Victory of the Stars

Chapter 10: We Commit Grand Larceny

Even though Vi was still slightly fuzzy from her knock on the head, it felt like too short of a distance for them to get to Sparkles' opulent, lavish, ridiculous house. They had barely left the ring of sandy earth-brick apartments when they reached it. It lived up to their name, with four stories tall with wrought-iron balconies and railings lining the sides like caterpillars; the doors and windows were covered with intricate carvings and painted a eyeball-scorching shade of metallic gold; it looked Victorian and Gothic and Baroque and Roman all at the same time.
It was the ugliest building she'd ever seen and she hated it immediately.
It felt slightly absurd to Vi that they were about to commit the greatest crime that she'd ever heard of, let alone be party to, completely without a plan.
That wasn't entirely true.
They did have some semblance of a plan, but as she sized up the house she felt more than a little scared.
That's... a lot bigger than I expected.
They had returned to Kara's house to make a plan and eat food, but had instead spent most of their time laughing.
Not that she minded that, just that... well.
She wished they had more of a plan. What little bits of a plan they had figured out mostly involved pretending to be potted plants.
I wish Liam was a little more... serious about all of this. I mean, it's his sword, it's his fight.
He's the reason we're here anyways.
She tugged the thin gloves that Kara had given her on. Although they were almost too small for her hands, having belonged to Kara's brother Matti when he was years younger and still living with her, Kara had assured her that wearing them would be better than not. She would leave less prints and it would be easier for her to avoid damaging her hands if it came to a fight.
Stars, I hope it doesn't come to a fight.
Vi remembered all too well how useless she'd been the last time she'd been in a fight.
Nope. Nope. No, je ne vais pas. I'm not going to think about that. Nope.
She took a deep breath, tucked a loose curl back into the neat servant's bun that Kara had pinned her long hair up into, and stepped up to the servant's entrance.
Kara and Liam would be taking a rather less conventional approach to entering the lavish mansion, but they had agreed that this would be safer for her.
She was to gain entrance to Sparkles' mansion. Check.
She was to find his armory, the third room on the left on the second floor.
Check.
Vi didn't really know how Liam knew exactly where everything was, but she decided not to question it. One of the things he said often was that "context was for the dead," and he refused to elaborate on what he didn't want to elaborate on.
She'd figured out pretty quickly not to ask.
Step three of the plan was to let Kara and Liam in through a window, after they'd climbed up the outside of the building.
Vi fidgeted with her gloves as she tried to walk inconspicuously over to the window that Liam had told her to go to.
Oh stars, this is going to go so badly. I'm walking all wrong and it'll be obvious that I don't work here and what if they see me opening the window? What if someone sees us coming in?
What if someone sees them?
She tugged at the window frame, and it slid up surprisingly easily, like it'd been recently oiled. Remembering how Liam had shown her how to get through a window, she stepped back. They'd be swinging in soon, and she didn't want to be kicked in the gut.
Vi glanced back into the hallway behind her. Small scuffling sounds and muffled noises of outrage were coming from below the window.
She tucked her hair back into its neat bun and tugged the collar up, rubbing her collarbone.
They need to be quiet! If I can hear them, so can everyone else.
She tugged her collar again and rubbed harder.
Another few, agonizing, breathless seconds passed as the quiet scuffles grew louder, and then first Kara, then Liam hauled themselves through the window.
Kara was red-faced and angry, her hair looking like a cureuil had made a nest in it. Liam was red too, but more from exertion than anger.
"Ah said'm sorry, Kara," he whispered. Noticing Vi's questioning glance, he leaned over and said softly, "Ah stepp't ahn her hed."
Well, that explains why she's so pissed.
Kara whipped her head away from him, her hair already tidied and grunted. "Let's jus get this over with."
They walked quietly to the end of the hall, stopping occasionally to peer down side corridors or glance through half-open doors. It was a stunningly big house.
