Jed
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The Hall was where we ate, but also where we met when meetings needed to be held. Such as meetings where it is decided to never return to a certain Baron's estate. You know, for example.
We climbed a few stairs into the structure proper, and I led us to the Hall. The entrance to the hideout was underground, and there weren't too many people around. The hideout, which was nicknamed The Hole, was never very crowded. It was less of a home and more of a hostel. No thief wanted to be tied down to one place for too long, but a central hub is necessary in any business, no matter how illicit. A place to buy, sell, and trade. A place to lie low, if it was needed, which was why we were here.
This late, it was especially empty. The witching hours were the best time for a thief, after all.
The only regulars at The Hole were the gears in its machine. Barnaby was one of them. Jed was another, and he was who we were going to speak with in the Hall. He wasn't anyone's master, or even a particularly good thief, but The Hole was his, and he knew everything that happened here. Barnaby had probably already slipped a note through the wall for someone to run to him.
It would be up to Jed what happened to the pair of us. I was known, and I had paid entry for Lero, but I had still messed up, and I knew it. I wasn't scared to see him—the worst he could do was kick me out—but I'd much prefer to at least be able to spend the night here and get my head on straight, and talk with Lero.
Ever since he'd said we had to talk about what was going to happen, I'd been unable to get my mind off of it. Without someone nipping at my heels, it was remarkable how quick my mind returned to what had happened to me in the moonlight. And what had happened to Lero.
We definitely needed to talk.
The Hall was just ahead, some hundred feet deep into the narrow hallways that comprised the strange, wooden, torch-lit labyrinth that was The Hole.
"Stop there," Barnaby said. He slipped by Lero and me and pushed open the double doors to the Hall, poking his head inside. "Jed's not here yet," he said, turning around. "Busy with something else. Sit at the scarred table. Won't be long."
Barnaby waited for us to walk inside, then closed the doors and left. Presumably, anyway. The stocky man could move like a ghost and stay just as quiet; he could very well have been right outside the door.
The Hall was a simple affair. Two rows of not-so-big rectangular wooden tables up against the walls with room to walk in-between and graced by row benches. In the back, there was a door to the kitchen, and several other doors besides, even between the tables. One didn't sit there unless one wanted to be smacked by comers and goers.
The scarred table was the furthest forward and to the right, and it was the only one with a lit ceiling torch, hanging above it and spilling forth light. Lero and I sat on the same bench at the table, a few feet apart from each other.
"Don't say anything unbecoming," I murmured as we sat. "The walls in this room have eyes and ears. Literally."
Lero just nodded, as though unperturbed. "How long will this take?"
I shrugged. "Not long. Jed isn't one to linger about on decisions. If he's not interested, we take the gold and we go elsewhere."
Lero looked like he wanted to ask what 'elsewhere' I had in mind, but he blessedly didn't say it aloud. He was quick to catch on. I wondered what sort of dealings he had done before his time in Baron Eaves' dungeon. More things for us to talk about, when the time came. It would be easier if we could do it here—the Hall was the only heavily-monitored area—but that would be up to Jed.
And speak of the devil, he was here.
Jed came in through the front doors, making no effort to conceal his steps or noise, like any thief would. Like I said, Jed wasn't a skilled thief, but that didn't mean I had no respect for him. This was his domain, and he ran it well. His fist was usually silent and unsuspecting, but it was made of iron.
Jed was an imposing man. He's tall and broad—not quite as big as, say, Lundgren, but just as battle-scarred. We all thought he must have been a soldier or mercenary in his life before The Hole, but he never lent any of us a glimmer of his past, not even Barnaby or any of his other supposed confidants. He was mysterious in that way; a grizzled, muscled, and tall man, with brown hair and a short beard that somewhat hid even more scars.
His dark eyes met mine, and he pulled his lips into a semblance of a grin, but I wasn't fooled. This was business talk. He had the coat of arms in his hand, and he tossed it up and caught it several times on his way over to us.
"Myra," he said, his voice like battered silk. "I didn't expect you back so soon. Bearing such a gift. And a friend."
His eyes moved to Lero, and did they flash? It was hard to tell. But I watched him closely.
"Lero," Jed said, dipping his head slightly. Barnaby had told him, of course. "A pleasure."
Lero didn't say anything, but acknowledged the greeting with a nod of his own. He probably thought it best to let us colleagues go about our business.
Jed was clearly thinking the same thing. "Your asylum is granted. To the pair of you."
The main doors to the hall, having scarcely been closed for a moment, opened again, and this time a younger boy walked in. An orphan steward, probably; they were plentiful, they worked for cheap, and then they were sent away.
