‘Up here, kid’ Lethe’s voice drifted to her from above.

Jay made sure that on St. Eagle day she would be in the alley early. She waited, leaning over the crates and looking towards both exits from the alley, waiting for Lethe to appear.

‘Look up, I say. Why is nobody watching what’s going on above them? Eh, maybe it’s better for me this way.’

Jay threw her head up and scoured the wall above her. Lethe was crouching on a narrow ledge that once was the windowsill of a walled-up window.

‘How did you got up there?’ she asked.

‘Two little birdies carried me on their tiny wings’ snorted Lethe. ‘I climbed of course! Come on, join me.’

Jay fidgeted in place, unsure where to start. She took a bit of a string from the folds of her clothes and tied back the mess of her hair. She brushed the wall with her fingers, feeling the spots where the bricks were eroded or missing. Hesitantly, she put her foot on a bump that was protruding from the wall and reached up above her head, scanning for a purchase for her fingers. She pulled herself up, scraping with her other foot, trying to find a place to put her toes in. Toes, fingers, more toes- she crawled slowly, clinging to the wall like a very badly mutilated spider.  She risked looking down, hoping to see that she had made quite a bit of progress. She ended up disappointed though.

‘’Don’t look down, are you nuts?’ came from above her. ‘Look up, at me.’

Jay looked up. Lethe didn’t move from his position. His sharp features were barely sticking out from a thick wrap encircling his arms and neck up to his nose.

A few more minutes of her trying her best to climb and she scrambled onto the windowsill, flattening herself to the shallow recess above it.

‘Ehhhh, so you’re not a climber either’ said Lethe. ‘That’s alright, you’ll get used to it. Now, follow me.’

Lethe turned his face towards the wall and grabbed the protruding arch of the window. With a single push of his legs, he launched himself up, throwing his arms up. His fingers found places to grab seemingly on their own, as if he didn’t even have to think about it. Jay watched him with her jaw dropped; in a few seconds he was halfway to the roof of the two-story building.

Jay sat there frozen. Was she supposed to go all the way up? She flexed her fingers, they were half-numb both from the pushing and pulling as well as from the touch of cold bricks. Then she looked down against Lethe’s instruction and realized that she had no idea how to get down. The only direction was up.

She stretched herself carefully and began to clamber up the wall. Her heart was thumping so loud that she could almost hear it echoing against the wall. She had no idea how long it took her to reach the top; she wasn’t thinking of anything besides keeping balance and finding another hole to stick her fingers into. She was infinitely surprised when she found the ledge of the roof instead of another eroded brick.

The roof was sloping gently and Jay climbed up onto it as if she was a castaway emerging onto a shore- on all fours and gasping for air.

Lethe watched her struggling, sitting with his legs dangling over the edge. He was sipping something from a small steel flask, clearly amused with her efforts.

‘Here’ he said handing her the flask. ‘Have a gulp or two. It will make you feel better.’

Jay took the flask and put it to her mouth. She was no stranger to rotgut, sometimes it was the only thing that could warm her up when the temperatures plummeted during the long winter nights, but the liquid that hit her throat was a different sort entirely.

‘What is that?’ she mumbled as the liquid fire raged on her tongue.

Lethe laughed.

‘Fuck if I know. Good though, isn’t it?’

Jay didn’t respond, just covered her face and handed the bottle back to Lethe, hoping that the fire in her mouth would burn itself out soon.

‘Now, let’s get back to business’ said Lethe, rising to his feet. ‘We’re off.’

He turned around and ran up towards the spine of the roof. Jay stood up shakily, trying not to catch a glimpse of what was over the edge of the roof, and went after him, supporting herself with her hands as she scaled the slates. The moment she reached the spine, she went for a thin chimney that protruded from the roof like a bottleneck. Feeling supported by its brick structure, Jay looked for Lethe. He was just a few paces away, standing upright and looking as comfortable as he would be on solid ground despite the spine being just wide enough to put one foot on it.

‘I think I’ve had enough climbing for today’ said Jay weakly.

