Chapter 10 - The Jail

  5 months and one week Earlier

  “Do I really have to wear these on the way there?” Leni asked, holding the shackles that Cal had handed her up in front of him. It was the morning of the job, nearly six and they were almost ready to go. All of their equipment was in the void bag, Sidian and Cal were in their guards uniforms with their standard issue guard swords on their hips and a set of guard keys on Cal’s belt. The freshly forged letter rested in Cal’s breast pocket, just beneath the armour ready to be handed over. Finally Cal had handed Leni and Chell the shackles.

  “Yes,” Cal said.

  “But-”

  “Leni, we’re supposed to be taking you there to be imprisoned, we can’t just have you put on your chains once we arrive, it’ll be obvious.” Cal cut in.

  “Just bear it for a little while,” Chell intervened, resting a calming hand on the drakokin woman’s arm. “I’ll get you out as soon as we’re in the cell.”

  Leni sighed, a puff of smoke escaping her nostrils in frustration and defeat as she slapped her shackles on.

  “Thank you.” Cal said to them both - though more to Chell.

  “Are we ready?” Chell asked.

  “Ready.” Cal replied.

  “Somewhat, yes. Ready.” Sidian agreed.

  “As I will ever be.” Leni said, chafing at her shackles.

  Chell nodded. “Then Cal, it’s your lead.”

  Cal nodded and turned to the barkeep, an older dwarven man who was cleaning a mug. He had a placid expression, bored and unconcerned with the crimes that were clearly happening in front of him. “Thanks for the service, Gerin.” The man looked at Cal, almost surprised to be acknowledged and then nodded. Cal flipped him a gold coin for the trouble and turned without watching the man catch it.

  “All right.” Cal said, walking over to the door and opening it. “Lets go.”

  They stepped out onto the quiet back street that the Playful Lox opened onto and Cal had his two prisoners walk behind him while Sidian brought up the rear.

  It was the middle of winter, early in the year so it was still quite dark out. Not the pitch black of night, but nor was it the bright of the first days lights either. Looking up into the sky, Cal could still see the main moon, Tecro on it’s way to set in the west. The morning rays were just peaking over the horizon and thanks to them, Stj?rna’s ring was just becoming visible in the north. Because of how early in the year it was you could still see two of the five shepherd moons that kept the ring moving. Beho, one of the black moons, was disappearing over the western horizon while Dren, the white shepherd was just rising from the east.

  As they left the backstreets and reached the busier roads Cal was forced to make a little commotion, getting people’s attention to move out of the way. With Chell and Leni walking side by side they took up a lot of space so most people gave the whole group a wide berth, but any who tried to walk straight into them, Cal had to push aside.

  It wasn’t as busy as it would be in a few hours when the markets and shops opened, but it was still busier than a street at six in the morning had any right to be. Part of it was because people were setting up their day market stalls. Another part was that convoys and caravans would leave quite early and they needed to finish preparing, but mostly it was just because a city as big as Vanderheim never really slept. A city as diverse as Vanderheim, with people who were injured by sunlight couldn’t ever really sleep.

  The reason that they had chosen the Lox as their base wasn’t just because of the type of place it was - there were dozens or more such places dotted around the city courtesy of the circle - but because of it’s proximity to the Balvier street jail where they were going.

  They were only walking for ten minutes before the jail came into sight and Cal was quietly relieved to see that nothing seemed amiss. The many gods of the pantheon and the creators had favoured his group and the governor’s men were yet to arrive at the jail to close it down.

  Cal let out a long breath and started marching faster, making a beeline for the jail. His confidence in their plan was growing, but the next part would be the first big hurdle.

  The crowds parted way for the group as Cal led them up to the door and grabbed the handle. He paused for a moment and took a breath, straightening himself up. He looked back at the others and then around at the crowds of people before pulling on the handle and stepping inside.

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  The Balvier Jail’s foyer was a relatively small room. There was about enough space for ten people to stand comfortably, not including the guardsman behind the desk, who looked up from his book when Cal entered, before realising that he didn’t care and returned to his reading.

  “All right you two just stand over there and don’t move.” Cal said, holding the door open and pointing towards the corner of the room.

  Leni growled at him, almost certainly not part of the act, but Cal pretended it was. He put his hand back on his sword. “Don’t push me scales.” He said. After the two were in the corner and Sidian was ‘watching over them’, Cal walked up to the front desk.

  He took a breath and the entire pre-planned speech ran over and over in his brain. Cal stepped up to the desk and said, “Prisoners from-”

  “That’s fine. Can you do it on your own? You know where they go?” the guard asked without even looking up from his book. One handed, he fumbled for the jail’s keys and held them up to Cal.

  Cal looked back at the others, who looked just as surprised as him. After all of that practice and with the forged letter in his pocket a part of Cal wanted to go through with it anyway, say his piece and hand over the letter but… well why risk what had been given?

