It was a quiet summer night, and a surprisingly dark one in one of the wealthier districts of the city. The moon was dark and the large swaths of cloud covered what stars there were. The lanterns had been lit on the main street, but the alleys had no illumination and the walls and shrubbery cast deep shadows on the borders of the properties. Shadow enough for a careful person to remain invisible.
Rajani crouched in a patch of those shadows, studying one of the many affluent houses. By this point in her life, she did well enough singing that she had no need to resort to thievery or burglary to finance herself. She did well enough by her own, legitimate merit to live a modestly comfortable life. She was not a particularly greedy individual, nor did she necessarily feel entitled to that which was not hers. Of course, none of this stopped her from committing the occasional heist.
She waited several minutes after all but one of the windows went dark before she stealthily made her way through the small garden toward the back of the house. Rather than aiming for a door, she tried the third window. It opened without complaint.
No, Rajani was not a greedy woman. Rather, she liked to keep in practice. One never knew when certain skills might become useful once more. Best not get rusty.
Silent as a wraith, she slipped through the opening, a fluttering shadow with gleaming golden eyes following close behind her. Her own green eyes quickly assessed the empty drawing room before she crept toward the door. The Lowell family was very well off, indeed. Baubles of the highest quality decorated furniture in the latest fashion. The gypsy very much doubted there was anything in the room that could not be sold and feed a modest family for a week.
She sneered and gently opened the door, taking care that it should not creak. She need not have worried. It was well-oiled. Assured that there was no one lurking in the darkened halls, she made her way toward the stairs. This house deserved to lose whatever she chose to take.
It has already been established that Rajani was not a greedy woman. Why, then, choose this target? She had researched her mark. Robin Lowell was a bachelor and a fop. That much was no crime, but he was also a fool, and a cruel one at that. He had a certain reputation amongst the ladies, and it was not a kind one. More than that, he had partaken in shady dealings on more than one occasion. Was she here as an act of vengeance, then? Hardly.
Rajani was no noble heroine, no champion of the lower classes out to strike a blow against the idle rich. She was simply a morally ambiguous woman with a certain sense practicality. As she had no real need for whatever she took, it was better to steal from someone else who did not need what she took. As she had no wish for the authorities to start sniffing for her trail – however unlikely it was that they could find it – it was better to steal from someone who would not want the authorities taking too close a look at his own affairs. Lowell was an ideal target. He was too wealthy to need what she took, miserly enough to miss it, but his hands were too dirty for him to do anything about it. The gypsy was quite pleased with her choice.
Rajani made her way into the second-floor study and ordered her feathered shadow to stay in the hallway and keep watch for restless servants. He would also come in handy in the event that Lowell decided to come home early tonight. Unlikely, but one could never be too careful.
The lantern from the street provided enough illumination here for Rajani to get a decent look around the room. It was as shamelessly opulent as the rest of the house. She headed to the heavy oak desk and began her inspection. There was nothing of particular interest in the drawers. Or rather, there was nothing immediately noticeable. Ever so gently, she felt around, her fingers running over the contours until.
Click.
There. A wickedly satisfied smile spread across her lips as she found the previously-hidden compartment. Well, well. What have we here? As expected, Lowell’s most interesting objects were not stored in his bedroom – anyone might find them there. Instead, they were safely hidden away in his sanctuary. Or rather, they had been safe until he had the misfortune of attracting her attention.
As she began sorting through the exquisite jewels and exotic trinkets – all of which were doubtless priceless – she felt an odd sort of tingling in her mind. She had all of three seconds before a searing hot pain flared on her chest. Hissing, she jerked the offending object out from under her clothing. The deer-shaped totem she had taken from the Tree all those weeks ago was glowing with a brilliant purple light.
The gypsy could only stare as hundreds upon hundreds of firefly-sized lights exploded from the totem and began a complicated, circular dance in the air in front of her. They spun faster and faster , tightening and reshaping until, with a last blinding flare, they coalesced into the form of a little fawn who landed on the floor with a soft thud.
There was no way that no one noticed that.
“…s**t.”
As though the vehement whisper broke whatever spell had lain over the fawn, he started shuffling around, making little baby noises. Rajani stared at him, disbelieving. Never mind that she had half expected the totem to remain inert, and forget the fact that she had not been expecting a baby guardian. Of all the possible times to be born, did it have to be now?
Dropping the now-cool totem back beneath her clothing, the gypsy frantically looked around the room. Sparing no more thought for the priceless items, she quickly closed the secret compartment and tried to figure out how she was going to carry the squirming, noisy bundle out of here unnoticed. He might not be huge, but he was certainly larger than she would have expected from a newborn animal. Could she even lift him? He was obviously in no condition to walk, even if she thought his hooves could walk quietly.
Clack!
She nearly had a heart attack when a stray hoof hit the leg of a chair. No more time to waste, Rajani sprung into action. She grabbed a blanket that was thrown over a chair and bundled the little trouble-maker up as best she could, tying the corners to make a sling.
“Quiet, you,” she whispered fiercely. “And if you wiggle your way out of this, I’ll leave you here.”
She had no idea if he could understand, but he squeaked and cuddled deeper into the makeshift sling, looking for all the world like a content baby. She could only shake her head at him in utter disbelief.
Hawthorn cawed softly from the hallway, renewing her sense of urgency. There was no way out of this room, that was certain. She unlatched the window anyway before hauling her bundle up and settled it over her shoulders – he was heavy! She then peeked into the hallway. The glow of a candle was floating up the stairs. Without wasting any more time, she dashed to the next room, finding it blessedly unlocked.
“Distract,” she hissed at her rook before moving silently into the new room.
A bleary-eyed servant peered suspiciously into the hall a scant second after she had closed the door. He frowned at the open study and gripped his fire-poker tighter.
“What the-” he exclaimed as he saw the fluttering shadow land on the windowsill. Then, he sighed and shooed the rook away. It left with a plaintive caw. “Bloody bird,” he muttered, closing the window, then the door, and tottering back downstairs.
Rather than wasting time or taking chances, Rajani had climbed out of the window of the second room – a window which conveniently faced the back of the house. The brick would have been no problem to scale on her own, but with her unexpected and extremely inconvenient burden such a feat was much less feasible. Jumping was also out of the question. However, at least a little luck was still smiling on her. Vines were quite popular, and this house had been standing long enough to have acquired some nice, thick ones for her to climb down. The handholds were rough and the footing was slippery, but it took her less than a minute to make the short climb down. Safely on the ground, she made her escape. Needless to say, it would be a very long time before this gypsy even considered burglarizing another house.
