Thief's Covenant Part 8

"Don't move!"

Widdershins's fingers went slack, and the hammer fell to the street with a dull clatter. Her face pale, the thief stared over her shoulder.

Flintlocks drawn, the pursuing Guardsmen stepped into the alley. The first shifted to the side, bash-bang aimed unerringly at her chest, while the other yanked a pair of manacles from his belt.

"Widdershins," the second man, dark-haired and thick-bearded, intoned as he approached. "By order of Major Julien Bouniard, you are under arrest on suspicion of thievery." He glanced over at the fallen lump of quivering flesh that was Brock. "And a.s.sault," he added smugly.

Oh, no. No way. She wasn't about to go back to gaol. Not like this, not just because Bouniard was paranoid, and certainly not for defending herself against that towering slab of filth!

"Olgun," she began, focusing on the flintlocks. "I think that...that..."

The alley danced maniacally, the pain in her gut flared once more, and Widdershins collapsed, unconscious, to the cobblestones.

They watched, concealed in the shadows of a broken window above, as the two guards moved in, one kneeling by each of the fallen figures. Heavy manacles clattered shut around the thief's limbs. "Hey," the man at her side called to the other. "She's pretty bad off. I'm going to need your help carrying her so we don't make it worse."

"Who cares if we make it worse? She's just a-"

"You explain that to Major Bouniard."

A soft grumble. "What about this one?"

"He in any danger?"

"Doesn't look like it. Not with her gone, anyway. He'll be walking funny for a while, though."

"Then we'll send someone back to check on him after we get her squared away."

"All right."

With a level of care that at least somewhat belied his cavalier att.i.tude, the second constable aided the first in lifting Widdershins, keeping her fairly level. Slowly, carefully, they made their way from the alley and back toward the horses they'd left behind.

A few minutes more, to make sure the Guardsmen were well and truly gone, that any incidental sounds would be lost to the dull roar of the crowded streets beyond. Only then, when they were certain, did Pockmark and Scarface emerge into the open-the former still limping, and both of them sporting bruises, unhealed abrasions, and stubborn splinters.

"We could've taken them," Pockmark insisted as they hurried to the knoll of quivering flesh that was their boss.

"Murdered two of the Guard? Without explicit orders from the taskmaster or the Shrouded Lord? I don't b.l.o.o.d.y think-"

"You're G.o.dsd.a.m.ned right you don't!" Brock's voice was m.u.f.fled by garbage and road dirt, tinged with hysteria. "You should've killed them! You should've killed all of them!"

"Are you all right, Brock?" Scarface asked as he knelt in an unconscious echo of the constable who had been here moments before.

In answer, Brock managed to push through the pain long enough to reach out and smack the other man across the face hard enough to make his beard stand on end. Then, once the fellow had managed to pick himself off the ground, "Help me up, you moron."

It actually required both men to heft the colossus, and even then it was a struggle that left all three puffing and panting, but once he was upright, Scarface alone was able to support him.

"You," Brock ordered through pale, clenched jaws. "Get out there and find those guards. They can't have gotten far carrying the little b.i.t.c.h."

"Uh...," Pockmark began.

"I'm not telling you to attack them in the middle of the crowd, d.a.m.n it! Just follow them, find out which prison they stick her in. Then meet us back at the guild, so we can do some planning." He was already turning away, practically dragging the man on whom he was leaning. "Widdershins isn't getting out of gaol alive."

FOUR YEARS AGO:.

The men and boys awaiting atop the roof were, to the last, disreputable-and given the sorts of people Adrienne was accustomed to dealing with, that was saying something. They were neither the fiercest nor the filthiest with whom Adrienne had ever dealt, not by any stretch, but something about them set warning bells to chiming in the back of her mind.

Perhaps the naked blades that had greeted her when she'd first clambered on the rooftop had something to do with it.

"Adrienne," Pierre continued his introductions, oblivious to her discomfort, "these are my friends. This is Joseph; that one's-"

Joseph, powerfully built, with a thick head of autumn-red hair, approached with unkind purpose. His black trousers and tunic-they all, Adrienne couldn't help but note, wore black trousers and tunic-hissed as he walked, conspiratorial whispers of cloth on cloth. At his side hung a curved knife that only barely failed to qualify as a sword (and probably resented it).

