Spooled
The pair strode with the unbroken, confident gait only the certainty of youth could impart.
We belong here. We belong here. We belong here.
As he passed the guards stationed at the hastily erected checkpoint, Noa looked neither left nor right as this mantra echoed in his brain like the cascading reverberations of thunder in a ravine. He needed a steeled resolve just now. Allowing his nerves to betray him on his face simply would not do.
Beside him, Agner radiated a calm, detached amusement, as he usually did. The disengaged Mamluk stationed in the path ahead barely glanced up from his bound folio of notes as they approached.
“Name and business,” he intoned in a bored, reedy voice.
“I am Kelfein Mizzrym, Patron and Consort to the House of Mizzrym,” Agner replied smoothly, fingering the Mizzrym insignia on his ornate vestments. “This whelp is my assistant, Katro Bellan.”
Noa nodded mutely.
The eyes of the Mamluk flicked up to Agner’s magically transformed face and sharpened considerably.
“It is a dull mind that never transcends pragmatics,” the Mamluk said warily, a brittle edge to his voice.
Agner laughed airily. “Too right, too right. And it is a second daughter who disregards the wisdom of her forebears.”
Somewhat mollified by this exchange of clumsy code phrases, the guard’s posture softened a bit, though he continued to frown.
“Was there something else?” Agner inquired haughtily, imperiously arching a pristinely manicured eyebrow. “Or might we proceed with our urgent business elsewhere?”
“Sorry, sir,” the guard stammered, “it’s just that, uh…my log here shows that you’re already inside the checkpoint for the moot, and I, uh…”
“A simple matter to clarify, friend. My assistant here only just arrived in town, and I departed through the eastern checkpoint to retrieve him. You can verify with Myltin over there on your own time, however. As you can see, I’m me, I’m here, and I’m late. I’m leaving.”
The Mamluk was clearly at a loss for how to proceed in the face of the evidence of his senses. He opened and closed his mouth like a dying fish a few times and then cleared his throat.
“Very well, sir, on your way. And, uh, a pleasant evening to you.”
“May the blessings of Lolth visit you and yours soon,” Agner sneered, beckoning for Noa to follow as they departed.
They walked into the sequestered trade district. Fast enough to be believable as someone running late for a meeting, but not so fast as to draw undue attention. Everywhere Noa looked, guards patrolled the streets in pairs and trios.
“It’s still strange to be outside looking in at one of these things,” Agner said conversationally.
“Quiet,” Noa hissed, warily glancing around to ensure they were out of earshot of guards and other passersby. “We maintain discipline until we meet up with her in security.”
Above them, on the rooftops, Noa was acutely aware of a shadow passing silently from building to building. The cloak was only just discernible, as a shadow slightly darker than the shadows around it, because he knew it would be there.
“You worry too much, comrade. Besides, she’s with us now. Or haven’t you noticed?”
“I have,” Noa muttered tersely, taking care to move his lips as little as possible. “There is no margin for error here, though. We have to maintain discipline until the job is done.”
He could feel, more than see, Agner roll his eyes.
“As you say, boss,” he muttered obsequiously.
Noa’s mouth hardened. “I’m not anyone’s boss. I’m just trying to be professional.”
Agner grinned over his shoulder.
“You know, you were a lot more fun before she invited you to her bed. That was a poor suggestion on my part. I thought it would loosen you up some, but it seems to have had the opposite effect.”
Noa sighed. “Look, now isn’t the time for this, okay?”
Agner continued as if Noa hadn’t spoken. “Of course, I’m a good friend. Share and share alike, right? Equal booty. And what booty it is, am I right?”
Noa took a deep breath, determined to avoid the bait. It was true that she and Agner had been lovers first, briefly, before Agner had suggested she try to loosen the younger man up some. It had been distantly irksome to him at first, before the magnitude of their connection had driven this insecurity far from Noa’s mind. Still, he was ever aware that the blossoming romance was perpetually to Agner’s chagrin. Agner was not a man who appreciated being the third wheel on a cart.