‘Climbing?’ Lethe looked at her with amusement. ‘Who said we’re climbing? We’re going to have a nice little walk. Behold- the Thieves’ Highway.’

He spread his arms theatrically, pointing all along the spine of the roof. He turned around and started walking towards the end of the spine.

‘Wait!’ called Jay after him, but he wouldn’t even look back.

‘This Kou is insane’ she thought and groaned. Then she realized if he continued walking she would be left all alone, glued to the chimney and with no way to get down.

‘Wait up, I’m coming!’ she called again. This time Lethe stopped and watched as she tore her hands away from the chimney and took the first unsteady steps on the spine of the roof. Slowly shuffling her feet, she crept forward. A slight breeze came down and almost broke her concentration, but somehow she managed to keep her eyes down, scanning one brick after another until she encountered a green foot in a leather spat. She was now standing next to Lethe.

‘Alright, now we can continue our walk.’ he said and strolled away. Jay swallowed a cry of protest and forced herself to follow him.

He walked and stopped just a few paces before the roof end. Jay made her way to him and stopped also.

‘Where to now?’ she asked and immediately regretted that question as he pointed towards another roof, just slightly lower than this one. A gap of two stories high gaped between their position and the roof that was now supposedly the next destination of their ‘walk’.

Jay stared.

‘What?’ said Lethe. ‘It’s just a little gap. You should be able to clear it with no problem if you take a bit of a running start.’

‘A running what?’ said Jay, thinking that she heard wrong. She could barely walk up here and he was asking her to run? Forget run, he was asking her to jump!

He shrugged then turned around towards the chasm between the building and without a word more, ran. Jay held her breath. One slip and he’ll end up on the cobblestones below, broken and twisted. He ran and then jumped. One moment he was with her, the next he was on top of the other building.

Jay stared down the chasm. There was sheer drop on her side of the gap and on the other, there was a narrow wooden canopy, probably meant to shield some windows underneath them. Worst case scenario, she could at least land on that if she missed the jump.

‘Worst case scenario’ thought Jay, ‘Is that I splatter on those cobblestones below.’

‘I’m waiting’ called Lethe from the other side.

Jay took a few unsteady steps back.

‘It was good at least’ she thought. ‘The last few days…’

She turned around, facing the gap between the buildings. Took a few deep breaths and ran. And jumped. A split-second flight, then a landing. But she missed it. Not by much, but enough to have her arms gripping the raised edge of the roof close to her chest and her feet thudding on the wooden canopy. But at least she was up here and not on the street below and dead.

The canopy groaned mournfully and then gave way. Jay felt her feet losing the support and flailing helplessly in the air. She didn’t even have time to scream when her hands started to slip. One breath more and she’d be falling! She shut her eyes.

Yet she wasn’t falling. Jay opened her eyes just to stare into Lethe’s face and realize that she now had his green fingers gripping her collar.

‘Grab my arm and pull yourself up’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘Or I will have to drop you.’

Without a second thought, she took his arm and felt him pulling ever so slightly. She gripped the roof’s edge tighter and moved her legs, trying to get a purchase with her feet. After a second or two of desperate flailing and scraping, she finally felt her body shift up, inching towards safety. A minute later she was curled up on the roof, supporting herself against the raised ledge. She was panting and heaving and not really believing that she was still alive.

‘It’s harder when you haven’t lived in a circus I suppose’ said Lethe.

‘You worked in a circus?’ said Jay when she finally got her voice back.‘Oh yeah, I was a tightrope walker. I did juggling, too. Watch this.’ Lethe jumped on top of the raised ledge. He took a few throwing blades out of his bandolier and started juggling them in the air as he balanced himself just a few inches apart from the sheer drop. The blades glinted in the weak light as he threw them up and plucked them from the air. He collected them all, did two backflips and ended the routine with a great wide bow.

Jay applauded and laughed out loud, forgetting her recent fright. Then she stopped suddenly, realizing that it had been a long, long time since she laughed like that.

