Chapter 7

Garrett looked around the small cavern in disgust. Created from a geological fissure, its rough stone walls made sinister gargoyles in the candlelight. The torches themselves flickered as water dripped from the low ceiling onto the solitary holder. The floor was a rough carpet of moss, which did nothing to make the jagged stone beneath it any more comfortable to lie on. From further down the tunnel, in the inky blackness, he could hear the sounds of venomous spiders, their legs clicking as they hit stone. Occasionally he would hear low hisses as two spiders met, and once he had even heard a death cry as one spider was defeated by another. Giry sat on the straw, leaning against the opposite wall, his attention focused on the pitiful collection of necessities he had managed to obtain. His bedroll had been folded into a neat collection of folds, on top of which lay a rusty cooking pot and a collection of broken and bent eating utensils.

He shifted, and looked at Garrett. The two had come down here after dark, Giry with his possessions and Garrett with the key. A few hours rest had cured Giry, and the additional healing option had helped. The apothecary that Garrett had broken into had yielded only two potions - the rest of the potions there had been for people who were charitably known as 'ladies of negotiable affections'. He had made enough money from the job and from picking pockets to afford the key, and the maintenance worker had been happy to exchange a copy of it for the bulging purse. Looking around, Garrett privately thought that the worker had profited the most from the deal. Only the most desperate of felons would live down here. He needed to obtain some money, to purchase equipment and to afford reasonably civilised lodgings. He also wanted to get proof of his skill for Cutty, something other than a letter the fence would contemptuously toss aside. Garrett's time with the Keepers had taught him how to keep his emotions in check, but his time on the streets and his departure from the order had meant that he had forgotten these lessons. He wanted to get back at Cutty, to prove that he was truly worthy of Cutty's skills as a fence. However, with no equipment, no money, and no leads, he was in a decidedly disadvantageous position. Giry would be no help - the man was too much of a coward - and did not possess enough money to make stealing from him desirable.

This was until Giry started talking about his time in the opera house. The torch still burnt in his holder, as he talked to both himself and Garrett about the opera house. The building was a veritable maze, full of twisting corridors, forgotten rooms, and secret passages that were only known to some of the staff. The previous owner, Raoul, had not trusted the opera cast, and had withheld the knowledge of the passages from them. Garrett was listening at this point, taking in the information in the event that he would ever find it necessary to pull off a job there. It seemed unlikely, for Giry said that the floors were mainly of loud tile, the lamps frequent and inextinguishable, and the guards numerous. The subject of the opera cast had opened up a new road for Giry's conversation, and Garrett was forced to listen as the man talked on about the affairs of the cast, and the secret messages that the Prima Donna had made him carry between her and her admirer. His last package had been bulky, and so heavy that he suspected it was something of immense value.

Upon hearing this, Garrett's interest in Giry's ramblings flared up. Sensing his attention, the other man went on about his secret journeys, the perfumed notes and mysterious strangers hidden in the damp fog that frequently covered the City. However, Garrett was able to direct the conversation back towards the subject of the bulky package, although at the cost of being assailed with gossip about the suspected courtiers of the Prima Donna. Garrett learnt that Giry had delivered the package directly to the woman, and had actually been inside her house. Apparently she lived in an apartment a short way from the opera house, preferring to live in her own accommodation rather than that which the opera house offered. The apartment had been small but elegantly furnished, with numerous momentos from previous courtiers. There were several large windows into the rooms, and Giry had seen a large decorative moulding that ran around the building at just below the base of the windows. He also said that there were few guards, and that the only people, other than the Prima Donna, who slept there were the housemaid and the cook.

Garrett settled back to think about what Giry had said. The bulky package could only have been a gemstone or something of similar value, and he had heard rumours that the Prima Donna had recently been given a rather valuable gift from a certain admirer. Judging from what Giry had said, the place was not well guarded, and the job would most likely be painless - and profitable.

