Anilyia (25 page)

The guard looked at his compatriot who
shrugged in confusion. Then he turned back to Tathan. “I don’t see
no invitation. Who invited you?”

“The girl who just walked in,” Tathan
answered, pointing at the door. “She invited me to follow her back
on Llaav Avenue and I’ve been trailing her ever since.”

The guard frowned and put a strong grip on
Tathan’s shoulder. “She didn’t say nothin’ about you coming in.
Maybe you should just go away before we hurt you real bad.”

It was easy to slip out of the grip. It was
also easy to have his sword at the guard’s throat before either one
could move, let alone draw the simple knives on their belts. Both
guards stared at the dark blade, which sucked in the light from
nearby globes attached to the wall of the warehouse.

“I’ve been invited,” Tathan informed them
quietly and ominously. “You can either let me in nicely, or I can
step over your dead bodies. I’m fine either way.” It took no time
at all for the guard to open the door and gesture for Tathan to
enter. Tathan sheathed his sword smoothly and stepped inside.

Empty shelves lined the walls up to the high
ceiling. The front half of the warehouse was empty with enough room
for wagons to be unloaded. The space was cool and dry. It was also
silent, the sounds of the city shut out.

The girl was leaning against one of two
stone columns in the center of the warehouse. She was startled by
Tathan’s quick appearance, probably figuring the guards would hold
him a bit longer. The girl quickly turned and walked between two
rows of shelves heading toward the back of the building.

Tathan assessed the odds. After coming
through the door, he had moved to the side in case someone wanted
to take a shot at him. Three more guards were placed around the
room; two at a door in the back, which the girl was headed to, and
one small rogue on top of shelves in the middle of the room. That
one was terrible at hiding so Tathan ignored him and followed the
girl again.

He sauntered between the shelves, keeping an
eye out for trip wires or signs of a trap. Tathan liked sauntering.
It meant that a person was out for a casual walk and wasn’t afraid
of anything. His saunter impressed people. Indeed, the new guards
looked impressed as he walked up to them a moment after the girl
disappeared through the doorway. “Hi. I have an invitation,” Tathan
told them with a little wave. He figured he’d get that out of the
way in case these guards were hung up on that sort of thing
too.

“Who’s the invitation from?” the skinny
guard on the left asked. He had crafty eyes and carried himself as
a cat would. The one on the right was big, but stupid.

“The girl who just walked in the door. She
invited me to follow her and I’m doing so. Isn’t that nice of me?”
Tathan asked with a big smile to show how nice he was being.

The skinny guard drummed his fingers on the
hilt of a rapier at his belt that was similar to the girl’s. He
looked Tathan up and down, gauging the level of danger. It didn’t
take long for him to figure out that it would be best to just open
the door. “Go down the stairs on the left. Then follow the hallway
to the end.”

Tathan followed the instructions. About two
hundred feet down the hallway it became a perfectly round tunnel.
Tathan remembered that a type of rock-eating worm left round
tunnels. Perhaps someone had figured out how to aim one in a
specific direction.

The tunnel continued about three hundred
feet further with a stone door at the end. Tathan hated stone and
metal doors. Wooden doors could be broken down with an axe, but not
stone or metal ones. There was no guard at this door, which
surprised him. Before touching the handle, he checked the walls and
ceiling. Most thieves’ guilds had a kill zone right outside their
doors where archers could kill an unwanted guest with an arrow,
acid could be poured from a hole in the ceiling, or a false floor
that could be opened up from inside with a lever. There didn’t
appear to be any sort of opening or trap around the door. Tathan
was actually disappointed.

He examined the door. It was simple stone
with a square hole at eye level that was shuttered at the moment.
He squatted down to look at the handle. It was a simple lock he
could pick if needed, yet another disappointment. Tathan knocked on
the door. The metal plate covering the eyehole slid back. “Yeah?” a
gruff voice said.

“No,” Tathan replied. He loved messing with
people.

“What?” the voice replied in confusion. The
man’s eyes peered through the opening. They were brown, deep set
and protected by very shaggy eyebrows.

