Honor Amongst Thieves

Chapter 11 – Anticipation

Old Terni relaxed in his chair in the main guild hall. He had been sitting there, enjoying a particularly good bunch of grapes he had picked up from the market that morning and watching Jerrie and Rumple play a much calmer game of King’s Cup than they usually did. No one else was there, either being out trying to get information on the new rival guild or taking a few hours off. The younger ones were probably out at the market, catching some entertainment or plying their trade for some personal cash that Terni would never see. The older and wiser ones were sleeping, getting well rested for that night in case there were any big jobs that needed pulling. Old Terni allowed himself a small smile. New guild or no, things were getting back onto an even keel. He chuckled. They may just ride out this storm yet.

That thought died as Artemis pushed open the doors to the hall and started walking towards him, a pained expression on his face. Walking was being generous. Limping was more accurate, holding his arm over his stomach. Rumple was the first to react.

“Arty!” she exclaimed worriedly as she put her cards down and stood, moving to support him. Artemis waved her off impatiently. Jerrie was standing as well, his eyes full of concern for his friends. Old Terni had paused, a grape halfway to his lips. He sighed, and put the grape back with the others. Entwining his hands in his lap, he calmly waited as Artemis made his way up to him. Reaching him, Artemis paused, then stood straight, his arm going back to his side. Old Terni noted a small spot of red showing through his shirt, then let his gaze return to Artemis’ face.

“The Shadow Guild is declaring war on us and on Lanthander’s guild.”

Artemis heard Jerrie take in a surprised gasp at the news, but didn’t turn his gaze from Terni. Terni’s stern expression never wavered, but something in his eyes changed. They grew colder and there was a hint of something else. Weariness? Then it was gone.

“Tell me everything Artemis. Rumple? Jerrie? Go see if the doctor is in her room, Artemis is bleeding.”

As they turned to leave Artemis said, “Wait, it’s nothing. Just popped a stitch.” He turned to look at them and winced, grasping his stomach. They looked at Terni and he nodded grimly. They exited, leaving Terni and Artemis alone. The room felt very empty and cold to Artemis as he looked back up at his guildmaster, whose face had transformed from the warm fatherly look he had come to know into a frigid, hard mask of…nothing. There was no expression there, like a brick wall, hard and unfeeling.

“Start from the top.”

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“There we go Arty. Patched up again,” said Yolanda. Yolanda Reesen, a matronly woman of around fifty, was the guild’s resident physician and surgeon. She was one of the best in the city, and as such was often hired by the wealthiest families. She had met the guild when they had snuck into her office and attempted to acquire some of her files. She had been there, working late, which in the end was lucky for Terni’s guild. She had caught them in the act, and rather than reporting them, gave them even more information about their targets. It turned out that she was fed up of snobby clients dragging her away from true cases just so she could tell them they had a cold. The only reason she answered to them was she needed the money. So an agreement was made. She’d give them information about target houses, treat their wounds, and not report them, and in return they’d give her a monthly salary as well as a cut off of any jobs she’d helped them on. It had been a very profitable agreement.

Artemis got up slowly. “Thanks Yolanda. I wish I’d come to you first. The surgeon back home has more practice on animals than people.” Yolanda snorted a little.

“Most of us started with animals Arty. My specialty was cats. Then I graduated to bigger animals that had less of a tendency to scratch me and more of a tendency to try and flatter me.” She grinned. “Still, the effort’s appreciated. Now hurry along. Unless I miss my guess you’re needed in the council of war.”

Artemis paused, then sighed. “You heard?”

Yolanda smiled. “Artemis, I’m a civilian. As much as I enjoy being around here, I’m no thief. What I do is in the grey area of morality, to be sure, but I’m not of your guild. That being the case, and Terni being the gentleman he is, I was informed that things around here might get a smidge bloody, and that I should keep my distance.”

“And will you?”

“Absolutely not!” Yolanda laughed. “If things get bloody then I will be needed right here. I can’t take your money and then let you all sit around with your insides out. But go. Go! Make sure that I don’t regret my decision.” She shooed him out of the room. He chuckled, then winced as fresh pain hit him. It was going to be a long recovery.

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Artemis walked into the guild hall to find it nothing like the empty shell he had left it. Night had fallen, which meant that all the thieves of the guild were either reporting in or reporting for duty. The place was in an uproar too. Old Terni sat at his chair, his elbow resting on an armrest and his head in his hand. He was surveying the chaos with a tired, accepting gaze. Spotting Artemis, he waved him over. As Artemis walked through the crowd, it parted for him, growing silent as he passed. By the time he was at Terni’s side the room had grown quiet again.

Terni looked out over the crowd and then up at Artemis, whispering, “I just told them what you told me. You saw what effect it had. What do you think I should do?”

Artemis looked down, confused. “Me?”

Terni nodded. “They know how important you are to this guild. To me. You’re one of the best thieves in the guild. Tell them what you think should be done.”