“Just saying, you could return the favor sometime. Those thighs. Mm. I won’t soon forget them. Why, I’m sure the three of us could…”
Goaded beyond endurance, Noa whirled on the spot, eyes ablaze with purple flames as the same purple energy enwreathed his clenched fists.
“Why must you be so petulant? Why is professionalism beneath you? What part of clandestine insertion are you unclear on?”
Agner, caught short for once, leaned away from the tangible force of Noa’s fury. He seemed momentarily lost for words, but rallied quickly. He always rallied quickly.
“I’m not the one making a scene in the middle of the street right now,” he whispered scornfully.
Noa closed his eyes, willing steel back into his spirit.
Deep breath. Focus. Be the blade.
In a matter of seconds, the last vestiges of the energy had dissipated. Noa glanced around. Several tradespeople were averting their eyes and hurrying away, and across the courtyard from them, he could see one Mamluk nudge another and nod in their direction.
“We’re rumbled,” he murmured.
Without a word, Agner walked calmly into the nearest alleyway. Noa followed as peacefully as his shaking legs would allow. As soon as they cleared the vision of the courtyard behind them, the pair broke into an all-out sprint. They could hear shouting in the distance.
“A quick exit, I think,” Agner shouted over his shoulder. Noa merely grunted assent. It was the only way, at this point.
As the alleyway narrowed before them, Agner shortened his own stride into choppier, more powerful steps before leaping. His right boot hit the wall at about waist height before he used it to vault himself upward and across the alley, where his left boot hit the wall and then propelled him further up and back across the alley. Noa immediately followed suit, and in seconds, the pair had ascended from the ground to the comfort and relative anonymity of the rooftops.
Still they ran, jumping from building to building as they put as much distance between themselves and their presumed pursuers as they could. Finally, the sounds of shouts and clattering armor faded into the distance, and they collapsed side by side against the lip of the roof of a particularly shabby-looking brothel, panting and clutching at stitches in their sides.
For a few moments, neither spoke as they allowed their pulses to return to normal. Then, Agner turned to Noa.
“I didn’t realize your new abilities had become so formidable.”
Noa sighed. “I don’t know why it’s happening. She thinks some latent talent of mine has been awakened by our…by our…uh…relationship.”
“And your control has grown almost as quickly as your power has.”
Agner and Noa’s heads snapped up in unison. Atop the oversized chimney of the brothel, a hooded figure clad head to toe in vanta black vestments crouched. Only a blazing pair of purple eyes, not unlike the appearance Noa’s own eyes had displayed moments earlier, were visible inside the darkness of the hood. Her voice was cool and calm when she spoke, however.
“You very nearly gave the game away, boys.”
Then the hooded figure dropped lightly onto the roof. Even hidden within vestments, her hips were sex personified as she strode confidently across the roof toward them. She lowered the hood, and her plaited black braid tumbled free, along with some flyaway strands of hair that whipped across her bronze-skinned face. The purple fire had receded from her eyes, and the brilliant lavender irises twinkled with suppressed mirth above her high cheekbones and full lips.
“Jheralyn, how nice of you to join us,” Agner wheezed magnanimously. She crooked an eyebrow at him, but the mischief danced from her eyes to the corner of her mouth like a sashaying breeze as she offered Noa her hand. Grimacing, he took it and allowed her to lift him to his feet. She returned her attention to Agner, and her right eyebrow arched even closer to her hairline as her grin widened.
A glowing purple energy blazed brightly around Agner’s entire body, pulling him bodily to his feet so abruptly that it left him somewhat poorly balanced, and he very nearly tumbled forward to sprawl onto his face before he caught himself. He stumbled and harrumphed himself into stillness, but Jheralyn had already turned her back on him as she refocused her attention on Noa. She beckoned seductively at him, grinning coquettishly, before setting off across the roof, calling back over her shoulder as they moved briskly from building to building.
“So, what happened? Hard to hear from up here.”