‘What is it like?’ she asked. ‘Inside a circus?’

‘You’ve never been to one?’

Jay shook her head. Each time a circus would set up in Traceburn Green, Jay felt attracted to the enormous red tent, to the strange sounds, the smells of fried food and the dangerous scents of wild animals.  At night, the tent would shine like a great lampshade. The cheering of the crowds within floated in the air for miles, mixed with the jolly music. Again and again, Jay debated sacrificing the few coins that she had to pay the cheapest ticket price. But the deep gnawing hole in her stomach would win every time. The men that were hired as circus guards and ushers wore heavy truncheons at their belts, discouraging Jay from even trying to sneak in.

‘Then, as a former member of Mister Adahlbert’s Incredible Flying Kou, let me tell you.’

Jay sat there, riveted in place as he spoke about the parade of strange animals and assorted creatures going round and round the ring, showing off their fantastical shapes and shiny, colourful costumes. He spoke of men and women dressed in feathers and colourful glass gemstones, cavorting to the jaunty tune from a magic-driven organs. Monstrous beasts with teeth and claws and stingers were made tame and performed tricks under their handlers’ watchful eye and whip. And there were the air-people, tightrope walkers and trapeze-swingers that dazzled the crowd with their daring stunts. Each time they nearly meet their doom the crowd would gasp and then burst into wild cheers. To Jay it seemed like another world, a world filled with light, romance, and adventure.

‘But why did you leave?’ Jay asked, thinking that it all sounded like a glamorous and incredible way to live.

‘I didn’t like the cage they kept me in’ shrugged Lethe. ‘Then I learned how to pick the lock on it, and here I am.’

Jay didn’t know what to say to that, but Lethe wasn’t waiting for a response.

‘Time for us to keep walking’ he said.

Jay followed him to the end of the building and onto the next one. Luckily, those two were touching each other so no jumping was required. At the next one, the gap between them was closed up with long boards thrown above the gaping chasm and Jay had to fight the urge to close her eyes while crossing. The next one was also a sloped roof, dotted with chimneys and vents, and she had to practice her balancing again. And when she finally felt like she is getting the hang of walking this strange new landscape she was faced with another challenge.

‘It’s so tall!’ she gasped.

They were standing next to the wall of a grey-plastered building, its smooth surface broken up with windows and ledges. A thick drainpipe ran alongside the corner, secured by steel brackets. It rose three storeys above their heads, totalling five from the ground.

‘Yeah, maybe’ said Lethe. ‘But we won’t be climbing it in one go.’

Without a word more, he jumped at the drainpipe, grabbing the iron bracket. Then another jump and he was holding to the bracket above. Three small jumps placed him half-way between where Jay was standing and the first window in a row.

Jay sighed. Climbing drainpipes was not the craziest thing she did tonight. She jumped without a second thought, grasping the iron bracket firmly, trying to imitate Lethe’s movement as much as she could. Slowly, she made progress. Her fingers were slipping from the cold metal, which was numbing them to the bone. The soles of her shoes were scraping on the smooth surface. Yet she sluggishly advanced up the pipe.

In the meantime, Lethe had already reached the first ledge.  With his back glued to the wall, he was waiting for Jay to come up to him. Jay clambered onto the ledge and pressed herself to the wall. Lethe, peeked into the window and then, clearly satisfied with what he saw, pulled his dagger form its sheath. He squeezed the tip into the gap at the bottom of the window’s frame and pressed down. The window’s lock popped with a slight thud. Lethe pushed the window up and when it was finally open, slid inside the room beyond it. Jay shifted towards the window and kneeled. She entered the room headfirst and would have fallen to the floor if not for a fat wooden chest that was standing under the window.

Jay looked about. The room was mostly dark, just a small cast-iron fireplace glowing with warmth and giving just enough light to see by.  Most of the space was taken by a large bed with thick curtains, currently open. It was empty and made. Whoever was living there hadn’t come back yet. There was not much else in there- a shelf with a few books, a small table with a porcelain jug and bowl, and a simple wooden chair.

