A Cat, a Thief, and a Wizard

Late the next afternoon I scooted along the rooftops near the Booth family home. The blue thatch was solid beneath my paws and didn't feel like flimsy grass at all. My job was to hunt shadows and be a spotter.

The easy part was spotter. There were people in the streets doing afternoon people things. And among those people, there were no Skull dudes nearby.

I gave Owen an 'all clear' signal. He had his own job to do.

In an empty lot kitty-corner to Booth's place, there was a gaggle of kids playing. I made a note of each of them.

Hayfield played in the middle of the largest pack. He kept looking over at his younger siblings, like he'd been tasked with minding them. He was sort of minding them. He'd forget and not check on them for a while at times. He was more interested in a mock battle with other kids, mostly his age or just a little younger than him. He was the monster and was attacking the gang while they beat on him with skinny sticks.

I noticed there were almost no kids over ten in the gaggle.

Booth's next oldest sibling, the seven year old girl, had the two youngest with her. They were with a group that had an older girl, probably the oldest present at about twelve, teaching them letters. She had declared herself the teacher and the younger ones had to do whatever she said. They were singing an alphabet song while the 'teacher' drew in the dirt.

An old woman was seated nearby and would correct the 'teacher' when she messed up. The old woman didn't do anything to tame the violence in the other kids' games, even when one kid got punched in the face.

Almost none of the kids were wearing shoes. About half had coats. It was autumn and it was chilly. If I wasn't as fuzzy, I'd be able to feel it.

Whenever an adult walked by, the kids moved out of the way like a flock of pigeons, leaving a wide berth around the passing adult.

I didn't see Alley, the oldest. I also didn't see anyone or anything that would make me think there were ringers in that mob of kids. While one or more of them could rat on Booth's fam after the fact, I didn't see any that I thought would be running off when the others arrived.

Even still, I'd need to keep an eye on that.

I circled the block again, this time on the lookout for shadows. This bit was a lot harder. A shadow sparrow sitting perfectly still in an eve was nigh invisible. I was trusting my whiskers as much as my eyes to help me find them.

It turned out that my whiskers were useless. There were enough small enchantments around the area to mess me up. Light spells were tripping my whiskers. Not many buildings had them, but this area had been wealthy a long time ago and the formations were probably still functional in the houses that thrummed.

My eyes were not so useless. I spotted a pair of sparrows, just like what Duvessa used, sitting on a clothes line at the top of a window.

I needed to kill those shadows before they could fly away and warn their summoner.

The problem was that I was on a roof more than a paw's strike away, and the sparrows were on a thin piece of rope two storeys above the street.

'You're a cat!' they said. 'You can catch birds!' they said. Ugh. I've never hunted birds before.

I'm a liar. I hunted the chickens. But those don't count. They are fat and don't fly.

I don't fly.

I can jump though. And if I jump at those little birdies, I could probably swipe them both out of existence. Along with the clothes line. I will be landing on my face in the middle of the street below.

My tail lashed in irritation.

Did I have another option? I couldn't throw anything at them, because no fucking thumbs. I couldn't reach them from anywhere.

I gazed around. There was nothing I could see that I could use. The roofs here were thatch. Straw wasn't going to do anything to the shadows. I couldn't pull the line in because again, thumbs.

There were clothes hanging on the bottom line. Was there something I could do with them? I wracked my brain and came up empty. The stupid sparrows were out of reach.

Before I decided to do the only thing open to me, I took a wander and made sure there were only these two.

According to Duvessa, the summoner would only see what the shadows looked at. So watching the front door of Booth's house only left so many sight lines for possible shadows.

Ten minutes later I was back in my spot looking at them again, confident that I only had these two to worry about. Owen was all set with his job too, so I didn't need to do anything there.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I wondered if I could choose for my claws to not cut something. They were obviously magically sharp, and magic was heavily based on intent, so if I didn't intend to cut the clothes line, my magic claws shouldn't cut it, right?

I could only hope. I lined myself up and readied for a pounce. My back paws were positioning themselves for the needed spring, my tail lashing for balance, my ass wiggling, eyes focused on two shadow sparrows sitting side by side on the clothesline.

I pounced. My right claw passed effortlessly through the sparrows, dispersing both of them instantly. My left claw missed the clothes line and my elbow caught in someone's freshly washed underclothes, throwing me off balance. I grabbed for the clothesline with my right claws.

So, apparently intent doesn't dull my claws. Next thing I knew I was tangled up and headed to the ground. I managed to hit the ground with my feet downish, and got the wind knocked out of me. And somehow ended up with my head looking out the clawed open crotch of wet underclothes.

"Ticky!" I heard my nemesis scream.

No, no, no. I shredded the underclothes and ran (staggered) straight up (drunkenly crooked) the side of the house I'd fallen from. There were way too many kids. If I got caught now, it'd compromise the plan. I sprawled on the roof to catch my breath, and realized I didn't have time for such niceties. I immediately scanned for runners and did a count of who was nearby. Whew. We looked good.

Just in time too. Duvessa's coach was rounding the corner.

