by J. Hepburn
Orianna, finally, relaxes and allows Kalle to see her smile once more. "Do not forget yourself again, Kalle. I may not be from the desert, but there is in my veins desert blood."
She turns away to finish her preparations, leaving Kalle looking suitably contrite.
"If I may ask," Kalle begins, cautiously if not timidly, "at Gabrio's party, you moved and spoke like a woman from the heart of the Empire. And you said yourself you had not been in Molos before. Yet—"
He trails off, seeking the next word, until Orianna takes pity on him.
"I have seen such women and men both, met with and talked with them," Orianna says, with such simple finality and such surprise the question needed to be asked, that Kalle seems cowed into silence.
Orianna picks up a final black garment, wrapping it around her head as a mantle, then over her face to reveal only her eyes. She turns to look at Kalle. "You wear a veil? That is an assassin's trick? I think I shall wear this."
Orianna turns away from the mirror, moving with fluid grace as her legs, upon which she had been kneeling, end up crossed in front of her. She ties light boots to her feet. Kalle fails to fill silence with words.
Orianna stands, exposing her face once more. When she rapidly slips multiple knives inside her robes, even Kalle looks impressed.
"Now you have met me. Kindly say your piece and return the key," she says, standing tall and proud, with a fierce flash in her eyes.
Kalle rises to his feet, seeming to gather himself together as he does so until he is once more poised, self-assured, and cocky. Then he bows deeply, his eyes dropping to the floor.
"My lady Orianna," he says, "please accept my humblest apologies for having interrupted your evening. I trespassed in ignorance, I stole from you unintentionally, and I swear myself to correct my mistake and assist you in achieving your goal."
He holds out his hand and uncurls his fingers to reveal an elaborate key lying on his palm.
Smiling faintly, she reaches out with graceful, delicate-seeming fingers to daintily pluck the key from his hand.
The key disappears from her hand as smoothly as it had appeared in his.
"Now, shall we go hunting?" she asks, refastening her mantle.
Kalle's grin returns. "Give me a kiss for luck," he says teasingly.
Orianna's eyes do not need the rest of her face to reveal emotions. Kalle almost steps back defensively before she reaches up, tugs the fabric aside, then pulls Kalle into a fierce but brief kiss upon his lips.
"Be careful, Kalle," she says as she replaces the fabric, leaving him looking torn between surprise and delight. "Or Tiglis will think you were insincere about your affections for her."
Assault on Gabrio's House
Orianna is as fast, and as nimble, as Zerris. Although every movement Orianna makes is Orianna, not Zerris, she has lost no ability. But she has gained gracefulness, which she secretly hopes Kalle notices.
They reach the Merchants' Quarter quickly. Here, the houses occupy the space of as many as ten of those in Zerris's part of Saradakh, and are designed as a square around a great central courtyard. Wetlander influences are visible as elaborate external murals, balconies, or even large windows.
But roofs are flat, and easily reached.
Kalle, whose previous visit here had gained him knowledge of these rooftops, leads Orianna to a roof from where they can see enough of Gabrio's house to be able to plan. Alone among all the rooftops around them, Gabrio's has guards visible. Among all the doorways along this long and wide avenue, Gabrio's has two guards standing to attention outside it. Clearly, the incident at the party still rankles.
In the Merchants' Quarter, there are many who have built small gardens or additional courtyards upon their roofs for nighttime entertainment. Gabrio's neighbour has such a rooftop garden, allowing Kalle and Orianna to hide behind a potted palm. Gabrio, who came from the wetlands and made an effort to become a man of Molos, has kept his roof clear, allowing the armed men upon it to be outlined against even the light from a half moon.
"Four guards," Orianna hisses, in a voice that will not carry farther than Kalle's ears. "Not even Gabrio has so many guards that he can spare four to patrol the roof at once. Two I have seen when it is known a merchant has a new shipment in, but never four at once. He has hired more."
"They will not be familiar with his house or its routines," Kalle muses.
