The Thief of Dunmire and the Tear of Astra (The League of Sinister Means Book 1)

by H. K. MacTavish

  I run down an alley, ditch the blade, and start to climb. I’ll just go up and over those little blockades that Kincaid has set up. Hey! If he has enough around here then there should be fewer patrols where we’re going! I hope Mary managed all right while I was away.

  Manipulating Fate

  I continue to drive the wagon down the road after Corvina hops off. I hope Corvina doesn’t run into any trouble. The guards ahead of me didn’t see her slip off the wagon. Hopefully I’ll have no problem slipping past them.

  I look down and close my eyes a bit so I look tired. And I don’t make eye contact. As much as I want to see what they’re doing and if they’re looking at me suspiciously, I can’t draw attention to myself.

  I am nearly upon the guards now. I can hear them talking more clearly. They pause their conversation suddenly. I know they are looking at me now. They are looking for a woman who has been hit in the face. I turn to one as I pass by.

  “Evening,” I say, looking one right in the eyes with as tired a face as I can put on.

  “Evening,” the guard says to me. I ride right past them, keeping the same pace.

  I look behind me and I only see the guards. I don’t know where Corvina went to. She knows where I’m going. She can catch up. I turn down one street and then another. I’m surprised; I thought there would be more guards out looking for us. Are we that far ahead of the heroes? We were at Bernice’s for an hour. I thought there would be more out looking for us.

  I turn the last corner. I can see the old tavern alongside the outer wall. And behind this tavern is an old drainage pipe. Well, pipe isn’t really doing justice to it; this pipe is big enough for us to walk down.

  Just as the back end of the wagon clears the corner I hear my sister running alongside the wagon. She hops into the wagon, out of breath.

  “Good to see you managed to sneak past them,” I say.

  “It wasn’t any trouble,” she says. She’s too out of breath to have just taken a stroll around the block. Did she run all over the town to get back here? I look at her but she doesn’t seem to be injured.

  “Everything was fine?” I ask.

  “Oh yeah, just some minor stuff. I’ll tell you about it later,” she says. She’s hiding something. No matter. We have to get all this loot out of the town. I should just focus on the job in front of me.

  I continue driving the wagon on down the road to the old tavern, and the drain pipe in the wall behind it.

  The old tavern we’re heading to is a place where people don’t ask lots of questions. The same is true of the nearby buildings. It is a good place to be for a pair of thieves. When we initially scouted Hammerheim we found three drainage pipes like this one, but the neighborhood that this particular pipe resided within made it the optimal choice.

  I pull the wagon close where a couple of other wagons are all sitting so any passing guards won’t see anything suspicious. Well, overly suspicious. They are out looking for Corvina after all.

  Corvina hops out. Now comes the back breaking part of the plan: moving all this loot. Most of which is gold, which is really heavy.

  “Grab the other end. Come on!” Corvina barks in a hushed voice. God, she is so bossy sometimes!

  “I have it,” I say as I take the other end. We pull the first crate off the wagon and carry it into the adjacent alley.

  “Do you have…” I begin on our way back to the wagon.

  “Your contraption?” Corvina says with a smile. It is not a contraption!

  “It is a fine piece of…” she’s just smiling because I’m getting annoyed which only annoys me more! God, why are you my sister? I could hate you properly if you weren’t! “Do you have it?” I snap.

  “Of course,” she says, pulling the dwarven bar bender out from behind the seat.

  “Let’s open the pipe up before we move any more of the loot,” I say.

  “Okay,” Corvina says.

  I take some rope from the back of the wagon and we walk down the short little alley and to the barred pipe tunnel. We wrap the rope around the bars and Corvina holds it for me. I engage the bender to the rope and start twisting the dial. The bars start to groan and bend, continue bending…

  Crack!

  We pause, we hold our breaths…did anyone hear that? And do they care? No? Good.

  “Remember the plan,” Corvina says.

  “Of course,” I say.