Seth stepped out of Duvessa's disguised coach in front of Booth's house. It wasn't terribly well disguised, but it didn't need to be. Mostly, it was just really dirty, and had the embossed raven design covered. Instead of shadow horses, two chestnut mares were harnessed in front.

Anyone who knew the carriage would recognize it, but it could fool someone who was not familiar with the Countess's coach. Regardless, Seth was confident it would work.

One of Duvessa's babysitters, the guy with the sword, was playing coachman. He didn't get down when they pulled up to Booth's building, choosing instead to mind the horses and keep an eye out.

From the lot across the way Booth's younger brother Hayfield came sauntering up with a friend. "Heeey there, mister," he called up to the babysitter. "You lost? I can git you unlost for a bit o' coin."

"I'm good, kid. Right where I need to be."

"You don't say," Hayfield said. "How 'bout a wash then? My buddy and me, we can spiff this right up for say, five bur?"

"We'll even brush yer 'orses fer a deener!" Hayfield's buddy offered.

"I'm good, boys," the babysitter said again as Booth climbed out of the coach.

Booth spotted Hayfield and his friend and smiled. He walked into the dead middle of the street next to the boys and scanned the mob of children that were watching the coach.

"Woah!" Hayfield exclaimed looking from his brother to the horses and back. "When did you get the coin for this?"

"It's not mine, it's borrowed," Booth said. "Go grab your siblings and come inside."

"Inside the fancy cart?" Hayfield nearly swooned.

"No, stupid. In the house. Now git."

Seth noted that the children were watching them as Hayfield ran to collect the other little ones. They knew Booth and recognized him. Seth then looked up at the rooftop where Mau was. She waved her tail twice and Seth nodded to himself. So far, so good.

Booth helped Blaise pull a large trunk out of the carriage and carried down the alley to the door of the basement his family lived in and went inside.

Seth pulled the second trunk out of the coach and gestured for Duvessa to pick up the other end. Suddenly, Mau sent him four pricks.

He stopped and scanned the sky. Sure enough, flying up out of the chimney was a shadow bat. They'd put a spy inside Booth's house that would report back if Booth showed up.

"Duvessa! Send Reginald after it!" Seth said, and pointed to the bat.

"Right!"

The shadow raven took off after the bat, but Seth could already tell that the bat was a much faster flyer.

"Oh!" Duvessa put a fist to her mouth.

"Yeah, I don't think he's going to catch it," Seth said. "It's okay. That just means the timer started. Let's go."

Inside, Alley had already been packing up while the little ones had played outside. All the blankets that had been used as dividers were taken down, and all the clothes that had been hung on pegs were in folded piles.

"What about Grandma's quilts?" Alley asked. "We can't be carrying 'em and I can't leave 'em."

"Leave 'em? We goin' somewheres?" Hayfield asked.

"Today is moving day," Booth told him. "We got a new place to live, but we need to sneak out."

"No! I don't want to be leavin' here. I got things goin' on!" Hayfield said.

"We're leavin' here, Hayfield," Alley said. "We're all leavin'. This ain't home no more. Get what's most important and we need to go. If you hid money somewheres, best get it now."

"I want to bring my blanket too," seven-year-old Pantry said.

"But I don't wanna to leave my favorite corner!" five-year-old Loft wailed. "I love my corner!"

"Pack the quilts up," Booth said. "I won't promise they'll be safe, but they should be. I'll get them to you later. Loft, shut it right now. You can have a new favorite corner. No, leave the dishes. We'll get new."

Booth pulled tote bags and backpacks out of the trunk and handed them to each sibling, Alley pointed to piles for each sibling to put in their bag and take with them.

Seth pulled out an insulated box from a trunk and fished the firestone out of the ashes in the fireplace with a pair of spoons and plopped it into the box. He sealed it and then collected their waterstone next, and put that in a watertight box and sealed it.

"These are expensive, Booth," Seth said quietly. "Where did you get them?"

"They fell off a cart."

Right. That was a stupid question.

A few more minutes of chaos as they rushed to pack up their most essential things. Hayfield did indeed have money hidden. Pantry had both money and stale bread stashed. She got very upset when she wasn't allowed to bring the bread.

"Mau just moved," Seth said. "It's time."

The trunks were shut and locked.

"I hate this part of your plan," Booth said and glared at Seth. "I think it's stupid and I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"You agreed yesterday it was our safest bet," Seth argued.

"You and I need to switch," Booth said.

"What? No!" Seth said, throwing up his hands. "We planned this!"

"Enough," Blaise said. "Let's just move." She picked up one end of a trunk, and gestured for Booth to grab the other end. He glared first at Seth, then at her for a moment before grabbing the handle and together they walked it outside.

As they gently loaded the trunk, there was a thunk from inside. Booth glanced at Hayfield's friend who was watching with interest. "Shush," Booth hissed at the trunk. "I'll let you out after we get there. Just lay quietly for now!"

Duvessa and Blaise came out with the second trunk as Booth was getting the first settled. Once they were both secured, Duvessa and Blaise climbed inside, while Booth climbed up next to the driver.

The carriage moved off at a walk.