The Lost Runes Saga [Epic Fantasy]

THIRTY-SIX

It didn't take long for Vidar to make it back to the place where he first came into contact with Ida after she became a leader of her own thieves' guild. Sounds of fighting had reached him across the streets as he made his way there, but he saw none of Ida's girls fighting, and no male thieves even attempted to approach him. They were all too busy fighting each other.

Unfortunately, the inn where they dug their little grotto was closed and barred. There was no way in unless he blasted a hole through the wall, and he wasn't about to do that.

"Hey! Psst!"

Vidar turned and saw a young girl peeking out from behind a crate.

"You that boy with the runes?" she asked, eyes wide with what looked like excitement rather than fear. The girl's hair was covered in dirt, but the clothes she wore looked warm enough.

"You're one of Ida's girls?" Vidar asked.

"I'm my own girl," she said with a scowl. "We're all our own girls."

Vidar tried a different tactic. "Do you know where Ida is?"

The girl showed a toothy smile. "I'll take you to her. That's why I'm here. To keep an eye out." She pointed to her eye as she said it. "Come."

The girl, who couldn't be more than six years old, was quick despite her short legs. Vidar ran after her, noting a bracelet around her arm where her thick-knitted overshirt rode up to show a thin, pale arm. It was one of his wooden discs, with a leather cord threaded through two holes to create the bracelet. An algiz rune. Good. Ida protected her people. Somewhat protected, at least. Algiz runes weren't perfect. Nothing was.

Above, the dragons screeched in unison. It sounded like they were circling the city. Vidar didn't like that he couldn't see them. But soon dawn would come. If they remained up there, then everyone in Halmstadt would get quite the view.

The still-unnamed girl brought Vidar to a new location and knocked on the back door of a residence that looked a lot like Embla's house before it burned down, except it was just one story, with a flat roof that made it look squat but sturdy.

Inside, small candles burned, showing the outlines of girls of all ages huddling, and even a few adult women. No men, though, and they all looked at him like an intruder, until Ida's clear voice cut through the hushed whispers.

"That you, Vidar?"

"It is."

"I'm in the back."

A lantern gave the back room a little more light than the rest of the house, but still not much. There, he found Ida working a pair of knitting needles, scowling down at them like they'd insulted her somehow.

"You're knitting?" Vidar asked.

She threw the nest of yarn and the needles away in disgust and crossed her arms over her stomach, leaning back in the chair. "Thought maybe it would settle my nerves a little. Working with the seamstress always let me get in a sort of daze where I could just drift away for a few hours."

"Not the best moment to drift away," Vidar said, pointing up as he sat down on a chair in the corner.

Ida rubbed at her one eye with her thumb, a tired gesture that made her look older than she was. "There ain't much we can do about those flying bastards up there. Unless you have a spare ballista in your pocket?"

"I don't," Vidar said with a sigh. "The steward has plenty, but that's not why I'm here. I need your help."

"If you haven't noticed it yet, we are kind of in the middle of something here. Things are falling apart. If not for those runes you gave us, we'd have lost more girls already."

"I know it's," Vidar searched for the right word, "difficult out there, but this has to do with protecting Halmstadt from the dragons up there."

"Don't tell me you want more arrows stolen."

"Not this time. I need help with painting algiz runes, large ones."

Ida looked at him for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we can't just abandon Fjodor against the other three bastards. We are outnumbered already, and I'm afraid Fjodor won't last. If he caves and backs off, my girls are doomed."

"This isn't the time for squabbles between different thieves," Vidar said.

She shot him a hard look. "I agree, but there's not much I can do."

"How about this? I take care of Tyv and the others, then you and Fjodor help me with the runes."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Let me worry about that. Can you get word to Fjodor? Also, we're going to need a lot of paint. The color doesn't matter, but we need a lot."

"Anything to get out of this mess. Fjodor is not happy that you went and disappeared on us, and neither am I, for that matter, but if you get us out of it, we'll help," she said, her scowl turning into a grin. "I won't even require payment for it."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Geez, thanks," Vidar said. "That's it, then. Let's do this before tomorrow, when the dragons attack."

"Tomorrow?" She looked up at him. "Not tonight? They sound agitated up there."

"I have it on good authority they won't attack today, at least. Hopefully, we can avoid it altogether."

"If you say so," Ida grunted.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Back in Andersburg, things were much the same as last time. Rundown houses, rundown people, and the occasional dog barking at its own shadow. Vidar passed the burned-down house where he'd started his teaching career, and made his way to the thief nest that had belonged to Yallander. Even from a distance, he saw men of ill repute lounging around outside, holding weapons. Swords with specks of rust and daggers, a whole lot of daggers. One even held a spear. He counted maybe fifteen of them in total. It was difficult to tell in the dark. With so many guards, it meant Tyv was inside and hadn't fled to some unknown hideout.

He stopped a little way up the street and considered. Vidar had already decided on a full-on frontal assault of shock and awe before they could react. Death walked with him now after taking so many lives, and the clump of thieves he killed to help Ida's girls did not weigh on his conscience. Vidar checked the runes about his body to make sure he was ready. He was, and he'd even brought something new with him after a stop back at the rune shop.

