The Shielded Past (The Dragon Rogues Book 3), page 2
“Don’t do anything foolish.”
“Now you’re telling me not to do anything foolish?”
“Well, mostly I’m just repeating what you tell me all the time.” She flashed a broad smile. “But the advice holds.”
There was a faint shimmering as the facade washed over him. It was the only thing he noticed. There was no sense of the magic, nothing that Jonathan felt, but he had learned how to watch for the distinct signal of a facade from his very earliest days working crews in the city. And as it passed over him, he saw it shimmering and sliding until it shifted ever so subtly and became completely invisible again. As far as Jonathan could tell, there was nothing but the storefront in front of him. His mind processed where Elizabeth, Matthew, and Leland were, but he could not see them.
He smiled to himself. So skillful.
Jonathan slipped along the street. If anybody had been paying attention, his sudden appearance would have raised alarm, but he doubted anybody was watching. More than that, though, he figured that if there were a magical trigger tied to anybody passing along the street, it wouldn’t make any difference if he was wrapped in the facade or not. That was the gamble he took.
He moved away from the others, and he focused on what he could feel of magic. If only he had improved his skills as much as Leland and Elizabeth had improved theirs. Jonathan could detect magic, but his ability to do so had not changed. It was what it was. In some ways, he suspected it was similar to an enchantment, but one he had within himself at all times. There was no way to improve that enchantment, much like there was often no way to change enchantments that had already been placed on items.
He slipped back the way they had come, staying close to the storefront and looking toward the windows, trying to peer inside to see if there was any activity in the store itself. He saw nothing. When Jonathan was content that he felt nothing, he looped back, making certain to slip out and around to give his team a wide berth before getting closer to the building again, and continued feeling for any sense of magic. He detected nothing. If there were protections within the building, they were not enchantments.
As he made his way back to the others, he slipped inside the facade. The shifting was abrupt. It was like walking through a curtain, but the only thing that changed was that there were now three people standing in front of him.
“Anything?” Matthew asked.
“I didn’t feel anything.”
“So you don’t have to worry about magic enchantments?” Elizabeth asked.
“That’s not what he said,” Matthew said. He turned back to Leland, hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Oh,” Elizabeth said, squeezing her bracelet for a moment and looking over at Jonathan. “You think they might be using an El’aras enchantment.”
“I don’t actually know. It’s possible. Maybe even probable, especially with what I’ve heard is here. So we need to be careful.”
“Almost there,” Leland said.
Jonathan turned his attention back to the storefront. As he did, he reached into his pocket and began to slip on his own enchantments. He started with a ring that provided speed. It was a simple enchantment, and one that he had taken to using when he made his way through the streets of the city, especially since Heziah had come after them. The next one that he used was for strength. Speed and strength were easily paired together, and they complemented each other well. He had a few others that he kept in reserve. He slipped on a bracelet that would help make him less noticeable. It wasn’t a facade, but it would help him blend into the shadows if he triggered it. And there was a set of explosive enchantments, which he gripped. There were three of them, but they could be easily separated, like twisting magnets apart, and then tossed so that he could use each enchantment one at a time. He had seen those explosions before but had never needed to use them on a job. He hoped that he never would.
Then Leland let out a soft sigh.
There came a click. Well, a series of clicks. And the door came open.
Elizabeth patted Leland on the shoulder. “Look at you. You did it.”
“I told you that I could. Even five locks is not too much for me. The trick is making sure that you have the right sequence so that you open them in the pattern that they want. It’s sort of like a key, but this is a different kind of key.”
“You know, I love how excited you get when you talk about these things, but I don’t know that now is the right time for us to be talking about them.” She grinned and stepped off to the side, letting Jonathan move forward.
“I’ll take up the rear,” Matthew said.
“You take the lead,” Jonathan said. “You have the detection enchantment.”
Matthew spun, and he slipped into the doorway ahead of him. He was followed by Elizabeth, then Leland, and finally Jonathan. He hesitated in the doorway and waited there for a moment.
He felt Elizabeth’s facade sweep over him for just a moment, and then something else came. It was faint, but he was certain of what he detected.
Magic.
It came like a ripple, a surge of power, and it was followed by another, and then another. And as far as Jonathan could tell, they were moving toward them.
He pulled the door closed. He braced but wasn’t sure that was going to be enough. So he set down one of the explosive enchantments, positioning it right in front of the door. If needed, he would be ready. They would all be ready.
He caught up to Matthew. “You need to move quickly.”
“What?” Matthew asked irritably.
“Oh, just a little magic.”
“A little… or a lot?”
“Sorcery.”
Matthew’s brow furrowed. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
“Wonder what?”
“If we were used again.” He slipped deeper into the building, leading Jonathan.
And he was right. It did make Jonathan wonder.
What if they had been set up again?
Heziah had used them once already, and though there had been no sign of him recently, Jonathan feared that he still wanted revenge.
