Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

by David Dalglish

  The hall of paintings ended at Thren’s room. She knocked twice, then waited patiently. A moment later the door crept open, and a mailed hand waved her in. She entered, passing between two guards with their dirks drawn. Inside was a plush room of velvet reds and silky yellows. An enormous bed, its wood painted silver and its knobs carved into pairs of wings, was in the far corner. In the center of the room was a rectangular table with six chairs, seeming like a strange joke with its dull finish and undecorated nature amid a sea of decadence.

  Thren sat in the middle seat facing the door. He waved her to him. Two other men sat with him, one on each side. She recognized neither.

  “Kayla, I would like you to meet two of my most trusted friends,” Thren said. The man on his left stood and outstretched his hand. She took it and accepted his kiss on her wrist.

  “My name is Senke,” he said. “I am honored to be in the presence of such beauty.”

  He was a handsome man, although some of that was hidden by the numerous scars along his cheeks and neck, like fleshy pale crosses.

  “Senke is, to put it bluntly, my enforcer,” Thren said. “He ensures my orders are obeyed, without any troublesome deviations.”

  As Senke sat down, the other man stood. His skin was dark, and his eyes were darker. He had thin lips and wide eyes, and his clothes seemed about twenty years out of fashion. His enormous frame seemed to dwarf the table.

  “My name is Will,” he said. He did not offer his hand.

  “Will trusts no one,” Thren said as the giant man returned to his seat. “And I may be partly to blame. He has been with me since the very beginning, and every turncoat and sellsword knows that if he deals with me dishonestly, he will find Will beating down his door.”

  “I don’t like liars,” Will said, as if that explained everything.

  “Neither may be the smartest counsel,” Thren said, smiling a little at Senke’s feigned offense, “but they are honest with me. Too many quiver at the notion of the word no when in my presence. However, you are braver than that. I looked into you, Kayla. Twice you have turned down recruiters seeking to add you to my guild.”

  Kayla shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trying to hide any discomfort.

  “Guilds aren’t for me,” she said. “At least, not at the time.”

  “You’re skilled,” Thren continued. “I’ve gone over the events several times with my son, heard everything you have done. You once made a living selling information. No, don’t tell me to who, for I do not care. But you operated within my territory, refusing to join my guild, yet you not just survived, but thrived. Four years ago you turned down the first recruiter. Four years. Yet now you aided my son. Why?”

  Kayla wished she had a better answer, but she gave the honest one.

  “I thought I could make a profit,” she said.

  She expected him to be angry, but instead he laughed.

  “As I hoped,” he said. “You do not lie, do not hide, do not waste my time. Your skill is undeniable, Kayla, and your motives are as pure as I might hope for. If it is money you want, I can give it to you. If it is power, I have that as well. Already I owe you greatly for saving the life of my son, and if you are willing, I will give you a chance others could only dream of.”

  Kayla glanced at Will and Senke, wishing at least one of them might give a hint as to what exactly was being offered.

  “And what is that?” she asked.

  “Join me as part of my council,” Thren said.

  “Sink or swim, to put it most simply,” Senke chimed in. “You’ve got potential, and given this whole fight against the Trifect, we’re not much for wasting time. You’re good. Are you good enough?”

  “I want you to aid Will and Senke tonight in an endeavor,” Thren said.

  Kayla took a seat before them and crossed her legs.

  “What might that be?” she asked.

  “Those who betray me must be punished,” Thren said. “Loyalty until death. Death to the disloyal. I have based my entire life around those two laws, and I will not break them now. The king has imprisoned Aaron’s former tutor, an elderly man named Robert Haern.”

  Kayla’s cheek twitched at the name, and Thren misinterpreted this as a sign of recognition.

  “Indeed, the king’s former tutor was also my son’s. When the soldiers stormed his home, Aaron insists Robert helped him escape. I must know if this is true. I must know what part Robert played in that fiasco. If he saved my son’s life, then I owe him as dearly as I owe you. If he was a willing member of the attempt…”

  Will cracked his knuckles.

