They moved to Keritanima's bedchamber and quietly waited. At all times, one person was standing at the window, waiting for Kalina to arrive. She would be wearing a red cloak, and would be carrying a basket of flowers. That was how they would spot her, but she was instructed to stand near a fountain in the courtyard in front of the Palace and stare up at the window until Keritanima responded. Kalina wouldn't know what kind of a response it would be, but Ulfan's instructions would make it plain she'd know when she was signalled to continue.
Kalina arrived about four hours after Miranda and Binter had returned. Azakar called Keritanima over as soon as Kalina entered the front gate and began to cross the considerable distance from the outer gate to the Palace itself. Her red cloak made her stand out, but Azakar said that it was her tail that made him identify her. Kalina was a fox Wikuni, just like Keritanima, and a fox's tail was very distinctive. Kalina went over to the fountain and looked up at the Palace, obstensibly staring at its powerful majesty, and Keritanima touched the Weave and began. Illusions were weaves of Air, Fire, Water, a touch of Mind, and Divine power. They were rather complicated weaves, and Keritanima lacked Dar's seemingly innate aptitude for the art of Illusion, but she was an accomplished enough Sorceress to be able to create flawless images. The distance made what would have been a simple weave an extraordinary challenge. Keritanima had to furiously concentrate and expend a tremendous amount of her power to keep exacting control of the weave as she wove it together from the flows, then snapped it down and released it. She could see the indistinct wavering around Kalina, meaning that the Illusion had taken hold. Keritanima doublechecked the weaving, and found it to be solid. It would hold itself with only a barest of maintenance on her part, would probably remain a viable weave for several moments after Keritanima stopped maintaining it. Illusions usually did not dissipate for minutes, sometimes even hours, after a Sorcerer stopped concentrating on it. It was one of only two types of weaves that were like that, but the great distance Keritanima was from Kalina wouldn't give the weave the refined care of creation it would need to be able to hold itself together after Keritanima stopped supplying it with power. A well woven Illusion created by an accomplished Sorcerer could linger for hours after it was let go. Maybe even days. But to do that, Keritanima would have to be right on top of Kalina, and take her time to carefully and methodically build the weave flow by flow to give it that kind of lasting duration.
That done, she wove together a simple weave of Air and Divine power, a spell that would allow Kalina to hear her voice as if she was standing beside her. "Kalina, don't look around," Keritanima said firmly. She nearly did, but caught herself quickly. "I know they told you I learned magic while I was gone, and this is magic. You can hear what I'm saying, but I can't hear you, so don't try to talk or ask me any questions. You can't see it, but I placed an Illusion over you that makes you look like any other palace servant. Come up to my room, but stop at the landing of the stairs and wait there until I talk to you again."
Kalina stood there for a moment.
"Well? Move, girl! I don't have all day, and that Illusion isn't going to last forever!"
With a sudden lurch, Kalina started towards the elbaorate front doors of the Palace.
With her weave of probing tendrils of Mind, Keritanima reached out, locating all the spies and guards around her room. By their positions, she knew which ones could see the door, so she prepared a special weave of Mind and Divine power that would cause their minds to be disjointed from their bodies for a short span of time. It was a harmless spell that would make them not remember anything that happened while they were in their trance-like state. She counted off the seconds silently to herself, waiting anxiously until Kalina's familiar mind entered the range of her probing spell. She got a lock on her larcenous friend and struck anyone that could see her with her weave, causing them all to go vacant-eyed and rigid. Her fur began to dampen as Keritanima sweated from the effort of maintaining the Illusion and the probe and seven different weaves of sleep. It was a serious chore to weave the simple spell to talk to Kalina again when she reached the landing of the stairs. "Come to my room. Ignore the guards, they won't be able to see or hear you. Just walk in and close the door behind you." She looked at Miranda. "Go to the sitting room and wait for her, Miranda," she ordered. "She'll get nervous if the room is empty when she comes in. Zak, go stand in your chamber and watch. When they close the door, call out to me so I can drop these weaves."
