AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I looked him up and down. “So it worked, but you have a monster inside you?”
He chuckled. “Not quite so melodramatic. The blood has no consciousness, but there is always the possibility that a grievous wound of my body will disrupt the bindings and loose my transformation.”
“That. . .doesn’t sound comforting.”
“It’s lasted for some fifteen years.”
“How many of those as your alter ego?”
He leaned back and smiled. “I have been growing my legend for some ten years.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Whydoyou play that part? I mean, you’re rich and handsome. Why go out at night to toy with some guards and assassins?”
Ben dropped his bemused gaze to me. “So you believe I’m handsome?”
A blush accented my cheeks and I dropped my gaze to my lap. “Y-yeah, well, anybody who saw you would say that.”
He chuckled. “You flatter me, but to answer your question, I do so because of my family’s holdings.”
I turned my attention back to him and blinked at the bemused man. “Come again?”
He sighed. “I’m sure in your own world there are unscrupulous individuals. This one is no less blackened. Some ten years ago my father discovered that his holdings in a shipping company had been dwindling due to theft. The soldiers were of no use in finding the thief, and those in the port wouldn’t ‘out’ their comrades, honest or not. As I had been practicing controlling my shadow abilities, I donned a more simplistic outfit than what I wear now and ventured out to the docks. I discovered the dock master and several of his cronies were the thieves, but I was discovered before I could leave. A fight ensued where they brandished their swords. My shadow performed well enough, but I learned the importance of the blade that night. I came away scathed, but wiser, and was able to inform my father of the thieves.”
“He didn’t approve, did he?”
“He was furious and ordered that I not risk my life again.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “But you kept doing it?”
“In a more discreet manner,” he admitted as he nodded at a small nondescript house we passed. “I purchased houses such as that one and when a situation arose that the soldiers were unable or unwilling to solve, I used them as bases from which to venture out and perform some discovery.”
“Unbeknownst to your parents?” I guessed.
He chuckled. “By this time I had ‘flown from the nest.’ A saying which means-”
I held up a hand. “I know it. I’m pretty sure it’s one of those universal ones. So you were out of the home and making mischief with your parents only suspecting you were the cloaked crusader.”
Ben smiled and bowed his head to me. “Just so. When my father passed away five years ago I returned to my ancestral home and took up the position as a respectable, if slightly boring, count.”
“And the rest is history, and headlines,” I mused as I folded my arms over my chest. “So I’m guessing the moniker of ‘thief’ is just against the evil-doers and those with secret ledgers?”
“More the former than the latter,” he assured me as his twinkling eyes studied me. “But for a beautiful woman aiming for a worthy cause, there is no limit.”
I snorted. “I hardly count my wanting to go home as a worthy cause.”
He shook his head. “We prevented Dunn from obtaining the stone and auctioning its powers to the highest bidder. That is worthy enough.”
“That was a coincidence,” I countered as I patted him on the shoulder. “But I appreciate the gesture, and the theft. I only hope the House of Gaspar had duplicates.”
“Undoubtedly,” he confirmed as we passed through the town to the more commercially occupied districts. “One isn’t in business as long as them without knowing tragedy could strike at any moment. But we’re nearing the offices of my old friend.”
I examined the area around us and discovered that the small buildings that took up much of the city were now large structures with heavy stone foundations. Sheer walls of brick and stone rose up two hundred feet around us, creating a tunnel effect as they cast their long shadows over our carriage. The street was fortunately very wide, some hundred feet, and stretched for a mile in front of us. Several doors led into the large buildings, but very few had windows.
“What is this place?” I wondered as Ferox turned us onto a narrow side street between two structures.
“The district is collectively known as the Halls of Joy,” Ben told me as our steed rolled us up to a small door tucked far into the wall of the building on our right. He hopped out and held out his hand to me. “It’s where large performances are held.”
“So why the fancy name?” I asked him as he helped me down.
