Stepping Wild, CH 60 (Patreon)

Silence spread through the room as the green fabric was exposed. It had been sudden enough it turned to whispering before Tibs reacted, yanking the rest of the clothing off with a hand, and pulling the hood over his head with the other.

He straightened. “And I was so looking forward to making my grand entrance.” A quarter turn had him facing his hosts, Cynta between them, her expression turning horrified. “You have my thanks for hosting such a wonderful evening.”

“Where is my man?” Cynta yelled, and Tibs grinned.

“Why, my lady? He is enjoying himself to the utmost, as shall I.” He snatched a goblet from the stunned servant and drained it. He glanced up. “But you will have to excuse me. I believe there is a safe begging for my attention.”

“Stop him!” Cynta yelled.

He turned to face the entrance, and the guards that had lined the wall were between him and it.

“Please, there is no need to bother yourselves. I can find my way without help. You should—” He ducked under the noble’s swing and turned to face her. “You keep proving me right. What kind of person tries to decapitate another from behind?” He stepped aside from the next swing, and the other nobles moved well out of their way.

“What are you waiting for?” Cynta yelled. “Get him!”

“She can take care of him,” Charlie replied. “He’s just some book lover playing rogue.”

Tibs wished the thug didn’t try so hard, but the nobles weren’t paying him any attention, and, from what he sensed, the guards were staying behind. Still, he couldn’t indulge this noble. He had work to do and had to hope Cynta would find a way to take advantage of the situation.

When the noble swung for him again, Tibs stepped into the attack and shoved her gently, adding a small burst of air to force her away. Then he turned and charged the guards, who pushed Charlie with them. The thug seemed eager for what was coming, but Tibs disappointed him by jumping and using his shoulder to let him leap over the other guards. He turned on landing, ready to give his customary bow, but the guards were already turning.

He ran for the stairs

“Don’t chase him, you idiot,” Cynta yelled. “Your job is to keep me safe, since you weren’t good enough to keep him from escaping.”

Tibs dodged servants. He figured that if Cynta had to remind Charlie of his job; the thug had been looking forward to the chaos, thinking he’d need to covertly help Tibs. Or he’d just hoped for a good fight.

He reached the office without interference and weakened the wood around the lock before kicking the door in. He pulled the books which hid the safe, already causing the tumblers to move. By the time the sound of steps reached the top of the steps, he was shoving the papers and few bars into the leather bag. He made out Promises, and at least one deed.

He secured the bag to his belt with a rough rope. He melted the wood essence together to ensure it wouldn’t come undone.

He turned to face the door as the guards crowded it. “I’m afraid you are late. I couldn’t leave any for you.” He smiled. “I’m sure your masters would like to know the Lord Fyrbrend is most displeased with them.” He made a shooing motion, but they didn’t move out of the way. “No? You are really going to make a mess of this office?”

The two guards in the doorway rushed him, sword drawn, and Tibs dodged. Seven followed them, and the room was crowded enough he had to use essence to keep the blades from cutting him, or hurting each other too badly. Fleet Fingers didn’t cause other people to die.

With no others in the doorway, he figured most of the nobles had called their guards back. As he’d hoped, Uzoma wasn’t among them. He had to estimate how long the archer needed.

The desk broke under the weight of the guard he threw into it over his shoulders. Books were sliced, shelves destroyed, and the guards were panting. He needed to leave now, before they could question how he was so good.

The jump from ‘skilled and lucky’ to ‘there was something unnatural about what he could do’, was a short one among folk who weren’t used to magic.

He kicked the guard away and readied himself to jump out the window when he realized he sensed people in the pantry and that the wall had been moved out of the way, but no one was unlocking the safe.

He shouldered the guard away and focused on the safe, pulling essence from the locking pins until they were weak enough they would break under a strong pull. Now he just had to hope that if it came down to it, Charlie would grow frustrated and try to force the safe open.

That done, he let the guard maneuver him to the window, and smiled. “This has been entertaining. But I have places I need to be, and someone’s money to spend.” He turned and jumped through the window, catching the top sill to keep from falling and stepping to the side. He righted himself and looked to the roof facing him, where the archer loosed an arrow.

Tibs exhaled with a gasp as it hit, then staggered against the wall as another hit, and a third and a fourth. With a guard poking her head out of the window, Tibs toppled forward and fell.

He’d sensed the wood essence that made the bundles of hay hidden within the large bushes, but still softened his landing into them with air, which caused the hay to fly up and make it more dramatic, he supposed.

“Watch over the body!” a woman yelled from above as Tibs pulled the wooden arrows out of himself and hid them in the hay. “We’re coming down for it!”

He sat as three men in guard’s armor pushed the bush apart. “She’s gone!” someone hissed, and more rushed in their direction.

The closest handed Tibs a bundle of fabric he put on. Unlike them, the armor was painted on it, but he’d been assured that so long as he was just one among a group, no one would notice.

