Legends of Dimmingwood 02:Betrayal of Thieves (6 page)

A sudden cry split the serenity. “Stop, thief!”

Startled, I whirled around but couldn’t make out where the shout came from.
How have I been discovered
? I wondered in a panic. And who was my pursuer? Then, an indistinct figure came barreling around a corner and into my vision. The person was little more than a blur in a blue coat as he dashed down the footpath and, before I had time to react, dodged past me to dive into a hole in the near shrubbery.

The bushes had barely closed behind him when two large men, bearing pikes and wearing what I guessed to be the uniform and half armor of the city guard, bounded into view from the direction he had come from. Still shouting, “Stop, thief!” and “Surrender in the name of the Praetor!” they looked momentarily confused at finding their quarry had suddenly vanished.

Skidding to a halt, one of the guardsmen, a rough looking fellow with a reddened face, demanded of me, “Did a suspicious looking man in a blue coat come running through here?”

I tried to appear casual, but it was difficult, being so close to men in the Praetor’s employ. These guardsmen were only a step away from being Fists and it was the Fists who had taken Terrac and would be glad to get their hands on me too if they guessed what I was. My mouth went suddenly dry.

I shoved my hands in my pockets to hide their shaking and, maybe as an act of defiance against my fear or maybe for some other reason, answered, “Yes, he ran that way.” I nodded toward one of the off-branching paths.

The pair ran away in the direction I indicated and it wasn’t until they were out of sight that my pulse slowed to a normal rate and my palms stopped sweating. Even knowing they weren’t after me, the close encounter was an unsettling experience.

“Pssst,” a low voice whispered from the shrubbery after the guards were gone. The bushes rustled and a single eye peered out at me through a hole in the greenery.

“Thank you, friend,” the stranger said. “I don’t know why you meddled on my behalf, but I’m very glad you did.”

“Forget it,” I said. “I wasn’t trying to help you so much as to spite the city guard. Any men under the Praetor are enemies of mine.”

“Ah, a fellow lawless after mine own heart,” he said. “I take it we share the same trade?”

My hesitation must have given away my reluctance to answer the question because he seemed to realize his mistake quickly.

“Forgive me, I shouldn’t have asked that. Trusting strangers is a luxury not everyone can afford. I should know.”

At that moment, angry shouts and the sounds of returning footsteps alerted us the guardsmen were returning.

“I’m afraid that’s the sound of your spiting coming back on you,” the stranger told me. “They must have discovered your ruse. Quickly, come with me.”

I hadn’t intended to become this deeply involved, but it was too late to think of that. I scrambled into the bushes after him and, motioning me to follow, he started quickly off down a twisting path through the hedges. It didn’t take me long to realize he was leading us through a sort of maze. The rows of shrubbery grew tall as we went, soon reaching higher than my head, and the sounds of our enemies faded in the distance. The green labyrinth wound inward like a coiled snake and we followed the circular course, bypassing frequent openings that led down alternate paths. My strange companion never faltered. It was clear he had a particular destination in mind.

After a short walk, we stepped into a clearing I guessed to be the heart of the maze. Here stood a tiny, low-roofed pavilion and a wide pool of water with a stone sculpture at its center.

“Nimble thinks we’re safe here,” my companion told me, coming to a stop. “Most people couldn’t find this place, but I know the garden district, or for that matter, all of this city, better than the city guard.”

“Who’s Nimble?” I questioned.

“My partner in crime,” he explained. “He has a talent for picking up things other people miss, so I consult him in everything.”

He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and withdrew a wriggling, fist-sized creature whose brown fur grew in mangy patches and whose scaled tail was half the length of its body.

I quirked an eyebrow at the ugly animal. “Your partner is a rat?”

“The cleverest helper I ever had,” he assured me, settling the creature on his shoulder, where it looked perfectly at home. “He never argues, never betrays, and always gives sound advice.”

Suspecting the rat of being a convenient instrument for his owner’s opinions, I said, “And right now
Nimble’s
advice is…?”

“Sit and wait,” my companion answered. “Few and determined are those who find their way to the heart of the Beautiful.”

