Thieves' Race

by Isaac Padgett

  "Why don't we try that again, though maybe you should try a little harder to hit me this time." The mocking expression on his face angered me enough that I stepped towards him and attacked as hard as I could, blows raining down on him. I stepped back smug after a moment or two, breathing hard, only to notice that not only had I not touched him, but he also wasn't even winded. In fact, he seemed like he had just gotten up from sitting down; he looked so rested and calm.

  "Lesson one, never tire yourself out on an enemy." And he proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon whacking me around with his stupid little wooden sword.

  By the end of the day, I was covered in bruises, and just trying to move sent waves of pain throughout my entire body, but I felt a fierce pride. I had made quite a bit of progress since the morning, and by the time we put up the swords, both Gregory and I were drenched in sweat, and he was sporting a few tender spots of his own.

  With a gruff nod of approval, he took the wooden sword from me and slipped it under his arm with the other, "Be here bright and early. You're going to work the bellows for me; get some more meat on your bones."

  I nodded and waited for him to go inside before collapsing on the ground and letting all my muscles go slack.

  Even with all the training and exercise, I didn't want to move from that spot, and I wasn't even sure if my muscles would let me. I had to have been lying there for at least a quarter of a mark before the scuffing of feet on the pathway caused me to look up.

  I had never thought it would be possible, but Kate looked even worse than usual. I could tell at a glance that she was taking Jack's death harder than I was, her clothes hung in absolute tatters, and her hair was in clumps. Shadows under her eyes told me that she hadn't been sleeping much, if at all, and her cheekbones were sticking out more than usual.

  "Kate? Kate, when was the last time you ate?" I sat up, fighting back a groan. She stared at me from the street, eyes empty and hands hanging limp. Whenever I had seen her before, her hands were always constantly moving here or there, flitting around her body like birds. Now, they seemed dead and lifeless; fingers curled inwards.

  She shook her head slightly, mouth open, but it didn't appear as if she could find the words. After a few long moments, she rasped out, "It's my fault."

  "What is, Kate? You mean...Jack? Kate, that's not your fault; things happen. It's no one's fault. He made his choice, and no one could have stopped him." I stepped forward to embrace her, but she backed up with my advance, hands raised up in claws. She almost seemed feral at that moment.

  "I could have stopped it. You don't know. I could have. It's my fault, all my fault. I'm sorry. It's my fault. It wasn't supposed to happen." She turned and ran, faster than I thought possible, and was gone before I could follow.

  From the direction she was running, I figured she was going to the woods to think. I knew that she spent a lot of time there before making any big decisions and that she had always felt more at home there than anywhere else.

  A last-second decision had me walking to her house to wait for her, to catch her when she got back from wherever it was she was going to hide. I guessed she'd be back soon enough and that I'd talk to her then, try to reason out what was going on in her mind.

  Kate's house was gone, stripped to the ground. Where the shack had once stood was just a pile of rubble that was left burning. A small, pink flash danced in the middle of the remains of flames, floating on the hot air, and I instantly knew it was the ribbon Jack had given her at the beginning of their friendship.

  Ignoring the heat of the flames, I ran in and fished the ribbon out, burning my hands and arms in the process. I cradled the stub of ribbon that was left to my chest and looked out towards the forest, wondering what Kate would do now.

  A couple of kids were already showing up to throw handfuls of dirt on the fire to see what they could salvage from the wreck. Wretches who thrived off of others misfortune, the whole poor quarter made me feel sick to my stomach.

  No one even asked about the girl who had lived there or about what caused the fire. They took what they could and went on with their lives, not seeming to care about anything that didn't directly affect them. They didn't even bother to try to find out if the girl who had lived beside them so long had survived the blaze.

  With the ribbon stub in my pocket and my heart weighed down with sorrow, I stumbled home to wash the smell of ash from my hair and to scrub away the filthy feeling I had from it all.

  I fell into bed later that night with a groan and wondered once more how proud Jack would be if he could see me now. And how happy I'd be just to see him one more time. Maybe he could have sorted out all that had happened today. Perhaps he could have figured out why Kate had felt so guilty.

  My mind was racing with a multitude of thoughts, my beaten and weary body graciously fell into darkness.

  6

  Jack

  I leaped over a trunk that had fallen across the path and felt a stabbing feeling lace up the side of my body. The still-fresh knife wound wasn't quite healed over yet, and it caused throbbing pains that almost brought me to my knees. But as much as I wanted to stop and take a breather, I knew I had to keep running. The only thing keeping me alive was my skill at traveling through the woods. The sounds of the baying from the dogs chasing me reverberated through the trees, resounding all around me. It caused a hopeless feeling, making me want just to stop running, but I knew I couldn't. Someone needed me.

  I can't remember who I am or how I got here. I can't remember anything before waking up in this dead forest, surrounded by dogs that were straining at their leashes of fire, saliva dripping down to burn the grass at their feet, smoke curling up. There was a fat man who smiled at me and spoke one word, evil itself seeming to drip from it, "Run."