  One bar is broken off which gives us just enough room to slip in and out. We walk back to our wagon and begin moving the rest of the loot. We have to move in shorts spurts. If we leave the wagon completely alone we will lose our money. It’s our money, and no one is going to steal it! We worked hard for this. We deserve it more than Bernice or those heroes. And in this part of town, well, let’s just say that they are a lot of greedy hands here.

  An hour in I hear some voices coming down the road. I pause and Corvina pauses with me. We can hear the metal plates of armor that the guards wear. If they look down the alley and see the broken pipe we’re done for.

  Corvina rushes to the wagon and pulls the tarp over the remaining loot before hiding off in a corner of the alley where it’s darkest. I don’t have to run. But I can think of a way to keep the guards from investigating this alley closely.

  I up my skirt and pull down my underpants and squat. It helps that I really do have to pee. I just hold it until the guards are passing by. One takes a look at me and then another but they keep on walking. I just turned this alley into a private bathroom. In a better part of town I’d be in trouble but next to this dirty rat infested tavern? I’m just a normal part of the night.

  The guards leave and Corvina runs up to me while I finish. I pull my underpants up while she looks out into the street to see if the guards really are gone.

  “We should hurry,” she says

  No kidding.

  “Let’s move,” I say.

  After two hours of labor we have all the gold unloaded along with a strong iron pipe. We are now standing at the entrance into the old drainage pipe. A few people look at us but people around here know better than to be too inquisitive. It takes another hour to move all the loot to the other end of the drainage pipe. There is a grated steel covering over the entrance that we need to remove. The bender won’t help us this time.

  Fortunately we are prepared. We knew we’d have to come out this way so we planned accordingly. Corvina pulls away a concealed stone block and inside are some vials of acid, two buckets of black paint, some leather straps attached to small bits of rope with a hook secured to each bundle, and a lot of rope, already dyed black.

  Now, my sister would go on and on about how you need to be prepared and blah, blah, blah. She’s right. Not that I’ll admit that to her face. We suspected that the heroes would secure this pipe in some fashion but we didn’t know how. Acid doesn’t care. Steel? Iron? We have acid that will eat through whatever metal they have. I don’t like working with acid if I can avoid it, but we felt we didn’t have much of a choice here.

  “I’ll take care of the grate. Check the rope. Make sure mice or rats didn’t start to gnaw on it,” I say. Corvina nods and finds one end of the rope and quickly starts to check it.

  I walk over to the grate and look for where it is secured. It is well made but it looks like it was quickly finished on the top. I go to work and start to pour the acid, carefully, around the edges of the grate. Just a little bit, a drop or two here and there is all I need.

  The acid sizzles away at the metal drop by drop. I really hate using acid. I’m scared I’ll burn myself with it.

  Once I finish with the top part of the grate I give it a push. It is starting to give way. I look over and see Corvina is still checking the rope. I work on the sides in the same way as I did the top. The acid sizzles as it works through the metal. I’m always careful when working with acid. This tears through metal quickly, just imagine how fast it will work through flesh.

  I give the grate another push and nearly topple over as the grate falls a
way.

  It splashes into the water outside and we pause once again to listen for anyone that may have taken notice. When no one does we move on to the next stage, moving the loot again.

  We move the loot out, across the water that has pooled up beyond the pipe forming a pond, onto the dry-ish land beyond. It recently rained, remember, so the grass is still wet and that pond is bigger than when we were last here. Beyond, about a hundred yards away, is a wooded area. That is the next destination for the loot.

  First we take that pipe and fasten it to the outside wall. I screw it in between the stones of the wall with special screws I made just for the task while Corvina holds the pipe steady for me. It doesn’t take long, I’ve practiced this a lot to make sure I can not only put it on in a hurry but remove it as well. Once it’s on I pull on it to make sure it’s secure. It is.

