by Logan Jacobs
Unfortunately, the contractors Yvaine and Maruk had hired to work on the nursery, among other projects, were actually hard workers. As the team arrived, the sound of hammers still echoed throughout the building.
I sighed, and was about to suggest we move to the basement which was blessedly empty at the moment, when a crash echoed through our guild hall. Merlin, in the cat form he preferred to use while he was in the city, ducked under the table, and chittered angrily.
“Wow, that can’t be good,” Aerin commented.
“I’ll just go take a look,” Maruk replied as he stood up. He hurried from the room, and I could hear his steps as he marched down the hall towards the scene of destruction.
“I can’t think with all this noise,” Dehn complained. “I’m hearing hammers in my sleep.”
“I’m skeptical that you do much thinking on an ordinary day,” Yvaine sighed, “but I do agree that the noise can be overwhelming.”
“Why did we start so many projects at one time?” Aerin complained.
“It’s work that needs to be done,” Yvaine replied.
“Though I still don’t have a decent archery range,” Lavinia noted.
“And there’s dust all over my library,” Emeline added.
“I’m worried about some of my experiments,” Lena sighed. “I think plaster may have fallen into some of the mixtures.”
“Ugh,” Dehn snarled as he slumped in his chair. Another round of rapid pounding echoed around the room.
Maruk returned and took his seat at the table. No one spoke for several minutes as we tried to wait out the noise.
“Let’s go for a ride,” I suggested during a brief break. “Find somewhere we can talk in private.”
“In this weather?” Maruk exclaimed. “Surely, you can’t expect Lavinia to ride around in such cold weather in her present condition?”
“I’m pregnant, not dying,” Lavinia groaned.
“Maruk is right,” Yvaine agreed. “We probably shouldn’t have had Lavinia out yesterday, but we really needed her input on what styles work best for ladona newborns.”
“Ladona newborns don’t have a--” Lavinia began.
“I know a place,” Emeline interrupted to offer. We all turned to look at the panthera in surprise, and she twisted a lock of her hair nervously in her fingers.
“What, is it some sort of secret mage cave?” Lavinia asked. Dust trickled down from the ceiling and left a white puddle in the center of the table.
“Not exactly,” Emeline replied. “It’s a spot I used to study for tests, where none of the other students could find me. I even put seals up so no one could disturb me.”
“Where is this palace of tranquility?” Maruk asked.
We sat through another round of hammering, and then I heard the foreman yell instructions to his crew. Something heavy scraped across the floor upstairs, and another trail of dust fell onto the table.
“It’s above one of the shops near the tower,” Emeline finally answered. “The owner is a panthera, one of the few others in the city. He was always very kind to me and Etienne, and he let me use the space as a study hall after some of the other students stole my notes and burned them.”
“Why would they do that?” Lena asked in genuine confusion.
“They didn’t like me,” Emeline said simply.
“Why--?” Lena started to ask.
“It sounds perfect,” I interrupted. We would be here all night if we had to explain to Lena how someone could hate Emeline simply for being Emeline. “Do you think your friend will still let you use the space?”
“I’m sure he will,” Emeline replied.
“Right,” Dehn declared as he stood up. “Let’s go then before I decide to kill the guy with the hammer.”
I wasn’t sure if Dehn was joking, and a quick look at the other Foxes showed that no one else was certain either.
“Lead the way,” I said to Emeline as I dragged Merlin out from under the table.
We abandoned the dining room, gathered up our winter cloaks, and ventured outside. Low clouds loomed over the city, casting a dark pall. Most of the street lights were already lit, and very few people moved along the sidewalks. Merlin wrapped himself around my neck, and I was grateful for the extra warmth.
Emeline led the way towards the brooding Academy Tower that stood at the center of Ovrista. Its black glass surface looked especially malevolent in the low gray gloom of the day. I realized that I was deliberately not looking at the thing, and I forced myself to keep my head up. It felt like a thousand pairs of eyes were watching me, but I refused to surrender to the fear. I had a brief flash of the ladona thief, her chin raised in proud defiance as Raynald had practically drooled over his captive. I could at least be as strong as her.
