by Logan Jacobs
“Well, I saw you dancing earlier,” the nasally voice retorted, and I saw Maaren’s shoulders go tense with annoyance.
“I had a good leader,” she replied but didn’t turn around.
“I’m a good leader,” the voice replied.
“Look, I’m here with my boyfriend,” Maaren responded before she crushed herself to my side. I slid a hand around her waist as I tried to ignore the way her voluptuous breasts pressed into my ribcage. Now was not the time to get distracted by my penis.
“Babe, we gotta go,” I drawled to the hunter as Mary and the woman stepped down from the auction stage and headed toward the door.
Maaren and I rushed off as we completely ignored the man’s protests. Then we weaved through the crowd of people as we closed in on Mary until we were right behind her and her guest.
I slowed up our pace and put my arm around Maaren’s waist casually. Ariette gave us a nod from the door as she blended into the crowd and got almost right next to Mary and her companion. Our two targets split off from the crowd once we made it down the steps and onto the driveway. They made a beeline for a black sedan with windows tinted so dark I couldn’t see inside.
“Kal,” Ariette said into the comms as we dropped back a little further. “She’s getting into a black sedan, newer model, license plate oh-four-seven-c-n-three-m.”
“Got it,” Kalista replied into our ears. “Headed that way.”
Maaren and I started to head out of the gate, but Ariette stayed behind.
“I’ll be there in a sec,” the elf said. “I just want to make sure she gets--”
Just as Mary’s companion put her hand on the door handle to open it for the elderly woman, the entire car erupted in a mass of flames and debris as it exploded. The force of it knocked both Maaren and I to the ground, and I just barely caught sight of the old woman’s tiny body as it flew into the air.
My ears rang from the explosion, and for a moment I couldn’t hear a single thing. Everything was muffled, like I was underwater, and my vision flickered dangerously since I had struck my head against the concrete. The upper part of my bicep stung, and I looked down to see that it had a shallow gash across it. As I pulled myself to a standing position, the ringing started to recede, and I shook my head to clear it.
Screams emanated from the crowd as Maaren and I stumbled to our feet. Ariette was already up and had run over to the car. Mary’s charred body lay a few feet away from the vehicle, and her companion’s body was nowhere to be found. The smell of burnt flesh and blood assaulted my nostrils, and my stomach turned at the sight.
“Everyone, stay back!” Ariette hollered to the crowd as people surged forward to get a look. A few people that had been near the explosion tried to recover as they staggered to their feet or crawled across the ground away from the fire, and someone called for an ambulance.
“Where’s the egg?” Maaren asked frantically as we reached Ariette. Glass shards from the car windows lie around the explosion area.
“You don’t think it could have been destroyed, do you?” I asked.
“No way,” Ariette replied as she started to search through the rubble. “That case is way too strong. Arachne webs, remember?”
As I surveyed the awful damage and the dead bodies around me, a swift movement caught my attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a body push through the crowd of aghast and sickeningly excited onlookers. The person ran in the opposite direction of everyone else, down the driveway. And then, I caught the gleam of something golden in his arms.
The egg.
“Guys,” I shouted, and Ariette looked up from her search. Maaren had bent down to help one of the party guests with a gash on his forehead and a rather dazed expression on his face.
“Did you find it?” Ariette called hopefully.
“I spotted the guy who took it,” I cried as I pointed to our fleeing suspect. “Let’s go!” I kept my eyes on the figure as he dashed toward the gates and pushed through all the people.
I started to run after the thief, Maaren hot on my heels, but Ariette’s voice sounded behind me.
“You two go!” Ariette cried, and I glanced over my shoulder to see the elf wave us on. “I’ll stay here and help the injured.”
There was no time to argue, so I just nodded and picked up my pace. The crowd of people was so thick I lost my focus on the figure as we pushed people aside.
“Sorry, excuse me,” Maaren repeated behind me over and over as I shoved people out of my way. Most of the guests just continued to stare in awe at the wreckage of the bomb. Not a single person seemed to be interested in actually helping.
