict. That situation could easily outpace his ability to survive it.
Cooper finished his meal and scrubbed his plate and spoon. He then went about informing everyone to return to the Ruins after lunch, “and be prepared to sit, listen and ask questions.”
He followed Rukle, Spen and Naro, but remained far behind them. They were easy enough to follow considering he vaguely knew their destination and it was still early hours of the morning. Vendors in the Trade Quarter were still arranging their displays. The only customers who were out this early were the household staff of noble families. Beggars weren’t even out yet, no point in trying to beg coin from people that didn’t have money of their own. Rukle and the boys would glance around them from time to time, but they weren’t actively checking to see if they were being followed. It was easy enough to blend in at those moments since they’d only look around when they were changing direction. Staying far behind them gave him a chance to see whether anyone showed any interest in the three boys. No one did.
They passed through the Trade Quarter, pausing only for Rukle to speak with a couple of merchants along the way. Once they reached the Dregs, the boys split up. Cooper assumed Rukle was going to visit the Houses, so he followed Naro. He didn’t really care whether the boy noticed him, he simply wanted to feel assured that the boys weren’t drawing any attention to themselves.
After walking down several streets and slipping through spaces between buildings, Cooper started trying to stay parallel with Naro, rather than following behind him. He lost sight of him frequently and nearly lost him entirely a couple of times but managed to find him again. When Naro had selected his vantage point, Cooper walked to him. He was still thirty feet away when he spotted Spen. Spen noticed him as well. The boy was seated but stretched his arms out and flashed a quick wave, getting Naro’s attention. Spen then gestured toward him and Naro looked behind him, one arm coming up slightly to serve as a shield if needed, and the other dropping toward his belt. His entire posture deflated when he recognized Cooper and he audibly expelled the full breath he’d just sucked in, “Why would you do something like that?” Cooper ignored the question and sat against a shack near Naro. He asked, “Which house is it?” Naro lifted his chin in a direction that was outside of Cooper’s view, so he shifted his position so he could look. After looking, he thought he knew which house Naro had indicated. He asked, “Entrance facing north? Two boarded up windows and a door made of six boards?” Naro squinted and leaned slightly to his right. He must’ve been counting the boards. Naro nodded, “Yep.”
Cooper stepped away and found a vantage point of his own. Twenty minutes later he turned to greet Rukle, who was still fifteen feet away, “It didn’t look like anyone really noticed the three of you, except for those merchants you spoke to.” Rukle’s expression darkened, “Checking up on me? Worried that I can’t handle a simple task?” Cooper shook his head, “I have complete trust in you. I just wanted to see where this place was for myself, and took the opportunity to see if anyone was watching you.” Cooper turned to look back at the house and noticed a young kid, seated on a porch a few buildings away, dangling his feet off the edge while he picked his nose. Cooper asked, “Is that one of the kids replacing you?” Rukle leaned in to follow Cooper’s gaze, “Yep. I told them to change out every time a crew came and went.” He pointed a finger to another kid that was using a stick to dig something out of the mud. “That’s another one.” he said. Cooper nodded as Rukle continued, “At lunchtime, Spen, Naro and I will go to those vendors we spoke with and pick up the bread, meat, and cheese, as we discussed earlier.” Cooper nodded, “Good. It’s good for the Houses to know that we’re involved. And know that we take an interest in them.” Rukle took a deep breath, “You know, I can manage the Houses, and most of the collections. I don’t require supervision.” Cooper leaned back, a little confused, “You feel like I’m breathing down your neck, or something?” Rukle shifted uncomfortably, “A little, yeah. Those House Father’s, in Batter’s Field… I coulda handled that… I didn’t need help.” Cooper explained, “I know that. I wasn’t supervising. I needed to know where those Houses were - which ones were posing a problem. I needed to see the occupants for myself. If they’d all teamed up, they might’ve killed you, and maybe Loryn too. I needed to know where to strike back if something happened to either, or both of you. Plus, it’s better for you if I’m the ‘absent bad guy’ since you’re the one to deal with them on a near-daily basis.” Rukle shrugged, looking satisfied, though a little embarrassed, “All right. That’s fair. I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Cooper breathed a sigh, “No problem. I can see where you’d feel the way you did.”
