Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

Aaron thought.
Everything good about me.
    “I have to try,” he said. “Please, tell me where he went.”
    Kayla bit her lip and stared at him.
    “Fuck it,” she said. “I joined this guild for a fearsome reputation and a bloated amount of coin. So far I’ve rescued an old man from prison and murdered a helpless priest. It’s not like I can do any worse. I risk my own life telling you, you do know that, right?”
    Aaron blushed, realizing how stupid he was not to have thought everything through.
    “I can’t,” he said, turning to leave. “I can’t risk your life, not for me, not for her.”
    “Aaron,” she said, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. She smiled at him, even as her lips trembled with fear. “I researched the Eschatons before the job in what little time I had. Delius was a noble who turned to the priesthood only a few years back. He has a mansion in the western district. It’s sparsely furnished and poorly staffed. He gave away much of his wealth to the temple. The girl might be there, or she might be in the temple. If she’s in the temple, you haven’t a prayer of getting to her. Either way, that mansion is the first place Dustin will look.”
    “Thank you,” Aaron said.
    Kayla gave him directions to the mansion, as well as a brief description of what it looked like from the outside.
    “Dustin’s started ahead of you,” Kayla said. “But he’ll need to ask around first to find out where they live. You might be able to beat him there. Hurry out, and try to be back before sunrise.”
    Aaron hurried to the door, and he heard Kayla’s voice call out after him.
    “And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t let anyone see you!”

CHAPTER
18
    A aron felt oddly exhilarated. He’d never been out at night on his own. Thren had always insisted someone accompany him on his rare excursions out of the complex. Usually the reasons involved safety, the Trifect, and rival guilds wanting to settle a million old grudges. More and more, though, Aaron decided his father wanted to keep him from having a taste of freedom.
    He ran along the rooftops. With so many nearby logging towns, especially those on the northern edges of the King’s Forest, the houses were built sturdy, tall, and with mostly flat roofs. The wood and plaster easily held him. He landed as softly as he could, but he also ran fast. Bits of gray cloth trailed in the air behind him, the ties to the mask that covered his entire face. Only his blue eyes were visible.
    As he neared the western district, the going got rougher. The west was far from the wealthiest of districts, but every part of the city had its betters, and they always clumped themselves together. As the buildings grew fancier, the roofs grew more slanted, with multiple floors, odd decorations and stone creatures, as well as the sharp triangular rooftops that had been fashionable at some point. Instead of racing along, he leaped and climbed. Sweat poured across his skin, the air was devilishly cold, but through it all Aaron smiled.
    I’m Haern now
, he thought.
I’m free. Haern is powerful. Haern can rebel.
    It was strange thinking like that, but it made sense somehow. Let Aaron be shy. Let Aaron cower before his father and steal as ordered. Haern would hide, and he would survive. And tonight Haern would kill, but unlike Aaron he’d do it for good. He knew just enough about sex to know that whatever Dustin planned to do, it’d be horrific torture before he actually killed the girl. He couldn’t let her go through that, especially knowing it’d be his fault. His cowardice, his inability to lie to his father to protect her.
    At last he found the mansion. He was atop an even larger home on the opposite side of the street, his arms wrapped around a stone statue of what looked like a deer crossed with a man. His fingers drummed against the antlers. Despite the darkness, he could see far. The moon was bright, the clouds only wispy ghost fingers stretching across the sky.
    There was no sign of anything amiss. No windows were broken, the door was shut tight, and he saw no shadows skulking around the sides. Of course, based on what Kayla had said, he had to assume that Dustin would be a bit more subtle than to just walk up to the front door and kick it in.
    If the girl was there, she most likely wasn’t alone. Or she could be in the temple of Ashhur. Sitting there across the street, there were a million things Aaron didn’t know, and he’d find out none