  Corvina then takes one end of the rope along with a long flexible metal rung and runs across the small field to that wooded area I mentioned. While she does that I fasten a round metal rung of my own to the pole and tighten it with some screws. It is curved inwards and spins along the pipe so that a rope can move quickly along it without damaging the rope.

  At the other side of the short field Corvina is attaching the larger curved metal rung to a tree. She will fasten the rope to that and then run back to me. I have to be ready when she gets here.

  Now it’s time to paint all the bags and crates black. It’s a rushed job but it doesn’t have to be pretty. It just has to look dark against the dark ground at night so that the wandering eyes of the guards won’t see a wooden crate racing on its own against the ground. They shouldn’t see or hear anything.

  Corvina races back to me with the other end of the rope. I tie off the rope, with her help, so that it is taut. I pull on the rope to test it.

  It moves along the rungs well.

  “Great!” Corvina says. Does she know she just paid me a compliment? That’s how I’m taking it anyway.

  Corvina then helps me hook up a geared winch attached to a pole. We dig into the earth with our daggers and secure the pole to the ground. It has to be nice and sturdy. Now we feed the rope into the top part that has some blunted gears. I tighten down the top with the rope in it and I turn the winch. The rope moves quickly in a large loop.

  “Go to the other end, I’ll start sending the loot your way,” I say excitedly.

  Corvina just nods and rushes off across the field. I have to get to work on my end. Those bits of leather and rope with hooks in them that I mentioned earlier? So what we do is we take those bits of leather and rope with the hook in them and tie up a crate or bag with them with the little hook sitting on top. This hook will help hold onto the rope with a bit of leather and then when I turn the winch and move the long rope across the field the crate or bag will go with it! It’s brilliant, isn’t it? Well, I think it is. The field is just grass, wet grass now, so whatever the loot is in will slide along the ground just fine. All the bags and sacks and crates and chests are sturdy from what I’ve seen.

  I turn the winch and the first crate seems to just float along the grass towards Corvina. I can’t help but giggle.

  It is silent too. That’s good. It takes a minute or two but the crate gets to Corvina. While she pulls the crate off the hook and ties the straps and rope onto the larger rope so I can reuse it I get another chest ready. I start to move the next chest…

  Voices? The hell!

  I wave to my sister. She sees me and shrugs. Can’t you hear them? God Corvina! I point up above me where I can hear the guards. She nods and creeps behind the tree.

  The voices are lingering! Why? Keep going! Don’t look down here!

  Are they looking out here? They don’t sound agitated. They must not see the rope or the chest of gold halfway between me and my sister. I wish they would just go away. No quick thinking will help me here. There isn’t anything I can do down here to guards up on a wall above me.

  What are they doing up there? Professing their love to one another? Go away!

  Wait…are their voices getting softer? I look over to my sister and she waves to me to continue. Well, that sucked. If there are more guards that linger like that we may not finish before dawn. We have to finish before dawn.

  This goes on for a couple of hours. I can’t feel my arms at the end of it. All the tying and hooking and spinning the winch…it doesn’t look like much but this is work. Well, no one can’t say we didn’t do anything to earn our loot.

  With no more bags or chests of loot I tug on the rope. This is the signal to Corvina that we’re all done. I cut the rope and start to wrap it up. Corvina runs over across the field after disassembling the parts on her end. I’m pulling up the pole from the ground as she reaches me. It takes a minute but it pops out. I lay the pole down in the drainage pipe before turning to start unscrewing the pipe from the wall. Just as I planned, the screws not only held but they come out easy.

  We bundle all my tools together. Corvina will get rid of all of them. I’m still trying to think of a way to keep them. For the next job, maybe. If there is a next job. I spent a lot of time crafting these tools. I had to plan out their construction, engineer their design, build them, and test them, and then do the process all over again until they tested successfully. Well, I can just build them now since I know how well they work, I guess. No. We can’t be caught with these. These are thief’s tools. There’s no fancy story I can come up with that will explain them away.

  “You need to go,” she says.

