by Tina Hunter
Great. So, he asked her to dress as a man and then told everyone she was a woman. Now she wasn’t sure how to act around these men. It was bad enough not knowing how to act around the man who killed her mother.
“Now that we’re all here, it’s time to get to work. I have to head to the brothel, but you four will get our transportation ready. The boats are waiting near the river’s edge. James knows where,” her uncle said, pointing at a tall, thin man with scars on his face. “Get the boats ready and wait for us under the Pearson’s pier.” Benjamin continued. She didn’t recognize the name but the other men nodded. “We’ll see you soon.”
He reached out to squeeze her shoulder and then he left. The weight of her mother’s blade still on her hip was a reminder and a promise of things to come.
“Come on,” James said, leading them out of town. It was a warm night, the perfect night to pull a job. So why did her stomach feel like it was about to jump out of her mouth?
They ended up at a property near her Uncle’s home. The dense forest made it difficult to get into and the crisscrossing trails, human and animal made, would make it easy to get lost. James, however, seemed to know exactly where he was going.
When the four of them finally made it to a clearing near the river that housed the two small boats, Lynn was sure the men around her would kill her. The silence from them was unnatural. They were just too quiet. Every other man she had worked with whom knew she was a girl had either tried to impress her or tried to prove he was better than her at something. These men were just following orders. Quietly. It was unnerving.
James motioned for her to grab one end of a boat, and they lifted it up into a carrying position. The other boat was being lifted in a similar manner, both to be carried to the nearby water. It was still so quiet.
In fact, when a squirrel let out a screech Lynn jumped and almost dropped her end. That caused James and the dark-haired man to chuckle.
“All right,” said James, who was holding up the other end of her boat, “Now I believe you’re a woman.” She rolled her eyes in response. Great, now they thought she was weak and easily scared.
“I don’t know,” said the dark-haired man from the other boat, “A real woman would have screamed or something.” He had an accent, similar to Brutus, and she wondered if they might come from the same area.
“I’m man enough to carry my weight of the boat and woman enough to make your life miserable should you bring up my gender again.” She kept her tone light and teasing. The men all nodded. She seemed accepted, but she couldn’t take that at face value. Besides, she’d be betraying them in a few short hours, anyway. She remained on alert.
Once the boats were in the water, she had the unwieldy task of trying to help paddle to the pier close to where they entered the river. Each boat could fit six people plus cargo. Steering was not an easy feat, but they still hid under the pier before the sun set behind the mountains.
“Now we wait,” said Dark Hair. Part of her wished she knew their names, but the other part of her wanted them to be nameless so it would be easier to betray them. It was bad enough she knew James’ name.
They whispered among themselves, small talk about this girl at the brothel or that meal at an inn, but she tried not to listen to any of it. The less she knew about them, the better.
Instead, she focused on her surroundings. The pier was old, falling apart in places and could be dangerous to walk on. However, it meant that no one had been coming out here regularly. A good hiding place. And the woods in the distance were just as thick here as they had been where they found the boats. The same property perhaps?
“Lynn?” she felt someone touch her shoulder to get her attention, and she turned to find James with his hand on her. The other two were staring at her expectantly.
“Pardon me?” she said.
“Told you she wasn’t paying attention,” the blond fellow sitting across from Dark Hair said.
James shrugged and took his other one off her shoulder.
“We were just wondering what your ability was since Benjamin is your uncle.” There was a touch of skepticism in his voice. So he didn’t really believe she was his niece. She wished she wasn’t either, but unfortunately, that wouldn’t help keep her safe for the time being. That was what she needed to focus on. Safety and opportunity.
“My ability isn’t important right now, is it?” she said with a casual smile. “But know that if the need arises, you’ll see what I can do.”
That seemed to satisfy the other two but James still looked at her with a curious smile. She smiled politely then turned her attention back to the forest. Her uncle and the other two should come soon. And the less time she spent with James and his friends, the safer she would be.
She felt on her wrist for her balance beads, neatly hidden under her jacket. She hoped that her abilities with them would be enough to satisfy anyone.
Finally, she heard movement in the forest and after a tense moment or two, she saw three figures emerge and walk onto the pier. It had to be her uncle and his men. She even managed to see the moonlight reflect off Renaldo’s glasses.
Her uncle let out a strange whistle to which James replied, “Here.”
A tall man with a military bearing pulled out a Light Crystal and shone it down on them from his place on the pier before waving her uncle and Renaldo into the boats. He kept his eyes on the forest. She couldn’t tell if he was concerned or just always on guard like that.
Uncle Ben got into her boat and came to sit near her. Lynn had to force her skin to stay calm instead of crawling at his nearness. James was watching her the whole time. What was his problem?
Lynn kept calm. Smiled nicely. Kept her cool. Or at least she hoped she was on the outside as much as she kept telling herself to in her mind.
As soon as Renaldo settled into the other boat, Mister Military hopped down to join him. So that left her alone with James and her Uncle. Lovely. Mister Military put the Light Crystal away leaving them once again in darkness.