  “You want us to break him out of prison,” Kayla said. “I’ve never once heard stories of you doing so for any of your other members. Why risk all this for one old man?”

  Senke nudged Thren’s elbow, clearly amused. Thren was not.

  “Someone was behind the attempt on my son,” he said. “Someone with the power of the castle. I must know who. I will not assassinate a king until I am certain of his guilt.”

  His tone made it perfectly clear he was not joking. Kayla felt a knot swelling in her throat, and she swallowed it down.

  “What do you want of me?” she asked.

  “I will be leading this endeavor,” Senke said. “Will is coming too. We need a third, but it’s possible the attack on Aaron was orchestrated with the help of someone within our organization. We need someone clean. So what do you say? Want to help break into the dark dungeons of King Edwin Vaelor’s castle?”

  Insane, Kayla thought. Absolutely insane. We will be caught, and killed, all for an old man who may know nothing, nothing at all…

  Thren was watching her, they all were. She knew what saying no would mean. She would never join their private talks again. There would be no seat for her there on Thren’s council, not when her cowardice could win out over her loyalty. All hopes of wealth and power and fear would be lost forever.

  “I’ll go,” she said. “I’ll most likely die, but I’ll go.”

  “That’s my girl,” Senke said with a wink. Will only grunted.

  Knowing the dungeon could be the death of the old man at any time, they made their plans for that night. Many hours later, a new collection of daggers clipped to her belt, Kayla met the others in the deep recesses of the safe house.

  “Thren’s built tunnels leading out to a couple different homes and alleys,” Senke said as he adjusted his gray cloak, cinching it tighter about his body. Kayla caught sight of a long dirk tucked into his belt, the sides of its hilt painted red. The blade curved up and down like waves of the ocean, and she shuddered at the thought of its piercing her flesh.

  “There are times when no one, not even of our guild, can see us,” Will said. “Not going. Not coming. This is one of those times, you understand?”

  “I’m no child,” Kayla said. Will had painted his face gray to match the color of his cloak, and when he smiled at her he seemed like a graveyard wight come to feed.

  “Maybe,” Will said. “But when blood gets spilled, we’ll see if you cry like one.”

  “A most impressive silver tongue you have, my friend,” Senke said, slapping Will on the back. “It is a wonder you must pay the ladies to stay in your presence. I would think they would be paying you.”

  “After they see what I have, they do,” Will said. He glanced at Kayla, as if expecting her to blush, but she only rolled her eyes and gestured for them to move on ahead.

  “The tunnels are waiting,” she said.

  “Be serious if you must,” Senke said, “but remember to smile. It lights your face up so beautifully when you do.”

  This time she did blush, and when she noticed the begrudging annoyance on Will’s face, she let her cheeks bloom full red.

  Senke pulled up a few boards underneath a painting of a broken castle. Cut into the packed dirt was a hole curving deeper underneath the house, like some oversize rabbit hole.

  “There will be no light,” Senke said. “I’ll go first. Try to crawl s
low and steady, and under no circumstances panic. If you get too close to me, I might kick you in the face, and I’d feel just horrible. It might feel tight at times, but keep crawling, and remember that if Will can fit, you surely can.”

  “I’ve never had a problem with enclosed spaces,” Kayla said.

  “What about the dark?” Will asked.

  “I said I’ll be fine.”

  Senke winked at her.

  “I hope you are. Count to five, then follow.”

  Headfirst, the rogue climbed into the hole and was gone. After a count of five Kayla followed. At first she could see, but when the tunnel curled lower the light of the mansion faded, and she stared into what looked like the gullet of some enormous monster. Her heart fluttered, but she imagined the jokes Senke might make about her, as well as what would happen when Will bumped into her from behind. Most likely push her on, she realized. Hand after hand, she crawled into the darkness.

