Chapter 13

“What exists beyond the oceans? Another continent? An island? Water? I can only guess that it’s hell itself, for why would no one return?”

—Common sailor

Unlike the markets far to the south, the Benelid Market in Belladder contained little variety in its wares except for seafood which existed in seemingly unending rows of chilled and filleted fish along with a plethora of crabs, oysters, clams, lobsters, squid, etc. Specialized fishing ships went far north, using some of its ice to keep their catch cold. Other less common types of food included vegetables and fruits hardy to a northern climate, fresh chicken and pork, and different types of exotic meats. All of these were offered in the market cooked, gutted or whole.

Natali, Seff and Reyn met next to some live jumbo crabs.

“Natali,” said Seff. “This market is pretty interesting.” Seff had been to many markets, but never on the northern shore. The plentiful variety of seafood impressed him.

“Oh, it’s the most wonderful market in the world. It’s got everything you could ever eat.”

“Where are the peaches and oranges?” Reyn poked and smiled. Seff knew Reyn was joking, as only an idiot would think that those would be offered in such a cold climate.

“Oh, who cares? You have whale, crab and fish that swim upside down,” Natali held her hand palm up. Reyn noticed he could see Natali’s other hand now all the time while she spoke—unlike the previous evening. It hung at her side naturally. Reyn wondered what she had been hiding.

“Do they taste good?” asked Seff.

“No, not at all, but that’s not the point,” said Natali. “They have everything you could want—look there’s some octopus tentacles. And if you don’t like their tentacles, there’s some whole squid around here somewhere. I’m sure we can find some cooked so you can sample it. Or do you like them raw? Maybe alive?” Natali raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Seff shook his head, giving an awkward smile.

Reyn said, “So do you have anything you really like here that we should try?”

“I love it all,” smiled Natali.

“We’re never going to get anything done,” said Seff. He realized that Natali would probably do little else than shove a variety—alive and raw—seafood at them until they puked. “Let’s just get food, put it in a sack and go to my place.”

Reyn frowned at him, “My father won’t be back until late, so we can eat at our place. It’s a bit... bigger.”

Natali and Seff agreed, and they were soon eating in Reyn’s cramped apartment.

“So, Natali, do you have any good targets?” said Seff.

“Hundreds, naturally,” said Natali, too quickly for Seff's liking.

“Well?” he asked. He was suspicious of Natali’s too-broad answer.

“Do you want something big, small, medium, in-town, out-of-town, in-between-town, high, low, river, sea, government, private, residential, commercial; what type of place do you want to rob?” asked Natali. She smiled after seeing their puzzled faces.

Reyn liked the way Natali rattled off the list. He admired her sharp response to Seff’s overbearing prodding.

Seff didn’t know what to say after Natali’s ridiculous line. He knew she had probably thought up the line and memorized it. Maybe she hadn’t, but her evasive answer, if it could be called that, annoyed him. He decided to play along, hiding his frustration as well as he could. “Well, something easy. Like, small, out-of-town, maybe commercial or government.”

“Ok, you can go after the secondary harbor import office or Goff’s Packages.”

“What is Goff’s Packages?” Reyn asked.

“It’s an exceptionally fast regional delivery service,” said Natali, “They do a ton of business, and they only close for four hours. There’s a five-man crew at the specific station I’m thinking about, and they carry quite a few valuables on the wagons and horses. The wagons carry anything heavy. The horseback couriers carry anything light like letters, money or jewels. The station itself is not important, nor the amount of money that they have in the station. However, the packages are possibly worth a nice amount.”

“Who guards it?” Seff asked.

“A guard. The packages themselves are in an underground basement.”

“How do we get into the basement?” asked Seff. He was focused now, his irritation slipped to the back of his mind.

Stolen story; please report.

“We go by the tunnel that leads from the barn to under the stationhouse.”

“Tunnel?”

“Yes, very few people know about the tunnel. I was down there a little while ago with my father. We were picking up a package, and they let him down there while they looked for it. Normally, we would need to break in through the front which is regularly patrolled.

“So, we go into the barn and make our way into the stationhouse?”

“Yes, after we melt down the iron door,” Natali said.

Seff grimaced. He knew what it would take to melt an iron door—especially one made for security purposes.

“What?” Reyn asked.

“They have one iron door. It is barred and locked at night from the inside when they’re sleeping. As you are both sorcerers, supposedly,” Natali winked at Reyn, “Then we should be able to melt the door.” Reyn glared for a second at Natali, showing his displeasure at her doubt.

Seff let a smile slip but neither saw it. He was impressed by Natali’s ability to irritate them, yet still, get her way. For the first time, Seff could see what had attracted Reyn to Natali. He changed his thoughts to the iron door. He asked, “And that’s all that’s stopping us from getting into the basement?”

Natali said, “That, and we have to get into the barn without making noise, just in case one of them is awake in the stationhouse. Also, there are two levels to the basement. Some of the packages are a low priority and have been sitting in the lower level for a few days. The more valuable ones are normally right by the door ready to be hauled out from the basement.”