Emeline turned towards one of the older sections of the city, and we soon found ourselves walking along narrow cobblestone streets. The buildings here sat shoulder to shoulder, and the upper stories jutted out across the sidewalks. I guessed very little sunlight ever lit this street, even at the height of summer.
Yet the shops here were well lit and welcoming. We passed a bookstore, specializing in rare and hard to find volumes, a fishmonger, a bakery, and a palm reader who promised an accurate reading or your money back.
Emeline entered a small store near the middle of the block. The sign above the door simply said ‘Azuca’. I glanced at the others, but they looked as confused as I did. We stepped inside, and I found myself standing in Willy Wonka’s factory. Or, at least, the gift shop at the end of the tour. The place was packed with every kind of candy, and the little kid in me wanted to run around and sample every delicious looking tidbit.
“Emeline!” a voice cried out. A large panthera with a brown and gold mane, and large, triangular ears stepped from behind the counter and swept Emeline up in an embrace.
“Damien!” she replied as she hugged the man.
“I’ve been worried about Etienne,” Damien said as he released Emeline from the hug. He stepped back and peered closely at Emeline. “But you look like you’re doing well.”
“I am,” she said shyly. “My guild takes good care of me.”
Damien looked at us then and subjected us to a very intense stare. I felt like a kid preparing to take the man’s daughter on a date for the first time. The rest of the Foxes looked as uncomfortable as I felt.
“This is Gabriel,” Emeline said as she tugged me forward. “And this is Dehn, Lavinia, Maruk, Aerin, Yvaine, and Lena.”
Merlin unwrapped himself from my neck and yowled.
“And Merlin,” Emeline laughed.
“A puca,” Damien said in surprise. “You’re certainly keeping interesting company these days.”
“They’re good people,” Emeline assured him. “They saved me, and they saved Etienne.”
Damien looked at us again, apparently not quite convinced of our good natures.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” I finally said. I even sounded like a teenager heading out on a first date. “Emeline said you helped her survive her classes at the Academy.”
“We panthera have to stick together,” Damien finally said. “But if it’s true, and you helped Etienne and Emeline, then you are my friend as well.”
“They rescued me,” Emeline declared, “And they proved my innocence. And when the guard came for Etienne, they helped him escape from the city. He’s safe now, with Maruk’s family.”
Maruk acknowledged this with a slight dip of his head. “My cousins have practically adopted him,” the big orc stated.
“Well,” Damien declared. He turned his gaze back on Emeline and smiled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I was hoping we could use the study room,” she replied shyly. “We were trying to hold a meeting, but the contractors that are working on the guild hall have made it very difficult.”
“And you need a place that doesn’t have too many ears,” Damien said with a knowing smile. “I know how secretive the guilds can be when they’re dis
cussing what bounties they have.”
“I hope it’s okay,” Emeline said as a blush spread across her cheeks.
“On one condition,” Damien replied in a stern voice, though the smile he wore took the sting from his words.
“What’s that?” Emeline asked.
“You and your guild stay and have tea with me afterwards,” Damien said. “You can tell me of your adventures, and of Etienne’s.”
Emeline looked back at us, and I could see the hope that brimmed in her eyes.
“We’d enjoy that,” I agreed. “Maybe you could tell us about some of Emeline’s adventures as a youngster in the big city.”
“Oh, no!” Emeline protested. “You don’t want to hear about that!”
“Of course we do,” Aerin chided. “I’m sure you managed to set more that a few things on fire in your day.”
“The stories I could tell,” Damien said wistfully. “An air mage and a fire mage, roaming the streets together.”
“Damien,” Emeline pleaded.
The panthera laughed and wrapped Emeline in another massive hug. Emeline squeaked, and when he finally released her, she quickly tried to straighten her clothing.
