"From where to where?" Kali said, smiling.
"Eh? Oh, never mind. Just follow me."
Kali did, finding that the entrance to the Grey Brigade's den was hidden almost in plain sight, yards from where she stood. Nevertheless, it would have been impossible to take advantage of without her escort. She was led between two market stalls, the owners of which were obviously guild stationed as sentries, and then along a tight alleyway that jinked away behind them. Kali looked up as she walked, saw that she was being watched from a number of windows above. Clearly, no one who wasn't welcome could approach the guild unseen, and Kali suspected that for any particularly unwelcome visitor those who stared at her now, casually crunching fruit, might simply substitute the fruit for a loaded needlereed and the unwanted visitor would be incapacitated before they could take two steps. She guessed the resultant body — unconscious or otherwise — would be spirited away into one of the apparently sealed doorways she passed, there to be stripped, dumped in the river and never seen again.
She reached the end of the alleyway safely, however, and after the boy gave three irregular raps on the solid wooden door that terminated it, found herself inside the den of the Grey Brigade.
Impressive, she thought, as she was led through its busy interior, not only in the number of guild members she passed but also in the facilities provided for them. Everything the Andon thief could desire was provided here, from equipment and training areas to common lounges, dormitories and bar, all of them converted to their present use from the rooms of what looked to have been at one time a large hotel, an enterprise she imagined had been starved of business during the siege.
Grandly enough, Jengo Pim had chosen what had once been the hotel's ballroom for his court, and it was obvious which of those gathered within was he. The thieves guild leader was draped in an ornate, red upholstered chair in the middle of the room, swigging from a bulb of wine and gnawing meat he skewered on a dagger from a serving table beside him. As Kali was brought in, the appropriately roguish-looking man was conferring with two of his lieutenants, but as she approached he dismissed them and turned his attention to her. He jabbed the dagger into the table and wiped his mouth before speaking.
"So — I'm told I have a sister I never knew about," he said, blatantly looking her up and down. "Seems you got the genes I didn't. Nice. Very nice."
"Thanks. But I hear incest makes your bits shrivel and die, so I'd keep your hands off if I were you. The name's Kali Hooper. I'm here on business."
Pim sucked his teeth and spat a piece of gristle across the room. "Figured you might be. But as I have no shortage of business of my own, why should I have an interest in yours? What, in fact, stops me having you killed right here, right now?"
"Because you run a thieves guild, not an assassins guild. You'd need a good reason to bump me off and so far I haven't given you one."
"No," Pim said, lecherously, "more's the pity." He waved a hand at her striped tights and furs. "I could, of course, consider your current outfit a capital crime."
"Yes, well, that's a long story." Without being invited, Kali grabbed Pim's knife, stabbed a piece of meat and bit it off the blade. "Come on, Pim — aren't you just a little bit curious why I risked coming here?"
Pim took a swig of his wine, studied her, smiled. "Let's stick with mildly stimulated. Very well, you have a minute. How can the Grey Brigade be of service to you?"
"I need your help. To break in somewhere."
Pim pulled a face. "Oh, Miss Hooper, after so much promise you disappoint me. Pretty lass like you, what is it? Heard you can recruit some of my people to do an ex-lover's house? Perhaps empty his strongbox of compromising documents?"
"Actually, no, I need to do the job myself. And it's the League of Prestidigitation and Prestige."
Pim spluttered on the wine he'd just consumed, stared at her incredulously. "The League?" he repeated. He laughed out loud, and then with a bouncing of his palms invited the others in the room to join him in his jollity, which they duly did. "Bubbling pits of Kerberos, woman, that's impossible."
"Nonetheless — "
"Nonetheless, nothing. It's bloody suicide. Have you any idea what kind of traps are in there? Those sorcerous psychopaths have wired the place with every kind of thread threat you can imagine, and more. There are things that'll fry you, things that'll crush you, things that'll drown you, things that'll make your heart go boom." Pim slumped into his chair and swigged from his wine again. "Listen to me — only three men in the entire history of our guild have tried the towers. The first we found flapping around with his bones gone, the second was last seen ascending to Kerberos before he died, and the third came back in a bottle no bigger than this one." Pim shook the wine bulb he held. "No chance. Go home, girl. Go home."
Kali stayed where she was and folded her arms. "Actually, it isn't just the towers I need to gain access to, it's the Forbidden Archive itself."
This time Pim did not splutter. But he did stare and then quaff a mouthful of wine so hard that Kali heard him gulp and swallow it down.
"The Forbidden Archive," he repeated slowly. He turned to one of his lieutenants. "Kris Jayhinch, please give the lady a razor to slash her throat with — save herself some time."
"What's the matter, Pim? Too much of a challenge for you? Maybe I should take my request down to the Skeleton Quays, tell the guilds there you were too lily-livered to handle it."
The thieves guild leader's eyes flared darkly for a second. The mention of the Grey Brigade's rival guilds had the effect Kali desired, Pim knowing full well that a loss of reputation was what no guild could afford.
"They would likely tell you the same as I," he said, contemplatively, "but then they are desperate enough to take your business." He rubbed his chin, considering. "I must be mad," he sighed before sucking in a deep breath. "Miss Hooper, do you have any experience of our noble art?"
"If by noble art you mean taking other people's property without their permission, I guess I do, but not in the way you mean."
Pim rose, handing Kali the bulb of wine. "I'll tell you what — there's a little test I have devised for new recruits, and I want you to take it. If you pass, you'll have my help. If you fail, well… I'll think of something appropriate."
Kali took a swig of the wine. "Mister Pim, you've got yourself a deal."
The mention of the test sparked the interest of everyone in the room and, as the thieves guild leader guided Kali through to another chamber, the pair acquired a small entourage of eager spectators. The room into which she was led was larger even than the ballroom — what looked to have been the hotel's reception area — but it had been converted from its original use to function as some kind of obstacle course-cum-training area for the guild. Various vaulthorses, gymnast rings, nets and other paraphernalia had been secured about its edges along with a number of racks containing exotic thieves' tools, but what drew Kali's attention was a small iron cage suspended from the centre of the ceiling, high above the floor. Hanging from a single chain, there was nothing near it and no obvious means to reach it — but Kali guessed that was exactly what Pim's test would require her to do.
"I see you're ahead of me," Pim said, staring up as she did. "The positioning of the cage is an approximation of the high-security containment for Bojangle's Baleful Bells, currently on display in the museum of Scholten. I have stolen them twice, returning them each time so that I might try again — what I like to consider a professional challenge. Said bells are not, of course, present here, merely a personal souvenir of sentimental value, but you should consider it a treasure of equal scarcity. Retrieve it for me and we will talk."