  And I did. All I could remember from before I awoke here was a name. No face surfaced with it, but somehow, I knew. I knew that they needed me, safe from harm, and returned to them. "Aether," I whispered softly, gasping out breaths, "who in the blazes are you?"

  The tree limbs smacked at me, dragging me back, seemingly alive with a will to hold me down and keep me in place so that the fat mans' game might finally end. Nothing in this place seemed friendly; it was all dead and decayed. With a sudden flash of insight, I decided to grab back at the trees that were so intent on destroying me.

  Leaping up with my hands, scrabbling for a hold, I grabbed a tree branch and hauled myself up into the leaves, feeling the wound in my side rip open and start slowly leaking blood. Practiced balance I didn't know I had let me jump nimbly from branch to branch, somehow managing to keep my feet under me. I knew one slip would be the end of me.

  As the barking and baying drew ever closer, I stopped moving and clutched at the tree limb I was on. Tightly holding my hand against the wound that refused to heal, I was desperately trying to stop the flow of blood as I drew in a breath and held it. I could feel my grip slipping, so with one hand, I reached out to grab another branch, but it just came away into my hand. My breath caught hard in my throat as my death loomed ever closer, but I barely managed to hold on and stay in the tree. Forcing air through my nose, I looked at what came away in my hand... A recurve bow, already strung and made of the whitest wood I've ever seen, was in my grip, almost as if it was meant for me. Attached was a leather quiver filled with arrows and a spare string, along with a note saying, "Happy hunting."

  Without even pausing to wonder why it was there or how whoever left it knew that I would be there, I wrapped my legs around the branch under me to secure myself and quickly set a broad, razor tipped arrow on the string, drawing it back and feeling a familiar pull on my back muscles. I smiled grimly and instinctively aimed the arrow down towards where the barking noises ensued.

  The dogs soon appeared from the bushes; giant, red, vicious beasts. They were like no other dogs I had ever seen, with black veins coursing over their body and gleaming, blood-red eyes. Dripping saliva hissed as it hit the ground, and their paws left blackened marks in th
e grass. They were hideous, deadly, and out for my blood. And until now, it had seemed like all I could do was run. The jovial fat man lumbered about behind them, laughing and drinking from a flask, calling out, "Better still be running, boy!!! You know my dogs can smell up to five miles." He continued to laugh as I sighted down the arrow, tip pointed directly at the beast at his feet.

  With a slight puff of air, I let the arrow fly and watched it sail through the air before piercing the dog's hide. It howled with pain and crumpled to the ground, the expression on the fat man's face becoming almost comical. His eyes searched the trees around him desperately, and I only had time to let off one more arrow, taking another dog down, before he finally caught sight of me. Each time a hound died, the man seemed to stumble slightly, almost as if he was a tad bit weaker than before. His eyes burned into mine, seemingly on fire with a hatred so intense that I could actually feel it in my bones. "You killed my dogs! That's it!" and with that, he started to change. Wings burst out through the shirt on his back, and I could see horns starting to grow out of his brow. The dogs just got more and more frenzied, seeming to salivate at the thought of their Master's true form coming out.

  With a start caused by both surprise and sudden pain, I fell from the tree and felt the few remaining beasts lunging to snap at my heels. Rolling to my feet, I took off once more, fatigue causing me to stumble, tears blocking my vision. I ran harder than ever before, knowing I had to live for that faceless memory of Aether. Somehow I held onto the bow and quiver though I knew that if I tried to stop and take aim at any of the pursuing beasts, the others would overrun me before I could get a shot off. The thought of Aether, even though it was still nothing but a name, spurred me on, and I felt myself gaining distance on the dogs, and the fat man turned demon thing. That fact alone, the idea that I might actually get away and survive this day, maybe even get back to Aether safe, drove me harder than ever, breath exploding out of me and making my side come aflame with pain. And then I tripped.

  After all this time running through unfamiliar woods without a problem, a root reached up, seemingly on its own, literally from out of the ground, and snagged my foot in its grasp. The forest seemed to be on the side of the fat man and wanted me to die here alone. Laying on the ground gasping, I could do nothing as the dogs surrounded me, and that damn fat, laughing lunatic bounced and wobbled up to me. He was back in the form of the man I had first seen, though I could never forget what that beast looked like or the hatred I had seen in his eyes. I had been running as hard as I could, and he had barely broken a sweat. All the dogs were drooling as they ringed us, and I could smell the burning grass under their paws. I could see that there were no openings, nowhere to run. I was well and truly surrounded.

  He knelt by my head and grabbed my hair, yanking my head around so hard that it brought tears to my eyes. "Boy, for making that chase so fun, I promise I'll make it qui-" he broke off, eyes fading out for a moment as if he was listening to something. "But Master, I have him, right here. But Master, he has... No, of course, I don't; I would never claim to know more than….yes master. Whatever you will, of course." Looking back at me with that fiery red glow back in his eyes, he growled out, "It seems that you've escaped your fate for now. But never forget, my little rabbit, that I will always be able to hunt you down. Remember that." And with that, he just disappeared in a cloud of smoke, along with all of the hounds. The only record of them being there was the blackened footprints surrounding me and the pain from my hair being yanked so hard.

