Soderberg

Chapter 25

They didn’t have to wait long before a guardsman came trundling out of the corridor leading to the front of the jail. With red and purple blotches on his face, it looked like the man had taken a beating as bad as Ida’s, at least as first glance. When he came to stand before Vidar’s cell, searching for the right key on a ring with over twenty of them, he saw it was some sort of skin condition. This guard smelled almost as bad as the drunks.

“You’re to see the magistrate,” the...

Chapter 23

The next morning was dreadful. With clothes still sodden from the night before, Vidar shuddered as he hurried down the streets to find the chapter house of the thieves’ guild. The sowilo runes in his pockets eased the worst of it, but the cold was getting on his nerves at this point. Tonight, he decided, he’d create more of them and line his coat, shoes, and even a hat, if he could find one. Warmth. He’d do anything for warmth.

Yallander waited outside the building, a torch hoiste...

Chapter 22

One hand remained above the surface of the thankfully not too deep rain basin of water. The runes in the wall pushed outward with frightening force, threatening to cast him into the man-made river. If not for Alvarn and his rope, that’s exactly how the next few seconds would have elapsed. Instead, Vidar spun around himself at an angle where the water stream struck his body. The change in position made it impossible to keep hold of the slippery stone floor, and he went under screaming.

Chapter 21

Vidar followed down the ladder. Each rung was separate and bolted into the side of the wall. They were all rusty and cold enough to make his very soul shiver as he hurriedly made his way down, following in his friend’s footsteps.

Wind from the open sea blew at his back, tearing at his coat like it was trying to push him off the ladder. Vidar cursed under his breath but kept going down. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long of a climb, and Alvarn grabbed him at the bottom. Their feet slippe...

Chapter 20

“We, the guild, ran afoul of the scribes a long while back,” Yallander explained. “Since then, they’ve refused selling us new runes and even stopped rejuvenating runes in places that are obviously connected with the guild. Operating in darkness may be what people consider normal for thieves, but it isn’t quite so simple.”

Vidar’s mind worked furiously. This might turn out well for him. Really well.

“You’re looking to buy runes? I can sell you runes.”

Yall...

Chapter 19

Thoroughly warm and content, Vidar stepped out from his room with a new, triggered sowilo rune in his breast pocket, giving off enough heat to keep the worst cold off him without burning through his clothes. Having waited for the paint to dry, he was now in possession of two more sowilo runes and three kenaz runes.

His arms and legs tingled but had regained most of their essence following a hearty meal from the innkeeper after she properly introduced herself as Edna.

Resigning his...

Chapter 18

With enough silver to buy himself proper meals for more than a week, and perhaps even a small room, the cold did not have quite the same effect as the days prior. Both keys were tucked away, safe in his coat pocket. Even the throbbing in Vidar’s head from the confrontation in the alley had lessened to a dull ache.

The sewers were not an inviting prospect, and he decided to forego his daily task in favor of visiting the one responsible for the maps provided by Embla. When he quit, drop...

Chapter 17

Vidar woke groggily when someone shook his shoulders.

“Get up, shit goblin! You’re on my foot!”

His eyes were glued shut with gunk and he had to wipe at them and then physically pull his lids open. Even in the darkness of morning, his eyes stung from the light of the moon far above them. Freezing cold billowed into the shack from the open door and a crowd gathered outside, waiting.

“Morning already?” Vidar croaked.

Ida leaned into the room and sniffed. “Thi...

Chapter 16

The small space was dark and, as it turned out, not empty. Two boys pressed themselves against the narrow corners, almost completely covered by blankets. Vidar peered inside but decided not to enter. If he made some mistake, he didn’t want anyone else suffering the consequences, and the one room inside wasn’t big enough to ensure anyone’s safety.

At that point, it wasn’t snowing anymore, and the cold might perhaps motivate him to get the sowilo rune working without delay. To tha...

Chapter 15

The neighbor’s house, a baker, was thankfully dark as well. They, too, were early risers. Vidar skirted the side of the wall to the small garden his mother kept behind their house. No plants survived the winter, which meant it was just a bunch of different-sized mounds of snow covering the pots and small wood-enclosed patches of dirt.

Vidar brushed the snow off a pot on the far left corner, still keeping his eyes on the windows.

Moving the pot took some doing with the bottom bei...

Chapter 14

A multitude of feet thundered down the old wooden stairs and the front door slammed open, letting the heat escape. Vidar shuddered as he waited for everyone to leave. Not a single one of the others as much as peeked into Embla’s room. The last one out did not close the door behind them.

“Do you mind?” Embla asked, gesturing toward it.

Vidar closed the door and returned.

“That was Guard Captain Anderson,” Embla began, not inviting Vidar to sit. “The guardsmen keep...

Chapter 13

Vidar made his way to the second blockage, but it took far longer than he’d like to pinpoint its exact location since the area marked on the map was so wide.

This time, it wasn’t a hole in the wall where the water was supposed to flow through, but one of the open, tall drops into a basin. The groove in the floor, where the water was supposed to flow, was all but empty except for a trickle at the bottom. Unsure of what might have caused the stoppage, Vidar held the light rune out in ...

