Thieves' Race

by Isaac Padgett

  The only knives I could get were the ones I stole because Gregory refused to sell to my people or me, and he could somehow sniff out whenever I picked someone not mixed in with me to buy. So I had to make do with crappy knives that broke more often than not and were less balanced than a simple kitchen blade.

  I didn't have long to fume about it before one of the younger boys, Josh, handpicked for his innate ability to run far and fast, burst into the warehouse I was using as headquarters.

  I waited impatiently, one foot tapping on the floorboards, as the boy caught his breath, "Sir, you were right. We saw Aether packing up a bag and setting off towards the woods. A few have started to follow after her at a distance. Is there anything else you need me to do?"

  Strapping all my knives in place and double-checking everything once last time, I replied, "Yes. Go run and get my pack; it has supplies and food for the journey. After that....go run and get Tom. Tell him about his wife running away from him and that she's running to her true beloved. She must have finally received word from him." A smile spread across my face, "We'll see what happens when she reaches Jack."

  Aether

  I hated to admit it, but I was lost. I figured that traveling through the woods would be as easy as it had always been, but once I hit unfamiliar parts, every tree looked pretty much the same to me. I wished I had Jack's ability to remember where my feet had been, or at least his skill in tracking, but after a few hours, I had to grow up and admit it: I had no idea where I was.

  Every noise or rustle had me jumping out of my skin, and from the fading light in the trees, I knew it would be nighttime soon.

  I shivered at the thought of being out here, alone, in the middle of the night. Thoughts of the bears and other wild beasts who stalked the dark hours made me look over my shoulder every few seconds. Goosebumps formed along my neck and arms, and it wasn't from any chill in the air.

  As the darkness drew nearer and the moon started to rise, I began to look for a place to spend the night. I knew the best bet would be to climb a tree and try to sleep there, but I had nothing to tie myself in with. And falling from a tree while asleep was just as dangerous as the animals roaming around.

  But with no other choice, I found myself scrabbling for handholds on a large oak when I heard a shuffling, almost sobbing sound reverberating around the trees. I looked around frantically but couldn't pinpoint where the noise was coming from or even what was making it. The only animal I thought that could make that kind of noise was a boar of some sort.

  I had never seen a large wild boar, but Jack had taught me that they could grow to be monsters with razor-sharp tusks that could gore a man in one charge. Not even all the training that Gregory had given me would be enough to take on a wild animal without my bow. I cursed myself quietly, wishing I had thought to prepare instead of running off at the first chance.

  I couldn't get up in the tree; the bark just tore at my fingertips and ripped my nails bloody. "Oh god, come on, Aether, it can't be that hard to climb a damned tree." My breath was rasping out, and I thought the beast would hear my heartbeat from across the woods and come charging out.

  Hands still above me, I shot a glance over my shoulder and saw an unmistakable shape, one I hadn't expected to see ever again.

  The slurred, drunken voice that I had gotten so accustomed to over the years called out blindly, "Aether, you get back here, or else! Nobody can just walk out on me, nobody! Chasing after a phantom, you're gonna make me the laughing stock of the town!"

  I leaped up renewed, trying, again and again, to get up into the branches and hide, but it was no use. As soon as Tom got closer, he'd turn and see me, and all would be lost.

  Just as I was about to give up and slump to the ground defeated, a hand grabbed my wrist and yanked me up into the tree just moments before Tom blundered into the clearing.

  I tried to let out a scream, but a grubby, dirt-covered hand shoved its way into my mouth. All I could do was scrabble for a moment and try not to attack the person who was likely trying to rescue me.

  Not daring to move and hardly able to breathe past the hand, I watched in silent horror as Tom stumbled his way closer and closer to my hiding place.

  Even after he passed us and the sound of his massive footfalls faded away into the night, I was still too scared to make a sound.

  A handful of minutes passed, stretching to seem like hours, and finally, the hand removed itself from my mouth, and I gasped at the clean, fresh air. Part of me didn't want to turn and confront my savior, but I knew I would have to sooner or later.

  Making sure my feet were sturdy on the branch below me, I turned and looked up at the one who had yanked me up the tree. From behind a shockingly tangled mass of black hair, Kate's eyes stared back at me intently.

  "Kate? What...how....what in the world are you doing out here?"

  For a long time, she just stared at me quietly. For a half of a breath, I thought that she had lost the ability to speak out here in the wild, but I waited patiently, though it galled me.

  At last, after I had started to think I wouldn't be able to balance for much longer, she spoke, her voice cracking from misuse, "It's a long story, one that one should not tell in the night out in the wild. We should get inside soon anyways; the wolves will be roaming around in half a mark anyways. Follow me."

  She turned and was leaping through the branches faster than I thought I'd be able to follow, but I was soon scrambling after her, barely able to keep her in sight.

  She looked back every few branches to make sure I was still following her and hadn't fallen behind. At one point, it seemed that she bared her teeth in a feral grin, but in the gloom of the coming night, I couldn't be sure.