That was the reason why Garrett found himself crouching on the window ledge of the apartment building several days later. The weather was steadily becoming worse, with more frequent fogs that sometimes lasted for days. He had profited well from this blanket of mist, the faint glow of the streetlights failing to illuminate him as he stole the pouches off of peoples belts. While he had considered such activities to be below his status as a thief, the money had been useful, and enabled him to equip himself with the necessary tools to return to Cutty with definite proof of his expertise. Garrett silently laughed - it would be best if Cutty never heard about the job at the library in Prisongate. Such failures were bad for one's reputation, and it meant that Garrett was now known to the Hammerites as a thief. While not enough to wreck a thief's career, most fences were unwilling to employ one who was already known and could be recognised.

The weather also caused biting winds that were funnelled by the tall buildings of the City into formerly sheltered streets. The gusts were infrequent but powerful, and he had had to exert extreme care in order not to end up on the streets. However, the wind did serve, to cover the sound of his footsteps. It would also cover the sound of his entrance. He did not expect the Prima Donna to leave the contents of the package unattended, but instead to hide it in a secret safe. After his experiences at Larnseng's Garrett was more knowledgeable about such safes, and conversation with Giry had increased his knowledge further on the ways in which levers and switches for such secrets could be concealed. He expected it to be in the bedroom of the opera singer, but could not rule out the possibility of it being somewhere else, such as the dining room. It would definitely not be in the servants rooms - the Prima Donna was, according to Giry, snobbish and had ambitions of nobility. Such people kept their valuables close to their heart, and far from their servants. This eliminated the possibility of hiding places there, and also in other rooms where the presence of the servants would be common, such as the kitchen.

Garrett crouched by the window to bedroom, and gave it an experimental tug. It slid open, but beyond the glass he could see the bed, and the Prima Donna in it. She stirred as the cold wind filled the room, and so he shut it and moved on to the next window, which led into the dining room and the lounge. This window moved equally easily, but this time there was no-one on the other side of it. It was foolish to leave the windows unlatched in times such as these, but, to be fair, no-one could have expected a thief to approach from the windows rather than the door, for there had been several guards patrolling the top of the roof. Now one lay unconscious, and the others lay with arrows in their bodies. Hopefully they would not be discovered until dawn, by which time he hoped to be far away.

He slid in through the open window, and then turned to stare at the room. It was opulently decorated, with a thick carpet and expensive wallpaper that was decorated with paintings. The paintings had been produced on the printing presses of the Hammerites, and so were identical to most of the others Garrett had seen. The ceiling was made of plaster, with small chandeliers that dangled on blackened chains. At one end of the room was a dining table with chairs set around it, all made of a polished wood that matched the carpet. At the end nearest Garrett were several couches and an armchair. Their colour likewise matched the carpet. However, this was not what drew Garrett's attention. By the dining table, and the shadowed alcoves there, he had just seen a shadow move. He was in shadow himself, concealed in the space below the open window.

He watched again, but the shadows remained stubbornly silent. He was about to draw his bow and arrow when suddenly the door from the Prima Donna's bedroom opened. The woman herself emerged, in a night-dress that was distinctly unflattering. She walked bare-footed across the carpet in the direction of the kitchen, leaving the bedroom door shut behind her. Then, as she disappeared, the shadow she had just passed moved. Garrett could make out the shape of a cloaked figure as a man who must surely be a rival thief moved towards the bedroom door. The shadow paused at it, testing the handle to see if it was locked.

Garrett needed the loot from this job, and was not prepared to let anyone else deny him of it. As the rival thief moved to open the door, Garrett pulled out a bow and arrow, and drew back the string. The rustle of cloth and the creak of the wood alerted the man, whose silhouette changed as his head swung about inside his hood to track the source of the noise. However, that was his last conscious motion, for the arrow buried itself deep inside the thief's heart, piercing skin and muscle to puncture the organ. The thief made a gargling noise as the arrow pierced the lungs as well, which began to fill with fluid, as he dropped to his knees and then fell forward to the floor. He raised his hand, as if in mute appeal, but then the shortage of oxygen and blood made it drop, and the corpse lay still on the elegant carpet.

