City Of Light

by Darren Deegan

  ‘Tom, we need to lose them now,’ she said, thinking. ‘Drop to the streets, we’ll lose them with a few turns and hit the roofs again to get back to the sewers.’

  A quick nod of acknowledgement was all Tom offered and then pounced from the low rooftop to the street below. Selene waited at the edge for a moment to make sure Robert knew what was happening, and when he was close enough, she followed to the streets below.

  Her feet stung with pain as she hit the hard stone. Selene was no stranger to jumping from rooftops in lesser parts of the city where soft dirt, and often pools of water were there to greet her. The next alleyway was ten feet from where she’d landed, Tom had already made it around the corner, and was no longer in sight.

  She bolted towards the corner, hearing Robert landed hard on the ground behind her with a grunt. They could make it, they were far too skilled, and proud to be caught by a mere city guard, Selene thought as she rounded the corner of the nearby alleyway.

  A few sharp turns and quick sprints up short streets and Selene felt they had evaded the guards. Best of all, Robert hadn’t fallen too far behind, she could still hear his quick footsteps behind her as she turned the next corner and saw Tom scaling a wall.

  ‘Come on, up here, we’re only two minutes away from the sewers.’ Tom called back to Selene, pulling himself up on to the roof.

  ‘Let’s go, Rob, we’re almost there.’ She said, now hauling herself up on to the window of the building.

  ‘Don’t wait for me, I’m right behind you.’

  Selene pulled herself and her ever weighty bag up to the roof and ran towards Tom, who was already jumping to the far building, in the direction of the sewer entrance, she quickly realised. A swift run and jump, and she was on the rooftop next to Tom.

  ‘What? What’s wrong?’ She said, looking at the puzzled look on Tom’s face.

  ‘Where’s Robert?’ He asked, looking around her to the rooftop she’d just come from.

  Selene snapped her head around, scanning the roof, ‘he was just there. He was right behind me as I was climbing the building.’ She said.

  They both dropped their bags and vaulted back to the building they’d just come from. Robert was still nowhere in sight, and should have easily climbed the building, with the abundance of windows and handholds. As they reached the ledge of the roof, the sight below was not what they’d hoped for. Robert was gone, but his bag was still on the street below.

  ‘No way he left that bag willingly,’ Robert said, frantic, searching the street to the other side of the building. ‘If the guards had caught him, they’d have taken the bag as evidence. Where the hell is he?’

  ‘I… I don’t know.’ Selene managed, before running to the opposite side of the roof.

  It was almost a flicker in her vision, but she thought she saw something several rooftops away, gone before her mind could register what she was seeing. Then again on a rooftop too far away to have been the same thing. A third time on another rooftop, before Selene knew it was a person, several people in fact, as she could just make out the dark shapes. It was all she needed. Selene bolted for the roof adjacent her and made a beeline for the shapes that were moving at a swift pace away from her.

  There were only three buildings between her and her target. Three men she could now tell, all dressed in black, no insignias or markings of any kind. But Selene was transfixed on the boy slumped over the shoulder of one of the dark figures. It was Robert, they had Robert. Two rooftops. One. She was almost on top of them, she would make them regret ever messing with the Thieves Guild, with her friend, with her.

  Selene removed the dagger from the leather sheath at her back. The years of training Gareth had given her no longer required thinking, it was muscle memory, and those men, whoever they were, were about to see it all. Silently she leapt from behind them, her dagger poised for the attack. A glint in the midday sun, and the clang of metal on metal as she brought her dagger down on the first figure. It was impossibly fast, how he could have known she was there and parried her attack, was beyond her.

  The masked man stood before her, not a word was uttered, he just stared intensely at her. She could tell that he was sizing her up, judging her ability, and his own in comparison. It was only a moment before he looked behind him and signalled the others to continue on.

