Masquerades - Kate Novak [74]
"Hello, Alias," Olive whispered, without even turning around. "Duck behind these crates before someone spots you."
Alias stepped into the shadows behind the crates. "How did you know it was me?" she demanded.
"I saw you in the tavern common room, when I peeked in the front door. Since you were watching the front of the counting room, I thought I'd keep watch over the back. I saw you slip into the alley. Even at that distance I recognized your amusing drover's costume. You're not as noisy as your average human being, but you're still not stealthy enough to sneak up behind me. How's the house brew?"
"Miserable," Alias reported. "They'll have to improve it once we break up this operation, or lose their clientele."
"I think we should hold off on breaking it up," Olive said. "I followed my money from a young shake-down artist to a local tough to here. I'm very curious to see if I can follow this loot to its final resting place."
"I had the same thing in mind," the swordswoman admitted. "How about if I keep watch back here and you sit it out in the common room? Your cast-iron stomach could probably handle their ale better than mine."
"I'll give it a go, but they may not welcome halflings," Olive remarked. "If the climate seems too frigid, I'll be back in a few-"
Olive halted in midsentence and stepped deeper into the shadow, pulling Alias with her. The iron-clad back room door banged open, and someone within tossed out a teenaged boy.
The boy slid along the damp alley until he hit the wall of the building behind the bar with a thud. Two large men followed him out the door. They were dressed in leather armor like that worn by the muscle-man guarding the room's front door.
One man closed the door firmly while the other grabbed the boy by his arms and pulled him up from the ground. The boy struggled, but the man gripped him more firmly and slammed him hard into the wall.
The boy let out a whimper, which made his attacker laugh. He slammed the boy twice more before presenting him to his companion. The second thug had just finished wrapping his knuckles with a leather band.
"Following the money's just lost priority," Alias said as she slid her sword from her scabbard.
"I can't disagree," Olive replied.
The second thug backhanded the boy once across the face before Alias managed to cross the alley. He would have noticed the swordswoman, but he was too engrossed in his mayhem against the boy to warn his companion of her presence. Alias brought the hilt of her weapon down on the back of the first Night Mask's skull. He slid to the ground with his prisoner. Meanwhile Olive had run up to the boy's other attacker and smacked him in the knees with a war hammer. The attacker crashed to the ground, and, with a blow from Alias's sword hilt, joined his companion in unconsciousness.
Alias knelt beside the boy and helped him sit up. It looked as if the thugs had worked him over before they had brought him out to the alley. One of his eyes was nearly swollen shut, blood trickled in a thin stream from his mouth, and his uninjured eye appeared unfocused. "Are you all right?" the swordswoman asked. The boy waved his hand in his face as if to ward off a blow.
"He's not going anywhere," the halfling said. "Let's get Brothers Bane and Bhaal here trussed and hidden just in case someone else comes out," she suggested as she pulled out a ball of thick twine and began hog-tying one of the Night Masks.
Alias sheathed her sword and dragged the thugs down the alley, stashing them in the well of a basement door. When she returned, Olive was helping the boy rise to his
feet. From the way he hopped and leaned, it was obvious he'd injured a leg, too.
"Easy, child," Alias said, holding the boy's upper arm to steady him. "You're safe now."
"Na' a chil'," the boy retorted and shook off Alias's grip, but he was so disoriented that he began to fall backward. As Alias steadied him, he insisted, "I jus'