Black, For Lack of A Better Name

"Come on, Sully!" she muttered under her breath. "Where are you?"

Black crouched behind the cornice of the roof, searching the street below for any sign of her partner. They had become separated after someone raised the alarm on them. He had gone off to distract the guards and left her to complete the job. Typical of him to leave all the work to her! But it gave her an uninterrupted contest with the locks and wards surrounding the target, and in no time she had what they were sent for. Sully was good enough at his part to make a nice little exit route for her, too. What a gentleman.

The full moon's light glistened off the thin layer of sweat coating her ebony skin. Despite the chill of the evening, she felt all too hot waiting for the man to show himself. Taking a heavy sigh, she told herself that she was just going to give him a few more minutes, and then she was leaving.

As she stared at the lamp-lit street below, she heard a high-pitched giggling coming from far off to the right. Turning in that direction, she saw something that made her groan dismally. It was Sully bolting down the street, his limbs pumping for all they were worth, managing to stay just ahead of the snapping jaws of a pack of slavering dogs. The man looked a sight in the tight black burglar outfit accented by the vivid parlor of his skin. The idiot had obviously wiped the soot off his face, even though it was supposed to help him blend in with the shadows. What made it worse was the man was laughing his fool head off as he ran, his high-pitched giggle a mix of elation and excitement. He sounded like he was having the time of his life!

"God's damn it, Sully!" she cursed him as she watched him make an absolute ass of himself. And to think he was the one who had taught her all she knew.

Black sighed in resignation. There was nothing she could do for him, now, but she was sure he would eventually ditch the dogs and make his way back to the hole. So, tearing herself away from the spectacle, which had by then passed from view and left just their retreating sound, she made her way back home on her own. It wasn't the first time she'd had to do it.

He poked his head in the door eventually, while she was deep in study of the prize they had liberated. She pretended to not notice him, but she could tell by the sound of his swagger that he had a big smile on his face. He probably had an apology somewhere on him, too, but she wasn't interested in baubles right then. She also wasn't interested in another argument, so she let him get a pace or two inside before she said, "Have fun?"

"Oh," he said as if he didn't already know the answer, "You saw it."

"The entire street saw it," she replied, refraining from calling him an idiot, even though she was burning to. He already knew she had seen his antics, and she knew he knew it, just as she knew he had planned it that way. Sully had weird ways of showing her how much he cared.

"What's the haul?" he asked her. She felt him cranking his neck just to see.

Their mysterious benefactor had given them the task of robbing a magician for the last item they would need for the bigger score. She held it up so he could see it better. It was a dark blue silk bag embroidered with glyphs of thick silver thread. She had spent the entire time while waiting for Sully's return in deep study of the bag and discovered something amazing. But she wasn't going to show him until he asked. That would teach him to be more careful.

Right on cue, he asked, "What's it do?"

So, she showed him. She opened it up and shoved her whole arm into it up to the pit. Sully gaped in amazement. The bag itself wasn't more than a king's foot deep, and yet she could fit her entire outstretched arm in it. Even more amazing, it didn't even look full, and the only evidence that her arm was even inside it was the peculiar way it stuck out at an upward angle from her shoulder. Sully's amazement changed quickly to a wily expression.

"Can you imagine what we could get for that bag, alone?" he exclaimed. "We could name our price on the market!"

"Eyes on the prize, Sully!" Black admonished with a chuckle. She couldn't help it. He sounded just like a kid!

"Yeah," he agreed, letting her talk him away from the edge. "This job will make our fortunes!"

She just nodded and returned to her study. It was hard to believe they had gotten the bag out of that house at all, there had been enough guards placed upon it. But she put that out of her head. As Sully often told her, no use dwelling on the past, no matter how good or bad.

A sharp rap on the door put them on insant alert. Sully pulled his knife and stole to the door to hide behind it, while Black his the bag under some rags on the table and got up to answer it. There were very few reasons that anyone would knock at their door, and all of them made it necessary to have one of them close by with a weapon. Black had a premonition of who it would be even before she discovered that she was correct.

"Oh, look, Sully," she said in mock cheeriness. "It's Frik and Frak!"

Both of the meaty thugs bristled at the insult and barged their way inside. Black had already made room for their bulks to pass, and smirked openly as both got blocked in the narrow doorway trying to enter at the same time, before they popped through like a cork being released.They stumbled but recovered quickly, scowling at the girl as if it had been all her fault.

"Farmer wants to see you," Frik growled at her, craning his neck to look at Sully, who still concealed himself behind the door.

"Did he say why?" Sully asked, poking his head out and smiling innocently.

"Just come with us!" Frak told him menacingly.

"Well, when you put it that way," Sully replied, dancing out from behind the door, his hands empty and held out, palms upwards, at his sides. Frik still frisked him, tossing the knife he'd found into the mess of blankets that served as the couple's bed. When the brute turned to Black to do the same, Sully got all protective, as usual, snapping, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Not gonna happen, mate!"

"Grow up, Sully," Black scolded, but she tossed her blade into the bedding, herself, unwilling to have the big ogre paw her up. Frik eyed her warily, but he couldn't see where she could hide a weapon in her tight black outfit, so he rudely gestured her towards the door, and she preceded everyone out into the back alley cul-de-sac, followed by Sully, and then the two bullies.

Farmer met with them in that stupid paper office of his, the one inspired by tales of a far-off land that he had never seen and probably never would. The man was all smug in his white silk robe, sitting behind his big ugly desk, making them all swelter in the late summer heat as he wasted time staring at them. He knew the place made them uncomfortable, and he relished the sight of it. Black supposed that Farmer either had too few amusements in life, or the man was sadistically insane. Either way, he was loathsome, and she hated breathing the same air as him.

"You have it, yet?" he asked them with the smoothness of a sly weasel.

"Pretty soon," Sully assured him, keeping his tone respectful. Sully hated him, too, but he was better at hiding it than she was.

"What are you waiting for, then?" the man demanded, no longer hiding his imaptience.

"We just did the last job on the list," Sully told him, affecting a whining tone to his voice that he reserved when he was running a con or talking with the Watch. Or, when he was dealing with Farmer. "We let him know, and he gives us the big one."

"Don't waste time, then!" Farmer snapped. "Get it done!"

Then he waved them out of his "office", but before they were escorted out, Farmer demanded, "You remember what to do once you have it, don't you?"

Sully stiffened before he turned to smile at the man. That last part rankled him and Black both. Whatever the big haul was, they were supposed to take it to Farmer, and tell him who the purse was. Then, the maggot would have the prize and eliminate a rival all in one fell swoop. And they would be left out in the cold, with only their skins for a reward. And that, in farmer's own words, was more than they deserved for going behind the Society's back and taking an unsanctioned job! But Sully hid his feelings well when he turned and told him, "Yeah. We remember!"

Black gave Sully a look once they were shown to the street and left on their own. It was mostly accusing, partly begging, and telling him the same thing she always told him after they were hauled in to see Farmer. They needed to go. They needed to get out of town and run away as fast as they could and get as far away from the place, and the Society, as they possibly could. His glance in return was the same as always, that quirky, comical look that asked her, "Where would we go without money?"

And, that was Sully. Always getting them into trouble and having to use all his brains trying to get them out of it instead of using those brains to begin with. And then getting all philosophical about it to cover up his blunder. She sighed heavily and started off for home. They had to change before someone recognized the outfits from that night and accosted them. They also had to scrape up something to eat. She was famished!