  Stumbling back to my feet, I shuffled slowly along, taking my time to try to regain my breath, but then, once again, I heard that horrible voice as if the man was right behind me, "Run. Run rabbit run." And I took off once more, sure he had returned and wouldn't keep from finishing me off this time. I can't remember how long I ran or how far, but I do remember what caused me to stop. With all the luck I had so far in this place, I shouldn't have been surprised to see a heavily muscled man step out from behind a tree with a giant club. I also shouldn't have been surprised to see said club come whistling towards me to crash with a bright flash of light into my face. Darkness.

  Elroy

  The nameless man stepped out from the shadows beside me, causing me to stumble in surprise on a loose stone. He didn't even bother to reach out and catch me; he just left me to try to save myself. I had to blunder into another person on the walkway to remain upright and waved off their outburst. Biting back my anger, I glared at him and waited for him to talk, trying to ignore the small, condescending smile.

  "So. You screwed up big time, didn't you, boy? The one you claimed would be perfect, that you could get, died on you. In fact, you were the one who caused it all! Isn't it funny how things work out?" The man chuckled, shaking his head briefly.

  "Look, it was-" I started to make an excuse, anything to save my ass, but the man cut me off with an upraised hand. "What, can you bring him back from the dead? No? I didn't think so. Look, I don't really give a damn what it was that happened. You screwed up, and you didn't do it in some half-assed method either. Luckily for you, we can still fix it. My Master can pull some strings, but you have to do what you originally planned. Get the girl out of the way, you understand? Do that, and we can continue with the plan, just a little later than expected. But if I have to come back here and fix your problems again, we're going to have an even bigger problem. Well... you'll be too dead to have many problems, I suppose."

  I started to nod, but he stepped back into a shadowed doorway and disappeared. I turned and ran back towards the old warehouse where my crew was holed up with a shudder. Stephen stood guard outside, but I breezed past him without bothering with the signal. I knew I could take whatever he threw at me, and he seemed to be paying enough attention to know it was me.

  I barged into the main meeting room, scattering the few girls who were plying their trade and interrupting a card game. "'ey boss, ye shoul' hear bout dis. Tom was caught beatin' up on me girl here. Thir' time this week, he's 'bout to be stuck iffin I gots somethin' te say 'bout it." Frankie was holding onto a small red-headed girl, who was pouting at me, sticking her chest out seductively.

  "I don't give a rat's hairy ass about Tom beating up on....well, actually, on the other hand...," I trailed off, my mind racing down a new train of thought, "We do still have a problem with the girl, Aether. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone... Frankie, you're going to go put the idea in Tom's head to start pursuing Aether. What better than to stick her with a drunk woman-beater? He'll take care of our problem, quick enough, and it'll leave your girl free in the clear."

  I waved him out and ignored his sputtering protests, passing a hand in front of my eyes, "This better work, or else I have no idea what I'll do.." I passed quickly to my room, drawing the door swiftly closed behind me. Better for the boys to not see their fearless leader tremble.

  Aether

  I stood on the dirt road leading into the woods from the village. Surrounding me were four boys who I could vaguely recall but didn't really know all that well. I couldn't even remember their names except for the boy up front. Raoul. They were bullies, really, with nothing better to do with their time than to pick on those who were smaller or weaker than them. And today, they had had a little bit to drink and decided that they might try to have their way with me. And if I was willing or not, they thought they could muscle into getting whatever they wanted.

  Typical boy things, really. Thinking that, just because I was a girl, that I couldn't defend myself. Gregory had seen to change that, though.

  "Lass, it'll be okay, don't try to fight it. You know you want this as much as we do. Just take it like a good little girl, and we'll all have a blast, won't we boys?" Raoul took a step forward with what he thought was a charming smile and his buddies laughed at his words.

  "Lad," I mocked him scornfully, not even trying to mask it, "take a step back and walk away before you come to regret it." My hands flexed at my side as I went over the dozens of techniques Gregory had shown me o
ver the past few moons, and I was deciding on an action right when another voice called out.

  "Hey, what's going on here? You bullies leave her alone, you hear me?" Tom was standing about twenty feet away with one hand in the air pointing at Raoul. He stood at a good solid eight inches over five feet, with wavy blond hair that almost reached his shoulders. Years of standing under a horse had built up his body to a hefty build, albeit not a fast one.

  The four bullies scoffed, and Raoul took another step towards me. Tom started to run towards the group, to do what, I'm not too sure. With a casual flick of my head to flick my hair as a slight distraction, I drove a fist behind me to the left, feeling one of the boy's nose flattening out and cracking, spewing blood all over the ground. I spun around, tight as a spring, a foot lashing out to shatter another boy's kneecap, and, by the time I regained my feet, Raoul and his other buddy were gone, running for their lives towards the village.

  Tom hadn't even made it half the distance between us by the time all this was done. And at that point, he just stood there looking at the two boys rolling around on the ground before looking at me with a mixture of wonder and fear in his eyes, "How.... how did you just...what...what in the blazes just happened?"