"Here's how it is," said Dar'epha. She leaned forward in her chair, a wide smirk on her face. "There's a sewer grate in one of the cells—not Dagny's, the one with those kids."
"That seems like a setback," said Sonja, folding her arms. Her and Thaegoth had taken seats across the fire from Dar'epha.
"It's just the first," said Dar'epha. "The second is that the only way in and out of the sewer is in the guard's warehouse. You know, over near the Bannered Mare."
"Oh, is that what that building is," said Thaegoth.
"Now, this ain't really a problem exactly," said Dar'epha. "Only a coupla guards, I can bribe them to be elsewheres." She was silent for a moment, looking at the Companions. "Seems only fair that you lot chip in for that."
"I don't have any gold on me," said Thaegoth, immediately.
Dar'epha laughed. "Maybe you were in the Guild," she said. She looked at Sonja.
"For gods' sake," said Sonja. She rummaged in her pockets and handed over several pieces of gold. Dar'epha counted them with quick fingers and the coins vanished into one of her pockets.
"There's the guards in the dungeon, though," said Thaegoth, picturing Dragonsreach in his mind.
"Too many to bribe, yeah," said Dar'epha. "That's why you, with your fancy housecarl title, will be in the hall, dealin with 'em."
"How am I supposed to do that?" asked Thaegoth.
"I dunno," said Dar'epha, "use your imagination. Just get 'em out of there. Us ladies'll trek through the sewer and come up in one cell, get in the other, be gone real quick. Just need a minute."
"What about Galt and Maeve?" asked Thaegoth.
"Who?" asked Dar'epha and Sonja at the same time.
"Oh, those bandit kids," said Dar'epha. "Nah, deal's for Dagny. I ain't draggin kids through the sewer."
"That's not," started Thaegoth, but Sonja cut him off.
"If you really want the kids rehabilitated, like you said," she said, "then let them serve out their sentence. Can't be long left on it, anyway."
This time it was Thaegoth who folded his arms. "Fine," he said. "What else?"
Dar'epha shrugged. "That's it," she said. "Long as you're ready when your illustrious Jarl comes lookin for his sister."
"We will be," said Sonja. She stood and looked around the room. The room where the Dragonborn had eaten, read, kicked her boots off by the fire. Where she'd had the peace to close her eyes against the world, even if just for a moment.
"You didn't know her, huh?" asked Dar'epha. Sonja shook her head. "Her days with the Companions before your time, then. Me and her go way back."
"She knows you're here?" asked Sonja.
"Nah," said Dar'epha. "But she wouldn't mind."
"Do you know where she is?" asked Thaegoth.
Dar'epha smiled. "Wouldn't tell you neither way," she said. She stretched and rose. "No time for storytellin," she said. "Go out the way you came in. I'll meet you behind the Bannered Mare in half an hour."
Thaegoth and Sonja managed to make it out of Breezehome without tripping over each other, or alerting the guards. Back in the dark of Whiterun, they returned to Jorrvaskr. More time had passed than they realised, for only Nebia and Charos remained in the hall, nursing drinks. Charos rose at the pair's entrance.
"Well?" he said.
"It's under control," said Thaegoth. Sonja wasn't so sure, but she nodded anyway. She noticed Nebia looking at them with a grin.
"What?" asked Sonja.
"Did you two . . . ?" asked Nebia.
"I'll tell you later," said Sonja quickly. Thaegoth's smirk, however, gave everything away.
"Where's Irileth?" he asked. On the way back, he'd devised a way to clear the guards out of Dragonsreach dungeon, a workable distraction, but he needed the ex-housecarl's help.
"Aela's room, I reckon," said Nebia, still grinning.
Which meant Thaegoth had to go down and knock. Irileth answered, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Thaegoth explained what he needed.
"Better I don't know the details," she said.
"Just drag it out as long as you can," said Thaegoth.
Irileth turned away. "Let me get dressed," she said. "I'll meet you up there."
When Thaegoth got back up into the main hall of Jorrvaskr, Nebia told him that Sonja had already gone off to meet whoever she had to meet. Thaegoth thanked her, and strode as quickly as he could up to Dragonsreach. The great hall was empty at this late hour except for a pair of guards. Probably the Jarl had long since drunk himself into a stupor. Thaegoth warmed himself by the fire, and waited.
Back down in the town, Dar'epha sauntered into the guard's warehouse like she owned the place. Which, Sonja supposed, she did in a way. The bribes had worked, the place was completely empty. The thief directed Sonja to help her move a barrel, revealing a trapdoor beneath. It was locked, but before Sonja could ask if that would be a problem, Dar'epha had picked it open.
She dropped down into the sewer without a sound. Sonja heaved herself down with a thump that echoed down the tunnel. Dar'epha looked at her with raised brows.
"Maybe don't give up your day job," she said. "Come on."
She led the way through dim tunnels and Sonja was in no doubt that had she been on her own, there was no way she could have found her way to the small grate in the ceiling that was their destination. Dar'epha held up a hand for quiet. All they needed was for the guards in the dungeon to clear.
Up in Dragonsreach, Thaegoth turned at the sound of the great doors opening. Irileth entered the hall, swaying slightly.