“Before you head up,” Damien said. He disappeared behind a row of shelves filled with jars of brightly colored candies. He returned with a brown paper bag and handed it to Emeline. “You can enjoy those while you have your meeting.”
Emeline peeked inside the bag, and a smile flitted across her face. She quickly tried to hide it, and said in her best grown-up voice, “Thank you, Damien.”
“Remember, tea afterwards,” he said sternly.
Emeline nodded and then led the way to the back of the store. We passed through the kitchen where I saw hard candies cooling on a rack, to a small storeroom, packed with boxes. A desk sat under the one window, though there was no real light to speak of. A filing cabinet stood next to the desk, and a small chalkboard hung over that. There were several notations on the board in a script I didn’t recognize. Tucked along the back wall was a narrow set of stairs.
We trooped up the stairs to the second floor. There were only two doors at the top of the stairs, and Emeline opened the one on the right. We stepped into a small room at the back of the building. There was no window in here, so Emeline quickly created a mage light and sent it up to the ceiling.
The room was modest, with bare wooden floors, and paint that was slowly peeling from the walls. A table had been pushed against one wall, and a stack of books piled on top. Folding chairs, dusty and unused, sat in one corner. Several strange-looking devices hung from hooks in the walls, and I couldn’t resist stepping closer to look at them.
“Test models,” Emeline explained. “Damien is always looking for new and interesting ways to make candy.”
“I remember now,” Maruk said. He was hunched over to avoid hitting his head against the ceiling. “Azuca is the panthera word for sweet.”
“It is,” Emeline agreed as she pulled some of the folding chairs from the stack. Aerin joined her, and they soon had a small ring of chairs set up.
“I think I’ll stand,” Maruk declined as he stared at the chair. I couldn’t blame him. Mine wobbled when I sat down, and I realized I would have to remain still if I didn’t want to end up in a heap on the floor.
“So what kind of candy did he give you?” Aerin asked. I saw the hopeful glint in her eye as she gazed at the brown bag that Emeline clasped in both hands.
“Sour watermelons,” Emeline replied. “They were my favorites when I was a kid.”
“Oh, I love sour watermelons,” Lena said happily. “My father always brought some home with him when he returned from his business trips.”
Emeline opened the bag and peered inside. I could see her debate whether there was enough to share, and then she grudgingly passed the bag to Lena. Lena pulled a dark green and pink striped candy from the bag and eagerly popped it into her mouth. She passed the bag to Dehn, who was sitting next to her. He sniffed, took a candy for himself, and then passed the bag onwards. The bag made its way around the circle, with only Lavinia declining to take any.
I put the candy in my mouth and was instantly hit with a powerful blast of sweet and sour. The watermelon flavor tasted like an actual watermelon, not the candy version that I’d grown up with. I couldn’t decide what contributed the sour taste, but it wasn’t at all unpleasant. If Emeline hadn’t hidden the bag in one of her pockets, I would have been asking for seconds. And thirds.
“All right,” Lavinia declared, since she was the only one not currently sucking on a piece of hard candy. “What’s this meeting all about?”
“Mmmppfs,” I mumbled as I tried to speak around the candy.
“Gabriel had a dream,” Yvaine somehow managed to say without too much slurring.
All eyes turned towards me. I tried to crunch through the candy and nearly broke a tooth. Lavinia sighed, crossed her arms, and leaned back in her chair. The room was silent except for the sound of seven adults and one puca sucking on candy. Finally, when the piece was small enough, I managed to bite through it.
“I had a warning,” I corrected when I finally managed to finish the candy. “From Theira.”
Aerin started choking, and Dehn thumped her hard on the back.
“The thing is, what needs to be done is going to be very dangerous, and anyone involved could very well find themselves on the run,” I continued. “You know how much I’ve come to rely on all of you, but I don’t want to drag anybody into this who doesn’t want to be involved.”
