If I ever told my father that I was involved with the Night Walkers, there would be no good way to describe his level of anger. While most of us in the Lower Quarter secretly rooted for them to successfully steal from the rich, my father always grumbled about how stealing was wrong under all circumstances.
So when I snuck out of the house to meet up with the Night Walkers, I had to be extra careful not to wake him up. He was usually a heavy sleeper, but it was always a good idea to leave nothing to chance.
When I got to the meeting place, I was met with several glares as I was the last to arrive and had put them behind schedule. There were a dozen of us in total. While there were several different Night Walker groups, they were only loosely associated with each other. They knew which houses the others would be hitting that night so that no one encroached on another's territory.
My faction would be splitting into even smaller groups of three people tonight since we were going to steal from four houses. Being the new girl, I was going to have to be the one to pull off the theft as it was considered "grunt work."
I thought it would have made more sense to let the more experienced person steal the stuff as they would have a better chance of not getting caught. However, I kept my opinions to myself as I didn't want to get kicked out of the Night Walkers before I even joined.
The other two would be in charge of keeping watch. One of those two was my friend and connection to this particular faction of the Night Walkers. Isabel and I had grown up together since her father started his bakery right across from my father and me.
"Hey, Elara, are you ready to go?" Isabel asked me, her brown eyes filled with concern and her head tilted. She wore a shirt, pants, and mask, all black as we were supposed to blend into the shadows as best as we could, hence the name Night Walkers.
"Yeah, I'm ready. I'm just jittery since this is my first time," I replied.
Isabel nodded. "There's nothing to worry about. The guards are all too incompetent to notice what we are doing and we never steal too much. That way the rich bastards won't have any clue we stole from them and we can take from them again in the future."
"How do you know they won't notice?" I asked.
"We've been doing this sort of thing for years. Only one Night Walker has ever been caught, and he only had a loaf of bread that he had stolen," Isabel said.
I let out a prolonged exhale, unaware until that moment that I had been holding my breath. I couldn't risk getting caught. If I did, my father would surely lose the shop and we would be without a home.
"We meet back here to divvy up the haul once we are done. Understood?" Walter, the leader of our group, said, his eyes going from person to person to ensure we did as he commanded. He towered over the rest of us and had enough strength to take on three fully grown men. If someone got on his bad side, they wouldn't wake up for several days. Naturally, he had risen through the ranks within the Night Walkers quickly.
We all nodded in confirmation and went our separate ways. There was no chit-chat between my group. We were on a mission and talking would only lead to distracting us from the target. I could still feel my heart beating in my chest, but it was best if I kept it to myself. I didn't want to give the Night Walkers a chance to second guess having me join as they might think I was too much of a coward.
After about an hour, we came to the crossing point between the Lower Quarter and the Upper Quarter, which were separated by a wall that stood at fifteen feet tall. It was made of a dark cobblestone that seemed to blend into the night. It provided the perfect cover for us to sneak over it and into the Upper Quarter.
Simon, the third person in my group of three, removed a grappling hook from the sack he was carrying and started swinging it around. He released it after a couple of swings and I watched as it flew towards the top of the wall. I heard a clink as it made contact with the top and saw it sitting snugly in one of the crevices.
Simon tugged on it a few times to ensure it was secure before he started scaling the wall himself. Isabel followed closely, and I climbed up it last. Once the three of us reached the top, Simon pulled the rope attached to the grappling hook up, wrapped it up, and put it back in his sack.
As I took in my first sights of the Upper Quarter, my mouth hung open. The riches were incomparable to that of the Lower Quarter with the fancy cloaks the people wore and the feasts I spotted through open windows. The roads were all lit with the candles in the street lights. The palace, which I had only seen snippets of, was a glimmering gold that looked like a sun at night. How this was possible was something that I didn't know.
A couple of the houses were built right up to the wall, so we lowered ourselves down to the top of them and laid flat as to not be spotted. I glanced at Simon to my right, the anticipation for what came next growing with each breath I exhaled.
Finally, Simon said, pointing to a building down the street, "That house with the roof that towers above the rest is our target tonight."
I did a quick sweep of the street. There were a couple of drunkards having a hearty time in one of the taverns where I heard a minstrel playing. Unlike in the Lower Quarters, there wasn't a single guard in sight. This confirmed what they had previously told me, but it still didn't make much sense to me. Maybe there was less crime in the Upper Quarters.
