Ch. 8 - A Clue is Revealed

Garrett smiled.

In a normal person's face, that would not have been remarkable. However, Garrett could not be considered by any stretch a "normal" person. A master thief, who spent most of his waking hours in darkness, his skin was pale. His skin lacked the unhealthy luster that marked men who spent their time indoors, however. Looking at Garret's tight, compact frame, you could not doubt that this was a healthy person. Years of pulling himself through windows and up ropes had endowed him with a wiry, powerful musculature.

His smile was like watching a wave break upon rocks. The water covers up the rock for a time, but doesn't change the fact that the rocks are still there, and once the wave passes, the rock is unchanged. Garrett's normal expression was like stone, with an eye like a dark jewel that seldom blinked and missed nothing. When he smiled, the crags of his face merely shifted around, reminding one of an avalanche in winter.

"Good." That was all he said. Then he turned and left, melting into the shadows so well in his dark cloak that he disappeared before he had even left the building. I didn't hear him leave.

I felt a bit of pride about my performance. After the night with Willow (I still had trouble keeping her off my mind) I had reported to the practice room in order to continue my training. Garrett had been setting up and running practice jobs the past couple of days. The most challenging one had been last night, when Garrett hid a small statue "somewhere" in the general vicinity of the warehouse that contained the practice area. I finally found it, 2 hours before dawn, on the steeple of the local Hammerite church. But the best thing that I did was I managed to place the statue inside the practice area where Garrett was sleeping and then get out without waking him.

With Garrett's approval evident, I knew that he felt I was ready to do the next job that Cutty had explained before: the library. I was determined to not screw up this job, and get back into Cutty's good graces. However, I was not so foolish as to think that I could always count on Cutty, and decided to scout around for another fence in case relations with Cutty went south.

I spent the afternoon scouting the streets around the library, making sure I knew several ways in and out. No way did I want to be caught by surprise by a Hammer patrol this time.

That night, I crept along an alley behind the library. I had noticed that a window in the rear of the building was left open most of the time, and that the sill above the window was wood. I was confident that I could get a rope arrow up there easily. I drew a rope arrow from my quiver, checking to see if the bindings holding the rope coiled were primed to release properly. These things were expensive enough to warrant checking...I did not want to lose it if it could be helped.

I drew back the arrow on my new compound bow. Even after buying it I had been skeptical over it's usefulness. The light, all metal bow with it's pulleys at the ends of the bow seemed to be more like a Hammer toy than a real weapon. However, after practicing with it at the range, I noticed that at medium to short range, the bow could send a broadhead arrow right through steel plate armor. At longer range, the bow wasn't quite as accurate as a longbow, but it would serve me good enough.

"Whiiiisssk!......Thunk!" The arrow impacted into the sill above the window, the rope uncoiling perfectly down the side of the building. The only thing that could go wrong.....the rope stopped, the end dangling about 4 ft above my head, just out of reach. Damn. I looked around, searching for a create or box I could stand on. Nothing. I noticed a windowsill then, below the ground floor set of windows. Stepping up on this, I was able to jump and grab the rope.

Climbing up past sets of lighted windows, I noticed beds and other domestic furnishings in the rooms. Those must be the rooms the librarians live in. As I reached the window, I looked into the room, checking for guards. Nothing. Slipping inside, I debated whether to take the rope arrow with me or leave it. Settling for coiling up the rope and hiding it inside out of sight from the alley, I crept across the carpet to the door. Easing it open, I saw a dark hallway, poorly lighted with a torch at one end. Listening for a moment, I heard nothing. This place was dead.

I walked down the hall, checking the rooms as I went. Nothing of interest, only boxes of books. I didn't have time to check for anything valuable, and I wouldn't know a rare book if it hit me in the nose. Pausing to extinguish the torch, I opened up the stairwell door. The landing wasn't lit, but the stairwell below me was. I guess not enough people came up here to justify lighting extra torches for it. Creeping down the stairs, I winced at every "creeeeaaaaak!" of the floorboards. I was about halfway down towards the next floor when I realized that I only had a title of the book, and no clue as to where the book was. Cursing my own luck, I looked up to see a sign on the door to the second floor. It said "Book registry" and an arrow pointing left.