"No, and he will leave his own guards inside, where they are less likely to come to harm and more likely to be trusted."
Kalle laughs softly. "And those on the roof will be less loyal to a temporary master, should it come to blows."
"Which it will not," Orianna snaps.
"Gods willing," Kalle mutters. "How were you planning on entering the second time?"
"There is a street behind the house, where waste is taken away and deliveries are made," Orianna responds. "In that wall is one door with a solid lock, also imported, that nobody in Molos knows how to open. It is monitored by guards, but the lock makes them lazy."
Kalle nods. He is serious now, no joking or grinning. He has not pulled his veil over his face, but Orianna can see no flash of teeth and barely even any glimmer of pale-blue eyes.
"You have reached an arrangement about the door?"
Orianna shakes her head. "I have a key. It took many careful years to arrange, and involved bribing no staff or smiths. There is such a way into the home of all rich merchants in Molos."
She can just see Kalle raise his eyebrows.
"'Years'?" he asks. "How long have you been planning this?"
"Zerris has targeted the Egg since he first discovered that houses are more lucrative than picked pockets. It has been a good exercise," Orianna says, her eyes fixed on Gabrio's house. "All he needed was his fence to have a buyer. But he has many such keys, to many such houses. I am here now because Zerris is thorough."
"Ah." Kalle nods again. "I can reach one of the outside windows and enter without being seen—and am sure you could too—but should it be needed, in order to let you in, I would need to find my way down to the back door. I am not familiar with the house. Let us hope your door is not also barred. I was afraid we would have to bribe staff."
Orianna shakes her head emphatically. "Only as an absolute last resort. I do not wish to be seen. I cannot rely on someone not changing their mind, or getting their timing wrong, or having their own deception discovered."
"Once inside?"
"You follow me. I have memorised the inside of the house, and seen much of it already. There should be few guards patrolling, but there may be some servants. The Egg is kept in a vault underground, in one wall of a treasury. The treasury itself has no door, and I can now open the vault. I would appreciate it if you waited until after we have the Egg before seeking your own targets."
Kalle nods. "Lead on, then."
Orianna takes them back to ground level, then from street to street in a series of rushes until they are creeping along the base of Gabrio's walls.
Once within sight of the door, Orianna stops to listen intently as her gaze rakes the surrounding walls and rooftops. Kalle, a mere patch of shadow behind her, leaves her to lead in her own time.
She slips forward to the door, leaning her head against it for more intense listening. She raises her hand in a "wait" gesture.
After many silent minutes, Orianna introduces some oil into the lock from a small can, oils the key as well, then eases the lock open. It is not silent, but not very loud.
They both strain their ears to listen again. Orianna waits several more minutes before easing the door open. The hinges are all internal, but Gabrio's house is well maintained and they do not squeak much.
They find themselves in a storage room of sorts.
There is little light inside Gabrio's house. Kalle has his veil drawn, so Orianna cannot begin to guess how he can see at all. She herself has to creep by feel as much as sight, too afraid of bumping something and creating a noise to entirely trust her own considerable skill with darkness.
>
They see no patrolling guards at all, nor any on station.
Orianna frowns. Gabrio's walls are solid and his doors well-guarded, true, but this luck seems too wild to last.
"Gabrio has placed all his guards upon the outside," Kalle murmurs in her ear, making her heart nearly leap into her mouth, "leaving none to patrol his halls."
"All? Possible, but unlikely," she breathes in response.
Orianna varies neither her caution nor her silent footsteps as she continues on into Gabrio's house.
Their luck holds, and they meet nobody before reaching the staircase leading down to the treasury.
Most houses in Molos have a storage room underground. For the poorest, it is often merely a hole underneath a trapdoor, lined with shelves and with enough room for one person, who descends via a ladder.
In the most opulent houses, it is an underground grotto used for storing riches as well as food.
