“Unorthodox?” Derrick piped up. “This is crazier than attending a goblin tea party! Almost crazier than trying to get Aidan to have a normal conversation with his king.”
I ignored his comment. “You do realize that we’re heading into battle, right?”
“Of course I do, Lord Aidan,” Narissara replied, once again calm. “I admit that in a normal battle, she would normally be a bit of a hindrance, which is why I will supply her with some magical items to defend herself—an amulet that will help to protect her from physical harm, a wand that will cast magical bolts of energy against her enemies, and a ring of invisibility. I admit—against the living, she will not be your strongest weapon. Against the undead, however—she may be the strongest weapon you possess.”
Narissara pulled me off to the side and spoke at a low register. “Her parents died during a bandit raid on her village. She discovered her powers by accident. In her grief, magical energy from her heart brought her parents back to life—but as undead. Astonished, she began to believe that she could bring them fully back to life, which is only possible with the strongest of magic, and even then is against the laws of nature. She kept them ‘alive’ for a day, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that it wasn’t the same. Finally, she let them go. Needless to say, the experience traumatized her, and she hasn’t spoken a word since.”
“How do you know this?” I asked her.
“In our circles, we have people who possess the power to read minds.”
“How did she end up in your ‘circles’, as you say?”
“A group of young mages came across her hiding in the woods. They brought her here to me.”
I still couldn’t believe it. This was very dangerous business, certainly no place for a little girl, no matter what her powers.
Mirabelle was suddenly behind me. “If and when we have to fight,” she whispered in my ear, “we can’t be watching over her and defending ourselves too.”
Iskandor was there as well. “This is a bit strange, I must admit, but she could give us an enormous advantage.”
I turned back to the others and took a deep breath, trying to sort out my thoughts. It was a major risk, but …
“We do need all the help we can get against the Ther-lor,” I said finally. “If she is our only option, perhaps we have no choice.”
“I don’t like it,” Mirabelle responded. “She’s just a little girl.”
“Aidan, this is crazy,” Derrick said. “I have boots taller than her.”
“Narissara did say that she was going to give her magical items to defend herself,” I responded. “We can find out if it’s worth the risk.”
“It’s a little girl, Aidan,” Mirabelle repeated sternly. “It isn’t.”
“She is not an ordinary little girl,” Iskandor said—just his voice changed the complexion of any conversation we were having. “I sense something in this child—I believe it’s worth the chance.”
All of us fell silent, as we had a tendency to do when Iskandor gave his opinion. His word held a lot of weight among us.
“So?” Narissara piped up. “Do we have a decision from the Knights?”
Our huddle broke apart slowly. Clearly all of us had our own opinion about taking Aurora with us. In the end, it was my choice.
I turned slowly toward Narissara. I was still conflicted, and I didn’t want to cause tension within the group, but I did what I felt was right—though it wasn’t by much.
“She can come with us.”
Narissara smiled. “A wise choice, Lord Aidan. You of all people should know that a book is not to be judged by its cover, and I believe that you will find that this book holds a lot of power.”
I respected what she was saying, but looking at Aurora, I couldn’t help but think that this book was a children’s tale on a shelf full of horrific war stories.
“Also,” Narissara added, “she can lead you to more help. Once you leave this city, follow her—it will not be far.”
“Who is this help, and where?” I asked.
“Let her guide you,” the sorceress replied. “Otherwise, you will never find them.”
I found that hard to believe, but all of the events transpiring were starting to give me a headache. So I nodded to Narissara and turned back to the group. They all looked apprehensive and clearly not happy.
Neither was I, but nonetheless, I had to make the best of things for now. I approached Aurora, who for her part, didn’t looked like some scared little girl. Her wide eyes studied me intently, clearly analyzing me and everything around her. She certainly didn’t appear to be the type of child who hid under the bed, afraid of monsters that only existed in her head.
I knelt in front of her. “Welcome to the group, Aurora.”
The amber-eyed child simply stared back, unflinching. Her silence and wide-eyed expression did nothing but make me more apprehensive.
CHAPTER 6
After the reluctant addition of Aurora to the group, there wasn’t much more to discuss with the mages. It was very late in the day, and we decided to stay in Severance for the night.
We found an inn not too far down the road, a decent establishment with the usual crowd of people drinking and mingling in front of it. Seeing as though it wasn’t very likely that we were going to find an inn that didn’t have people drinking and mingling in front of it, we decided that this inn would do.
It was called the Streetside Inn, a name that made little sense since all inns (and buildings, for that matter) in a city would be on the side of the street, but I avoided thinking about it too much before I got an even bigger headache. We sat in the tavern part of the inn and had a meal, consisting of grilled chicken (slightly burnt), with some soup and a hunk of bread. Our appetite sated, we paid the innkeeper and then went up to our rooms. I shared one with Iskandor. Aurora stayed with Derrick and Mirabelle who, despite their earlier protests, put on a show of trying to make the young girl feel welcome. Aurora clearly warmed to Derrick’s silly and goofy demeanor right away, though she remained silent.
