Arcanius (6 page)

“She made that look easy,” Tiberius said with a grin.

“I’ve had some practice,” Lexi said.

“Dropping out of windows in the dark?” Rafe teased.

“With a handful of jewels,” Lexi replied.

Tiberius waved to the men who were waiting to raise the stairs, and the trio hiked up into the fog. The mountain wasn’t nearly as easy to scale as it was to descend. They had to stop frequently to rest, but they weren’t in a hurry in any case. They needed night to fall before they could attempt to get into the city.

“So what’s the plan for getting us in?” Rafe asked.

“There are ways,” Lexi said. “We’ll have to search for one of the hidden entrances. I know there were some unsavory characters that would hide their ill gotten gains outside the city. No safer place.”

“And you’ve seen these hidden entrances?” Rafe asked.

“Well, no,” Lexi said. “I never needed to get out of the city until I came to help you. And then I took the southern gate.”

“So how are we going to find a way in?” Rafe asked. “Aren’t the entrances hidden for a reason?”

“They are,” Lexi said. “But they’re hidden on the inside, not from the outside.”

Rafe looked perplexed for a moment, then realized his mistake. There was no need to hide the entrances on the outside of the city, since there were no people outside the city. It was widely believed that people couldn’t survive below the mists and the only creatures to scale the huge mountains where the nine cities were located were giant beasts and foul packs of ravenous animals like graypees. No one really ever expected an attack from outside the city, and the walls were built out at the top so that soldiers could fight along the ramparts. This made looking at the base of the walls almost impossible from the top of the wall.

“I saw a few when I was circling the city with the horses the day you were banished,” Lexi explained. “I’m not worried about finding them again. I’m worried about what we’ll find when we get inside.”

“The people who have these secret entrances to the city aren’t the kind that would shy away from killing someone who used their entrance without permission?” Tiberius asked.

“Not even the earl’s son,” Lexi said.

“Well, then we’ll just have to stop them,” Rafe said, patting his sword. “And this time, don’t spoil everything with magic.”

“I use my magic to help us,” Tiberius argued.

“Well, sometimes it takes the fun out of things.”

“You two are impossible,” Lexi said.

Nightfall came at last, and still they waited in the mist. Dancer circled the mountaintop city, flying high and closer in the darkness and sending Lexi feelings. There were men on the wall, at least twice as many as normal, but Lexi could tell they were angry about the war ships. The soldiers watched the ships hanging just outside the city walls with resentful stares.

Dancer also slipped below the mist and ensured that the sky ship from Hamill Keep was still in place. Lexi tried to reassured Rafe that Olyva was okay, but they were all tense. Going back into Avondale was dangerous, and Lexi knew just how dangerous. It would be her job to get them through the city and into the earl’s palace. If they survived the lower levels, then they would have to deal with the paladins that patrolled Avondale. But if she could get them to the palace, Lexi had an idea of how she might find out more about the Balestone.

Living in the shadows, Lexi had learned to listen and was often contracted to gather knowledge in her clandestine activities. A few times she had heard of a secret group called Arcanius. It was just a rumor, so she hadn’t bothered to tell Tiberius. He would be busy with his father, and Lexi wouldn’t be much use once they were in the palace, so she planned to make a trip back to the lower levels of the city. Back to the streets and people she knew best, where she might be able to find something that could help them.

After a few hours of sitting in the dark, they slowly climbed up out of the mist. They could see the torches burning high on the city walls, but at the base of the city, there was nothing but deep gloom. The land between the mist and the walls of Avondale was barren and rocky, with only patches of stiff weeds and stunted trees scattered around the massive city. Once they emerged from the mist, they hurried to the base of the wall.

There were stars out and a crescent moon, but their light didn’t reach the base of the walls. Dancer came swooping in and landed lightly on Lexi’s shoulder. The little animal was tired from staying aloft for hours, but it used its acute night vision to help Lexi see in the darkness. She led them around the base of the wall, occasionally sidestepping boulders until they finally came to what looked like a small hole in the ground right beside the wall.

“It’s here,” Lexi said.

“What is?” Tiberius said. “I can’t see anything.”

“There is an entrance right here, on the ground.”

“On the ground?” Rafe asked.

“Yes, you oaf. You’ll have to crawl down into the hole. I’ll go first.”

“No,” Tiberius said. “Rafe should go, in case there’s trouble.”

“If Rafe goes first, there will be trouble. On the other hand, I can probably get in without being seen. I might even know the person guarding the entrance.”

“I don’t like it,” Tiberius said.

“I’ll be fine,” Lexi said. “This time you have to trust me.”

“I do trust you,” Tiberius said.

“Then let me do this. Come in after me, but be quiet.”

“How big is this hole?” Rafe asked.

“Not very big,” Lexi said. “Are you afraid of tight places?”

“I’m not afraid,” Rafe said. “But I’m not crazy about them, either.”

Lexi suppressed a giggle. Her nerves were tingling with excitement. Despite what she said to Tiberius, if there was a person guarding the door on the other side of the wall, they wouldn’t wait to see if they knew her. But she still felt like she had a better chance of surviving such an attack than Tiberius did. Rafe could fight anyone, but there would probably be no room for swordplay, and his larger body would be at a disadvantage fighting in a confined space.

She got on her knees and felt the hole with her hands. Dancer trilled nervously. The wind glider was extremely vulnerable on the ground, and crawling into a hole seemed like madness to the little animal.

“You fly up and keep an eye out,” she told the glider. “Look for us on the streets inside the city.”