“I expect the determination of the guardsmen will depend on the value of whatever it was you stole,” I said.

“When you put it that way, they might consider a long search worth their while, yes. A certain noble woman is missing some particularly fine jewelry up on Round Street tonight. Luckily, no one saw my face.”

“All the same,” I said. “I’d be eager to leave the vicinity if I were you.”

He said, “That’s because you’re not using your head. I’m not about to be picked up on the street with stolen goods in my pocket. Much better to lie low for the night and slip away in the morning, after the searchers are long gone. That’s my plan anyway, and I advise you to do the same.”

So saying, he dropped to the ground and pulled off his boots. For a moment, I thought this was his preparation for going to sleep, but then he began pulling the legs of his breeches up to the knee. Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I had to ask what he was doing.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m wading,” he said, stepping into the shallow pool in front of the pavilion.

“At a time like this you’re going to play in the water?” I asked.

“I’m not playing at anything. I’m securing our good luck by placing a coin in the mouth of the water nymph,” he said.

As he spoke, he splashed to the center of the pool where the likeness of a playful water nymph wrapped in her long hair crouched among the lily pads. Her parted lips, revealing a collection of shiny coppers inside, indicated this sort of offering was a common tradition for the few who made their way to the heart of the maze.

My companion added his offering to the rest, before splashing his way back to me. I noted that, despite his precautions, his breeches were soaked to the knee, but he didn’t complain as he climbed over the edge of the fountain to sit at my side. Clearly, he considered the relative discomfort worth the gain.

When he finished tugging his boots on again, he led me to the covered pavilion where we found a pair of long benches set against the walls. I gathered these were to serve as our beds for the night. The space was narrow, the floor no more than a dozen steps across, and the towering columns weren’t as sheltering as solid walls would have been. But I told myself that was just as well because if our enemies discovered us here, we would have several quick routes of escape.

Leaning back on the cold stone, I found the roof overhead was as insubstantial as the walls. Just a set of crisscrossing narrow beams, over which grew a tangle of intertwining vines. I stared up through the open patches of greenery into the starry night sky and thought of Terrac. I was surprised to feel loneliness washing over me, as I wondered if I would ever see him, my outlaw friends, or my forest again. Dimmingwood seemed a thousand miles away from this strange city. My mind moved to Hadrian and my failure to locate him. A thought occurred to me.

“Thief?” I called softly into the darkness.

The shadow sprawled across the opposite bench lifted his head. “You called?”

“Yes, I just had a thought.”

“Savor that novelty. Some of us are trying to sleep.” Despite the words, his tone wasn’t unkind. Encouraged by that, I said, “I’ve thought of a way you could repay me for aiding you earlier.”

I heard his yawn. “Did you aid me? I’ve already forgotten. Besides, I think I remember you saying something about the joy of crossing the city guard was its own reward.”

I ignored that.

“I came to Selbius looking for a certain man,” I said. “He was supposed to be at the temple at the start of the Middlefest celebrations this morning, but I missed our meeting. If you care to repay your debt, you can do it by finding this man for me.”

I half expected a careless refusal, but he surprised me by remaining thoughtfully silent for a moment. At length he said, “Selbius is a good-sized city. What gives you such confidence in my ability to hunt this fellow down for you?”

“You’ve boasted that you know Selbius better than anyone. I’m giving you a chance to prove it.”

“How generous of you. I suppose I probably could find your lost man at that, but why should I want to?”

I was growing irritated. “Because you owe me a favor and you know it,” I said. “I’ve made enemies of the city guard, not a wise thing to do around here, in order to save your sorry hide. Already, I begin to regret it. Will you help me or not?”

He sighed and said, “Very well. I’ll set to work finding your precious friend in the morning. Now, will you stop nattering and let me rest in peace?”

Satisfied, I said, “Thank you, thief.”

He lifted his head again. “You can’t go around calling me that in public, you know. I might as well wear a thief’s brand on my forehead.”

“You don’t seem to want to give me a better name to call you by,” I pointed out.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be my real name.” He thought briefly. “Fleet. I go by that one now and then. Yes, you can call me Fleet.”