  She knew he had decided that she was no competition for him, and he required no assistance. Selene had barely finished her thought, when the man sprung forward, a dagger in each hand. Parry, block, back step, back step, lunge. She had his technique down before he realised her dagger was going for his throat.

  An inch, that’s all there was between the point of her blade, and the soft flesh of his neck, behind which, ran an artery that would see him dead in seconds. But he was too fast, impossibly fast. The blade in his left hand, had come up to catch the hilt of Selene’s, holding it in place with incredible strength. The momentary shock was all the opportunity he needed, and with a flick of his wrist, her dagger flung backwards and she was quickly lying on her back.

  His face was covered, but Selene could tell from his eyes he was smiling as he towered above her. He leaned down with ease, dagger in hand, the masked man traced the tip of it from her waist, up her torso to the underneath of her chin.

  ‘Foolish mortal.’ Was all he said as he drew back swiftly and lunged for her with the dagger.

  A thud was all she heard. Selene realised she had closed her eyes for a second as the dagger was coming towards her. She opened them to see a small throwing knife lodged in the upper arm of the masked man, preventing his attack. Hurried footsteps drew her attention to the other side of the roof. Tom was sprinting towards her, another knife leaving his practised hands, ringing true. The upper chest this time, causing the man to jump to his feet and leap towards the edge of the roof. Before she could get to her own feet, the masked man had disappeared, over the roof to the streets below.

  ‘Gods damn it, who the hell was that?’ Tom asked, helping Selene up.

  ‘I'm not sure, but there were three of them, and they have Robert.’

  ELEVEN

  A blade slashed wildly through the air, its master had long since lost all sense of composure and restraint. Swing after swing, he hit nothing but air, which had driven him to the point of madness. The target of his rage, a tall female, beautiful and elegant, but a warrior’s build none the less. She side stepped each of his attacks, parried the ones that came a little too close for comfort, and after each strike, she asked him the same question.

  ‘Where?’

  The battle had started out better for him, or at least he must have thought so. She allowed him to believe he was stronger, faster, a better swordsman than he truly was, all to force him to wear himself out, at little to no cost for her. He threw his sword to the ground, the steel rang out on the cobblestones for a moment while he removed two short daggers from their sheaths. The man was tiring, the weight of his sword too much to bear, this was his last stand.

  There was no forward charge, no war cry when he made his final move, he took two calculated steps backwards towards the shadow of the building behind him and vanished.

  Her stoic grace gave nothing away, she stood fast, long curved daggers in hand, and waited.

  One heartbeat.

  Two.

  She spun instinctively, one dagger glided up effortlessly and parried his attack from the shadows, the other sliced clean along the soft tissue at the base of his neck. Blood sprayed crimson along the pearl white cuirass of her leather armour, much like an artist tossing a paint ladened brush at his canvass in anger. Each dagger fell with a shallow clank, and before he could reach a newly emptied hand to his neck, his body crumbled to the ground beside them.

  ‘Gods, give me strength.’ She said, sheathing her own daggers.

  ‘My lady,’ a woman appeared at her back, fist to her chest, coming up from a bow.

  She looked back at her and nodded.

  ‘I think we’ve got something.’

&nb
sp; TWELVE

  ‘I’m telling you, they weren’t guards.’ Selene shouted, for what felt like the hundredth time.

  They had just entered the Thieves Guild Hall, and no sooner were they in the door, than Gareth questioned her again. The entire trip back from the upper quarter had been an interrogation. She had explained as much as she was capable of at the sewer entrance, but the parade was closing in behind them, and her first explanation had been rushed. Selene expected to recount everything once they were safe and protected back at the guild, but Gareth hadn’t waited.

  He pushed the entire way back, asking for every little detail, over and over, and when he didn’t like the answer, he dug deeper, as if accusing her of lying.

  Gareth stared at her with a strange intensity. She had seen that expression on his face countless times before, but always directed at people he didn’t know or trust. If he was accusing her of lying, or worse, implying that Robert being taken was her fault, then she wasn’t sure if she meant as much to him as he did to her.

