Sell you a Bridge chapter 23

Later that night found us all sitting in a car down the street from  our target. Jim had been casing the place independently for a while now  and had a basic idea of their defenses, combined with his experience and  the extra tools he bought from Madame Xanadu he was sure we could pull  off the heist with no muss and no fuss. None of that, however, was of  the greatest concern to me right now. I was giving my mentor a flat  look, because after parking I'd finally realized what kind of car we  were in. "You drive a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost?"

He  actually had the good grace to look a bit sheepish. "I know, it's a bit  on the nose. But really, isn't it a splendid vehicle? Nothing like  engineering from the mother country for style and comfort." I just  stared, and he started to get flustered "It's a good car! I've had it  thoroughly customized with all the best magical  and mundane additions.  Run flat tires, anti tracking wards, and a spatial enchantment on the  boot that makes packing for long trips extremely convenient." I rolled  my eyes at his explanation but I had to admit, the thing was definitely  pretty.

Artemis  leaned between the seats from the back, where she and Reggie had been  relegated because I was the first official apprentice and got shotgun by  virtue of seniority "If you two are done with your Laurel and Hardy  moment, we should probably focus on the highly defended magical fortress  we're about to infiltrate. You can bond over old cars later." I winced,  she was right, I was stalling. Jim however seemed fairly serene, I  suspected he was just indulging me in my diversionary tactics out of  kindness since it was our first job. Or he was genuinely so relaxed he  didn't see it as an issue. He made it hard to tell sometimes.

When  Artemis spoke up however Jim became all business. Well, his hat  straightened like he was sitting up. Since this was an actual job he was  just a hat and monocle on a floating suit so he didn't actually have a  face, but he was oddly expressive for someone who wasn't there. "Quite  right, dear girl. Now, you've all been briefed on our plan of ingress.  Morgan, do be a sport and repeat it for me. Each of you have the dream  dust by the way?" Jim had raided his personal stash for a few vials of  dream dust, sand consecrated in a ritual to Morpheus, god of dreams,  that could put down pretty much anyone if you could blow it in their  face. I reached into my pocked to touch the vial and make sure then  nodded.

Artemis  and Reggie did the same. Reggie looked almost sick with worry now that  we were actually here, but there was an air of excitement too. I could  totally understand that. I took a deep breath repeating my role in the  plan from memory "Once we get inside with the hand, you'll pass the it  off to me and I'll split from the group with it. You'll use magic to  keep Artemis and Reggie safe and take them with you, and between the  Hand of Glory and my own abilities I should be safe to search the other  wing of the house." I'd been a bit unsure about splitting up, but Jim  informed me Shadowcrest was not a normal house and some of the rooms  actually moved, so we needed more than one person searching.

I  took a deep breath, heart pounding as I continued "The target is a  knife called Carnwennan. If I find the knife, I touch the sigil on the  bracelet you gave me that lets you know the mission is done and if my  sigil burns that means you completed it. Once we retrieve the knife we  meet back at our entrance point and use the Hand to open a path out. If  all goes well we will never be detected by either the house or its  occupants and will be in and out in less than an hour. If I run across  any of the occupants I should use my stealth to get close and dream dust  them without their notice."

Jim's  hat nodded. "Quite right. Carnwennan is a dagger about as long as your  forearm with an illustrious history. It was the personal weapon of  Arthur Pendragon, and is legendary for it's use in his feat of slaying  the very black witch. Amusingly the name is welsh for 'little white  hilt', which considering he used it to chop the witch basically in half  just goes to show you that the welsh are often wrong about even the most  obvious of things." That sounded even more shitty in an upper crust  British accent than it would have coming from me, but to be fair Jim was  old as dirt from what I'd been able to find online so comments like  that weren't a huge surprise.

I  was actually deeply worried about splitting up, but Jim assured me he'd  tampered with the Hand. It would only last through tonight, but it was  exponentially more powerful than it should be. No one would be able to  see me as long as I held it, no doors would block my path, and  theoretically it would keep the residents asleep but since they were  magic users that part probably wouldn't work. However he did assure me  that should I need the dream dust, the Hand would compound it's effects  and render the victim unconscious for at least a few hours regardless of  their magical aptitude.

After  going over the plan we slipped out of the car and headed up to the  house. Shadowcrest was at the end of one of those massively long  driveways set back onto the property, so we had to walk for a while  before we got to it. As we cleared the trees I stopped, staring  transfixed at the massive Victorian manor house. Shadowcrest loomed over  us like a hulking beast waiting to pounce on us and swallow us whole. I  had the very unsettling feeling that the house was aware and keeping  watch. Jim was keeping us from being noticed, but it was like this place  was looking for intruders. Joy.

