Chapter 1 #4
I flattened myself to the wooden roof, peering down at Perdu as she cowered before the guard.
She started shaking her head and he closed in on her, towering over her with his unnatural height.
Big didn’t come close to describing him, he was a beast wrapped in chainmail with a glare sharp enough to cut glass and thick hair crowning his head above the cruel set of his face.
I could practically feel the aura of violence hanging about him even from this distance and Perdu looked inclined to shit her pretty knickers if he got much closer.
“Do you know who I am? I’m Captain Marik of the Royal Guard. And if I have any reason to believe you’re lying to me then I’ll throw you in the dungeon with the rest of the thieving scum just as soon as I catch up to them,” he snarled, seeming to read the lies in her hesitation all too easily.
“He went that way,” Perdu breathed, pointing towards the stables and bringing a curse to my tongue which I refused to let pass it as I held myself still.
Dammit, that kiss should have bought her silence. I should have used more tongue or at least finger fucked her into a delirious heap so that no one could get any sense from her traitorous lips.
Captain Marik turned my way and three more guards ran into the square to back him up.
They held swords ready to skewer me if they got close enough and I glanced around desperately, hoping to spot some way out of this shit storm before I drowned in it.
But short of me somehow managing to miraculously scale the sheer wall behind me, I was fresh outa luck because Affinities or not, I couldn’t walk up walls.
“Hey, arseholes!” Pip appeared on the far side of the square, waving his arms at the guards to get their attention and my heart plummeted as I looked his way.
He was the newest member of our gang; twelve years old with long brown hair and built like a whippet.
I’d watched him picking pockets in the market for weeks before I’d decided he was good enough to recruit.
He had hands almost as swift as my own - possibly even a little lighter if I was being totally honest, though I’d never tell him that.
He’d never alerted a mark to his presence so far as I’d seen and always got away from the take clean.
He was clearly made for this kind of work, and if I had to guess then I’d have said he had Affinities something in line with my own so far as stealth and subtlety went.
Bringing him into The Forty had earned me some good favour with Egos and a life with us was certainly preferable to a lot of other fates that could befall the orphans of Osaria.
Like ending up as one of the street kids who washed up on the banks of the Carlell River each month with their hearts carved out.
No one knew what the fuck that darkness was about, but it had been happening for long enough that loving mothers made certain to lock their children up tight at night for fear of them becoming the next victim.
The problem was, there were always plenty of street urchins running wild for the killer to pick from, and seeing as the guards had no interest in the welfare of the Fae living out in the slums, there was little chance of the deaths stopping. Pip deserved a better fate than that.
Though right now, I was thinking I’d done the wrong thing by bringing him into The Forty. He was desperate to prove himself to Egos, but this act was nothing short of stupid. And I sure as hell wouldn’t have risked myself like that for him.
The guards turned his way and Pip raised his middle finger at them. “I bet your fat arses can’t catch me!” Pip laughed as he turned and fled, saving my arse while endangering his own and I cursed him at least as vehemently as I thanked him for it.
The guards raced after him with Captain Marik leading the charge. One of them pulled a crossbow from his back and fired an arrow which barely missed Pip’s small form before slamming into a tree beyond him and sending a huge chunk of bark splintering off it.
My heartbeat scattered at the near miss, but Pip was fast and he was already racing away out of sight, whooping excitedly as he led them far from me and gave me the chance to get the fuck out of here.
I got to my feet and started running for the lower wall to my right and the promise of freedom beyond it, but a cry of fright from the far side of the grand house made me pause.
“No, wait - please!” Pip begged in terror and I shook my head, mentally saying farewell to him as I prepared to leap into the freedom of the trees beyond the wall.
If there was one thing you learned fast in this life, it was that heroes died quick and the only neck you could look after was your own.
Anyone dumb enough to put themselves in danger for the sake of another would end up bleeding out in the gutter for their efforts at valour and Pip’s predicament right now only proved that fact.
It was nice knowing you, idiot.
