The Broken Key (02) - Hunter of the Horde (2 page)

The entrance was in plain sight of both men. If he wished to enter through it, he would have to neutralize the threat posed by the two men first. Bart was never one to back down from a challenge and he hadn’t risen to the place he had once held in the Guild by being squeamish.

These men would kill him if they saw him, of that there was no doubt. All they wanted was the reward offered by the Guild. He quickly came up with a course of action then backed down the street to where it grew darker once more, then quickly crossed to the other side. Now he was on the same side of the street as Tinkerdyth’s.

From here, he begun moving towards Tinkerdyth’s, all the while keeping to the shadows. He was also attempting to avoid the notice of the people moving on the street.

Though this side street held less traffic than the main ones, it was still far from being deserted.

He slowly made his way forward and finally came to a stop when he reached the building adjacent to Tinkerdyth’s. The two buildings shared the same wall between them.

One of the reasons thieves liked using this entrance to the sewers was that it was situated in the darkness between two of the hanging lanterns, thus was able to mask their comings and goings.

Neither of the two men had yet noticed his approach. The man across the street was leaning against the storefront near the doorway while the other crouched in the shadows on the far side of Tinkerdyth’s.

Still holding the single dart in his right hand, he aimed for the man crouching by Tinkerdyth’s. He threw it and saw the man react when the dart stuck him in the chest, he only made a quiet grunt before the poison took effect. It worked very fast especially when it entered the system through a man’s chest.

Bart then turned his attention to the man across the street. He was now away from the storefront and appeared to be trying to penetrate the darkness where the other man was with his gaze. From the way he held himself, Bart figured he must have seen or heard his attack on the first man.

Melding back into the shadows again, Bart transferred one of the darts he held in his left hand to his right. He bided his time for half a minute. Then when the crowds on the street opened up sufficiently, he threw the dart at the second man.

The dart flew true and struck him in the center of the chest. Bart saw him reach up and quickly pulled the dart out, but it was too late. The poison had already entered his system and every beat of his heart spread it further. The man staggered a step before falling back against the storefront. Then he sagged down and when he settled to the ground, looked as if he was sleeping.

A quick glance to the crowd revealed that they hadn’t caught on to the events transpiring around them. Bart held still in the shadows for another minute to see if anyone would materialize to investigate what happened to the two men. When no one did, Bart moved to the entrance of Tinkerdyth’s and put his ear to it. All he could hear was silence.

The entrance was not the doorway as that was boarded up. Rather it was the window beside it. Anyone who gave the window a casual glance would see simply a boarded up window. But those who used it knew that if you moved two of the boards up to a certain position, you could swing the boarded window out and climb through. Bart did just that.

A quick glance showed no one was in the immediate vicinity so he swung open the window and climbed through to the other side. Once within, he swung the window quickly shut to maintain the illusion of it being a simple boarded up window.

The interior of the abandoned wine seller’s shop was dark once the window had been closed. Bart quickly moved to one side and then grew still as he allowed his eyes to grow accustomed to the dark. He also took this time to remove another two darts to replace the ones left in the bodies of the two men outside. When he again had four darts in his left hand and one in his right, he started working his way through the shop to the back.

He moved silently as a cat, his feet barely making any sound as he left the front room and entered the short hallway leading to the back. There were three other rooms off the hallway between the outer shop and the room at the opposite end where the entrance to the sewer lay.

When he came to the entrance of the hallway, he paused and listened. Not a sound disturbed the night. The doorway to the first room was on the right, just within the hallway. Then there was another on the left two feet after that. The final two were opposite each other at the end, the one on the left was the one he wanted. There he’ll find a trapdoor, beneath which was a rickety wooden stairway that led down to the basement.

It’s there that the entrance to the sewer could be found.

He moved forward into the hallway, his senses alert for anything out of the ordinary.

At the entrance to the first room, he paused and gave the room a once over. Inside was dark and nothing could be seen or heard. Moving on, he went down to the second room.

Again, he paused at the opening and looked within. A boarded up window gave this room a little illumination as the moonlight made its way in through the cracks between the boards. Like the one before it, the room looked deserted. Moving on, he came to the end of the hallway where the last two rooms faced each other.

Just before he reached the doorways, he came to a sudden stop when he heard a floorboard creak in the room to the right. He remained motionless as he listened for another few seconds before hearing the creaking of another floorboard within the room.

Someone was definitely in there.

“Welcome back Bart,” a voice said behind him.

He turned just in time to see a knife flying towards him. Dodging to the side, he narrowly avoided being hit by the knife. Crashing into the wall, he twisted and threw the dart in his right hand at the same time. Then he heard footsteps coming towards him quickly from the other two rooms as men boiled out.

His dart struck home in the man behind him as he begun firing the four remaining darts in his left hand in quick succession. Each one struck home but there were more men than he had darts readied. Drawing the knife from the Ruins, he backed up in the hallway and faced them. He quickly back stepped until the body of the man whom he hit with the dart was lying between him and his attackers.

“Give it up Bart,” one of the four remaining men said as his sword was drawn from his scabbard. The man paused for a second as he assessed Bart there in the hallway.

When Bart realized the man was pausing, he crept his left hand toward where the rolled leather containing his darts sat within his shirt. He almost had his hand in the rolled leather when the man suddenly charged forward and tripped over the dead body lying in the middle of the floor.

Seeing his chance, Bart moved quickly backwards and pulled two darts out. He tucked the blade of his knife under his left arm then took a dart in his now empty right hand and threw. The dart struck one of the men behind the man who had fallen just as he took the second dart and threw it at yet another.

By this time the first man had returned to his feet and was moving forward. “You can’t take us all Bart,” he said. “Your time has come.”

