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He hangs from the branch but doesn’t let go.
“Come on,” I urge him. “It’s not that far.”
“Yeah, easy for you to say, since you apparently do this for a living. Shit, I’m slipping!”
“Shh!” I glance behind me. The path is clear, but if one of those guards decided to come around for a peek, he’d have a clear view of Tyler hanging from the branch like a frightened monkey. The moment I look back at him, I have a face full of his incoming crotch. He slams into me and I fall onto my back, nearly getting the breath pulled out of my lungs. He’s straddling my neck and his thighs are pressed against my ears.
“Get off,” I say, but my mouth is pressed between his legs and it comes out garbled. If it weren’t for the threat of capture, getting out of this position wouldn’t be so urgent.
We move to the wall of the building where we’re obscured by its growing shadow. There are a pair of high windows at the rear, and I boost Tyler up. He extends his hand to me, and I sprint up the wall and grab hold of him. He manages to haul me up onto the sill.
“We actually make quite a good team, you and I,” I tell him with a grin.
“I’m not a thief,” he replies, and we climb down a tall statue into the storehouse and quickly hide behind a stone altar stacked with bronze and gold shields and helmets gleaming with firelight from the torches lining the walls.
The doors at the front of the storehouse are slightly ajar, enough that I can hear the guards talking outside. We’re all clear, for now. I stand and walk about the room, taking stock of what’s around. Tyler hesitantly follows my lead and quickly becomes enraptured by what surrounds us. Fine jewelry, masterfully crafted armor and weapons, bolts of silk and fine fabrics, and other tributes given to the town council are all kept here, scattered in piles on the floor around the room. There are several shelves of scrolls and records, and a chest overflowing with clothing. I pull out a tunic from the pile and hold it up to show him.
“If you want to get out of those muddy clothes,” I say.
“These muddy clothes are the only link I have to my world,” he replies. “No, I’m good.”
I shrug, toss the tunic aside, and begin to search the chests for the horde of coinage.
“What are you looking for?” he asks, opening a chest. “There’s coins right here.”
I glance at the piles of gold drachmae and shake my head. “Too conspicuous. I’m looking for silver. Smaller denominations.”
All I need are a few stacks; enough to supply myself, Alyx and now Tyler for the journey ahead. I haul the top chest aside and open up the one beneath it. It’s filled with bronze ingots.
“This one’s locked,” Tyler says. “Hold on. Maybe I can…”
He goes off and starts searching through the piles for something. I continue my hunt and finally find a cache of small silver coins divided into stacks about a hand length tall wrapped in string.
“Fantastic,” I say, taking four stacks and stuffing them into my pouch.
I look over and see that Tyler is fiddling with the lock on the chest. He’s taken two silver hairpins and is poking them into the hole.
“Oh, this is simple,” he says. “Nothing like that weird ass frog lock.”
I hear it click. “And you say you’re not a thief. Not even I have the skills to break a lock.”
“Sounds like you needyootoob,” he says, looking very pleased with himself.
“I need what? Speak plainly, dammit.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He opens the chest and freezes.
“Tyler?” I say.
His hands clench the lid, and his wide eyes are locked firmly on what’s inside. He’s still as a statue, like he’s looked into the eyes of a gorgon. Was the box hexed? Cursed items are rare, especially in a place like Aelonos, but not impossible. But to my relief, he speaks.
“How is this possible?” Tyler whispers. “This shouldn’t be here.”
5
TYLER
It feels like I’m hallucinating again. After everything I’ve seen and been through today, the fact that this should seem less real than shapeshifting animal men and phoenix magic is a little alarming. I stare at the rounded gray circle with its four silver buttons on the lip and a scratched emblem that reads SONY DISCMAN. It’s cradled by a bedding of smooth fabric like it’s the most valuable oddity in existence. I owned a similar model when I was in middle school, only in green.