“Hey, watch it,” a stout dwarf growled at me as I all but ran him over. I didn’t even spare him a glance. The thief had reached the gates now, and I couldn’t be bothered with the angry little guy.
“Milton, did you see his face?” Maaren asked as we finally made it to the edge of the crowd and headed through the gates.
“No,” I panted as I pumped my arms faster. “He … had on a dark blue suit, though.”
We hit the sidewalk and whirled around in search of the thief. Sirens sounded in the distance, and the flash of blue and red lights lit up the sky a few blocks away.
“He won’t be headed in that direction,” I said as I cocked my head toward the sound.
“There!” Maaren exclaimed and pointed across the street.
Halfway down the block, the thief had stopped next to a car. He had turned to watch as the ambulance and police cars pulled up to the driveway, and I could see that he wore a wicked grin on his face. But he was distracted by the mayhem and didn’t see us. I acted quickly.
“Duck,” I ordered the hunter.
Maaren and I immediately crouched behind a car and slowly started to creep down the block toward the thief. I wanted nothing more than to take this guy down, especially after all the death and pain he had just caused, but I knew we needed to bide our time and let him lead us to the top of this criminal food chain.
As we drew closer, I noticed that the thief was a muscular man, in a dark blue suit, with a clean-shaven face and well-done hair. As he turned to amble down the street calmly, egg in hand, I saw two pointed ears laid flat against his head.
“He’s an elf,” I whispered to Maaren.
“I really hope he doesn’t just lead us back to the sewers,” Maaren groaned, and then we straightened up a little as we got farther from the mansion.
“Guys, where are you?” Kal demanded in our ear. “Are you okay? What the hell happened?”
“Maaren and I are following the thief,” I replied quietly. “He put a bomb in Mary Ignus’ car and used the explosion as a distraction. I don’t even know how he managed to do it so quickly. It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
“At least fifteen minutes have passed since she won the auction, so I suppose they could have had it ready… they’d still need access to the cars. Let me check the cameras and see if I can find anything,” Kal replied.
“I’m back here with the victims,” Ariette said in our ear. “There are a lot of injured people, and the police are running around like headless chickens.”
“I’ll track your signal, Milton, Maaren,” Kal responded, “but I’ll give you a fair warning right now. If you guys try to hop in my van covered in feces and sewer water, you’re walking home.”
The elf turned a corner, and Maaren and I sprinted behind another car. He didn’t notice us at all as he paused near a manhole cover.
“Aw man, you have to be kidding me,” Maaren grumbled as the elf removed the manhole cover and stepped inside.
“Thieves never kid,” I said sincerely, before I rolled my neck and braced myself for what we were about to face. “Come on, let’s go jump into a sewer. Should be just as fun as the last time.”
Chapter 14
Without a word, Maaren kicked off her shoes and then pulled off her dress and dropped it to the ground beside the manhole. I gulped as I stared at the shapely fae in her bra and panties, a
nd before I could comment on how amazing she looked, she shrugged.
“This dress was not made for walking through sewer water, and neither are these shoes,” Maaren said with a small smile. “I want to wear the outfit again, and there is no way that is happening if I wear it down there.” She keyed her comm. “Kalista, we’re going down, can you have someone pick up my dress and shoes?”
“Sure,” the dwarf exclaimed.
“Thanks.” Then, without another word, Maaren dropped into the sewer first, and I heard her stifle a gag as she hit the water softly. The smell was predictably revolting, but somehow I was almost used to it.
I guess that’s what happens when you get covered from head to toe in sewer juice.
I stepped down onto the ladder and pulled the manhole cover carefully back on top, and then I climbed down and mentally prepared myself for the nastiness that was the Jefferson City sewers.