“I don’t think so,” replied Bart. The sword came at him and he deflected it with his knife that was once again in his hand. In the confines of the hallway, the knife definitely held the advantage. The length of the sword would hamper its wielder due to the hallway’s narrowness.

He backed up yet further and reached into his pack to remove yet another dart. As the sword came at him again, he parried with his knife. He caught the sword’s blade on the crook between his knife’s blade and the hilt, deflected it to the left and brought his other hand bearing the dart forward. The point of the dart pierced his attackers left arm and elicited a cry of pain.

“Damn you!” the man cried out. He brought his sword back for another strike but stumbled as the poison from the dart began coursing through his system.

Bart stepped back and immediately threw the dart he had just stuck his attacker with at the last man. After seeing his comrades fall so quickly, the man had turned and was in the process of fleeing. The dart took him in the back. Bart didn’t trust that there would be enough poison left on the needle of the dart after already having struck the first man, so with knife in hand, he rushed forward.

He caught the fleeing man just as he turned into the last room on the left. He was obviously heading for the entrance to the sewers. Bart struck out with his knife and sank the blade to the hilt into the man’s back. Withdrawing it quickly, he stabbed him one more time.

With a gurgling cry, his would-be attacker fell to the ground and writhed upon the floor several seconds before growing still. Bart quickly wiped his knife off on the man’s clothes then replaced it in the scabbard.

He looked around and couldn’t believe his luck. Nine men and he had vanquished them all. Most people thought darts were a useless weapon. But in the hands of a master such as Bart, they were a deadly threat indeed. Bart moved from one man to another as he retrieved his darts.

Once they were all accounted for, he cleaned them off and treated them once again with the liquid poison he kept in his dart pack. Then he stepped over the dead bodies and made his way to the last room on the left and the entrance to the basement wherein the sewer entrance lay.

The room was rather small and the trapdoor was situated in the middle of the floor.

He crossed over to it and lifted it up a crack. After checking to make sure the area below was quiet, he opened it further and begun climbing down the stairway.

Boxes and crates, as well as empty wine casks, littered the basement’s floor. The place was deserted. He took his time as he descended the rickety stair, at one point one of the steps was missing and he had to stretch to reach the next one. All the while he was descending the stair, his senses searched for any sign that someone else was down there.

But by the time he reached the bottom of the stair, he had concluded the basement was empty. He then walked around two boxes that were stacked atop one another and came to the trapdoor that was the entrance to the sewer.

Once through the trapdoor and in the sewer, he would have to follow the tunnel for several hundred feet before coming to the Spider’s Nest. It passed through a junction of converging tunnels before reaching the Spider’s Nest. He fully expected the junction to be watched, as will all such junctions along every tunnel leading to the Spider’s Nest.

Cautiously, he lifted the trapdoor and peered through into the darkness on the other side. The absolute darkness failed to disclose any of its secrets. If someone was down there waiting, he wouldn’t know until it was too late. But, seeing as how there was nothing he could do and time was quickly running out, he opened the trapdoor a little wider.

He held it open with one hand while moving his lower body towards the opening. His left foot entered first and hunted for the top rung of the ladder. Once it found the rung and was securely upon it, his right foot went down to the next. Then he started climbing down, closing the trapdoor after him.

What little light had been coming in from the room above was cut off when he quietly closed the trapdoor. He held still on the rungs as he listened in the dark for anyone who may be down here. The only sound he heard was the dripping of water.

Praying that the immediate vicinity of the tunnel beneath the ladder was clear of hostiles, he made his way down to the bottom. He paused yet again when he was standing on the tunnel floor to listen but didn’t hear anything.

He stepped carefully and silently as he began making his way along the tunnel to the Spider’s Nest. He kept his right hand in contact with the side of the tunnel so he could be sure of where he was. Thirty or so feet ahead was the first junction of sewer tunnels. He counted each step he took to himself, and when he figured he was almost upon it, came to a stop.

The junction couldn’t be more than a foot or two at most in front of him. He stood still for a full minute to listen for any sign that would indicate someone was there, but all he heard was dripping water. Either there was no one there or they were absolutely quiet.

Ever so quietly, he reached into his belt pouch and pulled forth one of the copper coins he had placed there for just such an eventuality. He then tossed the coin towards where he felt the far wall of the junction lay.

Plop!

He heard the sound of the coin landing in the filth that was pooled in there.

“Quiet you!” he heard a voice say. Then he heard the sound of feet shuffling in two other distinct places. There were at least three men there, maybe more.

He was trying to determine his best course of action when from one of the other tunnels converging onto the junction, he heard the footsteps of someone approaching.

The sound wasn’t coming from the tunnel leading to the Spider’s Nest. Whoever was approaching was doing so in the dark.

The men waiting in the junction heard the footsteps too. So quietly as to be almost inaudible, the voice who spoke before said, “Be quick. Don’t let him use his darts.” Bart smiled at that. He recognized the voice as that of Einter, a right nasty piece of work who specialized in shaking down businesses. He and his gang usually didn’t work this side of town. Einter and Bart have been at odds for a very long time.

Standing there in the dark, he listened as the footsteps approached. Then he heard Einter and his boys rush forward toward the one who was approaching. As soon as he heard the man they attacked cry out, Bart hurried across the junction to the tunnel that led towards the Spider’s Nest.

Once past and into the tunnel, he moved quickly away. He hadn’t gone very far before a light blossomed behind him. Too far away to hear what Einter and his boys were saying, he knew it wouldn’t have been pleasant. Especially once they discovered they had killed the wrong man.

Bart continued on his way and the light behind him winked out. He was sure Einter and his boys had returned to lying in wait for him. He almost gave out with a chuckle at that but restrained himself. Hope they wait there all night!