Chapter 8
When Cooper returned to their camp in the Ruins, Birt was digging in the dirt. Out of curiosity C
ooper walked closer to observe but he didn’t speak. Birt broke the loosened clods of dirt and began piling it up. Birt looked leaned on the shovel (Cooper had the fleeting question of where he’d acquired the shovel) and looked at the eastern sky then walked to the north side of the small pile of earth and knelt down and began digging and forming dirt with his hands. Cooper could no longer resist, “I don’t believe digging in the dirt is a suitable pursuit for a Guildmaster.” Birt stopped and replied without looking up, “Temporary Guildmaster, if you please. And I’m merely addressing a request made by our leading Assassin, that demanding pain-in-th-” Cooper interrupted, “So this will be a representation of the quarry then?” Birt stood up, an exasperated expression on his face, “Well, I’m not gardening. I can assure you of that.” Cooper chuckled as he bent to pick up the shovel, “Need any more dirt?” Birt smiled, “I’d like to say that I do, just to watch you dig, but in fact I think I already have all I’ll need.” He paused then continued with a thoughtful expression, “Why don’t you nap for a couple hours? Someone will wake you for lunch, and I should be ready to explain all this by then.” Cooper shook his head, “We’ll be putting crews to work building the vault, and the building that’ll stand above it, soon. If a temporary site to hide the coin hasn’t been selected already, I’ll do that.” Birt raised an eyebrow, “And if that’s already been done?” Cooper smiled and shrugged, “Then I’ll help move the coin.” He stepped into the structure they’d been staying in and saw Gaff and Naro working in one corner, digging with a pick and shovel. He thought, “Well, I guess that explains where Birt’s shovel came from.” Naro noticed him and stopped digging while he offered an explanation before Cooper could ask, “We decided that it’s better to hide the coin here, where we don’t have to post an extra guard or worry about it being discovered as work crews move about the area.” Cooper nodded, “That makes sense but I guess I was also thinking that we’d have workers in here, improving our living conditions, too.” Gaff stopped swinging the pick, “You mean-?” Cooper quickly assured him, “Keep at it. We can live anywhere. We’ll just have them improve some other building close by and relocate when it’s ready. It just means we’ll be in here a little longer.” The boys looked dejected, so he added, “It’s a good idea; keeping the coin close. I’m glad you’ve worked out a solution for that.” Cooper took off his cloak and rolled his shoulders, “Who needs a break?” Both boys’ faces lit up with grins.
By lunchtime, the hole was almost big enough. They took turns eating while the other two continued to dig. After lunch, as others began returning to the site, they all took turns deepening the hole. When Birt announced that he was ready to show them what he’d been working on, they all felt relieved to put the tools down for a few minutes.
Birt had made a small hill, about the size of an overturned bushel basket, complete with an excavated concave area on the north side. It was bricked up with rocks to form a cliff, and in other places sticks had been pushed into the dirt to form walls, or fences. A few rocks had obviously been placed with a purpose in mind, since everything else was smoothed out dirt.
