Ebudae (11 page)

“Fine. My group will continue up Deep
Street.” She turned to Glav. “Meet us around the back corner.” She
gave him another kiss and took off with her group.

Pelya and Ebudae followed Glav along with
Juggles as they made their way down Palvaros Street on the opposite
side of the warehouse. A four-level building took up half the block
on that street. There was one large set of closed wooden doors with
a pair of guards outside of them.

“They have wards built into a row of bricks
just below the first set of windows. They’ll alert them to anyone
trying to climb the walls,” Ebudae informed them as they reached
the end of the building.

Glav led them across the street and into the
alley behind the warehouse. The guards didn’t pay attention, either
that or they didn’t care. The alley was clean, which was normal
around many businesses with valuables inside. Debris gave thieves
places to hide. There were a number of rain barrels and locked
trash containers. He looked up at the wall. “I see something carved
into the bricks. Are you sure they’re runes?”

“Yes,” Ebudae answered without
elaboration.

“Well I don’t see any doors along here and I
didn’t feel like climbing through windows today anyway. Let’s keep
going.” Glav motioned them to follow.

They reached the back corner the same time
the others did. It was at a fifteen-foot wide angle with a large
door in it. One guard was leaning against it while the other sat
cross-legged on the ground, rolling some dice in boredom.

The boredom ended when they saw the
strangers and reached for their weapons. “Hold where you are.” The
man sitting worked to get to his feet in a hurry.

Before anyone else could react, Pelya leapt
forward. She stepped with her left foot in front of the man who was
trying to get up and slammed an elbow into the side of his head,
knocking him right back down again.

Pelya planted her right foot next to the
second man who had just drawn his sword. She brought the left leg
up at an impossible angle and kicked him in the face, knocking his
head back against the door. He fell to the ground limply, the sword
dropping with a clang.

Everyone but Ebudae stared at her
dumfounded. Pelya knelt, put her hand on the neck of the first man,
and slid a hand under his head. Then she moved to the second man
and checked the back of his head too.

“What in the world are you doing?” Frank
asked.

“I’m making sure they’re going to be
alright. I don’t think I did permanent damage,” Pelya said, laying
the man back.

“Oh, that’s good to know,” Glav said. “It’s
important to make sure a person is alright after you kick them in
the face.”

Ebudae couldn’t help but snort out a laugh
that she immediately tried to contain. Pelya stood up and glared at
both of them. “I don’t want to hurt anyone ever and I don’t care
what anyone thinks about me.”

The amusement left Ebudae and she felt bad
for having laughed. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Pelya reassured her.

“I think it’s very noble, Pelya” Juggles
said. “I have great respect for your belief.”

Aphry was angry. “So what do we do now?
Instead of running away at the first sign of trouble, we have two
unconscious guards.”

“Now we go inside and try to find Jovias,”
Pelya told her, holding up a pair of keys. “Luckily the guards had
keys.” Ebudae hadn’t even seen her take them off the men. Her
friend would make an excellent thief if she ever got tired of
upholding the law.

“Clever girl,” Glav said with an approving
grin. He moved forward and held out a hand into which Pelya put the
keys before stepping aside.

“Lizor, will you please prop the guards on
either side of the doors and make it look like they’re sleeping on
duty,” Aphry said. She ran her fingers back through her hair,
clearly stressed. “Hopefully they won’t be noticed.”

The giant did as asked while Glav unlocked
the door. Ebudae had an urge to cast protective spells, but held
off. There were enough people to fight to give her time to cast in
battle if necessary.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Aphry said
as she followed Glav inside. “I’m tired of cleaning up my brother’s
messes and I have a bad feeling this isn’t going to end well.

Lizor closed the door behind them once
everyone was inside. It was a warehouse with long rows of crates,
illuminated by lanterns on wooden columns. Glav had jumped on top
of a stack of crates to look around while the others moved ahead.
The ceiling was twenty feet above them and the only noise was the
sound of them moving.

“What’s in the crates?” Lizor whispered,
examining the stack beside him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aphry whispered back.
“How do we find out what happened to Jovias?” She looked at Pelya,
having come to the conclusion that the young woman was the only one
with any real idea of how to proceed.

