Page 110 of By the Horns
Kipp gestures, indicating a knock over the head and then dragging the unconscious man away.
Arrod is shocked. “Mucking five hells, Kipp! I was thinking we’d distract him!”
Kipp shrugs.
“Unless you have the appropriate passes, you all need to leave,” the supervisor says, coming over to confront us.
I put my chin up, deciding to bluff my way through. “Guild law states that students are free to move about in guild territory. Unless you’re arresting us, we’re not leaving. And I’m not mucking leaving until you either get me the head guild master, or you let me go down in one of those baskets to see what’s happening.” I stab a finger at him. “Every moment we waste could mean someone else’s death, and that’s on you.”
“Women,” he scoffs, stalking away to get reinforcements.
Kipp makes the conking-over-the-head gesture again.
I’m tempted. I’m sooooo tempted.
“I appreciate the sentiment,” I tell Kipp, but I know trying to takeover one of the drops on our own is a bad idea. I’ve been eyeing the pulley system, thinking that perhaps it’d be like a well and bucket, but it’s far more complex and involves multiple levers and cranks. “But I don’t think we’d get down very far without their assistance. Like it or not, we need their help.”
Arrod considers this, arms crossed as we whisper a short distance away from the nearest lift. “We could just tell them the truth. Maybe they’d give us a pass then?”
I scoff at him. “What, we tell them a dead man informed me that my Taurian lover has been dumped into an old tunnel filled with ratlings so they can clear it out for the thieves to use because we’ve caught on to their old method of stealing? That truth?”
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound a bit ridiculous.” He taps his foot, thinking.
I think, too, even as I scowl at the repeater operating the closest lift. Would bribery work? A nice lunch? An offer of kisses or a boob touch? I’m not keen on the thought of either, honestly, but I’m also getting desperate, and we’ve been standing here for a while. I’m deeply conscious of every moment that passes, imagining Raptor in pain, bleeding, dying….
I’m just about to flop down on the ground and insist on staying where I am when Rooster appears, in full guild regalia. He’s accompanied by five guild enforcers, and they approach with a menacing air. The supervisor of the drop immediately points at me. “She’s the problem, sir.”
“What’s going on here? What is the meaning of all of this?” Rooster strides forward, sash clinking heavily with metal pins. Despite his short stature and rounded belly, he manages to convey an air of authority. “Who do you think you are, trying to go down a lift without the proper authorization?”
Oh good. Someone who can finally fix things. “Thank the gods you’re here,” I say to Rooster, striding up to him. “I need in that tunnel, and quickly. If all of us could go down there, that would be just lovely—”
He raises a hand in the air. “I don’t know what authority you feel you have, demanding things. Bad enough that we’ve got a rogue group down below—”
“Wait, what rogue group?”
“Drop attendants reported that a Five forced their way in early this morning—”
My jaw drops, and I interrupt before he can finish. “That’s a lie! It’s a rescue effort! I saw the missive Raptor received this morning!”
“There’s no rescue effort at the moment,” Rooster says with a frown.
“Well, someone is lying!”
“And how do I know it’s not you just being hysterical?”
“Because I want Raptor back alive, damn it! The people who sent him there don’t! They want him and the others to clear out the drop that’s full of ratlings so they can route the stolen goods through it via a secret tunnel in the archives!”
“There’s a secret tunnel in the archives?” Sparrow asks, shocked.
“Behind some crates. It looks like a shelf full of old scrolls, but it can be moved aside. It comes out to Drop Twenty-Seven, which has a hidden passage that heads out of the city. That’s how the thieves are moving about.” I point at Rooster when he opens his mouth. “And before you accuse me of being a thief, if I was, why would I tell you all my secrets?”
“Then how do you know all this?” Rooster asks. “If even the rest of the guild isn’t aware of such passages?”
I can’t say. I can’t tell him that dead Hemmen’s ghost showed me everything. I make a wordless sound and look to Sparrow for help.
But Rooster’s eyes narrow. “You’re the mancer, aren’t you?”
His voice is low enough that the repeaters won’t hear him, but it still feels too public, too loud. My tongue glues itself to the roof of my mouth.
