Shadowmage

by Matthew Sprange

  Hit by an unyielding wall of wind, the men were tossed back, sprawling on the ground as they lay stunned and gasping for breath. Breathing heavily from the exertion, Lucius staggered as he grabbed Magnus again to spur him on, trying desperately to ignore the look of suspicious amazement in the man's face.

  They started to run, feet pounding the street, each step taking them further from the murderous crowd behind. Magnus cried out, and Lucius felt the man stumble against him, the weight almost pulling him down to the ground. Catching his balance, Lucius turned to get Magnus back on his feet, and saw a slender knife embedded deep in the back of his thigh. Blood oozed slowly from the wound, but Lucius knew that, as deep as the blade had gone, the flow would quickly speed up if the weapon was removed.

  "Lucius!" Magnus shouted the warning, even as he scrambled to one side, Lucius sensed motion beside him. Ducking low and rolling backwards, he grabbed for the sword at his back even as another blade sliced through the air between them.

  He jumped to his feet, and saw Jewel standing just a few feet from him, her eyes narrowed to slits as she watched them both, judging which to be the greater threat. Her face remained flat and expressionless, betraying no emotion whatsoever. She apparently decided that, with Magnus already wounded and struggling to get to his feet, Lucius was her priority. Covering the distance between them in two easy strides, she swiped through the air with her sword, as if testing his reactions; she then crouched low and whirled round in a circle, the blade building momentum as it spun towards his shins.

  Lucius sprang back, then held his sword forward defensively, as if warding the woman back. Rising to her full height again, Jewel drew a dagger from her belt. Lucius stabbed forward, but a casual flick of her dagger turned his blade, holding it to one side as her own sword was held aloft for an instant, then brought down to slash his skull in two.

  Off balance from her parry, but seeing the danger, Lucius reached up and grabbed her wrist, surprised at her sinewy strength as he strained to keep her sword clear.

  He tried to muster his strength to drive Jewel down, wanting to pin her to the ground where his weight would give him the advantage, but she yielded only an inch at a time. Straining with the effort, he suddenly felt the air driven out of his lungs as her knee drove hard into his groin. A spilt second later, his world exploded into stars of pain as her forehead smashed into the bridge of his nose.

  Sightless and writhing in agony, Lucius felt the ground rise up to hit him hard. Expecting to feel Jewel's blade pierce his heart at any moment, he shook his head to clear his vision as he tried to get to his knees.

  The world blurred in front of him, then suddenly sharpened into stark reality. Jewel's back was toward him as she strode toward Magnus. The guildmaster was limping badly as he tried to circle her, his own weapon held before him. As she slashed her sword at his chest, he met the attack, and a loud ringing of metal echoed off the buildings along the street as their weapons met. Immediately, Jewel drew her sword back and thrust forward again, only to be turned by a desperate parry from Magnus.

  Lucius tried to get to his feet but stumbled and he started crawling toward Magnus and Jewel, desperate to aid his friend before the murderess could finish him. He could see Magnus was in a lot of pain, and Jewel was forcing him to keep moving, every step forcing the dagger in the back of his leg to grind against bone. Their swords met again, and Magnus was forced to give more ground, fighting purely defensively, with Jewel giving him no opportunity to attack.

  Drawing a ragged breath, Lucius was finally able to force air into his lungs, and he used his sword as a brace to get him back on his feet. He caught Magnus' eye, and a look flicked between them. Magnus hobbled to the left, bringing Jewel round with him, so her back was kept to Lucius. Lifting his sword, Lucius staggered toward her, fixing his gaze between her shoulder blades, where he intended to plant his weapon and so rid the Hands of this dreadful enemy.

  Magnus roared as he thrust his sword forward, as much to distract Jewel as score a hit, and the woman easily side-stepped his attack. Lucius was closing on her now and he began to run, painful though the movement was. He raised his sword, its point aimed squarely at her back, and prepared to thrust down with all his remaining strength.