Adrienne flinched, but it was Pierre, not herself, on whom Joseph advanced. His fists clenched on Pierre's tunic and lifted him clear off his feet with only a modic.u.m of strain. The young man's face paled and his boots kicked helplessly, inches from the roof.

"First off, you little t.u.r.d," Joseph growled, "no names. Your little wh.o.r.e doesn't need to know who we are."

Adrienne bristled, her face flushing, but Pierre nodded his, understanding as best he could. "Got it," he croaked. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Next time you want to bring someone in on one of our projects, you ask first!" Joseph shook him until his face purpled and his teeth clacked together like castanets.

The whisper of steel on leather heralded the touch of a rapier against Joseph's throat. Standing very still, his arms steady despite Pierre's dangling weight, Joseph turned his head as far as he could without tensing his neck against the blade.

"Let him go," Adrienne commanded, trying to infuse her voice with a confidence she didn't feel, and at the moment couldn't even remember. "I mean it. Put him down."

"You draw one drop of blood with that, girl, you and your boyfriend die on this roof. You know that, right?"

Adrienne had begun to sweat profusely-the pommel had already grown sticky with it-but she kept the fear from her voice. "You won't see it, though."

Joseph stared, and Adrienne stared back. No less steel-hard or razor-sharp than the rapier itself was the glare that bound them, one to the other.

Finally, without expression, Joseph dropped Pierre, with an audible thump and a whoosh of breath, to the roof. His own face a strange alloy of embarra.s.sment and grat.i.tude, Pierre struggled to his feet and scurried across the stone to stand beside her.

"Thank you," Adrienne breathed.

"You're welcome," Joseph replied formally, gingerly pushing the blade away from his throat with a forefinger. And then he laughed, hard, bent double with breath-stealing guffaws.

"G.o.ds and demons, Pierre!" he exclaimed once he finally had the breath to do so. "You sure know how to pick them, don't you!" His laughter gradually depreciated into a faint chuckling, then faded into the night. "All right, you're both in. Let's do this."

"Wonderful!" Pierre exclaimed, all traces of injured pride vanished from his expression. "Thank you, Joseph. You won't be disappointed."

Adrienne's jaw fell slack.

"I better not be," Joseph warned. "All right, everyone gather round. I don't plan to say this more than once."

A dozen footsteps crunched across the rooftop, drowning out Pierre's gasp as something yanked on his sleeve, practically ripping it from his arm. He spun, hands rising to defend himself.

"G.o.ds, Adrienne, you scared the-"

"What is wrong with you?!" she demanded in a strained, almost painful whisper. "After what he just did, we should be getting the h.e.l.l out of here!"

Pierre shrugged, perplexed. "He was just a little upset, Adrienne. He's fine now."

"Upset?! Pierre, the man picked you up and shook you like a cat!"

"That's just his way. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"And they drew blades on me!"

"Well, you surprised them, that's all."

Fire blazed in the girl's features. "And he called me a wh.o.r.e!"

"But that was before he knew you, my sweet. Come, Adrienne, there's no call for this. Stop being unreasonable, and let's join the others before we miss what he's got to say."

And with that, Pierre strode across the roof, his companion's incredulous gaze following behind. Adrienne shook her head, sheathed her rapier, and gave more than a moment's thought to leaving the whole lot of them here to play while she went and found something less deranged to occupy her. Dodging runaway wagons, perhaps, or throwing horse droppings at City Guardsmen.

She'd do no such thing, of course, and heaved a heartfelt sigh when she admitted she'd do no such thing. Muttering darkly, her feet dragging, she shuffled over and took her place in the circle of conspirators.

"So desperately glad you could join us, Adrienne," Joseph snipped as she pushed between Pierre and the man beside him, an unwholesome fellow with brittle blond hair who bore a strong resemblance to a scarecrow.

"Stuff it sideways and clench, Joseph."

Pierre gaped, horrified, but the other thieves laughed uproariously, Joseph louder than any. "Oh, I like her a lot," he told the rooftop at large. "I may have to make you a regular on my jobs, Adrienne."

"What say you tell us what this one is before you worry about dragging me into the next, yes?"

