David Dalglish - A Dance of Cloaks

At last, he found the mansion. He was atop an even larger home on the opposite side of the street, his arms wrapped around a stone statue of what looked like a deer crossed with a man. His fingers drummed against the antlers. Despite the darkness, he could see far. The moon was bright, the clouds only wispy ghost fingers stretching across the sky.

There was no sign of anything amiss. No windows were broken, the door was shut tight, and he saw no shadows skulking around the sides. Of course, based on what Kayla had said, he had to assume that Dustin would be a bit more subtle than just walking up to the front door and kicking it in.

If the girl was there, she most likely wasn’t alone. Or she could be in the temple of Ashhur. Sitting there across the street, there were a million things Aaron didn’t know, and he’d find out none of them from his current perch. Tapping his dagger to give himself courage, he climbed down and approached the mansion.

The place lacked the security of higher wealth. No worn paths circled the building from a patrol of guards. No fence surrounded it, and no dogs prowled about. Many times Senke had led him to various estates, pointed out weaknesses, and made him sneak in when the night was young. He never had to steal anything valuable, just something to prove he had gone far inside the home. From what he saw of the Eschaton mansion, Aaron thought Senke never would have given him a place so easy except as a warmup.

Aaron slipped around back, checking each of the windows. He found one unlocked near the very back. His heart stopped as he realized that Dustin may have been the one to unlock it. Stepping back, he scanned the area, seeing no footprints. There was dirt on the outside of the window, none of it disturbed. Carelessness then, Aaron decided. Thank the gods for that.

He slid it open, doing so quicker than he might have normally. He didn’t have time to be patient. If Dustin walked around and saw him, he’d want to know what was going on. Aaron might be able to get the jump on him if he hurried. With the window halfway open, Aaron slipped inside and onto the hardwood floor within. His landing made far more noise than he’d have liked. If any of his former teachers had been there, he’d have been given a solid, but quiet, smack to the head.

It took him another moment to decide what to do about the window. Part of him wanted to leave it open for a quick getaway. Then he realized that if he was trying to make a quick getaway, he had already failed terribly. Better to make sure Dustin got no wind of him being there. He shut it and readjusted the curtains.

Aaron could only guess to the layout of the mansion. Thick curtains covered the windows, making the rooms far darker inside than out. He waited a minute for his eyes to adjust, then worked his way toward the back. When his feet touched carpet, he smiled. Off of the hard surface, he’d make much better time.

He had entered in a long hallway with three windows facing out. The direction he’d guessed led him to a small kitchen. It was small by rich men’s standards, anyway, though it appeared well-stocked. Aaron slipped on through, drawing his knife as he exited into a short hallway ending at a door. He pried it open, cringing at the noise the hinges made. An alert guard might have heard, but inside he saw only a large bed. An elderly lady slept on the side closest to him, her mouth open, drooling. Her hair was completely gray. Lying beside her was Delius’s daughter.

Aaron couldn’t believe it. Her father murdered that morning, by the Spider Guild, no less, and no one thought to give her a guard? Not even a man of the house? Instead, she was with an aunt or a Grany. Helpless.

That’s what I’m for, Aaron thought as he scanned the area. The room inside only had one door. If Dustin was to get to them, he had to go through the kitchen, followed by the short hallway. Knowing his time was short, Aaron scanned the area. When Dustin arrived, he was determined to have surprise on his side.

Y ou’re sure that’s where she is?” Dustin asked, dancing a copper piece along his knuckles.

“Yeah,” said the drunken man opposite him. “Delysia’s not old enough to be by herself, not with her brother off being trained to be some kind of mage or whatnot. Her Grany’s with her. Stupid old bag, I’d have slapped her a dozen times if she wasn’t so quick and eager to call her son to save her.”

“I don’t care about her,” Dustin said. “Why wouldn’t they take Delysia elsewhere?”

The other man shrugged. He looked ready to pass out. When Dustin had begun asking around the bars about the Eschaton, he’d been given blank looks until, at the fifth bar, a man had pointed to the corner.

“Ask for Barney,” he’d been told. “Guy worked for him, guard or something.”

Barney had actually been a gardener, though he had often implied himself to be an actual guard when asked what he did. Dustin had been worried about loyalties to his employer, worries that quickly died when he found out Barney had been fired earlier in the day.

“Windbag thinks they can’t afford me,” Barney grumbled. “Show her. Bet that Delius bastard had a ton stored away. No one just gives their shit to the poor. They’ll say they do, but they never do.”

Dustin had already bought the man three drinks. He tossed him the copper, not caring that it rolled off the table and to the floor. For a moment, it didn’t look like Barney even noticed.

“What you want them for anyway?” he asked after a lengthy belch.

“Unfinished business,” said Dustin as he walked out of the bar.

The Eschaton estate wasn’t very far. It appeared Barney liked to drink close to home. Dustin kept to the shadows as he approached, his hand casually resting on the hilt of his mace. With its solid round head, it was more of an iron club than a mace. A good blow could smash a man’s skull like a pumpkin. Dustin always got a much bigger thrill breaking bones than by spilling blood. People bled all the time. Cuts were on the outside. Bones were inside, and the way people howled when he mangled their fingers or obliterated their kneecaps…it gave him shivers just thinking about it.

There was also one extra benefit to having the mace over a sword. He slipped around to the back, found the first window on the eastern side facing away from the street, and then smashed it in with his mace. Barney had made it quite clear that it was just Delysia and her grandmother, and that they had no guards. Even if they did awake to the sound of broken glass, what would they do? Fight back?

Dustin chuckled. He hoped so. He wasn’t much for old ladies, but Delysia was supposed to be nine or so. Hearing her plead and struggle would be damn exciting.

Once inside, Dustin pushed his back against the wall beside the doorway. If someone came to investigate the noise, he’d have an easy blow to the back of their head. No one came. He shook his head. Whoever these Eschatons were, they were a stupid lot. He walked silently into a modest kitchen, careful not to disturb anything. He had been sloppy with the window, he knew that, but making too much ruckus searching for the girl would be pushing his luck. Besides, if they tried to flee, he wanted to make sure he heard them.

He was not prepared for what he saw when he reached the other side of the kitchen. A boy dressed in Spider Guild grays knelt next to a door at the end of a short hallway. Dustin stopped, unhidden in the middle of the doorway, and wondered if he had somehow entered the wrong house.

So far the boy’s back was to him. Dustin glanced around, saw a crumb of hardened bread crust, and flung it. It smacked the boy in the ear. His tiny body jumped, and Dustin winced at the noises he made. They weren’t loud, but he guessed a bedroom was on the other side of the door.