Page 64 of Zel
There was still some brightness to the sky as the sun dipped below the horizon, but once Zel had his bearings of which street they had appeared on, he knew the most shadowed paths to reach his home. They arrived without anyone seeing them, finding the back door unlocked as promised. Inside, everything was still.
“Do you know where your parents might be?” Ulrich whispered.
“They would not want to rouse suspicion, so they could be on missions if they were given any or simply below, waiting on the evening meal with other members. If able to, they will have helped clear the way for us.” Zel was certain of that much, even if they had not been able to speak plainly in their letters.
He led Ulrich quietly through the back of the shop. The storeroom was on the other side, so they passed the stairs leading to the living quarters along the way.
Ulrich paused to look up the steps. He had covered his face, just as Zel had, but his violet eyes still glimmered.
“Up there is where you lived?” he asked.
“All my life.”
“I would have been interested to see your room someday.”
“I would be interested to have you in it.”
“So I can see it?”
“So I canhave youin it,” Zel repeated, and pulled Ulrich down to his slighter height, lowering both their masks so he could press a kiss to Ulrich’s lips. “Later,” he promised.
“Yes…” But Ulrich seemed hesitant, distracted.
“Do you doubt we can do this?”
“No guild master could best me, but I am allowed to worry about you, little cabbage.”
That meant the world to Zel. It truly did. But he knew his worth, and he wasn’t about to falter right on the cusp of having everything he had ever wanted—and much he hadn’t even dared to dream about. He brandished his dagger with a grin. “Do not doubt my skills any more than you doubt yours. We will win. Then we can be together as we have earned.”
Zel hurried ahead. The storeroom was as quiet as the rest of the shop, but as soon as he lifted the hatch into the undercroft, noise filtered up from the members below. Zel’s instincts were topull his braids out from under his cloak and stroke them to calm his nerves, but he should not need such a crutch any longer.
He would succeed.
He was ready for this.
He was fierce and beautiful and capable.
And so was Ulrich.
Zel held a finger to his lips, and Ulrich nodded. They each pulled their masks back up, and Zel descended first. Ulrich had the power to cast great magic, but anything too flashy might draw attention, and even he might be overwhelmed if the whole of the guild turned on them. So they snuck, down the ladder and into the belly of the guild.
The undercrofts in general had wards against the use of magical trinkets inside its walls, other than those sanctioned by Lothar. How much easier this might have been with some of those at their disposal, such as the orb to peer around corners even if not into Lothar’s sanctum, but at least it would take something far more powerful than a mere ward to prevent Ulrich from using his powers.
Zel flattened Ulrich against the wall with an outstretched arm as a pair of guild members moved past the doorway where they stood. It was a small alcove they were tucked into, a well-known one, but no one should have been headed there to go up unless it was Zel’s own parents. He and Ulrich waited, and when no voices sounded near, Zel peeked out into the hall and glanced in both directions.
Clear.
Lothar’s audience chamber, his sanctum, was only a few twisting turns of the undercroft halls away, but they needed to pass the entrance into the primary common room to reach it. Between Zel’s skills and Ulrich’s ability to practically be shadow, their footfalls made no noise, but a single mistake could raise the alarm.
Zel motioned to Ulrich when they neared the common room. He was to sweep Zel past it fast enough that hopefully no one would see them.
“Let’s get him then! He’d hate to miss poultry night!” a voice boomed from inside, as two large shadows neared the inauspicious doorway.
Ulrich’s hand came down upon Zel’s shoulder, and when he glanced back, it was Ulrich who held a finger to his lips. Silently, he outstretched his arm past Zel, the black and cursed one, and as if from his clawed fingertips, mist formed like violet smoke. It took on the shape of a slinking cat that approached the door and scurried inside.
“By the depths—!” the same voice exclaimed, for the cat must have darted right past him.
“Catch the beast!” another announced, and the pair could be heard heading deeper inside.