"Fair enough." Joseph cleared his throat, taking in each and every face that looked eagerly (or, in one case, not so eagerly) back at him. "As some of you know, I've been cultivating friendships, and spreading the occasional bribes, among the servants of certain-"

"Let's skip the foreplay," the scarecrow demanded in a voice rather like a cheese grater running across gravel. "No disrespect or nothing, but there's not any of us gives a rat's a.s.s how you got the information. What'd you find out?"

"You, Anton," Joseph rumbled, "are a boor."

"Long as you make me a rich boor, I can live with it. Spill."

"Well, since you asked so politely, it appears that Alexandre Delacroix was unavoidably detained on a recent business trip to Guillerne. Now, due to other business commitments here in Davillon, he's rushed his trip back. You know, pushing the horses, traveling into the night, that sort of thing."

"And?" Pierre asked, his voice excited-and, Adrienne couldn't help but sneer, more than a touch sycophantic.

"And," Joseph continued, "according to the messengers who came ahead, he should be arriving in town tonight. In about, oh, an hour or so.

"Which gives us," he added to the silent circle around him, "just enough time to get ourselves out of town and hit the carriage before it comes within sight of the city wall."

Adrienne had obviously never met Alexandre Delacroix-neither she nor anyone else on that roof, save perhaps Pierre when he was much younger, would ever have been in any position to do so-but few citizens of Davillon, regardless of social cla.s.s, hadn't heard of him. Delacroix was an aristocrat's aristocrat, the sort of fellow whose horses and hounds were richer than most people. If his ilk ever mingled with Adrienne's type, it was only because Davillon didn't have enough streets to keep them from crossing each other's paths.

As she'd heard it, or at least as she vaguely remembered hearing it, House Delacroix was one of the city's oldest, with a rather storied history to boot. For some years, the House had lain in shambles, its fortunes shattered by a series of bad investments, and the whispers that it would soon be banished from the aristocracy had been so prevalent that even Adrienne had heard them. And then, scarcely more than a year ago, the Delacroix fortunes had turned just as swiftly as they'd gone bad, until Alexandre Delacroix was once again among the wealthiest of the city's n.o.bles.

Unsurprisingly, given this history, the aristocrat made a habit of overseeing his House's businesses personally-it was just such a journey from which he was now returning-and would doubtless carry with him a great deal of coin. His guards would be worn out by the lengthy pilgrimage, exhausted by the rushed march home. And by striking beyond sight of the walls, the bandits could ensure that no detachment of the City Guard might come to his aid.

It was a solid plan, so far as it went, but it left one question unanswered, one Adrienne found herself reluctant to ask.

What was to happen to Delacroix and his retainers? Adrienne Satti had been a thief for much of her life, but while she'd shed blood on occasion when forced to defend herself, she had never murdered anyone.

But though her lips parted and the question hovered, tantalizing with a feather light touch upon the tip of her tongue, she never gave it breath. And as the band of thieves climbed down the rickety stairs and crept toward one of the many refuse hatches in the city walls, visions of gold marks consumed all other thoughts, filling her head until there was no room left for the question.

They lurked, muscles tense and breath held, some in the leafy cover of the thick branches and obscuring foliage, some atop the paltry rises that bulged occasionally beside the roadway, and some lying flat beside that road, invisible in the night.

Adrienne sat at the highest vantage, clinging to the topmost branches of a towering tree. It was not a position she'd been asked to a.s.sume; no one came to her and said, "Hey, Adrienne, you're brand new and unproven, so why don't you be our lookout?" But as the lightest and most dexterous of the a.s.sembly, she could manage a perch where the others could not. So there she sat, greenery (well on its seasonal way to becoming orangery and brownery) tickling the back of her neck and her hands, sticks poking her in sensitive places. A gentle breeze, the soft breath of night, washed over her, danced a waltz with her hair, carried the scent of autumn's fallen leaves and the faintest hint of colder days to come.

And it carried, too, the indistinct but growing sound of hoofbeats, tired and unsteady, and the grinding rumble of heavy wheels.

She hissed down at the top of Pierre's head, his hair the only part of him visible in the moon's feeble glow. "Get ready!"

