Five minutes later, Hugo and I entered the building where Shael waited.

“Who’s this?” the bard demanded, shooting to his feet.

“My minion,” I replied laconically.

“Your minion—?” Shael’s mouth snapped closed and a moment later, a Game message dropped open in my mind.

Your blood-bound slave has been analyzed.

Now that’s interesting.

While I could perceive no connection between Hugo and myself, the Adjudicator clearly deemed that we were linked and was sending me Hugo-related Game alerts.

“He’s no ordinary minion,” Shael commented, his eyes narrowing. “He’s a player too.”

“An astute observation,” I said with a straight face.

The bard glared at me.

“What else did your analyze tell you?” I asked, forestalling his retort.

“Nothing. Just his Class and level. Why?”

“Oh, no reason,” I said, concealing my delight. My earlier conjecture had proved correct, and even Shael—a player with both deception and insight—couldn’t ‘see’ Hugo’s dominated debuff.

The bard’s scowl deepened at my evasion. “Are you going to tell me who he is?” he demanded. “Or why have you—”

“I’m Hugo,” the priest growled through clenched teeth, “and you can stop talking about me as if I’m not here.”

Shael’s eyes widened. “He can talk?”

“Of course I can talk!” Hugo snapped. “What sort of idiot are you?”

I chuckled. “Hugo is no ordinary minion, Shael. My hold on his mind is light and he retains full control of his faculties.”

The half elf pursed his lips. I could see my words alarmed him, but perhaps constrained by the priest’s presence, he did not give further voice to his concerns. “I see,” was all he said in the end. “And why is Hugo here?”

“That’s what I want to know too,” the priest put in grumpily.

Shael eyed him sideways but didn’t comment on his interjection.

“Hugo is from the yellow house.” I smiled. “And he is here to tell us all about the ambush his friends have prepared.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The enslaved priest frowned. “They’re not my friends.”

“Companions, then,” I said, acknowledging his point. “But I have surmised accurately, haven’t I? It was an ambush?”

Hugo nodded curtly. “Yes.”

I leaned forward. “For me specifically, correct?”

This time the priest’s response was more ambivalent. “That I can’t say. You don’t look like him.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Like who?”

“Like the one we were told to watch out for,” Hugo replied.

My fingers tightened into fists. The ambushers had my description, and they’d know where to find me. All of that pointed to one person only: Nicola. Things were not looking good for the under-dweller. “Told by whom?” I asked softly.

“Dinara.”

I stiffened, surprise warring with relief—Nicola had not betrayed me. Maybe. “Who?”

“Den chief Dinara,” Hugo expounded.

Folding my arms, I rocked back on my heels while I thought through the priest’s answer. I didn’t doubt his words. Hugo might have retained all his mental faculties, but just like he couldn’t attack me, he couldn’t lie to me either. The blood spell would not allow it.

“Who is Dinara?” Shael wondered aloud.

“The underworld’s representative in Nexus,” I murmured.

“The thieves guild?” Shael asked. “How did you get mixed up with them?”

That the red bard knew about the underworld did not surprise me. “It’s a long story,” I replied absently, “and one for another time.” Lowering my head, I began pacing the floor.

“Dinara,” I muttered. I’d never met the man, and only knew of him through Nicola. So, why had he sent his people to ambush me? There could be multiple answers to that question, but only one obvious one.

Money.

Given the amounts involved, anyone would be tempted, much less a self-proclaimed thief. No, that Dinara was trying to rob me didn’t surprise me. What did, though, was how he knew about the drop point in the first place. There was no reason for Nicola to tell him about it.

Unless, of course, the under-dweller was in on the scheme too.

But that made no sense either. If Nicola wanted to steal my money, all he had to do was keep it. There was no need for an elaborate charade like this.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Perhaps this is the under-dweller’s famed honor at play. Perhaps, Nicola feels honor-bound to keep his word. If only the letter of it, and not the spirit.

My lips turned down unhappily. It made sense—in a twisted sort of way. Still, if that was really what was going on here, it meant I’d read the under-dweller merchant all wrong.

Drawing to a halt, I rounded on Hugo again. I had to be certain. “How did Dinara find out about the drop point?”

The priest looked at me in confusion. “What drop point?”

My own brows furrowed. “The one in the yellow house.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know anything about a drop point.”

I bit my lip. “So why were you in that house?”

“To capture the merchant’s accomplice.”

My gaze sharpened. “What merchant?”

Hugo shrugged. “I don’t know. Some under-dweller.”

“The under-dwellers are mixed up in this too?” Shael muttered. “Why am I not surprised?”

Ignoring him, I stayed focused on Hugo. Whatever was going on, matters didn’t appear as straightforward as I first assumed. “Start at the beginning and leave nothing out: what led you and the others to the yellow house?”

Hugo shrugged. “There is not much to tell. Five days ago, an under-dweller merchant came into the Crooked Man, a tavern not too far from here. He was looking for the den chief. Anyhow, the two spent some time talking—about what, I don’t know—but after the merchant left, Dinara rushed to our gang’s table. I was there so I overheard everything. Dinara’s instructions were quite clear. We were to track the under-dweller and capture anyone he met with.”

