IV
"Bartel!"
"I hope you have my money, Annika," Bartel said simply as he continued to count silver pieces at his back table in the Broken Harpoon. Already the gang leader had made six neat stacks of coins in front of him, and a disorganized pile of silver and copper still lay on the table before him. For once, his idiot thieves, with the obvious exception of Annika, had performed well, and the take displayed a good night of thievery. Annika skidded to a stop in front of the gang leader's table, barely catching her breath before she began.
"Bartel, they want to kill me!" the thief blurted out. Bartel jumped up in surprise, spilling a neat pile of silver across the table. If Annika had led a rival gang right to him…
"Who?" the gang leader demanded, drawing the daggers concealed beneath the sleeves of his tunic. For the moment no one seemed to be immediately behind his errant thief, but too many times appearances were deceiving.
"It wasn't my fault!" Annika exclaimed, practically throwing herself at Bartel as he scanned the common room for hidden enemies. "I was trying to get onto the Urhalian ship for their pay chest, but then the rod didn't work like it was supposed to and the fireball exploded in the rigging and-"
"What in the Abyss are you talking about?" Bartel asked, grabbing Annika by the shoulders and shaking her roughly. "What fireball? What rod?"
"This!" Annika replied hastily, thrusting a short bronze staff into Bartel's chest. "It worked once, but then it just started going crazy and-"
"Then keep it away from me!" Bartel interrupted quickly, shoving the thief away from him even as he backed off a step. "What are you thinking? You brought me a cursed wand!"
"Please, Bartel, you have to help me!" Annika pleaded. "They'll kill me if they find me! And van Erison knows about it too!"
"Van Erison saw you?" Bartel asked, his head already swimming. This one stupid little girl was about to tear down everything he had worked to achieve over the last two years…
"Bartel, please!" Annika begged. On the verge of tears, the thief dropped to her knees in front of the gang leader. "I'll do anything!"
"Damn right you will," Bartel snapped. The gang leader still had no idea how to handle the bewildering situation, but for the moment he needed to distance himself from Annika before anyone could see the two of them talking together. "Get into the storeroom, and stay well out of sight. In the morning, I'll decide what to do with you, but for now if you even show your face at the keyhole I'll cut your throat!"
"Thank you! Bartel, thank you!" Annika exclaimed, leaping to her feet and wrapping the gang leader in a tight embrace. Bartel roughly elbowed her away. "I can pay what I owe with this rod!"
"No! By the Abyss no!" Bartel retorted, practically jumping away from the magical item. "That thing has done enough damage already! In the morning that goes in the harbor! Now get into the storeroom!"
"Thank you again," Annika said, finally calming down as she moved quickly behind the bar. Bartel followed her back as he pulled a small key ring from his belt pouch, cursing under his breath as he roughly sorted through the keys for the one that would open the storeroom door. Bartel's first instinct was to turn the stupid girl over to van Erison or one of the other dockside constables and be rid of her; such a foolish act as setting a ship on fire and then being spotted by the crew was a disaster. As the gang leader turned back into the small alcove behind the serving area where a simple, aged door led into the cellar, however, a plan formed in his mind. With an almost imperceptible grin Bartel opened the door, but by the time he turned back to Annika the smile had long since disappeared.
"We'll sort this out in the morning," Bartel stated simply, gesturing to the inky darkness of the cellar. "You stay down there for the night, though, and don't come out for anyone or anything. Understand?"
"Yes," Annika said, though her dark eyes were fixed on the impenetrable blackness inside the door. "Um…"
"Here," Bartel said, taking a candle from its sconce behind the serving area and roughly shoving the taper into her hand. "Happy now?"
"Yes," Annika replied hesitantly. "Thank you, Bartel. I'm so sorry about this."
"Get in there," Bartel said. "We'll sort it out in the morning."
Annika nodded, and slowly descended the steps to the dank storeroom below. As she reached the last step, Bartel shut the door behind her and twisted the key in the lock again.
"So pretty, and yet so stupid," the gang leader grumbled as he turned away from the door.