Haltingly, focusing on his footwork to maintain the breakneck pace Jheralyn established across the rooftops, Noa explained the exchange that had necessitated their escape. Behind them, he could hear Agner grunting with the exertion of keeping up with them. Whatever his other talents - which were many, Noa knew - this kind of acrobatic speed was not one of Agner’s bailiwicks, and he maintained his silence at the back of the trio. Noa could nearly smell the anger roiling off his old companion - focus or not, silence from Agner was never a good sign for peace.
After a few minutes of darting here and there across the buildings of the sequestered merchant district, Jheralyn finally crouched low, grabbed the lip of a particularly derelict roof, and swung herself over the side, disappearing from view. Noa pulled up short, cautious as always, and leaned over the edge of the roof to see where he was going.
It transpired there was a window directly below him that led into the interior of the building he and Agner were currently panting atop. Exchanging a look with Agner, Noa grasped the lip of the roof and followed Jheralyn through the window.
Inside, she was standing stock still, with a hand raised to silence any questions. Noa held his tongue patiently, knowing what was coming next.
Jheralyn moved in utter silence to the doorframe of the shabby, empty office. She crossed her body with her right hand and gently caressed the doorframe. Then she repeated the move with her other hand, crossing her body and touching the right-hand doorframe. As she did so, Noa could detect the slightest pulse of purple energy radiating from her in a silent wave. The energy wave shimmered briefly and was gone, but Noa knew from experience that it was reverberating through the walls of the entire structure before reporting back to her senses.
Finally, after a tense and silent moment, her shoulders relaxed some. She gently shut the door and turned to face Noa and Agner.
“Well. We’re alone, at least.”
“Imagine that,” Agner snarled. “A derelict building that has been condemned for years is empty.”
Noa inclined his head to his right slightly to address Agner over his shoulder.
“Come, now. You know the drill.”
“It’s a stupid drill. Caution is one thing, paranoia another.”
Jheralyn smiled sadly before responding, placing a gentle, placatory hand on Noa’s forearm as she addressed Agner.
“One day you might live to regret your recklessness, Agner. But I promise, it won’t be while I’m here to look out for you.”
Her demeanor immediately returned to a more businesslike footing.
“Now, first things first,” she said, grabbing the front of Noa’s robes and pulling him violently into a passionate kiss. He returned it gladly and didn’t even mind when her teeth found his lips.
“Sorry about that,” Jheralyn said, wiping a trickle of his blood from her mouth as they parted. The glint in her eye belied the words.
“No, you aren’t,” he said, grinning.
“No,” she agreed with a smile, “I’m not.”
The trio broke bread and hydrated, discussing the day’s events and reviewing the plan for the morrow. Everything hinged on this deal. The bounty on the head of the Drow assembly, whom Agner had impersonated earlier at the gate, would more than pay their way to finally leaving Huzuz behind for good.
“Lucky that you’re so comely, Jheralyn,” Agner said finally. “The dear Patron of House Mizzrym has become so taken with the, ah…local flavors that he’s arranged an entire trade delegation just to feast at the flesh buffet, and here you are. A five-course meal.”
“A poisoned five-course meal,” Jheralyn amended sweetly.
“So,” Noa began hesitantly. He palmed the back of his neck, unsure how to give voice to the next part of his question without it sounding as petulantly childish as it did in his mind. “Will you…follow through?”
Jheralyn surveyed him shrewdly.
“You know this is part of what I do, right? I feel like I was very clear about that.”
Noa nodded fervently, already regretting his question. “Of course, and it’s…I mean, it’s your body, not mine, I just…”
Her expression softened, and she cupped his cheek lovingly.
“I know. I understand – things are a little different now than either of us expected. I know your question comes from love, not from jealousy. Let’s get this deal behind us, and once we’re safely out of this shithole town for good, maybe we can make new plans for once. Okay?”
Noa nodded again, swallowing hard and summoning the best smile of which he was capable. “Deal.”
Agner coughed pointedly, and Jheralyn and Noa turned slowly to look at him.
“Oh, good, I am still here, I was worried I’d disappeared or something.” His tone was glacial.
Jheralyn sighed.
“Alright, enough, I guess we should turn in. Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of our lives.”
