by Ren Ryder
I placed the brick back inside the crate, felt a thrum of satisfaction in my gut. A bolt of excitement trilled up my spine.
“Looks like we hit the jackpot,” I murmured.
“Humans are truly the oddest of creatures,” Bell opined from where she laid making a snow angel in a brick of laplace.
I snorted. “You’re one to talk.”
I paced the perimeter of the inside of the building and climbed upstairs before I committed to anything. I found nothing of note on the second floor besides broken bottles and trash strewn about the place.
When I returned downstairs, Bell was yelling like a maniac and zipping about the confines of the room with unnatural zeal. She sported a crazed look and seemed manic. The instant she caught a glimpse of me coming down the stairs, she zipped up to me and yelled straight into my ear.
“Hey, Kal! You’ll never guess! What I figured out! Oh, wow! I feel great!”
“I’ve got one guess.” I snatched the sylph before she could bugger off and stuffed her into a pocket with a zipper. I made sure it was closed tight.
“Hey! Lemme out of here! This is tyranny!” I winced as Bell began to gnaw at the lining of the cloak, and then, on me. “Ooh, sweet nectar, that’s the stuff!”
Bell soon settled into a comfortable delirium inside my cloak. Having her sup on my blood was a small price to pay to remove a chaotic element from the game board.
Once I was certain I wouldn’t see any further trouble from a certain troublesome faery, I grabbed a few bottles of liquor from a heavily laden crate and started towards the door. I took aim and threw the bottles, one after another, at several other crates I’d picked out beforehand. The sound of shattered glass echoed loudly throughout the enclosed space, but at this point I wasn’t worried about being discovered.
I evoked the name of the little fire elemental dwelling in the seal on my left palm. “Igni.” Three tiny balls of flame flickered to life in my hand.
The three little fireballs shot off in perfect sync, landing on the crates I’d soaked in alcohol earlier. My survival instincts kicked in and urged me to leave the growing blaze behind me, but I took hold of that anxious worry and throttled it.
Less than thirty seconds passed before naturally occurring fire elementals flocked to the scene. Soon after, the greedy flames spread to nearby pallets and crates. One of the crates containing tobacco went up in a ball of fire; I felt the heat of it on the entire front of my body. With a determined nod, I set off before the entire building burned down like the tinderbox it was.
“You could’ve done whatever you wanted to me, but you crossed the line when you inducted my sister into your ranks. You started this war, but I’m going to finish it.” I clutched the Father’s cross tight as I spoke the words of my vow.
Chapter Seventeen
After torching the first four storehouses in quick succession, I made myself scarce. By then the fires across the Lower Quarter had attracted their fair share of attention.
I imagined Ouroboros dens all over New London emptying out like abandoned ants nests in search of an arsonist crazy enough to make a move on their outfit. Bits of light began to filter into the night sky, but sunrise was a few hours off.
“Good.”
I wanted Ouroboros panicked and angry. Their forces would be less coherent that way, full of gaps that I could exploit. That said, it was inevitable that from here on out I’d meet with some level of resistance. Still, even if Ouroboros’s lieutenants could rein in the grunts and retain a semblance of control over the situation, they had no way of predicting where I’d strike next.
As I hid within the eaves of the rooftop across from a three-story edifice of concrete and steel— my next target— I felt a certain pleasure in finally striking back against the organization that had caused me so much pain and suffering.
It was a casino, but the only gambling that was taking place was happening on the first floor. As luck would have it, business was booming tonight.
What are the second and third floors used for?
Were they storing the casino’s winnings, or, considering Ouroboros’s track record, something more nefarious? I needed to get inside, but from the looks of the security detail outside it didn’t look like waltzing through the front door was the best option.
When I thought about what would do the most damage to Ouroboros given the current conditions, I smiled. “Coins. Glims. Glams. Copper, silver, gold, anything that gleams and shines. And, if I’m able to dig up any useful information while I’m in there, just as well.”
I rubbed my hands together to force feeling back into my numb fingertips. “I’m beginning to think this plan might actually work.”
I combed tangled bits of hair back and out of my face as I detailed the movements of ten tense-looking guards. For my own sake, I hoped the men I was about to encounter weren’t as well trained as their hunters.
I found I was fidgeting nervously. I made myself stop. My whole body felt jittery, and I forced myself to take deep, measured breaths in and out until I was able to slow my racing heart.
“You knew from the start you’d face more opposition the longer this went on,” I told myself.
I bit my nails. “Right, but those aren’t purely evil people down there. Some of them will have families, and children to go home to. Who knows, I might run into Sammie,” I reasoned.
I moved into position on the roofline, near a red-brick chimney that had seen better days.
My chest felt tight. “They’re part of an organization that feeds off the sorrow and suffering of others. They don’t deserve your pity. If that doesn’t convince you, think about the reason why you’re here. You’re fighting for Sammie’s future.”
I took a deep breath. “Time’s a wasting.”
“Shu!”
Wind blasted out my left foot and sent me careening up, up and away, through the sky.