  ‘Just tell me again. You must be forgetting something. Some detail that will help us identify them, and get Robert back.’ Gareth said, now pacing back and forth across the room.

  The guild hall wasn’t long, but it was wide. Vin, the guild leader had purchased several buildings in a row, and knocked down adjoining walls to increase the open space for his guild. Long wooden tables, like those found in the biggest of taverns, were spaced evenly along the entire width of the hall. You could seat a hundred people, with plenty of space in between for the barmaids to serve food and drink.

  It was clear Vin had grand plans when he took over the guild. It went from being a small organisation of a dozen thieves, to over sixty people that lived far beyond the walls of the city. This, along with his reputation, stretched Vin’s influence and power further than any guild master before him.

  ‘Forgetting something? You think I’m forgetting some detail that may save my friend’s life? There’s no one in this guild that means more than Rob, if I remembered anything that might help him, I would tell you.’ Selene said, anger now building.

  She realised she was shaking as she turned away from Gareth. There were details she’d left out, not because she’d forgotten, or thought they might incriminate her in some way, but because she knew no one, not even Gareth, would believe her.

  The people that took Robert moved far too fast, before she closed in on them, she knew they had moved from rooftop to rooftop with unusual speed. Then there were the inhuman reflexes of the masked man she fought. She had seen no one move that swift, and with an almost sixth sense, allowing him to anticipate her actions. And his final words, she’ll never forget those.

  Foolish mortal.

  Selene wasn't sure what he meant, or who the mysterious figures were, but they had her friend, and nothing would stop her from finding them.

  ‘Gareth, she left nothing out. I saw that one guy too, even put a couple of knives in him. There were no markings on his clothes, and his face was completely covered, we had no way of knowing who he was. By the time I’d finished crossing the rooftop to Selene, he’d vanished into thin air. Given his fighting and stealth skills, he had to be a trained assassin, and a good one at that. But who the hell would hire someone to take Robert?’ Tom interjected.

  ‘I doubt they were hired to take Robert, that was just a matter of convenience. It may have been a general contract to take members of the guild, and he’s the first of many.’ Gareth said, stopping in the centre of the room.

  The room was silent as the group were deep in thought. They knew of no one in Eitane that would dare interfere with the guild or its business, but yet, someone had.

  ‘A contract. On my thieves? I highly doubt that.’ A voice from the shadows.

  Vin Halann, guild master and some say, former assassin himself, stepped out from the shadows of a large pillar at the top of the room. Far from a handsome man, his qualities lay elsewhere. Tall, lean, muscle from years of training with more than a lock pick, were all attractive features, but they were forgotten when you looked at the semi toothless smile, scared face and a bald head that sat atop them. This was a man who commanded the company of women through power, and money, not because of his charming personality and striking good looks.

  ‘Vin, I didn’t see you there.’ Gareth said, turning towards Vin.

  ‘Indeed. So what is all this about assassins taking one of my thieves? I thought you lot were working the upper quarter this morning?’

  Selene stepped around Gareth, she felt it her place to explain, even though she was now exhausted from explaining herself. Telling Vin herself, may prevent any misunderstanding Gareth had, and Vin would no doubt ask her to confirm everything anyway.

  ‘We were being chased by guards after the job. Tom, Robert, and I lost them in the streets, but when we returned to the roofs, Robert was missing. I circled back to find him, but what I saw was three figures running in the opposite direction, with Robert draped over one of their shoulders,’ Selene said, trying to rush through it.

  ‘Anyway. I caught up to them, fought with one, while the other two escaped with Robert. They had no insignias or markings of any kind, and they wore masks, covering their faces.’

  Vin said nothing. He walked around the large table beside him and sat at the head of it.

  ‘Vin, we have to…’ Gareth trailed off, as Vin raised a hand.

