Untaxation
Eragon walked along the rooftops on the southern side of Dras Leona. He was clad completely in black, and had a heavy black cloak around him. His sword was strapped to his belt and hidden under his cloak. Wrapped around his was a substantial amount of rope
His eyes were focused on a large tower, the city treasury. All taxes flowed to this point, so there was a substantial amount of gold there. Eragon had to steal all of it, and he had no idea how to get it all out.
A few guards were also on the rooftops, but Eragon paid them little heed until he was close enough to the tower for it to actually matter. One of them had a bow, which, as Eragon had left his with Saphira.
He approached the guard from behind, and deftly knocked him out by hitting him on the head with the hilt of one of his many daggers. He scooped up the man's bow and one of his arrows. He rammed the arrowhead through the rope, notched and let it loose. It imbedded in the wall above the balcony. Eragon hoped no one heard the arrow strike.
He tugged at the arrow, and it held in place. He cut the rope so it was just long enough to reach the building he was standing on. He held on tight and jumped.
The rope went dead straight as he swung and silently, landed on the wall of the tower holding on to the rope. Slowly he climbed the tower wishing that no one could hear his footsteps against the wall.
After several tense minutes, he reached the balcony near where the arrow had landed. He pulled himself up and walked inside. He was in a plain regular staircase, and no one was to be seen. Suspicious, he reached out with his mind and found several guards all over the tower. Two in particular, seemed to be uncomfortable guarding such a large amount of gold, and not getting much of it. They were the next floor up.
Eragon smiled this was almost too easy; he walked up the plain spiral staircase towards the room the guards. Before he rounded the corner that would have led him to them, he magically extinguished all the torches.
"Blood wind." He head a guard mutter, "Ioan, relight them!"
"Yes sir," came a weary reply.
Ioan walked down the stairs towards Eragon, who stood flat against the wall. As the guard walked past, Eragon grabbed him and slammed his head into wall, the body crumpled into a heap.
Eragon silently, walked up the stairs and reached the top. Rounding the corner, he approached the guard, who tried to draw his sword, but was to late to stop Eragon hitting him against the wall as he had done with Ioan.
Eragon went back down the stairs and dragged Ioan back up them. He placed the two guards next to each other and began to work on the door. The lock was nearly impenetrable and Eragon had little experience in picking them.
After a few pointless attempts to crack the lock, Eragon noticed the hinges; we're bolted to the wall on his side and the screws we're not covered by the door. Eragon grinned as he pulled out his knife and began unscrewing them.
Five minutes later the door was loose and Eragon pushed the hinge side forcing it open. His eyes widened as he saw the dozens of bags, he opened one and saw hundreds of little gold coins in each.
Grinning he began carrying dozens of the little sacks to the balcony he had entered from.
In about half an hours he had carried all of the sacks of gold to the balcony, and peered over the edge of the tower. E smiled as he saw a large pile of wood and straw, which looked as if they were in storage.
He pulled a torch of the wall and threw it from the top of the tower down to the straw. The fire quickly spread, but was at least containable. All the guards rushed to the fire to start putting the flames out.
Eragon retrieved a bow of the guard he had knocked out and aimed an arrow with his rope attached to it and fired it at the roof of the building he had started out.
The arrow imbedded in the roof and Eragon began looping bags onto the rope and watching them slide down it on to the roof. After he had got the last one down to the roof, he slung the bow across the rope and slide down after them.
He landed on the roof and ripped out the arrow attached to the roof. He then reached under the sacks of gold and pulled the arrow imbedded there as well. He then looped the rope together so that all the sacks we're still attached to it, then drawing strength from Saphira, he hauled them over his shoulder and ran across the rooftops.
The weight of this amount of gold was starting to strain, his muscles and stamina after he had been running across the rooftops for about half an hour. He was however reaching the wall of the city. With a gigantic and muscle popping leap he cleared the gap between the last building and reach the wall. Gritting his teeth, he leapt over the wall, using his gold as a extra momentum by swing it forward.
He began to descend, so he swung his sacks down, and pushed against them with his feet and let them go, speeding their descent while lowering his. He landed silently, while the gold landed with a decisive thump.
Grimacing at his strained muscles, he slung the gold over his shoulder again and walked into the forest. It occurred to him that the sacks of gold he was carrying collectively we're bigger than him, and yet with Saphira's help he was carrying them easily. A tribute to Saphira's strength.
He finally came to the clearing where, he and Saphira, as well as Arianna and Rhudra had made camp.
Saphira looked rather tired, probably because of the strain of sharing Eragon's load, Arianna and Rhudra seemed to be deep in conversion.
Eragon greeted Saphira, and walked over to the other rider pair, dumping the gold in front of them.
"And now all hell breaks loose." He says proudly.