Artemis turned and looked out over the crowd. He gulped, swallowing his fear, then straightened. If this is what Old Terni wanted…

“We cannot face the Shadow Guild head on should they discover us, I think we can all agree. Their people are better at killing then we are. Luckily, as far as we know, they don’t know where we are, and so we’re safe, as long as we’re here. But then what? Are we supposed to stay hidden until they –do- find out where we are? That’s obviously not an option either. What we need is to figure out where –they- are. We all know that the town guard would do pretty much anything to take them down. If we can expose them to the guard, then worst case scenario they’ll be too busy to worry about us, and best case the Shadow Guild gets annihilated. Anyone opposed?” A quiet chorus of no’s met him. He turned to Old Terni and got a nod. He smiled, relaxed a little and began to pace.

“Alright, so now we have a plan, but no means to execute it. Honestly it will be a risk setting foot outside this guild, both for the person doing the stepping and the whole guild. It would be suicide for us to sortie out enough people to even have a hope of tracking down the Shadow Guild. Most of us are at least recognizable enough on the streets to be known as a native, and those of us who have been around to have good enough contacts in the underground are known thieves in that very same underground. We need new faces. We need to get the information as if we were simply people looking to hire the Shadows.”

From the back a voice shouted up, “Alright, but you’ve already said that we’re too known. Who could we trust to handle the information gathering? We’re the best guild in the city for that and you know it.”

“Not anymore.”

Old Terni stood up instantaneously. “No, Arty! We are –not- doing what you’re thinking of. That’s that!” Artemis looked back at Terni, something akin to fear but also a quiet determination in his eyes. Artemis could hear quiet whispers starting in the crowd, then spread.
“The other guild…” “Lanthander…” “Maybe…” “They’re in the same boat…”

Terni heard them too, and he glanced out at the people, talking amongst themselves, then looked back to Artemis. He shook his head a little. “Artemis. You fool…” he whispered, then he turned to the masses and raised his arms. The room instantly hushed in a respectful silence. He turned to Artemis, smiling once more. “Alright Artemis. What’s your plan?”

Artemis looked at him a bit longer, then turned. “We find a way to make contact with Lanthander’s guild. Give him a list of our best contacts, the ones he can’t possibly have found yet, but also the ones who don’t know where our guild is. Because most of his guild are not from around here, it will just seem like they’re trying to hire the Shadow Guild. I highly doubt the Shadows are going to turn away contracts, even if they are at war. I’m sure that they will be able to track down at least the general location of the guild, and then they’ll be able to set the guards on them. Meanwhile we, who have more invested in this town, can go guard our own.” He paused, exhaling. “What do you think?”

Silence settled like a wet blanket over the room, with the occasional sound of nervous shuffling coming from the people standing there, most of them looking at Old Terni for guidance. He had crossed his arms and stepped back, making it clear that he would not say anything. Finally, out of the back, rumbled the baritone voice of Rane, startlingly clear and strident in the quiet.

“Do it.”

That was all it took. Soon the vast majority of people were nodding and voicing their approval of the idea. Artemis turned to Old Terni, who was looking at him oddly. Terni walked up to him and placed a companionable arm around his shoulders. Barely moving his lips, he whispered. “You are a good leader. All good leaders are allowed two mistakes. You have just made your second. I hope you never make your first.” Stepping forward he called, “Alright, alright. We all know this is not a dictatorship. We’ll try Artemis’ plan. Since he obviously knows what he’s doing, I’ll leave him in charge of settling it. If you have questions about it, talk to him. If you have any other questions about what’s happening in the guild, come talk to me. I am also giving anyone who wants them passes until the end of this conflict to go care for their loved ones. We all know the Shadow Guild will come after us first and our families second, but then again we know they have a reputation for viciousness. Otherwise, clear all jobs with me before heading out. Trainees? You are now on food duty. You aren’t known enough yet to be targets, and this guild needs food more than ever. Consider it practicing under fire. Alright, go about your business. This just got serious.” So saying, Terni turned and began heading away towards the exit of the room. Artemis tried to follow but he was blocked by people asking him if they needed his assistance. His wound left him weak enough that he couldn’t readily push through the crowd, and so he watched as Terni disappeared from sight, feeling worry. Then he was too concerned with planning his suicide idea.

In the end it was very simple. He would spread around the lower class that people with aches and pains could get a new miracle remedy from a certain apothecary in two days time. That way there was sure to be a crowd, and he hoped that Hadren had made it back to his guild. If he had then there was no way they could miss that clue. He would go there, with Jerrie and Rumple for back up if needed, as Rane was too big to be inconspicuous and Trap wasn’t combat ready enough, and meet with whoever Lanthander sent. After that it was simply a matter of riding it out.

Artemis frowned to himself in his room. It seemed like a sound plan, and Lanthander couldn’t trace it back to the guild hall. So why did Old Terni keep giving him those glances?

