by Anthology
“In the economic sense too,” the merchant added. “An entire untapped market—and we’re in the best position to reach it. Once the ambassadorial team arrives, my caravans will be right behind them. As will most of the others in Raleigh, I imagine.”
“And as a member of that ambassadorial team, allow me to say that you have my full support!” said Orthlo. “Here’s to new opportunities!”
As he rose his glass, his other hand leaned against the bush behind him. Jadie moved up behind him and let her hand touch the leaves of that bush. Grab his hand, Jadie told the bush. Just a few branches. Come on. She smiled to herself. It’ll be fun.
The bush slowly shifted, Orthlo’s hand slipping inside the bush as a few of its branches rearranged themselves. Orthlo, in the middle of toasting, said nothing.
“Excuse me!” said Jadie, stepping between them with her tray of drinks. “More sweet wine?”
“I’ll have a glass,” said Orthlo. He tried to move forwards but stopped as his hand pulled at the bush. The other two members of his group laughed as he tried to extricate himself. “Just give me a minute…”
“Allow me,” said Jadie merrily. She leaned over and reached into the bush with one hand, telling it, Thanks! You can let go now! Between them, unseen by all, her other hand flicked up the clasp of his bracelet and swiped it—as well as a few rings he was wearing for good measure—into the large pocket of her uniform. But then she gently pulled Orthlo’s hand from the bush, and drinks were served, and she retreated knowing it would be a very long time before Orthlo even noticed the theft.
There were people, Jadie knew, who had staggeringly powerful magical gifts—the ability to summon fire from their hands, or drain health with a thought, or cause a forest to sprout in moments and tear through city walls like damp parchment. Jadie was not one of them. She could coax plants into helping her out just a little: releasing pollen, for instance, or twisting a few branches when needed. It might not have been a terribly powerful kind of magic, but it was hers, and she liked it. And she couldn’t deny that it did come in handy in her line of work.
She crossed the garden, stealing two coin purses, one set of earrings, and a gorgeously wrought ceremonial dagger along the way, until she noticed a small group clustered on the bank of the Spirit River. Curious, Jadie headed towards them, directing the moss on the bottom of her shoes to muffle her footsteps. The moss took a few moments to respond—it was the laziest plant in the world, in Jadie’s experience—but it finally did so, smoothing over the bottoms of her shoes so they didn’t make a sound. Jadie served her way to the bank of the river, moved closer to the group, and listened.
“I already told you, pay up front,” growled a voice that sounded almost like a series of barks. Jadie stiffened as one of the figures straightened and she saw a distinctly dog-like head. A gnoll? Really? Woah. “Do you mind hurrying this up? I’ve got places to be.”
“Sure you don’t want to stay longer, Hwarl?” drawled one of the other figures in a rough voice. “Can’t imagine gladiators eat like this often.”
“Food might be worse, but the company’s better,” snarled Hwarl. “Least there the people aren’t whispering to each other ‘bout which of them I’ll eat first.”
“I nominate Stebbins Hartley,” said another of the figures. “I owe him money.” And the group laughed.
Jadie looked around and saw several rows of flowers growing on the bank. One row—she noted with a smile—was full of chrysanthemums, flowers which could produce truly staggering amounts of pollen. She knelt and picked a few, slipping them into the drinks on her tray like overly frilly garnishes.
“Look,” the gnoll was snarling. “I brought the merchandise. Are we doing this or not?”
“Show it first,” said someone who had an air of authority around him. “No deal until we see it work.”
The gnoll took out something that glinted in the light. Jadie stepped closer, keeping behind a tree and making sure the moss shut out all sounds of her footsteps on the cobblestones, and saw that it was a knife. The gnoll picked a copper off the table and dropped it on the blade.
It split cleanly in two.
Jadie’s mouth dropped, and the leader whistled as the others murmured. “And you can get us, what, fifty of these things?”
“More than that. They don’t care if gladiators are importing weapons, since we’re professional fighters. Got a hundred in town already, and if you need more I can get another shipment. Price is ten gold per.”
