God of Magic 6

by Logan Jacobs

  I slipped through the darkness, unseen by anyone, and found the door to the private offices. Lavinia had left it open for me, and I slipped inside. I quietly closed the door behind me and then ran down the hallway to Raynald’s office. Lavinia and Dehn were already inside, removing the ropes from Imogen.

  Imogen looked shocked, and I couldn’t blame her. The crowd had turned vicious in a heartbeat, and if I hadn’t been able to call down that darkness, she and Lavinia could very well have ended up dead tonight.

  With the ropes off, Dehn turned his attention to the secret door. He twisted what looked like an ordinary coat hook, and I heard a small click. One of the wood panels on the wall opened a crack, and Dehn pulled it wide enough for us to enter. We were in a small room, just wide enough for a pair of Raynald’s boots and a stack of boxes that smelled vaguely of dried seaweed. Dehn muttered a few curses under his breath, and then there was another click. The door to the alley opened without a sound, and we stepped cautiously into the night.

  Emeline was there with Merlin, currently in the shape of a small black pony with a pack tied to his back. The panthera jumped when we stepped into the alley, but she kept her gaze on the crowd that was no doubt gathering in front of the building.

  “How’s it going?” I asked quietly.

  “Good,” she replied. “Lena and Aerin have everyone convinced that someone wearing mage robes swept Imogen from the room, right after snatching her from your hands. Maruk has organized a small group to head for the main gate, while Yvaine has told Raynald to head for the docks.”

  “We’ll stick to the alleys,” I said. “When we get near the Tower, we can slip into the sewers.”

  “That won’t work,” Imogen said as she sidled up next to me. “They’ve put new security on the old lines since someone broke out of the Tower.”

  “It’s nothing we can’t handle,” I replied as I glanced at the ladona.

  “We’ve done it before,” Lavinia added as she joined us. I could hear the warning in her tone as she gave Imogen a fiery stare.

  “So that was you?” Imogen scoffed. “It seems jailbreaks are a regular habit with your guild. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the Tower has added more security. There is an easier way.”

  “I’m all for easier,” Emeline murmured.

  “We go up,” Imogen said with a nod.

  “The roofs again?” I replied. “But they’ll be looking for you there.”

  “You give them too much credit,” Imogen snorted. “You’re the first ones who ever bothered to chase me across the rooftops. And even once they know, they still don’t look. See how quickly they were willing to follow your friends to the gates and the docks.”

  “But how do we actually get out of the city?” Emeline asked.

  “I know a place where we can get over the wall,” Imogen stated. “After all, no self-respecting thief would enter a place without having multiple escape routes planned out.”

  “We should stick to the plan,” Lavinia hissed. She and Imogen growled at each other, and I could see the fire burning behind both their eyes.

  “I hate roofs,” Dehn declared.

  “He doesn’t do well with heights,” I shrugged as Imogen glared at the halfling.

  “I’m the tallest in my family,” Dehn declared. “I do just fine with heights! It’s just roofs I don’t like.”

  I noticed Emeline was also staring at the roofs uncertainly. Imogen locked her glare on me, as did Lavinia.

  “Is there another way to get there besides using the roofs?” I asked.

  “Fine,” Imogen huffed. “We can use the backstreets, but we’re more likely to run into people who may be looking for us.”

  “Not if the rest of the Shadow Foxes do their part,” Lavinia pointed out.

  “Speaking of which,” I said as I poked my head around the corner. There was still a crowd gathered around the jail, but it looked like the fear had died down, and now it was mostly people standing around talking excitedly about the events of the night. I didn’t see any other Shadow Foxes, or any sign of Raynald, Rufus, or the rest of the city guard.

  “This is our best chance,” Dehn said as he risked a look as well. “The guards won’t be gone forever, and those I knocked out will wake up soon. They won’t remember anything about tonight, if the elf got it right, but they’ll be able to help with the search well enough.”

  Lavinia untied the pack from Merlin, who instantly shifted back into his cat shape. Imogen eyed the puca warily as Lavinia opened the pack and passed around dark cloaks to everyone.