I made it to the wall and leapt up, managing to catch the top of it as I hauled myself towards freedom, tasting it on the heated wind which swept in from the desert even as my mouth dried out with a sour kind of taste in it.
Pip screamed somewhere outside the manor house and I stilled. My pockets were heavy with jewels and the bag I’d taken was laden with enough food to stop me starving this week, so why wasn’t I running as far as I could get from this place without a backwards glance?
The next scream carried pain in its arms as well as fear and I swore colourfully as I released my grip on the wall and dropped back down onto the roof of the stables with a thump.
I took off running for the courtyard I’d just managed to escape from, mentally calling myself a bunch of foul names for the fucking idiocy I was about to perform while my feet failed to so much as stumble.
I pulled the jewels from my pockets as I sprinted on, tossing them into the bag and grabbing a hunk of bread out.
I ripped into the bread with my teeth, chewing as I ran in an effort to fill my stomach.
If this went badly then I was going to be hungry a while yet.
And fuck me, whoever had baked that loaf had known exactly what they were doing – the damn high borns were clearly hoarding the best of the baking Affinity Fae for their own use.
Not that I was surprised by that. They kept the best of everything for themselves.
On the odd occasion that someone in the slums was found to have an Affinity for anything that might have helped improve the lives of the Fae living on the outskirts of the city, the high borns would always appear and whisk them away to make use of them.
Gods forbid any of us get so much as a taste of something better than the shit we were born into.
The horses whinnied in fright as my feet thundered over the wooden roof above their heads and I launched myself off the far side of it, landing in the courtyard and rolling to absorb the impact of my fall.
Perdu gasped in shock as I rolled across the cobblestones before her, and I threw her a grin as I tore by.
Yeah, that shit was impressive. She might have given me away, but the blush lining her cheeks told me she’d be dreaming of me tonight.
Hell, I was starring in so many fantasies these days that I was starting to suspect I had a sex Affinity too.
I mean sure, people said there was no such thing, but give me five minutes beneath a girl’s skirts and I was sure I’d have her thoroughly convinced.
I could probably have her convinced in two on a good day.
I raced around the corner and spotted several sacks of grain heaped by the side of the barn.
I ran for them, tossing the bag of loot and food behind them as I went and shoving some of the sacks from the top of the pile so they fell down to conceal it.
I couldn’t do much better than that right now and I had to hope it was enough.
The chances of those sacks being moved before I could make it back to claim my prize were fairly low considering it was the middle of the night, and I had to take my chances.
I ripped into the bread again, my stomach growling for more as I chased after the sound of Pip’s screams and finally found myself around the front of the huge house.
Pip was in the arms of the guards as the count watched over them beating him.
One of them had pinned him to the wall by his throat and his nose was bleeding profusely, blood dripping to the ground beneath him while another threw heavy fists into his sides.
I slammed into the guard who held the crossbow before anyone even noticed I’d arrived, and he fell to the floor with a clatter as his armour hit the cobbles and I dove forward to claim his weapon.
I kicked him in the face as he tried to rise and he yelled a warning as I pointed the crossbow at the guard restraining Pip.
“Let him go,” I demanded, placing my finger on the trigger as I lifted the heavy crossbow and aimed the bolt with intent in my gaze.
“Give it up, thief,” Captain Marik snarled, the veins beneath his skin seeming to bulge and writhe along his temples as he found one of his men laying at the feet of a common criminal.
“You only have one shot loaded and you aren’t fast enough to reload before we gut you, even if you know what you’re doing with that weapon. ”
Which I don’t. It seemed fairly obvious though, at least as far as the first shot went…reloading, not so much, but I’d figure it out if I had to.
“Ah, but is it really worth one of your lives?” I taunted. “One shot is still enough to end one of you.”
The guard by my feet groaned and I kicked him again, sending him into oblivion. I didn’t need the added issue of him coming to and trying to get involved. I was already pretty sure that I was fucked even without stacking the odds against me any further.