  Jewel turned and flung her left arm out, releasing her dagger. It was a hasty attack, but the spinning blade still thumped home into Lucius' right arm. He cried out in pain as his sword fell from suddenly lifeless fingers, his left hand instinctively grasping the wound.

  He bent down to fumble for his sword, but looked up as Jewel whirled back to Magnus, her foot lashing out to strike him on his wounded leg. The shock of the impact was enough to make Magnus cry out in pain and he reeled backwards, tripping on the cobbles.

  "No!" Lucius cried out as he saw the inevitability of her next action. Jewel calmly thrust her sword through Magnus' chest. The guildmaster coughed blood as he tried to grasp the blade that had ploughed through his chest bone, then he fell limp.

  Anger and deadly fury swept through Lucius now, as he saw Jewel casually withdraw her sword and wipe it on Magnus' cloak. Then, she turned back to him.

  "Bitch!"

  He was not aware of his cry of vengeance, feeling only the threads of power surging forward, each eager to be clasped by his mind and moulded by his rage. Without thinking, he grabbed the brightest and hurled its force, unchecked and barely formed, at the woman.

  A burst of argent fire soared from the fist he punched at her, the ball of white hot energy burning the air itself as it shot forth. He saw Jewel's eyes widen a fraction as the magic surged toward her, and she flinched to one side as the silver flames swept past her face. She shrieked with pain and the smell of burnt flesh rolled over him.

  Recoiling backwards and dropping her sword, Jewel clutched at her face, the whole left side having been blackened and scorched by the magical fire. Her hair burned and her ear had been shrivelled by the heat. She took only seconds to recover, and then stared back at Lucius, emotion coming to her ruined face for the first time. He felt her loathing, her fury and terrible desire to inflict pain upon him, and he stood to wait the inevitable, having no energy for anything else.

  Just as quickly, the hate fled from her eyes, and they flickered down to the corpse at her feet. Seeing no movement, she nodded to herself once, then turned, and walked away. She called out to the men still standing, and they followed her, leaving only bodies lying in the bloody street.

  Lucius was alone. Narsell and Taene lay still ahead of him, the latter barely recognisable after having been all but torn apart by the Guild men. He knelt down beside Magnus, hoping beyond hope that he would still feel a pulse in the guildmaster's veins. Magnus, however, had already left.

  CHAPTER 16

  Upon his arrival, the guildhouse erupted into turmoil. Lucius had entered the building, his face betraying no emotion other than a hard, frozen shock. Taking a place in the common room, questions and accusations rolled over him like the gigantic waves pounding at the harbour defences but, like the monolithic breakers that stalled the ocean, he remained immovable.

  The absence of Magnus, Taene and Narsell spoke volumes, and every thief present knew something had gone tragically wrong. Without explanation from Lucius, rumour and paranoia ran rampant, with scare stories growing ever more fantastic and yet all the more plausible for it. Within a few minutes, there were a good number of thieves who believed the Vos guard had marched onto the streets with lists detailing all their names, and were seeking to murder every one of them.

  Calm was not restored until Elaine entered the common room and, upon seeing Lucius, she ordered everyone to leave. Many seemed ready to protest her authority now the guildmaster was dead, but her withering look broke any resistance.

  Sitting opposite Lucius, she stared across the table at him, the silence of the empty common room seeming almost deafening to him. She reached out to touch his hand and asked him what had happened. Haltingly, he told her. The finding of Sebastian and the alliance forged b
etween thief and beggar. The presence of the Vos guard on the streets, and the ambush by Guild men.

  Jewel. Terrible, deadly Jewel.

  He fell silent when his tale was complete, and Elaine had no words. They sat together, in silence as they brooded and mourned, contemplating the loss of their guildmaster and what the Guild would now do to finish them off.

  Lucius found his own melancholy a little puzzling. He had liked Magnus, of course - who hadn't? He had been a good leader, quick to spot talent and loyalty, and ready to reward both. What Lucius had not counted on was how much the Night Hands had become his new home and family, how much Magnus had really meant to him.

  Part of the hurt, he knew, was his own failure to stop the assassination, and now anger boiled within him too. He clung on to that feeling knowing that in the trials ahead, it would prove useful.

