The Thieves Guild
by Jake Kerr.
Episode 136.
Thieves are more at home in the sewers than rats.
The journey was brisk, but awkward and silent.
Raylan had made a few efforts to start a conversation, but each time Rebecca
tersely shut him down. He finally gave up after an exchange that made
him feel bad. "So you are Pietro's granddaughter?
Who are your parents?"
Before Rebecca could reply, he remembered her mentioning that she had been to the Thieves
Tower and barreled forward. "Were your parents thieves in Ness or Gautland
citizens?"
They're dead.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up any painful
memories."
They're not painful.
They died when I was little.
Oh, okay." And with that awkward close, Raylan
decided to just focus on the gentle canter of Callisto and
Rebecca's magnificent horse, whom she had named Brownie.
They made good time and the ride along the paved road was nothing more than a
gentle clip-clop, clip-clop.
Raylan's mind began gravitating to the things that had been bothering him, but he
hadn't had much time to ponder. The first was Pietro.
Why did he have a cell or a room in Gautland?
He clearly had power there, if not power tempered by fear of him.
Pietro also wanted to open the trade routes.
But the more Raylan thought about Pietro's efforts, the more they fell apart.
If he really wanted to open the trade routes, he should have been using politics,
not creating some shadowy populous.
His efforts were undoubtedly good. He fed the hungry and took care of
the poor, but the more Raylan thought about it, the more he realized his efforts
were woefully incomplete. The truly hungry were the people of
Gautland who faced starvation if the weather led to a poor harvest.
Yet Pietro lived there. What was he doing?
And how much did Pietro know anyway?
Rafe had uncovered the history of the Magic Guild and the Thieves Guild in Pietro's
own books, books which were mostly purged of the guild's history.
Did Pietro do that? And why?
The more he thought about Pietro, the more Raylan had become convinced that Pietro's
goals were not actually opening the trade route to Gautland.
He had bigger plans, but didn't seem to know how to achieve them.
But what were those plans?
And that led him to Rebecca.
She sat straight and elegant in the saddle not six feet away.
A slight sheen of sweat shone on her face as she stared ahead, her face
intensely focused on, what?
It was in staring at Rebecca that he realized something.
She wasn't as old as he thought she was.
She was hard, and serious, and dismissive,
even regal,
and all those things made her seem older.
But in the glow of the sun and watching her lithely manage Brownie, he realized
she was perhaps even just a few years older than him.
Did she even know Pietro?
He was very old and he'd lived in Ness for as long as Raylan could remember.
When had he been back to see Rebecca?
Did he even spend any time with her at all?
And that's when Raylan realized what was driving her.
She didn't know anything. Pietro had left her behind or forgotten her in
his mysterious mission, whatever it was.
She was doing the same thing Raylan was doing, trying to figure out what
Pietro was trying to achieve.
Even her earlier questioning of Raylan on this topic touched upon little more than
vague terms. She clearly felt that the books were the key to
figuring everything out, and perhaps they were.
But Raylan couldn't help but think that they were missing something important.
He wondered if Alard would have any ideas.
Raylan was about to ask Rebecca a blunt question about Pietro's goal in
building the Thieves Guild when she held out her right arm and reined Brownie
back. Raylan pulled back on his reins and stopped.
"What is it?"
We will cross the river here. It is shallow enough.
"But the gate is on this side of the river."
And so is Wilhelm's forces.
I want to avoid the battle, if not the field of corpses.
She clucked and pulled Brownie toward the river.
Raylan quickly caught up. "But how will we enter the city?"
Rebecca looked at Raylan like he was a dumb child.
"By the Black Gate, of course. You're the guild master.
I would assume they would let you through."
Raylan would have retorted, but he had another answer to one of his ever-increasing number of
questions. Rebecca was definitely familiar with Ness and the Thieves
Guild.
Raylan was familiar with the landscape.
He had traveled over these hills several times from the Black Gate.
He had learned his lesson earlier and just let Callisto choose the best way.
He and Rebecca were making surprisingly good progress when she once
again held up her arm. Raylan pulled up and trotted over to her.
"There are forces ahead."
Raylan peered toward Ness, the wall now clearly visible in the
distance. To their left was the great river, which was wide and fast
at this point,... he could see dust and movement near what he assumed was the great
gate.
"Yes. As you noted, Vilhelm is attacking the city.
I doubt he will see much resistance with the Rangers far to the north."
Raylan wasn't sure how he felt about that.
He rather liked Vilhelm, despite him attacking Ness and imprisoning
him.
The Crown of Gautlan seemed earnest and noble, so unlike the guild
masters of Ness.
"Not there."
Rebecca pointed to her left, and then swept her hand to the right.
"There."
She was right. There was movement and dust swirling near the wall outside the
old quarter.
"Do you think-"
"Do I think the thieves are attacking Vilhelm from behind? Why, yes.
Yes, I do."
Rebecca had a smile on her face as she said it.
"But the Great River will block them."
"They seem to think differently."
Rebecca turned to Raylan with a huge smile on her face.
"Shall we go find out?"
And without even answering, she kicked Brownie in the side and started to canter
over the uneven terrain, toward the junction of the plains and the southern
side of the Great River, the river Raif called the Dragon's Tear.
It was astonishing to Raif.
He couldn't help but marvel at the magical view from the Guild Master terrace on the
Black Tower.
He could see the Harvest Guild members rushing across the great bridge to meet the
Outlanders just inside the great gate.
He could also see the smaller but much better-armed force in black rushing out
of the black gate and heading along the wall.
When Mio had rushed in and shouted that the Outlanders were attacking, Raif had no
idea what to do.
He was a librarian, a historian. What did he know about guild
defenses?
Luckily, Philos took control.
Raif had never been able to figure out Philos.
He was simply the bodyguard for the Guild Master, but everyone respected him,
and no one gave him commands. He was this beacon of stability
housed in a body that would have given Alard, or the night deputy guild
master, pause.
Assistant Guild Master, if I may?
Raif waved him to the table where Mio and Raif had sat down.
The exhausted Mio was downing glass after glass of water.
Philos remained standing.
"The Rangers are overrun, or have moved north.
We don't seem to know."
He looked at Mio.
"We do not. I have my suspicions that they have gone to join the Harvest Guild."
"That makes sense. Then we are Ness' only defense."
Philos started to pace.
"We have enormous numbers of Harvest Guild members who are angry and wanting to defend
their homes. I recommend we arm them with whatever we can, clubs,
pitchforks, knives, swords. Hell, give them broomsticks.
We send them off to face the Outlanders.
Mio, you said the force is mighty, but not overwhelming?"
"Yes. The Harvest Guild members we are housing outnumber them easily."
"Then let's send them into battle. We will be honest, of course, and tell
them that many may die. But we will also tell them that, unlike before, they can defend their
homes with no traitors sowing discord."
"It will be bloody."
"That's not all."
Philos stopped pacing and looked at Raif and Mio.
"We'll send all of our guards and Black Knights out the black gate to attack the
Outlanders from the rear.
We are well-armed and have horsemen. Their leaders will also be in the back.
If we hurry, we may be able to crush their will and forces with a quick strike."
"But the river is between the black gate and the wall."
Raif felt bad that he was bringing up the most obvious flaw in Philos' plan.
Philos smiled widely and looked at Mio.
"Do you want to tell him?"
Mio nodded.
"Let me just say that the saying that 'Thieves are more at home in the sewers than rats'
has some truth to it."
(dramatic music plays)
(bubbles popping)
A Podcast Alchemy production.