Legends of Dimmingwood 02:Betrayal of Thieves by C. Greenwood Read Free Book Online Page B

stop. “Most people couldn’t find this place, but I know the garden district, or for that matter, all of this city, better than the city guard.”
    “Who’s Nimble?” I questioned.
    “My partner in crime,” he explained. “He has a talent for picking up things other people miss, so I consult him in everything.”
    He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and withdrew a wriggling, fist-sized creature whose brown fur grew in mangy patches and whose scaled tail was half the length of its body.
    I quirked an eyebrow at the ugly animal. “Your partner is a rat?”
    “The cleverest helper I ever had,” he assured me, settling the creature on his shoulder, where it looked perfectly at home. “He never argues, never betrays, and always gives sound advice.”
    Suspecting the rat of being a convenient instrument for his owner’s opinions, I said, “And right now Nimble’s advice is…?”
    “Sit and wait,” my companion answered. “Few and determined are those who find their way to the heart of the Beautiful.”
    “I expect the determination of the guardsmen will depend on the value of whatever it was you stole,” I said.
    “When you put it that way, they might consider a long search worth their while, yes. A certain noble woman is missing some particularly fine jewelry up on Round Street tonight. Luckily, no one saw my face.”
    “All the same,” I said. “I’d be eager to leave the vicinity if I were you.”
    He said, “That’s because you’re not using your head. I’m not about to be picked up on the street with stolen goods in my pocket. Much better to lie low for the night and slip away in the morning, after the searchers are long gone. That’s my plan anyway, and I advise you to do the same.”
    So saying, he dropped to the ground and pulled off his boots. For a moment, I thought this was his preparation for going to sleep, but then he began pulling the legs of his breeches up to the knee. Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I had to ask what he was doing.
    “Isn’t it obvious? I’m wading,” he said, stepping into the shallow pool in front of the pavilion.
    “At a time like this you’re going to play in the water?” I asked.
    “I’m not playing at anything. I’m securing our good luck by placing a coin in the mouth of the water nymph,” he said.
    As he spoke, he splashed to the center of the pool where the likeness of a playful water nymph wrapped in her long hair crouched among the lily pads. Her parted lips, revealing a collection of shiny coppers inside, indicated this sort of offering was a common tradition for the few who made their way to the heart of the maze.
    My companion added his offering to the rest, before splashing his way back to me. I noted that, despite his precautions, his breeches were soaked to the knee, but he didn’t complain as he climbed over the edge of the fountain to sit at my side. Clearly, he considered the relative discomfort worth the gain.
    When he finished tugging his boots on again, he led me to the covered pavilion where we found a pair of long benches set against the walls. I gathered these were to serve as our beds for the night. The space was narrow, the floor no more than a dozen steps across, and the towering columns weren’t as sheltering as solid walls would have been. But I told myself that was just as well because if our enemies discovered us here, we would have several quick routes of escape.
    Leaning back on the cold stone, I found the roof overhead was as insubstantial as the walls. Just a set of crisscrossing narrow beams, over which grew a tangle of intertwining vines. I stared up through the open patches of greenery into the starry night sky and thought of Terrac. I was surprised to feel loneliness washing over me, as I wondered if I would ever see him, my outlaw friends, or my forest again. Dimmingwood seemed a thousand miles away from this strange city. My mind moved to Hadrian and my failure to locate him. A thought occurred to