Keritanima tracked Kalina's progress, dropping the Illusion as soon as she got out of sight of the stairs. There was nobody around to see her, so holding the Illusion was pointless. She released the probing weave once Kalina was only a few feet from her door, then she released the sleeping weaves when Azakar called out that they were in and the door was closed. Sighing from the effort, Keritanima sagged to her chair at her desk, wiping the dampness from the fur of her brow and feeling the weariness creep into her. That had been a considerable effort, but it had paid off handsomely.
Kalina looked the very same as she had the last time Keritanima saw her. Kalina was a fox Wikuni, and to look at her was like looking into a mirror. She was just a shade taller than Keritanima, but her body shape and facial features were so close that it was pointless to note the differences. But where Keritanima was dressed in a clean, well made dress of soft brown, Kalina was dressed in a dirty, slightly torn dress that exposed the majority of her fur-clad cleavage. Her fur was matted and noticably dirty, and her hair was stringy and unkempt. The only thing on her that was clean was the red cloak that Ulfan had given to her so she could be picked out of the crowd. Azakar gaped at the pair of them as he looked from one to the other. Kalina grinned toothily at Keritanima as she took off the cloak.
"You look ticked off, Keritanima," Kalina said.
"I'm just a bit tired, Kalina," she replied. "Azakar, meet Kalina, my body double. Kalina, this is Azakar, a human friend of mine.
"Amazing," Azakar breathed. "If you were twins, you couldn't look more alike."
"That's the idea, human," Kalina said. "Some men like me because I look like the Princess. It's a kind of fantasy of theirs."
"Many people know about Kalina, but none of them know that I know her," Keritanima said calmly, ignoring Kalina's comment about some men's fantasies.
"But she doesn't sound the same," he pointed out.
"Voices can be changed, Azakar," Kalina said, in a nearly perfect imitation of Keritanima's voice. It was enough to make the Mahuut stare at her in surprise. "Do you want to hear an impression of King Damon?"
"Incredible," Azakar mused. "How did you learn it?"
"I grew up in a travelling circus," she replied. "I learned the art of imitation from one of the other performers. He was much better than me. How much am I getting paid for this, Keritanima?"
"What you're going to be doing is dangerous, so I'll pay you ten thousand gold crowns for this," she offered. That made the fox Wikuni give her a strangled look. "Believe me, Kalina, you'll earn every copper farthing."
"What do I have to do?" she asked, putting a hand to her stomach unconsciously.
"Nothing more than pretend to be me," she replied. "It's just that I'm in a bit of trouble, so there's a chance that you may get flogged. Just so you know up front."
"Well thank you very much for telling me that after you get me up here!" she barked testily.
"That's why I waited until you got up here," Keritanima said with a slight smile. "All you have to do is play me when I'm not here," she told the imposter. "Your job is to convince everyone that you're not coming out of this room, and you don't want to talk to anyone. It should be easy enough for you."
"What about the flogging?"
"Oh, that. My father wants me flogged as punishment for what I did to him. He's trying to remove the barriers I put in his way. There's an outside chance you'll be in here playing me when they come to get me. If that happens, do your best to delay it until I get back, so we can switch places. If you can't, well, I'll hea
l you of any injuries you suffer, and pay you an extra ten thousand crowns in compensation."
"What did you do to him?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, not much. I just assassinated his entire circle of advisors and most of his higher officials," she said casually.
"That was you?" Kalina asked, then she burst out laughing. "Ulfan's going to kill you. The big mess after that happened put the army on the streets, and that hurt Ulfan's business."
"What happened?"
"Well, House Kalthak brought in a huge private army a few days after we heard about the assassinations," she answered. "I think the King felt that was a prelude to a coup, so he called up the army and put them in the streets. Some of them are still here. Things have been tense in Wikuna since you left, Keritanima. Damon Eram raised taxes again, and he's cracked down hard on anyone who can't pay. There's alot of muttering in the streets about a revolt."
"He probably raised taxes to buy back some of the free agents," Keritanima mused aloud. "That, or he's just being greedy."