“Maybe, but not yesterday,” Tathan answered
confidently.

The brows furrowed in deeper confusion.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Humpfiggers. Isn’t everyone?”

His head tilted as though confusion was
heavy. “Humpfi . . . What?”

“Slurpy purple humpfiggers are falling
softly from the sky, didn’t you hear?” Tathan said with a very
serious face.

There was silence from the other side of the
door. Tathan figured he must have broken the man’s brain. A moment
later, another man’s voice asked, “What’s going on, Hank?”

“Something about falling humpthingies,” Hank
replied.

“What the hell are you talking about?” the
new voice asked.

“Apparently everyone’s talking about purple
humpthingies because they’re falling from the ceiling or something
like that,” Hank explained to the new man.

“Get out of the way,” the new voice ordered.
A new set of eyes appeared at the eyehole. “What is he talking
about?” the man asked in annoyance.

Tathan shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I
think Hank has totally lost his mind.”

“Hey! I heard that,” Hank said grumpily from
behind the new guy. “You said humpthingies were falling from the
ceiling. Don’t lie.”

The new guy looked back at Hank, then at
Tathan. “Who are you and what’s the password?” he challenged.

“I’m me . . . usually. Sometimes I’m someone
else, but not always. The password is mysterious and hidden and I’m
not willing to tell you because I don’t know if you can be
trusted,” Tathan answered in conspiratorial tones, looking over his
shoulder as though someone might be listening.

He heard a sigh from the other side of the
door. Apparently, Tathan wasn’t the only one afflicted with sighs.
The door opened and the new man gestured for Tathan to enter. “I
don’t feel like playing games with you.”

Tathan grinned. “Aww, but I was having
fun.”

The man shook his head in exasperation and
gestured toward a table with people sitting around it. They were in
another cave three hundred feet in diameter with lower ceilings.
Sitting areas with cushions and couches bordered the edge of the
cave. The aroma of cooking food wafted underneath Tathan’s nose,
causing his mouth to water.

Watching him from the head of the table was
a well-dressed man wearing fine jewelry. He and the others at the
table were eating dinner. The girl was standing behind his chair,
whispering into his ear. Tathan sauntered over. “Nice place you
have here. It’s a bit different than other areas of the city.”

The man was sprawled with a leg over one arm
of his chair and a half-eaten drumstick in his hand. Tathan mused
that the head of every thieves’ guild he had ever seen sat in that
same position. Maybe they thought it made them look relaxed or
something. This man looked to be about thirty-five with long, curly
black hair and an olive complexion. His light blue eyes were
haunting, setting him apart and making it easy to understand why
others followed him.

“It is nice, isn’t it?” The man’s eyes never
left his. Tathan assessed that this was the one person in the room
who could pose a threat. “My name is Elian. This lovely young
orphan you’ve been following is Miesha.” He used his drumstick to
gesture toward the girl as he made the introductions.

Her eyes were also blue, only steely. She
stared at Tathan intently while standing behind the chair. Tathan
had seen girls like her, orphans raised on the streets. It wasn’t
always pretty. Miesha’s eyes were that of a girl who had learned
hardship at too young an age.

“She’s not available,” Elian declared
dangerously, drawing Tathan out of his thoughts. The man was
sitting up in his chair and had set the drumstick back on his
plate. His hand was much closer to the rapier at his side. Tathan
idly recognized that all of their rapiers looked the same. They
must have robbed a shipment. Tathan mentally kicked himself for
staring. Traveling with people he trusted was causing him to make
mistakes. He didn’t show it outwardly though.

The girl didn’t interest him, but he was
certain Elian wouldn’t believe it. Ignoring the statement, Tathan
introduced himself. “Name’s Tathan. Thrilled to meet you.” The
words were delivered flatly, showing no evidence of being thrilled.
Actually, he
was
thrilled to meet them. This was the first
shady organization he had seen in Rojuun territory. He just wanted
to keep them off guard.

Elian narrowed his eyes. “I’ll get to the
point. Miesha tells me that you travel with an odd group, including
a knight. I’d like to know what your business is in Alluu.”

