Bibliomancer
Page 32
“Seriously?” Arrow’s skepticism was almost as palpable as Dizzy’s.
“Being an Infiltrator does have its perks,” Sphinx sweetly offered the archer a dazzling grin. “If we’re serious about this, I know just the people that can help us. I’m not saying we should agree to anything yet, but I do think it’s time we went and had a conversation with some of my friends who joined a Thieves’ Guild. The Upright Men will want to know all about this.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sphinx ushered the party through the narrow, dusty streets of Cheapside. Streets Sam had become not at all familiar with over the past few days, having been locked up in a small room. Eventually, they stopped in front of a two-story, white-plaster building that had seen its best days fifty years ago.
There was a light coat of paint which was badly worn, even chipped in places. Many of the windows dotting the building’s face were boarded over. A pole jutted from above a single door painted a bright, vivid red; hanging from the pole on rust-covered chains was a badly weathered sign that read The Pious Squires of Saint Saagar.
Off to the right ran a narrow alley filled with shanty tents, lean-tos, and a wide swath of dirt-streaked faces and bodies which all reeked of BO even twenty feet out. A particularly gaunt man, buried beneath layers and layers and layers of unwashed clothing and gear, stood next to the door, staring out at the world with rheumy, milk-white eyes, which oddly reminded Sam of the boarded over windows above.
“What is this place?” Sam hooked his thumbs into his belt as he regarded the front of the building, searching for any clues that might let on to its real purpose.
“Wouldn't’cha know, it’s a homeless shelter and a soup kitchen for the downtrodden.” Sphinx eyes crinkled as she offered them a wide smile.
“Why haven’t you told us about any of this before?” Dizzy had no hint of amusement in her voice. “We’re a team, Sphinx. Seems like any dealings you might have with a ‘homeless shelter’ you might have shared with the rest of us.”
Sphinx’s cheeks flashed a subtle red. “This place is special, and we’re not supposed to tell outsiders. One of the rules of the club, but if there was ever a time to break the rules, it seems like now’s it.”
“What’s so special about it, dudette?” Kai dropped his voice low so the beggars wouldn’t hear him.
“It’s an entrance to the Brotherhood network. As a Novice, I’m only supposed to come here if I’m in serious trouble. I think this probably counts.” She paused, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Just give me a minute.”
She headed over to the blind beggar stationed outside the brightly painted door. She fished a fat gold coin from her pocket, though even from a distance Sam could tell it wasn’t a normal coin. It was too thin, the edges jagged and rough cut.
“Alms for the poor, miss?” the blind beggar asked breathlessly, flapping his lips and showing off a mouth mostly devoid of teeth. He extended one grimy hand, missing a finger, palm up.
“Of course, kind sir. Saint Saagar lives in my heart and in the hearts of all the truly pious and needy,” Sphinx recited, pressing the coin into the center of his hand. “Who couldn’t use a little help in a time of need?”
The beggar vanished the coin with a flash of fingers, bobbed his head, and resumed his post by the door. Sam noticed, however, that the beggar pressed his thumb against the outside of the building. The motion was quick, almost too quick to follow, but a soft flair of muted brown light—there and gone in a blink—caught his eye. Gouged into the face of the plaster was a tiny symbol, no bigger than a dime.
Sam wasn’t sure what the symbol meant, but he’d seen a similar marking in the College corridors. He’d always assumed it was like the other marks, meant to help visitors and students navigate the sprawling hallways… but maybe it served some other function.
Sphinx guided them inside, which—shocker—actually looked like a homeless soup kitchen. Down on their luck men and women huddled around rough tables, loudly slurping steaming soup from wooden bowls. That was just the front, as Sam and the others quickly learned when one of the ‘Pious Squires’ of Saint Saagar showed them to a closet in the back which positively hummed with potent magic.
“Seems pretty sleazy to hide a criminal organization behind a made-up charity,” Dizzy groused as they stepped through the pantry door and into a midnight-black hallway that closely resembled a tear in the fabric of the universe. “Impersonating monks that help the needy seems low, even for thieves.”
“Oh gosh.” Sphinx broke out into a belly laugh. “The monks aren’t fake, and neither is the shelter. The Pious Squires of Saint Saagar is a real holy order, one that takes care of the poor. The city and the Nobles rarely spend the time or money to help the disenfranchised, but the thieves do. Interesting tidbit, but the thieves didn’t name themselves the Upright Men. The needy of Ardania bestowed that title on them. The Squires have shelters all over the city, most of which are completely legitimate, and the whole operation is bankrolled by the Brotherhood.”
Her smile grew wider. “Not everything is as it seems, you know. Just because someone is a bad guy, doesn’t mean they are a bad guy. Profession versus person.”