  ‘We, have to do nothing. I fear you are all mistaken, and it is not the work of assassins hired to round up our guild members. A hunt for such people, would be counter productive. I will send out word through my contacts for information on our missing member.’ Vin said with smooth calmness as if it were nothing more than a missing pet.

  ‘Send out word? Send out word?’ Selene was fuming now, her fists clenched, she could feel the rage bubbling to the surface. ‘You have absolutely no idea where Robert is, or who took him, and you sit there and tell us to do nothing, because you’ll look into it?’

  Gareth’s hands were on her shoulders as she finished, ‘Selene, calm down, remember who you’re speaking to.’

  She shrugged his hands from her and stepped closer to Vin. ‘I don’t care who you are, or what you do from your thief’s throne, no one is stopping me from searching for my friend.’

  It was as if the entire room had frozen, not a sound, not even an exhale from the group of thieves. No one had ever spoken to Vin like that, at least not in public. Selene realised she may have crossed a line, but she felt secure knowing that Gareth and her friends were at her back. Even if Vin wanted to try something, her friend’s loyalty was with her, and not him.

  ‘Foolish girl. You think I don’t know everything that goes on in my city? For your information, your friend’s capture was not the first, and I doubt it will be the last,’ Vin began, removing himself from his seat. ‘Word has already reached my ears of similar kidnappings around the city. The city guard were doubled because of this, or hadn’t you noticed extra guards everywhere, and not just along the parade route?’

  Selene thought back to that morning, passing extra guards along every path, even within the slums, where extra guards meant something was wrong. But other kidnappings. How could Robert being taken fit in with that? It wasn’t unusual for children of wealthy families to be taken for ransom, but Robert’s family were about as far from wealthy, as you could get. None of it made sense.

  ‘I can see the wheels moving in your head, and I too do not understand how Robert’s taking is connected to the other children. But it would be a marvellous coincidence that others were taken from the city the night before, wouldn’t it?’ Vin said, pouring himself a glass of wine from a small table in the corner of the room.

  ‘The night before? Who? From where?’ Gareth joined the conversation.

  Vin smiled as he sipped the wine. They could all see he enjoyed being the one holding all the cards, the person who everyone else had to turn to for information or help. He returned to his seat at the table, crossed his legs slo
wly, purposefully taking his time, and said, ‘two insignificant children. From the slums, I believe.’

  ‘Insignificant?’ Selene blurted out, her anger returning. ‘They’re insignificant because they’re from the slums, is that it?’

  He said nothing, shrugged his shoulders and continued to drink. Gareth stood next to Selene now and gave her an understanding stare. She knew he was on her side, as always, but something inside of her was still mad at him for trying to quieten her when she was right to question Vin.

  ‘No one knows this city like us,’ she began, moving towards Vin’s table. ‘The guild could turn over every nook and cranny of Eitane in a tenth of the time it would take the city guard. Give the order to the entire guild, we can find Robert, and those other children.’

  ‘You presume to tell me what to do? You may be a good thief, little one, but I could replace you in a heartbeat… remember that.’ Vin said, turning to Gareth. ‘I will give no such order. There is no reward in finding insignificant children, and as for Robert, I will go through my own channels to find him. Gareth, ensure your team do nothing stupid when they leave here.’

  That was that, the final word on the matter, and with that, Vin got up from his seat and walked through a small wooden door at the back of the room. Silence filled the room once more, and Gareth turned to Selene, sympathy and regret painted across his face. She knew he was torn, between his love for her and his devotion to Vin, and the guild.

  There was no point in waiting for him to attempt what would no doubt be a comforting speech, designed to calm her and convince her to follow Vin’s orders. Selene turned her back on him and left the guild behind.

  * * *

  ‘I’m done with the guild. Get me my share of the last job, and I’m out.’ Selene said, gazing out from the rooftop, the sun setting across the city.

  The footsteps she’d heard, were closing in behind her. ‘Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do instead? Become a baker?’ Gareth’s familiar voice from behind her.