NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 1: The Job)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: SHAYLINE

When Kesla was arranging the groups, I'll admit to being underwhelmed when she lumbered me with these two. When we were discussing the plan and making our preparations, all I saw of them was a couple of kids – capable certainly, they know their jobs, but they're both so disconcertingly fresh faced, the bakaneko full of easy smiles and jokey nature largely used to hide his clear nerves. As for the half-elf, sure, we've seen what they can do, they're Order-trained and clearly powerful, but they're nervous as hell, and that can be a dangerous thing under these circumstances.

At least that's what I thought.

I don't think I've ever encountered anyone so unnervingly quiet as Art of Shadows. I've been raised amongst thieves and bandits and mercenaries, I'm used to nefarious folk and learned early on how to be stealthy, but watching the young prowler at work is quickly becoming a masterclass of the craft in action. He was raised by the Thieves Guild, I'm told, and they train better than anyone in Tao, and coupled with his race's natural talents this makes him a veritable walking shadow, perfectly silent and completely undetectable. Turns out his easy-going nature does nothing to blunt what he's capable of when he tries.

Gael Foxtail's a little more complicated. They're twitchy, and they clearly don't like all this sneaking around, and I still find myself checking them out every once in a while when we're trying to be particularly sneaky, but they have a far tighter check on their nerves than I expected. More importantly, they adapt quickly too. When something comes up to complicate things, they roll with the punches, and more than once they've come up with clever tricks to solve the problem, or at least work around it. They're scared, but it doesn't affect their functionality at all.

Not that I'm any more comfortable, under these circumstances. We've made decent progress in the time we have, but along the way we've had to ambush and stun four people, and I've known each one personally. By and large I've left that up to Art, letting him do his thing while I hang back to just point the way, but I'm not enjoying watching it happen at all. I've got a sickening weight in the pit of my stomach that seems to get worse with every blow struck, every unconscious friend we've had to hide, allowing Gael to work a passive illusion to shield them from discovery. It's my betrayal in action, and it's eating me alive from the inside.

Maybe I'm the liability here right now. It's a sobering thought I can't quite shake.

We pull up just under a broad staircase leading up into noise and light, and as I look over the other two I can see the tension growing in them. So far it's been pretty smooth sailing, but from here things get a lot trickier. Down here it's mostly just storage, but up there is the first major obstacle – the kitchens. To get where we're going this is the quickest, most direct route. I'd prefer taking them round through the barracks, this time of evening there's less chance of us running into any large groups, but on our timeframe it's too much of a long and winding route. To make our rendezvous, we need to take the risk.

"Maybe you should just walk up there like you own the place, cover us on the way through?" Art grins nervously. "Y'know, like a distraction."

"By now I'm probably no more welcome here than you two." I sigh "It's been too long. The guards on our way up told me as much, they know something's up. They know we pulled a fast one, so they're looking out for me. Even if the ones working the kitchen aren't in on that little detail, my mother's likely put guards in there too, just to be sure."

"How can you be so sure?" Gael looks up through the broad wooden steps above us, even if the angle means they wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. "Maybe she overlooked that little detail."

"I thought about it, and I think like she does. She doesn't overlook things."

Art frowns. "Well we could do it. In theory. But if anyone sees us –"