  Elaine reached across the table to touch him again, this time shaking him firmly out of his darker thoughts.

  "Pull yourself together, Lucius," she said. "Magnus trusted you, and so I must too. We are about to fall apart, and we need all the strength we can muster to stop us breaking."

  He looked up at her mutely for a moment, then nodded.

  "There will be a meeting," she said. "It will be chaotic, so be prepared."

  Elaine had not been wrong. With the Council decimated and Magnus gone, anarchy began to take hold within the Night Hands. The council chamber barely contained the riot as the voices of dozens of thieves, all packed into the inadequate space, competed with one another to be heard.

  The remaining Council took seats around the table; Elaine, Wendric, Nate, and now Lucius. Some of the thieves forced to stand raised objections to Lucius' presence at the table, but a sharp word from Elaine silenced their criticisms.

  Grennar was also at the table, at Lucius' side, and her transformation was remarkable. No longer a young beggar girl wreathed in rags, she sat straight and appeared utterly confident. Dressed in a tight fitting blue gown, she might have been the daughter of a wealthy city official. Most stunning was her face; sharp, lightly freckled, once clean it revealed a girl of perhaps no more than fourteen. Her young age was a great surprise to the Council, some of whom had wondered out loud whether the beggars were taking them seriously. However, Magnus' posthumous endorsement of the alliance proved sufficient for them to invite her to the table.

  Before the table, other members of the Hands jostled for position, seeking to get themselves heard. Each with a different idea of how the guild should continue, or not. Of how they could take instant vengeance, or not. One viciously planted a dagger into the table, promising that if the Council were too weak to take the fight to the enemy, others were not.

  The overall mood, however, was one of despondent failure, a feeling that the time of the Night Hands was at an end. Most expected the guild to be disbanded in this meeting.

  Clearing his throat, Wendric silenced the bickering thieves and all eyes turned toward him.

  "As you will have all heard by now, Magnus has been slain by the Guild. The Council has heard Lucius' explanation of what happened, and we are satisfied that he is in no way at fault." At this, Lucius heard someone mutter at the back of the chamber, but he did not catch what was said, and Wendric ignored the interruption. "It was a calculated ambush aided, in part, by the Vos guard. It would have taken a small army to save Magnus. The guildmaster knew the risks when he left this place to forge a new alliance. It is now our duty to continue in his footsteps, to lead the Night Hands to become the kind of organisation for thieves that he always envisioned."

  "Well, what's the point?" cried one thief, an old man whose hands shook as he spoke. "We're beaten. With Magnus and God knows how many others gone, the guild is broken!"

  "You thinking we should all just roll over and join Loredo, is that it, Hengit?" called out another.

  "We split up!" Hengit said, smacking a fist into his palm. "We all go independent. The Guild will never be able to track all of us!"

  "Oh, they will," Elaine said, bringing attention back to those around the table. "You can be sure of that. They will track each one of you down and either force you to join their Guild or kill you. If we divide our strength -"

  "What's left of it!"

  "Yes, Hengit, what is left of it," Elaine said, her anger directed solely at the old thief for a moment. "If we break up the Hands now, we all die. Or, worse, work for a pittance under Loredo. You think he will just welcome you with open arms? He will mistrust all of you, your careers will be broken, doing the worst jobs and taking part in the riskiest operations. No, Hengit, you are far better off among the Night Hands, however long we last."

  "And how long will that be, then?" called a voice from the back of the chamber.

  "That is what we are here to decide," said Nate. "Elaine, your hit on Jewel clearly did not work as planned."

  Elaine sighed audibly. "No. She was spotted on the streets near the merchant quarter but when our agents moved in... well, she either expected their arrival or is far more dangerous than we credited her with."

  "What were our losses?" Wendric asked.

  "Total." Elaine's simple answer triggered a collective intake of breath throughout the assembled crowd. The assassins employed by the Hands were experts in their field, trained killers capable of evading guards, traps and other defences in order to strike a target down within seconds. For a single woman to not only escape their attentions but strike back so effectively was a stunning achievement.

