Free Night's Haunting by Matthew Sprange Page A

starving - certainly not if they had been part of the beggars' guild for any length of time. The guild turned destitution into a profession, and Sebastian's people were very good at what they did. Beggars feigned diseases and injury, turning their deceptive plight into pity from those who were supposedly better off. It was ironic that many of the beggars that received handouts were actually wealthier than many of the labourers and craftsmen who gave freely. But then again, that was the whole point of begging.
    Under Sebastian, the beggars' guild had developed so that every beggar in the city belonged, and all benefited from its membership. Plots were allotted and rotated so that each beggar had a good opportunity for charity and no one region of the city was buried under hordes of begging cripples.
    More than that, Sebastian had turned the natural tendency of so-called decent people to ignore beggars into a virtue. The beggars' guild had become the eyes and ears of the city, and their recent alliance with the thieves' guild had borne fruit for both.
    Someone within the Vos military had finally caught on, however. For the entire morning, Sebastian had watched helplessly as his people were rounded up by Vos soldiers and piled into wagons. He had first thought they were being taken to the Citadel or perhaps even deported from the city, as part of some Vos scheme to clean up the streets. Their true aim was far more insidious, and Sebastian pounded the wall with an angry fist as he sought, without hope, for a response that would save his guild.
    The wagons of beggars had been driven to the Square of True Believers. More soldiers ensured no one was able to leave, much to the chagrin of those who felt they had been picked up like sacks of wheat and then dumped in the square. However, when more wagons arrived, the beggars stopped complaining.
    By providing more than just food and drink, the Vos government was buying their loyalty. Better clothes immediately made them look like anything but beggars. Cold, hard silver meant there was little to be gained by begging anyway. After all, why squat in the gutter with hand outstretched to passers-by if Vos was going to give you money for doing nothing? True, some of the more successful beggars would not be taken in, being too wealthy to be turned so easily. However, they were few in number and were certainly not the heart and soul of the guild.
    A young girl of no more than fifteen summers came from the depths of the alley to stand next to Sebastian. Wearing an elegant gown, the girl looked more like the daughter of a rich aristocrat than the beggar she was. She had been forced to change from her normal, grubby attire in order to avoid being picked up by the guards with the rest of the beggars. Linking an arm through Sebastian's, she too watched what was happening to the beggars.
    "Grennar," Sebastian acknowledged.
    "What are we going to do?"
    He looked down at the ground. "Go to the thieves. Tell them that, from today, my guild no longer exists."

Chapter Six
     
    The elegant wood-panelled walls of the guildhouse's council chamber used to give Lucius a measure of confidence in his chosen career. With the wisest and most experienced thieves seated around the long table that dominated the room, the atmosphere was one of business and considered opportunity, not petty larceny and common crime. Theirs was a true profession, taken every bit as seriously as the merchants of the city who planned the continuance of their wealth for years into the future.
    The comfort was not there today, and everyone fidgeted around the table as they waited for the guildmistress. The council had shrunk in size since the thieves' war, and the empty chairs around the long table now felt like an ominous sign.
    Opposite Lucius sat Ambrose and Nate. The former had been Lucius' own mentor when he first joined the guild, and Lucius had come to trust the veteran thief completely. Nate, on the other hand, could have been