Cooper walked around the pile of dirt, inspecting it from every angle. Loryn spoke, “This looks amazing.” Birt puffed up slightly at the praise, “I think it actually does look pretty good. There’re quite a few things I’ll need to explain, but I think this gives a fair idea of how the quarry is arranged without saying a word.” Cooper pointed at an arrangement of sticks that were leaned up against the bricked “cliff” of the quarry, “Scaffolding?” Birt grinned and nodded, “I didn’t think it was worth spending the time to tie all those little sticks together. You get the idea.” Spen had a faint smile on his face as he followed Cooper, walking around the model of the quarry, “Brilliant. Is this something that’s usually done to display a location before a raid?” Cooper shook his head, “I’ve never seen anything like this… this is great.” He tore his eyes away from Birt’s handiwork, “Alright, Birt. Explain it.” For the next ten minutes Birt talked almost non-stop; guard positions, patrol routes, work locations, building and fence descriptions. He included information that he observed as well as things he guessed at. He explained that he felt confident in some of the guesswork, but was forthright about those parts that were outright assumptions. He finished with, “But I was only there for a couple hours during the day, while we negotiated a contracted rate for stone and shipment. Positioning and routes are likely to change quite a bit at night.” Loryn pointed to a circle of sticks, “That’s where the chained workers are kept at night? That’s what you said.” Birt nodded, “I can’t think of anything else that’d be used for.” Loryn continued, “Do you know where the door is? Or how it’s secured?” Birt shook his head, “I never got close enough to see and I didn’t want to seem overly interested.” He gestured to a more centralized location, towards the collection of rocks slightly off to one side, “We stayed here mostly.” He pointed to each rock, “Guardhouse, Foreman’s hut, stable, workman’s barracks.” Spen interjected, “Workmen?” Birt nodded, “There are several skilled stonemasons that work there. It looked like they oversee where the rock is being pulled from the cliff face and also supervise the work being done to shape the rock once it’s brought to the central work area.” Cooper asked, “I’m not asking for an exact number, but how many slaves were there? Just a rough estimate.” Birt started to object, then paused. He remained silent as his eyes lost their focus and looked up, shifting left and right as if to search the sky for the answer. Birt answered, “Maybe forty, could be more. No way of telling how many might be ours though. I only recognized a couple of them. One in particular.” They sat quietly for almost a minute before Cooper broke the silence, “We’ll go look tonight. We’ll need to agree on who goes and who stays.” Dailen shifted uncomfortably, “I’ll stay. I wasn’t selected for Assassin training… for good reason, I might add.” Birt started to speak, “I wasn’t chos-” Cooper interrupted, “You’re coming, Birt. You’re the only one of us that’s actually seen the place before.” Birt nodded and ducked his head. Spen replied firmly, “I’m going.” Loryn quickly added, “Me too.” Gaff took a breath, but Naro spoke first. He had turned to Balat, “Rock, paper, scissors?” Gaff spoke, “I was about to say that I’d stay behind. I’ve been out every day and several of the nights for the last week. I’m tired.”
Cooper continued to study the model that Birt had constructed. It reminded him that he really needed to find a good map of the city. This, in turn, reminded him of the Kalistos City map that took up almost one entire wall in the meeting room of the Kalistos Guild house. He and Kolrem had studied it when they’d been sent to Kalistos, to poach a target from another Guild’s city. On the one hand, he hoped that they’d find Kolrem in the quarry, but if Kolrem had been captured and put there, he’d likely have already escaped and had left the city. Spen interrupted his thoughts, “What time?” Cooper pulled his gaze away from the pile of dirt, his memories shifted to the background as he returned to the here-and-now, “An hour or so before dark. It’ll take us awhile to walk there and we can get a look from a distance while we select our observation points. No use in spending an hour stumbling in the dark just to find a place to sit.” Birt added, “In that case, we should leave right after supper time. It’s probably a further walk than you think.”
As it turned out, Birt was right. The quarry was well west and north of The Stand. This required them to leave the city through the Heights and out on the western road until they’d passed the city walls, then turn north to cross the river. The road followed a ridge of high ground in an easterly direction for over a mile before it turned south. By the time the quarry was in sight, the sun was getting low on the western horizon. Birt pointed out a large cliff face beyond a few rolling hills, “That’s the quarry.” Everyone squinted to try and see details. Balat commented, “I can’t see any scaffolding…?” Birt chuckled, “We’re still too far away to see it.” Balat sucked in a breath as Birt added, “Yes. The quarry’s that big. We still have
at least a mile to go.” Cooper grumbled, “We should’ve either walked faster, or left earlier.” They increased their pace and crossed the next low hills in silence.