  I didn't even see her house, so to speak, until we were practically on top of it. She had a small, square structure, nestled within the branches of a large oak, the leaves and branches hiding it from any view that was farther than a few feet away. Kate opened a small trap door that led down into the treehouse and motioned for me to enter before her.

  The interior was very similar to her old house, bare of almost all but what was necessary to live. I saw no decorations aside from furs and a few branch-woven designs hanging on the wall. All in all, it was much cleaner than the house she had lived in back in town.

  "Kate, this is amazing...but why are you living out here in the middle of nowhere? Why did you leave me? You were the only one I had left, and you were just...gone." I stared at her, begging her to answer, to tell me that everything was okay and she'd come with me. But she didn't. She just sat there, looking at me, trying to find an answer or an explanation to give me.

  "I'm sorry," was what she finally settled on, "I didn't know it would be that bad. That....that Jack would get hurt..."

  I stared at her in confusion, "Jack? Wait, what are you talking about? What did you have to do with any of that? It was a raid; people die. As painful as it is, it happens."

  Kate shook her head, tears beading up in the corners of her hazel eyes, "It wasn't just a raid. It was planned, with Elroy behind it, and I knew all about it. I did nothing to stop it." My fists clenched, I was barely able to get the words out, "Why would Elroy want to kill Jack? Just because he wouldn't join his damned crew?"

  Kate didn't look up, hiding once again behind her mass of hair, "Oh Aether. The raid wasn't to kill Jack. It was meant to kill you."

  Elroy

  "How in all the hells did ye lose her? She is one girl in a bloody forest, who's probably frighten'd out of her wits!! She was in yer sights and just disappeared? Ye expect me to believe that?"

  Josh cowered before me, eyes wide and lip trembling, "It.... Sir... that's what happened, I swear to it. She just up and vanished. None of the guys even saw it happen, we just turned, and she was gone."

  I snarled, a knife in my hand faster than thought, "Then I suppose now you will go and comb the forests until you find her, won't you? And shut that blubbering idiot up; he'll attract unwanted attention from the forest life." />
  Tom was bellowing after Aether, crying and sobbing into his shirt, though the booze had almost knocked him out so far. He wouldn't manage to stay awake much longer, no matter how much he wanted to find his wife.

  I turned to Longfoot, the tracker who was on my payroll, and asked, "Where the Hell are we? You have any idea how far we've gone so far?"

  He coolly looked at me until I dropped my gaze and nodded an apology. He was one of the few people I found myself unable to intimidate, and I even found myself a little frightened by his cold, dead blue eyes. He looked at the world as if it was all just a series of footprints and stayed off in his own world most of the time, "Not far, a few leagues. If we keep in this direction, though, we'll soon find ourselves on the outskirts of Ethron. And once there, your payment ends. So unless you want to retain my service, I'll be leaving you there."

  I waved at him absently before turning, "Explain this "Ethron" to me, will you? Seems like an interesting place to know a bit about."

  "It puts Forgeview to shame, pardon my slight on your hometown. Ten times as big, with twenty times the amount of people. Richer than you could even imagine. You think you have power now; the nobles there could put you in the dungeons faster than you can slip a pair of manacles. And you'd rot there, no one even knowing you were there until you broke out or died."

  My eyes glazed at the picture he painted, and I knew that I could make my fortune in this city, "If we can't find her, we press to Ethron. With the money I make there, maybe I can slip that stranger... If you will help the lads look for her, we're on a schedule now."

  Longfoot shrugged, shifted his bow higher onto his shoulder, and then trotted off into the woods, tightly braided brown hair swaying slightly with his steps.

  Alone, I stared back over my shoulder, wishing I had never accepted that deal a few years ago. It had given me power and wealth, but now, everything I held dear was on the line, and I could feel it slowly slipping away. "Damn that man, and damn Jack for leaving me in this position. He'll pay someday, one way or another."

  Aether

  "Wait, what? Why would he want to kill me? I've never done anything against him. I mean, I've told him to back off Jack, but that wouldn't warrant death, would it?"

  Kate sighed and stood, moving over to one of the walls where she reached out and touched one of her hanging weavings, "It wasn't that. He knew that if you died or disappeared, that Jack would be more likely to go back to thieving. Something big is going down, and it's said that Jack is needed or else the job will fall through. I'm not sure what exactly that entails or what Jack is needed to do, but you were in the way. Things just... didn't go as planned. Jack is...well he's Jack. You know how he is, the stubborn fool."

  "If you knew all this, why didn't you do anything? Warn someone, do something?" I stood angrily, pushing the small, rickety table away, causing it to fall over and a leg to break off.

  Kate turned to me, lifting her shirt slowly. Her side was scarred badly; I could see where ribs had broken and pierced through the skin. Knife marks, along with the word "Spy," were carved into her skin so badly that they would never fade, "This is what they did to me when they found me listening to them one night. And then they threatened...they said if I told anyone... they'd kill Jack. They'd kill him, Aether, and he's all I had!!! He's all I ever had..." Tears flooded down her face as sobs wracked her shoulders.