“So what is it Theira wants you to do?” Lavinia asked.
“Retrieve the Shodra,” I replied.
There was more silence, and more sucking sounds.
“Didn’t we already do that?” Dehn asked.
“We need to get them back from Maderel,” I said. “Theira showed me what will happen if Maderel is allowed to use them. It’s the end of the world, to put it bluntly.”
“It would have been nice if she’d told us this before we turned the Shodra over to him,” Aerin pointed out.
“Damn gods,” Lavinia muttered. “Why do they always make things more complicated than they have to be?”
“What are you proposing?” Maruk asked.
“We have to get them out of the Tower,” I replied.
“But we don’t even know where they are in the tower,” Aerin protested. “At least with Emeline, we knew where she was being held.”
“And Maderel will have the Shodra well protected,” Yvaine added. “What you went through in the cells will be nothing compared to what he’s put up around the Shodra. And now he knows about the sewer route, so you can’t use that again.”
“I know this isn’t going to be easy,” I said. “And I know there’s a real chance that we could all end up dead, or on the run for the rest of our lives. But I can’t let Maderel destroy the world.”
“I’m in,” Lavinia said quietly.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Maruk declared as he glowered at the ladona. “You’re with child. His child. We need to make sure you’re safely out of this.”
“I’m not dying,” Lavinia declared.
“Maruk is right,” Yvaine cut her off. “What do you think Maderel will do if he realizes you’re pregnant with Gabriel’s child?”
“Kill me,” the ladona responded coolly. “Just like he’ll kill everyone else in this room just for having this discussion.”
The room fell silent again, and I could feel the tension rising.
“I’ll do it,” Emeline announced. “I never did like Maderel, and if Theira thinks he can’t be trusted with the Shodra, then I say we take them back.”
“Lena? Dehn?” I asked.
“Hell, you know I’m in,” Dehn declared with a grin.
“I trust the goddess,” Lena said simply. “If she says it needs to be done, then we should do it. And I trust Gabriel, so I’ll go where he goes.”
I looked around the circle again. Slowly, one by one, they each nod
ded in agreement.
“On one condition,” Maruk added.
“That is?” I asked.
“We have to make some effort to protect Lavinia,” he replied.
The ladona started to protest, but I held up my hand. She closed her mouth and glared at the orc.
“Agreed,” I said. Lavinia’s fiery glare turned on me, and I tried to reassure her. “You’ll still help. Just maybe do more research and such.”
“It’s not like I’m due next week,” she grumbled.
“So, where do we begin?” Emeline asked.
“We need to figure out where the Shodra actually are,” I replied. “And I think I’m the only one who can do that.”
“How?” Aerin asked suspiciously.
“Maderel has offered to teach me before,” I said. “I think it’s time I took him up on his offer.”
The room exploded then, and a rain of protests poured down on my head.
“He’ll figure out you’re a manipulator,” Aerin’s voice yelled out above everyone else. “Are you insane?”
“He will not,” I replied. “Besides, I’m not talking about enrolling there as a full-time student. I’ll just… cozy up to Maderel until we have what we need.”
“This is crazy,” Yvaine declared. “You can’t seriously consider this a viable option.”
“He’s right,” Lavinia sighed. All eyes turned towards her. “It’s the only in we have at the Tower right now. And if he’s willing to do it, then we should support him.”
“We’re not sending you in alone,” Maruk huffed.
“I’ll have Merlin,” I replied as I scratched the puca under his chin. Merlin seemed to consider the possibilities, then chirped his agreement.
“You’ll need more than a puca if Maderel figures out what you really are,” Aerin said angrily.
“We can work out the details,” I replied. “But that’s the plan.”
“The plan sucks,” Aerin declared.
“We’re Shadow Foxes,” Lena reminded her. “We’ve come through more dangerous assignments than this.”
“She’s right,” Dehn said as he thwacked his knee with the palm of his hand. “We can do this. We’re the greatest guild there ever was or will be.”