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((29 Haring, 9:35; Evening; Hightown; Joscelyn Hawke , Adelaide Orland ))
It was exactly as Kalindra had described: the brute squad spread out on the ground, stomping around menacingly and rushing to investigate whenever a bird rustled in the shrubs, and not a single sodding eye directed past head level.
Not that Celeste was complaining, mind you. Stupid opponents were a gift from the Maker, but stupid opponents could still kill. She wasn’t worried for herself and Josc, or even for Addie. If everything went according to plan, they would have the girl out of there and back at Lady Hawke’s mansion before anyone realized she was even out of her room. But if things went according to plan, the brute squad would be chasing Nicolette and Edwin, and that prospect worried Celeste a bit more than she was used to.
Still, Varric had his people spread around the place, and most of the crew was hovering, as well, ready to step in if things got pear-shaped … and quite possibly even if they didn’t. Sterling’s Really Bad Night at the Hanged Man had raised the bar for shenanigans, and with this likely to be the last caper in Kirkwall for a good while, everybody wanted a piece, and everybody wanted to make it memorable. With that much potential mayhem, it should be no trouble at all for Nico to get herself clear of any fighting that broke out.
Which meant that Celeste really needed to get her head back into her part of this scheme: getting Addie out and digging up the kind of dirt that would take Barrett and Sterling out of play permanently. And if she got the chance to use any of the party favors that she had loaded the pockets of her vest with, damn right she’d take advantage of it.
From her vantage point in the shadows of a chimney on the roof of a neighboring mansion, Celeste took the lay of the land. The trellis beneath Addie’s window had been removed, but others along the side of the house remained untouched. Which meant that Barrett felt fairly confident that he had secured his daughter in her room, and he thought that her sneaking out was the extent of what he had to be on guard against.
Perfect.
Her eyes flickered from the light in Addie’s window along the line of darkened rooms on the second floor, mentally reviewing the layout that Edwin had described. No sign of him yet, and she hadn’t seen Nico since the minstrel had kissed her goodbye an hour or so earlier. That didn’t worry her; if she couldn’t see them, then the morons below definitely couldn’t.
Abandoning her perch, she slipped down into the narrow alley between the two estates and settled into the shadows to wait for Josc.
It was exactly as Kalindra had described: the brute squad spread out on the ground, stomping around menacingly and rushing to investigate whenever a bird rustled in the shrubs, and not a single sodding eye directed past head level.
Not that Celeste was complaining, mind you. Stupid opponents were a gift from the Maker, but stupid opponents could still kill. She wasn’t worried for herself and Josc, or even for Addie. If everything went according to plan, they would have the girl out of there and back at Lady Hawke’s mansion before anyone realized she was even out of her room. But if things went according to plan, the brute squad would be chasing Nicolette and Edwin, and that prospect worried Celeste a bit more than she was used to.
Still, Varric had his people spread around the place, and most of the crew was hovering, as well, ready to step in if things got pear-shaped … and quite possibly even if they didn’t. Sterling’s Really Bad Night at the Hanged Man had raised the bar for shenanigans, and with this likely to be the last caper in Kirkwall for a good while, everybody wanted a piece, and everybody wanted to make it memorable. With that much potential mayhem, it should be no trouble at all for Nico to get herself clear of any fighting that broke out.
Which meant that Celeste really needed to get her head back into her part of this scheme: getting Addie out and digging up the kind of dirt that would take Barrett and Sterling out of play permanently. And if she got the chance to use any of the party favors that she had loaded the pockets of her vest with, damn right she’d take advantage of it.
From her vantage point in the shadows of a chimney on the roof of a neighboring mansion, Celeste took the lay of the land. The trellis beneath Addie’s window had been removed, but others along the side of the house remained untouched. Which meant that Barrett felt fairly confident that he had secured his daughter in her room, and he thought that her sneaking out was the extent of what he had to be on guard against.
Perfect.
Her eyes flickered from the light in Addie’s window along the line of darkened rooms on the second floor, mentally reviewing the layout that Edwin had described. No sign of him yet, and she hadn’t seen Nico since the minstrel had kissed her goodbye an hour or so earlier. That didn’t worry her; if she couldn’t see them, then the morons below definitely couldn’t.
Abandoning her perch, she slipped down into the narrow alley between the two estates and settled into the shadows to wait for Josc.