Page 38 of Waifs And Strays
‘Were you holding back when we fought at the Galbraith house?’ I asked.
‘A little,’ he answered shortly.
Translation: a lot. Oh well. Some of the biggest battles were psychological and the fight he appearedto be having with himself – and losing – was far greater than the one he'd had with me.
‘Good to know,’ I said cheerfully. I started walking again. ‘Come on, it's time for us to track down Quack MacTire. Nick still needs us and I reckon she can help, whether she wants to or not.’ And with that, the subject was closed.
I’d plannedto head back to the same dark nook where I’d been with He Who Roams Wide the previous night to spy on the MacTire mansion and locate Quack without being noticed. Thane, however, had a different plan and veered off course without a by-your-leave.
‘Hey,’ I protested. ‘There’s a great spot back that way. We should head there.’
‘My spot is better,’ he said, without glancing at me.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘Unless your spot has a full view of the MacTire mansion and its inner courtyard plus a clear line of sight through several interior windows, my spot is better.’
I didn’t respond and he snorted mildly. ‘Thought so.’
I refrained from passing further judgement until I saw for myself whether his spot was indeed a better vantage point. We wound away from the main street, down a narrow alley and through a tiny vegetable patch on the edge of an allotment before scaling a three-metre-high wall that led to an open sash window on the second floor of an old tenement block.
‘Ladies first.’ Thane gestured towards the gap.
Suspicion curled in the pit of my belly. Had I been wrong about him? Was he leading me into a trap? I glanced through the grimy window and saw nothing except a narrow hallway and several closed doors. There was no whiff of barrier magicaround the window frame and nothing that suggested danger, but I was still prepared for the worst as I squeezed through the gap and into the building.
Nothing happened. As Thane followed me through the window, I looked around and registered the numbered doorways. I tried to place the building in relation to the MacTire stronghold. We were three streets away, although the distance as the crow flies was probably less.
Thane grinned, suggesting he knew exactly what I’d been thinking. ‘This way.’ He pointed towards the end of the corridor. ‘We have to go up another flight of stairs. I’ll take the lead, if you wish.’
‘Age before beauty,’ I murmured.
He grinned again. ‘Ain’t that the truth.’ Then he took off, loping ahead of me while I blinked after him in surprise.
I could hear the soft buzz of life from behind several of the doors, and a couple of them were adorned with autumnal wreaths; they were the cheap sort that offered more in the way of decoration than magic but they suggested that the residents took care of their homes. Somebody below us appeared to be in the middle of making a curry. Children’s laughter drifted over from somewhere to the right.
The stairway at the far end was clean; although it was a communal area there was no lingering scent of urine and no sign of trodden-in dirt. The people who lived here looked after their space. Some graffiti etched into one of the walls had been scrubbed until it was barely legible; it seemed out of keeping with the rest of the building but I didn’t pause to examine it because Thane was already on the flight of stairs above me.
The third floor was quieter. Thane headed for the last door on the right and opened it without a key. I held back for a moment, nonplussed. ‘It’s alright,’ he called. ‘This flat isunoccupied.’
He certainly seemed to know an awful lot about this building and my concern ratcheted up again. It couldn’t be a coincidence, not given the proximity of the MacTires. I double-checked my concealed weapons – knife, gun, poison – then I followed him again.
The flat was bare apart from a single chair. The walls were whitewashed and the floorboards were clean, although I spotted another small piece of graffiti carved into them in one corner.
Thane was already squeezing out of the window on the far side. ‘Almost there! It’s an easy climb from here!’
‘Right behind you.’ I raised my voice slightly then I veered away from the window towards the carving. It wasn’t fresh: from the smoothed-over lines and worn surface, it had obviously been there for some time. Two letters had been crudely etched into the wood: TB. No prizes for guessing what they stood for.
‘Kit?’ Thane’s voice drifted towards me. I jogged to the window and peered out. He was already on the roof above me. ‘You can use the drainpipe to clamber up. If it’s secure enough to hold my weight, you’ll be fine.’ He stretched down a hand. ‘I can help you if you’re worried.’
As if. Ignoring him, I stepped out and made short work of scaling the last few metres until I joined him on a small section of flat roof. I glanced around. Huh. He’d been right about the view.
We were hidden from the MacTire mansion’s sight by a row of Victorian chimney stacks but by stepping to the edge of the last one, we could see into the stronghold.
I swallowed my pride and offered Thane a grudging nod. I was impressed; I’d scoped out this area thoroughly when I’d been tasked with assassinating Bruce MacTire, and I rated myself and my skills, but I’d never noticed this place. It wasn’taccessible from other rooftops and there was no obvious route to it, but my lack of awareness still rankled. There again, I didn’t have Thane’s history.
‘How old were you when you started coming here?’ I asked.
His body stiffened. ‘I was seventeen the first time,’ he said. ‘At first I didn’t realise how close it was to the MacTires. Barrow wolves were on reasonably good terms with the MacTire pack back then, but we certainly didn’t visit each other’s homes.’ He sighed and stared into the distance. ‘An old homeless druid told me about this place. It was pretty much derelict back then, but there was a good group of squatters of all creeds who used it. It was January when I…’ he paused, choosing his words carefully ‘…left my pack. It was cold. I needed somewhere to stay and this place worked for a time. I used to climb up here and watch the stars at night.’
