Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (11 page)

The bed rocked as Kelsie nodded emphatically. “Yup.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “Okay, okay. Give me five to get ready. I’ll meet you at the door.”

She bounced out of bed and to her room. I slid out from under the covers and tried not to remember its comfortable embrace as I stretched. Kelsie was sure getting crazier and crazier.

Holding the position that I did in the Guild, I wasn’t restricted to curfews like most of the others. That meant that whoever was with me got away with it as well. In this case, Kelsie.

That meant that, in the dark, we’d basically been able to just walk out in the open until we got within about a block of the Magistrate’s house.

“Let’s hold up here,” I said, dropping to a crouch behind a bush. We could make out the Magistrate’s house in the distance through the darkness.

Kelsie dropped down next to me.

“Okay,” I started. “What’s the plan?”

She gave me an incredulous look. “Why are you asking me? This is what your job is!”

“So? You’re the one that wanted to do it. I came just to give you moral support while you dash in, grab the coffee, and get out. Oh, and if you get caught, I totally don’t know you.”

Kelsie elbowed my stomach, causing me to “oomph.” “Right, like they’d believe that. Everyone knows we’re roommates.”

“You seriously need to quit hitting me. You never know when I might start hitting back!” I said playfully.

“You wouldn’t hit a girl!”

“Hey, if the girl is hitting me first, I might have to protect myself.” I grinned, knowing I’d never give her anything more than a little love tap. None of this hard hitting she was doing to me.

“You like it, don’t try to deny it,” Kelsie whispered as she turned back to face the Magistrate’s house.

Kelsie finally convinced me to take the lead on this. I consented only because if her inexperience got us caught, that would ruin my day. So it was like another day at work for me. Only, this time it was inside my own Guild, which raised the stakes considerably.

I outlined the plan to her. It was quick and easy since there really wasn’t much of one. Checking that the area was clear, I sprinted at a crouch across the open street to the bushes around the Magistrate’s house. One thing worked to my advantage: I’d been inside the house only hours before, and the layout was fresh in my head.

All the lights were dark in the house. I slinked up the back porch, choosing it because it had less street view than the front.

The back door was solid carved wood, parting in the middle to slide to either side, and powered by pneumatics. In other words, it was a bit on the fancy side. Which, in this case, translated to easy to open. All I had to do was get into the control panel for the doors and cut the hose that held the air pressure. Of course, that led to the issue of it being obvious that someone had broken in, which usually wasn’t a problem. But right now, I wanted to leave it as a mystery as to how the coffee disappeared.

“What are you looking for?” Kelsie’s voice whispered near my ear.

“The little hidden panel that holds the mechanics for the door,” I responded, feeling around with my bare fingertips for an edge, a seam or something.

“What does it look like?”

That actually made me pause to give her a look. “I don’t know, Kelsie! Each one is custom built for the door.”

Kelsie started searching around next to me for it. “Here’s something.”

I turned and looked, finding an almost invisible rectangle low in the wall roughly fifteen centimeters by twenty centimeters. Grabbing the knife I kept in my pocket, I worked the thin blade down into the crack, finding it a tight fit. Whoever had built this box did a hell of a job.

I finally got the lid off after working it back and forth for a minute or two. A quick look over my shoulder showed the coast was clear. Kelsie produced a tiny and direct light to shine into the box. Inside was an assortment of hoses and fittings that controlled the air pressure that opened and shut the door. Taking my knife, I picked the fattest hose, that was usually the one, and was about to slice it.

“Drake, what are you doing?”

“Cutting the hose to let off the air pressure so we can get in?” I was paused, holding my blade against the hose while she was talking.

“But then they’ll know someone was here!”

I nodded. “No kidding. Yes, they’ll figure that out first thing in the morning.”

“Well, isn’t there another way to do this?”

I shrugged. “Probably. I rarely have time to mess around with it long enough to figure out an alternative method.”

“Get out of the way, let me look,” Kelsie said, nudging me out of the way. Her hair blew into my face as she did, filling my nose with the sweet scent of her shampoo as I fought a sneeze.