Reggie  spoke up nervously "Not to be that guy, but does anyone else feel like  that house is...like...hungry? Or am I crazy? I really hope I'm crazy  because the idea of walking into a house that wants to eat me is  positively terrifying." His voice was high and kind of frantic. I  expected Artemis to say something to calm him down but she looked pretty  unnerved herself.I hadn't even realized that I was subconsciously  counting on Artemis to know what to do because her dad had trained her.  She seemed so much more together than me. But this was way out of her  comfort zone, of course she would be freaked out.

She  swallowed hard and made an effort to calm him down anyway "It's fine  Reggie. Ji-Gentleman Ghost knows what he's doing." She winced and shot  an apologetic look at Jim for almost using his name when he was in  costume but he just waved it off. She sighed with relief and went back  to comforting our most recent team member "He's seen it all when it  comes to this kind of thing. Hell, he's almost as old as this whole  country. Just trust him." She paused. "Speaking of Gentleman Ghost he's  the only one of us who has a code name. I mean, I can go by Artemis,  since she's the goddess of the hunt and I use a bow, but you two need  names."

I  blinked, she wasn't wrong. We were wearing hockey masks Artemis had dug  up from her closet, apparently her dad used them in his costume for some  weird reason. She'd spray painted them black so we didn't stand out in  the dark, but if we were shouting our real names then it kind of  defeated the purpose. I paused for a second and then said "Call me  Random. It doesn't give anything away about my abilities and I think it  sounds cool." It also kind of fit with my ability to spawn random powers  from spam emails but Reggie and Jim didn't know about that yet so I  refrained from saying it.

Reggie  cocked his head to one side as we walked slowly towards the house, all  keeping our voices low so as to make hiding us easier for Jim. "How  about Swap. It's to the point and easy to remember. Or is it too  obvious?" He sounded a bit concerned about his name being lamer than  ours. But when no one mentioned it he shrugged happily. He turned to  Artemis "Using your real name as a code name is pretty dumb though. I  know you're probably counting on hiding in plain sight, but that only  works from the cape side. If anyone meets you in person in your civvie  identity making the connection will be simple."

Artemis  stopped walking. "Well shit. I hadn't considered that. I honestly  hadn't had much of a civvie life until I became friends with Mo-Random. I  guess you can call me Neith. She was the Egyptian goddess of war and  hunting. Same basic vibe but it's less obvious." She sounded proud of  her pick for her name and i had to admit it was a good one. I kind of  wish I'd picked like a god of deception or something, but I'd already  picked and I didn't want to seem wishy washy by changing mine last  minute.

We  resumed walking and finally got to the house, we took a turn off to the  side and walked around to find a large pair of cellar doors. Jim slipped  the Hand out of his coat, still in it's box, and opened up the dark  wood to remove the grisly totem. It was different now, presumably from  Jim's alterations, magical symbols had been carved into the waxy flesh,  making it look somehow even more grotesque. The fingers, as was the norm  with Hands of Glory had been made into candles. Jim held the hand up  and muttered a few words and the fingers burst into flame.

Apparently  when Jim said he cranked this thing up to eleven he had meant it,  because when the fingers caught fire the flames leapt up about two feet  into the air. It looked like someone had lit five acetylene torches. Jim  kept muttering and the flames died down to normal candle size, but they  shifted color as they shrank flickering an eerie ghostly white that  reminded me of Jim's suit by the time they got back to normal size. Jim  paused after that little show seeming to hunch forward, I could hear him  panting in exhaustion despite being a ghost and not needing to breathe.

Finally  he held the Hand up to the door. I expected more magic, maybe a light  show. But Jim just let go of the hand. It floated in mid air in front of  the angled doors to the cellar for a minute before the fingers curled  down into a fist. The fire seemed to ignore the flesh and the digits  didn't stiffen at all. The Hand knocked three times on the cellar door  and the things popped right open. The fingers uncurled and Jim reached  out to catch it before it fell. Candle flames still burned as he passed  it to me.

He  gestured down into the now empty doors of the cellar "Well Random my  boy, it seems that this is where we part ways. Keep your eye on that  bracelet, if you sit it alight then simply retrace your steps back to  this door. If all goes well I shall see you in an hour or two. If not  then I trust you'll be able to flee with the help of the Hand and I  shall get the others out safely. Good luck on your first job dear boy."  He reached out and clapped me on the shoulder with one white glove, and  with a single squeeze he turned and led the others into the depths of  the cellar. I waited a minute to catch my breath and calm my nerves,  then followed them into the dark.