  "After dispatching our agents, she was then able to gather her forces and take down Magnus. We don't know whether it was a chance encounter, or if they knew where Magnus was -"

  "They knew," said Grennar. Her voice cut over Elaine's easily and with a measure of grace. In another time, Lucius might have smiled at the ease with which the girl spoke to the thieves but, at this moment, he simply listened as if she were the equal of any in the chamber. In that, he was not alone.

  "The Vos army has its own network of spies in the city," Grennar went on to explain. "When Magnus was spotted on the streets, word was quickly passed to the Guild, and the ambush set. Once the guard was used to funnel your guildmaster into a predetermined area, there was nothing anyone could do."

  In saying that, she cast a brief look at Lucius.

  "So if the Guild has the Vos guard in their pocket, why have they not just finished us off completely?" Nate asked. "It is what I would do. Why not just launch an assault against this guildhouse and wipe us out in one stroke?"

  Nate's question had been on everyone's mind and hearing it voiced caused some to start shuffling their feet and looking over their shoulders, as if expecting to see the entire Vos army crash through the door of the council chamber.

  "Because Loredo is no fool," Grennar said, and Lucius saw Nate colour slightly as the girl looked at him. "Because the Vos guard have no idea where your guildhouse is."

  "Well, that doesn't make sense," Wendric said. "The Vos guard won't see themselves as junior members in that partnership. They will want to run the Guild, not the other way around."

  "That is exactly what Loredo fears."

  "If the Hands fall and only the Guild remains, Loredo wants to retain his independence," Elaine said. "He does not want his thieves to become stooges for the Empire."

  "Exactly," Grennar said. "He is playing a dangerous, but - it has to be said - clever game. He has brought the Vos guard onto his side, and that is a powerful ally for any thieves' guild to have, normally only possible in the most corrupt Pontaine cities. He is playing things down the middle, taking what support he can easily get from the guard, while giving them as little information as possible."

  "The guard cannot be happy with that," said Nate.

  "The Captain of the Guard, von Minterheim, was seen raging in the Citadel this morning. He has been telling his sergeants to lean on their Guild contacts, to start squeezing them for information. He wants this war over quickly, as it is beginning to make the merchants nervous. If they decide it i
s safer and more profitable to start trading in another city, Vos' hold on Turnitia is weakened."

  Nate gave Grennar a strange look. "And how, exactly, does the Beggars Guild know what is happening within the Citadel?"

  She shrugged. "As we told your guildmaster and Lucius here, we have eyes everywhere."

  "In the Citadel?"

  "Beggars can go where others cannot. No one sees us, and so if a few beggars remain in the courtyard after a hanging or two, well they will be thrown out eventually, but no one is going to hurry to do it."

  "Magnus was right about you," Wendric said quietly, and Lucius could see the man had a new appreciation of their ally, despite her young age.

  "So where does that leave us?" another voice in the crowd asked.

  "Without much time," Elaine answered. "If von Minterheim is pressuring Loredo, he will be forced to move quickly. He doubtless feels we are crippled and defenceless, so his end game will start soon."

  "One thing is certain; he will want this guildhouse," Wendric said. "There are too many treasures and secrets within these walls for him to ignore."

  "A direct assault, then?" Nate asked.

  "That will come sooner or later," Elaine said. "The streets will become no-go areas for all of us first. And if they discover our relationship with the beggars..."

  "Don't worry about us," Grennar said. "We would not enter an agreement with you if it meant suicide. Our presence will be kept hidden, one way or another."

  "In that case, we go fully defensive," Elaine said. "We lock down the guildhouse, use only the sewers when moving about the city, and stay away from the areas the Guild controls best - the docks and merchant quarter. This place, we fortify. We'll get our trapsmiths to work and plunder the armoury for weapons."

  "Just sit and wait?" Wendric asked.

  "We cannot fight them directly," Elaine pointed out. "They are too many. However, if we know they have to come here, and our friends among the beggars can tell us when, then we regain an advantage. Superior numbers will mean nothing when the fight is on our territory."