Chương 314: 4.4

Robin considered what he knew as he sat in the gloom before sunrise. Working in cities was different from the road. But the important parts of the work remained the same. Listen and watch and don't go beyond what you could handle. Consider the sound of what was coming. Even if it was less literal. The Countess Wyrm of Viznove was not hunting them. Not actively at least. John had lived up to his word and bought the rest of the crew drinks after spending two nights out in the woods.

There had not even been a hint of the Countess, her black guards or the Mayor's men going after him. Which was not perfect proof, perhaps the Countess was a patient predator. But Robin didn't think so. Not from how people had talked about her around Kaeketeh. He mulled over his morning small beer from the ale house they had found lodgings in.

The proprietress was a kind widow who brewed a fine beer even when you watered it down for breakfast and had two rooms to spare for the sixteen of them at what He'd learned was an incredibly reasonable price. She also didn't ask questions when Robin took his breakfast with him before dawn. Or ask questions about just what it was his crew did for their coin. Robin thought half the reason was because of Bruiser. There were only two other waifs who lived in Light's End.

And they had gotten a bit of a celebrity reputation as some kind of exotic sort of performing sorcery in the eyes of the locals. The pair of them apparently had made a life of singing and dancing for their room and board across the town and were well liked across the entirety of Light's End from the heights of the arch to the depths of the docks. He snorted in the dark sipping his breakfast watching the sky slowly grow lighter out over the lands of the southern Ridgetails.

Bruiser was even more vicious than usual after she found out about that. Still it seemed the 'kinship' got them cheaper rates on account of the woman's delight at hosting " such a grumpy member of the little folk!" It was really quite funny how much that upset the shortest among his crew. John took a deeper draw of his breakfast and swallowed.

Watching the waters of the vah go from a lantern lit glittering black band to something nearing silvery as the sun's light preceded its way up from behind the Vault Mountains. The job was progressing well. They had the lay of all the rich merchant's guards and where they went to drink. When their shifts began and ended. When the merchant was sleeping in the house and when he spent the night in the brothels or visiting family elsewhere. He was technically a noble, a seventh son of the last mayor of Light's End.

But the word in the taverns was he made most of his silver in the fleet of seventeen cave sloops he commanded rather than any lands sworn to him. Well that and the fact that 'mysteriously' the usual fees owed for foreign or freedmen captains in Light's End were 'somehow' never paid by the man or his captains. Robin considered the situation. He might be a bandit but until they finished this job he had not stolen in all his life what this man seemed to take in above his peers in a year.

Did that make their mark an even bigger bandit? Robin wasn't sure but Bruiser had grumbled about how Tithe dodging was a crime. Which was a very bruiser thing to say. Funny how much the Waif seemed to know about the law for how readily she broke it. But then there was something about common versus noble law. Maybe it wasn't banditry for nobles. And besides it was not like Robin and his crew ever paid the proper tithe on any of the goods they offloaded in villages or cities either.

Still even if you counted that supposed debt Robin was pretty sure the weight of silver in the house to his left overshadowed every theft Robin and his crew ever made. So far. They had seen it when the man so carelessly flashed the shine of silver coins in a coffer being transported at the docks. Gwenieve had then tracked the guards. The whole crew followed that coffer into the city on its journey upwards. A trip ending in the upper town where Robin now was. Bruiser had found what house the money made its way too.

John and the rest of the crew had been watching everything that then left that house. Just a bit further upstreet from where Robin was waiting for the sunrise. Silver went into the building and even though it was a struggle to track for the days they had been painstakingly watching. With eyes at all hours just like Robin was doing he was now certain not even half of the coin left that house that went into it.

They would have been making a break into the building to ransack it tonight if the fortune damning stars had not intervened. But it was a good thing John had gotten spooked honestly. Even if it was over nothing. The Countess was still here. The Shining Wyrm of Viznove. And Robin had to do everything he could to keep Bruiser and the rest from routing in a panic. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

From spoiling what was going to be the biggest job they ever pulled. Their preparation was still solid. The lordling was still overconfident, his guards were still lax and they still left gaps at certain hours in the night. More silver and goods of worth were in that house than any of them had ever seen in all their years combined. Even Bruiser admitted that it was a bounty even she'd not laid eyes on before, even in the Capital. But they couldn't simply hide in the woods after now.

They couldn't do it as was planned. Not with the Countess in Light's End. No, Robin knew that Bruiser was right. They had to leave Viznove. But they couldn't just abandon such a juicy and easy job either. And that meant the job had to change. The orange gold light was touching on the very heights of the mountains now. The sky turning a dull blue of summer. The Vah curving out among the hills ahead and below him slowly taking on the color like a twisting serpent of polished silver. More work, more preparation.

