by H J Peterson
Adelric swallowed, his mouth suddenly as dry as sand. Oh, hell!
He had a feeling that Hiro was thinking along those same lines. She cursed under her breath and looked up at the sky, as if to ask heaven why she’d been cursed to deal with him.
She sighed as they crested the hill. Sure enough, when they did, Adelric began to see the outline of the mansion in the gloom, the lights from the house making the fog swirl a dull, eerie yellow.
“Of course, you don’t have a plan,” she muttered as she slowed to a stop. Adelric stopped, as well, preparing himself to get chewed out.
“I’m sorry,” Adelric said quickly. “I didn’t exactly know that I needed a plan for this until a few minutes ago!”
Hiro sighed, running a hand through her hair and closing her eyes. She almost looked like she was trying to calm down. “I know, I know.” She opened her eyes, again. “Look; I’m sorry. I just… never mind.” She looked at the estate. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever been here, have you?”
Adelric’s cheeks began to burn bright red, despite himself. He began to rub the back of his neck as he looked over at the mansion. “I-I have, actually.”
Hiro gave him a look. “Let me guess: the last time you were here was also for a job.”
“Well, I was, but that was an entirely different job,” Adelric defended himself. “Th-they were all out of town for the summer, so we didn’t have to deal with guards or anything- “
“How did you get into the building for that job?” Hiro asked before Adelric could do any more blabbering.
“There’s a trellis on the back of the house, one that leads to the balcony of the master bedroom,” Adelric said. “It wasn’t locked, not even with the whole family in Sommerfest; I doubt that it’ll be locked, tonight.”
“Then, that’s where we’re going,” Hiro said as she headed for the house. She was going slower, now, seemingly caring more about secrecy than she did about speed. “We’ll go in that way and get out again as soon as possible.”
Adelric shoved his hands in his pockets as he followed her back down the hill. “Seems simple enough, I guess.”
It took them about ten minutes to get to the house. Neither of them spoke much as they walked; they were both focused on the job at hand and on making sure that they didn’t end up getting killed. Playing lookout became Adelric’s job; finding the fastest way to get to the trellis became Hiro’s. Both were on high alert, practically jumping out of their skins at every sound, wondering if they were about to get shot.
They got to the trellis without any incidents, though. The second they were there, they began to climb, heading for the balcony two floors above their heads.
It was tough work, just as he remembered. The worst part was the vines. It must have been a rather beautiful thing in the summer, with the colorful flowers to cover it, but it wasn’t in the fall. Especially not at that point, since it got in their way of climbing. They had to reach through the vine to reach the actual trellis, knowing that they’d fall, seriously hurt themselves, and probably alert the guards if they tried to just hold onto the greenery. It was the reason why Adelric was on edge the whole time, and didn’t come close to relaxing until they were both firmly on the balcony.
He sighed once they were on the balcony, relieved.
Hiro, however, didn’t seem all that focused on that. Instead, she quickly glanced through the glass in the door, seeing if there were any guards in the room.
“Do you see anybody in there?” Adelric asked quietly as she did.
Hiro shook her head. “The coast is clear. I’m guessing that the guards aren’t even allowed in here, anyway.”
She tried the door. There wasn’t any resistance: it opened right up without even a creak.
That was a relief for him: the last time he did this, the door had been in dire need of grease; he’d thought for sure that someone had heard him.
The two of them went inside the room.
The master bedroom of the von Braun estate was just as Adelric remembered. The room was at least the size of his apartment, with a bed made of the finest mahogany and sheets made from Hanjan silks. There were a few paintings on the walls, two dressers made out of the same materials as the bed, and doors to adjoining rooms: the lady’s dressing room, the men’s dressing room, and closets, where their finest clothes were stored. The dressers would have their more modest clothes, which, in all honesty, could easily pay for three months’ rent back at his old place in Vergesse.
And yet, Adelric didn’t want to take any of it: he just wanted to get out of there, before they got caught.
“Where do we start?” Hiro asked quietly as they stepped in.
“The closets,” Adelric said as he headed for one of the doors. “That’s where all the jewelry is, and they probably won’t notice that there’s anything wrong in there until we’re long gone.”
Hiro nodded, and the two of them got to work. She went into Lady Joosten’s closet, while Adelric went into Lord von Braun’s.
Why did people need this big of closets? It was the size of the room he’d lived out of when he was younger, and was just filled with clothes, jewelry, and everything else people like Lord von Braun thought they needed. Why did he need ten pocket watches from Marx and Sons? Did he even use all of those? Probably not. He probably never wore any of those fifty cravats, either. And why did this guy need more than one, two rings? And weren’t rings with gemstones meant for women?
He guessed that he probably shouldn’t question it: Adelric just filled his bag with everything and anything he thought might be expensive. All of those pocket watches went into the bag, as did pretty much all of the cufflinks and the rings. Within just minutes, the bag was full to the point where he was fairly certain that he was going to rip the bag if he shoved anything else in there.
Adelric closed the bag up and slung it over his shoulder. The bag pulled on his shoulders; it was just about all he could do to keep from keeling right over.