"There we go," I thought, as I went through the door and down the hallway. I found the door that said "Book registry" and was about to go in when I heard voices. (Using the 7 key), I leaned against the door to hear what they were saying.

Voice 1: "-ty will come through."

Voice 2: "He'd better, if he knows what's good for him."

Voice 1: "He has assured me that he has hired someone capable of retrieving the object. It should be soon."

Voice 2: "Tell him he has a week. Then, we will find someone else and he will be.....taken care of."

The owner of the first voice stood in the doorway, watching the other man leave. He looked like the quintessential librarian, with a long, rope-belted brown robe over his portly form and sandals on his feet. His head was bald, with a fringe of hair around the outside of his head, and small round spectacles.

He stared after the retreating figure of the Hammerite priest with a mixture of fear and anger, then turned around and walked back into the room. I slipped in the doorway behind him, intending to hit him when his back was turned. Instead he turned around when I was still halfway across the room. His eyes widened, and he let out a cry. "Who the hel....." "Whack!" I smacked him with my blackjack and he went down immediately.

Dragging him into the corner, I frisked him. He carried no money, but had a key labeled "Library." Evidently he was the caretaker. I searched the room, which had a desk in the center, and shelves of books lining all four walls.

The desk held nothing except a couple of copper coins, which were so green and aged I knew no one had touched them for ages. The desk also held a nice letter opener, silver w/ a black horned handle, but I let it be. I would rather have nothing to show from this job than the only thing I bring home was a letter opener!

On the shelf nearest the door was a ledger labeled "Recent Acquisitions." On a hunch, I took a look at it. There it was! Near the bottom of the third page it said, "Haldonia Census - Floor 1, Stack 32, Shelf 24." Jackpot! I ripped out the page with the pertinent information and headed out the door.

At the stairwell, I started to head down the stairs to the first floor. Just then I heard the "clunk, clunk" of footfalls coming up the stairs. Quickly, I faded back into the corner and waited. The source of the footsteps was another librarian, dressed in a similar fashion to the first. He had a sword belted around his waist, but I could see the weapon was more for show than for use, lacking luster and appearing rusty. A small white band was tied around his forehead, and was probably a badge of his job as guard. Clearly, he was not a professional.

He passed by me without a glance, his eyes glued to the stairs in front of him. He passed by me into the second floor, and closed the door behind him. Quickly, I darted down the stairs to the first floor. Upon entering the first floor, I saw an immense number of bookshelves, each about 12 feet tall and 30 feet wide. The sign on the shelf right in front of the door had an arrow pointing in each direction. The left side said "Stacks 1-24" while the right said "Stacks 24-58". Checking my paper, I headed right.

When I reached Stack 32, I stopped. Looking at the immense shelves, I saw that each shelf had a brass plate with a number on it. The bottom shelf about halfway down said "23." I looked up. The top most shelf said, "24."

"Damn." That shelf was at least 10 ft in the air, well above my reach. Searching the immediate area, I looked for a chair or stool. Nothing. Sighing, I decided I would have to climb up the shelf and find the book. I started out, bracing myself as best I could on the shelf across the aisle. I found the book easily, grabbed it, and stuffed it in my cloak. That is when the weight of my body became too much for the shelf right under 24. The shelf "cracked" and shifted downward a little bit. That was enough to make me lose my balance. I put all my weight on the shelf in front of me, and that was enough to make it tip over.

I jumped down, and watched, horrified, as the entire shelf tipped over, hitting the shelf next in line. The rest followed in a giant domino effect. As this chain reaction started, I realized that I was making enough noise to rouse anyone in the entire building and that I had better get out of there now!

I made my way back to the stairwell door and was about to go through when I heard rapid footsteps coming down the stairs. I hid behind the door as three librarians rushed down towards the carnage I had caused. I slipped back up the stairs, down to the room where I had entered, and closed the door behind me. The rope arrow I had used was still here, and I threw the coiled up line out the window and went down it.

Thankfully, no one in the library had raised the alarm yet with the local authorities, so I had an easy time exiting the area. Taking the side streets to avoid any chance of Hammerite encounters, I walked back towards Cutty's.

If you have any feedback on this story e-mail it to Rich aka dragoman