Chapter 16: A Romantic Night out on the Town

Running was the wrong idea.

As I dashed down the street that ran along the garden wall, I heard a shout. "Hey, hold it there!"

The rattle of guard's armor and the shrill whistles as they began to chase after me. Crap, crap. I thought to myself and turned into an alley to get out of their line of sight.

The whistles, though, called guards from all directions, and I could practically feel them swarm to my position from blocks around. As I poked my head out of the other end of the alley, I saw guards running down the street as well. Quickly, I looked around and saw that I was standing between two brick houses.

Guards coming from behind me would be able to see me in just moments. The buildings were about four feet apart, not enough for me to brace against. The solution was simple: I pulled out a couple of knives and jammed them between the bricks. This gave me enough leverage to start climbing with the tips of my boots scrambling against the side of the wall. My arms were not idle as my knives dug out the mortar between the bricks.

It was slow going, but after 30 seconds, my forearms were burning, and I was most of the way up the wall when the guard first rounded the corner.

"Hey, come down from there," he yelled. But I didn't listen because I wasn't fucking stupid and rolled on top of the roof, barely dodging a thrown truncheon. That well could have knocked me off the wall, and I would have fallen nearly 15 or 20 feet onto hard pavement paving stones. There would be little chance I would get away at that point.

Now, on the rooftops, I turned and did my best to sprint up the uneven tiled surface but slipped as one of the clay shingles came loose and flew off the side of the building and shattered in the now empty street below. The loud noise echoed through the eerily quiet streets.

I found some footing along the ridge of the crest of the building and ran. A few steps later, I leaped the nearly four-foot gap to the other to the next building. This time, my landing, luckily, did not dislodge any tiles. I moved more carefully. A few buildings over, I was able to see a crowd of guards forming from where I climbed up.

Apparently, they didn't think I would go too far as they were all yelling up at me but weren't quite aware of where I was. I moved a few more buildings over much more carefully now, trying to avoid making sound rather than speed.

They probably eventually spread out, and I wanted to be further away when they did. But I really wasn't too worried about them finding me by looking. Rather, I just didn't want to simply give away my position like an idiot. They didn't get a good look at my face, so if I could find a way to blend in, I should be fine.

A few buildings down the way, and I reached the end of the street where there were no easy buildings to jump onto. I found a chimney to lean against and slumped down, enjoying the warmth radiating out of it as the summer day turned dusk and began to be chilly. Now, I just needed to find somewhere to go.

Setting up a proper rendezvous wasn't something that I had really thought through. I figured I would just leave the city and go find the carriage in the woods. But now that I thought of it, I might have a little trouble getting out of the city, depending on how long they kept it locked down for. If they kept it all night, I'd have to find someplace to stay.

Racking my brains, I tried to remember all the signs of our services that One had coached me on just a few hours ago and remembered the three roses. But looking at them, they weren't easy to find, and without knowing the location well. Still it was a starting point.

I was trying to think while I caught my breath when a small grappling hook wound around the chimney above my head. I tensed before I realized a guard wouldn’t have come up that way. There would have been ladders and a lot more yelling. A few minutes later I saw Four climbing up on top of the roof and coming to unhook it.

"Master," she said. "I have prepared a disguise."

She unslung a satchel from her back and tossed it to me. Opening it up, I found a workman's poncho, a woven blanket with a hole in it made of bright colors. It was a little ratty but well-patched. Slipping it on, it covered my fancy clothes entirely.

Four was still wearing her servant's disguise and blended right in as my wife. No one would notice us if we played our part well.

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Pulling my hair off to the side, I bunched it up and wound a cord around it to keep it out of my face. Quietly, we climbed down the thin rope. When we were down, she shook it, and it came down after us. I didn't realize how delicate that knot was, and I was glad I didn't know when I was climbing down. I'd have to get one to teach me knots because, apparently, that's a skill assassin needed to have that I just didn't.