“We question someone in the office or we
look for clues . . . which would most likely be in the office.”
Pelya pointed at the far end of the building.

“Maybe we should have just gone in the front
doors,” Aphry suggested. She was glaring and tapping her foot.

Glav jumped down next to her. “Those guards
wouldn’t have let us in. Even if we did get in the front door, our
questions wouldn’t have been answered. More importantly, they
probably would have hidden Jovias if he’s here at all.”

“He’s right,” Frank said. “I’ve seen men
like that. They were there to keep everyone out.”

“The good news is that it doesn’t look like
there’s anyone in the warehouse,” Glav said. “The bad news is that
I didn’t bring enough cookies for everyone.” He pulled out a
raisin-covered cookie and took a bite.

Ebudae and a few others giggled. Aphry
glared and turned on her heel to march toward the office. The
strain of the situation was getting to her and Ebudae was worried
how she would handle it if they weren’t able to find her
brother.

No one challenged them as they traveled
through the columns of crates. The office had windows looking out
to the warehouse covered by wooden shutters. Glav went up to a
large wooden door and tried the handle only to find it locked. He
held up the keys Pelya had found on the guards, then unlocked it
and stepped inside.

It was an office for clerks with twelve
desks lined up in two rows, each with quills and papers on them. By
the time Ebudae entered behind everyone but Juggles, Glav was
holding the one woman in the room by the shoulders. She was sitting
behind a desk and looking scared. Aphry had her hands on the desk
and was glaring at the woman. “I want to know what happened to my
brother Jovias. It’s a reasonable request and we won’t bother you
anymore.”

“I don’t know anything about your brother. I
just track inventories.” The woman seemed sincere, but her
honey-toned voice shook with fear. “It . . . it’s a bad idea to
break into Master Blavoci’s warehouses for any reason.”

“I have to find my brother.” Aphry looked
unhappy. “I know this is a bad idea, but . . .” She let out a slow
breath. “Why am I even bothering?” Aphry asked herself in a
half-whisper.

“Because he’s your brother and he’s in
trouble,” Karla said in anger. “You always look down on him.”

“That’s because he’s a loser who always gets
into trouble,” Aphry retorted. “I’ve wasted too much of my life
cleaning up his messes.”

Karla got in Aphry’s face. “You’re just
jealous because he has twice the talent!”

“No. I’m tired of him getting high all the
time and coming to me for more drug money.”

“You get high too!” Karla accused in
outrage.

“Not the hard stuff that destroys the mind!
I can’t believe he can write three words, let alone a play!” Aphry
was screaming.

“I hate to interrupt such pleasant, sociable
conversation while trespassing into a powerful merchant’s
warehouse, but is there any chance we can debate brotherly love at
another time?” Glav suggested. “This lovely woman is crying and I
have a sudden urge to give her a hug.”

The woman behind the desk was shaking and
Glav’s hand on her shoulder had turned to comfort rather than
restraint. She shook her head and spoke in a hoarse voice just
above a whisper. “I swear that I don’t know anything. I’m so sorry
about your brother.”

“What do we do now?” Aphry turned to Pelya.
“We don’t know where my brother is. We’ve broken in and now have a
prisoner that’s going to tell someone what we look like. Do we kill
her and the guards?”

“No!” Pelya yelled. “You
will not
murder anyone.” The others looked horrified at Aphry’s suggestion
and agreed with Pelya. Ebudae noticed that the prisoner was rather
enthusiastic about Pelya’s version.

“You knocked out those guards outside,”
Frank pointed out.

Pelya crossed her arms. “They drew weapons.
Killing them now would be murder. Killing this woman would be
murder and I will not tolerate it.”

Aphry looked about ready to speak, but
Juggles beat her to it. “I also will not tolerate it. I have never
been part of murder and will not start now.”

It was enough. “You’re right.” Aphry buried
her face in hands. “I hate this. I hate it.”

“Perhaps we can find an answer behind that
pretty door.” Lizor pointed at a wooden door painted yellow with
brass bindings across it.