With a chuckle, I held my hands up in surrender and wiggled out of the way. Just enough to give her room. I didn’t mind her being pressed up against my side at all.

A second later, “Ah ha!” she said in a loud whisper. An instant later, the control box was lit up like daylight.

“Hey! Turn that off! Hurry!” I whispered urgently, trying to shield the light with my hands so we didn’t let the whole street know what we were up to.

The light flicked off. “Sorry. Wrong lever.”

I snorted. I was going to let her have another minute or so, then I was going to say “hell with it” and cut the line. The longer we sat out here on the porch in the open, the more likely we’d be seen.

A few seconds later, there was a hiss. I looked at her, then grabbed the doors and pulled them apart as easily as air. Kelsie wore a triumphant smirk.

“What would you do without me?” she asked.

“Have a much simpler life?” I grinned, earning another hit.

Cautiously, I stuck my head in the room, checking for any signs that the Magistrate or his wife were awake. I was greeted with absolute silence and darkness. A narrow beam of moonlight slipped through the edge around the curtains in the kitchen as the only light. That was fine, that’s the only place I really needed light since I was the one going for the coffee beans.

Closing my eyes, I barely remembered to commandeer Kelsie’s tiny light for when I was in the kitchen. I didn’t want to turn the light on yet for risk of someone walking by and seeing a flashlight moving about a dark house. That would likely raise suspicion.

With my eyes closed, I recalled the layout of things from earlier that evening. I’d come in through the front door then, so I had to flip things in my head. I opened my eyes, finding them well adjusted to the dark.

With a deep breath, I carefully worked my way forward, edging along slowly so I didn’t stub my toe. I really,
really
hated stubbing my toe. The moccasins I was wearing didn’t do much to protect them.

I navigated around a couple of small tables and a couch, having come into the living room. I finally saw the kitchen drawing near.

Boots thudded across the front porch. Freezing, I did a quick assessment of what I could see. A closet was nearby, and I darted to it, swinging it open and ducking inside just as the front door shut.

I could hear the Magistrate mumbling to himself as he walked through the house and into the kitchen where I was hiding in the pantry. A light flicked on, nearly blinding me since I had my eye to the crack at the edge of the door.

After pouring himself a mug of something, the Magistrate stomped off towards his bedroom, still muttering to himself. He left the light on.

I waited, thinking he might be coming back since the light was still on. After a few minutes, he still hadn’t returned. I started to open the door, still nothing. I slid out and was halfway across the kitchen when I heard footsteps coming toward me. Quieter ones, likely the Magistrate’s wife.

I dropped behind the counter.

“Can’t even turn off the light for himself. I have to get up from a sound sleep to come all the way out here to turn off the light. It’s like living with a spoiled child.” She was grumbling to herself.

The room was once again bathed in darkness as her footsteps faded back down the hall. This time I didn’t know if I had time to wait for my eyes to adjust to the dark. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed the open back door.

I clicked on the narrow-beamed light and started rummaging through the cupboards. I got lucky and found the stash of coffee in the second place I looked.

I grabbed half of it and left, leaving the light on so I could get to the back door quicker. Once outside on the porch, I handed the light to Kelsie.

“Can you fix it back now?”

“Well, duh. I’m Kelsie, here. Not you,” she said, rolling her eyes at me with a smile.

It only took her maybe twenty seconds to have the doors back the way they were and the panel back in place. Then we headed back to the house, enjoying the smell of fresh roasted coffee wafting from the bag in my arms.

The sun coming through the window woke me late to find Kelsie already up and in the shower. I stretched my arms and noticed the spot next to me was still warm and showed the indentation from her body. I was a bit bummed to find her up already. Still, it made it easier for me to get up, which was good, since I needed to get over to the Magistrate’s house while he was in meetings so I could talk to his wife alone.

With great reluctance, I slipped out from under the covers and over the edge of the bed.