Lethe was scanning the room and something glinting on the mantelpiece caught his eye.

‘What do we have here?’ he said. He swiped the object from its place and looked closely, ‘I think I’ll keep this one.’

He stretched out his hand and Jay could see that a large, silver medallion was swinging from his fingers. The metal shone dully in the weak light for a split second, then disappeared into one of Lethe’s pouches.

‘Well go on kid, find yourself something to take.’

Jay checked the shelf, but there was nothing on it that seemed worth taking. Same with the table and the bed. She turned to the chest. It had no lock, but the lid was heavy. She cracked it enough to squeeze a hand through and groped about. A soft bundle of cloth came under her fingers. Not thinking much, she took it and stuffed into the folds of her clothes.

Lethe seemed to be done with the place. He slipped out of the window and shimmied to the side. Jay followed him. When she had her feet back firmly on the windowsill outside, he motioned for her to close the window.

‘No need for anybody to know what happened’ he twisted his face in a crooked smile.

Without any more delay, he resumed the climb. Jay followed him up the pipe, not even daring to look below.

At the next windowsill, Jay expected that they would open that window too, but Lethe took one look and quickly withdrew. A second later, Jay saw a flood of light rushing through the glass. Someone in the room beyond turned on a lamp.  The shadow of a person was gliding over the glass, darkening the panes. Lethe came back to the pipe and continued up, silently and steadily. Jay’s fingers cried for help, but it was either up or into the void and from those two, and she preferred up.

The last window was close to the roofline, a small oval set deep into the wall. Lethe pushed it with his palm and it gave way with just a small creak of protest. Lethe pulled himself up and disappeared into the darkness beyond the oval. Jay managed to follow him, bracing herself with her elbows against the setting of the window.

It was completely dark inside and Jay could see nothing beyond the brighter shape of the window. Three heartbeats later, she heard a match being struck. Lethe’s face emerged from the darkness next to a butt of a candle that he lit. The weak light revealed that they were now in the attic of the building.

‘Just some rags’ scoffed Lethe. ‘Worthless.’

Jay’s breath caught. The ‘rags’ was actually a huge collection of female clothes. Heavy gowns were set upon mannequin stands, boasting their elaborate appliques.  Cotton shift dresses hung from pegs along the walls- red as apples, blue as periwinkles, green as leaves in spring. Chemises and kirtles crowded rail-stands and lounged over old furniture. Wide wings of skirts spread themselves over shelves, showing off their fringes, plaits and belts. Rows of leather and brocade slippers lined the wall, like an army at a parade. Bonnets and hoods bowed their heavy heads tied to a washing rope across the room. All of it was old, seen much use, and was now carrying enough dust to make a small crowd burst into sneezes, but Jay could see that they were all sturdy and in good repair.

‘Wait, I-’ she took a careful breath, risking an attack of uncontrollable sneezing, ‘I can make use of those.’

‘What? To wear?’ Lethe looked amused. ‘Maybe in a whorehouse, or if you’re really bent on the circus life.’

‘No, not to wear’ said Jay, who felt a bit offended. Here she stood facing a trove of beauty, things that she only saw others wear. Those that didn’t think that having a blanket for a cloak was a peak of comfort. Yet he dismissed those treasures with no thought spared. And as much as she would love to wear those, all of them, she knew that living in mud of the Drowns would soon turn those treasures into useless rags. ‘To sell.’

‘I can sell any of those in second-hand clothes shop and get a good price’ she continued. ‘No one would even think twice since all of them look like dresses somebody might have given to me.’

Lethe cocked his head.

‘I never would have thought’ he said. ‘Fine then, help yourself. Still, remember that you’ll need to carry it out.’

Jay took the butt of the candle from his fingers and walked around, trying to find the right garment. Finally, she stopped next to a long chemise. It was a colour of sweet pink, only just starting to fade. It bore a fine stitching once, in the shape of lilies and doves, but it was missing so many of the stitches that the shapes were now barely recognizable. ‘Perfect’ Jay thought. It was just the sort of thing that someone with enough money wouldn’t want to wear but would still think that giving it to somebody like Jay would make them look good. Jay took the chemise off its pegs and tied it around her back, so she would still have her hands free.