  Cal took the keys. “Thank you, Guardsman. Enjoy the book.”

  The guard responded with a “Mm-hm.” And Cal motioned for the others to follow, opening the next door into a small guard room where two guards were playing cards. They nodded to Cal and Sidian but didn’t get up to help or try to accompany them into the jail so Cal just unlocked the next door and brought them all inside, closing the door behind them.

  “Well that was far easier than I expected.” Sidian noted.

  “How do people not escape from here?!” Chell blurted out, almost annoyed at the guards lack of security. “Even the drunks and the sneak thieves!”

  There was a general murmur around the jails at their outburst, a few calls of ‘quiet’ and ‘trying to sleep’ but mostly the prisoners in there let them be.

  “Lets just get through this.” Cal said.

  “Get the shackles off me.” Leni growled quietly. “We’re here now, they’re chafing my scales.”

  “Sure, sure.” Cal said, stepping over. “Chell, you good?” He asked, looking over. She was already handing her shackles over to Sidian. Cal grinned and used the keys to unlock Leni as the Feyling rushed past him to the end of the cells. She counted them as she went and stopped in front of the last one on the left. At least Jask wasn’t lying - or wrong - about that.

  The cell was unlocked so she didn’t need to wait for Cal or Sidian to come open it. Not that she needed to with her lockpicking skills.

  “I can’t believe we went through all of that planning and preparation and the guy didn’t even look up.” Leni grumbled, rubbing her wrists. “So much waste.”

  “Don’t blame me, I’m not a criminal. I had no idea we wouldn’t need any of that.” Cal retorted, taking the shackles from Sidian.

  It was as they were laughing about their good luck that their fortunes changed. Voices from outside drew Cal’s attention away from what the others were doing. Sidian noticed him go quiet - a pretty big change to normal - and frowned at him. “What is it?” He asked.

  “Go help Chell with finding it.” He said and moved up to exit, still frowning.

  The voices were muffled, but the tone was not. Big and angry, whoever was outside did not like what they were seeing or hearing. “You found it yet?” Cal called down the cells, waking up the others who were imprisoned.

  “Not yet.” Sidian called back. “What’s happening?”

  “I’m not-” He paused mid call as he heard the door in the other room open and the voices became clearer.

  “-were supposed to be cleared out days ago!” someone was saying.

  Cal cursed quietly, worried that they’d hear him behind the door. More movement sounded through the next room. Guards standing, their chairs scraping. They were going to come in here.

  Unsure what else to do, Cal shoved the keys into the lock and turned, leaving them in and half turned so the people on the other side wouldn’t be able to use their own set, and not a moment too soon.

  The moment the key was turned there was a thud against a the door and a grunt. “What?!” the grumpy voice said. “It’s locked. Where are the keys?”

  “What’s going on?” Leni demanded, poking her head out of the last cell, her eyes narrowing at Cal.

  There was another thud against the door and Cal stepped back. “Governor’s men arrived I’m guessing.” He said, stumbling back and looking back at the others. “We probably don’t have much time, do you-”

  “It’s here somewhere.” Chell called out. “It’s got to be.”

  Cal jogged after the others to find Chell down on all fours, ass in the air as she searched under the stone bed, while Sidian looked around with his magic sense and Leni just sort of poked things.

  Cal blushed and turned away from Chell and patted a hand on Sidian’s shoulder. The mage looked over and shook his head. “No magic here.” He said. “It’s not a magical lock it’s-”

  There was a loud thud and a crack from the other end of the jail as the wood of the door began to splinter. “Okay, everyone in the cell.” Cal said, dragging Sidian by the arm.

  “I can hold the door with a force wall.” Sidian noted.

  Cal shook his head. “If they get in hold them, but I’d rather they didn’t see you if we can help it.”

  Sidian sighed but nodded.

  “Chell, I would love it if you could-”

  Before he managed to finish his sentence the door at the end of the hall shattered off of it’s hinges. “By The Reveller's balls, we’re screwed.” Leni cursed, turning to look at the bars.

  “Keep looking!” Cal hissed. He closed the jail cell door slowly so as not to get anyone’s attention and leaned his face against the bars to look.

  A big man in heavy armour was silhouetted in the doorway. He seemed to be scanning the room, looking for the criminals who had stolen the key and locked the door. Looking for the cells of criminals who had escaped.

  He stepped forward and Cal groaned. He didn’t know the man, but the markings on his armour made it clear that he was a knight directly under the employ of the governor of Vanderheim, which meant that he was strong. It was unlikely, if they were to fight, that Cal and his little party would be able to win.

  There was a rush of noise as other guards flooded into the jail, weapons drawn and ready to fight.

  He looked back over his shoulder at his friends… and Leni. “Guys, I think we might be screwed.”