Akatika's Legacy Page 7

  He ran like a cat across the top of the wall until he made it to the gardens. There were several guards in the gardens because of all the shadowed pockets created by the trees and hedges. It could be a great place to hide if you could avoid the guards. The rain slowed their pace, each trying to stay as dry as they could under the trees for as long as they walked through the garden.

  Tony waited for the light from the torch to pass out of reach and dropped down into the garden behind the guard. His feet didn’t make the slightest sound as he touched down onto the soft grass.

  The torches, the guards carried, provided enough light to illuminate their immediate surroundings but made them blind to things outside the light. The light also served as a beacon to tell him where each of them was.

  He made a quick map of their movements and where he assumed the paths were in his mind. He ran like a panther after its prey. The blessing he asked for must have been granted because he made barely a noise as he rushed through the maze-like paths of the garden dodging the guards and puddles of rainwater.

  He made to the manor proper, where the real test would be. There were two guards at every door along with sconces burning on either side. Doors were not going to be an option. The windows were all lighted well from inside and he would be seen if he tried to enter one of those.

  The guards could easily raise an alarm if he engaged them. He was a good fighter, but he didn’t want to kill these men, he was no murderer, and they were just doing their job. Knocking them out would do the trick but how he would do that without making a scene was beyond him.

  There was supposed to be a skylight but that was above the dining hall and thirty feet off the ground. The rain would give him away even if he made it in undetected. This was where all the thieves got caught, entering the manor, Lord Clint knew what he was doing.

  Tony crept long the foundation ducking under windows and behind bushes. This area was particularly difficult to hide in. The bushes were low, and he could hear two guards talking before they rounded the corner. He kept his eyes on the corner as he moved along the manor, he had been so focused on tracking the guards that he didn’t notice the open hole in the ground, and he stumbled into it. His impact wasn’t loud, but it was still enough to alert the guards.

  “What was that?” The guard said as he turned in the direction to face where Tony had landed.

  Something jumped on Tony’s back and ran right out of the hole he was in. There was a rustle in the bushes right beside him and a loud hiss from a cat followed by a surprised gasp.

  “Basted cat, if the lady wasn’t so fond of you, I’d skin you and wear your hide as a hat.” One of the guards growled.

  The sound of the guard’s mutterings retreated along with his companion’s laughter. Tony was starting to think that maybe he was granted a blessing from Talokai.

  He picked himself up and noticed that he was in the cellar. Some careless servant had left the cellar open. Now he knew he was blessed; no one was this lucky. He smiled and closed the cellar door, so no one was suspicious as to why it was open. He had probably saved the poor fool servant their job by doing so.

  His next obstacle was finding a way to dry and remove the mud from his boots. He had made it into the manor, albeit barely, but would be easily tracked by muddy footprints. The mud was easy enough to scrape off on the steps. The water slowly dripping off his pants was the hard part. He searched the darkness until he found some bags of rice. He sliced open the top of couple of bags and stood inside of them for a few moments allowing the rice to absorb the water from his boots and lower legs. Brushing off the remaining rice he climbed the steps to the manor.

  The cellar was attached to the kitchen, which was deserted except for an old bent woman sitting in front of the stone oven looking in at some baking bread. There were six doors to go through. He was in the cellar, one would be a pantry, one would be the servant’s stairs, and the others would get him caught he estimated.

  Tony silently danced his way over the smooth stone floor and through the door across from the cellar. He assumed it was the stairs, but he was wrong in a big way.

  The room he entered was the size of his house. A table ran along three of the walls. An enormous tablecloth covered it from end to end. There were a few serving tables with decanters of wines and what looked to be brandy sitting on them. Polished silver trays waited empty until it was time to feast. He had found the main dining chamber one of the worst places to try and hide in. No one was in the dining hall luckily so it might not be that bad if he could get back into the kitchens without alerting the old cook.

  He turned around and opened the door and peered inside. The cook was walking from the cellar to the door he was behind. She had a wooden spoon in hand and slapping it against the palm of the other, inspecting the ground.

  “I told you to stay out of the kitchen Landon. Your father may be the lord of this town, but I am the queen of this kitchen and if you so much as step foot in here I’ll give you what for. And your pa won’t say anything about it.” The old woman shouted.

  Tony closed the door to the kitchen. He felt sorry for the Lord’s son, that cook looked like she knew how to use the spoon. If she opened the door and saw that he wasn’t Landon, there was going to be some problems. He needed to find another way to the rooms.

  He began walking to the head of the table where there were a few doors. One of them had to be a stairway that would take him to the upper levels. He only made a few feet toward the doors, when one began to open, and two voices began to fill the room. Tony threw himself to the floor and rolled under the table.

  “Elsirah please, the cook loves you.” The first voice pleaded.

