The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds Book 1) (31 page)

Terrod’s
contact in the count’s household had
found servants’ uniforms for them to wear. Besides holding women against their
will, apparently Count
Stonuk
was also guilty of horrible
taste. His house colors were burnt orange and white. Richter felt like a
creamsicle
. To make it worse it wasn’t just a touch of
orange here and there. Instead the servants were required to wear a poncho-like
outfit that made them look like the playing cards that served the Queen of
Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. The only consolation was that Richter was sure
everyone would be so distracted by the garish clothes, that no one would
remember their faces.

 Sion was not happy to be left
out of the plan, but agreed to hide in a nearby alley. If all went pear shaped,
he could cover their retreat. The noise from a well imbued arrow strike should
scare anyone, and might give them precious moments to escape.

 The infiltration party was
composed only of Richter,
Terrod
and Jeremy.
Apparently the window to enter the count’s home was extremely short, and any
more people would cause a problem. Richter wore his armor under the clothes,
any buckles wadded so as not to make noise and betray their disguise. Getting into
the count’s house was actually surprisingly easy. The party meant a large
amount of deliveries and movement. The three picked up an order the head of the
kitchen had made at a local bakery, and then walked in through the back gate.
The guard only checked their baskets of bread against a list of suspected
deliveries, then barked at them to move along.

 Richter was somewhat surprised,
but then he realized that it was no different than any large upscale party in
his world. This was just the house of a rich guy not some secret government
bunker. After all, who would challenge a noble who had his own private army,
and could kill them with zero consequences? Guess just three bad
mofos
like us, Richter thought with a smile.

 They walked in, and delivered
the bread to the kitchen.
Terrod’s
contact turned out
to be a nondescript man of middling height and brown hair. He barely
acknowledged Richter or Jeremy.
Terrod
had told them
about the huge risk the man was taking, and they all agreed not to engage him
or try to exchange names. They had timed their entrance to coincide with when
the food was brought up to the count’s room. It minimized their risk of being
discovered as frauds.

 
Terrod
picked up a plate of food, and walked up the stairs. Richter and Jeremy followed
discretely behind. When he got to the room, the guards merely waved him
through, apparently well used to the count’s captives being fed at this time.
He missed half a step when one guard made an off color comment about the girl
having more than enough to eat when the count returned. Richter thought
Terrod
might kill the jerk, but he thankfully stuck with
the plan and entered the room. As soon as he was inside, Richter started
counting. The plan was to get to a hundred count, and then cast the spell. Jeremy
was keeping lookout on the stairs one floor down. The greatest weakness in the
plan was that there was no one to watch the far end of the hall. If anyone came
from that direction while Richter was casting Troubled Sleep upon the guards,
the jig was up.

 He counted silently and at
ninety seven began to cast the spell. As he was counting he realized that he
had never discussed with
Terrod
if the count to one
hundred was when he could exit or when Richter was supposed to cast the spell.
It would be horrible for them all to be killed for such a stupid mistake. Go on
‘three’ or ‘one, two, three then go’ was one of the biggest flaws in guy
communication. Even though sleep spells were lethal weapons as they allowed for
a coup de grace, the entire plan would fall apart if
Terrod
exited before the guards were knocked out.

 Peaking around the corner to
see the two guards, Richter focused his will and cast the spell, the necessary
words and hand movements coming unbidden, but flawlessly executed. The guard
closest to him slumped as soon as Richter finished casting the spell. The other
reached out a hand to brace himself against the wall, though. He strained to
straighten his legs, and his mouth opened to shout, but after a second more, he
collapsed next to the other one.

 Richter ran forward, knocking
twice on the door.
Terrod
opened the door and grabbed
one of the guards under the arms, dragging him into the room. Richter did the
same with the other guard. The entire process including the spell took fifteen
seconds. Jeremy came in behind him, and they closed the door. The two of them
began to strip the guards. A brown haired beauty with haunted eyes held onto
Terrod
for a second with frantic strength. He murmured in
her ear and then stared into her eyes. She nodded her head and released him,
but Richter noticed her hands were still shaking.

The livery of the guards was similar
to the uniform of the servants, but of course they were also wearing armor.
Luckily it was not plate, or there was no way they would have gotten it off in
a reasonable amount of time. Each guard was wearing a chainmail shirt,
chainmail coif and a kettle helm. They each had swords and kite shields as
well. Richter tried to slow his breathing as he focused on his task. He cast
Haste on the three of them hoping to save precious minutes. He grimaced
slightly at the loss of the mana, almost half of his total. He hated to waste
it, but if there was a fight on the way out he would want his mana higher. He
took a mana potion. His mana bar increased quickly forty points over six
seconds.

 After several minutes, each
guard had been stripped and
Terrod
and Jeremy were
wearing their armor and weapons. They would of course not pass a close
inspection, but from a distance they looked like any other two guards. It had
been decided Richter would not pose as a guard on the way out because his Wood
Sprite armor was superior to anything his colleagues had. He had lost the bonus
to having the complete set on unfortunately, having had to remove the helm,
gauntlets and shoes as they could not be concealed in his disguise as servant.
They tied up the actual guards, shoving gags in their mouths. The spell was
supposed to last an hour, but one had shown some resistance so who knew how
long he would actually be out. Richter stood up and took in his surroundings.