My gut flipped upside down and sideways as I spun head over heels through open air in an arc. As I sailed through the sky I caught a glimpse of the paved roadway forty-to-fifty feet beneath me. I tried vainly to control my body’s orientation. If I couldn’t, I’d smack against the side of the casino and make like a pancake.
Right as the concrete edifice and steel girders filled my vision and I braced for impact, a nimbus of silvery mana flowed from my chest to create a wind tunnel effect around me. I was able to orient my fall just as I hit the roof of the casino. I rolled and rolled and rolled again to disperse my momentum before hopping to my feet with a shocked expression.
“That was close!” I laughed, a bit hysteric from my brush with death. My first test flight might have been premature, but, then, you can’t always look before you leap.
I dusted myself off, checking for anything worse than scrapes or bruises as I went. I’d gotten lucky. Nothing was broken. I had banged up both my forearms and had a sore spot where I must’ve hit my head, but I was all in one piece.
“Aren’t you—” a tiny hiccup echoed across the rooftops, “going to—” hiccup, “thank me~ Kal-baby?” Bell grinned at me, all teeth and smugness.
Great. Somehow, Bell had chewed her way through the lining of my cloak. I stared at her levelly, taking in her bedraggled appearance.
Apparently any delay was unsatisfactory. “For how big and heavy you are, you sure are ungrateful, you know that?” Bell’s face was screwed up into a look of displeasure.
What a shameful sight she made. There was blood and drool smeared all over her face, but, regardless of how she looked, she did save my bacon. I supposed I owed her my gratitude at the least, if not my good favor for her recent behavior.
I patted Bell on the head, gently, using two fingers. “Thanks for that, Bell. You did good. I’m grateful.”
“You know, since I’m so great and all, maybe I should call the shots from here on.”
Bell’s ego inflates proportionately to how much praise she’s given, it seems.
“Yeah, I don’t think so. You know I’m always happy
to hear your input, though,” I did my best to sound genuine, but the strain showed in my voice.
Luckily, Bell was too far gone to tell the difference. “Mhmm, of course you are~” Bell nodded sagely, “Just you wait! My plans and ideas are the greatest!”
“You know, as much as I’d love to continue this conversation, we’d better get going.”
“Right, silly me! Off to do the things! Forward march, Kal!”
I rolled my eyes behind her back and set off to find a way inside the casino. There were no chimneys, but I spotted a roof access hatch that looked promising. I tried the handle, but it was locked from the inside. I clicked my tongue and sat back on my heels, thinking. I hadn’t expected easy street, but finding a way in without being detected was becoming more and more unlikely.
“Oh well. The time for waiting and worrying has passed.”
I paced over to the side of the building facing the street and took a quick peek over the side, not taking all that much care with being subtle. In all my years of climbing things, I’d found that for whatever reason, most people don’t look up.
I tapped my chin, considering. There were a few workable climbing routes I could use to lower myself down to a window with. Each window had a ledge a few inches wide that I could stand on while I fiddled with whatever mechanism kept them from opening. The handholds were a little dicey, but you work with what you’ve got.
Then an idea hit me. “Hey, Bell, you have any great ideas for getting inside?”
“Pfft, that’s all you need? That’s easy sauce. Watch and learn, apprentice~” Bell puffed up her chest and rolled back her shoulders, then careened off the side of the building and out of view.
My stomach started roiling with anxiety, and I hoped I hadn’t made a terrible mistake in appointing the sylph to be point-man. Soon the sound of breaking glass turned my premonition into a certainty. I glanced over the side to see Bell in my face and most of a window’s worth of glass littered in the street below.
Of course, in this situation, most people do look up.
Like a bolt out of the blue, the Ouroboros grunts milling about below were stirred to action. “There’s a man on the roof!”
“I saw white hair! It’s Specter!”
“Send a runner!” A throaty voice growled, full of menace and fury. “Call everyone here!”
I had mixed feelings about being recognized. “Damnit, Bell.”
Throwing away all pretense of subtlety, I threw myself off the side of the building.
I focused my mana through Bell’s sigil on my chest and summoned a thin wall of Wind that threw me back towards the building through the window. I rolled a short ways before snapping back up to the balls of my feet. Wind elementals spun in energetic circles around me before disappearing.
“How’d I do? Great, wasn’t I?” Bell asked.
Raised voices filtered in from outside. “He’s inside!”
“We’ve got him contained! Find him!”
I glanced between Bell and the shattered window. “Fan-tastic,” I said, deadpan.
I’d landed in a short corridor leading up to the window. Immediately I was struck by the richness of my new surroundings. The alabaster walls were covered with expensive artwork and, plush, richly embroidered rugs implied the business of sin was thriving. I wondered if the same would hold true regardless of age or era.
Voices could be heard far off in the distance, but I didn’t think any of my pursuers had made it to the third floor yet.
Edging around the corner, I made sure the coast was clear before choosing which way to go. The hallway widened out but was no less richly appointed than the alcove I’d arrived through. Giant paintings of noble patrons likenesses and landscape artwork penned me in as I moved through the building.
Following the sound of clinking metal, I crept up to a set of humongous double doors with a huge, ornately decorated steel lock. I bent down to examine the lock to discover the locking mechanism was designed to be locked from my side.
