The hardest part of the scuffle was making sure that none of the guards actually fired a shot. Bianca needed the element of surprise if she was going to sneak into the compound, and a single crack of a rifle shot would alert everyone nearby of an issue. To this end she had to be quick, and quick she was. She became a blur that danced among her enemies, and like a whisper she dispatched her foes.
A punch here, a kick there, and six guards lay crumpled in a heap around her. Each was alive, but they would wake up later with horrible bruises all over their bodies. That was business in a sense, but Bianca could not help but feel a little remorse for the guards. They had no way of knowing what they were in for when she showed up on their doorstep.
Judging by the position of the sun Bianca could guess that it was around mid-afternoon. That would mean that the bureaucrats would be attending to their afternoon business matters, and that would leave the slaves to do their busy work in areas out of her way. Areas were there would be no one to see her.
But before she made her move Bianca took one more look over the wall to the same roof she had seen the man atop before. Low and behold he had vanished as if he had never been there to begin with. Bianca huffed. She hated people who ran off before she could get a word in, but there was hardly anything she could do about it.
The wall was rather easy to scale, and it only took one jump for Bianca to find herself on the other side. To her left were the manors, but to her right was a sight she took in graciously. From the cliff she could see out over the sea for hundreds of miles. She could see the port filled with busy workers and the town brimming with activity. It was a spectacle to behold.
"Pity this view is wasted on these fat cats." She spat.
Everything about this situation annoyed her. Despite not knowing the full story yet, Bianca knew that where there were nobles there was trouble. They took the best of everything for themselves, and left the scraps for everyone else; if they ever left scraps that is. She remembered how Saint Adalgo and his ilk would treat everyone in town like servants back home. And everyone was forced to go along with it or else they could lose their lives. She had seen that happen too.
It may not have been the same as taking revenge on Adalgo himself, but Bianca would take great satisfaction in ruining the days of even the lesser nobles.
The nearest manor was the smallest. A vibrant, purple home, but it was clearly different from the rest. It was dwarfed by the structure next to it, a red manor covered in windows from top to bottom. The manors only got bigger from there, but Bianca knew she wouldn't have time search them all. With a careful hand she pointed at each one in turn.
"Eenie meenie miny mo." She counted off.
Her hand landed on the second largest manor. It was a massive, four story home painted a luxurious gold that seemed to radiate sunlight. Bianca could tell that whoever lived there had expensive tastes, which meant they had just what she was looking for. Of all the homes, the two largest were the most likely to have slaves if any of them did, and Bianca knew at least one of them would.
With exaggerated stealth she rounded the building until she reached the back where she located an open window on the second story. With a moderate jump she managed to grab onto the windowsill and pulled herself inside.
When she landed inside, unceremoniously on her butt of course, she heard the tiniest of terrified squeaks. Standing up, Bianca looked around for the source of the noise. She was a little tall, but she didn't expect to have to look so far down to find her target. The noise had, apparently, come from a little girl covered in dust which Bianca assumed had come from the various surfaces she had been cleaning.
Around this little girl's neck was an iron collar with a rather strange device attached to it. Bianca knew the device all too well. A bomb collar. The insidious devices were meant to explode should the slave attempt to escape. Following the length of chain attached to it, she could see that it was attached to a wall not too far away giving the girl only about ten feet of movement away from it. Any further and the pins would activate causing a rather gruesome event.
Bianca held a finger to her lips and got low to speak to the girl.
"Hey there. You seem like you're not having very much fun." She whispered.
The girl seemed scared, but not utterly terrified. She had only been recently made a slave so there was still a spark of freedom in her heart. All the same, she was wary of the stranger.
"No ma'am, I am having fun. Cleaning is what I do because I love to clean." She mumbled back.
Bianca sighed. The girl was clearly afraid of wrath from her masters or any like them if she spoke out against her work. She had seen the same thing too many times.
"You don't have to be scared, kid. I'm not one of them. I promise, I'm not going to hurt you." Bianca said.
The girl seemed to relax for a moment, but tensed up soon after. Her eyes became suspicious.
"What are you doing here? Are you a thief?" She questioned.
Bianca took a moment before nodding. "Yes, I am a thief."
The girl backed away slightly, but the sound of her chain tightening stopped her in her tracks. Bianca quickly held up her hand as a sign innocence.
"I'm a thief who steals illegal things from bad people. And right now, I'm here to steal you and all your friends so I can set you free." She said.
The girl looked at her in disbelief.
"B-but you can't set us free. You'll get in trouble." She whispered loudly.
Bianca shrugged as if it was no big deal. The girl's jaw dropped to the floor. Who was this woman?
"Trouble isn't something I'm worried about." Bianca said. "I'm a pirate after all."
The girl looked at her as if she had gone crazy.
"You don't look like a pirate. And pirates don't help slaves." She said.
Bianca huffed. "What would you know about pirates? You're just a kid."
Despite the seriousness in her voice Bianca was still smiling. She offered her hand out to the little girl. After a moment of tension the girl took her hand. Bianca pulled her closer with a gentle tug, and she took another look at the collar. It was very sophisticated, and she was neither a bomb maker or a locksmith so the options of defusing the collar or picking the lock were out of the question. She also didn't want to break it open. Sure, she was strong enough thanks to her special abilities, but she wasn't sure how long it would be before the device detonated or if she could pull it away in time. There was also the noise to consider. Only one option remained.
"Tell me, kid, do you know where I can find the keys to this thing?" Bianca asked.
"Alice." The girl said.
"Pardon?" Bianca said, puzzled.
"My name is Alice." The girl said. "I figure if you're really going to free us then you won't mind if I use my name."
Bianca looked at Alice with a sort of pride. She tussled the child's hair with her palm.
"Of course I don't mind." Bianca said. "Good on you for using your name. Don't ever let people take who you are from you."
The girl seemed both shocked and happy, as if she had expected something else from the supposed pirate. She then pointed down a flight of stairs just down the hall.
"The man who owns us has an office on the third floor. It has big doors, but no one else knows what's inside. I bet he keeps the keys there." She said.
Bianca nodded. "What about the others? Do you know where they are?" She said.
"They're all over the house, but some of my friends are in the basement. That's where the master keeps them when he is upset." Alice said.
Bianca wanted to shout in rage, but she kept herself in check.
"Alright," She said as she let go of Alice. "I'm going to go get those keys. You stay here and keep cleaning as if I was never here, but I'll be back."
Alice hesitated before nodding. Bianca knew that the girl partly expected her to never return, but she would just have to prove her wrong.