“That’s outrageous,” said one of the men. “Ten gold for a knife? I—”
“Do you want a dagger that can cut through the armor of the Duke’s personal guard, or don’t you?” asked the gnoll. “Because if not, just say so and I’m out of here.”
“Deal,” said the leader, before his men objected again. Jadie heard clinking as a bag of coins hit the table. “There’s your money. Next time, we’ll have a thousand gold for you—if you have the weapons to sell us.”
Jadie froze as the impact of what they were saying hit her. This wasn’t just a weapon deal. They were plotting some kind of attack on the Duke.
The Westwick Thieves Guild had instilled in her many values—chief among them loyalty, cleverness, and a love of money, not necessarily in that order. But patriotism was in there too. Westwick survived thanks to special dispensation from Victor Raleigh himself, and no man, woman, or child within it would stint anything in upholding the kingdom. If there was a plot against the nobility, she owed it to her town—and her Guild—to stop it.
Her grin returned, fiercer than ever. This was going to be an even better mission than she’d hoped for.
She walked up to the group and offered the chrysanthemum-garnished drinks. “Would you like any?” she asked, bowing her head as a good servant would. “Special vintage. The innkeeper’s best.”
“Sure it is,” muttered Hwarl, but he nodded anyway. Jadie’s finger brushed the chrysanthemum in his glass as he took it, and she just had enough time to focus on her magic. Quick! Release your pollen! It’s urgent! Then she lost contact as he took the glass and drained half of it in one gulp.
Which was when the flower blasted pollen into his face.
Jadie’s plan worked better than she could have guessed. He let out a mighty sneeze and dropped the glass, spattering his ill-fitting tunic with sweet, sticky wine. Jadie was by his side in an instant, wiping him down and pretending not to notice his retreating companions. “I’m so sorry!” she said. “Please, allow me.”
Hwarl looked at her, then shrugged. “Like I care,” he muttered.
“Sir, if I might make a suggestion, the fruit flies will be attracted to the wine.” She tugged at the tunic. “We have excellent laundry facilities. Please, allow me to have this cleaned. It will be returned to your quarters tomorrow morning. I promise.”
The gnoll scowled but eventually stripped the tunic off. “More comfortable like this anyways,” he said, raising a mocking eyebrow at the men who were now standing several paces away. “Fine. Send it to the gladiator quarters by the Coliseum. Room 318.” He turned and walked away.
Jadie watched him and his companions leave in different directions, then headed back towards the inn. She still needed to wait for Lady Trefaer and so could not pursue right away. But the next day, Jadie Rivers, newly minted Thieves Guild member, was going to save the country.
Best mission ever, thought the thief, before chuckling and returning to the crowd.
***
The Coliseum was one of the star attractions of Atalatha. A towering structure of marble and granite, it was easily the largest building in the city, and it could be seen from almost any road within Atalatha’s walls. The fights were attended by large crowds of people, and those people had equally large amounts of money for gambling, concessions, and souvenirs. Pickpocketing her way through the Coliseum was definitely on Jadie’s list of things to do before returning to Westlick.
But not yet. At the moment, she had a tunic to return and a consp
iracy to deal with. She just had to get into Hwarl’s room, she thought, and uncover his weapons cache. Then she could expose the conspiracy and save the day. There would be time to loot the city later.
Truth be told, she was slightly annoyed that Lady Trefaer had never showed up at the treaty party the previous night. It surely wouldn’t be held against her that the rumors of her appearance were inaccurate, but the very idea of returning to her teachers without completing the mission rankled. Still, she was going to stop Hwarl and his conspiracy. That would hopefully outweigh her failure.
The gladiator quarters, a four-story building with dozens of rooms and a courtyard for sparring, were located two blocks from the Coliseum. Jadie reached it just before lunch, having checked to make sure that Hwarl was scheduled for a duel at that time, and made her way to his room. She reached his room and examined the lock for a moment before knocking to make sure nobody was home. Her right hand was already fingering the silver lockpick in her pocket.
