Five boys stalked in the shadows, protected by the darkness as they approached the guarded passageway.
Vardan carefully inched closer against the wall and slowly peeked over the corner. Three rough-looking bandits stood at the entrance of the tunnel, stopping every passerby and interrogating them. Of course, they made sure to rob their poor victims once they were done. Unless they happened to be an even tougher-looking villain.
The other four boys stared at Vardan, anxiously waiting to know what he saw. He put up three fingers. The boys sighed as quietly as possible.
“Told you they have people everywhere. They’ve been camping out here for the past few days. We have to go with the original plan. The hidden tunnel’s exit is on the outskirts of town, but at least it gets us into the Nameless Town,” Vardan whispered by Hakimi’s ears.
Hakimi frowned, but didn’t object. He was the one who suggested they check the main roads first. Those would have been the quickest paths to Fang Chen Yu’s palace, but it was obvious that the enemy was prepared.
Vardan turned around and led the boys back where they came from, holding a faint, glowing rock in his hand to light the way forward. They crept slowly, partly to be stealthy and partly because of the large bags of magistones they were carrying on their backs. Hakimi was the only one without a bag. He wanted to carry one, but Vardan didn’t allow him and there wasn’t much he could do in protest.
They navigated their way to a small tunnel with familiar ease. It was the same one that Vardan had used to shake off their pursuers after they left Fang Chen Yu’s palace.
“You’re sure this passage is safe?” asked Hakimi.
“I checked it out personally yesterday. No one knows about it,” Vardan replied.
One by one, they squeezed their way into the narrow tunnel, which was just barely tall and wide enough to fit a single person. The boys had to put their bags in front of them and slowly shove them forward as they crawled on all fours.
“Is this the only path we have?” Han Yang grumbled.
Vardan laughed and said sarcastically, “No, I just like to watch you squirm like a worm.”
Finally, after what seemed like ages, they popped out of the tunnel into a narrow passageway that looked more like a tiny crack in the wall than an actual path.
Vardan looked around the corner once more while Osman helped Hakimi out of the tunnel.
He sighed.
“What is it?” asked Han Yang.
“There’s a lookout.”
“In the city as well? Aren’t they a little too well-prepared for us?”
“They are,” said Hakimi, “And I’ll bet my left hand Fang Chen Yu is behind all this again.”
Han Yang looked at the younger boy doubtfully. He still didn’t quite trust Hakimi, even though it had been a week since they were freed from Rayyan’s tyranny.
Hakimi explained coolly, “The only people who knows the specifics of the deal were inside that hall. It’s possible Fang Chen Yu’s guards told their bandit friends when we are supposed to deliver the magistones, but I reckon he keeps a tighter leash on his guards than that.”
“But he’s the one who wants the magistones. Why would he make it harder for us to deliver it to him?”
“Because all that matters to him is that the magistones gets delivered, not who does it. Whoever kills us and takes our loot is gonna be selling the magistones to Fang Chen Yu anyway. He leaked the information intentionally to make things difficult for us.”
Han Yang scratched his head and said, “So what do we do now?”
“Don’t worry. We were prepared for this,” said Vardan as he strapped the bag tighter to his shoulder. He peeked around the corner once more and caught the attention of a raggedy urchin picking through some scraps in a garbage pile right next to the lookout. He made a signal with his hand and the urchin blinked twice.
“Let’s go,” Vardan said.
Vardan stepped out of the shadows and started walking down the tunnel. With the exception of Hakimi, the rest of the boys all seemed a little nervous, but they followed after him nonetheless. They were all wearing coarse hemp cloaks to conceal their bags, but it wasn’t going to stop someone from identifying them as a bunch of teenagers.
Just as they were about to enter the bandit’s line of sight, the urchin bumped into the bandit. The bandit shoved the urchin and the urchin bolted away before the bandit could swear at him. The bandit then patted his body, only to realise that his coin pouch was missing. He cursed loudly and immediately sprinted after the urchin, who had already vanished down the labyrinthine roads of the Nameless Town.
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“This way,” said Vardan, leading the boys down the opposite turn the bandit had taken.
They knew of the enemy’s preparations well ahead of time. Vardan’s friends had kept him well-informed and had helped him make his own preparations. He knew almost exactly where every one of the lookouts was supposed to be and had mapped out the safest and most optimal route. Of course, no one could tell what to really expect once they were inside the Nameless Town.
The five boys continued on their way to the heart of the Nameless Town, taking longer detours to avoid coming across any more enemy lookouts. When they did run into lookouts they could not avoid, one of Vardan’s contacts would always be there to run distraction. Slowly but surely, they were making progress.
“These bandits…seem unorganized. It’s too easy. One or two urchins picking their pockets; maybe just an unlucky day. But so many incidents with urchins and slave kids and they still don’t seem to be aware that something’s up?” questioned Hakimi as they walked down a narrow alleyway, sidestepping an unconscious drunk in the way.
The drunk groaned and turned the other way.