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Raven looked out across the large table she was seated at as she poked at a small piece of beef in her plate. When she had heard that Hadren had finally come back she had rushed to see him, but she had only had time to catch a glimpse of him before he had been taken inside Lanthander’s office. She had waited outside, but when the door finally opened it was Lanthander’s hollowed visage and not Hadren looking out. Spying Raven, he said, gravely, “Go get the others. We’ll talk about what to do over dinner.” So saying, he shut the door. Raven frowned and got up, going to get the other people that were unofficially in Lanthander’s inner circle.

And so they sat around the well-laden table, eating quietly. There was her and Lanthander of course. There was Hadren, sitting next to Lanthander, painfully moving some salad from his plate to his mouth. Raven hoped Lanthander told them soon who had worked him over so badly. Her blood was boiling from revenge.

She kept looking around. Also at the table were Calen and Goren Prioram, and even their constant banter was quieted by the mood at the table. They were twin brothers. Both handsome, charming, and expert cat burglars. Back in Nycris they had been thought of as magicians, because the target of their theft would see one of them disappear, often with their valuables and the love of any women in the house, and then see the other appear hundreds of feet away. A simple illusion that bred a legend.
The other person at the table sent chills down Raven’s spine just from looking at her. If anyone in the guild was a magician, it was Angelique Moreau. Often simply referred to as Angel, or the Angel of Death, no one really knew too much about her. Her straight black hair ran down to the middle of her back and often obscured her face. When it could be seen it was pretty, but pale and drawn until it almost seemed a grim mockery of its own beauty. Current estimations around the guild placed her at around twenty years of age, though it ranged from fourteen to twenty-five. She was short, around five foot three, and skinny to the point of bony, with no curves to speak of. She seemed to glide about the guild on her own errands, deaf to any questions about where she was going or what she was doing. The only one she seemed to answer to was Lanthander, and even he wasn’t sure why this was so. She had shown up back in Nycris some years ago, said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper that she was there to serve him, and then began moving in to an empty room. After that people who threatened the existence of the guild seemed to stop talking. A few disappeared, but most simply stopped talking. Some claimed amnesia, others would never speak of the guild. After a time the guild had come to accept her, even though it was because they were more afraid of sending her away than actually wanting her help. She had moved when they moved, even though no one had told her where they were going, and her room was once more back to what it had been. It was filled with alchemical equipment said those who had caught glimpses into it, and judging by the strange smells that emanated from it whenever Angelique was in it that was the case. However, Raven was positive that what she was doing in there did not involve turning lead to gold. Sometimes the smells were awful, sometimes sickly sweet, but always they turned the mind to dark thoughts of death and pain. She carried the smell around with her wherever she walked, and people tended to avoid her. She was dressed in black cloth and always seemed armed to the teeth with daggers. She was the deadliest short blade fighter in the guild by far, both in close and at range. She seemed to know where her opponents were going before they did, and her blades were always waiting.

Raven looked away, not willing to think about her any more than she had to. She popped the roast meat into her mouth and washed it down with her cup of wine. It was a good wine. Unusual flavor. Lanthander had said it was a spiced wine from the south, and that he had struck a deal with a merchant to make sure they had plenty to spare.

Here she was, thinking about the wine. Raven sincerely hoped Lanthander would finally tell them what happened.

It was another ten minutes before Lanthander spoke

“Hadren, as you can plainly see, was attacked. It was my fault.”

Raven almost spit out the wine in her mouth. Swallowing carefully, she was about to go into an angry tirade, but Lanthander held up his hand.

“I had hired a guild of this city called the Shadow Guild, professional assassins and thugs by trade, to go to the home of the Black Ghost and steal away one of his family. They, in their ignorance, found the wrong girl. In fact, they found Hadren’s girlfriend. Hadren fought them off. That is, in essence, what happened.”

Raven looked at Hadren, worried. What she saw surprised her. He was looking right at her, a grim look on his face that could only have one meaning. They were going to have a talk later.

Calen spoke up. “Well good for him. Sorry to say boss, but really-“
“- you should have sent someone from our guild. Everyone knows Tyronians are imbeciles,” Goren finished.

A slight smile touched the corner of Lanthander’s mouth and then vanished. “Be that as it may, that’s not why I called this meeting.”
“We are at war now,” spoke Angelique in a whisper that carried across the table. “The Shadow Guild and ourselves. They think we set them up, along with the other guild, and now they are going to make us pay in blood.”

Silence filled the room, and then Lanthander nodded. “Yes. They have sworn vengeance upon us, and we don’t have the personnel yet to fight a guild war, especially against assassins. When they learn where our guild hall is, we shall be wiped out.”

Raven finally spoke up. “So what are we to do? Sit by and hope they don’t find us?”

Lanthander smiled an unnerving smile. “We find them first, and deal with them.” He reached out and took his goblet of red wine. “I have a plan, don’t worry Raven. We will not be taken out by these ruffians. Things will become clear in time. For now, eat and drink your fill, I just wanted you all to be aware that we are now in a state of war.

Raven kept her eyes on him for a little longer while he ate, and then took a gulp from her wine to moisten her suddenly dry throat.

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A/N A review is a wish your heart makes.