“Ok,” Uncle Ben said after a moment, no doubt waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, “Hold on to something.” He leaned over the side of the boat and placed a single hand over the water behind and between both of the boats. She felt them rock as if something large had just dropped into the water and was making waves. Then the wave behind them grew and pushed them forward. She gripped the side of the boat and kept her eyes everywhere except on her Uncle or James. She knew they were both looking at her, she could feel the eyes on her skin.
The darkness on the water was oppressive. It hung on top of her, making it feel like the world was pushing down on her. Trying to drown her. Then the moon slipped out from behind a cloud and she could see again. She could see the other boat, see the people around her and the distant shore they were racing towards. Then the moon would hide away again, and she was stuck in the inky blackness once more.
She felt the boat slowing before she could see any change in the blackness. How could her uncle tell they were getting close?
“We’re getting shallower,” he stated in a whisper, “have to wait for the moonlight to show us where to shore up.”
Lynn trained her eyes on where she had last seen the shore and waited. They all waited. The boat slowed even more, and she hoped they didn’t crash. The shoreline was littered with cliff faces.
The moon peeked out at that moment, to show them they were seconds from crashing into one of those cliffs.
All movement from behind stopped, and a wave appeared in front of the boats to stop all forward motion. Even with all his magic they still scraped the rock face with the tips of the boats. Minor, considering what could have happened.
“This isn’t the right spot,” James whispered to Benjamin. The moon stayed out long enough for Lynn to see that the cliff ran for quite a distance in either direction. No, this was definitely not the spot she had seen on the map.
She looked back at the town across the river and couldn’t see it.
&nb
sp; No, wait. It was off in the distance, far to left of her vision.
“We’ve gone too far downriver,” she said, pointing at the lights of town.
Her uncle and the others turned to look.
“Well that is unfortunate,” her uncle said. The others were looking nervous.
“Well, at least we know which direction to go,” she said, trying to calm everyone’s fears. Scared men are dangerous men. Her uncle smiled at her with thanks.
“If that moonlight sticks around, I can get up there and look around?” she offered it knowing it might be a good idea to put some distance between her and them. And she did have her balance beads on.
Her uncle looked at her with concern and skepticism. She cocked her head to the side with a wink. “I am a thief after all. Scaling tall buildings is practically the same thing.”
“It would be advantageous, sir.” Mister Military said. Yep, he definitely acted like this all the time.
Her uncle looked at her again but finally nodded. She caught James staring at her too. She just smiled and climbed out of the boat. It was right against the side of the cliff which made grabbing hand- and footholds relatively easy.
In fact, the entire climb was easy, except for a very tense minute that the moon decided to hide again. She had frozen in fear against the cold, wet rock. She should have been able to climb up this, even in the dark, but there seemed to be something in the air that chilled her to the core with fear. Only once the moon came back out was she able to move again. Pulling herself over the edge of the cliff, she looked back down at the boats. It was enough of a distance that she would have serious doubts about jumping from the height.
She waved to let them know she was at the top then took off to scout the area. If she didn’t need them to get into the fort, she would leave them all down there. Unfortunately, that was not the plan tonight.
From her vantage point, she could see some distance towards where the fort would be. It was all dark forest and cliffs against the water. There would be nowhere to pull the boat into for a while. She leaned back over the cliff and waved her hand in the direction they were to go, trying to mime that she would meet them there. Her uncle nodded, so she hoped they had understood.
To keep up with, or ahead of the boats, she would have to run through the forest. Something she was not looking forward to. Visions of roots sticking out of the ground and causing her to break a bone, or several, made her pause for longer than she should have. Still, she eventually took off along the cliff edge, trying to keep her feet on the slick rock instead of on the uneven forest floor.
Once again she was thankful for the balance beads that kept her feet from slipping out from under her. The moonlight was cooperating as well, only disappearing for moments at a time instead of minutes. There were jut-outs and places where the cliff seemed to disappear into the forest, but mostly she could stay on the edge and keep an eye on the boats following her. They kept pace with her, no doubt her uncle’s doing. She hated that he was so courteous. Why couldn’t an evil man be evil all the time? Like Darkan. She had no problem hating Darkan and wanting to destroy him, but her uncle kept making it hard with his niceness. She touched the blade on her hip for reassurance. Just keep focused Lynn. Everything will be ok.
She noticed a light on the water. The closer she got to it, the more it looked like a fire, but there weren’t many boats who would risk a fire onboard. Even at night. Was it a signal? Had her uncle seen it? If it was soldiers, though, it would ruin her plans. Unless she could find her boys in the woods, maybe the three of them could break down the door and get in. The light on the water went out just as suddenly as it appeared. Focus on the ground, she reminded herself and stopped before she fell over a log. That would have been embarrassing, especially since she was pretending that this was her Inborn ability. She wanted to check to see how much light was left on her beads, but she didn’t dare stop. She’d just have to hope she had fed them enough earlier.