But footsteps sounded from within the room, and Jadie only just managed to fix a smile to her face before the door swung open to reveal a massive human. She saw two more guards in the room behind him, sitting and eating sandwiches, but the man at the door moved to block Jadie’s vision. “You’re not Stebbins or Rawlston.”
Who? Jadie passed Hwarl’s tunic to the man. “Laundry for Mr. Hwarl. Is he in?”
“He’s dueling,” said the man. And he began to shut the door.
“Sorry to disturb you!” Jadie managed to chirp just before it closed. “Nobody told me he had people here. I was just going to leave the tunic on the door—”
“We’re new,” snapped the man. “And we’re just here for the week, so if you have any more laundry you won’t need to worry about ‘disturbing’ us after that.”
New? He must have got them while he’s waiting for the deal to go through, thought Jadie. “Actually,” she began, but the door had already shut in her face.
She stared at it for a moment. Okay. He has guards in his room, and it sounds like more are guarding him personally. If I want to search the room, I’ll have to fight them. She paused. That could be a problem.
Jadie wasn’t bad in combat, at least as far as thieves went. She knew about fighting like a thief fought—a push at the top of a ridge, a knife in the back from the shadows, a few drops of poison into an unguarded chalice of wine. But if she broke into Hwarl’s room, she’d be stuck in a heads-up fight against several brutes. She wasn’t likely to win that one, magic or no.
Sighing, she left the gladiator quarters and walked to a local park. Sitting with her hands nestled in the flowers, nudging them into pleasing patterns as she rested, she went over her options. Fighting all his guards wasn’t an option. Nor was going to the authorities. She wasn’t that well versed in politics, but even she knew that the government would be reluctant to arrest a gnoll from Warus the day after signing a treaty with one of the most influential gnoll packs in Warus. She’d need hard evidence before risking that, and she didn’t have it.
But she still had to do something. The entire reason that Westwick was permitted to exist without paying taxes to the crown was that, as her teachers had drilled in to her, the Thieves Guild had another duty besides simply enriching themselves and their community. It was their job to deal with threats to Raleigh, its cities, and its people that couldn’t be handled by the authorities. If she failed, she would let down her whole community—and the Thieves Guild, which had permitted her to join their ranks at an unusually young age, proclaiming that they believed she would be an asset to their team. Giving up was not an option.
I could try to surprise Hwarl and his bodyguards in an alley, but what if Hwarl just goes straight between the Coliseum and his quarters for the next week? thought Jadie. Or I could try to pick off his bodyguards. But then he’d just get more, and he’d be alerted. I need some way to isolate him from them. Does he go anywhere without them?
And then it hit her. The Coliseum. Duels are one on one. He can’t bring his bodyguards into the arena with him. And I could sign up, challenge him…
She’d still have to beat a trained fighter in a fair fight, but at least she wouldn’t be outnumbered. And she did have some advantages. He might underestimate her, for one. She had magic, for another.
A rose curled around her hand, the thorns nestling between her fingers like a gauntlet, and she allowed herself to smile. She could make it work, she thought. Do her Guild proud, and her community too.
And score a great victory while she was at it.
***
“And now, a warrior who needs no introduction!” roared the announcer. “He’s won his last seven matches and is considered to be one of the strongest rookies we’ve had in months! I present to you—Hwarl, of Warus!”
Peaking out from her archway, Jadie watched as Hwarl strode onto the arena floor. Despite the general apprehension that Atalathans felt towards gnolls, the crowd seemed to love him. The cheering and clapping was deafening as Hwarl twirled a long halberd in front of him and flexed.
“And challenging him, a newcomer from Viscosa! Please, give a big welcome to—Lady Thorn of Raleigh!”