“That’s because they aren’t working together. My sources tell me that the only ones coming after us this time are the smaller gangs. About a dozen of them. They’ve got over a hundred men between them, but everyone’s out for themselves. They don’t want to share. Which leaves us plenty of wiggle room,” explained Vardan.
They hurried down a few more tunnels and crowded slums, when all of a sudden, they heard footsteps. Slow and deliberate, right behind them. Vardan and Hakimi looked at each other and started walking faster, but still trying to be as quiet as they could. The boys stole a few glances over their shoulders, but it was too dark to see if anyone was following them.
There was light at the end of the tunnel. Some sort of torch or lantern. They stepped out of the tunnel into a clearing, only to find three burly men lying in wait for them. Their swords were drawn and they chuckled sinisterly as they looked at the five boys. It was an ambush.
The boys stopped in their tracks.
The man at the very front, with a prominent and hairy belly smirked as he stepped forward.
“Welcome, children. You look surprised. Bet you’re wondering—”
“Run!” Vardan swung the bag on his shoulder across the man’s face and instantly broke into a sprint, zipping down the passage on the left faster than anyone could react. The other boys had been with Vardan long enough to follow his orders without hesitation. They reacted instantly.
Han Yang gave the bandit leader a kick in the belly while he was still reeling from Vardan’s blow and Hafiz shoved another bandit aside. They were teenagers, strong enough to stun their attackers momentarily.
The bandits were quick to give chase, however, and it wasn’t hard to pursue a bunch of kids carrying such heavy cargo. Vardan made a few rushed turns, often hesitating for a brief moment whenever he did so. The safe route he had mapped out for them was ruined. They brushed past several lookouts on their escape. Each of them was confused and befuddled at the commotion, only to rally and give chase well after a few seconds.
A lookout squinted when he saw the boys approaching. Vardan tackled him into the wall, but he quickly recovered. He extended a hand and snatched, latching onto the edge of Hafiz’s cloak. The cheaply-made and poorly-stored cloak they found in storage tore into shreds. Hafiz stumbled forward and spilled a few stones onto the ground. Luckily, he caught his balance and continued running forward.
The chase party behind them had grown to a sizeable group of a dozen men, all yelling and hollering. Most of these were empty threats and obscenities, but a few of them were actual, legitimate curses.
A paper lantern in the shape of a tiger flew forward of its own accord, almost catching up to the boys. It opened its mouth and spewed billowing hot flames on the boys. Before it could do severe damage, the lantern bumped into a wall and caught on fire, turning itself into ashes in a matter of seconds.
Someone muttered another curse behind them and the boys found themselves sobbing uncontrollably, tears streaming out of their eyes and blurring their vision. They wiped the tears out of their eyes as best as they could, kept their head down and kept running.
Hakimi turned back to look for a second and recognized the unconscious old drunk they ran into earlier in the alleyway amongst the ranks of their pursuer. That was probably the person who had been walking behind them. His gaze shifted slightly and he crossed eyes with another bandit. The bandit shouted something and stabbed the doll in his hand with a dagger.
Hakimi felt a splitting headache and immediately looked away. The pain subsided slightly, but it wasn’t getting much better. He cursed as he suffered silently. He should have known better than to look straight into the eyes of a sorcerer. The sorcerers of Nameless Town were often non-orthodox sorcerers, self-taught or home-trained in folk magic. It wasn’t quite as powerful as the more systematic schools of magic, but they always came with an element of surprise.
Vardan turned yet another corner and saw an urchin in the distance, crouching between two wooden posts and watching cautiously. He lifted three fingers into the air and waved them about. The urchin immediately turned around and vanished down one of the tunnels.
“I hope…you have…a plan…Vardan!” Han Yang shouted at him, panting between every few words.
Vardan shouted back at him, “Shut up and run!”
The bandits were slowly gaining on them. Vardan suddenly turned around. He heaved and swung his bag, letting go of it at the last second. Everyone was stunned. The bag sailed through the air and the bandits in the way immediately stepped out of the way to dodge the improvised projectile. One of the bandits was too slow, or simply didn’t see the bag, but he managed to catch it in his arms. A few shiny gems spilled out of the opening.
The bandits stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. The boys looked at Vardan in surprise.
“Let’s go!” Vardan shouted and snapped the boys back to their senses. All five of them continued running while the bandits were still at a loss of what to do. A bag that large would contain nearly ten kilograms of magistones. That would work out to a small fortune by itself. The bandits eyed each other warily, their drawn swords turning against each other as the realization dawned on them.
“What the hell are you thinking?” Hakimi yelled as they left their pursuers behind, “We lose that bag and we don’t make quota! Fang Chen Yu is gonna skin us alive!”
“Relax. I’ve never done anything stupid before, have I?” Vardan smirked as he lifted up his cloak to reveal a second bag tied to his stomach.
Hakimi frowned.
“So, that was…?”
“Those bandits are about to find out that they are killing each other over a whole bag of worthless, ordinary, common rocks.”