Amongst Thieves

CHAPTER THREE-Lessons

The remainder of the morning was spent attempting to fill the many gaps in Vàsu's knowledge of the city as they made their way towards the city proper.

'You probably know by now that Delrais is the capital of Cersa, home to the royal family and its most powerful advisors.' Lohan said as he led the small group through dirt streets.

Vàsu nodded as the boy continued.

'Well the city itself's split into three divisions, and there are different districts in each. At the top is the Upper River District- Uptown to us commoners,' the boy explained, pointing to the raised area furthest from the sea. 'It's the richest of the three. Home to the King, his advisors and anyone rich enough to try and be noticed by 'em. Mostly that is just the heads of each guild and anyone with a claim to the royal family, along with a few rich merchants. Castle's up there too, they built it as a fortress when the whole country was at war with Xander. Damn thing's so big you can even see it from down here.'

He let out a heavy sigh before continuing.

'The guilds themselves, and mosta the people in them are in Industrial, the second division. Everyone here just calls it Midtown. Guilds control one aspect of the city and constantly fight each other to control as much of it as they can. The docks, merchants, scribes, thieves: it's all managed by the guilds. I hear the thieves guild and protection guild don't even bother with the politics anymore, they just take what they can from each other and otherwise keep to themselves.'

Lohan turned on his heel, tracing a line in the air with his hand.

'The slums reach from that bend in the river, near the markets at the base of that hill, to that guard post ahead of us. They won't give you any trouble coming in but they won't let you out as easily, 'specially if they think you live here. Inside the slums the guards basically let us do as we please, so long as we don't try and infect their precious city with our stench.'

The words were bitter and cold but Lohan either didn't notice or didn't care.

'All anyone cares about in this city is themselves, but at least down here we don't leave people to die without a chance. You'd think the safe-houses were set up by the church or the city, but why would they try and save people like us? So instead this place relies on the poor feeding the poorer so kids like us can have a least a chance to survive. Even the land we live on is all managed inside the slums. Everything is separate, just so they can ignore us as we starve and die. I don't know how people up there live with themselves.'

Callen shrugged into the awkward silence as they continued past the guard post until they reached the river, following it back into the heart of the slums.

'This river splits off from the main one in the city that runs to the eastern sea. The further from the slums you go the cleaner it gets. Anyway, let's head back to the markets and get you something to sleep on; we have a beadroll but it won't be big enough for all of us and I'm guessing you're sick of sleeping on the dirt.

Vàsu nodded in agreement.

'Bedrolls are a pain to steal though, too bulky to run off with. Can you afford one?'

The boy nodded again as they made their way back to the markets.

True to his word Vàsu began to teach the trio what he knew of pick-pocketing as soon as he was led to the cloth-walled room. Before long the three of them were walking slowly around the small space, bumping into one another as Vàsu shouted instructions from atop the crate in the corner. Callen pushed his feelings for the boy aside, greeting the instruction with more enthusiasm than either of his friends. If nothing else Reina was right that they could learn from the foreigner, and in the slums the more you knew the less likely you were to die. He would not waste an opportunity like that over a petty disagreement.