The whole process took no more that a few seconds. Stowing his bow, Garrett got up and ran to the corpse. The blood stained the carpet, making it wet and soft. He cursed softly - neck or head shots usually released little or no blood, and resulted in a quicker death. However, there was nothing to be done. He carried the body to where he had been hiding, and concealed it in the shadows there. He stepped up, and opened the door, but then heard the sound of footsteps returning, the sound muffled by the carpet. Garrett threw himself into a shadow by the door as the woman returned, holding in her hand a plate of bread and cheese. She paused suddenly, seeing the open door and window, and stood there as if considering whether she had opened them herself. Then, she shook her head in dismissal, and began to make her way back to the bedroom. On the way her feet encountered the blood. The Prima Donna stopped in shock and horror, releasing the tray so that it fell with a quiet crash onto the carpet. She looked down at her feet, and made as if to scream. Garrett tensed in anticipation, his blackjack out and ready.

Then, the woman ran into the bedroom, leaving the door open and thus allowing Garrett to look through into the bedroom. The room was decorated in the same style as the living room, but with a wooden floor instead of a carpet for one. The footfalls of the Prima Donna hit the floorboards with dull thumps as she rushed to a bookcase in the room. Pulling a book from the shelf and tossing it aside, she reached behind it and appeared to work something. Nothing happened for a moment, and then there was the dull grind of working machinery as a section of the wall slid inwards, to reveal a hidden safe. The woman rushed over to it, and anxiously peered in. Her hand entered it and then withdrew, bringing with it a large object wrapped in brown cloth. She clutched it to her, and her face showed signs of pure relief. She then turned around to prepare to put the mysterious package back in the safe.

In the shadows, Garrett smiled. She had done all of his work for him. While her back was turned away from him, he slipped out from the shadow and walked towards her. His blackjack was raised over his head, in preparation for the swing that would knock the woman unconscious. However, his feet impacted on the floor with faint thumps, and as it creaked under the weight the Prima Donna turned round, her mouth open and preparing to scream.

With no time to think Garrett rushed forward and swung the weighted club at her head. She tried to dodge but it hit her by her right temple, the lead lining giving lethal weight that knocked her to the ground. He body fell with a loud thud, as Garrett stuffed the blackjack onto his belt, and stepped forward. He picked up the fallen woman, and made his way to the bed, staggering under the weight. Although physically fit, he was small and thin, as befitted thief, and was ill suited to carrying heavy weights. He eventually reached the bed and threw the body onto it, then arranging the sheets to make it look as if the woman had fallen asleep. The deception done, he turned to look at the package that the Prima Donna had just put back into the secret hiding place. The object was not as big as he had been led to believe, being only the size of a small box. It was swaddled in thick, coarse brown cloth, and tied securely with string. The string was curiously knotted in an elegant fashion that contrasted ludicrously with the obvious crudity of the rest of the wrapping.

Garrett withdrew from his pocket a sharp knife and cut through the string, allowing it to fall to the floor. He never normally brought such knives with him, for the blades were thin, and thus weak, making them liable to snapping if a struggle ensued whilst they were being used on a target. The cloth, released from its restraint by the removal of the string, fell open. Garrett's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at what lay within. There, nestled in the fabric, lay the very treasure box that Larnseng had had stolen from Ramirez, and which Garrett had taken from him. The silver birchwood box lay there in the folds of cloth, the lion-paws of the base still clutching their crystal globes. Garrett had sold the box to a pawn-shop that was known to deal in stolen goods. He had been cheated on the deal, reinforcing his desire to find a fence, but the money had been necessary to pay the rent and other miscellaneous expenses. However, he had heard rumours that Lord Bafford had enquired after the full-size version. He had dismissed them as mere rumours, but now he wondered whether there was not a grain of truth in them. If it was so, then the box might also have come from Bafford, for the sum of the set was worth much more than the two separately. That would make Bafford the Prima Donna's admirer, and situation that would bring a sizeable amount of embarrassment to him of it was made known. However, all of the proof that Garrett had was mere conjecture - there could be a simpler explanation.