Sphinx lead them through the short tunnel and out into a room that couldn’t possibly have existed inside the rundown shelter. It was an enormous, domed chamber that instantly reminded Sam of the subway stations in New York. He’d visited New York twice with his parents. Though neither trip had been for long, those memories stuck in Sam’s head like a piece of gum lodged on the bottom of a tennis shoe. All the cars. The unending sea of humanity. Most of all, he remembered the sprawling subways, a whole underground world that seemed ancient somehow.
The walls were dark red brick, the floors covered with planks of polished wood; thirteen arched hallways broke away from the room like the spokes of some enormous bicycle. Metal candelabras flanked the entryway to each tunnel while an enormous chandelier—crafted from an armory-worth of daggers and short swords—hung from overhead. Men and women flowed through the chamber without offering the Wolf Pack a second glance. Why should they? If Sphinx was telling the truth, this place was the equivalent of Grand Central Station. Everyone, it seemed, had a place to be and no time to waste on a group of gawking tourists.
These were men and women who moved with both urgency and purpose. Although many of the folks in the chamber wore the dark leathers, soft boots, and long daggers that named them thieves, Rogues, or worse, there were just as many people sporting chef’s attire or dressed as maids, innkeepers, or even city guards.
Perhaps the Upright Men weren’t as overtly powerful as the Mages of the College, but if this little cross-section of humanity was any indication, they were awfully influential in their own way… and far
more wide spread.
It took a handful of minutes and a few quick words to a lean gentleman milling behind a reception counter, but eventually, Sam and the others were ushered into richly appointed private quarters. They’d barely settled in when there was a knock on the door and a scullery maid in a black dress and tidy white apron pushed in a cart loaded down with a veritable feast. Mashed potatoes and thick brown gravy. Savory green beans cooked in some sort of garlic and basil sauce. For the main course, a thick roast ringed with tender carrots and bulbous onions.
As important as coming up with a plan was, Sam’s mouth salivated. All he could think about was scarfing down as much food as humanly—or inhumanly—possible. Sure, he’d eaten during his days of relentless study and preparation, but he’d only eaten enough to survive and none of it had been what anyone other than a starving man would classify as good. Certainly nothing like this spread. Even better… his perception was high enough to enjoy this food!
Since the entire College refused to conform to the laws of physics or nature, it was hard to render a truly accurate floor plan of the complex. With Bill’s expert knowledge and insight, they’d done a respectable job. The hallways they needed were all carefully and painstakingly sketched out, along with the corresponding glyphs and runes that acted as road-signs for anyone who knew how to read them.
Bill had scoured his memories, searching not for the fastest ways to get from point A to point B but the most convoluted and least traveled ways. In theory, if the Wolf Pack followed the route he’d laid out, they would have almost no chance of running across the other College inhabitants. The biggest risks were right after leaving the sewers and right when entering the library. There was no way to get around those choke points, so they would just have to throw the dice and hope for the best.
“Okay,” Bill’s voice was gruff and unflappable. “The kid and I have already talked through this a hundred different times, and we think we have a solid plan for breaking into the College. Like we said earlier, we’re gonna need some help. The way in is relatively straightforward. Most people know there’s a series of sewer tunnels that run beneath the College, but what most people don’t know is that the Mage’s College sends out a patrol four times a week to clear out those sewers.”
“Thing is,” Bill continued as the other ate, “the College produces a lot of magical waste, and all that Mana runoff coalesces into Sentient Jellies which, if left unchecked, can grow to enormous sizes. Those Jellies aren’t really all that dangerous, but they are magic, which means run-of-the-mill violence won’t kill them. Ergo, the College dispatches groups of Initiates to do the dirty work—wiping out the Jellies and farming monster Cores if they appear, which the College uses for spells and enchantments.”
“The kid here,” Bill rolled his unsettling emerald eyes toward Sam, “pulled that duty a couple of times, and Finn will almost certainly be stuck on sewer patrol since it’s the detail no one wants. Also, he’s on the College’s naughty list. Me? I know the College better than the backside of my hand—figuratively speaking, obviously—and I can get us into the sewers without a problem. We infiltrate, ambush the patrol when they’re busy dealing with Jellies, and just like that, we have a one-way ticket into the College.”
“Sounds reasonable enough.” Dizzy leaned back in her chair, hands folded across her belly. “What’s the catch?”
“Who says there’s a catch?” Sam asked innocently enough, talking around a mouthful of roast. Celestial, but the food was tasty—rich, hearty, savory, with just a dash of heat that lit up his taste-buds like a fireworks display.
“There’s always a catch.” Dizzy folded her arms. “Besides, you went through a lot of trouble to get to us, and you wouldn’t have done that if this was all as easy as your floating book friend makes it sound.”
“Fine,” Sam piped in while dabbing the corner of his checks with a linen napkin. “Fine, so maybe there is a catch… Alright, a couple of catches. To start off, there are going to be at least two other Mages we’ll have to incapacitate in the sewers. They’ll be Novices, but even Novice Mages might be a threat in the right circumstances. Then there are the College guards to consider. Usually there’s two of them, and both are high level. As good as Bill and I are, we can’t take the whole crew out, especially since we can’t kill them without earning massive bounties, which we absolutely don’t want. That means we’ll need to find a way to incapacitate them.”