Immediately, the acrid scent hit my nostrils, and I tried to breathe through my mouth… except that didn’t really help. My Fae senses were so strong that the stench of the sewers literally tasted like a combo of piss, shit, and whatever that tangy taste was against my tongue. I resigned myself to breathing through my nose, only because that seemed to be the better option. At least I didn’t feel like I was on the verge of hurling with every breath this time around.
“You know, if you’d wanted to wear the dress down here, I think the guild could spare you another one,” I whispered as I looked down either end of the tunnel. “It’s the least they could do for making us go down into the sewers again.”
Suddenly, my words were cut off by a light blinking to life. It was fairly far away from our position, but I could see the shimmer of the golden basilisk egg in its yellow halo.
“It’s not worth the risk,” Maaren breathed, and I could imagine the look of absolute disgust on her face. “I’m going to make these idiots pay for putting a home base in the sewers. I mean, who does that?”
“These guys do,” I grumbled as I felt along the walls in the dark. “It’s actually pretty smart, if you think about it. Who the hell would ever come down here voluntarily?”
“You’ve got me there,” the hunter admitted.
The sides of the sewer were rough and textured, but I couldn’t feel a pipe on these walls. We had no other option, we had to walk through the water.
“What are you doing?” Maaren asked in horror, and I could just barely make out her dark shapely figure in the blackness of the tunnels.
“Last time there was a huge pipe we used to walk on the walls,” I hissed back, “but I can’t find any this time.”
“Lucky us,” Maaren muttered. “I guess we’ll have to walk through the sludge and the shit and the-- You know what? I’m not even gonna think about it.”
The thief’s light had grown smaller as he pushed on, and Maaren grabbed my arm to urge me forward. Carefully, we trudged through the thick sewer water, and I tried my best to move stealthily through the water. The last thing I needed to do was make a huge splash or a big ripple that would give us away.
I found myself thankful once again for the Fae suit. It seemed to repel most of the sewer water, and my pants didn’t feel nearly as soaked as they had last time.
Maaren, on the other hand, wasn’t quite so lucky since she was practically naked as she walked through the water. I could hear her frustration in the way each breath that puffed out from her lips. I couldn’t really blame her though. Sewer water wasn’t exactly a good color on the fae.
The thief’s light bounced down the tunnel for what felt like hours, but in reality it was probably only about ten minutes. I didn’t want to check my watch and give us away. As we crept along, I kept my ears alert and peeled.
I really hoped the hydra that I’d killed was the only thing that was down here.
Then, the light ahead of us bobbed to the right and disappeared.
“Oh shit,” Maaren muttered, but she didn’t pick up speed. She knew as well as I did that we’d make too much noise that way.
“Wait, can you fly us above this with your Hand?” I said suddenly as I realized that we’d overlooked a brilliant plan.
“Milton, that’s genius!” she whisper-shouted. “But I-- I don’t know if I can sustain us for long enough to catch this guy.”
I put my hands on the fae’s shoulders and looked her deep in the eyes. Or, at least, the part of her dark figure that I thought were her eyes. “We have to try,” I implored.
Before I could say another word, my body was elevated into the air rather suddenly, and I forced my feet to still themselves as I levitated toward the ceiling. Then, my head bumped into the top of the sewer.
“Ow,” I muttered. “Too high.”
“Sorry, sorry,” the hunter replied.
Then, the air that suspended me turned my body around so that it was parallel to the roof, and Maaren floated up to join me. After a brief moment, the hunter lifted her hand, and we both started to move forward rather quickly.
“I really wish you’d been here the last time,” I sighed. “It could have saved me many hours of bathing. I swear I can still taste the water that got in my mouth.”
“And you still let me kiss you?” the hunter whispered playfully.
“Sorry, you sort of made me forget about it,” I chuckled under my breath.
Pockets of air pushed up against my body and carried me forward gracefully. There was a slight whistle of wind in my ears, and I put my hands out just a bit so I could catch the breeze and feel the way it lifted the hair on my arms. I flipped myself over, completely cushioned by the air pockets, and a smile lit up my face as I watched the dark tunnel ceiling pass by.
