Chapter 6: Skittered away

Chapter 6: Skittered away

Jacopo moved with practiced ease through the narrow crevices within the walls. This was his home, and he knew its paths and temperament better than even his ancestors had. He peered out of a crack to observe the nearby room. He saw a number of pointy eared creatures, elves Dantes had called them. He sniffed the air twice, counting around ten of them gathered, along with the smell of old bread and alcohol. There would be crumbs and puddles to sip from aplenty when they were done. Jacopo was after a different prize though, and slipped through more narrow cracks. He would tell a cousin of the bounty that awaited there if one was careful. After a few more narrow tunnels, he reached another crack wide enough to exit through.

He inhaled again, this time he could smell something sweet. Looking through the crack he saw fewer elves, maybe three. Two were sleeping, and one was sitting at a stone desk, making marks on a piece of paper in that strange ritual the creatures with two legs seemed to enjoy. On top of that desk, was a glint, a fist sized chunk of mirror reflecting candlelight. Jacopo had located his target.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

He slid out of the hole, making a soft thud as he landed. It was almost too quiet for an elf to hear almost.

The elf at the desks ear twitched and he turned to where Jacopo had been only a moment before, but hed already hidden himself in the shadows of a nearby bed. Elf eyes could see in the dark well enough, but they had difficulty in rooms full of light and shadow in equal proportion. Jacopo looked up at the crack and, with a subtle twitch of his whiskers, called Sister and Brother from it.

Sister dropped down and swiftly made for a small pile of books near the elf. It was a bold move, but it paid off when the Elf looked at the crack in the wall again rather than the pile of books near his feet.

Brother hesitated at the hole, waiting for the elf to drop his guard again.

Jacopo moved slowly, but surely to the stone desk. It wasnt smoothly carved, thankfully. The hairy short ones in the tunnels at the far end from these elves tended to carve stone too smoothly for him to climb, but this was full of the little imperfections that seemed almost made for his paws as he slowly scaled it. Getting into the room and locating the shard was the easy part, getting out with the shard would be a different story.

He reached the top of the desk, and peered slowly over it. The Elf still hadnt taken notice of him or Sister, and had returned to his writing. His face was lined heavily, which seemed strange to Jacopo, who had only ever seen those with pointed ears have smooth, unlined faces.

Jacopo needed a distraction. He slid back down to the side of the desk and twitched his whiskers at Brother, encouraging him to leap down.

Brother was foolish, and complied.

This time, the elf took full notice, seeing Brother before he could hide. The elf stood up from his desk and moved quickly toward him.

Dantes nodded. He had never seen one of the mirrors in person, but given where it had been when Jacopo had stolen it, and what hed heard, it matched his expectations. He went over to where he stored his food, removed the heavy rock, and gathered a fraction of the meat hed promised, placing it on the ground between them.

Your payment.

Jacopos whiskers twitched at the meat, but he gave no indication hed realized that it was less than promised.

Your half, he said, sliding some of it over to his sister.

She made a noise that Dantes recognized as a confirmation, took her half, and skittered away into the darkness.

Jacopo turned his attention to Dantes. The rest of my payment.

Dantes nodded, returned to the store, and laid another small portion of meat in front of him.

Jacopo didnt move toward it, instead fixing Dantes with a stare that somehow reminded him of the face his mother would make when a client tried to short her. He felt a pang of guilt for comparing her to a rat, but returned to the food storage and brought out the rest of the meat he owed. It was silly, he realized, to be making a deal with a rat. He could simply smash him with a rock and keep the meat for himself, but that wasnt how he liked to do business. Sure hed try to short payment, but offering none at all and betraying the person with whom hed made the deal? That was a good way to build a bad rep, and now that he could talk to rats, he definitely wanted them on his side.

This time Jacopo accepted. Hed been keeping track of the amount of food Dantes had in his store for a long time, and so knew exactly how much meat hed stored. Hed half expected him to attack and betray him, it was what another rat may have done, but this was better. He enjoyed the arrangement he had with Dantes. Easy sources of food were hard to come by.

Dantes lifted the mirror, looking at his gray skinned reflection. He was a midtown mutt all the way through. Gray skin, small tusks fighting to get past his lips, pointed ears, average looks overall. The only thing that set him apart were his gold eyes, and even those werent too uncommon. His mother had told him they came from his fathers orcish side, but hed met him so few times he couldnt remember what hed looked like at all, much less the color of his eyes. He looked into the mirror again. He was gaunt, frail compared to how hed been the last time hed seen a clear reflection of himself.

He felt the weight of the mirror in his hand. The weight of his life in his hands.