Annika stood at the bottom of the storeroom steps for a long moment, wishing that the sputtering candle that Bartel had given to her threw out more light than it did. The meager illumination did not even reach the far walls of the musty cellar, and in the darkness she could hear the occasional squeaks of rats as they scurried between the kegs of ale and wine. Of all the foul creatures in the world, rats were what Annika feared most; the rodents had been a constant menace to her as an orphan trying to survive between the warehouses on the waterfront, and even know the mere thought of rats was enough to fill her with dread. Slowly Annika backed up the steps, preferring to spend the night as close to the door as possible rather than face the rats somewhere in the darkness. Carefully the thief set her taper on the step below her, dripping some wax onto the step to make certain that the candle would not fall over during the night. With her candle set, Annika leaned carefully back against the door, one eye still watching the darkness below her in case an inquisitive rat should try to climb the steps and investigate the paltry light.
"Ernst," Annika heard Bartel say. Although his voice was low, the gang leader must have still been in the alcove.
"Yes, Bartel?" Ernst asked in his small, frightened voice. Ernst was even younger than Annika, and Bartel often bullied the boy ruthlessly.
"I want you to go to the Urhalian ship down the docks," Bartel instructed quietly. He was moving away from the door, but Annika could still hear him as he spoke. "I want you to tell the sailors there that I have the person that tried to burn their ship. Don't tell them she's here, but tell them that I'm interested in negotiating a bounty for her capture."
"But… but Bartel, you… wasn't that Annika?" Ernst inquired timidly. Annika's eyes were already wide in the darkness as she listened in on the conversation, terrified at the thought of being turned over to the Urhalians.
"Yes it was," Bartel confirmed, his voice rising slightly in anger. "And unless you want to be her accomplice in that stupid girl's attack, you'd better get right over to them and tell them that I want to negotiate with them!"
"But…" Ernst faltered. Annika closed her eyes as she fought back tears; Ernst was a good kid, a victim of circumstance like many of Bartel's other conscripted thieves, but he was far too frightened of Bartel to refuse the order. "I'll go right away," the boy said, as if on cue. She could hear his quiet footfalls as he hurried through into the common room for the door, ready to bring the Urhalians right back to her. After a long moment she could hear Bartel leaving the alcove, but the gang leader's naturally quiet gait made it impossible to tell if he had left the Broken Harpoon.
Annika finally stood up on the steps, wiping away tears as she looked at the door above her. The situation might have seemed hopeless to her, but the thief was not about to sit and wait for the Urhalians to take their vengeance on her for a simple accident on the docks. Slowly Annika leaned in close to the door and strained her ears, but she could hear nothing in the common room to indicate anyone's presence.
Annika took a step back on the stairs and hefted her rod, but before she pointed it at the door she reconsidered her initial plan of escape. The rod had been erratic at best, and the sudden thought of burning herself to a crisp with another fireball kept her from uttering the command words to the rod. Shaking her head to accentuate her disapproval of her plan, Annika tucked the rod into her belt and removed her lock picks from their pouch inside the hem of her ragged blouse. Annika was no expert on locks, but her slight skill and the lock's simple mechanism made the thief's first attempt at escape a success. Slowly she pushed the door open, and carefully peeked out into the alcove.
No one was standing in the alcove, or the serving area beyond it. Cautiously Annika slipped out of the cellar and up against the wall to the common room, glancing around the corner to check for any sign of Bartel. Lit only by a couple of smoke stained lanterns, the common room was silent and still, completely devoid of life. Bartel must have gone out somewhere to prepare for Ernst's return with the Urhalians. Quickly Annika started into the tap room, eager to disappear into the night before Bartel realized that she had escaped.
A sudden crack sounded behind her. Annika bolted without even hazarding a glance over her shoulder, but before she could take a single step Bartel's whip had wrapped around her ankle. The thief crashed face first into the filthy floorboards as the gang leader yanked back on his weapon, blasting the wind from her lungs and knocking her senseless for the briefest instant. Although she recovered quickly, Bartel was already moving in on her, drawing his whip back for a second strike.