“And the import office?” asked Seff, changing targets.

“No one is there from nine to three at night. All the ships are in dock and tied up—or should be—and it holds tax revenue and records from every ship going in and out of port. It’s the secondary office, so it doesn’t hold nearly as much money. However, it has no guards. Going after the main one would not work.”

“Should be an easy take,” said Seff, thinking of how hard it’d be to get Reyn to stack heating spells. He wondered if it’d ever work.

“Both should be,” Natali said.

“We can probably rob both the same night,” Reyn added.

* * *

Natali, Reyn and Seff crested the small rise in the road. Ahead of them lay the center of the Market District, a crisscrossing mash of streets. The road curved slightly, so that new shops continued to appear as they walked further. Shops of all types offered their wares on the bottom floors. In the second through fifth floors of these ‘tall’ shops, workers labored to produce the goods sold on the bottom floors. Shoes, coats, gloves, belts, axes and clubs and swords, hats and caps, smoking pipes and cigars of all types, coal, and so much more could be bought on that single s-bend street. Belladder was the last stop for many before fishing, trapping, or hauling lumber from the mountains.

“I still don’t know why I had to come along,” Natali said.

“You’re familiar with all these places; we just got here,” Seff said while waving at both sides of the street.

“But my family. If they knew I was gone, they would think I was with a boy.”

“Aren’t you though?” smiled Seff.

Natali ignored Seff’s inference and said, “But I’d be watched from then on, unable to help you at all then. You’re risking a lot by having me come with you.”

“When we know the town a bit better, then obviously you can do—wait—light. Start walking the other way,” Seff directed.

The three of them immediately turned about and started walking swiftly in the opposite direction, hoping that no one would see them.

The glow of the streetlamps shone dim in the foggy gloom hanging over frigid Belladder. The streets were entirely empty. The moon hung high overhead. The street seemed to allow sight for only a few hundred feet.

Interspersed throughout the city were constables patrolling on foot, looking for anything suspicious. This turned out to be most anyone or anything out late on the streets. Few people would legitimately be hauling cargo this late, for no one would be up to receive it. Nor would anyone want to be out in the cold air of this most northern city. A drunk sailor—or one passed out—would be most common, or a shop keeper returning late, or even another constable. However, three teenagers wandering about would garner the highest of suspicions.

The constables, Reyn knew, were comfortable, though. They wore thick coats, a funny looking headdress that fit snugly over their ears and neck, and a custom-fit scarf that wrapped around their nose and mouth. Altogether, warm and snug.

“Hurry,” Seff said. “Walk faster, once we get by that bend we can start running and go around the other way to Goff’s. Natali, I thought this place was isolated.”

“It is. It’s not like it’s in the middle of the government plaza,” Natali said.

The three of them slipped around the corner before the constable had made it around the bend.

“Which reminds me,” she paused for a moment. “What do we do if we have to talk to a constable. He’s going to ask us a lot of questions that I don’t think we would be wise to answer, especially not with what we’re planning on doing for the next few months.”

“She’s got a point,” said Reyn.

Seff said, “We don’t really have many choices. Obviously, the lightning makes too much noise, and the fire takes too long and would allow the constable to scream and maybe even whistle. If we say anything alarming he’ll whistle, so really we only have two choices: Jump him and hope he doesn’t have time to yell or whistle, or just tell him a lie.”

“Could we talk about the lie?” asked Natali.

“Nope. If I was a talented kinetic, I could rip his whistle away. But I’m not a kinetic. You’re not a kinetic are you, Natali?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Natali said, “I meant, we need to plan our lie, not not-lie.”

“As I said,” redirected Seff, “We say we’re going back to either our place or your place, which really seems like the better choice, because you could have, in theory, gotten lost and we just happened to be returning late from—somewhere—and then you knew us because you know Reyn from classes. That should be enough to get us off.”

“Except for the fact that we’re headed the opposite way than we should be,” said Natali.

“And who wouldn’t be with an exceptionally pretty girl?” Seff said.

“And where would you take me if you had your way? Are you sure you don’t want to kill me in one of these alleyways?” Natali waved at an alley.

Seff jumped on the opportunity to tease back. “Don’t tempt me, Natali, you’re the meanest of blackmailers, using my friend as leverage,” he said in a serious tone. Seff was thinking about how annoying she had been when she was evasive while telling them the possible targets.

“Whoa, whoa,” stormed Natali. “Are you serious?”

Reyn did not know why Natali had gotten so angry.

Seff, also taken aback, mustered, “Wait, what?”

“I see how it is, Seff. Use everyone, and then when they’re not paying attention, kill them? Really?”

“I was only kidding,” Seff said, laughing it off.

“He was only kidding. We wouldn’t do anything to you,” Reyn said.

“Oh no, I could tell by his tone, Reyn. He was serious,” Natali said. “Don’t tempt me guys, I might kill Natali before I can control myself. Don’t tempt me to kill you, Natali. You better straighten up, Natali. Don’t provoke me, Natali.”

Natali turned to Seff and slapped him across the cheek. “Don’t ever think I’m not your equal, Seff.”