I bypassed the shower for now, opting for splashing icy water from the kitchen tap on my face. I made up a small batch of the coffee, enough for Kelsie and I to each get one cup. It was Wednesday morning, after all. A couple times a week we could afford to each have a cup. Coffee beans weren’t
that
hard to come by, but they were extremely expensive. It was kinda our “thing” to sip coffee together on these mornings and talk about work and whatnot. This morning though, I drank mine on the walk to the Magistrate’s house. Though, the irony of drinking coffee that we’d liberated from his house the night before while I was heading over to his house was not lost on me. I didn’t even control the grin.

I crept around the back of the house first, peeping through the windows to ensure that the Magistrate wasn’t there. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t. So I went up to the back door and knocked.

The Magistrate’s wife came out, looking around cautiously. She quickly motioned me inside and drew the curtains over the window in the kitchen. She looked even worse than last night. I noticed she had a bruise on her cheek, but thought I shouldn’t mention it. Her eyes were surrounded by deep purple bags, and her cheeks sagged from exhaustion. She attempted to give me a smile, but it was so weak I almost missed it.

I really wasn’t looking forward to this. I had hoped to have something good to tell her, to bring her some relief. Instead I only had a snippet. She motioned for me to sit at the table.

I sat and started to play with my still-warm coffee cup while I thought about exactly what to tell her. I realized that I probably should have thought this through before coming over. But, that’s just the way I did things. I loathed planning.

She looked at the cup in my hands and spoke up. “Would you like a refill? Duncan likes his coffee every morning and makes me keep it around. He didn’t drink any this morning, so I have a couple of cups left.” She almost looked hopeful to have something to do.

Who am I to turn down a free cup of my favorite drink? I accepted, and while she prepared the cup for me, I had another moment to organize my thoughts. What could I tell her? Not much, I knew. Maybe I could get this over with quickly and get back to the house.

She sat back down, handing me the steaming cup. I readied myself for her to say something about the missing coffee. A passing comment or grumbling to herself. I was rather disappointed when she said nothing.

I looked her in the eyes and said, “The Magistrate is visiting the Briln Water Guild.” I paused, letting that sink in.

Her face seemed to blanch a little. Though, as haggard as it looked already, it was hard to tell for sure.

“What do you mean? Visiting the Briln.”

I took a deep breath and plunged into the story. When I finished, she possessed a look of utter confusion on her face. Now I felt bad about telling her what little I knew. Still, I’d always felt it was my duty to keep my clients informed of progress, or lack thereof.

She remained quiet for a few moments. I let silence fill the room as it sank in for her. “Who…” she started, faltering. “Why is there a tunnel there? Who put it there? How does Duncan know of it? What’s he doing sneaking to the Briln? What’s going on?” Her voice was rising by the end.

I sighed. “I don’t know. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I will find out. I’ve made plans to follow him again tomorrow. This time, I’ll be prepared to venture into the Briln town.”

Her eyes snapped up to mine in alarm. “You’re doing what? That’s dangerous. How would you get in? I don’t want you getting killed for this.”

I shrugged. “I need to know what’s going on with him. Now that I know where he’s going, I need to figure out what he’s doing, for the safety of the Guild. Kelsie will be going with me, I think. I’ve never been in the Briln town and wouldn’t know where to go. She knows it like the back of her hand. This is more of a duty thing now.”

I had no sooner finished saying that than we heard heavy footsteps on the front porch. She and I jumped up, looking at each other in alarm. The Magistrate shouldn’t be home for a while, but who else sounded like an earthquake walking up the stairs. In fact, I was having serious déjà vu from last night.

We heard the front doorknob turn, and the irritating voice of the Magistrate pierced the tense silence between her and I like an arrow, jolting me into action. I moved quickly, grabbing my cup and sloshing some of the hot liquid onto the table. No time to clean it up now. I bolted through the doorway to the next room and was thankful the backdoor had been unlocked and slid open when I touched the button on the wall beside it, allowing me to slip through.

“Why didn’t you answer me at the door, woman?” he raged. “Get me a drink of juice. Now.”

I paused, still on the back porch, listening. Juice? They have juice? Wow. I’d only had juice once in my life. I remembered it as being amazing. So sweet and refreshing. A wonderful change from our standard drink of water.