"True," said Ambrose. "But we are not losing them to a rival guild. The merchants and wealthy citizens will still be out there in the days and weeks to come. My point is we need not act hastily."
"Agreed," Lucius said.
"I suspect, if we wait just a little longer, we may have unexpected allies," Ambrose said, and the others looked quizzically at him. "Taxes have been increased fourfold. People are required - required - to attend services of the Final Faith in that damned Cathedral of theirs. This is a dictatorship in the making and, if I know the people of Turnitia, they won't stand for it. One day, very soon I'd wager, they'll wake up to realise what cold steel fist they have around their throats."
"That is a lovely idea, Ambrose," said Wendric. "But while the people of this city may grumble about Vos' new regime, they will do little about it."
"That is true," Lucius said. "Vos has been smart, giving people just what they thought they wanted. The streets have been swept clean of crime, trade is increasing and, on the face of it, life is getting better. Maybe they will awake to see what is really happening but by then, it will be too late."
"For that matter, there may not be any real people of Turnitia left," said Nate.
"What do you mean?" Lucius asked.
Nate shrugged. "Have you seen who is arriving in the city, who is responsible for the influx of trade? They are all coming from Vos. And they are buying property here too - they are set to stay. It won't be long before these visitors from Vos outnumber the natives. Then we will be a true Vos city."
That thought floated over the table for a few minutes before anyone else spoke.
"Well," Wendric said finally, "that is something to worry about in the future. Our prime concern right now is that our work as a guild is being severely restricted. Even Elaine's assassins are having a hard time of things, as Vos guardsmen have been assigned to anyone who might remotely be a target for their knives."
The door to the chamber flew open with a bang, Elaine sweeping through it at speed. Behind her trotted a familiar face at their meetings, the beggar girl known as Grennar.
"Gentlemen, forgive my late entrance, but I have just heard something disturbing, and we have much to do," Elaine said as she hurried around the table to take her place. Grennar sat next to Ambrose.
Lucius cast a glance at Elaine, and he immediately saw a haunted look behind her eyes. He could only imagine the pressures she was under as she tried to manage a guild that was falling apart. As she took a deep breath to compose herself, Lucius found he wanted nothing more than to reach under the table and take her hand, but he knew better than to try. They had agreed from the outset of their relationship that any display of affection or over-familiarity between them would only shake confidence in the guild's leadership.
He would hold her close that night but, for now, Elaine would have to stand alone.
Elaine gestured to the young girl opposite her. "Grennar, go ahead."
The beggar girl had been presented to the thieves as a go-between, a liaison, linking thief and beggar in the common causes they shared. At first, many thieves presumed she was a calculated insult aimed at them from beggars who believed themselves superior as an organisation, but Lucius saw she had impressed even the most senior of thieves very quickly.
Though barely fifteen, with a freckled face and the slightest of frames, she had the uncanny knack of getting people to listen when she wanted to talk. She also seemed to know exactly what she was talking about on any given subject that cropped up during the council meetings she attended, which was not always the most obvious trait of some of the thieves present.
"Sebastian sent me," Grennar said. "You heard the promises the Preacher Divine made. Well, he is carrying them out - right now."
"Giving alms to your people, so they need not beg," said Lucius.
To his surprise, Grennar gave an appreciative smile. "It was very neatly done."
This frank analysis surprised Lucius, and he wondered if she was simply relating what her own guildmaster had told her, or whether she had formed the opinion herself. If the latter, Lucius could see why Sebastian kept such a quick mind close to him, however young the head around it.
"Anyway, it means our guild has effectively been shut down," Grennar said simply.
"You have no loyal members to rely on?" Elaine asked. She was mastering her shock at this turn of events, but Lucius could still hear tones of it in her voice, and he wondered if the other thieves noted it too. Wendric, probably, as he had known her the longest.
"Oh, we have people who have pledged themselves to the guild and Sebastian both," Grennar said. "But not enough. Not enough to function as a guild, and certainly not enough to gather information across the city. The rest... well, they look after themselves before all else. I imagine it is much the same in your guild."
Elaine looked sharply at the young girl, then shrugged. "That is true enough." She looked at each of the men around the table in turn before making her pronouncement. "They will be coming for us next. And quickly."
Round the table, the men shuffled uncomfortably.
"We have to clear the guildhouse," Wendric said.
"We have to do more than that," Elaine said. "As a guild we are almost paralysed in our ability to conduct business. With the beggars taken out of play, we are also blind. We are in a very precarious position."
"What is your plan?" Ambrose asked.
Elaine was clearly reluctant to give her next orders, but she forged ahead.
"Clear the guildhouse. Move the vault too, and get our people to take as much as they can carry from the libraries, laboratory and armoury. Everyone splits into individual groups, each headed by a single senior thief who chooses their own safe location and way of continuing business. No senior thief is to know where any other senior thief and their group operates from."
"You are talking about breaking the guild!" Ambrose protested. Nate was uncharacteristically silent, but looked as though he was going to be sick.
