Chương 318: 4.8

Bruiser waited. If all went to plan she would only have to follow them and board with the rest of the crew at the docks. If all went to plan. If not though Bruiser was here, waiting in the alley not far from Robin and John's exit from the manor. She mulled over the plan. Right now Robin and John would be slipping through the house, making sure the way was clear when the others made their break for the goods. Securing doors, keeping silent and stealthy incase for once there were extra guards.

It was the riskiest point in the entire job. The two of them were inside, alone, while the rich fool's night guard was actually watching the doors. But the opening for the rest of them was coming. The sole midnight watchman was going to slip his lady friend in to enjoy the fine (and unused) bed on the second floor. Given the last three times that had happened Robin and the crew were confident they had at least an hour once she arrived. The stamina of those two lovers would do any man proud.

Also the noise would cover for the less light footed among Robin's band. They had only picked up two new faces since coming to Light's End. Which was better than in Kaeketeh. Robin had far to kind a heart. Bruiser shifted on her feet, flexed her knees, pulled and tightened each muscle in legs that had slowly grown more familiar than her old ones. Muscles in her arms and hands that had once been awkward and disturbing now almost buzzing with confidence. Damn the stars. She'd asked for a boon, a blessing, a cure.

She'd burnt half her savings on the temples to try and find a single god house in Kaeketeh that could undo what the Countess Wyrm had wrought. Before Bruiser wised up. She saw some of the waifs that hadn't. She'd seen how some of the star's blessings 'fixed' them. Left them all smiles when before their face had been wracked with anguish. Damn stars didn't fix that they were supposed to be men. No, some of them got made to like being women! They ended up going off and marrying after the star's touched them!

Some of them got pregnant and had kids! But at least they were mostly still there if they went to a proper temple. Bruiser clenched her grip on the club harder. When Gustas had come back that day all smiles and with not even a hint of the man that he'd been behind his eyes? Barely a child in thought or demeanor? Like everything had been wiped clean. She'd thought Gustas wised up about asking for the gods to fix things. But Gustas hadn't. She'd smashed in the face of that backstreet god botherer.

Poor desperate Gustas had given up on the temples, yes. But he'd found a 'priest' to get him what he wanted, put him directly in contact with a star himself. Idiot. Bruiser broke every single finger on that sham of a priest to get the truth of it out of him. To find out that Gustas was gone. That the stars wouldn't bring back what they took from him to 'fix' what was wrong. She broke that man and listened to him scream then left his face such a ruin not even the stars would know him. But it didn't fix Gustas.

Bruiser had done what she could there too. He had been her brother in arms. But she'd not been able to stand seeing the empty headed thing who smiled and spoke but remembered almost nothing of its life before. Cared about hardly anything at all too. Just smiled open and bare faced with not a single worry. That was when she'd left the city and found Half-Willy. Sent the shell of a thing that had been made out of Gustas into the care of those waifs that had families in Kaeketeh of one sort or another.

Fled the city and never stepped foot into a temple again. But the boons and blessings she'd gotten trying to become a man again still sung in her muscles. Flowed through the bones beneath. She didn't look, sound or feel more like a man. But at least Bruiser still could remember that she was one, care about what she had lost, and decide how she acted because of it. At Least she could still deal with the curse on her own terms. She had to eat a bit more than her size suggested.

She had to burn a twist of hair at the start of every season. A smattering of other trivial things and minor chores. That was the price she bargained for. But a dozen boons from so many stars also meant she could take off a man's leg with a well braced swing of her club. So long as she kept up with the obligations and the vows she made. Not all of her fellow waifs had been so lucky with the stars. She was, simple facts. And it meant Bruiser on her own was enough of a force to watch the door alone.

She was confident, with the element of surprise she could leave broken bodies and crushed skulls in her wake if the fortune damned stars decided to come home to roost tonight. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It meant the rest of the crew could focus on stripping the entire building (except the one bedroom) of every valuable they could carry.

And Bruiser could stand guard and be force enough to handle any four or five armed men that might come if the alert went out. If the plan went to shit and piss Bruiser would be here. But so far it hadn't. Ah there was the lady friend. And the guard that was sweet on her. If the near children in Robin's crew could keep their count straight it would be smooth going now. Bruiser counted her breaths, keeping it even. The minutes it took the two lovebirds to reach the end of the hallway.

Then the time to climb the stairs. Probably some kisses or fondling when they got to the second floor. After that the door to the bedroom. The crew had been watching these two slip through the house from vantages all around the house every night they did this. Bruiser had only had to endure seeing it once. She counted her breath and- Damn those fool children! There they were moving too soon. Probably rushed the count in their pup-like eagerness. Bruiser couldn't risk moving from her spot.

