The Beginnings Omnibus: Beginnings 1, 2, 3 & Legend of Ashenclaw novella (Realm of Ashenclaw Beginnings Saga) (3 page)

“I know who they are…,” she whispered. Rose spun back towards him, letting the information sink in. And then sudden realization crept over her.

She recalled in the recent past having been approached by thugs and rogues on the street on numerous occasions, threatening her and worse, but she had never suffered any repercussions. She had simply ascribed their words as empty threats from wretched, cowardly men. Now she was beginning to picture a different scenario. One in which a certain lover forbid any actions to be taken against her.

“I want you to join us… join me,” he went on. She scowled at first and then placed a hand to her chin in a contemplative posture for a moment, followed by a long bout of silence. “I will tutor you personally in the ways of the underworld and you will have riches beyond compare,” he added as outward encouragement. That enticed her more than a little.

“I—but, what of Marielle?” Rose asked, sincerely concerned with how her Madam might react to the news.

“I will make it worth her while,” Ganthorpe replied, smiling that wide grin that seemed wolfish to her now, with just a hint of the boyish charm that was more familiar.  “I know what it is like, Rose, to have nothing and to have to steal to survive.”

“I own enough coin now,” she lied, fending off his accusation, but Ganthorpe recognized the hint of falsehood beneath her words clearly. She knew he’d detected the slight variation in her voice, even though she’d tried to mask it from him.

“Besides, you can’t help yourself, can you?” He asked rhetorically, seemingly knowing her answer. He gazed upon her as if he knew exactly how she felt, as if he thought them to be truly kindred souls. He was slightly older than she, but the excitement of perpetrating the heist or the pick-pocket was without comparison, and they both knew the thrill and exhilaration it offered.

“I do have a strange desire to thieve,” she admitted with a sheepish grin.

“Well? What say you?” he asked her, crossing his arms over his chest. Rose simply moved forward, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“I will follow you anywhere,” she admitted, startling even herself with that admission.

“So, you don’t want to kill me anymore, I hope?” he asked, pushing her back to witness her reaction.

“Not at the moment,” she winked. He looked to her as if he could not tell if the threat was truly meant behind the smile that followed.

He was inwardly happy, she could tell by his expression, and he relaxed again.

“There is nothing quite like the thrill of employing your skills to relieve a wealthy merchant of his wares, eh?” he asked her again, raising an eyebrow. “Now, all I need is to teach you how to use that dagger of yours,” he added arrogantly.

“I can use one just fine,” she retorted, producing a hidden blade from somewhere beneath the loose fitting silk robe she wore and holding it to his neck. It was a very thin blade, like that used to skin a piece of fruit, and was small and very lightweight. She had removed the handle, leaving only the sharp steel behind. “You see, I am not without certain skills of my own.”

She pulled the knife away from his neck and tossed it on the desk.

“I see that I have underestimated you, Rose,” he smiled, obviously impressed. He spoke as though her actions further supported his decision to approach her on the subject. “It won’t happen again.”

“A girl’s gotta protect herself, right?” she said, removing her robe, this time genuinely disarming herself. “Would you like to check me further for concealed weapons?”

“Truly remarkable,” he laughed as he grabbed her by the neck and kissed her hard on the lips. “A Rose with thorns,” he observed, holding her at arm’s length.

“You have no idea,” she replied. As she shoved him forcefully onto the bed, some of the goose down billowed out from the tear of her failed assault.

They remained intertwined until the sun appeared from behind distant clouds in the eastern sky.

 “How was your evening?” Marielle asked Ganthorpe as he made his way out the back door and into the alley. That hidden door was privy to only to a chosen few of her ‘special’ clients.

“Very… interesting,” he summarized, bowing low. He stood, then came back to the doorway and leaned in close. “We need to speak later, at length,” he added cryptically, then smiled and walked out onto the desolate street.

Marielle stared after him and wondered what that was about. Then suddenly he spun lightly on his heel and approached her once more.

“Meet me for breakfast at the Steel Dragon,” he invited. “It will be on me. Make yourself available before Sun’s Peak.”

 The half-elven woman paused briefly in contemplation of the news. She looked around for prying eyes and then closed the door when she saw no one. She knew immediately that this must have something to do with Rose… or at least that the young woman would know something about it.

Marielle strode off down the hallway to the base of the stairs, climbed them and hurried to the room where she knew Rose slept. She knocked on the door.