When we hit the space where the light had disappeared, I looked to the right to see that there was just a connecting tunnel. And there, twenty feet ahead, basked in the light of his own flashlight, was the thief. Most importantly, there was the basilisk egg.
“To the right,” I whispered, and Maaren swung our bodies around to fly up behind the man..
We slid through the air silently for a few moments longer, and then we saw a dim yellow glow far ahead in the tunnel. It seemed like the tunnel opened up to some sort of larger chamber, and light leaked in from the outside world. The light looked like it was coming up from the bottom, just below where the tunnel dropped off. As we got closer, the rush of water sounded off the walls of the tunnel and echoed strangely. Just before the thief stepped into the circle of light, he stopped and called out in front of him.
“Yo, guys, I got the egg,” he hollered. “I need a basket.”
“A basket?” I muttered aloud. “Why does he need that?
“Let’s find out.” Maaren flew us a little closer and then pressed us up against the ceiling as tightly as she could. Finally, we got a clear view of what the guy had stopped for.
The tunnel ended rather abruptly and opened into a huge chasm, and the murky brown water poured downward like a sickly waterfall. It was almost like a huge, empty room in the shape of a column, and it was far enough down that we couldn’t see the floor of the chamber. On the other end of the chasm, three more tunnels poured their own murky brown sewer water over the sides. From what little I knew about the sewers, I guessed this was some sort of pumping chamber.
The elven thief clung to a bar on the wall of the sewer and fought against the flowing current as he watched a pulley system swing into action. The pulley was mounted to the top of our tunnel, and it seemed like someone far below us must have been pulling on the cables. Moments later, a wicker basket that looked like it belonged on a hot-air balloon rose up into the tunnel opening, and the thief clambered inside. The cables of the pulley started to move in the opposite direction with a mechanical squeal, and the wicker basket disappeared down into the chasm and took the thief with it.
“Let’s go have a look,” Maaren whispered as she flew us right to the edge of the sewer tunnel.
The roar of water sounded in my ears as I peeked over the edge, and for a moment, I c
ouldn’t hear anything else over it. The water fell down about fifty feet before it pooled together into a circular pond that ran off to the left. Opposite us, the other three waterfalls did the same, and while all of that was actually quite spectacular, it was what was in the center of the pond that caught my attention.
A cement island rose from the murky brown water. It was round, flat, and probably twenty feet across. A huge bonfire at its center lit up the space as well as added some much needed warmth to the chill dampness of the sewers. Four men sat around the flames in camp chairs, and I could just guess that one of them was Razor. The merry band of thieves drank beer and munched on pretzels as they carried on their rowdy conversation.
“Get us in a little closer,” I ordered the blue-skinned hunter. “Maybe I can hear what they’re saying if we’re not right next to these roaring rivers of shit.”
The fae nodded, and we crept a few feet closer. I tried to concentrate, and I focused my Fae hearing on the group of men and their words.
Now that we were a bit closer, I could make out more of the scene below. Razor was definitely present, and in a huge cage next to him was the stolen baby griffin, only now it was the size of a small pony. Damn, magical creatures grew fast.
The cage containing the beast was much too small for the creature and barely gave it enough room to move. It looked sad and dejected as it sat, whined, and stared up at the men with huge eyes. My heart instantly felt heavy with sadness and anger, and my hands curled into fists involuntarily.
“Hey, Razor, could you get that thing to shut up?” the elven thief hollered as he stepped out of the wicker basket and onto the cement island.
“I’ve been trying for two days, Cirsen,” Razor grunted back angrily.
He kicked a foot out and rattled the griffin’s crate to try to get him to be quiet. The griffin let out a squawk as his cage shuddered, but then he went silent after that.
“I’m gonna kill these guys,” I growled to Maaren under my breath.
“Thank you,” Cirsen said jovially. “You might have a future as an animal trainer.”