“Capture, not kill?” I asked.

Hugo nodded.

“And then what happened?”

Hugo shrugged. “Nothing. Nicola came here, went into the house we’re holed up in, spent a few minutes inside, then returned to the safe zone and left Nexus. With nothing else to go on, Sintar—that’s our gang boss—decided to sit on the house in the hopes that someone would turn up.” He met my gaze. “We were just about to give up when you showed up.”

“I see,” I murmured. On the face of it, it seemed Nicola had not betrayed me. “So, you don’t know about the money?”

Hugo’s confused look was answer enough.

“What money? Shael asked loudly.

I shifted in his direction. “The money I came here to collect.”

Shael’s eyes narrowed. “You thought the thieves were trying to rob you,” he guessed.

I nodded. “But now it appears they know nothing about the money.”

The bard frowned. “Then, what is it that they want?”

I turned back to Hugo, a thoughtful look on my face. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

✵ ✵ ✵

I spent the next few minutes interrogating Hugo about everything he knew about his fellows and their abilities.

Sintar’s gang was one of the larger and more experienced bands of thieves in Nexus, and Sintar himself was someone Dinara often turned to when it came to fulfilling many of his more sensitive commissions. But something else Hugo’s information made clear was that despite the gang’s undoubted expertise at thievery, they were somewhat lacking in combat abilities, and I was confident of being able to take them down.

“Tell me again, why do we have to do this?” Shael asked. “And why right now? We should come back after they’re left. If you believe the priest, all we have to do is wait them out.”

“I believe Hugo,” I replied, “and unfortunately we can’t afford to wait.” I held his gaze. “Or have you forgotten about Saya?”

“Of course I haven’t forgotten about her,” Shael retorted crossly. “But what if—”

“Besides which,” I said, speaking over him, “it’s equally important I find out what Dinara is up to.”

“How will ambushing Sintar’s men help do that?” Shael demanded. “Hugo has already told you everything they know.”

“Sintar may know more,” Hugo interjected.

“He might,” I allowed, “but I am not depending on him. I have a plan.”

“Of course, you do,” Shael muttered. “And let me guess, it begins with killing everyone?”

I grinned unrepentantly. “Actually, it does.”

Seeing my look, Shael groaned. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

✵ ✵ ✵

Five minutes later, I was inside the yellow house.

Sintar’s men had not reset the wards around the building, and thanks to Hugo, I knew why that was the case. The player who’d laid the spell had done so using a scroll and had not thought to bring more. As specialist thieves, the gang had no true mages.

That lack would make things easier.

However, it was about the only good news Hugo delivered. The bad news was that there were thirty gang members, not twenty. The other ten had mind shields. Hugo was convinced too, that at the first sign they were outmatched, the gang would flee. They were thieves after all, not fighters, and a stand-up fight was something they were very much averse to. Complicating things further was the farspeaker link. All thirty thieves were connected to it.

Unfortunately, if my plan was to work, I couldn’t allow any of the gang’s members to escape. Which was why I was going to do things as quietly and stealthily as possible. And why, I’d decided not to involve Hugo and Shael directly.

You have cast vanish. You are invisible. Duration: 5 minutes.

My final buff in place, I focused my senses on the room directly atop me. Hugo had given me the layout of the second floor, and I knew that four players waited inside, two of whom were mind shielded. For obvious reasons, they were the biggest threat in the room and I would have to deal with them first.

Drawing ebonheart, I shadow blinked.

You have teleported into Cari’s shadow. You are hidden.

I emerged from the aether in a heavily shadowed room. Before me was the broad back of the player whose mindglow I’d used to teleport. She was exposed. Vulnerable. Easy prey.

Nevertheless, I did not lunge forward. Staying stock still, I swept the room with my gaze.

The two shielded players were less than three yards away, sitting on the floor with their backs to a wall and with their eyes closed. They were not asleep though.

The pair were speaking, but not in an ordinary way.

You have passed a Perception check!

Mental sendings detected. Narq and Agtor are communicating telepathically.

No sooner did the Game message unfurl in my mind than a faint buzzing began in my ears. It was no true sound though, but rather a telepathic spillover from the pair’s conversation, and interesting enough, it wasn’t just random noise I was hearing. Concentrating on the not-noise, I sensed an almost-familiar pattern buried beneath. Intrigued, I focused harder.

You have passed a Mind check!

You have successfully eavesdropped on Narq and Agtor’s conversation.

A moment later, the buzzing resolved itself into words—the very words spoken by Narq and Agtor mind-to-mind. Shamelessly, I listened in.

You have passed a mental resistance check! Your mental intrusion has gone undetected.

“… Hugo?”

“Bah! Hugo was an idiot. Good riddance, I say.”

“Still, you have to admit it’s concerning. What the hell happened to him?”

“Like I said, who cares. I just want to get back to my…”

Frowning thoughtfully, I dropped out of the pair’s mental link. Narq and Agtor were not speaking over the gang’s farspeaker link. I knew this for certain because I was wearing Hugo’s own bracelet—and right now all was quiet on that link. Which was all to the good and meant the pair’s abrupt cessation of chatter would go unnoticed.

Blade in hand, I crept closer to Narq.

It was time to clear the room.