  “Get it yourself.” Elsirah said. “I’m not a servant Landon.”

  “I can’t the cook hates me. She is always threatening to beat me with various kitchen implements.” Landon said.

  “If you’re afraid of the cook, then ask one of the servants.” Elsirah retorted.

  “Mother told the servants not to fetch food for me past the evening bell because she says I’ll eat them out of house and home. I missed dinner because I was practicing with Commander Pacing and his sons.” Landon explained.

  They stopped right next to the door to the kitchen a few feet away from where he was. He relaxed his muscles, so he didn’t make any noise and held his breath.

  “If I get you some food, what will you do for me?” Elsirah asked.

  “Anything, please I am starving.” Landon pleaded.

  “I happen to have a task I need to be done by someone like you. I require an oath first, no one will hear about what I am asking you to do, even unto your dying breath.” Elsirah offered.

  “What kind of task?” Landon didn’t sound as eager for the food as he did moments ago.

  “Benjamin, Pacing’s son, tell him he is to meet me tomorrow in our usual place. Normally I would have a servant do it, but rumors have started about secret meetings going on.” Elsirah said.

  “It’s you! Your Ben’s girl. Father is going to flip his lid. Your only fourteen winters old you can’t be sneaking around with him, he’s almost eight-teen.” Landon replied.

  “And it’s alright for you to be going around with Camille, your only two summers older than I am.” Elsirah retorted.

  “Keep it down, no one is supposed to know about that. I’ll tell him. Please, just get me a plate of food.” Landon said.

  Tony thought of the great blackmail that could be had with this information, then he recalled that he was leaving this life behind. Ivy needed an honest man that wouldn’t end up on the wrong end of a noose.

  A few moments, each of which felt like hours, went by Landon leaning on the edge of the table only inches away from him. Tony breathed as shallowly as he could into the sleeve of his jacket to stifle the sound. Finally, the door opened again and Elsirah reappeared.

  “One plate of roast pig and some biscuits. Tell Ben tonight.” Elsirah chimed.

  “I will as soon as I am done eatin
g.” Landon promised.

  Footsteps began to get fainter as they left out the same door, they had come in. He knew now that the rooms must be through that door and that the children of the lord were moving around the manor. This was not going to make it any easier.

  Tony rolled out from under the table and ran to the end of the dining hall. He peeked through the door and found the hall behind was empty and had four doors. One led the direction of the kitchens and must be the way to the servant’s area. It was a relief when he found he was correct. This area was narrow and unadorned. Alcoves in the hall were filled with various linens and cutlery for the dining hall. To the right at the end of the hall was the stairs that he was looking for and left was a door that said kitchen in the center.

  He made his way to the top floor looked at the many doors. Each were conveniently labeled with the name of the occupants. He ran down the hall until he found the one he was searching for. The small plaque on the door read; “lord and lady of the manor”. He opened the door and walked into a small changing room lined with shelves. It had to be the lord’s changing room from all the masculine clothes. He paused for a moment and put a pair of the lord’s boots in his bag and a few of the rings from their holder.

  Then next room was the bedroom. The rooms only occupant was a giant multi-colored scaled beast. It stood at least seven paces tall. The bone rimmed mouth was open revealing four dagger-pointed teeth at its forefront.

  It was what the Roloka called a cliff demon. It used the six massive legs and razor-sharp claws to hang from the top of caves and sides of cliffs. It would ambush anything unlucky enough to walk beneath it. It primarily fed on bears and other large so-called predators. They were notoriously hard to kill. It was easier to move your settlement when one came around then to slay the thing many people claimed.

  Lord Clint apparently not only killed one, but had it stuffed and mounted in his chambers. Begging might be the best option if he was caught. Fighting Lord Clint seemed like it would be an exercise in suicide. But the best idea was to get in, steal his prize, and leave without having to worry about being stuffed and placed in the mouth of the beast.

  The last obstacle before leaving was to find Lady Margarete’s changing room and take some of her ruby pendants. The plan was to take one and use the gems from it to fashion some earrings and a wedding ring for Ivy.

  The bedroom had several doors, each could hold his prize. He moved the next and found it was a linen closet. After another linen closet and a small privy, he finally found his goal.

  Moving inside the Lady’s changing room he surveyed the shelves. There were several pendants to choose from, it was hard to decided, so he took all of them. He also helped himself to a few of the bracelets and some earrings. On his way out of the closet, he placed a note in the jewelry stand as was his custom.

  It read; “Thank you, my Lady, you have the best taste.”

  He crept out of the changing room and at the end of the bed stood a man in servant’s livery. Tony ran toward the man and jumped for him. He hoped that he could hit him hard enough to knock him out before he could yell.

  His fist met with the man’s head and pain exploded in his fingers. He hadn’t gotten his fist closed in time and thought at least one was broken. Not only that but the man was not knocked out.