Lethe took the candle from her and blew it. Darkness came back into the attic. After a few seconds her eyes adjusted back to it, and she saw the oval of the window darkening as Lethe left the room. Outside, she hugged the pipe again, trying not to think about how high above the ground she really was.

To her relief, it wasn’t that much longer before they reached the top. Jay crouched next to a thick, square chimney and stuffed her fingers under her arms. They were frozen and aching; the same was true about her arms and legs.

Lethe took out the flask again, drank a deep gulp and handed it to her. Jay grabbed it with her palms, not wanting to bend her sore fingers. She took a mouthful and waited until the burning in her mouth and stomach chased away at least some of the pain before handing it back.

‘Still, the view is quite something’ she heard Lethe talking. ‘Just look.’

She peeked out from behind the chimney, turned her head in the direction Lethe was facing and opened her eyes wide with unexpected wonder.

The city sprawled before them. The bulky shapes of the houses marched in rows on the streets, topped with roofs like hats. A forest of chimneys and vents grew on the roofs, the canopies of smoke covering their brick trunks. The glazed windows glimmered ever so slightly with the blue and green reflections of moonlight diffused by the heavy cover of clouds. Some windows also held a different light: the red-orange soul of a lamp, candle, or magical lantern. The river snuck up to the docks and further on into the bay like a serpent with shiny scales. It was the colour of deepest midnight- its slow, lazy current unfathomable in its depths. A few vessels dreamed calmly upon the river’s surface. Jay listened and could now hear not only the whistling of wind, but also the sighs and whispers of the city itself- distant callings, horse hooves, the metallic ringing of automata, and the guttural pounding of industries that don’t sleep. She could hear the engines of airships above, probing for their moorings with searchlights in the night vapours. The air smelled of the river’s dampness, of cold and smoke, tinged with electric spark of magical discharges.

Jay took the view in silence; for the first time in her life elevated above the deep shadows of the streets that had been her home.  For the first time, she was seeing the city as a whole and not a parade of houses and cobblestones and people that looked down on her. Now she was the one looking down on the city. Neither of them broke the silence; both simply stood up when it was time to move on.

Jay adjusted the dress on her back, tying the fabric tighter. As she moved, she suddenly felt something slipping from within her clothes. It was the small cloth bundle she took from the chest earlier on. She hadn’t really looked closely at what she was taking. Now, she picked it up and unrolled the fabric. She gasped.

‘Lethe! Look!’

They both stared into the folds of the unrolled fabric. Resting between the creases there was a dainty neck chain made of silver. It was pretty in its own right, but it was not what attracted their attention. At the end of the chain, a tiny gem was set into a round frame. The gem was white, but the more Jay stared, the more she was sure that it sometimes flashed green and other times flashed yellow, like a pinprick of sunlight among fresh spring leaves. 

‘Diamond, I think’ said Lethe and whistled. ‘One carat judging by the cut and size. And quite some magic pressed into it to make it spark like that.’

Jay was at a loss of words. What words should be used when one is confronted with such treasure? Wordlessly, she offered it to Lethe. For a split second, Jay could see his face flooded with greed, his yellow eyes hungry for the money that it would bring.  She saw the muscles of his arms tensing, the palms ready to snatch the little gem for himself. Then, the greed was gone and his face broke in a crooked smile.

‘Nah, you keep it kid.’

‘But what do I do with it?’ said Jay, finally able to think and speak straight. ’The moment I try to sell it they’ll know I stole it. They’ll throw me into the pit!’

‘Oh I don’t know’ shrugged Lethe. ‘Wear it, hide it, throw it into the river for what I care. It’s yours, you stole it fair and square.’

Jay folded the cloth into a tight bundle, hiding the necklace within. Maybe one day it would come in handy, a bribe for a guard corrupt enough to buy her freedom in case she’s ever caught.