With a nod, he shimmied partway down the tree, pa.s.sing the message along to the next in line.

Curiosity kept her up there a moment longer, peering intently as the small procession rounded the bend, their lanterns casting tiny moons against the night-dark road. Two men on horseback appeared first, each dressed in heavy leathers and thick cloaks, each carrying a rapier at his belt and a blunderbuss strapped to his saddle.

Four horses in harness clopped next into view, hauling the trundling carriage. Flanked by a second pair of guards, accoutered identically to the first, it made an impressive sight. The wood was stained a rich, dark hue, the doors and windows edged in silver that might or might not have been the real thing. It boasted no other decoration, save the family crest embossed in bra.s.s upon each door.

It was difficult to make out at this angle, but something about that crest nagged at her, like the refrain of a familiar tune that she couldn't quite place...

The carriage turned, following the curvature of the road, and Adrienne's heart sank. It was a familiar crest all right, though she'd seen it but once, and then only briefly.

A lion's head, mane flared, wearing a handheld domino mask.

Alexandre Delacroix was the man from whom she'd stolen the rapier that now hung accusingly at her side; the man who had stopped his servant from killing her, who had saved her life when any court in the city would have upheld his right to take it. And here she was, lurking atop a roadside tree, waiting for the right moment to attack him, to rob him, to...

To kill him, she admitted finally to herself as her sunken heart began to beat wildly about her chest. No, she wouldn't put sword through his gut or gun to his head, but she knew that it would happen. Joseph and his men would never reach the carriage so long as the guards lived, and they could never allow Delacroix to survive as a witness to the murder of the guards. The aristocrat had to die; and she'd gone along anyway, blinded at the thought of the riches to be won.

Would she have gone through with it, had the carriage conveyed anyone else? She didn't know; she never would. But it didn't, and she couldn't.

"Pierre!" she hissed as loudly as she dared, her voice barely rising above a whisper. "Pierre, we have to stop this! Pierre!" But he couldn't hear, having already dropped to the base of the tree so that he might take his position.

Adrienne slid as much as climbed her way to the ground. More than one splinter jabbed painfully into her palms and fingers before her feet touched soil, but she barely noticed. Her first instinct, nigh overwhelming, was to run as fast and as far as she could, to distance herself from the coming horror. Indeed, her feet pounded one after the other, carrying her at a dead sprint, dirt and leaves crunching underfoot.

Only when she smelled the horses, the wood, and the leather-when she glanced up and saw the road, and the first of the n.o.ble's guards looming before her-did it fully occur to her that she was not running away. In another second, two or three at most, she would be seen. She had exactly that long to make the most important decision of her life.

"Go back!" she called at the top of her lungs, her arms waving over her head. "Ambush! Bandits! Look out!" She didn't even know what she was shouting, really, only that she must warn them, must make them listen before it was too late.

She was certain, at first, that she'd failed, that she'd dashed headlong to her own grave, as the nearest guard slid his blunderbuss from the saddle and aimed it squarely at her. For a moment, she was back in the marketplace of Davillon two years ago, waiting in trembling helplessness for the lead to fly, to shatter her skull or her ribs or G.o.ds knew what else. This might even be the same man who'd almost shot her that day. In the dark of the moon, the face-with its red-brown goatee and mustache, and its cold, reptilian stare-certainly looked like the man she remembered.

But the weapon didn't fire. Even as the one guard covered her, unblinking, the others leapt into action. The remaining three guards-no, five, for a third pair of riders she'd never noticed were following behind-reined in their mounts, drawing into a tight circle around the carriage. They moved with practiced efficiency, so that the walls of the vehicle provided cover, so that their fields of fire overlapped, allowing no safe avenue of attack. The one who watched Adrienne slowly moved to his own station, motioning her forward, his barrel never once wavering. Uneasily, she followed.

"What the h.e.l.l is she doing?!" Joseph's voice was harsh, strangled, his throat clenched around the words as tightly as his fingers around his weapons. "She's ruining everything!"

"I-I don't understand!" Pierre stammered, his own features gone more than a little pale. "I-I don't-"

"Don't what?!" Joseph barked, raging. "This is your fault, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You brought the b.i.t.c.h along!"

"I-But she wasn't supposed to-"