Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 23

Tibs crouched on the roof, looking at the others, and only seeing shapes in the faint light Claria provided. Getting up there had been an adventure, with the constant worry the corruption in his essence would make a hand, arm, or leg seize up and cause him to fall to his death. The last time he'd had to take climbing a wall this slow was so long ago that he only remembered he had felt that same worry he experienced on this climb.

And the same wonder, once he stood on the roof, looking at the expanse of other roofs stretching further than he could see. That had been why he'd done it again and again, until going up a wall was as natural for him as walking along the shadows in an alley.

The wonder was diminished now; Kragle Rock wasn't a city, so the roofs ended, instead of vanishing in the distance, and he'd seen more wondrous things, like Water herself and the other elements. A mountain stretching so high he lost sight of it in the clouds, or could hardly see the streets and buildings as he looked down from it onto MountainSea.

The sea...

Bardik had mentioned his wonder at watching it, wanting to find out how far it went, what might be hidden there. Tibs understood that feeling. There was so much of it...

There was so much of the world.

Motion in the darkness.

Tibs focused on it, two roofs over. It was gone, lost in the deeper darkness, but he could sense the essence in the Runner, along with the golden tint to it: Tandy.

Except for Muller, the rogues Tibs had talked with had agreed to help him catch this thief that seemed determined to disrupt their quiet town. They'd taken turns watching the nobles' neighborhoods from the roofs.

The first thing they noticed were the guards the nobles had walking the streets. Mean-looking men and women in armor meant for combat, not for appearing respectable. Tibs had put on his best clothing and walked through the neighborhood to get a sense of them. Only one had an element, metal, and he thought she was Epsilon or Delta.

In the time they had been watching, the thief struck twice, and Blazer nearly caught them before being tripped and sent off the roof. He wasn't dead but hadn't woken since, and because of the abyss-cursed rules, no cleric would touch him until it was his team's time in the dungeon, and then only if the team brought his unconscious form.

Of course, they could pay for one of them to break the rules, even the clerics knew greed, but it wasn't like Tibs or the other rogues had the kind of gold a cleric would demand, so none of them had wasted time asking.

What the sightings, along with the information Tibs received from Harry on the previous theft, told them was that the thief struck every fourth night. So tonight, one of the houses would be broken into, so five of them were spread throughout the roofs, waiting.

* * * * *

Maybe the thief knew they were there and wouldn't strike. It was what Tibs would do, once he found out people were after him. Break the pattern, let them exhaust themselves searching while he planned. It wasn't like he'd be in a hurry if he only stole to hurt and disrupt the town.

He'd finally convinced Darran this thief wasn't someone deserving of being protected, and the merchant had asked around to the others like him, who weren't overly particular as to where an item had been obtained and told him that no one had bought anything that could come from a noble's home.

There was the possibility the thief took what he stole away through the platform to sell in a city. But with how expensive traveling that way was, it would take away a lot of the coins that could be made selling valuables.

And in Kragle Rock, if coins were the goal, there were better items to steal, especially from the nobles. Just one book would get him more coins than any painting done to have a way to look at their family.