Chapter 12

Holding the rune out in front of him, Vidar closed his eyes to focus. Bits and pieces of the event down in the sewers were flashing before his inner eye. His state of mind when triggering the broken rune was not one he could replicate offhand. Even if he could, that was not the task before him. Gentle, Alvarn had said. Vidar needed to be gentle. The goal here was to trigger the thing, not push too much into it and break it. He’d be in deep shit then.

He tried to find that balance, tri...

Chapter 11

“Here it is,” Ida said, nodding to a house towering over its neighbors.

“It’s four stories tall. You want to rob a damn tower?”

Vidar glanced to Siv, who would not meet his eyes. She looked down at her feet, squirming.

“You sure this is a good idea, Ida?”

“I’m tired of being hungry and cold,” Ida said, her usually warm demeanor absent from her face. The way she hunched her shoulders now as she looked up at the building made Vidar think of a cornered...

Chapter 10

“More runes? You just said there aren’t.”

“Not if you ask the guild, the Crown, the academics, or even the historians.”

He was speaking fast now, looking around to make sure no one was walking near enough to hear his very audible whispering. “I believe they’re all wrong. Either that, or they’re hiding their knowledge. I don’t know which is the greater sin.”

Vidar snorted. “Sin. What do the church and the fallen angels care of lies?”

Alvarn looke...

Chapter 9

Vidar grew very aware of his scent as he moved up the streets of Halmstadt. With every passing street, the people were more prosperous. It was like the coin in their pockets made them more susceptible to foul odors, because the sidelong glances from the men and wrinkled noses from the women became all the more frequent.

“Watch out so my stench doesn’t rub off on you!” Vidar barked, running up to a woman in wide navy-blue skirts holding an embroidered handkerchief to her nose. The ...

Chapter 8

Once back on dry dock, Vidar marveled at the place from which he’d emerged. It was out in the water. Not far from land, where the Dennerish sailors pulled him out, but still in the actual water. The sea must have risen considerably since the sewer and water system was built. No sane person would have created an entrance underwater. This also meant the actual intake was somewhere out there under the actual sea.

Once out into the open, the cold snatched most other thoughts from his mind...

Chapter 7

Unable to see his own hand right before his face, Vidar swore and shoved the map into his coat pocket. The heat was getting to him as his heartbeat picked up and his limbs buzzed with energy. He wanted to run, to flee, but there was nowhere to go. Just shit and darkness. He took a tentative step and almost fell. Somehow, he’d been turned around without realizing it and that one step almost put him into the run in the floor. If he’d gone in, he would surely have been carried over the edge ...

Chapter 6

Embla made him wait until everyone else was gone before handing over the items he needed for this particular job. A map, a key, and a lantern. The map he’d seen before and the notations were the same as well. It made sense that the blockages would remain static, since no one had gone down there.

The key was long and blocky, crafted from rough metal and clearly meant for simple locks.

“This’ll open any entrance?”

“It will.”

Vidar pocketed the key and held up...

Chapter 5

The cold was especially bad coming from such a warm house, and the nervous sweating he’d been doing didn’t help. It grew icy even beneath Vidar’s closed coat as he ran around the front of the house to throw himself into the nearest alley to hide if the proprietor did follow.

Bits of bloodstained sawdust were strewn about in the snow where he’d stepped. Swearing to himself, Vidar looked around, trying to orient himself. The church was nearby with a row of single-story houses hidi...

Chapter 4

Before anyone had a chance to catch him, Vidar removed the lock and put it in his coat pocket. There was no way for him to put it back in place after he’d entered, and he didn’t want to yell loud enough for one of the boys to hear him so they could do it for him. With the wind, it was just as likely that the old men or the priest might hear.

Vidar slipped inside.

Light streamed in from a slit window in the stone he hadn’t noticed from the outside. It wasn’t much, barely en...

Chapter 3

A set of stairs leading up to the second floor faced the front door, but everyone veered left into a large sitting room where rough wooden benches lined the walls.

Fire danced in a fireplace by the right wall, giving plenty of warmth. Lanterns with burning candles hung above the benches, placed high enough that those seated below didn’t need to worry about hitting their heads on the simple metal fixtures.

The main feature of the room was a sizable wooden desk that actually appea...

Chapter 2

The door slammed open, startling Vidar awake with a gasp. Cold air rushed in to fill the tiny room in an instant, waking all those who dwelled within. To his surprise, there were twelve boys all in all, sleeping all over the floor of the tiny, unfurnished room. They huddled together in piles under threadbare blankets. Only Vidar sat half-upright against the wall by himself. He’d been dreaming of his old bed, with its thick covers and the heat rune glimmering on the wall. No matter the weath...

Runes of Discovery (Book 1): Chapter 1

The icy wind blew through Vidar’s clothes as he carefully made his way up the three steps leading to the thick wooden door. Cursing under his breath, he reached up and banged on it with the back of his fist.

“Hjalmar, you fat bastard, open up!”

Wind whipped around his ears and he shuddered. He repeated the motion, with even more power behind it this time. “I know you’re in there!”

He was about to strike the door a third time when it suddenly flew open. Startled, ...