"You're a fucking sneak-thief," she called out. "All my life I worked and you're just . . . you just come sauntering the fuck in, shitting your little elf shit all over Balgruuf's grave." She closed the distance between them. Thaegoth wondered if it was worth pointing out that she was an elf too. "I've had enough of it," Irileth went on. "Your smug face up there next to . . . next to—"
She took a swing at him. He swayed away from it, but the follow-up blow took him in the gut. The two of them went at, and Thaegoth found he had to put in more effort than he'd thought—Irileth was a great deal stronger than he'd anticipated. Still, they exchanged blows, grappling with each other, making a great deal of noise, and Thaegoth, between ducking and grunting, could see that the guards were starting to gather.
Below in the sewer, Dar'epha listened. Suddenly, her head snapped up.
"We're on," she said.
Then, she pulled off a manoeuvre that, if Sonja had been blinking, she would have missed. Even then, she wasn't sure she could describe how it had happened. Dar'epha was at the wall, then she was at the grate in the sewer ceiling, hanging by one hand, jimmying the lock with the other. When she did, the grate swung down. Dar'epha laughed.
"Always forget about that," she said. She scrambled up the grate and vanished above into the cell.
Sonja took a standing leap and managed to grasp the bottom of the swinging grate. With great grunts she hauled herself upwards. Heaving her upper body into the cell, she found herself face to face with the two kids she'd arrested on the night she'd met Thaegoth. So long ago now, it seemed. Galt and Maeve, she remembered Thaegoth had said their names were. They each took one of her arms, and helped her up.
"We're not coming with you," said Maeve.
"We're not here for you," said Dar'epha. She had pulled a key from somewhere and was opening the cell door. She ducked sideways and did the same to the neighbouring cell: Dagny's.
"There's a bandit chief working for the Jarl," remembered Sonja. "You two know anything about that?"
"That's what we've been trying to tell you!" said Galt.
"Your boyfriend doesn't listen to us," said Maeve. Dagny snorted from the next cell.
"Your Jarl owes a shitload of money to the head of the Silent Moons," said Dar'epha, ushering Dagny up and out of her cell.
"Yes, and the boss is pissed," said Maeve.
"He's always pissed," said Galt.
"Here," said Dar'epha. She tossed a packet of letters to Sonja, who quickly stuffed them inside her clothes. "Nelkir oughta cover his tracks better. Now get her out, I'll clean up here."
She went back and closed Dagny's cell. Sonja pulled Dagny towards the grate and helped her lower herself down. Sonja followed and saw a flash of Dar'epha's grinning face above as she reached down and pulled up the grate behind them.
Dagny looked around the sewer, her nose wrinkling. "Stinks about the same as the cells, really," she said.
Maeve's face appeared behind the grate above.
"Thaegoth promised us a job," she said.
"What?" said Sonja. "I guess. Yes." Jorrvaskr could use someone to clean up around the place, she thought, but she didn't say that out loud. Maeve just grinned, and her face vanished from the opening.
Sonja led Dagny back through the sewer, her hand on her knife. The guard's warehouse was still quiet and empty. Together they shifted the barrel back over the grate and exited into the darkness of Whiterun. There was nobody in sight, but Sonja still led them on a route behind all the buildings, keeping as much to the shadow of the outer wall as she could.
She ushered Dagny into Jorrvaskr, took one last look around the town, and followed her inside. Aela was standing there with her arms folded.
"You utter fool," said the Harbinger.
Sonja had expected this response. And so she didn't fluster when she said, "It's too late now to change it."
Aela cursed. "You've made sure of that," she said. She looked off to the side. "I know somewhere we can hide her."
Back in Dragonsreach, it took four guards to pull Irileth and Thaegoth apart. Later, Thaegoth would be pretty pleased about that. He grinned at her, then remembered he ought not to do that. Irileth shook the guards off and stormed from the hall. Gradually the guards returned to their posts.
While Thaegoth was straightening his clothes, a guard raced up from the dungeon.
"Dagny's gone," they breathed.
There was a rush downstairs, Thaegoth included. The cell was indeed empty, the door locked, as if she'd simply disappeared. The kids were still there, all wide-eyed and innocent. One guard ran to alert Hrongar, another to raise Commander Caius. Soon enough Thaegoth was alone in the dungeon. There was a barely perceptible sound from behind him, a sound he knew he wouldn't have heard if he hadn't been raised in the Thieves Guild.
He turned to find a grinning Dar'epha.
"Gave the letters to your girlfriend," she said. "I'll be in touch, so's you can return the favour." She ambled towards the upper stairs.
"You can't go up there," said Thaegoth, hurrying after her, sure the entire operation was going to be blown. She ignored him. By the time Thaegoth got to the stairs, the door at the top was just closing. Thaegoth took the stairs three at time and was out the door into Dragonsreach in a matter of seconds. But in the wide hall, all was still. Dar'epha was nowhere to be seen.
Thaegoth's eyes widened, then he smiled. He knew one didn't get promoted that far up the Guild hierarchy for no reason. Like a shadow in the night. He stood, and waited. Soon there would be chaos, he knew, a search for the escaped prisoner. But for now, Thaegoth stood, and enjoyed the quiet.