A staff. He wasn't sure of its origin, but he'd grabbed it from Erik's pile of junk meant for the sofa he'd yet to construct. It was thin and a little bent, the top just flat enough to accommodate a single rune, one he'd already triggered. Thin lines of white ran along the length of the staff, connecting the rune at the top with ones along the shaft. If it worked like Vidar hoped, it would be a formidable weapon, indeed.

Vidar kept walking, making his way down the street toward the house right by the wall, a house where he'd been brought in to see Yallander the first time. Planks of wood covered all windows and they'd replaced the door. It looked thick, almost as impenetrable as the gates around the upper city. It wouldn't matter.

He approached and raised his voice. "I want to talk with Tyv right now. I am the one he's been looking for."

A few of the thieves drew closer.

"Approach me at your peril!" Vidar shouted, leveling the staff at them.

One thief slunk into the building. The others stopped. Vidar walked closer, and the thieves backed off. He caught movement to his right and heard a noise to his left. They were trying to get around him, just like the oozehounds. But these men had no venom and their blades were rusted from disuse.

The man who'd gone into the building returned and shouted back, "It's too late for words!"

A throwing dagger flew his way and bounced off an algiz rune. Then the thieves were coming at him. Those in front of him rushed forward and Vidar glanced over his shoulder, finding others approaching in his blind spot. Perhaps he should have snuck in after all.

Vidar switched the staff to his other hand to free up the logiz rune. He held it forward and triggered, setting the night, and his enemies, ablaze. That one quick burst saw eight of them either dead in an instant, or screaming and flailing as they burned.

One man, his entire arm and shoulder engulfed for the briefest moment, had his coat burst apart, the skin beneath bubbling and hissing. The smell of burning flesh sent a wave of nausea through Vidar, but he didn't flinch. Didn't stop.

Stakra was next. The thrust obliterated two more, leaving only a handful alive after no more than a few breaths.

Out of the remaining men in front of him, half fled after the initial assault, and ran without looking back, screaming. The remaining three charged. A spear stabbed forward with more speed than the Vidar expected, but an algiz rune dealt with the blow as Vidar thrust the staff into the belly of the man with the spear. The thief's eyes widened, and the spear fell into the snow with a dull thud, essence draining out of him and turning him into a shriveled husk, unable to even scream as he died. A second later, it was time to test the joining of runes painted upon the wood.

Vidar found one of the stakra runes with his mind and saw that it was indeed full of essence. The joining had worked. He triggered it and held on as thrust propelled the staff to swing to the right with blinding speed. It took a thief in the head, slamming against his skull. The top of the staff shattered in Vidar's hands, but it was enough to bring his attacker unconscious or dead to the ground.

Daggers flew at him from behind and Vidar whirled around, ready to face the next attackers as the last man that'd been coming at him from straight ahead fled back toward the building. It wasn't a dagger thrown at his back, but an arrow loosed. Another flew right at his face as Vidar spotted a bowman up at a nearby building. He leveled his palm, thinking to strike at the coward with a burst of thrust from the stakra rune, but two other men fell upon him in that instant.

The wooden staff had been useful, but now only a splintered stick remained. Vidar threw it at the new men but missed with a wide margin as they rushed toward him. One of them wielded a sword in one hand, a small wooden buckler in the other. It was the first time he'd seen a thief carrying defensive gear, but he didn't have time to ponder what sort of thief picked such an item out of a rack somewhere. The attacks flew at him like hail. Arrows kept coming, and the sword-wielding man knew what he was doing, moving sideways by pushing away with his feet, almost floating around Vidar as he lashed out again and again, testing the algiz runes, looking for an opening.

To combat the other man's greater speed, Vidar reached for the logiz rune with his mind, found essence still within its circle, and triggered it. Flames gushed from his palm. Vidar spun, catching the other attacker, who screamed as he burned. Not the shield-carrying one, though, who threw himself back and to the side, holding up the buckler to catch some of the fire. That round little piece of wood saved him, and he was back in Vidar's face in an instant once the flames died.

"Dammit!" Vidar shouted, reaching with the styrka rune in his palm, trying to catch the man off guard to no avail. The thief danced to the side and chopped with his sword. If not for the algiz rune on Vidar's arm, it would be nothing more than a hunk of severed flesh on the ground.

He needed something more, something the thief didn't expect. Thrusting forward with the styrka rune in his palm didn't work, as it was much too slow, but Vidar got an idea. Some measure of essence remained in the stakra rune in his palm and he used it, but not directed at the thief. Instead, he pointed his palm in the other direction and triggered the stakra rune, using the thrust to throw himself forward and at the thief. In that same moment, he triggered the kenaz rune tattooed on his forehead, flashing it bright to blind his opponent. That did it. The thief raised his shield to escape the bright light and block Vidar's charge, but it wasn't enough. Vidar slammed into the shield. The algiz runes on his front shuddered and fell dormant, all out of essence. They fell in a heap and Vidar reached around the shield, finding an arm.

The styrka rune drained the thief in an instant, leaving his body nothing more than a withered husk. Vidar stood huffing, then turned toward the roof. He pulled the thief's essence from the rune, using it to rejuvenate the algiz runes. The bowman was gone. He had fled. Vidar stood victorious.