“That’s the manager’s office. If there was
any information, it might be there,” the captive said. “It’s locked
though and only the manager has the key.”

“Is there anyone inside?” Frank asked.

“No. I’m working late. Everyone else is gone
for the day.” She looked at her hands. “I wish I had gone with
them.”

Glav walked over to the door and pulled
something out of his pocket. Ebudae recognized it as a set of
lockpicks similar to what Pelya carried, but not as nice and they
didn’t seem to have a leather pouch.

“What are you doing?” Frank asked, going to
look over his shoulder.

“Shush. This takes concentration”. They all
watched as Glav worked. Pelya glanced at Ebudae and they exchanged
grins, knowing Pelya would have had the door open by that point.
She had learned from her Uncle Bobbell and spent a great deal of
time practicing whenever they came across a locked door in the
ruins.

It took over two minutes before the lock
clicked. “Ha! I knew I could do it.” Glav stood and turned around
with a look of pride on his face. Then he did a dorky little dance,
making the others laugh.

“What about her?” Frank asked, pointing at
the woman. He still had his hand on a shoulder.

“I shall take care of it,” Juggles said,
lifting up a length of rope.

“Where did you get that?” Karla asked in
mild surprise.

Juggles grinned and went over to tie the
woman up. Ebudae had seen him grab it off a crate when walking
through the warehouse, but didn’t give the secret away. Aphry went
with Glav through the door. Ebudae and Pelya stayed with Juggles
and Lizor while the others followed into the room.

“I must tie you up, but no one will hurt
you. Someone will come by tomorrow morning, no?” Juggles asked the
woman.

“Yes. People will show up tomorrow. Guards
will check on things sometime tonight though.” The woman
sniffled.

“They’ll show up sooner when they find the
guards at the back door or when one of them wakes up,” Pelya
observed.

“Lizor thinks we should hurry.” The big man
smacked his iron bar into his hand a few times.

Frank stuck his head out of the door. “We
found something. Come on.”

Juggles double-checked the knots and patted
the woman’s shoulder. “You stay safe.”

They entered a lavish office with a large
desk, comfortable couches along the wall, a bookshelf, carpets and
wall hangings. Behind the desk was a secret opening exposed by a
bookshelf pushed to the side.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anything
useful in here,” Karla said as she slammed a desk drawer closed.
“Aphry, Frank, and Glav have gone in the secret passage. I’m
getting a bad feeling about this too.” Karla wrung her hands in
worry and looked at the opening.

“Lizor will go next.” The big man moved
around the desk and ducked his head to go into the passage.

“I have a
really
bad feeling.” Karla
followed the big man.

Juggles closed the door to the office. He
bowed and gestured for the girls to enter the passage.

“Let’s go adventure then,” Ebudae said,
linking arms with Pelya. They too disappeared into the secret
passage with Juggles right behind.

Chapter
7

Someone ahead carried a torch and footsteps
echoed in the thin passageway, amplified by the knowledge that the
group was
not
supposed to be there. All they had at that
point was the word of one man that Jovias had come to the
warehouse. Ebudae figured Aphry was leading them forward at that
point because the concept of going back empty-handed after having
broken into the warehouse was unbearable.

Ebudae was worried about Pelya. What they
were doing was illegal even if they
did
find Jovias. If
anyone in the guard found out, she could be in severe trouble.
Ebudae decided at that moment that she would hide her friend at the
manor if things went bad.

There was murmuring ahead and everyone
stopped. “Careful, we’re on stairs and it looks like they go down
quite a ways,” Glav’s voice came back. It carried through the
passage.

The girls reached the stairs a moment later
and followed everyone down. There was a torch in a bracket and
Juggles grabbed it. He lit it with a magical device that created a
small flame, an item he used in his shows. When Ebudae looked back
at him, a smile touched his lips.

It wasn’t surprising to the girls when they
reached a landing that turned back and led to another set of stairs
heading down. That led to another and then another. The group
crowded on the next landing before another set. “How far do these
go down?” Aphry asked anyone who would answer.