There was some leeway, there was a good chance that the lovers had rushed and not dallied. But still Bruiser clenched her club between far too small hands. Felt the calluses she had grown onto fresh babysoft fingers. It was hard to keep the roughness to them. Waif hands wanted to stay soft. You had to work and train twice as hard to not lose a laborer or warrior's grip. Bruiser for all her boons still had to suffer that. Training twice as hard just to keep her hands from blistering from every fight.

She kept her breathing even as the entire crew rushed as quietly as most were able into the house. Listened carefully and looked for signs of an errant guard's watch despite the late hour. Or the sound of shouts from the second story bedroom window. Well shouts other than the usual ones. Looks like the lanky idiots were lucky, the lovers were especially eager tonight. Bruiser breathed slow and deep. Calming her heart down from the rush of imminent violence.

Listening to the voices above and the muffled excitement in the dark hallways ahead. The time was slipping away now. She looked around for signs of something unexpected. Some guard coming to the house off schedule. Perhaps the Countess herself might go for a midnight stroll? Yes she'd left that morning (no thanks to the damned stars), but the wyrm could cover the distance of a day at a man's walk in minutes of flight. Yet the night was quiet but for the wind from the depths of the world.

The groans and moans of an oblivious fool and his lady friend above. And the sound of bags filling with fine loot in the rooms ahead of her. Bruiser breathed and watched, bracing like she was still on guard under the Bloody Countess Bathory. Just tense enough to move if something happened. Just loose and relaxed enough to not wear herself out. The stars slowly rolled past in the sliver of sky she could see from her alleyway.

And then the noise began to quiet in the first floor long before the voices settled in the second. The door opened and out came Robin and John. The giant of a boy burdened under a heavy bag. Robin moved more freely. Then miraculously the rest of the crew made their way out of the burgled house. Only when the last of them exited the door and then carefully made sure it latched and was locked did Bruiser shift from her place in the darkness. Sauntering up to cover the rear of their little caravan. Looking all around.

One step completed. Now just to get to the docks and be then a short wait before their captain was off into the night. Bruiser felt a bit light and jittery in a way she had to grow used too again. Another pain of the waif curses. Where before she had once grown calm and lost the shakes as a man? She always could feel the trembling in her spine now. Still no point borrowing trouble. They had just performed what Bruiser was pretty sure was the biggest burglary in the history of Viznove.

And not a person had see-" THIEF!" Ah, there it was! With a relieved and toothy grin behind her veil Bruiser barked to the youths ahead of her." Look alive ya whelps! And remember the plan!" And then they were away! Rushing down abandoned streets. As they closed into the never ending crowds towards the docks, Robin's voice rang out clear and beautiful." Silver! Silver and riches for the poor! Haepenny aplenty and Grosz for the taking!" That was the genius of robin. The plan for if they caught too much heat.

Even if they spilled half the silver and loot they had gotten from that rich fool's house the crew would have plenty left over. So why not cover their escape by spreading around the good coins? They ran through the docks but the streets behind them filled to bursting with a crush of people stooping to pick up the glittering coins in their wake. Even at this late hour Light's End never fully slept. And the docks most of all. Plus the commotion was drawing people from their slumber.

The shouting of silver and riches drawing even more out in their night clothes to get their own windfall. A few dozen children paid off with the last of the crew's original savings assured that. Their voices ringing out to announce well and afar through the city." Silver! Silver like water on the streets! Grab your fistfulls of grosz!" And the best part is hardly anyone even would know their faces. The whole crew had worn heavy hoods and veils like Bruiser.

By the time the crowds had grown thick enough Robin had clammed up. They split apart then. Melting through the teeming rush of people trying to rush where they had passed. For the spectacle or the promise of riches. It drowned out any pursuit or efforts by the guard to find them at this hour. A bit of time to mingle and further confirm all pursuit was escaped. And then at last they were at their ship. The low cave sloop was waiting exactly where it had been promised.

The deathly pale captain with his shaved head and face, hollow cheeks framing a gap toothed grin as they converged on the docks before him.

"Well, I guess I'll be getting that bonus you promised if we needed to leave while it was loud then?" Robin nodded and tossed a bag that had a heavy heft to the captain. Who grabbed it with a jangle of coin before passing it behind him to another man.

"Well, that's settled! Good job on fleecing that greedy cheat of a baronson. All aboard and it is a pleasure doing business with you." As Bruiser waited to board, keeping an eye over her shoulder for pursuit the captain added with a chuckle.

"Robin Hood"