"Where do you think you're going?" the gang leader demanded. Annika tried to get to her feet, but Bartel's whip cracked again, tearing a bright line of blood through her thin pants across her left thigh. "I told you to stay hidden, so we could sort this out in the morning!"
"You're going to ransom me to the Urhalians!" Annika accused the gang leader, scrambling backwards. Bartel snapped his whip forward again, drawing a stinging line of pain across her cheek.
"You've become a liability," Bartel said, as if he had no other choice. "I mean, do you know how many constables will be swarming the docks come the dawn? I'm surprised they haven't shown up here yet!"
"Just… just let me go, and I'll leave!" Annika pleaded, trying to negotiate with the gang leader.
"Thirty gold, I bet I could get for you," Bartel reasoned, shrugging. Annika once again tried to stand, but Bartel caught her quickly by the ankle and yanked her foot out from under her. Once again gasping for breath, Annika yanked the rod free of her belt in desperation. "It's really a matter of money, Annika. Nothing personal, just business."
"I wonder what this does!" Annika screamed as she leapt to her knees. Bartel dodged back quickly, trying to stay clear of the rod's end, but the move proved unnecessary. Annika scrambled to her feet, but stopped in shock as she stared at the rod's newest effect.
Neither Annika nor Bartel had seen such a creature before, but its simple size took up more than a third of the Broken Harpoon's common room. Covered in leathery, grayish black skin and tipped with a single, curved horn on the tip of its nose, the creature stood at least five feet tall at the shoulder and was heavy enough to instantly crack the floorboards. As the two thieves gawked in stunned silence at the thing Annika had summoned, it turned on Bartel and uttered a low, intimidating grunt.
"Annika, what have you done?" Bartel asked in fright. Again the creature grunted, its beady black eyes locked onto Bartel. Then it lowered its horned head and stormed forward.
Annika did not even wait long enough to see if the beast had skewered Bartel on its horn. The thief was up and running even as the thing smashed through the wall of the Broken Harpoon, racing away from her summoning before it could possibly turn on her. Annika sprinted down one block and turned a quick right, running for all she was worth back into the heart of Tierwaal and away from the furious bellows of the monster ravaging Haven-straat. She stopped running only when she had crossed the entire city, finally stumbling to a halt only a few yards from the towering southern wall of Tierwaal on the cobblestone expanse of Muur-straat. During the day hundreds of stalls would line Muur-straat along the slate colored southern wall, but for the moment nothing stirred in the darkness and not a single light illuminated the shuttered windows of the homes and shops along the curbs of the street.
As Annika looked back up the wide thoroughfare of Oosten-straat that had led her so far away from the docks, the thief tried to think of any place she could go for help. She had no money, she was wanted by thirty Urhalian sailors, Bartel had turned on her, and she was now not only responsible for setting fire to a ship, but she had also summoned some sort of demon into existence at the Broken Harpoon. If she stayed in Tierwaal she would certainly be hunted down, but Annika had never even set foot outside the gates of the port city and had no idea what to expect on the open road. For a long moment the thief simply stood in the middle of street, wanting to scream, cry, run, and hide all at once, but with the last reserves of her will she brought herself back under control. Blind panic would do nothing for her.
Annika remained silent and still in the street for another moment, but finally set out for the western side of Tierwaal. She knew she was taking a huge gamble, but there was one person left in the city that might be able, and more importantly willing, to help her.
The night had started out well. That was about all he could say for it.
Dawn was still an hour or so away when Zarne van Erison unlocked the door to his room and slowly shuffled inside. The thing that had somehow gotten loose on Haven-straat had been, to the constable, the most terrifying demon he had ever faced. The three wizards that had helped to kill the thing had called it a rhinoceros and pronounced it a mundane beast rather than some hellspawned monstrosity, but Zarne chose to ignore their proclamation in light of the four buildings it had knocked down and the ribs it had broken in the constable. Fortunately for Zarne, Pelor's priests had also turned out to fight the rhinoceros, and what had been a life threatening injury had been reduced to a dull, constant ache up and down his left side.