Instead of slipping out the gates and into the wilderness they needed passage out of the city and county as one. Out of the Ridgetails Vault entirely. That meant finding a trustworthy captain of a cave sloop willing to have them. And arranging the pay and passage well before the job was done, which was going to be a trick. Especially without a little extra pickings to fill out their purses. Which Robin was pretty sure they could not afford to do.

If there were a string of sufficiently sizable thefts the real prize might get spooked. All the carefully scouted gaps in the watches could close. No Robin needed to find another way. The Job was already going to be more difficult than it had been. They would not only be dodging lazy watchmen who couldn't even keep a proper watch on the house and its treasure at all hours. No, with the Countess in town her black guards and the wyrm herself had to be avoided too. Planned around. Considered.

At least Bruiser would not be due to relieve him till noon. Robin was getting tired of the look she was giving him. The look was worse than words honestly. She'd not said anything on the matter of leaving since John came back from his stay in the woods. But what she had said then left him tangled up inside. Bruiser had taken Robin aside away from the rest of the crew and pulled her mask down!

The waif had gone bare faced and looked him in the eye with nothing but worry and an intensity to her eyes he'd never seen before. Not even compared to the fear when she begged him to flee from the Countess." Radomil, If the countess catches us, death will be the least awful thing she can do to us. The rest of the crew trust you to look out for them. But they don't understand this. Do you?" There hadn't been any arguments about continuing the job after that. No pleas to flee the city.

Bruiser didn't say anything about it at all after saying that last warning. Not that Robin exactly wants to stay here and pull this job off under the nose of a Dragon! Bruiser knew as well that he that they couldn't afford to just leave. If they could have gotten passage for the entire crew on what silver they had left Robin might have done it and left the job for someone else. There was no way all of them could get safe passage with what was left of their coin.

Not even if they had not spent a single hae pfennig since arrival to Light's End. He'd checked the costs, but more importantly Bruiser had checked the word around the docks on what happened to the desperate that booked passage on a cave sloop for prices that seemed too good to be true. Passage through the caverns of the deep waters was not like a river barge. If the captain went wrong you couldn't just jump off and swim to shore.

Even when there might be dry land in the dark there was no light to see by once you reached it. Even if you somehow smuggled a lantern, food and water with you from a cave sloop or its guided barges to a cavern shore? There was no assurance any tunnel you found would lead you back to sunlight. And if you somehow did find a path through the earth to a vault with sun? There was no assurance you wouldn't starve in the wilderness of a completely uninhabited vault. Nevermind the beasts which swam in the waters.

Guided Passage through the waters of the underlakes and deep rivers was a commitment of trust that did not come cheap. The captains of the sloops had a better hold on the lives of their charges then any jailer could dream of. The words of warning regarding less reputable ships were dire indeed. No he could not risk his crew, his brothers and sisters in arms to that fate. Especially not with the absolute king's ransom in silver they were going to be carrying with them after this job. Yet Robin had no choice.

This opportunity was too great to give up. And to do it they needed to escape into the dark waters past Light's End. It was the only safe way they could afford to exit the city without being caught, The only path out of the lands of Viznove where they could leave the Vault of the Ridgetails with the Countess Wyrm behind. The sun had just begun to break over the peaks of the eastern mountains. The line of golden yellow turning blinding white.

But how was he going to secure a place with a reputable cave sloop captain without an upfront payment? The only ones that had that kind of silver to spare were Nobles. Like the very one that his crew was planning to burglar for everything he was worth. Nobles and Merchant Caravans. Robin finished off his morning small beer with a deep pull at that thought. Watching the warmth of the sunrise from his perch in one of the high terraces of the city.

Enjoying the sparse warmth as finally actual sunlight touched his skin. Only the richer neighborhoods in the upper terraces of Light's End got much sunlight. In the tunnel of the deep docks some of the people here could go days only seeing its reflection off the water. The nobles got to have almost a full day of sun. He stood and stretched, soaking in warmth for the pre-dawn chill. That might just work. After all, Robin and his crew knew quite a lot about banditry on caravans.

Doing the opposite of that job should be easy. If he and Bruiser can work it out right they might even be able to get paid for getting out of this city with the riches of a lifetime. Robin would bring it up with Bruiser when she came by at noon. Until then he had to find an alley for his watch that didn't smell of piss.