The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 7: Mistaken

Look, I remade my profile banner into a cover for the series! ...it could use some work but still.

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The one thing she had decided from deconstructing Jaden's note was that his "friend" was probably also a thief. It wasn't much to go on, especially in a city like Maenar, but she had to trust that if she started with what she could figure out, the rest of the clues would fall into place. So there was one obvious place to begin the search.

Maenar was famous for not just harboring thieves, but welcoming them with open arms. As she strode down Lion Way towards the city gates, she made sure to immerse herself in the confidence she'd called up the night before. She needed to sink into it, to use it as an almost solid substance, a disguise. Everything she'd done to prepare this morning had been deliberate. Her clothes were carefully selected to reflect what she'd observed the day before and blend in with everyone else in the city, as well as to not appear too clean or well made. She hadn't made much of an effort to clean up, either. Nothing about her appearance should suggest growing up in a castle. She walked as if she owned the city with the appearance of someone without the standing to own anything-- in other words, she looked like she belonged with the sort of crowd found in the capital's match house.

But she wasn't going to the match house. This was new territory, which was why her semi-disguise was a necessity.

The docks were much the same as they had been when she'd arrived the day before, a chaos of people and noise and smelling strongly of fish. Keeping one eye on her surroundings, she consulted the map, skimming the streets of the city and that mysterious courtyard marked with the small drawing of a crown.

By the docks was the line of taverns marked Sailor's Row, but she had noticed something else in that spot as well. Darker, smudged marks bleeding through from the other side of the paper. On the back of the map was a spider's web of inked line and several ovals that she had assumed were random the first time she'd opened it. But looking at it again, she'd decided the lines were too deliberate-- as was the way they seemed to mirror the streets and buildings and courts drawn on the other side. When the paper was held up to the light so the lines on the back bled through, the lines seemed to radiate out from the docks and the court marked with the crown, and the ovals at the bottom were clustered around the dockside taverns. The only explanation she could come up with-- the only one that fit what she'd heard of Maenar's infamous thieves' dens-- was that these drawings underneath the map were meant to represent something underneath the city.

The problem was finding an entrance.

She circled the docks as casually as she could, stopping here and there to eavesdrop on a conversation or feign interest in crates being unloaded from ships. But after three times around she was worried people had noticed her aimless walking, and she'd still seen no sign of an entrance.

Of course, they wouldn't make it easy to find it. But it had to possible.

She checked the map again. One of the ovals seemed to be directly underneath one of the taverns-- she hadn't thought much of it, as they seemed to be placed randomly in relation to buildings. But this one matched up almost exactly, and it was almost dead center in the row of taverns. Coincidence? She couldn't afford to assume that.

The building she was now facing was one of the oldest, it's gold-brown brick repaired in many places, especially on its chimney, and its roof tiles had faded to gray. She almost imagined it would collapse when she pulled open the door.  Thankfully, it must have been sturdier than it looked. Not that it looked much better on the inside. Just one rectangular room with stained tables and lopsided stools, though the air was cleaner than she'd come to expect from these kinds of places. A few people were smoking around the counter but there was no smoke from the fireplace.