It didn’t matter. They would get these El’aras enchantments and get back out before the sorcerer, whoever it was, got to them.
Chapter Two
The sense of magic behind Jonathan didn’t change much at all. He could feel it building but couldn’t identify what source caused the power. Probably sorcery, given the potency of what he detected, though he was not entirely sure that was it.
He looked at the others with him, but no one was speaking. He had a distinct sense that they were on edge, likely as worried as he was about what was going to happen here.
Matthew stepped back out into the light, and he looked at the others with him. “We move quickly. If there’s something back there,” he said, glancing at Jonathan before turning his attention back to the others, “speed is the key. The longer we take, the more likely it is that we will encounter danger here. Are there any questions?”
“Just keep moving,” Jonathan said. “If you detect anything El’aras, signal it to us.”
Matthew looked as if he wanted to argue, but he nodded. “I don’t detect anything, but I will try to let you know if there is anything. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like for us to get moving so that we can get to whatever is here before the rest of this explodes in our faces.” He looked at Jonathan, who nodded.
As Matthew started forward, Elizabeth grabbed Jonathan’s arm, and forced him to meet her gaze. “What do you detect?”
“You don’t have to worry about it,” he said.
She started to laugh. “Would you stop telling me what I do and don’t have to worry about? I think I’ve earned that right. Especially if there is something out there.”
“What it means is that we just need to be quick and careful. It’s no different than any other job. Quick and careful. I suppose you could test your skill and experience by going back and seeing if the sorcerer—if that’s what’s coming behind us—can detect your facade.”
“That wasn’t the job,” she said.
“The job changes. That’s something you’re going to have to come to terms with as you take on an increasing role with our jobs. Be ready for the change. Be willing to shift and just roll with everything that comes your way.”
“As if you’re so good at simply rolling with things,” she muttered.
Jonathan laughed. “I’m not. But I recognize that I’m not. I don’t know what we’re going to find, but we just have to be ready for it.” He turned his attention back to the door, and though he couldn’t feel what was there, Jonathan had the distinct sense that there was some ongoing pressure of magic, something of power that lingered.
Elizabeth looked over at him, quiet as she did. She looked irritated. Jonathan found himself smiling inwardly at her irritation. It was a sign of her growth, he figured. The fact that she cared enough, and felt that she deserved to be a part of decisions, proved just how much she had progressed since he had first brought her into the team. Her stubbornness would actually help.
“There’s something up ahead,” Matthew said. He glanced back at Jonathan, frowning as he watched him, before his gaze darted to Elizabeth. “I can feel it, but I don’t know what it is. Are the two of you ready, or do we need to give you more time to discuss your feelings on what we’re doing here?”
Elizabeth pulled back her fist as if to punch him. “I don’t need to discuss any feelings,” she said. “But Jonathan might.”
“I don’t like waiting here,” Jonathan said.
“What about you?” Matthew asked Leland. “Are you willing to remain a part of this?”
“What? Why are you asking me that?”
“You don’t have to deny that you are done with all of this. When we finish this job, you can leave.” He glanced over at Jonathan. This was something that the two of them had not talked about, but Matthew wasn’t wrong in addressing it with Leland. They had both come to realize that Leland was only staying because he felt an obligation to the team and to Elizabeth in particular. “I think your mother still needs help, right? Those aren’t reasons for you to stick with all of this. Not with what you’ve dealt with, and with what is to come.”
“I…”
“Don’t put him on the spot,” Elizabeth said, stepping forward and getting between Matthew and Leland. “He’s a part of the team, and if he wants to stay as a part of the team, he can. If he decides that he’s done, then so be it.”
Matthew frowned, and then he nodded, slipping forward. They were in a narrow hallway now, with walls of stone on either side. The air was thick, almost humid, and there was a faint tracing along Jonathan’s skin that suggested that there was some sort of magic being used nearby, even though he wasn’t sure what it was or why he could feel it so profoundly. He focused on what he could detect, trying to make sense of it, and could not find any answer.
He kept looking behind him. There had been no sign of the sorcerer that had been following them, but Jonathan remained on edge. As he moved closer, toward Matthew, he looked around. “Any thoughts here?” he asked.
“I’m thinking that I still wonder how we had word get to us here.”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing.”
Matthew closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he looked all around for a moment. “I’m not sure how much is going to be here. I can feel something, but it’s faint. And it seems to be getting fainter still.”
“You think they’re moving it?”
“That’s just it. I am not at all sure what’s happening here. If they are moving it, it suggests they know that we’re coming. Which means we need to move quickly, and then we can figure out why we got pulled into this job.”
“Agreed,” Jonathan said.
They reached the end of the hallway. The hallway itself had been fairly unremarkable. Wooden walls lined the passage, though the floor was all stone, as was the ceiling overhead. The air was a bit damp and carried with it a feeling of age. Not only that, but Jonathan had a vague sense of power all around him, which told him that they were in the right place, but not why there would be something El’aras stored here in this section of the city. At the end of the hallway, they reached a wide staircase.
