The Cat's Paw: A Novelette in the world of The Crafter Chronicles by Matthew B. Berg

Author:Matthew B. Berg [Berg, Matthew B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Woodfall Press
Published: 2021-01-13T22:00:00+00:00

9

The Job

Oskar rarely visited the Laonese Quarter. But she liked the feel of the place. In the poorer part of the district, it was loud and boisterous, with music spilling out through the doorways of the taverns. Singing—among the patrons as much as the hired musicians. Flutes. Stringed instruments. And the smells of spicy food wafting out along with the music. Her senses were filled with . . . comfort, she realized. It was a welcoming and embracing combination of sights, sounds, and smells. And it dispelled Nia’s words of dark magics, which had trapped a shiver inside her.

All the homes along the main roadway had balconies on their second stories, running the entire width of the houses. The columns and railings would make it easy enough to climb up to the roof of any one of them. But the residents liked to sit out under the stars all through the night. And tonight’s moon was high and bright enough that its light nearly seemed like daylight, even without any of the myriad lanterns everywhere she looked. Darkness wouldn’t be driving these people to their beds anytime soon.

The sounds of the inhabitants were continuous. The clinking of glasses and the hollow clunk of wooden mugs. The shouting down to passersby—and across the street. Encouraging the rare unaccompanied female to come on up and join them. Hurling the occasional insult. And laughing. Lots of raucous laughing.

Oskar left the laughter and music behind as she worked her way toward the more staid district of the Laonese Quarter, where the wealthier residents lived. When she finally reached the house of her target, the sounds of the poorer district were a distant memory. The low coos of roosting doves and the muffled voices from inside one of the nearby homes were the only sounds here.

Lord Tobryn Langwen’s house was immense. It had a large portico in front, where a carriage could pick up and dispense passengers out of the weather. Unlike the earlier houses she had passed, this home had no balcony. But the columns supporting the portico made it easy enough for her to scramble up onto the roof just the same.

When she reached the roof, she imagined she was the assassin—making her moves even stealthier than she normally did, creeping along the ridge of the roof. She pretended in that moment that she was on an errand to kill a merciless criminal—and not simply purloin a letter.

She wouldn’t have been able to tell from the street, but the house was framed around a large courtyard in its center. Trees grew up from inside. And one even reached the height of the roof. Convenient!

She leapt from the roof onto a broad branch, shimmied down the trunk, and was safely on the grass of the courtyard in a few seconds. She smiled. The shadow walker could hardly have managed better!

She held herself still in the moon-cast shadows of the tree for a long moment, mastering her breathing and scanning the area for any signs she’d been seen.

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