Shadow Cat and Other Stories

The Lost King's Tomb

“Stop! Thief!” I weaved through the bustling crowds with gems stuffing my pockets and a golden amulet jingling in my hand. The metal bit my skin with its chill and I threw it over my head, smiling at the sound of it clicking on my neck.

“ Oi! Comin’ through!” I announced, ducking under baskets of winter vegetables, dodging civilians, and dashing through merchants’ tents.

“ He’s off that way!” A guard shouted as I snatched a dark cloak from an woman’s back. Wrapping it around me, I glanced back, taking my time to see three guards, and numerous others joining them, clank after me. “ Out the way!” I heard Duntius bellow angrily. A smile played on my lips. It was schadenfreude. He shoved through the crowd, knocking over crates of fruit and ripping down strings of salted meat, in furious pursuit. “ I said out the way!” 

The woman I had stolen the cloak from was knocked to the side with a cross “ ‘ey!” No one helped her. The peasants continued milling about the streets, minding their own, and paying no mind to the guards bustling through.

“ Get back here, street rat!” Duntius spat at me. My grin widened and I put the hood up on my purloined scrap of cloth. For sure, that woman had had nay a good harvest this year. I felt the chill of the frost-covered pavement numb my feet as they slapped down on the cobblestone in rapid succession.

“ Not a chance, Duntius!” I called back to him with a laugh. The men were moving slowly, but I wouldn’t be able to evade them for long. I searched for a way of escape, an advantage. My eyes flitted across the scene ahead of me as I continued to run. I found exactly what I needed, higher ground. 

With a sharp turn, I raced into a long alley and Duntius and his men charged after me. There were few people to block his way now and the guards were beginning to catch up. “ Faster than that, arentcha, Dunce-ius!” I yelled to him without a backward glance. He growled and I pictured his face turning bright red.

“ Get ‘im!” The portly man howled. I picked up speed and my bare feet began to sting as they smacked down on the cold stone. My escape was mere feet before me.

I grabbed onto the stone wall, scaling it with ease, like a spider would its web, and seized the shingled roof, hoisting myself up onto the building. Duntius yelled to his men, ordering them to climb after me. I skittered across the roof, enjoying the guard’s frustration and stuck my arms out, seeking balance. I hummed the tune I’d used to antagonize the man in the past and watched as I neared the edge of the slanted roof. Fortunately, snow had stayed off the building. My knees bent and I leapt from the rooftop. 

The cloak I was wearing flowed behind me and I grinned, thinking myself to look like some sort of grand crook. 

My feet hit the icy roof of the inn and slipped out from underneath me. A dry breath made me cough out a puff of air. I fell to the right and crashed down. The ice cracked and I slid down the roof of the inn. My hands shot out and clawed at the ice, trying to slow my fall. The frost screeched and I pulled my burning fingers back. “ Ay!” I slid off the roof crashing into the frost-laden pines below.  

The cloak caught on branches, ripping off bits of fabric, and the ground greeted me with a painful thud. I groaned and stood up, knocking my head on a snow-covered branch. The pile fell off and down onto my head. I shook my head as the snow melted and drenched me in bone-chilling water. The cloak was soaked. I wrung it out and shivered, a breath of frozen air gasping out in front of me.

“ I saw ‘im go this way!” A guard shouted and I whipped my head around. The collection of soldiers, including Duntius, had gathered in the street nearest to me. Shrinking back into the shadows, I crept into the street, skittering behind vendor’s stalls. My foot knocked a basket of apples and they went tumbling over into the street. I cursed to myself and looked up. A guard’s head turned and he caught sight of me. “ There!”

My feet slapped the ground in rapid succession. I didn’t bother to see if they were following. Turning a corner and racing through an alleyway, I pushed away the urge to grin at my deja vu. The castle was fast approaching and its crimson and ivory banners flapped in the swift winds with mocking indifference. I skidded ‘round the curve and found myself beside the king’s stronghold.

“ Hurry up you halfwits! He’s o’er that way!” Duntius yelled to his soldiers. I took a look backwards and realize I’d have to use the same trick again. With a powerful pushoff, I jumped towards the castle and landed on the frozen moat, my legs nearly buckling beneath me. I straightened and continued, hearing Duntuis’s frustrated shouts when the stout man realized he wouldn’t be able to cross with me.

I scaled the tower wall, as I had so many times before, and advanced up it quickly. Grabbing the narrow slit in the building’s wall, I pulled myself up onto the archer’s perch and then slid into the hole in the floor and descended on the ladder. I was inside the castle undetected.

A smile touched my lips. It looked like I’d easily pull off the rest of the heist. I heard the clanking of metal boots  on the floor and spotted the shadows of the king’s guards approaching me. With a silent curse, I ducked down. I dashed down the halls noiselessly and cracked open a window. Darting across the stone roofs and jumping down into the inner, but uncovered, circle of the castle, I began to realize my misfortune and look for a place to hide away.

I slipped into the gutter, sloshing through the sewers and letting my cloak drag in the foul liquid. Sliding out, I found myself in a different section of the courtyard and reentered the castle. The winding halls confused me and I quickly lost track of where I was. Opening the next door I saw, I went down a grimy set of stairs. Down, down, down, and soon lost track of time.

The air gained a penetrating coldness and pricked at my bare skin. I entered a chamber, abandoned to the destruction of time, thats floors were thinly coated in filth. The walls were made of somber gray stone and the ceiling was held up by equally dull, unembellished pillars.

At the back of the room was a canopy bed with sheer, tattered, red and white curtains that where the same hue as the banners flapping outside. Color-drained tapestries and carpets rested near the bed. The whole room would have had an ethereal beauty in its time, but it had fallen into disrepair. 

I stepped to the side of the bed and observed what lay on it carefully. A skeleton, still clothed in richly ornamented but neglected robes lay over a tattered cloth with a once-fine sword across his chest. I stepped back, realizing, where I was. I’m in a crypt. The thought raced through my mind. Alarm began to creep into me and I turned to go. I’m not supposed to be here. I have to go!

Suddenly, the amulet hanging ‘round my neck began to burn and tug. I heard a crack and the sound of centuries’s of dust falling and then settling. I turned ’round and watched the skeleton rise, gripping the blade in his fleshless hand. His sword came down and the dead king hissed, reaching out for the amulet ‘round my neck. “ Thief!” He spat and swung the rapier.