  “Let’s go,” I said as I threw the night black fabric over my clothing. I looked at the rest of the team and realized the cloaks Yvaine had ordered did their job. They weren’t invisibility cloaks, but we would be harder to spot, and we would be able to slip easily through the darkened streets.

  Imogen gave me a nod as she pulled the hood over her head. She glanced at the crowd in front of the station, then led us along a winding path through the alleys. Sometimes, the alleys would come to an end, and we would be forced to use one of the main streets for a stretch, but Imogen always seemed to find the darkest spots for us to cross. I had no doubt that Imogen knew this city better than I did, and probably better than the rest of the Shadow Foxes as well. Even Dehn seemed confused at a couple of points, and I could hear him grumbling as we found ourselves in one of the dreariest corners of the city.

  “Where are we?” Emeline asked quietly.

  I heard something snuffling through a pile of refuse, and Merlin veered off to investigate.

  “This is one of the oldest parts of Ovrista,” Imogen replied. “The monks had a hospital here where they treated plague victims. Later, they just provided medicines and such for the poor. The monks and their hospital are long gone, shut down by city officials who were afraid that the hospital was attracting too many poor people to the city. Now the only ones who live here are the poor that the city council were so afraid of.”

  “Is that true?” Emeline asked Dehn.

  “This place has always been one of the poorest districts,” Dehn admitted. “Didn’t know that bit about the hospital though.”

  “The hospital was shut down not long after the civil war ended,” Imogen said. “Most people don’t remember it ever existed.”

  Merlin reappeared with a large rat between his teeth. It looked like he had already snapped the rodent’s neck, and he carried it along like a trophy.

  “Ugh,” Emeline groaned.

  “Either eat it or leave it,” Lavinia warned the puca.

  Merlin glanced around the dark alley, then quickly shifted back into his puca shape before anyone realized what he was doing. He popped the rat into his mouth, and after a few quick chomps, swallowed the body whole. He belched and then shifted back into his cat form.

  “Ewwww,” Emeline protested.

  “We’re here,” Imogen called softly.

  “Where is here?” Lavinia asked suspiciously. We were standing in front of a brick building that looked to be about ten stories tall when you included the attic. It towered over its neighbors which were only two or three stories tall. It was also very narrow, and the windows and doors looked like they’d been designed for someone much shorter. Years of soot had turned the brick black, and the door slumped against the jamb, held up on only one hinge.

  “This is one of the oldest buildings in Ovrista,” Imogen said. “It was built before the wall was. When the city decided they needed the wall, they talked about tearing it down. But that would have cost too much money, so they just left it. Now it’s part of the wall.”

  “But, what was it?” Emeline asked as she peered at the odd building.

  “Not sure,” Imogen replied. “But the monks used it as a pharmacy for a while. Before that, it was used to dry wool.”

  “Enough history,” Lavinia grumbled as she climbed the steps. She peered inside the building, then signaled for the rest of us to follow. Emeline provided a small ball of light, just enough to l
ight the way as we crept up the creaking stairs but not enough to draw any unwanted attention.

  We reached the top floor and Imogen stood on an old chair. She popped a panel out of the ceiling and then pulled herself through. Merlin jumped up behind her, and I heard the ladona woman yelp in surprise. A moment later, I could hear her moving around in the attic, and then her face appeared in the opening.

  “Hurry up,” she hissed. “We can get on the roof from here.”

  “The roof?” Emeline repeated nervously.

  I gave the panthera a reassuring pat on the back, and then I followed Imogen into the attic. She already had another panel in the roof opened, and I could just see the outline of her form as she disappeared over the edge. I leaned back into the room and pulled Emeline and Dehn into the attic. Lavinia hopped up next to me, her face still set in a scowl.

  “I’ll go first,” she offered as she spotted the open panel. She pulled herself onto the roof, and I heard her steps as she moved away from the opening. A moment later she came back and held a hand out towards Emeline. Emeline took it and clambered to the roof.

