Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish

Author:David Dalglish [Dalglish, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little Brown
Published: 2013-08-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

19

The third safe house was the correct one. Veliana glanced around to make sure no one watched, then pushed aside a false brick in the giant wall surrounding the city. When she did, a lever snapped within the wall, unseen gears turned, and the dirt below her shifted as a circular sheet of metal lifted upward. Replacing the brick, Veliana climbed down a small ladder, and then replaced the lid. It would be visible under close inspection for a day or two until the dust settled over it and a few walked across it.

Not that it mattered. If Gileas really had told Thren its location, they had less than an hour to get out.

In the darkness that overcame her when she replaced the lid, Veliana had to feel around to get her bearings. There was only one direction to go, back toward the city in a cramped tunnel. She squirmed on her belly, elbows tucked tight against her sides. About twenty feet in, the tunnel started sloping upward. Another twenty feet and she bopped her head against a solid piece of wood.

“Shit,” she said as she touched her throbbing forehead. Normally, close to the false bottoms of buildings, there’d be light sneaking through the cracks. Here there was nothing. Feeling around blindly, she found a small lever and pulled it. Grating noises from both sides filled her ears, and then a whoosh of air above her signified the board’s removal. She climbed out.

It didn’t take long to figure out why there was no light warning her of the false bottom. She was in the basement of a rather large mansion. She’d known of the entrance to the safe house but never been there before.

James must have fled here, she thought. This place looks to be enormous.

The basement itself was not lit, but to her right she saw light spilling down a staircase and she worked her way toward it. She kicked a crate once, biting down on her tongue to hold in another curse. She walked more carefully after that. At the bottom of the stairs she looked up. A man was leaning against the door frame at the top, his back to her.

“Make him roll again,” the man shouted. “I saw Jek shaking them bones a bit too crazy. He’s probably got a rigged pair in his pockets.”

As he finished talking, Veliana pressed the tip of her dagger against his neck, having climbed all the way up without alerting him to her presence.

“A lousy guard is a dead guard,” she told him as he jerked his head around, his whole body stiffening.

“Hey, Vel,” he said, smiling nervously at her. “Glad to see you’re back and cheery as ever.”

Veliana recognized him as Jorey, a low recruit, promoted most likely because of the attrition caused by the other guilds.

“Out of my way,” she said, giving him a shove. Several other men in the light grays of the Ash Guild jumped from their seats around a table. Two of them grabbed daggers, while the rest just gawked.

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