Dismissing the thoughts of blackmail from his mind, Garrett considered what to do with the treasure box. It would definitely be sufficient proof for Cutty, due to the fact that only one was known to exist. It would also pay for more equipment, and of course the rent, until Cutty could direct more lucrative jobs his way. Making his decision, Garrett wrapped the box back up in its protective fabric, and gently placed it in his loot bag. He then thrust his arm inside the safe to see if there was anything else left. His hand encountered only metal, and so he withdrew it and went over to the bookcase to close the safe. The hidden door slid shut with the dull grind of machinery, and Garrett went to the window to find his way back out. The Prima Donna had no loot which could be easily removed, and so Garrett was forced to console himself with the fact that he had the proof he needed for Cutty. The journey back to the roof and then to the street seemed easier than it had in the opposite direction, and once again a dark figure detached itself from the shadows, and made its way through the warren of streets in the City. Garrett had something to show a man. Cutty. And he had an inkling of where his next job would be.

Cutty turned the box over in his hands, staring critically at the fine workmanship. Unlike Garrett, Cutty had seen the actual, full-size box, and was aware of how perfect a replica of it this miniature was. The carvings alone had taken several months for the craftsman to complete, and Cutty had marvelled at the fine work as he stood over the unconscious body of the man, looting other items from his workshop. He had considered taking the partly-completed treasure box there and then, but had decided to allow the man to complete the small but perfect box, and then steal both the miniature and the actual piece. In the time between then a guard's sword had dashed that hope to pieces, and Cutty had despaired of ever seeing it again. His gaze lifted to the shadowed figure opposite him. Cutty still had suspicions about what had happened to his former watchman, but wasn't prepared to hold that against this Garrett. Not when he held an example of the man's obvious skill. "Well Garrett, I believe this remarkable box to be genuine. Might I inquire where you obtained this little trinket?" he said. "No, Cutty. Not until our business is concluded", said Garrett. Although projecting an aura of confidence and silent malevolence, he was in actual fact very nervous. If Cutty refused him his services, he would have nowhere else to go. Despite this, he was reluctant to give away any more information that he needed to. "Snap snap, Puppy" Cutty said, silently impressed at the man's silence. Few thieves could resist bragging about their jobs. However, it was also best to make sure they knew they were not invincible. "I admire your reluctance to divulge information. A most useful trait. However, I have heard that the Prima Donna of the opera house has recently moved to Cyric after being robbed at her house. Apparently Lord Bafford has also gone as well. A man who has enquired after the larger version of this little treasure. Does this involve you in any way?". Garrett's head jerked back inside the hood as he heard this. In the shadows it was barely noticeable, but Cutty had learned to see such things. He nodded his head, and spoke again; "Well, it is of no consequence. However, I must admit that I am most impressed with your acquisition of this piece. As a result, I am prepared to act as a fence for you."

Garrett slumped back in his chair in relief. Finally he was on his path to wealth and retirement. Releasing drawn breath, he said; "What will your cut be?". Cutty looked up, momentarily surprised by the mercenary nature of the question. "25 percent," he said "and that is on the more valuable pieces. For the smaller objects I can either take 50 percent, or direct you to some of the more...generous pawn shops. I am sure that you can interest them in whatever trinkets you bring". Garrett had hoped for a larger cut, but such things could be negotiated later. He brought his hand out, and Cutty shook it.

"Now, Garrett, what do you want for your first job?" Cutty asked as they sat back down "I am looking for someone to obtain for me a gemstone that I can have cut up and smuggled to Bohn. I can suggest a few places for you of which I have maps...". His voice trailed off as Garrett reached into his cloak and drew from it a roll of parchment, which he pushed across the table to Cutty. The fence picked it up, unrolled it, and found himself staring at the letter he had seen earlier, the letter Garrett had brought with him the first time he had met. Cutty looked up, and smiled at Garrett in delight. "Ah, I can see that you have an excellent sense of irony. Very well, Bafford's manor and the jewelled sceptre. Cloudstone gems are very much in demand. I can provide you with maps. I can see that this is to be the start of a very profitable business partnership." Across the table, in the deep shadows of his cloak, Garrett smiled.

He smiled again as he looked up at Bafford's manor, and then down at Cutty's maps. The main gate was far too exposed, but the fence had told Garrett that there was another way in, around to the side and more out of the way. Garrett looked back up, and then made his way towards it. It was time to begin.

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