Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 56

Tibs froze as lightning illuminated the city. It only lasted a second, but he hoped it would leave spots for anyone who didn't have light as an element. He still couldn't take a chance an attentive guard might notice his darker form against the pale wall through that and the downpour. If not of how many roofs he'd had to run to reach The Brokerage, he'd have dressed in something lighter, but the city guards were more attentive to the roofs here, and many building had them posted there to watch over them.

Thunder sounded, deafening him, and he got back to work.

The window had more than the usual latch those this high up settled for. It had a lock, with false gates and tolerance so tight any thief attempting to pick it while hanging from the overhang would fail. The only way it could be more secure was to make it so the key needed to be enchanted, like those at his rooming house. But that would add to the enchantment that should already be protecting the whole building.

For Tibs, he was simply a question of willing the ice he had within the lock to push the tumblers appropriately, then turn, and the window pushed in quietly. It didn't disturb the strands of the weave still in place, since it was part of what they protected. The opening in that, from those pulled aside, was half as wide as the window.

Another flash of lightning froze him as in the process of pulling himself up. He suffused himself with earth, so he'd keep his body rigid when needed, twisted at the angle needed to pass through the gap in the weave. Once he was as far in as his hold allowed, he reached in, placed a hand on the stone wall, wrapped that in stone and moved fully inside. With a shove, undoing what held his hand and suffusing himself with air, he landed silently in the center of the room.

Well, it should be silent. Thunder sounded as he landed and his ears rang from it.

He gave himself six and zero heartbeats to ensure that, in spite of his caution, and the added cover of the thunder, no one had noticed his entrance. He closed the window and absorbed the water it had let in—he'd already, reflexively, kept himself from getting wet. Then set about the job.

Tibs had two jobs, one for Archer, the only one he needed to do, as far as the man was concerned, and the one for himself. The one that ensured Kragle Rock would no longer be bothered, even if the archer said the lack of coins would be enough.

The contracts documenting what Sebastian wanted done, as well as who the Brokerage had hired to make it happen, had been mentioned in passing, as part of Archer explaining how the organization worked. Tibs had to insist on answers to his questions to get the details.

Those papers were required for the work to be done. Most organizations used contracts. If one went missing, they no longer had a way to prove the work needed to happen. Archer knew where they were, and that Sebastian's contract as well as the ones for those hired would be kept together as part of how they were handled. But he told Tibs where only after he got him to promise the coins would come first, and that they wouldn't be jeopardized in attempting to get to the contracts.

Tibs had agreed, and found out the coins were kept under the building, while the contract stored two floors below him. The Brokerage had so many coins, Archer said, that they couldn't trust to the wooden floors to hold them. Tibs was dubious about it. Coins weighed little. He could hold a handful for hours without feeling it. Even a bag of them was hardly noticeable. Because he'd promised to get the coins first, it meant getting the contract on the way out.

He took off the dark clothing to reveal the set of better appointed ones he wore over his armor. Archer had wanted him to go in without it, since it made the clerk's clothing hang not quite right, but Tibs wasn't heading into the potential danger the job represented without protection he was comfortable wearing. He took a stack of papers out of its hiding place. Another spending he'd had to do, since clerks had papers. He'd written accounts from the previous weeks since those were the kind of thing the papers Tibs had seen within the guild building had.