He got off the crushed bales in time for two of the new arrivals to dump a body dressed in Fleet Finger’s distinctive clothing on it and with arrows through its chest. Then he stood with the others as they moved aways to make room for the actual guards.

“Some of you go find the archer. I want to congratulate him myself.”

“Yes, sir,” the actor on his right said. “With me!”

 Tibs and three others followed him off the grounds and into the alleys. Where they hurried to pull off their leathers and reveal clothing suited for the area.

“You going to be okay?” one of them asked Tibs as he changed. “That was a long fall.”

Tibs chuckled. “I’ve thrown myself out of higher with less hay to land into. How about you? Will you make it out without being noticed?”

The woman next to him laughed. “Playing at nobles is what we do each show. We will blend right in.” She offered the man next to her an arm. “Isn’t that right, or dear love of my heart?”

He took it. “I will hide your noble beauty from all who would take it from me.”

Tibs stared at them as they walked off.

“Don’t worry about it,” another said. “They won’t be talking with anyone. This is just about looking the part, not sounding it.”

Tibs waited until they were gone to climb to the roof. Uzoma was already gone. It had been hard to convince him to shoot, let alone not stick around to make sure he was okay. He hadn’t agreed until Tibs had produced a metal plate to wear under his clothing. It had been uncomfortable to wear until he’d been able to absorb all its essence.

He ran for the Fyrbrend’s house. The deed had given him an idea for added chaos. Even if the guards didn’t believe Fleet Fingers worked for the noble, they would mention what he’d said. And how amusing would it be for the Fyrbrend to be in possession of a deed they couldn’t explain?

Getting in was easy. He’d done it already. The household was already in an uproar from having been upstaged by the Kimcolial, so he made it to the office without trouble, and placed the deed in the safe, among other important looking papers. Then he left to rejoin his team.

    *

Tibs approached the building cautiously. He could sense the three people in the room, as well as the metal that was the money, but he refused to take for granted all was well. Too much had gone wrong recently.

The other rooms had one or two occupants, as always. No unexpected metal that would hint to a guard hiding among them. He climbed the stairs and listened, on top of sensing, for anything out of place. By the time he reached the door, everything seemed fine. Even the voices he made out through it sounded like his team. If a giddy version of them.

He gave the knock, and it opened. Uzoma pulled him into a hug. “You’re fine!”

Tibs forced him in and closed the door, etching air to keep those outside from hearing. He expected keeping their voices soft would be difficult.

“I am,” he told the archer as the man looked him over. “I told you I’d be. It isn’t the first time I’ve used that trick.”

“I could have sworn I saw the arrows go deep into you.”

“It was the distance,” Charlie said, pulling gold and platinum coins from a bag and letting them fall in.

 Tibs lobbed his bag at the thug. “How did it go?”

“I was worried for a while,” Cynta said, “with you being revealed among the party, and Charlie nearly going off to fight you.”

“Protect him,” the thug corrected.

“Getting Jenifer to think checking her safe was what she should do was delicate work. Which didn’t include her opening it. I thought we were done for; then the lug just grabs the handle and pulls on it.”

Charlie grinned. “And it worked! I’m stronger than I look!”

“More like it was poorly made,” Cynta said, then grinned. “The pins snapped, and we had access to all of it.” She motioned to the bags on the bed. “They were so busy with dealing with Fleet Finger’s body that no one noticed us leaving.”

“And you are sure the theater isn’t going to get in trouble for helping us?”

She laughed. “Helping who? It isn’t like those nobles will be able to find out who we are.”

“So long as you’re careful with your share,” Tibs said. “Remember. You can’t go around living like one of them.”

“No danger of that for me,” Uzoma said. “I’m hiring on the next caravan heading nadir and keeping myself in a hole until then.”

Tibs looked at Charlie. Of the three, he was the one he didn’t trust to act safely.

“Cynta’s going to keep my share hidden until well after things have died down. She said she can arrange it so one of those money people will hand me some each month. Enough to live okay, but not enough anyone will notice.”

“And you’re okay with it?” Tibs asked, incredulous.

Charlie laughed. “No. But I want to live to be able to take care of my city. That means I need someone smarter than me making some of the decisions. I figure that I can learn something about trade. Enough to eventually explain why I have more money to improve things here with and show those nobles how it’s done.”

Tibs looked at Cynta, but she shook her head. “That’s entirely his idea.”

“I’m not that dumb,” the thug said with a smirk. “So, do we start splitting this up?”

Tibs nodded and took charcoal and paper. This wasn’t getting done without writing it down.

Author’s comments

• What I had to work from

The heist starts early because Tibs is discovered.

Things go more wrong?

This was never going to be ‘complex’. Especially with most of the heist having to happen in responce to things going wrong.

Yes, I will have to go back in the previous chapter and establish the theater folks helping.

Otherwise it went mostly as I thought it would. The biggest problem, from my point of view, resolving itseld and making Uzoma’s presence on the team more than him being the ‘token archer’

It’s going to need to be cleaned up in the second draft, but I am quite pleased with how this turned out.