Gabrio's house, which is far older than he, has two such cellars: one for food, accessible via a trapdoor in the kitchens, and the other, a cave full of riches. The entrance to that cave was guarded during the party, for only select guests were allowed down the tiled stairs to marvel at the grotto's contents, but it has no door to lock. Locks are rare inside houses in Molos, where none are permitted entrance unless they are trusted, and where no invited guest would violate the conventions of hospitality. The paranoia of the jealous rich is usually strong enough to ensure one locking vault for the most desired of valuables, but the fact that Gabrio has a locking desk, let alone a safe, in his bedroom says much about his life before coming to Molos.
There is no guard at the head of the staircase, but light from many lanterns shines out of Gabrio's cellar. Orianna creeps down the narrow stone tunnel towards the decorated arch that leads into the grotto itself, but freezes before reaching the bottom.
Kalle cannot see into the cellar from the staircase, but he does not need her signal to know the vault itself is guarded.
Orianna slips back to the top of the stairs so they can put their heads together.
"The vault is built into the left wall." Orianna's voice is barely more than a breath. "One guard I could see, standing at attention on the side of the door. I suspect a partner. Walls lined with goods."
"So we need to kill?" There is more teasing than bloodlust in Kalle's voice.
Orianna sighs. "Unless you see another course to silence them."
"I can render a man unconscious for the space of several hours, but doing so to both, without the other raising a cry, will be difficult indeed. Even if you distract the second, he may hear something, or turn his head at the wrong moment. At least one of us may have to kill."
Orianna groans, but cannot see another way.
"If there is one guard, leave him to me. If there are two, do what you must," Kalle says.
Orianna sighs again. "Very well."
"Is there any chance you are dressed like the servants?"
Orianna just laughs softly. Then she rearranges her mantle to leave her face uncovered. "But I may be able to distract them. Will you be able to get close?"
Kalle lifts his veil just enough to let her see him grin, then holds up a long, thin length of pipe. "Distract them, and I will not need to get close."
Orianna takes his jaw to pull him into a soft kiss. "For luck."
Kalle pulls her back into a second kiss. "For certainty," he says.
Orianna leads him down the stairs with a faint smile upon her lips, which part to let her tongue run over them quickly. Orianna has far more licence than Tiglis to flirt and is enjoying this freedom immensely, but she is not ignoring that Kalle is not doing his suit with Tiglis any favours.
Objects in gold and silver, and statues and paintings from throughout the Empire, line the walls not in any neat, organised way, but in the haphazard jumble of a bandit's cave. The grotto reveals not just Gabrio's wealth, but that he is so wealthy he is able to be careless with it. Orianna despises him with a passion.
She leans forward just enough to be able to see the guard, then glances back at Kalle, who gives her a single nod.
She composes herself before stepping out.
There are indeed two guards. Their eyes lock on her instantly. She looks around wide-eyed, giggles, then rushes on light feet over to a mirror mounted in silver worked to resemble vine leaves. "Oh, how lovely!"
The guards share an expression of acute astonishment before one of them hurries towards her.
Orianna admires her face in the mirror, turning this way and that, then skips on.
Orianna needs the guards conflicted and uncertain. Inside the house, with no commotion heard from upstairs, someone who does not look like a thief (and how indeed could a thief possibly gain entrance?) must be a guest. The guards will have been told of no guest, but Orianna knows of no house in Molos where guards are thoroughly briefed on their master's (or, indeed, mistress's) recreations. She is betting Gabrio could have invited half of Molos's prostitutes to his bedroom without lowly guards getting told.
She darts further along the pile of goods, to a painted vase. "So beautiful!"
She does not look like a prostitute, she knows. She is wearing too much, and behaving like a rich man's spoiled daughter. All to her benefit; a guard who behaves the wrong way could find his career cut short—probably via his neck.
She is reassured when he settles for, "Are you lost, my lady?"
Orianna turns the full force of her smile upon him, feeling a secret glee to see him swallow involuntarily. "Oh, Gabrio has such lovely things! I could not sleep for needing to see!"
The guard looks reassured. "I do apologise, my lady, I was not informed you may be touring the house."
