Have Spacecat, Will Travel: And Other Tails by John Hartness (best color ebook reader .txt) 📗

Ignoring his friend, Remarin opened the bedroom door and moved downstairs into the shop. As he turned the corner at the landing, he froze at the sight that greeted him from the shop below. There was another thief already there!

The other burglar was small, clad all in black as Remarin was, complete with a hood over his face. Remarin pressed himself tight to the wall and watched as the thief slipped through the store, all the way to the front display window, almost as if he was on a mission. He stayed low, out of sight from any street-side passersby, then almost seemed to slither up behind the window case, just snaking out one arm, wrapping his lithe fingers around the very necklace Remarin was there to steal, and darting back out of sight.

“I’m sorry,” Remarin whispered. “I don’t think that belongs to you.”

The other thief’s head whipped around, and Remarin saw that the lithe man’s hood completely covered his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t belong to you, either, since you’re whispering and sneaking around in here like the thief you are,” the man whispered back, his voice rasping through the darkened store.

Remarin kept his gaze locked on the other man’s hand, which held the cat pendant dangling by a thin gold chain. “Like the thief we both are, apparently. Look, I’m a reasonable man. I’m only here for that pendant. You can take anything else you like, and as much of it as you want. But I have my eye on that as a gift for a friend, so if you’ll just toss it over, I’ll be on my way and you can plunder to your heart’s content.”

The other thief’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. “Sorry friend, I was here first. You just stand over there and look pretty, and when I’m done, you can have whatever’s left.”

“Or I could just yell for the shopkeeper and we could both go to prison,” Remarin whispered.

“You won’t do that. No one gets as old as you are without a healthy fear of prison.”

“I’m not sure what I’m more offended by, your insinuation that I am a coward, or you calling me old,” Remarin snarled. “Now give over that necklace before I take it by force.”

The other thief slid the necklace into a pouch on his belt, then dropped into a defensive stance. “Try it, old man.”

“Oh, that’s done it for sure,” Remarin muttered, and darted toward the man.

The shop was cramped, filled almost to bursting with display cases, and littered with spinning racks of pegs holding cheap necklaces and charms. Remarin wove between these to the narrow space where the smaller man waited for him, only to walk right into a foot. The other thief launched a kick as Remarin came around the corner of a display case, catching him square on the tip of his jaw. Remarin staggered back, and the other thief darted past him toward the stairs.

Remarin reached out with one hand, reaching for the loose cloth belt the other man wore wrapped around his waist. The other thief spun out of his grasp, reaching down to give his belt/sash a yank. Remarin heard a ripping sound as the slick black fabric tore under his grip, and he took advantage of the momentary distraction to launch himself at the smaller man.

He belly-flopped on the floor of the shop with a loud “Oof!” as the thief twisted out of the way of his tackle at the last moment. Stars flickers across his vision as Remarin’s chin slammed into the wooden floor, and he heard a soft chuckle as the other thief sprinted, cat-quiet, for the stairs.

A thud came from above, and Remarin realized that the shopkeeper was awake. “Shit,” he muttered, scrambling to his feet and running up the stairs after his prey. He rounded the landing and saw light flicker from the bedroom ahead as someone, presumably the proprietor, struck a match.

Remarin raced up the stairs, no longer worrying with keeping quiet, and burst into the bedroom to see the shopkeeper charge a black-clad figure. The other thief ducked the man’s clumsy, sleep-addled grasp, and leapt for the window. Remarin froze in the door as he watched the slender man catch the top of the window, swing his feet out the window, and flip up into the air, vanishing into the night. A loud THUMP from the roof told of a safe landing, and the patter of running feet informed Remarin that his prey, and his prize, were getting away.

He looked at the jeweler, who now stood wide-eyed between him and the window, said, “Sorry about this,” and dashed toward the man. The jeweler, seeing that the thief wasn’t slowing, dodged to one side just as Remarin leapt for the upper window frame. He latched his fingers onto the narrow strip of wood, then bent his body almost double as he swung forward. His feet flew out into open air, pulling the rest of his body after them.

Remarin flexed his shoulders and biceps, straining to control the movement of his body along its axis. He fishtailed his feet down, then up, released his grip on the window, and saw the ground and buildings whirl by in his vision. He twisted around in midair, managing to draw Trand at the apex of his flip, then drove the dagger through the thatched roof into the eave at the edge of the rooftop as he started to tumble past. His right shoulder screamed as his descent halted abruptly, Trand using some of the magic that enchanted his metallic form to bind his blade to the roof and his hilt to Remarin’s hand.

Remarin dangled for a brief moment, then looked down as he felt something brush his leg. He looked down to see the shopkeeper’s head poking out of his bedroom window. The round man opened his mouth, probably to scream for the guards, but Remarin kicked