Chapter Sixteen

“And they say thieves become thieves because they’re lazy,” Garrett said. “I’ve had more work in the past few days than a blacksmith would do in several weeks!” The two thieves pulled out their swords, hoping against hope for a miracle to save them.

“Hey, Garrett,” Mercury whispered. “Is it just me, or are there no apes on our two sides?” Garrett stifled a laugh and they dashed left, escaping the apes easily.

“Clearly we’re tired,” Garrett commented as they veered into a side alley. “I can’t believe it took us so long to notice the wide-open sides.”

“Yeah,” Mercury answered as they turned into the main road, “But we’ve been going for who knows how long – several days, I’m not sure how many.” All of a sudden, a figure appeared in front of the two thieves and Mercury froze. Garrett also stopped, but not half as abruptly as Mercury. His sword was in his hand, but Mercury was still not moving.

“Hey Mercury?” Garrett said. “Any time you want to wake up…”

“Yeah, Merc,” the man who was in front of them said. “Why don’t you go help your friend usin’ your secret weapon? Oh… wait… it ain’t so secret no more…”

“Yes, well, with someone like you, even thieving jobs aren’t secret, are they John?” Mercury retorted, snapped out of his surprise by the insult. John’s face darkened.

“Leastaways I didn’t run off to ‘nuther worl’ to escape from mine?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Garrett intervened. “What they hell is going on here?”

“You two are goin’ down, tha’s wha’s goin’ on!” John said, drawing a brilliant blue sword that shone with power. Mercury blinked for a moment.

“Where did you get that ugly piece of crap?” he asked. John flushed.

“From a nice man named Constantine,” he said as he flung himself at Mercury. Mercury dodged easily, drawing his jet-black Keeper sword as he did so. John landed on his feet, facing Mercury, not the slightest bit off balance. He did not lunge again, however. Instead, he circled around Mercury, who was watching him warily with his sword at the ready. John continued to circle slowly, and Garrett did not interfere when he saw the warning glance Mercury spared him. That glance was enough, however. John’s hand plunged into his cloak and came out with a wad of cloth, which he promptly threw down. Mercury flicked his cloak hem up just in time to block the bright flash of light, used to the workings of flash bombs by now. He leaped back automatically before letting his cloak go, anticipating John’s attack. However, John still managed to catch his side with the tip of his blade, drawing blood.

Mercury’s leg quickly flashed out, his cloak in its normal position by now, catching John’s sword arm and flinging it back. Then, he leaped ahead, aiming a blow at John’s leg, but John’s sword came up just in time. Mercury leaped ahead again, but a strange feeling was starting where John’s blade had nicked him. The pain was shifting, becoming stronger. He felt the Keeper sword and the book in his pocket getting warmer, as if to warn him of something. A sudden increase in the pain made him stagger in the middle of an attack. He pulled back barely in time to avoid John’s sword.

“Garrett,” he groaned. “I can’t…” Garrett got the gist.

Leaping into action, he wasted no time in watching his opponent. Instead, he attacked immediately, pushing John back, back, back until he was pressed back against a wall, fighting for his life. Garrett poured all his hatred of the Trickster on this minion of his. Somehow, however, John leaped upwards, attaining the building’s roof and running away. Garrett dashed to Mercury’s side then, afraid of losing another friend.

“I am never making another friend in my life,” he muttered to himself. “Friends are weakness.” He pulled out a vial of healing potion and fed it to a pain-racked Mercury. When Mercury seemed partially recovered, Garrett stood. “That was my last vial,” he told him, “so try not to get into any more fights with previous partners that have ugly poisonous swords, okay?” Mercury chuckled.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll try. But I can’t promise anything!”

“Tha’s righ’, you can’t,” growled a voice behind them. Garrett and Mercury threw themselves to the left, and John’s sword struck the place Mercury had been seconds ago. John ran to grab the sword he had thrown, but it was too late. Mercury had the sword in his hand. He threw it to the nearby canal that ran through the City, hearing it sizzle as the magic inside it was stifled.

“Let’s see what you can do if you can’t actually kill me just by touching me, eh?” Mercury said. John didn’t respond. Instead, he pulled out something Mercury hadn’t thought he’d see again: a gun. He tackled Garrett, throwing them both into the deep waters of the canal. He heard several gunshots through the water, but he felt nothing. After the current had carried them what seemed to be a safe distance, Mercury put his head over the water and took a deep breath. Soon, Garrett was bobbing up and down beside him.

“What was that?” he asked. “And why are we in the canal?”

“That,” Mercury explained, “was a gun. And we are in the canal because I didn’t feel like dying today.”

“What’s a gun?” Garrett asked, looking at Mercury quizzically.

“Something that shoots tiny metal things very, very fast. And if it hits you, it hurts a lot. And if it hits you in the head or the general area of the hurt, you end up very, very dead. Any questions?” Garrett shook his head. “Good. Let’s get going before he catches up to us.”

“The book?”

“It’s okay. Somehow it was waterproof.” Mercury pulled out the book to show Garrett.

All of a sudden, another gunshot rang out. Mercury moved the book quickly, but it was too late. The bullet struck. With a sharp, metallic sound, the bullet hit the book’s cover… only to be flattened by its own speed as the cover resisted. Mercury gazed at the book with amazement.

“Let’s go,” Garrett said nervously. Mercury began to swim towards the City’s forces’ lines, but Garrett stayed behind a moment. He looked at the top edge of the canal, craning his neck to find a sign of John. The search having proven fruitless, he rejoined Mercury.

“What are we going to do when we get to the City’s forces?” Mercury asked. “Are we going to give them the information and set them loose? The Hammerites would act too quickly because of their hate of the Trickster. The Pagans would do the same because of their love for the Trickster. And the Keepers are too obsessed with the Balance to act intelligently.”

“Yeah, but we can’t trust the Mages of Shadow, either. They’re just as hateful of the Trickster as the Hammerites,” Garrett pointed out. “There’s really no one we can trust. Except an independent group.”

“Like who? I mean, they need to be able to do magic…” Mercury said dubiously.

“Check and see. We don’t know that.” Mercury pulled out the leather-bound book and flipped through it.

“Seems like a journal,” Mercury said as he went back to the first page. Going back to the last page that was written on, he scanned it, looking for a passage that might seem useful. “Here we go,” he said. “According to this, we need some sort of stone… A diamond, it seems… And we don’t need magic. The thing is, the Trickster took this diamond and hid it. I think we’ll need other thieves to find it at this rate.”

“That is exactly what I was about to suggest. It’s time we went to see the Thieves’ Guild of the City.”

“How do we know we can trust them?”

“Simple. They are about to lose their home, just like the rest of us. They’ll do it.”

“I guess… Are they good?”

“Not as good as you are or I am, but good enough. Most very good thieves work on their own.”

“Okay… We’ll have to see where the diamond might be.”