The office? He went back to the door he had entered through and followed the hall in the other direction. It led to door that was already partly ajar, and inside was a desk, several chairs and strangely enough, a large painting on the wall behind the desk. Will stared at it for several seconds, purely for artistic reasons though—not because the painting depicted a woman in a partial state of undress.
Definitely not, he told himself. Since the painting was clearly a work of art, and entirely out of place in such a ratty dockside business, it seemed suspicious. There might be a hiding place behind it. Reaching out, he touched the frame and stored the painting in the limnthal. It was the quickest way to get it out of the way, he decided—after the fact. The wall behind was blank and ordinary, though the plaster was chipped and damaged in places.
He made a thorough search of the room and found nothing—until he began moving furniture. Beneath the desk was an old rug, and once it was out of the way he found a large iron door secured with what he assumed was an expensive padlock. He didn’t know much about locks, but this one was heavily constructed and appeared far more complex than most he had seen.
Will hadn’t needed the unlocking spell in over a year, but he still practiced it during his daily spell routine, and it came together quickly over his palm. Seconds later, the padlock clicked open. He stored it in the limnthal too. Such things, even the cheaper ones, were quite valuable. If he could get a key made for it, it would be worth considerable coin. First the painting and now this. I’m turning into a common thief. Then again, he had come to steal something anyway, and one way or another he figured the owner owed him for what had happened to his friends.
Opening the vault, he noted that a ward had been laid over the space just behind the door. It was an unusual arrangement, as ordinarily a ward would be placed on the door itself, rather than the air behind it. He hadn’t learned to create any wards yet himself, but he knew that they lasted longer when placed on solid materials.
Behind the ward was a large space containing a multitude of glass jars and vials, along with a large leather sack. Will smiled, then took a moment to attune himself to the ward, before reaching through and removing the contents, one by one. The larger glass jars were tightly sealed with wax, cloth, and twine. The glass was brown, and the jars sloshed as he pulled them out, confirming his suspicion of their contents. Turning the first one around, he saw the chemical symbol for phosphorous had been painted on one side.
The phosphorous itself would be a waxy solid, but it was stored in water to prevent exposure to air, which could cause it to spontaneously ignite. All in all, he removed ten of the large jars—a small fortune if they contained as much white phosphorous as had been bought from the Alchemy Department.
The smaller vials made him even happier, for they were the result of someone else’s hard work. Each one was clearly labeled, ‘alchemist’s fire.’ There were twenty of those.
Last but not least, he extracted the leather sack. It jingled and clinked as he set it on the wood floor beside him. Will untied the bag and looked inside, where he saw the unmistakable glitter of gold crowns. Over the past year he’d had to handle large sums on several occasions, and he had begun to get a feel for such quantities. At a guess, there was somewhere between a hundred to a hundred and fifty gold marks.
He hadn’t come for the gold, but he wasn’t leaving it behind either. Will stored it in the limnthal along with the jars of phosphorous and the vials of alchemist’s fire. He had almost everything he needed now. Getting to his feet, he started to leave when he heard a noise through the wall. Someone was moving close by, just outside the building.
There were several possibilities, chief among them being more vampires or the king’s Driven. Either way, he didn’t want to give away his theft if they checked the building before he could leave. He closed the iron door, replaced the rug, then returned the desk to its original position. With that accomplished, he rechecked his prepared spells.
He still wasn’t sure who was outside, and while the odds were highest that it would be the king’s Driven at that point, he was more afraid of vampires. Still, he needed to escape. If he walked out and the king’s men tried to detain him, he would need a plan. An idea came to him after a moment’s thought.
Discarding the prepared wind-wall spell, he replaced it with a chameleon spell, but he didn’t cast it. He now had two illumination spells and the chameleon spell ready. He was tempted to emerge with a force-lance in hand as well, but if it actually was the Driven, they would probably see that as an obvious sign of hostility. Most of the vampires might not be able to see turyn, but the Driven were all sorcerers.
He walked out the main door without a single spell active, though his vision was optimized for the lighting. Will could clearly see the teams of sorcerers spread out around the building. They were clustered in groups of four with about ten to twenty yards between each group, and they appeared to encircle the entire warehouse.
Given the dim lighting, they probably assumed he couldn’t see them, and he was just grateful that they weren’t hiding in the ground again. Will walked directly toward the closest group. At twenty feet, they ordered him to stop and he did his best to act surprised. “Who’s there?”
“Servants of the king. Identify yourself.”
Will was nonplussed. “You don’t recognize me, yet you claim to work for my father-in-law?”
The leader of the group closest to Will moved nearer, stepping into a better-lit area. “You were reported as being at Wurthaven receiving medical care.”
He shrugged. “And yet I’m here. I came back to make sure there were none left. The place was crawling with them earlier.”
“Please lie down on the ground, sir. We will have to take you into custody until we can verify your identity.” The man pointed at the cobblestones to underscore his command.
Will held his hands out to the side in a friendly gesture as he continued to move forward. “Can’t we be more civilized about this? I’ll come quietly. I really don’t think my wife would be happy to hear that you forced me to lie in the street.”
The sorcerer backed up slightly, and his companions moved to encircle Will, who made a show of pretending to turn around and offer his hands behind his back. “You could cuff me just as easily like this,” he told them.
“Get down n—”
Their leader was shouting as Will released his first prepared spell, Ethelgren’s Illumination. The brilliant light blinded the men’s night-adjusted vision as he rushed forward and pushed one of the men aside, but he didn’t run past. Instead he crouched down and cast the chameleon spell on himself.
“Fuck!”
“Damn it!”
“I can’t see a thing. He just ran past me!”
Will grinned to himself as they swore and tried to organize themselves. Two of the teams farther out on either side were sent to chase him down, while the others continued to close in on the building. The ones immediately around him moved away a moment later.