"Word on the street is that he's been buying the support of some of the larger noble houses," Kalina offered.
"Which ones?"
"House Tarn and House Zalan. There have even been rumors of a marriage between Damon Eram and a lady of House Zalan. Some even say it's Sheba."
"Those two would be perfect for each other," Keritanima snorted.
"Word is that Arthas Zalan is trying to get Sheba off a ship. She's become a serious embarassment for Wikuna. Marrying her off would drydock her for good."
"Well, we can't have that," Keritanima said absently. "I'll have to do something about that."
"Why not?"
"I don't want any cooperation between my father and the other noble houses," she replied. "They're supposed to be at each other's throats. I guess I'll have to do something about that as well."
"Good luck. Now then, show me to all those pretty dresses and sparkling jewels I get to wear while I'm here."
"All gone, I'm afraid," Keritanima said. "Part of my punishment. I do have something clean and whole for you, though."
"I'm liking this job less and less," Kalina grumbled.
"You're just upset that there will be no pretty baubles to steal this time," Keritanima said casually.
Kalina flushed.
"Don't worry. I took it out of your pay last time, Kalina," Keritanima said sweetly, patting her on the cheek. "Now let's get you dressed. I have some errands to run, and from the sound of it, I'd better get started soon."
After dressing Kalina up and instructing her how to act, and putting on Kalina's soiled garment herself, Keritanima put on Kalina's red cloak and pulled it around her. "Azakar, Miranda, you're with me," Keritanima announced. "Binter, you stay here to reinforce the idea that I'm the one sitting in here."
"I do not like this, Highness," Binter said bluntly. "I should be there to protect you."
"I have Zak, Binter," she smiled. "You trust Zak, don't you?"
"Only so far, because he is still young and he does not know the city," he answered honestly.
"Well, I have Miranda here to help out. I should be alright, Binter. In another way, you'll be protecting me much more by staying here than if you were with me."
"How is that?"
"Binter, my dear friend, everyone knows I won't so much as go to the kitchens without you," she said with a toothy grin. "If you're in here, then they'll believe that I'm in here. It's that simple."
"You speak truth," Binter said after a moment. "I will treat Mistress Kalina as if she were you."
"Just keep your mouth shut, Binter," Keritanima ordered. "Not a word to anyone until I get back. That way nothing slips out."
He nodded solemnly.
Weaving was a chore, because she had already tired herself out, but she didn't have the time to recover. She ensured that they would leave without being noticed by anyone, then Keritanima covered the three of them in the Illusion of palace servants. Then she simply had the others walk out the front door. Not a single guard, soldier, servant, noble, or visitor gave them so much as a strange look. Keritanima led the way until they were several blocks away from the Palace, when she dropped the Illusions covering her and Miranda, and tugged a bit on the neckline of the dress. It smelled like Kalina, sweat, spilled food and wine, and a few other scents that made the Wikuni princess recoil from certain areas of the dress instinctively. Kalina's bosom was just a bit fuller than Keritanima's, so it made the daring neckline of the dress loose and prone to shifting whenever she moved.
"Alright, so where do we begin?" Miranda asked as they walked along the wide avenues of Wikuna.
"We begin with Ulfan," she replied decisively.