She tossed Dancer into the air, and the small animal sailed out away from the city wall. Then Lexi turned her attention back to the hole and crawled in. She couldn’t see anything but she could feel solid stone all around her. She groped along, using her hands and being careful not to bang her head on the unforgiving stone. The hole dropped down into a crack in the rock that was barely wide enough for a person to stand in. Lexi shimmed in toward what she knew must be ahead of her somewhere. Finally she felt wood instead of stone. She could hear Tiberius behind her, struggling to find his way in the dark.

She searched the wooden panel with her hands until she found a short length of rope. She pulled it slowly and felt the tension in the rope suddenly go loose. She pushed the wooden barrier, and it swung inward. There was only a little light in the room, just enough to see shadowy forms but not to make out anything clearly. Lexi drew her small, Wangorian dagger. Its curved blade was razor-sharp, and she held it in her right hand, with the blade curving from her palm around to her forearm.

She stepped cautiously out from the behind the doorway and felt more than saw the shadowy figure lunging toward her. Lexi dropped to the floor, rolling onto her back and bringing her feet up. Then she kicked out, her boots slamming into her attacker’s stomach.

There was a
whoof
as the kick landed, and then the person toppled onto the floor. Lexi was on top of them instantly. One knee was on the attacker’s back, the other pinning down the man’s outstretched arm. Lexi pulled the man’s head back with her free hand and slipped the dagger under his throat.

“One sound and I’ll end you,” she hissed.

The man didn’t move and didn’t make a sound.

“Lexi,” Tiberius hissed.

“Its okay,” she assured him. “Get in here.”

Tiberius came into the room, followed by a huffing Rafe.

“That’s one tight squeeze,” he said, obviously relieved to be out of the tight space.

“
Fulsi
,” Tiberius said.

A small glowing light appeared out of nowhere, and Lexi could finally see the man she was holding down. He was an older man, with only one eye and a mangy-looking beard. She didn’t recognize him. The room was plain. There was a small bed against one wall, and a wooden chair on the other side of the hidden door that led out of the city. A piss pot in one corner reeked, and the man smelled almost as bad. There was a weak light shining under the door leading out of the room.

“Whose house are we in?” Lexi asked the man who had attacked her.

“Jessyp Corgson,” the man said.

Lexi raised her dagger and then brought it down with a quick blow to the back of the man’s head, knocking him unconscious.

“I could have put him to sleep magically,” Tiberius said.

“There’s no time. We have to get out of here.”

Tiberius let his light spell wink out, and they listened at the doorway for several minutes. They couldn’t hear anything, so they swung the door open slowly. The room beyond was lit with a single candle. A man snored on a bench against the opposite wall. They slipped past the sleeping man and made their way down a dark hallway. Then they came to another hidden doorway. Once again they listened but heard nothing. Lexi found the latch that opened the door, and they went through.

The room beyond was dark, but plush. They were on the upper level of Avondale, and the homes built into the city walls were extravagant. They felt a thick rug beneath their feet and they could see ornate furniture and plants in large delicate pots around the room. Light came in from a large window, and there were lamps casting light down onto the wide avenue just outside. There was no door to the street from the room they were in, so they slipped down another corridor, past a wide stairwell, and then into a vestibule that led to the outside.

“Lucky,” Rafe whispered.

“Like I said, they don’t expect trouble from this direction,” Lexi said. “But there are most likely guards just outside. We need to act like we belong and that leaving the house isn’t in any way strange.”

“Okay, we can do that,” Tiberius said.

“Once the guards question us, let me do the talking.”

“Won’t they recognize us?” Rafe asked.

“It’s possible, and if they do, be ready with that thing.”

Lexi pointed at Rafe’s sword, and the young warrior smiled. Lexi knew that if they got into a sword fight on the upper level of the city, there was no way they would escape the paladins, but all she could hope for was that they wouldn’t be forced into a confrontation.

She flung the door open wide and marched out.

“That was the biggest waste of time,” she said angrily.

Tiberius and Rafe struggled to keep up with her. There were two big men just outside the door. They eyed her suspiciously.

“Rubin would never treat us so poorly,” Lexi went on, suddenly turning to face Tiberius. “It’s this house. The richer they get, the more impossible they are to please.”

“You all, keep your voices down,” one of the guards said.

“And keep moving,” the other ordered.

“You see?” Lexi said. “My point exactly.”

Tiberius hurried her along, and all three were breathing a sigh of relief. Lexi led them to a dark alleyway or alcove—she couldn’t be sure. But she was sure that they needed cloaks to cover their faces. On the lower levels, the city kept only a few lights, and most were rarely tended to the way they should have been. On the top level of the circular city, the wide street was clean and well lit. They were bound to pass paladins, city officials, or soldiers who might recognize Rafe or Tiberius.

“Stay here,” she told them. “The palace is on the far side of the city. We need some cloaks so that you aren’t recognized.”

“Where are we going to get cloaks?” Rafe asked.

“You aren’t,” she said. “I am.”

She pulled off her boots, checked her dagger, then scaled the wall to the second-story window. The dark alcove was set between two homes, and both had walls that had been pitted by wind, rain, and frost over the years. Finding tiny cracks for her fingers and toes was all too easy for someone as skilled as Lexi was at finding ways into homes at night. She peeked into the window while Tiberius and Rafe watched from below.

The room inside was dark and empty. She slid her dagger between the wooden sill and the window frame. The simple lock was easily pushed aside, and the window raised. Lexi crawled in and took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the gloom. The room was filled with junk, just another wasted room in another mansion. The window faced the neighboring house, and the home’s occupants obviously preferred the rooms that looked out over the city. Lexi dug around a bit and found some piles of old clothes. After a few more minutes, she had two cloaks. Neither was big enough for Tiberius and Rafe, but they would serve in a pinch. She dropped them out the window into Rafe’s waiting arms.