"Joseph will take Lero to your room. We still have some things to discuss, and then he'll be back to take you there, as well. Oh...I assume you intended to share?" Jed raised an eyebrow.
I kept myself from rolling my eyes and flushing. Just like Jed to say the perfect thing to needle me. "That's fine. Thank you."
"Sir," said the young Joseph, holding open one of the entryway doors. "I'll lead you to your room."
"It's in the Eagles wing," Jed said to me. "Burgundy. You know the one."
"I do. I'll be there soon, Lero."
Lero stood, walking around the table. "Your hospitality is appreciated," he said to Jed before walking past him. Jed responded with a wave of his hand, and then the two of us were left alone.
Jed sat down across from me at the table. "Myra," he said, shaking his head. "You went back."
"I did." I leaned back away from the table, crossing my arms. I didn't quite appreciate his accusing tone.
He got my gist. "You're under no one's thumb, but it's awfully audacious of you to go there after we decided to let it cool down for a while, steal something, and then come back here, of all places, to use it as payment."
"I can take my gold anywhere, Jed," I told him. "I thought I was doing you a favor."
"As if we'd want something this hot anywhere near us," Jed snapped, dropping it on the table with a clunk.
I narrowed my eyes. "But you've granted us asylum."
"Not for this hunk of poisonous gold," Jed said. "Consider it a favor to a skilled thief who's brought us more than her share of spoil."
A favor? That wasn't in Jed's nature. He was as close to a bureaucrat as one could get in the underworld of thieves and criminals. I wasn't bribing him. And there was no way he expected me to be able to pay that favor back.
Then again, what did I know about Jed's true nature? His skin was thick and hid many things under its scars besides old wounds.
"So," Jed said, after I hadn't responded, "tell me about the man who is accompanying you."
"What does it matter?" I said, uncrossing my arms as I shrugged. I rested my forearms on the scarred table. "He's a companion."
"I prefer to know a little bit more about the people who stay inside my walls," Jed said, locked onto my eyes. "The favor is for you. He is an unknown entity."
You don't know the half of it. That said, the less he knew, the better, probably. "He's an old friend of mine. From before I was a thief."
"Oh?" Jed raised an eyebrow at that.
I wasn't sure why. He had no reason not to believe me, and I was a good liar. Anyway, it wouldn't do to flinch. "Yes. I ran into him a few days ago in Prolenade, where he was selling furs. He had a shop there."
"And why isn't he there?"
I gave a fake but convincing grimace. "Had a shop. It got burned down. He...owed some people. For a little too long."
Jed seemed to accept that, based on his tufted eyebrow lowering back down.
"That enough for you?" I never was able to hold back a smart remark for very long.
To my surprise, Jed just smiled. "Always nice talking to you, Myra. You have a spark that's left most of these vagabonds."
"Pleasure," I said cautiously. "So...we're done?"
"We're done." Jed stood up from the table, making the bench seat slide across the floor with his swift motion. "You and Lero can stay the night here, but no longer. I want to move this coat of arms into someone else's hands as fast as possible, and then I'd prefer it if you found yourself busy for some time after that. You understand."
Meaning that I wasn't welcome back here until the hot item had made it far away, preferably exchanged through several hands and sailing off of the coast. I had expected that. "I understand, Jed," I said. "And thank you."
"I'll leave you to head to the room now, then," Jed said, heading towards the door in the back of the hall next to the door to the kitchen. "Sleep well." And then he was through the door and gone.
I walked slowly out of the Hall, contemplating what had happened. I was prepared for a much more thorough and intense line of questioning, and something of a scolding. The way Jed handled this seemed almost sparse; not like his usual self at all, I noted, as I closed the Hall's doors behind me. But it was possible that he wasn't surprised to see me show up at his door with the Eaves heirloom; maybe he expected me to give in to my pride and return no matter what he decreed. That would explain his lack of outrage at what I had done.
I yawned. It had been an extremely long night, and trying to puzzle all of this out was even more exhausting. We had shelter for the moment, and that was all we needed. We would re-energize and think about what to do.
We? I said to myself. Strange that I had been thinking about it in those terms. I'd probably been doing it for a while and hadn't even realized it until now.
I made my way through the maze-like corridors of the Hole, hardly seeing anyone else. That was fine. I wasn't in much of a mood to do any more talking. I wanted to get as good a night's rest as I could before the next day and my long journey to...somewhere else.
Through flickering light and narrow halls, I found the door I needed and pushed it open, letting out a breath as I stepped inside and, at last, had some privacy.