  “Need a hand?” I asked Dehn as he stood under the opening and scowled at Lavinia.

  “I can reach,” Dehn huffed. “I’m the tallest in my family.”

  “Well, if you change your mind,” I said. Dehn set his feet, then jumped. He swung his hands wildly in the air, like a five-year-old trying to get an adult’s attention. He didn’t grab Lavinia’s hand, but he managed to give her a pretty hard smack across the palm.

  “Owww!” Lavinia protested. “Watch it, you little shit! You almost broke my finger.”

  “Did not!” Dehn retorted. “And it’s your fault. You need to move closer.”

  “I’m already as close as I can get without falling through the hole,” Lavinia hissed.

  Before Dehn could say anything else, I picked him up and tossed him towards Lavinia. She grabbed a handful of shirt and dragged him onto the roof. I could hear him spluttering in indignation, and Imogen telling him to be quiet before the neighbors got too curious.

  By the time I’d made it onto the sloping roof, Imogen and Lavinia were standing near the edge of the roof line and peering over the side. Emeline had made it about a foot away from the opening and sat down on the worn shingles. Dehn was stalking around the rooftop, grumbling to himself. I spotted Merlin, now in owl form, flying overhead.

  “How do we do this?” I asked as I joined the two ladonae.

  Imogen hadn’t been exaggerating. The building had indeed become part of the city wall, though the whole thing had been plastered over so that it looked like just another section. We were still higher than either side of the wall, and I wondered why I hadn’t noticed this tower on our earlier trips in and out of the city. Then I realized that I didn’t recognize anything about this place. We were in a part of town, and countryside, that I had never been in before, and I had no idea where we needed to go once we were down.

  “There are places where you can use your hands and feet,” Imogen replied. “There’s a few old spikes driven into the structure as well. It’s tricky at night, but doable.”

  “I’ll go first,” Lavinia said.

  “You don’t know the way,” Imogen protested.

  “I’ll find it,” Lavinia retorted. The two ladona glared at each other again, and I could see both women ball their hands into fists. Dehn had stopped moving, and I glanced over at him. He was watching the two women with a great deal of interest.

  “Lavinia, you go first,” I ordered. I pulled one of Lena’s glow sticks from my cloak and activated it, then carefully removed the top. “Use this to mark the path down.”

  “Got it,” Lavinia replied as she took the glow stick. She shot Imogen a look of triumph before she turned her attention to the wall.

  “There’s a spot just below us where a pair of bricks stick out,” Imogen sighed. “That’s the starting point.”

  “I see it,” Lavinia replied. She gave me a nod, and then carefully lowered herself over the side. She found the bricks, and a nearby handhold, and began to move slowly down the face of the wall, marking it as best she could with the glowing liquid.

  “Let me go,” Dehn said as he watched Lavinia’s descent. “There might be some nasty critters down there in the dark.”

  “I’m sorry you didn’t get to punch anybody yet,” I said once I guessed what his real motive was. “So sure, go ahead.”

  Dehn didn’t move as quickly as Lavinia, since the path wasn’t designed for someone of Dehn’s height. He nearly missed a couple of the handholds, and probably would have fallen at the halfway point if Merlin hadn’t swooped in as a large hawk and grabbed his shirt collar. Dehn swatted at the puca, but quickly refocused when Lavinia yelled at him that he was about to fall again.

  Imogen went next, and she clearly knew the path without having to check for any of Lavinia’s marks. She swept down the wall as easily as if she had walked down a set of stairs. I gave a low whistle as I watched her glide along the wall, and she looked back up for just a moment. I couldn’t quite make out her expression in the dark, but I saw the rim of fire around those dark eyes.

  “All right, Emeline,” I said when I saw Imogen was on the ground. “Your turn.”

  “Um, why don’t you go first?” the panthera suggested as she peered over the edge.

  “Because I need to put the panel back in the roof, and I want to make sure that everyone else has made it safely down,” I said.

  “Oh, I can do that,” Emeline offered.

  “You’ll do great,” I said. “Don’t cats always land on their feet?”