Finally, the cliffs began sloping down towards the water. She paused a moment at the top of a slope down to the edge the water and saw what she had been hoping against: A small boat tied to a tree on the shore. No doubt from Brutus and Teodor. How was she supposed to keep the others from finding out about them now?
A bobbing light in the forest seemed to answer her question. Two soldiers came out into the moonlight and investigated the boat. They really were on their game tonight.
She quickly signaled for her uncle’s boats to stay back. Then she crouched down to watch the soldiers. They pulled the boat up by the rope onto the ground where they proceeded to damage it with stomps and kicks. One even tried to stab his sword through the bottom so that no one would go anywhere in that boat again.
Lynn looked over the cliff and tried to figure out a way to get her uncle’s crew up the cliff without losing the boats. Her uncle signaled for her to come back down, and short of any other plan, she complied. A quick check told her she had less than half of her magic left.
It was harder going down than going up but she still managed it without a slip. When she jumped into the boat, making it rock dangerously, her uncle made counter waves in the water to steady them. He grinned at her.
“You’ve been holding out on me, my dear,” he said. “If I’d known you could climb like a monkey, I would have put you to work sooner.”
She acted shy and smiled sweetly, hoping he would stop the praise soon and move onto the plan.
“So, what did you see that stopped you in your tracks?” he asked.
“Soldiers,” she replied. “Two of them with torches, checking the coastline. It’s the only break in the cliff wall for a while, so I suppose it made sense to station someone here.” Only a small lie, really. They would be standing guard now.
Benjamin and Mister Military exchanged a look.
“I would recommend climbing, then. You,” Military pointed at her, “can carry a rope up and the rest of us can use it to climb. We can also affix it to the boats to ensure they don’t float away. We can only hope by the time we are ready to come back we can use the cove instead.”
That was a good plan, actually. Lynn nodded in agreement and watched as the other men rummaged around in the boats to prepare.
James was the one who pulled out a rope and handed it to Lynn. He seemed calmer, or less interested. She supposed that was better than suspicious. She took her end of the rope and prepared herself for the climb. To make it easier, she tied the rope to her belt, the one currently carrying her mother’s blade, and set her hands on the cliff face.
It was much harder than before. The magic in her balance beads was fading and she would soon have to rely on her own skills with no magical aid. She went up slower, more carefully, and made it up with no slips or falls.
Once at the top, she tied off the rope to a large tree, making sure the knot was tight, and then signaled to the boat. She took the moment to lie on the ground to slow her heart rate. A quick glance at her beads told her what she already felt. The magic in the beads was gone. Spent with her climbing and the sprint through the forest. If she was really lucky, she wouldn’t need to perform any more feats of Movement. If she wasn’t, well she didn’t dare risk charging it when she was already feeling drained. She heard movement on the cliff and scurried over to see if whoever was climbing needed a hand up. A hand reached up in the darkness of a cloud-covered moment and she reached out to take it. She pulled her uncle right up over the edge and when she saw his face she was proud of the fact that she resisted the urge to drop him.
“Thank you, my dear,” he said, slightly out of breath. “Now I would like to know,” he continued, breathing heavy, “if that was your Inborn ability on the wall and you lied about touching the necklace, or if you have some concealed magic you just drained for us?”
Stupid, smart man.
She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal her balance beads. He grabbed her arm to examine them more closely.
“Very clever,” he said releasing her arm.
He reached into a breast jacket pocket and pulled out a stick of some sort. “Eat this. I told them you were just getting tired. They’ll expect you to be able to do that again if need be so we must find a way to charge your beads.”
The stick turned out to be jerky of some meat, something she really would need if she was an Inborn who was just tired. Inborn magic needed to be fed too. Why did he have to be so nice to her when he was so awful to her mother? When he believed that he could kill whoever he wanted to get what he needed?
More movement on the cliff, and soon James was being pulled over the edge by Lynn and her Uncle.
“You made that look much easier than it was,” he said with a teasing half smile. Great, now he liked her. She did not need his newfound attachment to make things harder for her.
Slowly everyone else from the boats made their way up the cliff, Mister Military being last.
“The boats are secure,” he told her uncle before pulling out a round hunk of metal from his pocket... no, it was a timepiece. When he opened it up, she could see all the gears clicking away inside. It was a much smaller version of the pieces she’d seen in the homes she robbed. She’d wanted one ever since.
“Our men should be in the boats by now. We will have to hurry if we want to take advantage of the signal,” he said.
“You heard him,” Benjamin said, “It’s time to move.”
Lynn stayed in the middle of the pack, making sure she was helping anyone who stumbled on roots. It would help her cover though it meant that she needed to be extra careful of her feet. They snuck around the cove under the cover of the forest and proceeded toward the fort in silence.
They heard the horn before they could even see the fort. One long, single blow. The first warning for any boat that got too close to the fort. It would alert everyone in the fort, but they wouldn’t be too concerned until the third warning. That was when they would move in.
The fort wall appeared in the darkness right as they heard the second horn. The wall ran from the cliffs to their left all the way to the tower on the river’s edge to their right. A good ten-minute walk from end to end.