  Gradually the tunnel narrowed. Instead of crawling on her hands and knees, she fell to her stomach and pulled herself along. So much work just to keep our mission secret, she thought with some annoyance.

  “How long did it take?” she asked, and was startled by how loud her voice sounded. Some part of her seemed to think the darkness would swallow her words, smothering them in the void.

  “Take to do what?” she heard Will ask from farther back in the tunnel. His deep voice rumbled in the dark, and she held in a curse as her head thumped the roof of the tunnel. She felt like a skittish rabbit.

  “To dig all this,” she said, hoping her nervousness wasn’t too obvious in her voice.

  “Two weeks,” Will said. “All day. All night. Two died in this tunnel alone.”

  Kayla shuddered. She decided not to ask how many had died digging the rest of the tunnels that no doubt snaked out in all directions from the mansion. Occasionally her fingers would brush against wooden supports, and each time her heart was thankful. Any sense of humanity in the darkness, however remote, was a blessing.

  The tunnel veered upward sharply. Kayla wasn’t sure how long she had crawled, though the pain in her back insisted it had been at least half an hour. Her mind guessed a more reasonable ten minutes. Soon dim light lit the tunnel, but to her eyes it was a blazing beacon, and seeing it, she smiled. Her head emerged in the middle of a sparsely decorated home. Senke helped her out of the tunnel, his hands a bit too friendly around her waist as he did. She was so glad to be out of the tunnel, she let it slide.

  Will was not far behind her. A bit of dirt had joined the gray paint on his face and hands, only reinforcing the wight image she had of him.

  “Where are we?” Kayla asked. With only darkness visible outside the lone window, she had nothing to go on but a vague sense of the direction in which she’d crawled.

  “A home Thren’s bought and hollowed out,” Senke explained. “We swing by occasionally to make sure no vagabonds take up residence. There’s also a few friends of mine that have the dreadfully difficult duty of pretending to live here every couple of days so no neighbors get curious.”

  “Night’s moving,” Will said. “Shut up and move, Senke.”

  Senke laughed. “Yes, milord.”

  They slipped out and hurried north. Attached to the castle like an extra foot, the prison was a giant cube made of thick stone bricks. Only the top floor poked half above the ground, the rest stuck deep into the earth. Barred windows lined both sides, marking the cells of the lesser offenders. Kayla highly doubted they would find Robert Haern in one of them. She could only dream of their plan being so easy.

  Anxious, she ran the plan over in her mind. With just the three of them, brute force would not do, not with so many guards stationed throughout the dungeon. Even worse, it could provoke a far greater retaliation if they left a massive trail of bodies. They needed stealth, they needed quiet … and they needed a tiny bit of magic.

  “I thought the castle was warded against magic,” she had said when they explained the plan.

  “The castle is,” Thren had said. “But the prison is not the castle.”

  Kayla wondered how such stupidity could have come to pass. Most certainly it involved money. Whatever the reason, the weakness was their boon. They had procured a simple spellscroll, which Senke kept hidden in his cloak. When they reached the prison they would sneak around to the back, slip past any guards, and then use the scroll to enter the prison. Once inside they would have about ten minutes before their exit vanished into the ether. The three had worked out a few strategies to distract, disable, and render unconscious any guards they might encounter. Picking Robert’s lock would be child’s play to someone like Senke. After that, it was a quick trip out of the prison and back to the safe house.

  “Why are we bringing Will?” Kayla had asked once she could pull Senke aside. “With his size, he cannot be an expert at silence and shadow.”

  “That big lug?” Senke had laughed and then grinned at the giant man. “He’s coming with us in case stealth isn’t enough.”

  As they neared the prison, she hoped that Will would be of no use to them whatsoever. Of course, she was in a doubtful mood. By night’s end, Will would crack a few heads. She had little doubt of that fact.

  “I count only six,” Senke whispered as he and Kayla hunched around the corner of a home and watched the guards make their rounds. Will hung back, either not wanting to crowd the others or not caring how many they faced.