We had a balcony overlooking the street. I stepped out onto it and looked up at the starry night, appreciating how beautiful it was. I was about to turn my mind over to other matters when something caught my eye in the crowd below … a mass of white robes.
“Senator Tawnya,” I muttered to myself.
The senator was moving through the crowd, shoving people out of the way as she saw fit. Once she was through the crowd, she continued to walk down the street, and in the shadows, I noticed someone following her—my night-vision showed the person very clearly.
“Kirra?” I whispered to myself.
I remembered her hissing breaths of anger at Tawnya’s remarks about us—and as soon as we’d left, she’d said that she had something she needed to take care of …
“Oh, no …” I whispered to myself.
I told Iskandor that I was going for a walk, and quietly excused myself from the room. By his reactions, he didn’t seem to surprised—I had been seeking a lot of solitude lately.
Once outside the door, I hurried down the hall and down the stairs, then weaved my way through the crowd in a manner that (I hoped) didn’t seem to suspicious. No one seemed to notice—I think being moderately inebriated had something to do with that.
It didn’t take long to catch up with the two, as the senator wasn’t moving that quickly. Without my eyes that could see in the dark, it might have been difficult for me to spot Kirra, but I could see her clearly, moving from alley to alley, using whatever she could for cover. I wondered what in the name of the gods Kirra was up to; she wasn’t going to kill the senator, that much was obvious—she was a thief, not an assassin. But she was also retired, or so she said …
This whole situation had me confused. I resolved to follow her just to see what she was up to, and stop her once I figured it out.
I followed them down the street for quite some time. Finally, the senator arrived at a large estate, which could only be her home. It wa
s surrounded by a stone wall with a steel gate, which the senator entered without a backwards glance, and Kirra waited outside.
Things seem pretty obvious now, I thought to myself. I should probably step in—
“Aidan,” came a voice behind me.
My heart seemed to stop beating in my chest, and I froze for a moment as my mind tried to figure out what was going on. Then I turned and faced Lady Mirabelle.
“Why, hello, Lady Mirabelle,” I said in the most innocent voice I could possibly muster. It instantly occurred to me how I must have possibly looked—peeking around from behind the wall of a building.
Mirabelle’s eyes narrowed at me, and her expression became slightly amused. “‘Hello, Lady Mirabelle?’ An unusual greeting for you, I must say.”
I tried to catch myself. “I’m sorry, my love. I just … I …” Of course, I failed, miserably.
“Is there something the matter, Aidan?” Mirabelle asked.
“I …” I stammered again. Then I sighed. “I guess I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all.” At least that much was true.
“I tried to find you in your room,” Mirabelle began, “but Iskandor said you had gone for a walk. I asked some people in the tavern if they had seen anyone with your description, and they pointed me in the right direction.”
“I don’t exactly have an appearance you can miss,” I muttered, before I thought about what I was saying.
“I’m sorry,” Mirabelle blurted out. “I didn’t mean to—”
“No no, love,” I said, holding my hand out to reassure her. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just … I don’t know what I’m thinking anymore.”
Except that our resident thief is about to rob a very important senator …
“I have to go,” I said abruptly, panicking. I started to turn away.
“I’m sorry!” she burst out. “I didn’t mean to offend you …”
“No,” I said, still backing away. “I … have to go do … something …”
Mirabelle just stood there with a hurt expression, but there was nothing I could do about that now, and I would have never found the right words to say anyway. Besides that, I had completely lost track of Kirra, and I had no idea how to find her.
Mirabelle didn’t follow, for which I was very grateful. I circled around the back of the building I had been standing at and continued down that alley, trying to find a way to get closer to Senator Tawnya’s estate while avoiding being seen.
I walked past a couple of buildings and took a right back down that alley, finding the stone wall to the estate right ahead of me. At the wall, I turned left and went all the way to the back of the estate. The stone wall ended at the giant wall of the city, so I guessed I was all the way to the northwest side of Severance.
The wall was about fifteen feet high—my enhanced leaping abilities would get me up there no problem.
I planted my feet and jumped, easily grabbing the top of the wall with my hands. I pulled myself up to the top and laid down on top of the wall, which was pretty thick, and waited. There were no torches or braziers anywhere nearby, so with my black hair and black cloak and clothing, I was almost completely concealed in the darkness.
The estate was on a large patch of land, and there was a great deal of space surrounding the house, occupied with trees, many different kinds of plants, a large stone gazebo, and several statues. All of the plants were neatly trimmed, as well as the trees. It was clear that Senator Tawnya was a very wealthy noble.
And Kirra mentioned something about being partial to the obnoxious rich when it came to robbery. Kirra has to be here—It hasn’t been that long since I last saw her, she didn’t pass me on the street, that I know of, anyway …
But a couple of hours went by, with no sign of Kirra.
I was just about to decide that my surveillance had been a failure when my night-vision caught movement out of the corner of my eye, to my left.
