Flora

by Kendal M Lyon

  The cats could handle them though, vicious creatures in their own way. She always loved these cats and the animals that came to her amid the city. She willingly scratched one of the stripped tabbies under its chin. As its quiet purrs started, Flora could feel her own body relaxing. One cat continued to wind tightly around her leg, its stub of a tail making ghostly movements of where one used to be. This district flourished after the sun went down, and all those looking for trouble came up.

  Flora bit back her pout as she picked up the cat and held him in her lap, wishing to get lost in the merriment and drink of some of the people below. Flora and her brothers slept during the day and worked at night whenever they had a job.

  When they were free at night however, they got rowdy. A ghost of a smile crept onto her face as she remembered the last time that they had had a night out, and the energy to enjoy it. The fire's that had raged on the lower terrace—

  Flora thoughts ended and ears perked when she could hear the padding of Perry's feet along the stone brick that was found throughout the city. It had gutters on the sides to drain away excess water, its bubbly decaying stench hanging in the air. As he neared from the back of the alley Flora kept petting the cat on her lap and watched him hand the swords off to the others.

  "Wait! Lorcel?" Flora said down, yelling only as loudly as she dared. "Buy yourself a birthday present," she said, flicking the ring he had given her over the edge. Lorcel smiled as he caught it and dropped it into his breast pocket.

  Dawson and Thren waisted no time strapping their swords on and started on a slow stroll. Blending into the crowd, as if they were meant to be there all along, keeping the swords hidden tight to their sides. Flora could not pick their filthy clothes from the others, but at least it was summer, and with the heat wave that it had become more and more appropriate for everyone to wear as light, and as few clothes, as they could get away with. This depended on the hour. Flora was happy for the cloak on her shoulders though, even in the heat. It made her feel hidden.

  Dawson went past one of the shirtless citizens of Caris with a smile on his face shouting a greeting to someone he knew in the distance. Stopping quickly while purchasing fruit from one of the cheery merchants who was grinning madly when he saw Dawson, munching on it as if it were any other night as he talked to the stall owner. Using his way with people to start this hunt, as was routine.

  He gathered the gang's information, since, with the exception of Roanan, he was the easiest to get on with. An easy friend that most of the locals enjoyed. Flora was sure they were happy to be his informants. Even if they had not liked it, it would be hard to tell. Dawson's joy at seeing these informants was real. He truly considered these people to be his friends.

  If anyone could find out where this Noble they hunted was going to be tonight, it was him. Following the pretty trail of gossip like a pigeon for breadcrumbs, and Dawson loved his breadcrumbs. He fed them back to Harriet when he needed to bribe her to leave Melinoe alone. Which was more often than not, so Dawson always had one ear to the ground. Flora would bet he was more informed than even their esteemed King of Caris.

  Thren tried to put a half smile on his face, but he looked just as threatening as he normally did with the dark marks that hooded his eyes over his hooked nose. His hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. Flora shook her head, with a faint smirk at him. All of them had tried over the years to get Thren to stop looking like he was plotting the ways to kill whoever he looked at. It seemed they still had a lot of work to do. He was a poor actor, especially compared to Dawson beside him, talking to a merchant, as even the merchant's eyes flicked every few moments to Thren to check the danger.

  Perry climbed up the other building now that the boys were set, his bow strapped along his back. Roanan and Lorcel followed the others at a distance on foot, also with swords at their sides. Flora and Perry would follow Dawson and Thren on the roof. Wherever that might take them.

  This was their routine, the only change was Flora rarely played on the rooftops with Perry anymore. This game belonged to Perry and she bit her lip at the thought of trying to keep up. The difference this time was that someone would be dead at the end of the night. Flora could feel the sweat coming from her palms, and dried them on the cat's fur as it stuck to her own fingers.

  Thren would do kill the woman, Flora new that. Like he was the one who stole their desired objects off the target if it was risky, and it always seemed risky. Still, he always finished the job. Took the last risk. The rest of them helped him get there. Not that Flora wished it another way.