‘I guess this is enough for the first time’ said Lethe, looking alongside the edge of the roof.

Jay groaned. She thought of the pressure she’d need to put onto her fingers while climbing down. Lethe laughed out loud.

‘It will be much easier coming down, I promise. At least from here. See that?’

He pointed at something below the place where they were standing. Jay leaned closer to the edge and looked down. On this side of the building, a series of small extensions protruded from the main body of the building, each a little bit more to the left and each supported by thick timbers underneath. It would be simple to ease slowly onto the one below and from there onto the next one down the line. Jay breathed with some relief. It would still require an effort, but at least it wasn’t a cold pipe and nothing under her feet all the way down to the street level.

Lethe sat down on the edge, his feet dangling, then turned around and caught himself with both hands hanging just by his fingers. Then he let go, dropping gracefully onto the extension below. Jay tried to imitate his moves, but it took her some shuffling and crawling backwards on her belly before she was able to hang from the edge of the roof. And it took her a moment of steeling herself before she was able to let go. She clenched her teeth and continued down, each landing taking her closer to the street level. The last one, however, was unlucky. The moment she touched the cobblestones with her toes, she felt her feet catching in the fabric of her dress. She gave a small cry as she tumbled forward. Luckily there was a pile of filthy straw that cushioned her fall. Soon enough she was picking herself up, trying to remove the damp strands from her clothes and hair to Lethe’s loud amusement.

‘Next time you might want to wear some breeches, kid’ he said. ‘They might save you from smearing your face all over the ground. Plus, it gets really droughty up there.’

‘Breeches!’ Jay spat the last bit of straw that found its way into her mouth. ‘Where I can get breeches?’

‘How about over there?’

Lethe pointed up. They were standing in the middle of a narrow street, one that gives the feeling of standing at the bottom of a well- walled-off from the world and barely able to see the sky. In addition, a web of clotheslines criss-crossed the street, carrying washed clothes like flags flapping in a light breeze. None of those were accessible from the street level, of course. Their owners wouldn’t want anybody to be able to get their socks and unmentionables. Each clothesline was attached to a windowsill on both sides; the first line was wound around an iron lantern bracket on the first floor.

‘I’ll wait’ said Lethe. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

Jay looked up and along the clotheslines, then along the wall- a wooden box, a hole where a brick had eroded and fallen out, a broken off bracket that once held a flower box, the lamp itself and the stone windowsill. If she could just make them into her ladder, she could easily grab one of the lower clotheslines and bring it down. She flexed her fingers and arms, feeling the stiffness spreading over them in addition to the pain. She felt Lethe’s eyes on her back, observing and waiting.

‘I’m not going to fall again’ she promised to herself silently. ‘Not when he’s watching.’

She clambered onto the box and reached out for the hole. She pulled herself up a bit with one hand and tried to reach for the metal bracket. It was a bit too high, but somehow she managed to prop herself up with her knee and a while later she was holding onto it with both her arms, having her foot in the hole where her fingers used to be. It was much easier from there- hands on the lantern, feet on the bracket and then hands on the windowsill and feet on the lantern. She was close, so close she could almost feel the string of clothesline in her fingers. There. She grabbed the thin fraying rope and pulled. The line held. Jay pulled harder.

The line gave way with a gentle snap and fell slowly on the ground. Jay felt the balance slipping away from her and soon followed. This time instead of dirty straw, the wet fabric of the washing cushioned her fall.

‘Well that’s an improvement’ Lethe was standing over her when she finally disentangled herself from the pile of clothes. It was mostly old towels and threadbare bed linen but in the lump of quickly-becoming-dirty washing was a pair of breeches too. They only had one hole and the fabric was still mostly solid.

‘And there you go’ said Lethe. ‘One dress to sell, a magic-enhanced diamond and a pair of breeches not stained with shit. I’d call our little walk fairly productive.’

Jay nodded. And in addition to those items she had something else too- a view to remember. A view of the city from above, one that was only given to birds and to vermin like the two of them.