There she is …
She was climbing out of a bottom floor window, with a good-sized bag heaved over her shoulder. She dropped nimbly to the grass, without a sound, took a look around her, and headed back toward the wall, diagonally away from me. There was a Silver Birch tree by the southeast side of the wall, and she used it to get over the wall, climbing up and over. The sack with whatever she had stolen was somehow attached to her back.
Well, the tree made it easy for her to get out, but the question still remains as to how she got in. But that’s not important …
Not anymore anyway.
She was on the same wall as me, but dozens of feet down; she didn’t even know anyone was watching her. I dropped down just after she did and—keeping her in my line of vision—hurried to follow her.
Kirra walked right down the middle of the street with the large sack of Senator Tawnya’s valuables draped over her shoulder, an act I thought was brave, and it was, although the highly-drunken inhabitants of Severance made her presence in the street much less of a risk. I knew I was too late to stop her from doing what she was doing—it wasn’t like I was going to be able to convince her to put the stuff back where she got it—so I decided to keep following her and see what she would do with the goods.
I trailed her down the main street for some time, until she turned into a building on our left. The building appeared to be abandoned.
What the—
There was an alley next to the building she had entered, so I turned down it and peered into the windows I passed, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. I’d already resolved that if I didn’t see her, I would break one of the windows and creep inside to search for her.
But that desperate act wasn’t necessary—toward the back of the building, one of the windows revealed her talking to a large, sneaky-looking fellow with unkempt hair. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the man seemed very impressed by her haul, and gave her a large bag of gold in return for them.
Then Kirra left the room, and I hustled back to the front of the building so I could keep track of her—but when she exited the building, she held three sacks instead of one … all full.
What in the name of—
Now intensely curious, I intended to continue following her, but when she left the building, she turned immediately in my direction.
Damn!
Panicking, I quickly ducked behind a large crate, one of several in the alleyway. I listened as her padded footsteps passed by and began to fade.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I crept out from behind the crate and peeked around the corner. Kirra was walking away, heading back toward the estate.
Now what …
Beginning to get exasperated, I left the alley and started to follow her again. She didn’t walk very far, entering one of the taverns we passed by earlier.
This was going to be difficult—there were still a crowd of people in front of the tavern, and I had to see what Kirra was doing. With my appearance, just walking in wasn’t going to cut it—it wouldn’t be possible to be inconspicuous, even with all of the people. My only chance, again, was the windows.
I found a couple on the right side of the building. I caught a break, as the first window I came to was right behind the bar, so the only person who could possibly get in my way was the barkeep. But he was very occupied, moving back and forth along the bar, constantly serving drinks.
Kirra was sitting across from the bar, at a booth right across from two disreputable-looking men. As I watched, I saw Kirra slip some gold pieces to them, along with two of the sacks, one for each guy.
Could this get any more confusing?
Her business done, Kirra got up and left the booth and the tavern.
Time to follow again …
Creeping back to the corner of the tavern, I watched as Kirra walked in a completely different direction from the inn we were staying at, as well as the estate … down a street perpendicular to the tavern, heading south.
I groaned to myself as I wondered what in the name of the gods she was up to now. As she disa
ppeared down the street, I broke away from the tavern and followed. The drunken patrons didn’t pay any attention. I hoped with all of my will that Kirra would end this soon—all of this sneaking around was beginning to make me tired, physically and mentally.
I followed her down the street for a while, until she finally stopped, in front of a huge cathedral.
I sighed to myself. I might need to check my “strangeness level” meter to see if it’s at its maximum yet.
The cathedral was what was called a “universal cathedral,” one that worshipped all of the gods, as opposed to various temples that only worshipped a certain one. I followed Kirra inside, and watched as she approached the alter.
All right—if she attempts to steal anything from this cathedral, I don’t care what the reason is … I’m stepping in. I may not feel a strong loyalty to the gods, but there are limits …
But Kirra did quite the opposite. Instead of taking anything, she deposited her only remaining sack in front of the alter.
I frowned in confusion and bewilderment.
Kirra remained in front of the alter for a short while, staring up at the huge mural that was painted on the wall behind it—a mural of the gods. I was hiding behind a curtain near the entrance, and I watched as she left the alter and began walking in my direction.
Here we go …
As she walked by the curtain, I said in a low voice, “Hello, Kirra.”
She instantly spun, both daggers out and ready to fight. I probably would have reacted with some smart remark, but I was just as shocked at her appearance as she was at mine—her eyes were red and watering, as if she had been crying.
I restrained myself from asking if she was okay, only to see how she would respond to the realization that I had been following her. I expected an outburst, some anger, perhaps even for her to attack me—but she did none of that.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered between sniffles.
Taken aback by her reaction, I recovered enough to say, “I might ask you the same thing.”
“How long have you been following me?” she asked, wiping her eyes.
“Long enough,” I answered. I wasn’t angry, or even disappointed—now I was only curious.
The Treachery Of A Weasel Page 7