  “Three at the gates,” Kayla said, tracking their movements. “Two more traveling around in a circle. Another is stationary at the southeast corner. We should assume another guard is out of sight at the northwest corner.”

  “Seven, then. Still, far less than I was worried about.”

  “The soldiers are inside,” said Will. When he first spoke, Kayla instinctively tensed, expecting his booming voice to alert guards for miles, but instead out came a controlled whisper, deep and quiet. She chastised herself for such naïveté. Will had not risen to such high ranks within the Spider Guild by being foolish or unskilled. Despite his size, she now wondered if he would be better at stealth and hiding than she was. Her pride said no, but a nagging voice of reason in her mind insisted otherwise.

  “Far more men within,” Senke agreed. “Mostly bunched at entrances to all three of the lower floors. They’re far more afraid of people breaking out than breaking in. We must use that to our advantage, but also remember, the escaping may be much more difficult.”

  They waited a few more minutes, counting how long it took the roving patrol to loop around.

  “We’ll have maybe thirty seconds,” Kayla said. “Unless you want to take out the two guards.”

  “Take them out, we gain another minute to get in,” Will said. “But then we lose the rest of the night in getting out.”

  Senke nodded. If they could sneak in, their entrance would be unnoticed. Dead or unconscious guards, however, tended to attract attention.

  “What about the guard at the northwest corner?” Kayla asked.

  “We don’t know for sure he’s even there,” Senke argued.

  “Then let’s go find out.”

  They climbed up to the roof of the home they’d hidden beside. As they prepared to move west along the rooftops for a better view, Kayla wondered at Will’s dexterity. He climbed as well as she, and although he weighed more, the boards and plaster made no extra groans or creaks when he crossed.

  Lady Luck was not with them. Leaning against the corner, whistling a tune, was their unknown guard.

  “Damn,” Senke whispered as he lay on his belly peering off the roof. “That complicates things tremendously.”

  “We need him diverted,” Kayla said. “But that may mean only two of us going inside.”

  “We go as three, or not at all,” Will said.

  The woman spun at him and glared.

  “Then give us an idea, ox.”

  As if this were a serious request, Will nodded and crossed his arms.

  “Fine. Wait for me.�
�

  Will climbed down, his giant girth looking comical as he hung from slender handholds. Once on the ground, he strode up to the guard without any attempt to hide his presence.

  “What is he doing?” Kayla asked.

  “Calm yourself,” Senke said. He put a hand on her shoulder, and this time she did pull away. If he was offended, he didn’t show it. “Will knows what he’s doing. And if he doesn’t, well, we’re up here and he’s down there, right?”

  She didn’t reply. Silent, they watched as Will waved at the guard, a noticeable drunken gait suddenly overcoming him. He said something, but they could not hear what. The guard pointed away, as if shooing a mutt. Will turned, as if considering, and then spun around, his massive fist clobbering the guard. His beefy arms wrapped around the guard’s neck as he fell, tightening, twisting, and then the guard went still.

  Kayla counted in her head, tracking how long until the patrol would find them. Will had thirty seconds, forty at most.

  If Will was worried, he didn’t show it. Calmly, he picked up the body and propped it against the wall. He crossed the guard’s arms, adjusted his legs a tiny bit, and tilted his helmet so that it appeared he had nodded off. He kicked the legs a couple of times until they locked.

  A moment later and Will was climbing up the house, rejoining them on their rooftop perch.

  “Surely they will wake their friend,” Kayla said, not impressed with the ploy. “Once he’s awake, they will search for us.”

  “You don’t know guards,” Will said. A crude smile spread across his lips. “Why is he in back and alone? Because he’s not liked. You will see, but for now, hurry. Our chance approaches.”

  They skirted the light of the various torches hanging from large brass rings off the sides of the prison roof. They were nearing the giant wall surrounding the city, and therefore were out of homes to climb across and use to hide their presence. Only their cloaks and the shadows offered them protection, but they used them with the calm skill of experienced thieves.