 The room was opulent to say the
least. Paintings and tapestries covered the stone walls. A round table of
almost black wood was off to the left side of the room with four upholstered
chairs, each with intricate stitching. A canopied bed that could easily fit 10
people was against the back wall, the sheets rumpled and hanging off the side
of the bed. A large fireplace was resting cold against one wall.

 The most fascinating thing in
the room was the woman they had come to save. Isabel was about five feet eight
inches tall. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and hung well past her
shoulders. Her skin was the dusky brown of the Wood Elves. It had the
appearance of a black base that had been painted over with chestnut in a way he
had associated with Indians he knew back home. A tight fitting gown didn’t hide
hips that were neither narrow nor wide, a slender waist and small firm breasts.
What arrested him was her eyes though. Her irises were gold like wheat seen on
a cloudless day in midsummer. Those same beautiful eyes were bloodshot and
sorrow filled. They convinced him of one thing. He would kill the count if he
ever had the opportunity.

 
Terrod
was holding her again, and her grip seemed even tighter than before. Richter
waited a few seconds, not wanting to disturb the comfort this woman was clearly
seeking from her loved one, but ultimately had to. He couldn’t ignore their
precarious position for long. Clearing his throat he said, “
Terrod
.
Terrod
we have to get her dressed, and get out of
here.”

 The man made eye contact with
Richter, his gaze initially furious that anyone would take him away from
comforting his lost love even for a moment, but he came back to himself, and
nodded, separating from the woman again. Turning his back to give her privacy,
Richter looked out at the wealth in the room. Turning to Jeremy he said, “You
move very quietly my friend. Am I correct to assume that you have a, *cough*
nontraditional way of earning a living.”

 The man stared at him for a
moment before chuckling, “You might be safe to assume that. Why?”

 Giving a ruthless smile,
Richter replied, “Because in the next few minutes we are going to rob this
bastard blind.”

 They rummaged through a small
chest at the foot of the bed, finding a pouch of coins and several daggers. In
one nightstand, he found more coins, and a small blue wand about a foot and a
half long with a white jewel the size of a robin’s egg at the end held in place
by a stylized claw. More basic items were present, and Richter didn’t leave
anything behind, sweeping everything into his bag. He cleared the expensive
flatware, plates and goblets from the table. For good measure, he opened the
closet and shoved all of the clothes and shoes he found there into his Bag of Holding.
He thought again that the Bag was worth at least twice what he had paid for it.
Whatever he shoved in, the Bag remained flat on the outside. He took his glass
dagger to the edge of the framed paintings, cut them loose, and rolled them up
along with the rest of the stolen loot. That was when he saw Jeremy looking
intently into the cubby of the other nightstand.

 A focused look was on the other
man’s face, and he was reaching inside the top drawer. Searching for a moment,
he seemed to press something. The side of the night stand popped open revealing
a hidden cubby. The metal door of a safe was seen built into the night stand.

 “Damn! I could open this, but
we don’t have the time,” Jeremy angrily shook his head.

 “Wait,” Richter told him. “Let
me try something.”

 Richter placed his hand on the
safe and invoked his Dungeon ring. He gave a delighted smile when he heard a
click. He pulled open the safe and saw it was full of jewels, papers and, what
was this? It looked like the count’s signet ring. With an evil smile, Richter
placed it in his bag thinking the good count would love knowing his ring would
help to feed the nonhumans he had been prosecuting. Gesturing to the jewels, he
looked at Jeremy who smiled and nodded his head. The man swept half the gems up
and placed them in his pouch. He left the rest for Richter.

 “We are ready,”
Terrod
called. He was wiping tears from Isabel’s face and
telling her to be brave. “We need to go.”

 Richter shoved the rest of the
jewels and the papers into his bag and stood. The four of them mentally
prepared themselves, and then Richter stepped out into the hall. Seeing that it
was still empty, he waved his companions forward and they walked down the hall.
The hardest part was remaining calm, and keeping an unhurried pace. To know how
difficult it was imagine having to pee really bad and also walking away from a
growling dog. It was nerve racking, and yet still they couldn’t show it.

 Despite the stress of the
situation, they made their way along the servant corridors with no issues. The
most dangerous part of the scenario was behind them, and they walked to the
side gate that they had used to enter the estate. The two guards were still
there, but no one else was currently around. Not wanting to take any chances,
Richter cast Troubled Sleep, and both slumped to the ground. They then just
walked out.

 They met Sion in the nearby
alley and ditched the livery of the count. Pausing only to retrieve his bow and
don the rest of his armor, they were quickly away. Jeremy doffed the guard’s
armor saying it slowed him down too much. Richter shoved it into his bag, waste
not want not. They picked up the pace alternating between a walk and a jog down
the dark alleys of the capital. Nearing the harbor, they turned down a wide
street that exposed them to the light of the full moon. Which was the only
reason that they saw the man standing in the middle of the street.

 “Impressive! That wasn’t a bad
bit of crime you did there! Coming from me you should take that as a
compliment. All of you!
Terrod
, inn keeper of the
Laughing Imp, Jeremy, former cut throat of the Lawbreakers, Isabel, the lovely
Wood Elf, Sion, the Wood Sprite, and Richter, the unknown man.” He smiled
broadly.