  Thren was truly the pillar of their unit. He cared for each of them in his own way. He was gruff, but the gang knew it for what it was. They'd had their skirmishes, of course, Thren usually won, but it was easy to know where you stood with Thren. He was her favorite brother, though she would never admit it to the others, and the ultimate older brother. Although their task still made Flora want to puke, and it felt like forever until Thren actually started walking.

  "Time to try and not get us all killed," Flora said to herself watching Perry disappear over the rooftops. So Flora put the cat down with a last pat to its head and stalked the roofs behind him to do her part and make sure at least her family was safe.

  Curiosity Killed Me

  She was following the boys at quite a distance, relishing in the relative quiet of the rooftops as the boys ventured on. Only keeping the top of Dawson's redhead in sight. They had been walking for a long time, and they were in a poor part of town, not as rough as hers, but poor. Still considered to be in the lower terraces. She would have eaten her knives if they would find a Noble here. This area was not poor enough to get all the sympathy from Nobles that felt like taking a day to do a good dead.

  They only had enough money to be forgotten by the rich, but not to join them. Though there were a lot of people here, thought Flora, as she crept to the edge of one of the clay tiled roofs, her fingers and toes gripping the smoothed sides as she poked her eyes over the edge. Some of her hair drifted off the roof, but she had faith in the darkening night for that to go unnoticed.

  Her eyes were following the trail of a young beardless man and doe eyed girl walking arm in arm. Their eyes staring at one another, barely aware of the crowds around them. Turning her head she saw a lady with wrinkles under her eyes, in clothes so similar to her own, propped over a card table outside a tavern. Her money piled high in front of her as she tilted her head back and laughed with the men around her, enjoying every second of the start of her life into the night. Beside her, an older woman whose grey hair was pulled back in a bun was yelling at a young boy attempting to steal some bread, when she heard a clacking along the roofs around her.

  She edged slowly back, shifting her weight enough to see the stray cat that she had pet had followed her from Hare's Tavern. Flora cursed and tried hissing at the cat to make it get off her roof. The clay tiles were shifting perilously under its feet, but the cat kept on coming towards her, its tail spiking high in the night.

  Flora gently lifted her hand off the tile and waved it at the cat, shooing it in the other direction. "You little princess, you're going to get me killed," Flora said, but the cat carried on towards her. Flora cringed as she saw the cats back muscles bunch before it leapt into the air, pushing the clay tiles onto the ground below with a crash. She could hear more yelling below amidst the steady crash.

  She twirled around to grab the cat. Silence damned as more tiles crashed below now pushed by her momentum as she hurried to climb to one of the roofs stable braces. Now sitting up on the wood framing that was left with the cat flaying her in arms, she could see people running from her building.

  "Damn it cat. This is all your fault," Flora said to the animal as she resettled it. It started purring in her arms as she sat there, straining her neck to see if anyone had gotten trapped in the rubble below.

  She saw and smelt nothing but dust rippling in the air and hanging there in the stillness. Now reaching all the way up to her, mask
ing her from sight. As the dust cleared she saw the first finger pointing in her direction. "Guards! She destroyed my home!" Cried a raging woman who was coated in remnants of red clay. Flora couldn't see her features well from the dust that bothered her eyes, but she knew that they would be able to see her form easy, standing like a gargoyle along the broken rooftop.

  Flora shifted her weight, to place the cat on the beam beside her as she got her legs under her. She walked steadily along the balance beam that was all that stood between her and some rooms below, that held nothing but beds and broken tiles.

  She kept her eyes on the beam in front of her, focusing on her toes, putting her feet one right in front of the other. The cat was right on her heels, and she moved fast, praying that it would not jump between her legs and send her tumbling down.