  “THEIF!” the servant yelled with a slight slur.

  Tony hit him again and the man dropped. Tony made sure he was still breathing; he wasn’t a murderer after all. He heard sounds of boots running along the hall. A moment later there was a bell ringing in the house and followed by one outside moments later.

  Almost perfect he thought. Only a few moments, run or hide, run or hide, he thought. He chose to run and went to the door and flung it open. There were four guards running toward him swords drawn.

  He slammed the door shut and slid a couch behind the door as something hard slammed into it. It was now time to jump or hide. He ran to the window and unlocked it. It was a twenty-foot drop that would most likely break his leg and have him executed.

  He franticly ran to the linen closet and grabbed a few sheets and tied them together end to end. He tied one end to a coat rack and threw the loose end out the window. He braced the rack sideways against the side of the window and grabbed the makeshift rope and lowered himself down as quickly as he could.

  The sheets ran out about ten feet from the ground. Shouts could be heard coming from the room above and soon would be returned from others below. He dropped to the ground and into the mud with a loud plop. He locked around for his exit. To his relief he saw the outline of a shed next to the wall on the other side of a small bunch of fruit trees.

  He ran across the yard and wove between the fruit trees. The shouts from the guards getting closer every step he took. He slipped and slid the last few feet to the shed.

  Scrambling to his feet Tony quickly climbed to the top of the shed next to the wall before the guards spotted him. He made it to the top of the wall before they shot at him. The blessing he had asked for must have been there or the guards were embarrassingly bad aims because none of them came close to hitting him.

  Chapter 6

  Tony Lynch had done the impossible. There was still enough time for him to get home and sleep before he had to report for his patrol. This was a great night and as a bonus maybe he would finally be able to get rid of the embarrassing Ant moniker that so many of the people in the criminal world called him.

  The sleep that Tony anticipated was not nearly as restful, or as much, as he was hoping it would be. The bell in the garrison chimed fifteen minutes before the shift changed and it woke him from a dead sleep. He pulled himself from his bunk and dressed barely able to open his eyes. He felt he would have been better off not sleeping the few hours he had managed to get.

  The patrol was uneventful. Nothing happened in the area that he was assigned. It was a circuit that ran around five warehouses by the docks. Right now, all but one was empty and it had mercenaries to guard it.

  He made it back to the garrison after his rotation to be greeted by a young woman that had a delivery from the bakery down the road. The bakery was a front for a fence that he frequently used to traffic the goods he had stolen. The redheaded young woman offered him a basket filled with bread and pastries. She bounced on the balls of her feet while he examined the basket.

  “Here is your order sir. Thank you for paying ahead of delivery.” She spoke so fast the words seemed to almost blend into one.

  “Courtney you are too perky for this early in the morning.” Tony’s low voice accompanied by his grogginess made him sound condescending.

  That was not usually a problem, but he liked Courtney. She was about as trustworthy as thieves came. All the workers, who the baker Gadianton employed were part of the underbelly of Gibron. And they all knew Tony by reputation if not by sight. Sure, they called him Ant a nickname he got back when he was a child learning to pickpockets, but they knew him.

  “It’s not early I’ve been up helping make the bread for hours. It’s what makes everyone love our bread.” Courtney beamed at him with a smile that would stop an executioner in their tracks.

  “Well, I do love your bread. Tell master Gadianton that I will come by later for another order.” Tony said.

  “Yes, sir. Enjoy the bread.” Courtney said as she turned and pranced off toward the gates.

  Tony took the basket and went to a tree in the middle of the training grounds. After he made sure no one was giving him any undue attention he sat down and removed the towel from over the bread. He shoved a pastry covered in a maple sauce in his mouth and tore the loaf of bread in half.

  There was a small rolled piece of vellum in the bread. It was how Gadianton got messages to him as a response to Tony’s message. If Tony had something, he needed taking care of he placed a note in a hollowed-out brick on the back side of the bakery and marked it with a bit of chalk.

  The next morning, he would get a basket of baked goods and a loaf of challah bread with
a note. Each person that dealt with Gadianton had an assigned type of bread so that note did not go to the wrong person. Organization was the key to any successful operation.

  “I am interested in the high-end ingredients that you said you found for sale. I have some clients that enjoy the richer delicacies I provide. I can talk about prices and shipping tonight.” The note read.

  Tony rolled the small note up and placed it in his mouth. It was chewy and tasted like boots, but it was the most effective way to destroy the evidence. The note was coded but you could never be too safe. He sat and ate some of the bread wishing he had saved the pastry for after the note.

  He stretched as he got up trying to coax some life back into his aching, sleep deprived muscles. As he turned to go back to the barracks to begin getting ready to sleep a messenger ran up to him.