“We’re here to take a boat ride and go
swimming of course,” Tathan replied with an enthusiastic smile. “It
sounds like so much fun!” He even jumped and clicked his heels.
Then he went back to the serious face. Everyone stared at him in
silence. Tathan was really enjoying himself.

“I don’t have patience for games,” Elian
stated angrily, pointing his finger. “I’m going to tell you what I
think. I think you and your knight friend and whoever else you have
with you, are working for the Kingdom of Mayncal and that you’re
here to rescue Princess Anilyia. That’s what I think.” He sat back
in the chair, hiked his leg back over the arm and took a bite of
some cheese.

Tathan wished he could be so lucky when
rolling high stakes dice. Too bad no one here wanted to play games.
“That’s why we’re here, yes.” He left out that Elian was wrong
about where they were from.

“I knew it!” Elian exclaimed, pounding a
fist on the table. There were expressions of delight around the
table. “Then we’re going to help you get in and rescue her.” He
looked around with a big smile on his face, pleased with
himself.

“That’s wonderful. Exactly how are you going
to do that?” Tathan asked. These people seemed
too
eager to
help and his suspicion was aroused.

“Have a seat and some food,” Elian told him,
gesturing to a nearby chair. The man sitting in it stood quickly,
taking his food with him. Someone else brought a clean plate for
Tathan. It looked like a shipment of plates had been stolen too,
considering all the plates were the same.

As soon as Tathan was settled, Elian began
the explanation, leaning forward with his arms on the table. “We
are part of the Servant’s Guild.” He gestured at the people in the
cave. “Most of us here are wanted for some crime or another, so we
hide in order to avoid being killed. We do some of the . . . less
honest work for the Servant’s Guild.”

“What is the Servant’s Guild?” Tathan asked.
He took some of the cheese and bread that was on the table, putting
them together and taking a bite.

“You don’t know?” Elian asked in surprise.
When Tathan shook his head, Elian explained. “The Rojuun became
tired of trying to figure out which human already had a job
somewhere. Humans were being killed for refusing to work for one
when they already had a job with another. The Servant’s Guild was
created so Rojuun would have one central location to go to whenever
they needed someone to work for them.”

“I see. That sounds like a good idea,”
Tathan replied before taking a drink of wine someone poured for
him. He took a chance that they didn’t poison it. For some reason,
he trusted these people. It was probably because he had been
hanging out with Liselle for too long.

“Yes and no. The Rojuun have automatically
declared that all humans work for the Servant’s Guild, which would
be fine if the guild weren’t corrupt like humans tend to make
things after a while.”

“Ah, that would be a problem,” Tathan
admitted.

“That’s not important right now. What
is
important is that the princess has been imprisoned in
Alluu Fortress. We want her to be rescued,” Elian said.

“I know why
I
want to rescue her, but
why do
you
want her to be rescued? Why should you care about
a princess?” Tathan asked.

“The Rojuun are evil,” Elian claimed,
leaning forward. Tathan noticed everyone in the cave surrounded the
table to listen to the conversation and were nodding in agreement
with their leader’s words. “They seem nice and they pay a lot of
gold, so some people like them, but they’re evil.”

“Alright. The Rojuun are evil,” Tathan
repeated. “What does that have to do with the princess?”

“The Kingdoms of Mayncal and Brindlyn will
go to war, allowing the Empire of Iynath to conquer both. The
Rojuun are allied with Iynath and will gain more power as a
result,” Elian explained. “If the princess is rescued, it will slow
down both Iynath and the Rojuun.”

“I see. So your only interest in saving the
princess is to stop the Rojuun?” Tathan asked.

“We don’t like humans being prisoners. It’s
almost as bad as Rojuun killing us for everything,” Elian said,
banging a fist on his thigh. The audience around the table nodded
and mumbled in agreement. “If you rescue the princess, we’ll help
you get into the fortress.”

“Sounds good. How?”

“You and your group will pose as servants
the day after tomorrow. One of us will lead you to the princess’s
chambers where you’ll help her to escape,” he said with a big
smile. Everyone else nodded and smiled.