“I’m Ilan,” I introduced myself.

I expected an acknowledgement from the thief, but Fleet remained silent, and after a moment, I decided he was already asleep.

I hadn’t enjoyed a real sleep, without the aid of the footpad’s blow to my head, since arriving in Selbius, and my weary mind and body were both begging for rest. I allowed myself the luxury of lying down and closing my eyes but tried to keep my ears open and my senses attuned to the night around me. Somehow, despite these efforts, I drifted into a light sleep and dreamed of death and blood, all the while vaguely aware of another consciousness nudging its memories into my mind. I tossed and turned until my hand came to rest on my bow.

CHAPTER SIX

I awoke at dawn’s first light. As soon as my eyes opened, I sprang upright on my stone bench. How could I have been careless enough to fall asleep? I looked around for my companion of last night, only to find he had deserted me while I slept. Rot that piece of street filth; he had promised to aid me! I immediately felt around for my bow and breathed a sigh of relief when I found it. At least he hadn’t taken that. Snatching it up, I scrambled to my feet and out into the gray light. The air held the chill of early morning and the sun was just rising to burn away the mists.

There, at the edge of the dew-streaked lawn, paced Fleet. He was tossing a pebble back and forth in his hands, eyes fixed on the ground at his feet, but was instantly aware of me the moment I stepped out of the pavilion. He ceased his pacing to watch my approach.

“Contemplating abandoning me in my sleep?” I asked suspiciously.

“Only a little,” he said. “But now you’ve taken that decision out of my hands. I thought you’d never be up. You sleep like a corpse.”

I snorted for answer and took the opportunity to study my new acquaintance under the light of day. He was shorter than me, despite appearing a few years older. Lean and wiry, he had a narrow face and lightly tanned skin, wore his dark, greasy hair slicked back in a tail, and sported a scrap of whiskers on his chin that was closer to a shadow than an actual beard. A prominent jaw, altogether too long, was his most noteworthy feature. He was dressed in a slightly faded, tight-fitting coat that might once have been fashionable and wore a thin strand of cheap, false gems strung close about his throat. A similar stone dangled gaudily from one ear.

I wasn’t sure what to make of a street thief who dressed as vainly as a Camdon merchant, but the incongruous sight made me smile.

Fleet caught my expression and said with a knowing gleam in his eye, “I see you appreciate a good thing when you see it.”

I couldn’t tell if he was jesting, but I said, “Actually, I was thinking you remind me of a fat, strutting paradin decorated in shiny baubles.”

“Fat?” His eyes widened in alarm.

“Well, maybe just when your feathers are fluffed.” I reassured him.

He shrugged. “Your opinion is the minority, I can tell you. The ladies aren’t at all opposed to my preening. But you’ll see for yourself soon enough, I shouldn’t wonder. I’ll grow on you.”

“Like stink-moss?”

He frowned. “Never mind me. Look at yourself, woodlander. I can practically see the leaf-mold growing between your toes.”

I became alert. If there was one thing I didn’t need in this town it was to be associated with the woods folk. I’d heard enough about that danger already.

Fleet must have seen the concern on my face. “Never mind, woodchuck,” he said. “It isn’t that obvious and your coat helps. Just pull your hair down loose and keep that bow out of sight. Walk with less confidence, like the city women do, and you’ll pass well enough.”

But he continued studying me. “If we could only get our hands on the right clothes, I could turn you into one of those wild mountain women from Kersis. Folk would be afraid to stare at you too hard then.”

“I’ll pass on the costume,” I said. “Just make me inconspicuous. That’s all I ask.”

I slung my bow over one shoulder and he helped me arrange my long, gray coat to conceal it. I looked a little hunchbacked when we were finished, but Fleet said it wasn’t too noticeable. At any rate, I wouldn’t be parted with the bow, so I had little choice. I also pulled my silvery hair free of its tail and combed it with my fingers.

“Not bad,” Fleet said of the effect. “I could almost imagine you pretty, if it weren’t for that horrible crooked nose.”

“I got it in a fight with an arrogant paradin who talked too much,” I said meaningfully.