Orianna laughs. She glances past the guard, her eyes opening wider. "Oh! Is your friend all right?"
The guard jerks around, hand going to the hilt of his sword, which makes it much easier for Orianna to draw her longest dagger and employ it to open his throat from behind.
Kalle, blowpipe once more hidden about his person, and Orianna, purloined key in hand, arrive at the vault together.
Orianna steps over the fallen body of the second guard with her attention fixed on the door.
The door is an iron-bound slab of ironwood. Set into it is a great metal plate holding handles, each with its own lock, all arranged in a square. Orianna begins muttering under her breath as she stares intently at the door.
"How many traps does this door have?" Kalle asked.
"I do not know!"
Orianna inserts the key into the bottom left lock, twists it clockwise, then turns the handle on the top left anticlockwise.
"How did you get the secret?" Kalle asks.
"It is a secret!"
She opens two of the other locks, turning the key anticlockwise and the handles alternately anticlockwise and clockwise, but ignores the final one. She turns the top left handle the other way, then the bottom right, then the top right. When she heaves on the door, it cracks open. The hinges are oiled, but the door is so massive it takes their combined strength to move it. The vault is not deep. It holds large chests, sacks, and a small wooden chest on a shelf.
Orianna seizes the chest, moving away from the vault to squat on the floor. She pulls out her lockpicks, then freezes. Horror spreads through her.
"What is it?" Kalle asks. He had been gazing longingly upon the riches in the vault, but has kept one eye on Orianna.
"This lock!" she says hoarsely. "I cannot pick this! It needs a key like the vault!"
"Pig-fucker!" Kalle spits. "Can we break it open?"
Orianna shakes her head rapidly. "No, this chest has to be undamaged. And I have to confirm the Egg is inside!"
"Gabrio will have that key upon his person," Kalle says.
Orianna glares up at him. "If you do not have it already, I am sure you are correct," she says, her voice like lime juice dripped onto cut skin.
Kalle affects a chastened bow. "Should we check his desk and safe once more, in c
ase he locks it away while he is sleeping?"
"That may be wise, if we can avoid waking him," Orianna says grudgingly. "Either way, we need to pay our host a visit."
Kalle looks at the two guards. "Do we need to hide these bodies?" he asks as Orianna rises to her feet with the chest cradled against her belly.
Orianna shrugs. "We have seen no guards patrolling. In any case, an alarm would be raised immediately if they were found missing from their posts."
"Then we need speed," Kalle says.
*~*~*
They return to the top of the stairs, where Orianna hesitates.
Kalle moves next to her, bending his head towards hers, but says nothing when the sound Orianna heard is repeated, louder.
Orianna leans against Kalle, ostensibly to put her mouth next to his ear.
"The guard captain is doing his rounds," she murmurs.
Kalle nods sharply and begins to move away, towards the footsteps.
Orianna seizes his elbow in a painful grip. "Do not kill him!" she whispers fiercely.
Kalle jerks his head around towards her.
"The more death this night, the more angry the Duke will be, the more his guards will rattle their sabres," Orianna hisses.
Kalle shrugs. "Very well, I will not kill him," he hisses back. "Just for your sake."
She pulls him into a quick kiss, through her cloth and his silk, then pats his cheek fondly. "Thank you."
He steps back to throw a courtly bow. "My lady."
Orianna, blushing hotly behind her wrapped mantle, is barely able to see where he goes.
The guard's footsteps are almost upon where she is hiding. With only the cellar behind her, she readies a blade and settles herself to strike.
She hears a soft grunt of surprise, a stumble, and the slow collapse of a large body wearing a cuirass.
She darts forward. The guard—not the captain after all—is sprawled in the hallway.
"What are you doing to them?" she hisses at the darkness.
"Assassins know many secrets, many herbs, and many ways to prepare them," Kalle whispers in her ear, making her jump but also shiver. "Shall we move on?"
They move through the house with more haste this time. No light or sound betrays any other wakeful bodies.