He left the closet just as Hiro came out of Lady Joosten’s closet. Her bag looked pretty full, too: he couldn’t even imagine what sort of things she must have had in that bag, especially since Lord von Braun was the type to spoil his woman.
“You got everything?” he asked as she adjusted her shoulders, rolling them back and forth.
“I got everything I could carry; heaven knows that there’s a hell of a lot of nice things in there,” Hiro said. She began to walk over to the balcony. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here, before someone finds us in here- “
The door to the bedroom creaked open. When the two of them looked over at the door, they saw a young serving girl peeking her head in, a basket on her hip filled with linens.
They all froze to their spots. The serving girl’s eyes grew wide in horror.
Hiro was the first one to react. She grabbed his arm and began sprinting for the balcony door to get out of there.
The serving girl began to scream as Hiro grabbed the rope from her belt and quickly tied it against the balcony. That was it: they knew exactly where they were, now, thanks to that girl.
Hiro slid down the rope with impressive speed. The second she was off the rope, he turned to get on it to get down from the balcony-
Just as three guards entered the room, guns drawn.
Immediately, Adelric began to try to make the powder in their guns too wet to use, then began to slide down the rope.
The guns fired above his head like thunder. The sound of it made Adelric’s heart leap right out of his chest. Why did that trick never work when he needed it to?
The second his feet were on the ground, he and Hiro began to run off in the direction of the car.
Adelric didn’t dare look back.
XLIII. FRIEDRICH
Friedrich was scared out of his mind.
It was the night before his wedding. They’d made all of the preparations they could: everything to the smallest detail had been planned out. Now, there was nothing left to do but wait for the morn
ing and pray that things would go off without a hitch.
That night, the members of House Eltz - including distant relatives that Friedrich rarely ever saw - were gathered in the great hall of the manor, eating a meal of tender steak. Fine wine flowed, and the servants didn’t allow any glasses to go empty. Lord Eltz, of course, was talking business with one of his brothers, making certain that their lands in the province of Eltzich were well cared for. Rudy, Friedrich’s cousin of the same age, regaled the family members around him with tales from the cavalry academy, where he was, of course, top of his class. Grandma Eltz complained loudly to Viktoria about the weather and immigrants, and the rest of the family got drunk.
Friedrich didn’t. He hardly even touched his food. He already felt like he was going to be sick: he didn’t want to make it worse.
“Is everything alright?” Viktoria asked him at one point.
Friedrich tried to smile. “Of course: everything is just fine. I’m just… really nervous.”
“Of course, you are,” Viktoria said, smiling. “It’s the eve of your wedding: I’d be more worried if you weren’t nervous.” Her smile faded. “You aren’t… getting cold feet, though, are you?”
Friedrich shook his head. “N-no! Of course not.” He looked out over his family. “I’m just… kind of worried about what they’re all going to do at the wedding, is all. And what her family is going to do.”
“Oh, I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think it will,” Viktoria said, rubbing his back. “This family is full of people with their pride to think about, but I’d like to think they’d at least behave civilly for this. And after that glowing praise you got from Katalin’s grandfather, I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about from her family.”
Friedrich nodded and tried to smile. “You’re probably right.”
“I’m your mother: of course, I’m right.”
Before they could say anything else, two faces Friedrich hadn’t expected to see that night made their way into the room.
“Where’s the bachelor?” Dries called out as Joost took a swig of alcohol from his flask. “We’re here to make his last night a free man memorable!”
Friedrich put his head in his hands. Oh, heaven!
He expected his father to tell them to get the hell out, but he didn’t. Instead, he pointed him right out to them. “He’s right there: make sure he comes back home drunk.”
Dries, Joost, and the rest of the family began to cheer. Friedrich fought the urge to crawl under the table and hide.
“Come on, then,” Dries said as he approached. “Let’s go have a wake.”
Friedrich looked to his mother.
“Go on, then,” Viktoria said. “I think you need a night with your friends.”
Friedrich sighed and stood up. “Alright, alright: I’m coming.”
“Oh, don’t be so down!” Joost drawled. From the smell of him, he started the festivities early. Really, really early. “Tonight’s… tonight’s going to be great! We’re going to see if this Eltz can hold his liquor.”
Heaven help me! Friedrich thought as his friends dragged him out of the great hall for what they claimed would be the night of his life.
***
They took him to one of their favorite spots: Madame Delacroix’s. It was a three-in-one venue, which was growing more and more popular: part bar, part gambling hall, part burlesque theater. Friedrich had never actually gone, before, but Dries and Joost, of course, were well-versed in the place. As was Maddox, their chaperone, surprisingly enough.
“I’ll have a few drinks with you guys, but I’m not doing… the other things, here,” Friedrich said stubbornly as they took their place at a table.
“Let’s see if you’re saying that after we’ve gotten a few drinks into you,” Dries said. He looked to Maddox. “You want anything?”
“Why not?” Maddox said with a shrug. “I’m only supposed to be sober enough to make sure you three get home in one piece, tonight. And, lucky for you boys, I know how to hold my liquor.”