Instead of running, we walked out arm in arm. The streets were closed, but the guards had moved on, so no one had accosted us yet. Only a few streets down, she led us into a moderately fancy establishment that was a bit out of what would normally be our price range. Four led me up to the host waiting outside and claimed we had a reservation.

The man looked at us skeptically, but when he checked the book, he found there was, in fact, a reservation for a Mr. and Mrs. El Salvador for two.

"It's our anniversary," she said with a sweet smile, and the man put aside his prejudice against our workman-like clothes and gave us a smile.

"Very well, sir, madam. Congratulations." And he led us towards a booth in the back. It wasn't exactly a private room or anything, but it was a small alcove that afforded us some amount of privacy. As he left, I slipped him a silver coin to him, and his eyes widened as I whispered into his ear, "Bring us the best wine that this can buy."

He nodded. Hopefully, that would get us better service and make us stand out a little bit less. It would make sense for us to spend money on an anniversary.

I slipped into the booth across from Four, and she reached out and grabbed my hand. I saw the question in her eyes, and I nodded slightly and smiled. It was a tiny, imperceptible feeling in her fingers and her face, a relaxation that the job was done and everything was taken care of.

We sat there for a good 10 seconds, just looking at each other, while I racked my brain trying to figure out what we were going to say. We had to talk about something and... I wasn't sure what. But an anniversary of awkward silence at a fancy restaurant above our unusual payment might spark some questions. I couldn't ask any of the questions to get to know each other very well, and I didn't really know anything I should about Four. So, I decided to just go all in and play the role of a married couple to the best of my abilities.

"This is a fancy place. A wonderful surprise. How did you get the reservation, my love?"

"Oh, I have my tricks. But really, I knew someone working here and got them to do me a favor." She winked.

I took that to mean that we had an informant or something along the lines here, and Four had set up a getaway while One and Nine were off doing something else. Hopefully, they were looking out for us or causing some sort of distraction. I trusted One to do something to keep me out of here. Perhaps they were working on finding a way into the prisons if we got caught.

"And, um... Your sisters... Did they have anything to do with this?"

Four smiled at my veiled reference to the other Numbered. "Oh, one of them helped a little bit, but... For the most part, they're at home early. It was decided that... I needed to get some alone time with you."

Ah, So it seems they had prepared this, and One and Nine had forced Four into this part of the distraction. That's okay, I didn't mind. I needed to get to know her better anyway, and this was working wonders.

She had a certainly more mischievous side than I realized. It had been initially covered up with fear. But as opposed to One's blatant teasing and affectionate nature or Nine's more stoic personality, Four was neither of them and not even really in between. She was cautious but clearly intelligent and skilled in social manipulations.

Even a few times I've seen her play a role, she was exceptionally good at it, but at the same time, she liked her little jokes that only we were in on. She seemed to find amusement in the discussion of sensitive topics out in the open, under some sort of code.

Playing along a little bit, I asked her how her day went. She shrugged. "Oh, nothing too special. Did have to chase a vagabond away from our doorstep, though."

I frowned slightly, having no idea what she meant by that. "But I did manage to find our stray cat who fell in a puddle of water."

Okay, that was clearly referring to me getting chased by guards.

"Yeah, that stupid cat. Always getting into trouble," I said with a smile. Four was being surprisingly bold, willing to half-insult me that way. She normally seemed afraid of me for something like that. What had One and Nine told her?

"Did your sisters tell you anything new about the cat they found?"

Four shrugged. "One of them–" I assume she was referring to One. “–told me that I needed to keep an open mind and that it might be different than I had known. Perhaps it had been swapped out with a twin, but I'm not sure. It seems to act the same angry cat that I had always known."

"Yeah, that's a real question. Can cats change?” I asked with a quirked brow.

“I would like to think so, yes.” She said in a hesitant tone.

“I think with the right stimuli, a cat can be a little less grumpy when they're not having to fight for their lives." I said in a neutral tone.

Four rubbed her cheek thoughtfully and drummed her two fingers on her lips but had to lean back as we were interrupted.