Then Matthew held out his sword for a moment, probing toward the stairs leading down, and then shifted and probed toward the stairs leading up. Finally he nodded, though it seemed to be mostly to himself. He went up.
“Are you sure about this?” Elizabeth asked. “Why would they keep this upstairs rather than down someplace where they could secure it more easily? It doesn’t make—”
“There are many things about this that don’t make any sense, but if Matthew feels something in this direction, then that is where we go.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
Jonathan couldn’t even argue with her. She was right. He thought about what they had heard about the job. The rumors were distinct, though most of them had come from Bartholomew, who had turned into their leading source for jobs like this. He had access to intelligence that left Jonathan wondering if somebody had been feeding information to Bartholomew, but he was just providing tips for them. It wasn’t as if Bartholomew had betrayed them. It was just that he was well-connected. And maybe that was all it was. Given that Bartholomew had been involved in more and more jobs over the last few months, he could have gained a level of prestige amid the underground community in the city that gave him that advantage.
Jonathan began to feel some pressure building behind him. It had to be the sorcerer.
He looked over at Elizabeth. “Stay with the other two.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m just checking on something.”
With that, Jonathan turned and darted back down the stairs, reaching into his pouch for several of his enchantments.
He was prepared for the possibility of magic, sorcery, and possibly even El’aras guardians, though that last was less likely, especially in the city, as there had been no sign of them, only word of their enchantments. He stood for a moment focusing on what he could feel, suspecting that it wasn’t sorcery, but not moving quickly. He rifled through his enchantments to decide upon which one they could use. Heading up the stairs put them in a bit of danger, as they might get pinched by somebody down here. If needed, there were a few different enchantments that he could try.
He took one that emitted power periodically. It wasn’t useful for much, but it could draw away any sorcerer who followed them. They might believe there was something else down the stairs—if it worked the way that Jonathan hoped.
He had two other enchantments that were a bit more defensive. Without knowing who was coming—and there was always the possibility that they were being trailed by somebody from the Society rather than Heziah, which was Jonathan’s real concern—he didn’t want to target them too openly and risk a destructive attack. So he had to be more careful.
Jonathan decided to try something different. He placed one of the enchantments carefully on the floor, putting it against the wall so that no one would see what he’d done. Then he activated it.
It would create a rippling concussive blast when someone came by. Painful, but not overwhelming. He took another one and placed it a few feet farther down the hallway. It would make whoever was coming through here think that Jonathan and his team were defending the hallway, and it might buy them some time.
There was pressure on him again.
That power began to build. The sorcerer had reached the door into this building. The doorway was locked, and presumably sealed off, but a sorcerer with enough power would have little difficulty in pushing their way through it. Jonathan waited, but nothing pushed through.
Then he hurried back up the stairs. When he reached the top of the stairs, he found Elizabeth looking at him. “Well?” she asked him.
“I placed as much as I could,” he said. He kept his voice low. “There should be an alert when anything comes through. That’s about all the protection that I can offer.”
That seemed to satisfy her. Now that they were inside the building, Elizabeth hadn’t been placing her facade around things the same way she had been before, but she turned and looked back.
“I might be able to use a facade on the staircase,” she said. “It wouldn’t hold somebody determined, but I should’ve thought about that.” She scurried past Jonathan, who tried to grab for her, but she was too quick.
She was gone only a few moments before she came back, a tight smile on her face. “Now if anybody reaches the stairs, they should only see a wall. I anchored it to the wall, and it should hold. I wish I had a bit more control over my facades, because I could make it a more physical manifestation, but I did what I could.”
Jonathan patted her on the shoulder. “That’s perfect.”
When he had been working with Grayson, when Jonathan had first come into his own, he had known that Grayson was a skilled sneak and had considerable talent with creating his own facades. Far more than most, in fact. But what Elizabeth had rapidly progressed to be able to do was even more than what he had ever seen Grayson do. She constantly left Jonathan marveling at how quickly she learned.
“It’s down here,” Matthew said.
They had reached a third-level landing. Jonathan hadn’t even stopped at the second and didn’t see anything other than a hallway, but the third-level landing was a little different. Matthew hesitated, holding on to his sword, and he pushed outward with it, sweeping it as if it were some sort of probe that he could use to detect whatever El’aras enchantments were up ahead—at least, what they hoped was up ahead. Leland stayed close to Matthew, his gaze darting from side to side.
Jonathan did not feel anything unusual here.
That would normally reassure him, but in the case of El’aras enchantments and magic that they might have to deal with, it was not nearly as reassuring as it would have been otherwise. El’aras items could simply disappear from his awareness, and he may have no idea what was there. They didn’t push on his magical senses in quite the same way as other items did.