  "You had me, Kate. And you were willing to toss me aside. If you had told us, maybe we could have done something...then no one would have had to die. But now, you made your bed....though it might help you to know that Jack isn't dead. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but Jack is back, it seems. In fact, I'm on my way to try to find him now."

  Kate's mouth dropped open, and for the first time in my life, I saw her genuinely shocked. "Back? What do you mean, back? How? Who told you this? If this is a joke or payback, I swear to God, I will kill you myself. Or just hand you off to Elroy and his goons; they are still down in the trees somewhere!"

  I glared at her for a moment before realizing it was the same reaction I would have had if our roles were reversed. "I saw him myself, but I was with Tom, and Jack misunderstood what was happening. He ran off, and then...I got pregnant. Tom....Tom raped me. And beat me, and I fear for the babe. So I ran away, and now I'm trying to find my way....anywhere really. I heard my dad speak of Ethron on multiple occasions, and I know there are some people there who could probably help me. I even have a few coins!" I reached into my pocket, but all my fingers found was a hole in the bottom, the coins I had stashed there gone.

  Kate stared at her hands, the floor, even the walls but wouldn't look at me. Finally, she spoke, her voice a broken shell of what it used to be, "I'll help you get there. I'll guide you. It's the least I can do....after all that has happened. Jack....I don't deserve Jack. You do. I was selfish and cost everyone so much, caused so much pain....but I'll help. Maybe this will ease a tad of my guilt. Maybe it will lift a small burden from my soul.'

  I nodded my thanks but didn't trust myself to speak. After all that had happened today, the fear and adrenaline coursing through my veins was all that kept me awake. Now, once that was gone, I felt myself drifting off to sleep. The last thing I remember was Kate covering me with a leafy, warm blanket.

  Morning came too fast, and Kate was already packed and ready, everything from the hanging dwelling gone without a trace. She stood above me, hand stretched down to help me to my feet.

  "You get enough rest? I hope so, we have a long ways to go today, and we have to be quick if we want to keep ahead of Elroy. He has an actual tracker with him, and the lad is pretty good." A look of grudging respect flashed across her features before being replaced with haughty pride, "I'm just a tad better, is all. Still, better safe than sorry. Let's go."

  I had never really been a morning person, but it was either get up or get left behind, so I soon found myself stumbling after the blurry figure of Kate, rubbing at my eyes and fighting back a jaw-breaking yawn.

  The same noises that had plagued the air last night were still surrounding me, but they were less scary in the daytime.

  Brushing aside leafy branches and trying to ignore the bugs that were already crawling all over my arms, I already knew that it was going to be a long day.

  Jack looked around at the crew he and Puck had assembled and the bits of wealth they had accumulated in the few months they had been here. With a smile at his new family, he seldom even thought of his past, only living for the day and the moments spent with friends.

  Elroy threw his hands up in the air and gave up, telling his boys to forget the search and head to the nearest city.

  A wild boar had burst from the underbrush and gored one of his boys, thrashing around and injuring almost everyone in the process. By the time Longfoot could take it down, the damage was done: Elroy was left with his two bully boys and a runner.

  Longfoot muttered about not being paid enough and stomped off, leaving Elroy and his bare handful of injured minions behind to fend for themselves.

  Kate dropped Aether off at the outskirts of the big city, setting off on her own to join a traveling caravan, "They need a woman who knows her herbs, and it's something I'm good at, so I thought I might give it a try. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to help people someday."

  Aether nodded, unable to fight back the tears that threatened to burst forth. Without looking back, she turned and set off into the city to find out what she was looking for.

  11

  Jack

  The noise of the city was practically deafening to someone who grew up in a village smaller than two hundred people. Sights and smells still almost drowned me out, and I'd been here long enough to set up a crew of about twenty folks, all of whom had a knack for the dodgy path. Part of me wasn't sure I would ever adjust to so many people in one place, though my purse was definitely happier for it.

  The city was bright and large, larger than anything I could even imagine; people were streaming about like ants in their nest, al
ways seeming to move, even if it was for no reason at all. Ethron was split into five main sections, mainly named after each gate, North, South, East, and West, and then one named after the Central Market square.

  I set my crew up, with the help of Puck, in North Gate and called ourselves The Mercs. It was filled to the brim with young folk who had no family, no one to look after them and had turned to stealing in order to survive. Puck and I took them in, taught them enough so they wouldn't get caught, and helped feed and take care of them. We were like a small but happy family.

  Victoria, a small-time thief I met chewing on a rag used to clean the dishes, sat cleaning her nails with a small throwing knife I bought for her. "When we gonna make the next big hit, Jack? My fingers are starting to itch, and I wanna nab something already!"

  She flung the knife, and it clattered against the wall before falling to the floor. "Lass, you gotta learn to control it. Itchin' fingers can get you caught." I picked up the knife and walked over to her, standing close and slipping the knife into her sheath, whispering into her ear, "Maybe you can work on the knife work as well, love. It seems like it could use some work." She nipped at my ear and laughed, "Damn you, Jack. I'm going out to the vendors. You want anything, doll?" I just shook my head and watched her prance away before rolling my eyes.