The Welkinbane

Chapter 3: The Nearly-Bungled Blueprint Burglary

Chapter 3: The Nearly-Bungled Blueprint Burglary

SQUINTS had been crouched among the chimney stacks for the better part of an hour after night had spread its dark cloak over the Aeldwych sky. Nothing had really happened other than a few men, presumably scientists, entered the edifice. She disregarded them though since she saw them nearly every night, arriving after sunset like clockwork.

Her attention was drawn from the warehouse across the way by a drunken brawl that had erupted from a tavern a few doorways down from where she was perched. Wanting to get a closer look, Squints snagged the lip of a chimney stack and leaned out over the street. She wasn’t afraid of falling as there was a nice mound of hay in a wagon just below her to cushion her fall. While watching the brawl and silently rooting on one of the combatants who was evidently fighting for the dubious honor of a tavern wench, Squints nearly missed the single most curious thing to occur at the warehouse since she’d started keeping an eye on it.

A unremarkable hackney pulled up in front of the main entrance to the old dye warehouse and an equally unremarkable man stepped out and headed up the stairs to the double doors. Squints, dangling by one arm over the street below, found herself doing a double-take as she realized who was gracing the warehouse with his presence. It was none other than the Falcon, Leigh Selby.

The right hand man of Robert Bailey, the Queen’s chief adviser, was hard to recognize as he was average in every way, except one. His gait. To the casual observer, the man was a study in unremarkability; sandy brown hair and mud brown eyes set in a face easily overlooked in a crowd, his height and weight both that of the average Aeldwych man, his manner reserved. But his gait was the tip off that the man was anything but unremarkable. He seemed to sway and hover as he walked with a kind of lithe and powerful grace Squints had only ever seen a Zhong street performer exude. His very bland appearance combined with his stride told Squints all she needed to know of the man. He was dangerous.

A person didn’t purposefully make themselves unremarkable when they so obviously had physical prowess unless they wished to go unnoticed. And why would the right hand man of one of Albion’s most important men wish to mask his abilities? Squints did what she did best and squinted with her one eye at the man as he made his way past a pair of guards to the door. He turned and looked around before entering and she noticed the glint of a gold tooth in his mouth as he barked an order to the man behind him. Yup, the man was up to no good and that spelled trouble for them. Kaiya needed to hear of this. Squints only hoped she arrived soon. The man with the golden tooth was far more dangerous than anything she ever wished to tangle with.

There were whisperings on the Aeldwych streets of his exploits. Known as the Falcon, he was an assassin who would swoop in on his victims like the bird of prey for which he was named. He had been unintentionally unmasked at a ball a few years back and his reputation only grew with the revelation of his identity as Leigh Selby. He was the only son of Tristan Selby, a legendary figure who had been the Queen’s personal body guard for a time and who had mysteriously disappeared roughly twenty years prior. With a legacy like that, it was little wonder why he was only spoken about in hushed whispers.

Noting the time of night, Squints figured she ought to head to their meeting place quickly. Deciding that she didn’t want to tempt Lady Luck any more than she had already, what with the day’s vigorous activities with the constabulary, Squints eyed the ground below her and dropped like a stone into the wagon of hay. The sound of her landing roused the guards at the front of the warehouse who were already on high alert due to the arrival of Mr. Selby. They both looked to the wagon, then to each other before deciding to investigate.

Squints had been hoping any noise she had made would have been masked by the brawl next door to where the wagon stood, but as she peeked out of the hay, she noticed the guards and realized her error.