“Do you, now?” Joost asked. He was barely comprehensible, now. “Well, I’d like… to test that. Right now!” He put his hand up. “Absinthe shots for the table: we’ll have a gaming drink!”
“Joost, I don’t think you should have anything else to drink,” Friedrich said.
“Alright, mum,” Joost said, rolling his eyes. “Lighten up!”
A woman in clothes that left absolutely nothing to the imagination walked up to the table with the shots Joost had requested on a platter, as well as two other drinks.
“Yay!” Joost said, clapping.
“Your absinthe shots,” the woman announced. “Dries, your usual.”
“Thank you,” Dries said as she handed him his drink.
“And for you, a prosecco punch,” the woman said as she put the drink down in front of Friedrich. “It’s barely alcoholic.”
Friedrich hesitated, then took a sip.
“That’s excellent, thank you,” Friedrich said.
“Now, let’s get started,” Joost said. “Put your mouth where your munny is!”
Maddox sighed as the two of them took their shot glasses. “This isn’t going to end well for you.”
They took the shot.
Friedrich kept sipping at the drink. “What’s in this stuff? It’s really good.”
“Who knows?” Dries asked with a shrug as Joost and Maddox continued to take shots of absinthe. “Trust me: you’ll be drinking that stuff all night.”
Friedrich shook his head. “No: I’ll just have a couple.”
So, he had a couple. And a couple more. And a couple more…
XLIV. HIRO
Hiro and Adelric sat in Medvye’s pub, drinking ginger beer. Bator had sent for them earlier that morning, and told them that they needed to get to the pub as soon as they could. It was pretty tough, since half the city seemed to be heading to St. Janika’s to either attend or protest Friedrich’s wedding, but once they got through the crowds, they got to the pub easily. Hiro hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what some tabloids were calling the wedding of the century. She’d gotten an invitation to attend the wedding, with a small, handwritten note in Friedrich’s chicken scratch. It had offered an explanation for the invitation: I know that things between us still aren’t ideal, and I know that this may be some salt in the wound, but I would still like you to come to the wedding, it said. Despite what happened between us, you’re still one of the few people that I would consider a friend. I’ll understand completely if you decide to not come.
In all honesty, Hiro almost threw away the invitation and the letter the second she got it. It was so strange: why in the world would she want to go to the wedding of a man that she was originally going to marry? But, she knew he was just trying to be nice: he’d been pretty upset about the break-up, almost more so than she’d been, and there’d been a few times in the five years since then that he’d tried to get into contact with her.
And now, as she sat in that pub with Adelric, she rather wished that she had been able to go to Friedrich’s wedding: she felt like it would’ve been good for her to get some closure about… everything.
“Yumi, are you alright?” Adelric asked, pulling her out of her own thoughts.
She looked over at him. He was giving her a worried look, his eyebrows up and frowning.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just… thinking, is all.”
Adelric nodded in understanding, then looked down at his ginger beer. “What do you think they want to talk about?”
“Hell if I know,” Hiro said. She took a swig of her ginger beer. “If I were to guess, though, I would say that it probably has something to do with the fact that we kind of butchered that job last night.”
Right about then, Bator came lumbering over to them, a serious look on his face.
Adelric looked ready to run off.
“Well, the two of you are fashionably late,” Bator muttered as he sat on a bar stool next to Hiro. “What the hell t
ook you guys so damned long?”
“Traffic, that’s what,” Hiro said. “Everyone and their dog is going over to St. Janika’s for that Eltz wedding.”
“I guess that’s true,” Bator said, looking out at the bar. The place was absolutely deserted: the only people that were there were people that she knew for a fact worked for Bator’s little gang. “I’ve even got some pickpockets over there, raiding some of those damned reporters: those folks are a little too distracted for their own good.” He looked back at the two of them. “Head down to the cellar; there’s someone down there that wants to meet with you.”
Adelric didn’t look happy about that (not that Hiro was exactly thrilled about it, either) but neither of them protested. They both headed behind the bar and went down to the cellar, the door to which was already open like the mouth of a rabid animal, waiting to swallow the two of them up.
Hiro swallowed down her fear. This wasn’t going to be good: she could already feel it.
That fear almost made her feel sympathetic towards Adelric, as to the life he’d lead before he switched sides. How many times had he felt this same fear, the very one that threatened to crush her like a tin can under the tire of a car? How many times had he gone down these stairs after making a mistake, wondering whether or not he was going down to his own untimely death? It made her wonder how he’d managed to get wrapped up in this awful thing.
That, and whether or not Aki had ever had these very same feelings.
Taking another deep breath, Hiro began to go down those stairs, with Adelric right behind her.
“So, I guess you’re Miss Hruska, then?”
Hiro froze at the bottom of the stairs, her blood running ice cold. She recognized that voice, dark and deep like a demon straight from hell. She didn’t have to look to the side and into the small room to her left, where the voice came from.
It was the Archangel. The bastard that kidnapped her and ruined her leg to the point that it had to be amputated.