Jadie smiled. Lady Thorn might not be the most inventive name for someone with her powers, but she liked it. Maybe, she thought, she might find a need to keep this secret identity longer. Having a persona that fought in duels could certainly be a useful cover in particular situations…
The crowd’s cheering ushered her out into the sunlight, and Jadie took a moment to absorb the scene around her. She stood on a field of sand. Around her were marble walls, carved in intricate detail at what had to be exorbitant expense, and above them sat thousands of cheering and clapping people. Tourists and locals, commoners and merchants, soldiers, mercenaries, and even some nobles were packed into the stands. A great crowd, she thought, for what she hoped would be a great victory. Jadie gripped the dagger shoved haphazardly into her belt and strode towards Hwarl.
She had already, she thought, gotten everything set up. She had forged the paperwork declaring herself to be ‘Lady Thorn,’ inexperienced but skilled warrior from Viscosa, and had filed it with the Coliseum. She had broken into the Coliseum offices and reordered the matches to make sure that she would be dueling Hwarl. She had come up with her costume. And, of course, she had bet all the money she’d stolen at the party on herself. If she lost the duel, it wouldn’t matter, and if she won, she’d get a nice windfall. Since it’s money I’m sort of earning and not stealing, I wonder if the Guild will let me keep my winnings? She chuckled. I hope so.
Hwarl laughed at her as she approached him. “What are you wearing?” he barked. “This isn’t the theatre, girl. Maybe you should run along home.”
Jadie made a show of looking over herself. She was dressed in bright greens and dark browns, looking more like a jester than a trained warrior, and wore a mask over most of her face so he wouldn’t recognize her. Flowers, bright daisies and chrysanthemums, were woven into the shoulders and arms of her shirt, and vines were wrapped around her wrists. She knew she looked ridiculous, but she squared her shoulders and called, “Run home? I’m a trained graduate of the Dueling Academy of Viscosa. When I’m done with you, you’ll be running all the way back to Warus!”
The crowd roared its approval, but Hwarl’s smirk just grew, and when she saw it Jadie smiled behind her mask as well. There were many fine venues for learning the art of combat in Viscosa; the Dueling Academy was not one of them. A school for the children of merchants and nobles, it taught how to ‘duel’ with style and panache. The students learned flashy moves to show off at balls and parties, they felt like they were becoming mighty warriors, and since nobody would ever be so foolish as to attack the heir of a feudal lord in a dark alley, they would never know how useless their sword-dancing was in a real fight. But Jadie knew—and so did gladiators like Hwarl. He’d never take a graduate of that school seriously, and that was just what she wanted.
A cannon blast started the match. Hwarl
swung his halberd at Jadie in a few lazy arcs, forcing her back as she parried with her dagger, and his blade clanged off of hers with no real weight behind it. He was testing her, Jadie thought, or maybe just toying with her for the benefit of his fans. She let him swing a few more times, then ducked under a blow and dashed up close to him. When she reached him she slashed at his arm.
He shifted to one side and kicked her legs out from under her before the blow connected, sending her sprawling in the sand. She managed to roll out of the way before he struck his halberd down where her neck had been a moment ago. She got to her feet and managed to get her blade up in time to deflect another swing, but found herself forced back again, overpowered by his superior strength. Hwarl trotted after her, probing at her defenses with his halberd, a wicked gleam in his eye.
Jadie dodged and retreated halfway across the Coliseum floor before attacking again. She deflected his blade, using all her strength to push it up, and then ran at him. This time, she didn’t strike at him directly, but grabbed at his arms as if trying to grapple. The vines wrapped around her wrist began to writhe as she mentally prodded them, but before they could do anything, he swung his halberd around and struck her with its shaft. She stumbled, and by the time she recovered he had twisted the blade straight up and was stabbing it down at her.
Jadie instead jumped towards Hwarl, allowing him to push her down so she fell directly in front of him and inside the range of his halberd. She leapt to her feet faster than he seemed to be expecting and grabbed at his hands again. At the same time, she called to the vines around her wrists, Grab his halberd! Come on, let’s do it!
The vines twisted and writhed, seeming to relish a chance to release some of their energy. Hwarl shifted his halberd to one hand and curled the other into a fist to attack the enemy four inches from his face. Jadie made a show of grabbing at him as the vines snapped at the weapon, and suddenly his blade was flying clear across the Coliseum.