"The senior thieves are divided into groups as well, with each senior thief reporting to one of the council. Again, each council member will know which senior thieves work for them, but not who works for anyone else. You are all free to conduct yourselves as you see fit. I will stay in touch with the council members and no one else to preserve everyone's safety. With luck, we will be able to reform as a guild after these troubles."
"You want us to start clearing the guildhouse right now?" Nate asked, finally finding his voice.
"Nate, understand this. The beggars are finished. The Vos guard could be gathering their forces in the Citadel to march on us right now, and we would not know anything about it."
Nate opened his mouth, and then closed it again.
"Start the evacuation now," Elaine said. "Arrange for sentries to watch every approach, and get them to sprint back here if they so much as smell a Vos patrol. Pick your senior thieves and arrange contact locations. I'll stay here to lead the last of us out."
"No," Wendric said, shaking his head. "As guildmistress it is imperative that you survive any attack. The guild really will fall apart if you are captured or killed."
"Wendric and I will lead the last of us out," Lucius said. "All those in favour?"
"Aye!" said Ambrose and Nate together, as Wendric raised his hand to signal assent.
"Motion is carried by the council," Lucius said, looking at Elaine.
For a second, he thought she would overrule them, as was her right, then he saw her shoulders sag just a fraction. "As you wish," she said quietly. "In that case, I'll safeguard the transition of the vault."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Lucius nodded in agreement. After the thieves themselves, the vault was the most precious resource the guild had, the store of its most valuable possessions. It would also be the first thing to leave the guildhouse, and Lucius felt better knowing Elaine would be following it.
Elaine looked around the table once again. "Keep the faith, we will prevail. Now, get to work, we have a
lot to do, and not much time."
With Grennar the men stood and filed out of the council chamber, but Lucius stayed next to Elaine as they departed.
"Ambrose was right, you know," she said quietly. "We could end up spreading ourselves so thin that Vos just sweeps us up one at a time. Or maybe we do all survive, but the separate groups grow too used to doing things their own way - then we have twelve guilds instead of one, and another thieves' war."
"That might all be true," Lucius said. "If we had a weak leader. You'll hold it together."
Elaine was silent for a moment, then said in an even softer voice, "I am not certain I can. Not this time. Not against this enemy." Giving a short self-deprecating laugh, she ran a hand through her hair. "There is no one else I would have said that to!"
Casting a glance around, to make sure that no one was spying upon them, Lucius reached across and took her hand.
"We won't let you down, I promise. You can rely on us."
Glancing up and down the twilight-darkened street, Lucius rubbed his hands nervously. Vos would make its move against the thieves any time now, he could feel it in his bones, and yet he was standing in the middle of an open street, ready to be taken in by the first patrol that saw him. Still, he had learned not to ignore Adrianna when she sent one of her arcane summons. He doubted the slow chiming inside his head would cease for days if he refused to heed its call.
He waited at a small junction in Lantern Street, barely a quarter mile from the thieves' guildhouse, the wide roadway lined with small houses and the occasional shop. To his back lay an alley, his location chosen to allow for a quick retreat into its narrow, dark entrance if trouble should arise.
Within minutes, he saw Adrianna stalking confidently towards him, her tied up hair bouncing cheerfully along behind her. Her face did not match its gaiety.
"Aidy," he greeted her. "This is an unusual place for you to want to meet."
"It is close to your guildhouse, and I know you have problems there," she said. "I thought you would resist coming if I tried to drag you halfway across the city."
"Hardly," he muttered, but she pretended not to hear him.
"I see the beggars have gone."
"And with them, our eyes and ears," he said bitterly.
"Then you haven't heard what has been happening up on the hill."
Lucius glanced up Lantern Street, thoroughfare winding its way up Turnitia's slope. The buildings in that, the far eastern part of the town, were mostly residential, and mostly larger estates with extensive gardens, where the richest of the city lived. It was where de Lille had made his home.
Adrianna grabbed his arm and led him into the alleyway.
"They have started clearing out unregulated wizards - you either sign up, or get taken into the Citadel," she said.
Lucius frowned.
"How can they get away with that? Why start on the richest and most powerful in the city - that has to be causing them problems."
"Ah, that is what I thought at first, but you are not thinking it through." There was just a hint of the old, self-satisfied Adrianna in that comment, the one that had always chided him in the past. "These are the people who think themselves above the common law, and are thus more likely to be caught red-handed. But that is not really the point - after all, what does Vos care if it has to manufacture evidence to carry a conviction in its so-called courts? No, what do these people have that no one else possesses much of?"
"Money."
Suddenly, it became obvious to Lucius what Adrianna was getting at. That rich merchants and titled nobles were prone to dabble in sorcery was no secret. Most saw it as a mere diversion, and were thus no great practitioners. They became bored with their meagre efforts and went on to seek other distractions. However, a few had not only the wealth but the patience to pursue the craft, and these men and women could become quite proficient. They also had the arrogance to think that Vos would ignore their studies, but their wealth was an additional attraction.
"Vos are imposing heavy fines?" he asked.
"No, think larger," Adrianna said. "They take everything. The silver, the jewels, the horses - and the property. Some of the larger families are resisting, but Vos will get what it wants in the end. Enough grand houses and enough silver to attract nobles from all over Vos."