  If felt like such a large distance when she finally got to the roof peak and was able to break into a run. Praying that she left the cat far behind her. She kept her eyes straight ahead again as she could hear the guards beginning to give chase. The whistle being blown calling for more guards, as the raging of the crowds below grew louder.

  She heaved her body up on the next building beside hers, knowing that the higher up it got, the easier it would be to outrun the guards. She was glad to see the next few buildings laid out in front of her like a bridge and took off.

  Flora was flying over the rooftops now, she had gotten good at it growing up, and she knew this route, each building was about five strides apart, and she could pelt over them and barely make a sweat, but the guards seemed to be having the same amount of luck on the ground, pushing through the crowds below.

  Flora smiled as she saw her escape. It was a few more leaps and then over a wall that would separate her from the guards below and she would be safe in the next terrace down. A gate was far away, and she could already see the wall coming. There would be no way for the guards to find her easily. She took five huge steps on the last building and took a final leap for the wall, her hand outstretched to catch her on the ledge.

  She caught it, the fingers barely grasping on to some sort of wet slime on top of the brick, and as she went to pull up herself up onto the ledge, the muck gave way. Flora bit back a scream as her nails scratched against the rock and she pelted to the streets below. Her body dragging over the stone. She had no idea what was below her, and the splash as she fell into the sewage drains that ran along some of the city roads and back out towards the city edges made her gag even before her head went under.

  Flora fought to the top of the open drains, her lungs screaming for air, but she didn't dare open her mouth as she thought of the lumps floating around her. She refused to let herself think about them, and willed the water away. Then her head broke the surface and her lungs pumped full as her feet kicked for the edge of the sewer canal. A small snake swam past in front of her in the much and she tossed its long body over her head as she went. The yelling of the guards reached her ears as she placed her feet on the stones again and started running back along the wall, a muddy trail in her wake. The guards were so close that even the sound of the their bouncing weapons and armor were ricocheting off the stone corridors around her.

  She smeared the gunk off her face as she ran, blinking it out of her eyes and spitting it from her mouth. Trying not to taste it, and not thinking about what it was. Dodging through side streets, looking for anything that she could see that she could climb up and back onto the roofs to make the jump again. Blood drenched bandages trailed behind her as she ripped them off as well.

  As an arm sneaked out from an alcove along one wall, knocking her onto her butt and winding her. Her attacker grabbed the back of her leathers and dragged her behind a wooden door to a dark dusty room. She gulped back air and whirled her arms behind her head to hit the person holding her clothes, but the grip was quickly dropped and she turned around only to see Perry smirking at her.

  "You could have been nicer about the help," Flora said with a glare. "I could have cut you when you scared me like that,"

  "Is that the thanks I get?" Perry said in a whisper.

  "Next time I am going to cut you," Flora said, dropping against the wall behind her.

  "Not one of your most graceful jumps I would say," Perry said pinching his nose.

  As the rustling of weapons reached Flora's ears she put a finger to her lips and waited in silence as a group of guards ran by. Both of their ears perked as they waited to see if more were coming. After a few moments, Flora breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Good thing the brightest of Merridan's citizens don't join the guard. They didn't even see the trail I left," Flora said as she relaxed. "So—you didn't actually see my jump did you?" Flora asked flinging muck off her legs and hands.

  Perry grinned. "If you had been only one panel of rooftops over you would have landed in the cleaner water you know," Perry's head swung to the door and his own hand crept up to his lips to silence Flora.

  Another group of soldiers hustled past as they waited in the hidden cleave in the wall. The door was a trick, the small space behind it was only a few feet wide on either side, only big enough for three people. It was a low-lifes hideaway, like many that they and other criminals had built around the city.

  The guards passed and Flora trucked off her saturated cloak, leaving it on the ground, in its state she didn't want to wash it, she would rather skimp to buy a new one. At least her leathers were easier to clean, the water ran right off them. She counted out her knives as she shucked more dirt on the floor. To her relief, she hadn't lost any, and none had been damaged by the grime except the one on her hip. She even still had Perry's ring.