“Okay. I’ll play along,” Arrow interjected. “Let’s say your book gets us in and somehow, we manage to take out the sewer cleaning crew, hopefully liberating Finn in the process. Then what? It’s not like they’re just going to let a bunch of outsiders caked in sewer muck tromp around the College unchallenged. Someone is going to notice us and start asking questions. Even if we get to the library, there’s no way we get back out in one piece. No. Way.”
“Eh. Agree to disagree,” Bill matter-of-factly stated. “I’m telling you, me and Legs, we’ve worked it out. Basically, we’re gonna pull the ol’ ‘dress as the enemy’ trick. We’ll knock the sewer patrol out long enough for us to go back into the College in their place. A couple of you will dress as guards, everyone else will go as Novices decked out in run-of-the-mill, brown robes. From there, we’ll split the group. Sam and I will head over to the Annex to rescue Velkan, assuming the mutt is still alive.”
“Finn will need to be tied up as well unless he can resist the compulsion of The Accords long enough to take everyone else to the library. If he can't, the rest of you need to follow the map and grab what we need to take out Octavius and put the kibosh on this big bad spell. From there, Sam and I will circle back around with our Wolfman friend in tow, meet you guys in the library, then sneak out through another secret exit tucked away in the library’s main floor. That exit will deposit us in the cellar of a cheese shop called The Grater Good over in North Waterside.”
“From there,” Sam gave a lopsided shrug, “we simply regroup and set an ambush for Octavius and his spell-slinging buddies. It’s simple, even if it won’t be easy.”
Everyone was quiet for a long moment. Which Sam took as a good sign… right up until Dizzy opened her mouth.
“Wow. I don’t even know where to start with all the ways this plan could go wrong. First, splitting the party while inside the College? That’s… that’s crazy. Seriously, have you never played D&D before? You never split the party. It’s a thing. Also, and I feel like I shouldn’t need to say this, but how in the world do you think you’re going to be able to sneak a Wolfman through the College without getting spotted? Huh?”
“Listen, I know how it sounds,” Sam agreed, “but I’ve been inside the College, and Bill seriously knows that place better than anyone. Sneaking into the Annex by myself will be far easier than dragging the whole party along. As for getting from the Annex to the library, there’s a back way that almost no one ever takes. The Mages hate using the Annex because of all the spatial distortions and time fluctuations, so I think there’s at least a seventy percent chance I can make it through without anyone catching me. It’s a calculated risk, and I’m really good at math.”
Dizzy grunted noncommittally, crossing her arms as she glowered at the table, the cogs inside her head clearly working in overdrive as she tried to pick apart the plan.
“Seems to me that getting into the library itself is going to be tricky,” Arrow chimed in. “I mean, I’ll freely admit I haven’t been inside the College before, but if it really is this g
iant repository for super rare books and other magical items… I doubt they’ll just let a bunch of rando guards in.”
“Except, it won’t just be a bunch of ‘rando’ guards,” Bill replied. “Trust me, if we can get to Finn, he’ll be able to get you past the head librarian, no problem.”
“Well, why don’t we just go in through the library?” Kai demanded. He leaned forward, forearms resting against the edge of the table. “You dudes said there’s, like, some kinda tunnel from the main floor of the library to that cheese shop, right? So why not just go through the cheese shop and pop out inside the library or whatever? That way we won’t have to mess around with the sewer, the guards, or anything else.”
“It’s a good thought,” Bill replied in begrudging admiration, “but this particular spatial tunnel only works in one direction. The doorway opens from the College side, not the cheese shop side. Once we’re in the College, there are lots of ways to get out but very, very few ways to get in. Something like that would make it too easy for an enemy force to invade the College, so most of those escape tunnels are emergency exits only. No readmittance.”
“So, the sewers are the only way in because of course they are,” Dizzy noted absently, “but let’s say that we do get in and take down the guards. There’s still one big hitch. We can’t just steal the guards’ uniforms. Even if we kill them—which you already said we shouldn’t do—there’s no way to loot their corpses. So how do we pass ourselves off?”
Sphinx’s hand shot up into the air, a smile breaking across her face. “Oh gosh, but this is perfect. This is what Infiltrators are trained to do. The Upright Men have tailors here at the facility who specialize in counterfeit uniforms and armor. It’ll cost us a little money, but we should be able to get everything we need for the disguises. No problem at all.”
She paused and squinted at him. “I can even help with Sam’s Rogue Mage status. If you just hide your face under a cowl, you’ll still glow red when anyone in the College looks at you, but Infiltrators can mask your class, your alignment, and any unwanted status effect. Heck, even your name on combat logs if you kill a player. It’s one of the perks of the Infiltrator class. It won’t last long—an hour or two at most—but if we can’t pull this job off inside an hour, then we deserve to get caught.”