“Are you in there?” she called.

The sun shone through a window in the hall in front of Rose’s door and it reflected back into Marielle’s eyes, causing her to squint. She rapped on the door once more, waited a moment and then entered. Rose was lying immobile on the bed, still enveloped within shadow.

Then, to Marielle’s shock and distress, she seemed to literally melt into the bed. Rose simply disappeared, wholly and completely, her eyes wide in apparent astonishment for the brief instant that Marielle’s eyes met her own. The Madam raced to where Rose had been only a second ago and felt around for her, not knowing what to think about what had just happened. Was she imagining the whole thing?

“By the gods! Rose!” she cried out, again and again, frantically searching for the girl, tearing the covers off the bed and eventually throwing the them to the ground. Then she flung the curtains of the room open and stared incredulously, mouth agape, heart beating furiously, as she drew in a deep breath.

“What is happening?!”

Rose felt like she was falling. That was the only way to explain it.

The last thing she could remember was hearing the turn of the handle and the creak of the door to her room as it began to open. She instinctively receded into the covers of her bed… then she felt a sudden and distinct chill. And she was blind?

Was this a dream, she wondered? But it didn’t feel like a dream. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness all around her. She thought she heard something and glanced behind her. Then again, something sounded in the distance and to her right. She began to move forward and her eyes began to adjust to the gloom. She also saw…Marielle. The half-elven woman was below her and to the left, but moving so slowly that Rose could not comprehend what was happening or what she was doing.

“Am I dead?” Rose whispered to herself. She started to see figures in the shadows now—shifting and gliding along, advancing in all directions. Rose remained still, observing the barely moving figure of Marielle below her, clearly in her room at the brothel. She continued watching all the forms in motion around her. The shadow-things were all shapes and sizes. One seemed to notice her as if for the first time. It approached her and she felt the thing touch her—and then move through her!

Rose sensed a chill creep through her with the shadowy creature, which continued past her. She felt very cold and took a few steps, still seeing the barely-moving Marielle below and behind her. Rose began to run. There were no borders, no walls, no gates, and no structures at all, just nothing but empty blackness in this…realm…for lack of a better word.

She saw all kinds of happenings beneath her in what she reasoned must be her city, her room, the brothel. But where was
she
, then? She fought to subdue the panic that threatened to overwhelm her. A few more minutes passed as she continued moving forward. She recognized the layout of the Trade District below her, and a few of the merchants. She noted, puzzled as to how everyone down there was moving in the most sluggish manner imaginable. Rose was truly perplexed. She seemed to be moving faster than anything else that was happening around her…or more specifically, below her.

Then she saw something else. No,
someone
else. There was movement approximately a hundred paces ahead of her. The figure turned and faced her, clearly seeing her. All Rose saw was a pair of deep, violet eyes that penetrated the darkness. She turned and fled, as fast and as carefully as she could. But she could feel that the owner of those eyes was still behind her. She whirled round to see the form, its violet eyes still the only thing indicating its presence at all, closing in on her.

Her muscles propelled her forward at inconceivable speed as she viewed the landscape below, now seeing sectors of Oakhaven and, more specifically, the Commons. On she sprinted, eventually beholding a familiar structure now below her—the brothel! She raced toward it and finally saw the interior. There was Marielle, but she could barely make her out, as if she were partially erased from her reality. Then she too was gone. Rose kept going, sensing the thing, whatever it was, still behind her, closing in on her, and she knew it would overcome her in a few more heartbeats. She dove for the darkness below and felt something on her shoulder—a hand perhaps? She could not make out what it was, but it certainly did not feel like flesh.

She felt the soft texture of silk and then wool on her fingers. She leaned against something hard—it was a wall, she believed. She used it to push herself up and stand. Then she banged her head on a solid object above her and felt a door handle in front of her. She turned the handle and shoved it open. Sunlight from outside penetrated the shadows and she blinked agasint the sudden burst of bright light. She looked up and recognized the shelf upon which she had hit her head only seconds before.

“What in all of Pandemonium was that?!” Rose whispered excitedly to herself.

She was in the brothel’s hallway. More precisely, she realized, she had come through from a closet. At last she recognized her surroundings and regained her bearings.

Thank the gods!
Rose thought, excited and relieved to be back home again.

She headed to her room. The door was opened a crack and Rose saw Marielle inside, eyes wide, with a hand over her mouth.