"And now, I am going to sleep for three days," Zarne decided, speaking to the darkened room as he slowly walked to the bed set along the left wall.
"Um, Zarne?"
The constable spun toward the lone window of his cramped room quickly, his long sword skidding free of its sheath in a single, fluid motion. Peering into the darkness, Zarne could finally make out a diminutive, female figure hiding against the wall next to his window, even as the voice registered in his mind.
"Annika?" the constable asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Annika replied quietly. "I… please don't turn me in, Zarne. I need your help! I swear to Pelor it wasn't my fault!"
"Annika, what are you even doing here?" Zarne asked, sheathing his sword. "How did you even know where I lived?"
"Lucky guess?" Annika replied, her innocent shrug barely visible in the darkness.
"Never mind that," Zarne said, quickly remembering what had begun his disastrous night. "What in the Abyss is going on?"
"Zarne, please, it wasn't my fault!" Annika began quickly, seeing the constable's anger. "I mean, it wasn't really my fault! I didn't want to throw a fireball at the ship, honest!"
"Slow down, Annika!" Zarne ordered, trying to sort through the events of the night. Annika nodded, withdrawing slightly into the corner of the room.
"I… I really need your help, Zarne," the thief said quietly. Even in the darkness Zarne could make out the fear shining in her eyes. "I… there's no one else I can turn to."
Zarne hesitated for a long moment as he considered the thief's plea. Although Annika was about as trustworthy as any of the miscreants and criminals of Tierwaal's docks, this time her fright seemed genuine, and she certainly had no reason to torch an Urhalian ship in port. As the constable tried to decide whether he should bring the girl before the magistrate or help her out of her jam, he lit the candle on his night stand, wanting to at least see Annika's face well enough to read any deceit she might try. As he turned back to her, however, he stopped for a long moment. Annika's eyes certainly held a genuine fear, but the long streaks of blood across her cheek and leg immediately caught his attention.
"What happened to you?" Zarne asked as took a step toward the girl. The constable already had his suspicions as to the thief's wounds, but after everything else that had happened earlier he was not willing to make a final judgment until he heard it from his guest.
"Bartel," Annika answered quietly, looking down at the ground. The girl's voice broke as she continued. "He… he was going to sell me to the Urhalians… said he could probably get thirty gold…"
"It's all right, Annika," Zarne said, lifting the girl's chin and examining the cut across her cheek. The injury was long, stretching almost from her ear to the corner of her mouth, but it was not deep and hardly life threatening. Such an injury, however, would scar badly unless it was treated by a priest. The same could be said for the wound to her leg; while it was painful, she would easily survive. "I tell you what," Zarne said, leading Annika to his bed and sitting her down on the edge. "Let's start at the beginning, and I'll see if there's anything I can do for you."
"I… it was because of Bartel," Annika started. Zarne was used to the tactic by now; two thirds of the thieves on the harborfront began any defense by blaming someone else. "He… he said he would sell me to the Urhalians if I didn't come up with the money I owed him!" The thief hesitated for a moment before holding up the rod that she had discovered. "If it wasn't for him I never would have found this thing!"
"Don't point that at me!" Zarne snapped hastily, smacking the tip of the rod away from him. Annika cringed back in fear at the sudden burst of action. "Annika, you have to tell me more than that. Where did you find this thing?"
"The Magie Vierkant," Annika replied quietly.
"Did you steal it from someone?" Zarne inquired, already suspecting that she had lifted the item from a merchant's wagon or a wizard's belt.
"No!" Annika countered. "No, it just… it just… fell in front of me!"
"Fell in front of you?" Zarne repeated, his extreme skepticism coming through in his tone. "Look, Annika, if you stole it, I'm not going-"
"I swear I didn't steal it!" Annika interrupted. "It fell out of the sky! I was walking through Magie-Vierkant and suddenly it… it just fell in front of me!"
"Okay, you didn't steal it," Zarne conceded, humoring the girl for the moment. "What happened next?"