Keritanima led them across the wide city of Wikuna, picking their way carefully to avoid known areas controlled by her father and noble houses, places where spies and agents would surely see Miranda and send people to investigate. They ended up in one of the poorest sections of the city, a place where many of the brownstones and rowhouses had windows boarded over, where decay and refuse was littering the streets. The pedestrians in the area were all dressed in clothes that made Keritanima's torn dress look rich by comparison. This was Lowtown, the place where most people hard on their luck, beggars, and debtors eventually ended up. It was usually the last stop on the spiralling freefall before the grave. It was populated by the unfortunate, the mentally ill, the criminals, and the beggars. They lived in the abandoned houses and buildings and on the streets like squatters, where each building was controlled by whoever tough or strongarm could keep control of it. Keritanima, under the guise of Lizelle, owned a vast majority of Lowtown, and she refused to sell it. She held onto it for reasons both compassionate and coldly logical. If Lowtown were sold and knocked down for more respectable housing, the people who lived here would have nowhere else to live. They would scatter all over the city, probably causing trouble and getting themselves thrown into prison, where their life expectancy would be cut from years to months. Since Lowtown provided a central point for the lowest class of society, it made it easy for those organizations that helped them to know where to come and provide for as many as possible. The buildings at the fringes of Lowtown often served as daily soup kitchens to help feed the homeless and destitute. And since Lowtown was here, it kept them out of the more affluent areas of the city, kept them from attacking innocent people for whatever they carried in their purses. Many of them did that anyway, but if Lowtown were gone, then many many more would be doing it as well.
The last reason Keritanima all but owned Lowtown was because of Ulfan. Ulfan ran his thieves' den from Lowtown, and protecting Lowtown was one of the ways that she paid Ulfan back for teaching her enough to keep her alive all those years. She took them directly there, to a huge, dilapidated warehouse just about in the middle of Lowtown. From the outside, it looked completely abandoned. The truth was anything but that illusion. Keritanima approached one of the smaller side entrances, where a pair of beggars crouched in the alleyway looking thoroughly miserable. They were not beggars. They were Ulfan's guards, there to defend the entrance to the building. Keritanima stepped up to them boldly as they stood to confront her, a large dog Wikuni and an even larger wolf Wikuni, then made a quick gesture with both hands, putting her fingers together and forming a symbol that vaguely resembled a mask. They both nodded to her calmly and stepped aside, as the wolf opened the door for the trio.
The interior of the warehouse was one huge empty room, with a row of old offices in the back that served as their treasure vault and the quarters of the higher ranking members of the guild. The vast empty space was filled up by old boxes and stacks of old wood and other large objects that formed a natural maze on the warehouse floor, a maze constructed to confound invaders, yet looked nothing more like stacks of old junk. The thieves of the Black Shadows lived in a larger common area outside the maze, beside the private rooms, but they would scatter into the maze on a signal to make life miserable for anyone trying to gain entry. There were
any number of secret passages and hidden doorways inside the maze to let the thieves move quietly and invisibly through the maze to surprise or mislead invaders; indeed, the only way to get out of the maze was to know where those secret doors were. Keritanima knew the maze, so she confidently escorted her two friends along dark, shadowed passages and between closely stacked piles of junk or wooden crates, until she deftly opened a panel in an large wooden crate and stepped inside it.
It opened to a large common area with a firepit in the center of the room. About twenty members of the guild were residing within, sleeping, playing dice, eating, or performing more lurid activities. Ulfan didn't restrict himself to just thieves. He had swindlers, beggars, thugs, cutpurses, cat burglars, and whores in his guild, and it was one of the harlots selling her services to another member in one corner that got Azakar's attention. Miranda elbowed him in the side to keep his attention focused on protecting the Princess. Sitting in a cushioned chair near the door to his room was Ulfan. He was a bear Wikuni, a monstrous intimidating figure, nearly eight feet tall and probably weighing around five hundred pounds. But his size had not hampered his ability to steal. His clawed fingers were nimble and surprisingly delicate, and he could move his massive bulk with a quiet that would do a fifty pound child proud. Ulfan didn't go much for stealing anymore, for his quick, intelligent mind had elevated him to the role of guildmaster, where he conducted his business and also occasionally sold the services of his assassins to this or that noble family. Ulfan wasn't the only guildmaster in Wikuna-his guild was rather small compared to some-but he was well known as a solid dependable hire, who would get the job done so long as the pay was appropriate for the task he was hired to do. That made the Black Shadows one of the more affluent guilds in the city.
Ulfan looked up and smiled broadly, showing teeth that were just beginning to brown with his age. Ulfan was an old Wikuni, nearly sixty, though it wasn't apparent to anyone who looked at him. "Little swordflower," he called warmly, standing up and motioning her over.
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