"And we get a new ruling class."
"There you go," she said. "I knew you would get there."
"Alright, alright," he said. "So, are we in danger?"
Adrianna stopped, and released his arm as she turned to face him.
"They have some wizards in the city already. Using them to shut down the magic of those they go after so the guard can make easy arrests."
"Will that work against us?"
"Against proper magic, you mean? No, those fools won't stop a Shadowmage."
"But Vos must have considered that."
"Indeed. Among the other Shadowmages there is talk of a secret cabal, something created by the Anointed Lord herself to be used as a weapon against her most powerful enemies. A group of witches, warlocks and wizards who have trained their whole lives to balance their talent with one another. Some Shadowmages say they can feel them approach, that they are already near the city."
"And what do you say?"
He saw her outline shrug. "My skills do not fall that way. But I can believe this cabal exists. Indeed, I would be surprised if Vos did not have a weapon like that."
Lucius thought for a moment. "So what do we do?"
"We await their arrival, Lucius. And then, you and I will erase them from the face of the city!"
He laughed. "Just you and I?"
"Oh, the others will do their part," she admitted. "But no one can counter a wizard as well as I can, and there is no one here with your raw talent and power.
"You and I are not like the other mages, Lucius. You and I can achieve anything we set our minds to. For years I have watched you waste your talents, despairing that you would ever rejoin the fold. Now you are back, I see that we are a natural fit. Our talent, our... spirits complement one another so well. Let our magic fuse together and there will not be a force in the whole of Vos that can bring us down!"
Lucius had felt the wrath of her tongue many times in the past, but he had never heard her speak with such passion and conviction. She was standing close enough for him to feel her breath, hot and excited. In his mind's eye he shared, just for a moment, her dream, and saw the limitless power two Shadowmages working together could achieve.
He thought of the times Adrianna had scorned him, had insulted him and, ultimately, had pushed him further in the understanding of his own arcane talent. All that dwindled away as he felt the closeness of her presence, the nearness of her body as they stood in that alley. Without thinking, he reached out to pull Adrianna close and kissed her.
For several seconds, he held her until it dawned on him just what he had done.
Their lips parted, and Adrianna stepped out of his hold. Though he could not see them, he could feel her narrow dark eyes on him. At that moment, he would not have been shocked if she had cursed him, struck him, or unleashed the full magical arsenal she held at her command, reducing him to a pile of dust where he stood.
Instead, she just smirked. Then turned and walked away.
Lucius' gaze followed her as she stalked down the alley and into the twilight city. His life had just become a lot more complicated.
Chapter Seven
When the Empire of Vos dropped the hammer on the thieves, it came quickly.
As arranged, Lucius and his thieves were among the last to be in the guildhouse, tasked with ensuring documents of tertiary importance were gathered and moved to a safer location; the most critical books and scrolls had already been taken from the vast library.
In command of one cell of thieves was Hengit, a senior man in the guild whom Lucius knew only slightly. However, his reputation was that of an old curmudgeon, what Pontaine soldiers called a grognard. Still, he was a senior thief for a r
eason, and Lucius had been given no reason to suspect his capabilities. The constant grumbling, aimed at the lack of apparent sense in the council and the decisions it made, were expected.
Elaine had already left. Both Lucius and Wendric had seen to that, watching her spirited away by the most trustworthy thieves they knew. Officially, she escorted the primary contents of the vault, though Lucius was left wondering which was really more important - the money, or the guild's mistress.
He had not been able to properly say goodbye to Elaine, and it surprised him that he felt a cold blade in his chest at the thought. The guildhouse had turned into a site of near anarchy once the evacuation order had been given, and there was no room for privacy, even for the guildmistress. All Lucius could do was fervently hope that no harm would come to her, and that they would be meeting again soon.
Hengit's thieves, those he would be leading under Lucius' direction in the coming weeks, had large backpacks that they stuffed with maps, floor plans, books of record, and anything else that came easily to hand. Their role was to secure as much of the guild's knowledge as possible, knowing that Vos soldiers would likely destroy everything they found. The libraries represented all the information the guild had gathered throughout the years, from detailed architect's plans of important buildings, to records updated regularly of traffic to and from the warehouses of merchants.
A loud crash from the floor below signified the arrival of the guards. Standing at the doorway of one of the chart rooms that served as the guild's libraries, Lucius heard the panicked shout of one of the returning sentries.
"They're coming, everyone clear out!" the man yelled as he ran. "The soldiers are coming!"
Lucius waved impatiently at Hengit. "Okay, that's it," he said. "Get your men out, Hengit, it's time to go."
The veteran thief needed no second telling, and he barked an order at his three younger charges. They immediately filed out of the library, leaving Lucius alone for a moment, looking at the huge multitude of papers and books that remained. In their haste to carry off the most important items, the thieves had left drawers and cabinets open, papers strewn across the floor around them. He wondered how long it would take the guild to recover so much lost knowledge, and whether the thieves could ever truly be the same efficient organisation without it.
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