I smelled a rat.
I twisted the lock and put all the force of my body into a kick that blew the lefthand door all the way open. The sound of metal clinking against metal stopped abruptly. My jaws flapped open at the sight. My mind shuddered to a stop, and, for a moment, I forgot myself and my purpose here.
“Ooh, shineys!” Bell zipped away from my side to frolic about the room.
For my part, I was much too enraptured by the display to take much notice of her antics. If I ignored the bedraggled-looking teens of both genders dressed in dirty sacks and forced into the peculiar labor of counting dirty money, the room might have struck me as one of those dragon’s lairs depicted in children’s stories.
Massive mounds of copper, silver, and gold were haphazardly piled in different corners of the room, separated meticulously by denomination. Gems of all shapes, sizes, and colors refracted a nimbus of multicolored light. In the corner nearest me I recognized gold and silver candelabra, household items of varying size, and other items of questionable purpose.
I was dragged out of my stupor by the realization that the children had run cowering at the sight of me. I looked more closely at the faces on display: every last one of them had sunken, dead-fish eyes and body language dipped in different flavors of terror. The lines of my face grew stern of their own accord, and I had to school my expression before I terrified the little tykes further.
Trying not to think about the sands of time trickling away, I forced a smile. I crouched and opened my arms invitingly to make myself as non-threatening as possible. “Everything is going to be okay, kids. You can trust me. I’m here to help.” I tried to make my tone open and inviting, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded.
When my eyes caught on a floor-to-ceiling window that faced the street, a plan started to form in my head. I approached to get a better look at it. It was a one-way mirror. I rapped my knuckles against it. The glass felt many times thicker and stronger than your run-of-the-mill window.
I bit my lip.
Belatedly, I noticed a pile of discarded coin sacks identical to the coverings worn by the children. I clapped my hands to gather the room’s attention. “Okay, everyone. I want each of you to fill up a sack with whatever you like best. Quickly now.”
There was so little reaction to my request that I wondered if some children had taken the opportunity presented by my lapse in attention to make an escape. But no, I counted— all fourteen of them remained cowering in place, their fear of authority rooting them in place as surely as shackles. I gritted my teeth and hated myself, but switched tacks.
“Now!” I yelled hoarsely.
They hopped to like scared rabbits, following instructions as if their lives depended on it. It probably did, usually. I wouldn’t let Ouroboros keep getting away with casual atrocities like this one. Not anymore.
The clinking of coins was accompanied by ringing metal as I turned my back on the proceedings. Eyeing the open door with suspicion, I cocked my head to one side and listened. Booted feet and raised voices filtered into my ears from near the top of a stairwell, situated at the end of the hallway. I glanced at the children scurrying to do my bidding, then cursed under my breath so I wouldn’t infect the rest of the room with my unease.
Muscles straining, I closed the door I’d entered through. I leaned my back against the seam between the double doors and breathed a short-lived sigh of relief. Soon burly men and just-as-dangerous women would be pounding down the door to get inside. And the doors were designed to keep people in, not out.
I need a way to buy myself time to get the kids out safely, and I need it now.
“Got it!” I exclaimed.
I threw a front kick at the seam I’d been leaning against. “Gai!”
My aural cloak fluctuated with the release of mana channeled through my Earth elemental. The heavy oak doors creaked as they fused together and created a seamless wood wall. I shook out my leg, which was tingling fiercely, and grinned. Sweating now, I threw the heaviest-looking p
ieces from the stack of household items near the door.
Dusting my hands off, I surveyed my handiwork. “That won’t stop them, but it’ll slow ‘em down for sure.”
“Get that door open!” A woman commanded in a stern voice.
“It’s not locked, it’s stuck!” Another voice whined in response.
“Well then, break it down!”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“JUST DO IT!” The woman screamed herself hoarse. “I want Specter hogtied in my personal dungeon before the hour’s out, or you’ll all be taking his place!”
A force impacted the doors with the power of a battering ram. The oak wall bowed slightly inward and let out tortuous creaking sounds as cracks began to spread across its face.
The children paused in their work of filling their sacks and looked at me, eyes wide. “What’s happening?”
One of the youngest was in tears. “I don’t wanna get in trouble!”
I kept my voice controlled and authoritarian to stem off their worries before they snowballed. “Don’t worry everyone. Follow me, and bring your sacks.”
Without wasting another second, I wove through the sea of precious metal and strode up to the one-way glass that served as a cruel reminder that they were prisoners. I would shatter that illusion once and for all.
I slapped my left palm against the cool window. “Igni.” I flared my aural cloak; it fluttered and expanded outward along the flat surface.
Flames sprouted from my hand and licked out across a five-foot section of glass. Soft exclamations erupted behind me as the children witnessed the magic.
I tapped my foot along with the battering ram as it impacted the doorway. It was a race to see who accomplished their goal first. Whoever did won all the spoils.
The glass began to glow a ruddy hue, just a bit at first, then it glowed a brilliant cherry-red color that expanded to fill up the five-foot space. The superheated glass was primed and ready.