  “But…”

  “But nothing. Here,” she says, handing me a bag of gold.

  Damn it! I forgot about the money! Good thing Corvina has a better memory than me.

  “Say goodbye to all your pretty contraptions Mary,” Corvina says with a sinister smile.

  “Tools. They’re my…” I begin to say but she is just smiling at me! “Fine. Take them!”

  “I’ll dispose of them by the time you get me,” Corvina says. “Just don’t be late.”

  “I won’t.”

  As to why I have to go back and take the wagon out through the front gates in the morning?

  We did honestly spend too many hours on trying to come up with a way to pull a wagon, and horses, through this pipe. The idea was at first to stash a wagon on the abandoned road in the forest. That would look suspicious. I said it was suspicious. Corvina said it was fine. I said, if there is some random patrol that spots a wagon where no one is supposed to be, do you think that the heroes would just ignore that? She said yes. I said we need to be smart about this. We get the wagon out through the front gate, loot and all.

  And what if we are searched? Well…I didn’t have an answer for that. Then came the long discussions about pulling a horse through the drainage pipe. And the noise I asked? Order it to be quiet, Corvina says to me. Order a horse to be quiet? And not splash around a lot in the water? Or not neigh? And…no. Just no. And even then, what about the wagon? Easy, Corvina told me. Just pull it apart and reassemble it. What? Hammer out the wagon out here? What are you two young women doing over there? Nothing officer. Just building a wagon. At night. Outside the city walls.

  Use a quiet hammer, Corvina says to me. You can build one of those, right? A stealth hammer, I ask? God…you know, I think we were both really drunk at that point.

  The loot out the pipe, the wagon out the front gate, and we meet up in the forest as early as possible. That was our sober plan later on.

  I walk back to the wagon and find no one has taken it. At least I don’t have to worry about that loss. What time is it anyway? It should be almost dawn. Oh, that’s right. Corvina decided to get the Tear of Astra earlier instead of starting at night.

  I yawn. I’m sleepy. I’ve got a few hours left.

  No Mary. If I fall asleep now I’ll oversleep and I’ll never hear the end of it. Why are you late? You were supposed to be here earlier! This is all your fault. Double the agony if we actually get caught. Sleep is not worth all that mess. Not when there is s
o much gold on the line. And so much sisterly ire.

  I take my wagon slowly through the streets to the general shop near the front gate. There is no one there yet but there will be. The guards by the front gate do take notice of me but since I’m not doing anything wrong they don’t come and pester me.

  I’m can’t be the only one that wants to get an early start. I look around and see that I am the only one here. I guess most people are waiting for the wedding announcement, which I do kind of want to see. Not going to lie. Plus it would give me a chance to see Bridget.

  No. Clear your head Mary. Bridget is a hero and you’re probably not going to see her again. Her beautiful face, those gorgeous eyes…

  I need a distraction. Better make myself useful. I start writing down things that I think mom will need. Cheese, some nice fabric. She does like making clothes. Bread? Nah, it won’t keep. Flour. Butter. It will be a long list. Good thing I have plenty of gold; I pat the pouch at my waist.

  My Unexpected Present

  Just before sunup the general store opens its doors. I am still the only one here. I hope this doesn’t make me look suspicious. I thought at least one other person would be leaving. Well, it’s too late now. I’m committed.

  “What can I do for you?” the owner asks me.

  “I need to buy some supplies, food, bolts of fabric…”

  “Starting a business, are you?”

  “Helping out my mom,” I say.

  “Ah, good for you,” the man says.

  “Do you have everything?” I ask.

  “If not I’ll just go around to some of the other merchants for you,” the man says.

  “Really?”

  “Of course. It’s a service we proudly provide,” he says with a smile. “Just give me a list of what you need and I’ll get it loaded up for you. That’s your wagon there?”

  “Yes,” I say. He smiles. He likes me. It pays to be liked.

  I hand him the list I’ve been working on, cheerfully.