  "Dragons help you if Thren finds out you got in trouble tonight," Perry said.

  "He will only find out if you tell him," Flora said, grabbing the edge of Perry's cloak to wipe off her knife. Perry grunted at her as he watched his cloak get filthy. "Sorry but you are the only clean thing in here," Flora said

  "If you aren't clever enough to survive the streets, I won't have to tell him. You will get an infection from the scum in your wounds and he will know. Or Lorcel will come crying back to us that you have been taken again and you know we will have to go deal with it," Perry said.

  "I didn't mean to get chased," Flora said putting her now shiny knife back on her hip.

  Perry paused. "Just be more careful, there is more than just you at stake here," he said.

  "Don't you think I know that Perry, I care about our brothers too," Flora said as a small rumble creak of the stones around them told of a small quake happening below their feet.

  "I know," Perry said, rubbing the front of his forehead.

  "Let's get out of this room, the small space doesn't help the smell," Flora said.

  Flora turned her back on him and opened the door, looking both ways, before crawling back onto the streets with Perry behind her. They headed back the way she had come running, following the same sewer trench that she had fallen into.

  Perry looked at her and Flora rolled her eyes. "I'm only going to tell him if it affects him. Otherwise, he is only going to stress himself out. Both him and Lorcel, honestly, those two are ridiculous," Flora said with a shake of her head.

  Perry was nodding his head, his lips pierced. "I'll give you some time to deal with it all."

  Flora was relieved as they quickly walked along, Flora could see where sewage entered the once clean water that was in the canal. Shortly after that that Flora felt a nudge on her shoulder, before hitting the water once again with a splash.

  "Hey!" Flora quietly yelled at him when she broke the surface.

  "You needed a bath," said Perry still grinning as he carried on walking. Flora dunked herself in the water again before climbing back out following along to find what sort of trouble their brothers had gotten into.

  Snatched

  Flora watched the dark shadowy forms of grey clouds pass in front of the night's full moon. Letting through only small glimmers of light to outshine the few lamps below, as she stopped
to catch her breath. Even at night the heat was relentless, causing her leathers to stick to her skin. It was cooler than the daylight hours, but only barely.

  She relaxed into the shadow of a chimney, stretching out her legs that had cramped as she had leapt the buildings. Dawson was on the street talking to another friend of his. They had been on the move for an hour now since she had escaped the slew of guards and sewage. The heat had already had her basically dry, enough for only her own sweat to cover he. With only the faintest hint of smell telling where she had been that night. However, that smell was covered by the sweet smell of flower petals, drifting up below.

  This elated her, as she perched on the roofs with butterflies tumbling in her stomach over the flower district in the third terrace. Or as she liked to think of it, her district. The place she came when sleep evaded her during the day and she had a moment to relax. She would hide between stalls. Breathing in their fresh scent as she watched the wealthy families around her purchase their goods for the day. Men buying bouquets and young girls tucking flowers behind their ears in the ever fading light. Lanterns were slowly being lit so that the city could really come alive.

  She knew each seller by name, but for all that, they only knew her as a familiar face. Flowers were rare goods in Caris, a plight had killed most of them off, or so she had heard. Here though, she flourished with the flowers. She kept an eye on Dawson, but if she had a moment she was going to slip down to the streets below.

  She had never talked to any of the sellers, but she smiled and admired their goods. In their own way they had come to accept her. She smiled at the memory of how many coins she lost here. Nevertheless, her eyes also searched for other thieves in the area, ready to pounce. Even breaking arms if she had to get the point across. Arms would heal she would tell them as they scurried off, but flowers were too precious to steal. She would be heartbroken if she lost the privilege of this district for any reason. Not when she already came here less often than she wanted to. Even the guards recognized her here, well they recognized her face, not knowing she was also a part of a Harriet's gang, thankfully.