Sticking to the shadows as best I could, I made a mad dash to an open window on the house's first floor. Isabel and Simon moved a lot more fluid and were able to do so without making a sound. Maybe it would be better to let them go first so I could learn from their example.
Isabel peeked over the edge of the window to confirm no one was inside. She nodded at Simon, so he boosted me into the house.
I scanned the room that I was now standing in. There was a fire going in the hearth against one of the walls. Tapestries filled with vivid colors hung on all of the walls. The floor was made of some sort of smooth stone that felt nothing like the bumpy ground in my home. There was a large table with a dozen chairs around it. Any guilt I had of stealing from these people vaporized in an instant.
"Elara, there should be jewels and gemstones on the second floor on one of the desks. Take only a couple of them and come back out as fast as you can. If we see anyone coming, one of us will let out a loud whistle," Isabel said.
I nodded and scurried up the stairs, praying that nobody was home.
The gods must have been looking down on me because I was the only person on the top floor. Another hearth illuminated the room, so I looked around for the desk Isabel had mentioned and found one against the far wall. I ran over to it, practicing my ability to be as silent as a mouse.
A bejeweled box sat on top of the desk. I was half tempted to take the box with all the jewels and gems inside of it, but decided against it. Not only would the theft be discovered, I would probably get kicked out of the Night Walkers.
I opened the box and saw all the colors of the rainbow in the form of these jewels. I stood staring longer than I should have because the next moment I heard a whistle and then the front door opening from downstairs.
Panicking, I grabbed a purple gem and a lovely necklace before I slid under a bed that was close by. I heard a male and female voice talking as the stairs began creaking, signaling that the owners of the house were coming up to bed.
The woman was the first to come into the room, followed closely by a man I assumed was her husband. "What a fun night that was. I haven't seen Grace in such a long time," she said.
Her husband grunted in agreement. "Did you hear what Robert said about the oldest prince?"
"No, what did he say?"
"Apparently he isn't too thrilled to be the future king. He's been caught sneaking into the Upper Quarter several times in disguise," the man said.
The woman clucked her tongue as she took a seat at the desk and began removing her jewelry. "I've always felt bad for those born into situations they don't want to be put in."
I heard her open the box and let out a soft murmur. "Lionel, have you seen my favorite necklace?"
Lionel, who had grabbed a book and climbed onto the bed, mumbled, "I thought you wore it tonight."
"No, did you even look at what I wore to the party?" she asked, a tinge of hurt in her voice.
"Yes, dear. You were very beautiful tonight," Lionel mumbled again.
I didn't know this "Lionel" very well, but he didn't sound like someone I would want to be married to. I got the impression that he wasn't very appreciative of his wife. However, this conversation was bound to work to my advantage as it was about to spark a fight between them, making the woman forget about her necklace, and possibly having them leave the room so I could sneak out the second story window.
Just as I had predicted, after a few minutes of arguing, Lionel decided he had had enough and began walking down the stairs. He told the woman that he was going to the tavern, to which she got up and chased after him.
Once I was sure they weren't coming back up, I scurried out from under the bed and ran over to an open window. I looked down and saw a cart of hay parked underneath it. To the sides of it, Isabel and Simon were looking up at my position. Once they saw me, the motioned for me to jump out of the window and into the cart.
So, bottling up my fear as best I could, I leapt out. It must not have lasted too long, but it felt like an eternity on the way down for me. The wind whipped in my ears, and I felt my stomach doing summersaults as I flew down. Finally, I made contact with the hay, causing it to make a crunching sound.
"Move it," Isabel hissed at me.
Fear gripped my throat as I became afraid someone had seen me. I scrambled out of the hay cart and almost landed flat on my face.
Isabel and Simon were already sprinting back to the wall, so I attempted to catch up to them. But something stopped me before I got very far. I couldn't explain it, but I could feel someone watching me from behind, their eyes calling me.
I slowly turned and a few houses down stood a tall boy who looked to be about my age. He was partially hidden by the shadows casted by the surrounding buildings, so it was hard to see exactly what he looked like. I could make out his muscly figure as well as his long hair. He was wearing something I would expect a Lower Quarter peasant to have on: a green tunic and white pants. Maybe he was one of the nobles' servants?
Before I could take anymore of him in, I saw guards walking my way down the street a ways. So, not wanting to be caught by them, I began sprinting to the wall again.
That's when I noticed my hood had fallen off. Crap! The boy must have seen what I looked like. I prayed to the gods that he didn't turn me in.