  “Mostly,” Emeline said nervously. She glanced over the edge again as she twisted a lock of hair in her fingers.

  “It’s easy,” I tried to reassure her. “Even Dehn made it down.”

  “Right,” Emeline sighed. She took a deep breath, and then slowly lowered herself over the side. I held onto her arms until I was sure she’d found the right spot.

  “Okay, next you’ll want to move towards that spot on your right,” I instructed. “That’s your handhold. You should find the toehold below where you are now and to the right as well.”

  Emeline reached cautiously for the handhold, then stuck her right foot out and felt around. She found the spot and slowly lowered herself. I saw her take another deep breath, and then she looked for the next spot. I gave her an encouraging grin when she looked back up for a moment, then returned to the spot in the roof where we’d removed the panel. I dropped it back into place and then walked back to the edge.

  Emeline was making slow progress, but she was moving. I saw her feet slip once, and I held my breath, but the panthera dug in with her hands. She managed to get her feet back on the wall, but she was frozen in place. I could tell she was breathing hard, and I saw her arms tremble with tension.

  “Emeline,” I called softly. “You’re doing great. It’s not that much further.”

  “Uh-huh,” Emeline replied. Her face was plastered against the wall, and I could barely hear her.

  “Just keep going,” I tried again. “You’ll be on the ground before you know it.”

  After what felt like an eternity, Emeline slowly reached for the next handhold. Inch by slow inch, she started to work her way down the wall again. I saw Lavinia and Imogen both step forward to grab the panthera when she was still a few feet off the ground. Emeline collapsed onto them, and I could just hear Lavinia’s voice telling her what a great job she had done.

  And then it was my turn. I secretly wished I had one of Welch’s grappling hooks and ropes that we’d used in the Canterrose Mountains. As bad as that climb had been, at least there had been something to hold on to. The path that Lavinia had picked out was nothing but narrow little ledges and cracks in the wall barely big enough for the toe of my boot. By the time I was on the ground, I was sweating from the stress and tension.

  “We all made it,” I sighed as I plopped onto my butt for a moment of rest. “Anyone else around?”


  “Nope,” Dehn said in disappointment.

  “If we keep moving through the night, we can make the estate by the early afternoon,” Lavinia announced.

  “Estate?” Imogen mused which drew a wrathful look from Lavinia.

  “Can you find it in the dark?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Lavinia replied.

  “Let’s keep going, then,” I said. “We can rest when we get there.”

  Lavinia guided us past a ramshackle collection of buildings that Imogen said was a shanty town for newly arrived immigrants looking for work. Beyond the buildings, we ran quickly through a series of fields, clambering over walls and fences, and narrowly avoiding a watchdog at one point. We found the main road towards the Constello lands, but Lavinia kept going along old tracks and nearly forgotten trails.

  As morning broke, we found a place to stop and have a quick bite to eat. The pack Merlin had carried the night before had also included some jerky and some dried fruit, which Lavinia carefully distributed along with water. Merlin landed and changed back into his cat form. He gazed hopefully at Lavinia, who finally caved in and gave him a piece of jerky. He took it in his paws and started to gnaw at the meat, making happy cat sounds as he did.

  “Why do you keep a puca?” Imogen asked as she watched Merlin smack his lips in delight.

  “He’s part of the guild,” I replied with a shrug.

  “You have a very strange guild,” Imogen noted as she looked at us. “Most guilds are open only to humans and elves.”

  “We don’t discriminate,” Emeline declared. She had her color back, and she was playing with a small fireball as she chewed on her own piece of jerky. I kept an eye on the fireball as I recalled the impressive black smudge that darkened the shield in the hall’s entryway.

  Imogen looked as if she were going to respond, but another voice called out instead.

  “Well, what do we have here?” a snide voice demanded. We looked up to find five men standing nearby. They all had the same greasy hair and dull brown eyes. Between the lot of them, they would have been lucky to have a full set of teeth. Lavinia looked shocked, as did Imogen. I glanced around, trying to figure out where they had come from and how they had snuck up on us.