Every time Vi heard a noise she flinched and tucked her hair back behind her ears, her brain running on overdrive with excuses that she could make if they were caught. She was thinking so hard that she didn't notice that Liam and Kara had stopped in front of a door until she almost passed them and got yanked back to their side by Kara, who was still extremely angry. "Ow," she whined, which earned her a gentle smack on her arm.
"Shush. Liam, open the --------- door."
"Ahr ye okay, Kara?"
"You stepped on my head. Just open it."
Liam rolled his eyes at Vi and then knelt by the handle. Unlike most of the doors on this hallway, it was pure gold and looked really, really fancy.
After a few seconds he stood up, cursed, and then kicked the door.
"Liam, we're tryin to be quiet!"
"Gu iffrin le sin! Ah don' care anymor. Ah want ma sword! Sparkles is an idiot an' ah don' care if he hears us."
Kara sighed, and then kicked the door with him. "Fine."
They kicked the door a few more times until it gave, the lock breaking with a sharp crack. They walked into the room. It was full of beautiful antiques, swords, armor, jewels, and everything else.
Liam practically ran through the room, his eyes flicking between displays. At one point he was looking at a collection of swords so hard that he ran into a wall. Kara died laughing, but Vi ran over to him.
"Oh my stars, are you all right? Rien cassé, rien blessé? Nothing hurt, nothing broken?"
He shook his head, and she could see his face reddening. A small trickle of blood ran down from his nose.
"It's not here."
He wiped his face and stood up. The manic energy that had possessed him only a few moments before had drained away, but now he was brimming with anger. She could see it tightening the lines of his face, shaking his hands, filling him up with the burning that the lajiao peppers Dane had loved so much caused. It was mostly tasteless when you bit into it, but as soon as it was swallowed it left a trail of angry fire in its wake, burning all the way to your stomach.
Before they even realized what he was doing, he ran out the door. Vi followed him and made it back to the hall just in time to see him jump out the window.
W-w-what? Qu'est-ce que c'est passe? What just happened? Did he just... !?
They ran to the end of the hallway and looked out the window. Liam was furiously climbing back down. Kara jumped through after him and started climbing. Her smaller size allowed her to climb faster, as she found hand-and-foot-holds easier.
Vi swallowed, put one knee on the windowsill, and then withdrew it.
I think I'd better take the stairs.
She turned and rushed down the stairs, suddenly terrified that they'd leave her alone in that massive, lavish, horrible house. She didn't want to be alone again.
Vi ran through the halls so fast that she surprised even herself; it seemed like the devil himself was after her. Despite that, it still seemed like an eternity before she finally made it to the door by which she had entered. As she rushed outside she became aware of a huge disturbance by where Liam and Kara had descended.
She frowned. There was a crowd already gathered around whoever was fighting, and she really didn't want to risk any soldiers being there. She could see several looking at them from the opposite end of the street.
Suddenly, a shout rang out from the middle of the crowd that forced her into action. Kara yelled in pain.
She ran over, although she didn't have much energy left for it. By the time she made it to the front of the crowd her hair had been pulled out of her bun and her dress was quite dusty again. Kara was on the ground wrestling Liam, but unlike the friendly tussles they'd been engaging in earlier, this was full-on slamming each other to the ground.
"Let me go, Kara," Liam yelled, trying to use her braids to pull her off of him. "That mhac na galla has mah sword an' ah want et back! Ye know how much et means tae me!"
Kara used her hips to flip him onto his stomach and sat on the small of his back, pinning him to the ground. "NO. We are going to go home and make a plan! Stop acting like a total fhaighean!" With that she pressed two fingers into the soft spot behind his ear until he yelled. "Are you going to stop fighting me and accept that I know how to do this?"
He scowled at her, but when she pressed a little harder he relented.
She pulled him up and the crowd began to disperse, muttering. From what Vi caught they had all been hoping that Kara and Liam would kiss. Everyone seemed to think that it was a lovers' quarrel for some reason.
Kara noticed her standing alone and dragged Liam over. He shook off her arm.
"Ah'm fine naow, Kara. Leave me alone."
Kara sighed. "Sorry, Vi. Change of plan. This time, you're going in alone."