There was a quiet rustle of cloth, then a small poof sound and in short order all four guards were quite happily sleeping. Lacking anything more sophisticated, an eggshell, without the egg in it, can make a quite useful little delivery system for, say, liquids that react rapidly with air. I waited a few minutes for the gas to disperse and to make sure no unexpected guards were coming, then lowered a thin rope and slid down to the floor.

The next group of guards would be along soon, to check on these, but I still spent a couple precious minutes picking up the bits of eggshell. Doesn't do to leave evidence behind. Some guardsmen are so picky about little things like legality.

De Fowler considered himself quite a good wizard, which I found rather amusing. The result of this was that only he would have placed wards on something such as this, he wouldn't trust anyone else to. Which made my job a bit easier, which was all to the good, as magical ability was not among my many talents. But, there were ways around that. I pulled out a small lens, which had been enchanted to allow magic to be seen. Not exact by a long shot, but wards have to be directly on what they're warding. The cloth draped over the top was clean, so I pulled it off. All four sides and the top of the case were warded, as were the pillow inside the case and the connection of the case and the table. Presumably moving, opening, or breaking the glass on the case would trigger the wards. As would, likely, moving the statue from the pillow. Hoping I was right, a plan formed in my mind.

The bottom of the case did indeed turn out to be wooden, one of those expensive fancy kinds that smells weird. The table was obviously wood, and judging from what the inside of the wood looked like, a fake. Which made me feel better. Shaking sawdust out of my whiskers, I carefully placed the statue, pillow and little circle of the bottom of the case included, in a padded box, then put the bit of table back in the case and slid the small saw back into my toolkit.

The more time I had afterward, the better, so I put the velvet back over the case, and sprinkled the guards liberally with some cheap rum, then left the bottle in one's hand. Outside the door, booted feet approached over the wooden floors, so I scurried up the rope and pulled it up after me just as the door opened.

From there, it was just back out the unlocked window and over the rooftops and into the city.