Chapter 6: Stealing from the Assassins guild

All day the talk was about the deaths of Earl Garlan and Duke Sargonet. They had found the note and the Imperial Ambassador had announced that someone had returned the Imperial Seal. The guards were also talking while eating in the inn. They had found the two dead assassins and whispered that they had been high ranking in the guide by the knots found on their tunics.

I was tired all day and managed to catch a few cat naps before evening. The inn was busy until late and I was finally allowed to go to bed. I had no intention of going to bed and changed into my dark clothing and carefully put weapons into place. Tonight’s work was going to be difficult, possibly very dangerous.

Everyone knew where the assassins guild was. It was at the very edge of the city, next to the outer wall. I moved through the shadows slowly and seemed to only drift along like smoke. I watched the guild house from a block away for almost an hour before I moved. I was silent as I moved to the wall and started climbing. Just below the top I stop and began to move along the wall.

It took twenty minutes of slow moving to come to a stop above the guild house. I made my way down and lightly stepped onto the roof. I went to a crouch and moved a couple of feet down the roof to a peeked window. I used a slim to unlock the latch and opened the window a couple of inches. I relaxed and just listened for almost ten minutes before opening the window and slipping in.

I waited in the dark for a couple of minutes and slowly moved to the narrow stairs down. It took me a minute to unlock the door and open it enough to check the hallway. I slipped out and locked the door behind me before moving to the stairs. The stairwell was poorly lit and I moved down carefully. I only hesitated on the first floor before going lower.

The hallway in the basement was a little better lit and I checked before stepping into it. Before I had taken a half dozen steps, a snake crawled out from under a door. I looked at it and my blood went a little cold as I realized it was an Asp. I knelt and used the leather wrapped hilt of a knife to start tapping on the floor. The Asp stopped moving as it felt the vibrations from my tapping.

It turned and headed for the nearest door and slipped under. I stood and started moving again, staying in the center of the hallway. I stopped after a single step at the way the next stone in the floor seemed wrong. I knelt and looked at the way it was raised on one side. I stood and moved around it before going further down the hall. Since I was now looking for things out of place I found the thin trip wire easily.

It took me ten minutes to get to the end of the hall. I had two more snakes come into the hall only to turn away at my light tapping. I examined the door very carefully before moving to the hinge side. I slipped a thin wire into a hole and heard a click before the door started opening. I peeked into the darkness beyond and pulled my dark lantern out.

I closed the door after me and started down another set of stairs. Before I reached the end of the stairs I could hear a loud slithering and came to a stop. I took a breath and unshuttered the dark lantern completely. I froze as I saw the floor wiggling and shifting. I shivered and looked around to see a staff next to the door. I went back up and grabbed it and started down slowly.

As I got closer I realized that these were regular snakes and not poisonous. I was still careful as I used the staff to reach out and move the snakes out of my way. There was only one door in the far wall and that was where I was headed. It took a few minutes to cross the floor and then I juggled the lantern and staff before I was able to pick the lock on the door and open it.

I had to keep moving the snakes out of the way as I slipped into the hall beyond and quietly close the door. There were only three doors in the hall and I rested the staff against the wall beside the first one. It was a simple lock with no traps. The room turned out to be a room with shelves of scrolls. I closed and locked the room before heading to the next room.

The door proved to be booby trapped and it took a few minutes to figure it out. I pick all three locks and waited until I heard the click before standing to the side. I opened the door and waited a minute before going in. There was a huge desk in the center of the room and I walked around it. I looked at the letters on top and then carefully opened the top drawer. I stared at the coiled Asp and moved slowly to pick up a long wooden ruler. I was able to reach in from the side and trap the snakes head with the ruler. I held the snake behind the head and looked in the drawer.

There was a single letter with a broken seal. I picked up the letter and carefully replaced the Asp. I held its head with the ruler while releasing it and then closed the drawer before it decided to come after me. I looked at the seal and then opened the letter and read it. It was from the king’s brother and heir.

It was telling the guild to convince Duke Sargonet to arrange the theft of the Imperial Seal and kill the Imperial Ambassador. He was to make a trade agreement and seal it with the Imperial Seal. As a condition to the sealed agreement, the Emperor’s ward was to be promised to the King’s brother in exchange for the trade concessions.