“So,” Eli said. “Where’s your exit?”
“There.” The older Monpress pointed at a squarish stone about thirty feet off the ground above them. “Of course, it was much lower before.”
“Of course,” Josef said, lowering his swords.
“Well,” Eli said, looking at Josef, “if it’s that tall, it can’t be that thick. Can’t you just break it down?”
“Sure,” Josef said, “if I had the Heart, which I don’t because someone said don’t bring it.”
Eli ignored the comment and looked at Nico. “Want to give it a punch?”
Nico shrugged and walked up to the wall. She stared at the stones for a few moments, and then, pulling her fist back as far as it would go, she punched the wall with all her might. A great cracking sound echoed through the town, and Nico spun back, gripping her fingers. The wall, however, stood firm. The spot where she’d hit was slightly dented, but otherwise whole.
“No use,” Nico said, shaking her hand furiously. “The spirits are standing strong. Whatever convinced them to stand up straight also convinced them to hold tight.”
Josef sneered at the stones. “I bet the Heart could still break it.”
“I’m sure,” Eli said, putting his hands on his hips. “But as you said, we don’t exactly have it handy.” He glared up at the wall. “Nice and trapped, aren’t we? And the final blow should be showing up any moment.” He nodded toward the lamp at the end of their alley, which was blinking like mad.
“Surely you’ve got some clever plan,” Josef said, sheathing his swords.
“I’m working on it,” the thief muttered.
“You may want to work faster,” Nico said, feeling the ground. “If you believe the paving stones, we’ll have soldiers here in less than a minute.”
Eli frowned, glaring at the blinking lamp, then down at the paving stones, and then back to the lamp. Finally, he shook his head.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll try this.” He turned to the elder Monpress. “You’ve always got at least three safe houses. Do you think you have one that isn’t compromised yet?”
“One, maybe,” Monpress answered. “It won’t stand up to a serious search, though.”
“That’s all right,” Eli said. “It doesn’t need to. Here’s what we’ll do. All of this noise is to catch me, right? So we’ll split up. You three will go for the safe house.”
Josef scowled. “And what will you do?”
Eli looked at him plainly. “I’m going to turn myself in.”
Stunned silence was his answer. Josef was the first to recover.
“Are you crazy?” he shouted. “I don’t know about wizard stuff, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be any doors to charm this time, Eli. If the duke was good enough to trap us like this, he’s certainly good enough to keep you in chains.”
“Don’t worry,” Eli said. “Even without the spirits, I’m Eli Monpress. There isn’t a prison in the world that can hold me.” He winked at the elder Monpress as he said this, but the old thief just rolled his eyes.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I’ll break out and meet you at the safe house. Whatever the duke did to wake up the town, he can’t keep it up forever or he would have done it the second he saw me, back at the treasury. I don’t actually know how he managed this, but simple spirits need a huge amount of energy to stay awake, which I doubt the duke can provide indefinitely. The town will have to go back to sleep sooner or later, and that’s when we’ll run. Sound good?”
“No,” Josef grumbled, “but I’ll take it.” He glared at Eli as he walked away. “Don’t get yourself killed, idiot.”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” Eli called back, but the others were already jogging down the alley away from him.
Smiling, Eli began to jog the other way.
He ran along the wall, waving at each light as it lit up when he passed. The little alley he was on widened into a street as he reached his chosen destination, the city’s northern gate. Sure enough, as he’d guessed, there was a small knot of conscript guards, half a dozen at least, standing at attention before the closed doors. They were rough-looking boys mostly, farmers’ sons, Eli guessed, and all gripping their swords like fire pokers as they stared wide-eyed at the twisting, awakened city.
Moving silently along the wall, Eli snuck up behind the smallest boy and, after adjusting his clothes and smoothing back his hair, Eli tapped the young conscript on the shoulder. The boy jumped two feet with a deafening yelp, dropping his sword. The other guards held together more admirably, whirling to face Eli with their swords drawn. Eli, surrounded on all sides, leaned back against the gate and raised his hands with a charming smile.