"I… well, I picked it up," Annika continued. "And then I said 'I wonder what-'"
Zarne tried to clamp a hand down over Annika's mouth, but it was too late. The thief managed to speak enough of the rod's command word or words to cause yet another bizarre reaction, but this time it seemed more harmless than anything else. Zarne's door, the first object in line with the tip of the rod, began to sprout leaves of nearly every shape, ranging from a deep, vibrant green to brilliant scarlet and golden yellow. Annika stared at the door in shock, stunned by the newest display of the rod's power.
"Whatever you said to activate that wand, don't say it again while you're holding it," Zarne instructed sternly. Annika nodded, her eyes still on the leaves sprouting from the sturdy oaken door. "Okay, so what happened when you said it the first time?"
"I… turned invisible," Annika recalled, forcing her attention back to the constable. "There was a flash of light, but I think I was the only one who saw it, and then someone walked into me because he couldn't see me."
"And then what?" Zarne asked.
"Well, I was only invisible for a little bit," Annika said. "And then… I tried to do that again later on the docks…"
"To rob the Urhalians?" Zarne concluded.
"Bartel was going to sell me to them!" Annika exclaimed. "I had to!"
"Okay, I believe you," Zarne said. "And instead of turning invisible, you threw a fireball at them?"
"I didn't mean it!" Annika countered anxiously. "After the grass, I tried to use it again, and-"
"What grass?" Zarne asked, cutting off her story.
"The grass that grew when I first tried to use it on the dock!" Annika explained. "I… the second time I tried it the only thing that happened was grass started to grow in front of me!"
"And then the fireball," Zarne said. Annika nodded. "And then you tried to run."
"And I ran into you," Annika continued, her gaze dropping to the ground.
"And you got away from me by conjuring up those butterflies," Zarne said. Annika nodded. "So why are you here now?"
"Bartel… when I told him about what happened, he acted like he was going to help me," Annika said, looking up again. "But he locked me in the storage cellar-"
"Of the Broken Harpoon?" Zarne guessed, recalling his earlier fight with the rhinoceros.
"How…" the thief began. She stopped, and dropped her head. "The demon."
"It wasn't a demon," Zarne said. Annika looked up. "At least, that's what one of the wizards said. It was a rhinoceros. Supposed to be a normal creature."
"Did… did it kill Bartel?" Annika asked cautiously.
"It didn't kill anyone that we knew of," Zarne answered. Annika nodded, a mixture of relief and fear on her face. "So that's everything."
"You were the only one I could think of that might help me," Annika said. "All I need is a couple of gold, and maybe I can book passage on a ship, and you'll never see me again!"
"Which ship would you like to book passage on?" Zarne asked. "The Urhalian one?"
"I… can go by land," Annika said, realizing the dangers of returning to the docks. "Maybe join a caravan to Zaandam, or catch a coach."
"Annika, even if I did have the money to give you, where would you go?" Zarne inquired. "No caravan will hire you, unless maybe you know how to cook, and both of us together don't have the money for a coach to Zaandam."
"But… what else can I do?" Annika asked, closed to tears. Zarne paused for a moment, trying to find an answer to the girl's question.
"First and foremost, we can get some sleep," the constable finally decided, hoping to sidestep a direct answer for the moment. "If you feel half as exhausted as you look, you're ready to collapse. In the morning, maybe we can find out where that rod came from and start to put things back in order. I'll even let you take the bed."
"Zarne?" Annika asked, her eyes on the constable as he tried to decide which floorboard would make the most appealing bed.
"What?" Zarne said, turning back to her.
"Are… are you sure everything will be all right?" the thief asked hesitantly.
"No one's going to hurt you while I'm around, Annika," Zarne promised. "Now get some sleep. No one even knows where you are."
Annika forced out a smile of relief, then carefully pulled herself up onto the bed and buried herself beneath Zarne's blankets. Within moments the thief was silent and still, apparently fast asleep as soon as her head touched the constable's worn pillow. Zarne watched the bed for a long moment before looking to the ground.
"At least, I hope no one knows you're here," the constable amended quietly.