The Last Goddess

by C.E. Stalbaum

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

   

  As much as she occasionally liked to boast otherwise, Rynne had never particularly enjoyed traveling. It was why she had spent most of their trip from Jehalai imagining their arrival at the gates of Haven and getting back to their normal lives. But when the moment actually came, it was much less gratifying than she’d hoped.

  Without Rook, it didn’t feel like home at all. He was the only reason she’d stayed in this city in the first place, and the opportunities he’d given her had completely changed her life. And for some reason, it hadn’t hit her until that moment that he might very well not be coming back.

  Fortunately, they still had some say in the matter. She assumed they would have at least a day’s lead on their enemies if not a bit more. Tryss’s magic had allowed them to push the limits of their endurance, and coming back across the Wall had proven a trivial matter—this time, with no one searching for them, they had just taken the main road like any other merchants. With luck, it would give them a chance to have a plan ready when the time came to move. The Unity Day celebration was only three days away, and whatever the Balorites had planned was assuredly going to take place then.

  And she, for one, intended to be ready.

  Less than an hour after they made it through the Haven gates they rendezvoused with the rest of Rook’s people, and she gave them the shortest possible version of what had happened. The vast majority of them, even the higher-ranking ones, had no idea why their boss had left in the first place; Rook had just told them he was heading out on another business venture to Ebara. They didn’t need to know more than that to do their jobs, and that fact hadn’t changed. She told them that Rook had been captured by Balorite extremists, and that was enough for them to spring into action.

  Within an hour of their arrival, five different groups had already fanned out to scour the city for any information they could find. Rynne had always known that Rook was well-liked by his people, but the speed and fervor of the reaction still impressed her. It probably didn’t hurt that they all feared the boss’s disappearance might negatively impact their next payday.

  All the other details of the trip—Tryss’s identity, the truth about the Kirshal, the role of the Kirshane—she kept private for the time being. She doubted Rook wanted any of that to get out anyway. At this point it would only do more harm than good.

  “Nice to see no one lost their edge in the last week,” Van commented as he looked over the railing onto the storeroom floor. They were all situated inside the office on the upper level of the building, an old warehouse Rook had purchased six months ago and hadn’t renovated yet. It was a pale shadow of their old headquarters, but for the moment it was as good a place as any.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t get more questions,” Tryss said from her perch atop a desk pressed against the wall. “I assumed more of them would want to know why the Darenthi wrecked your last base.”

  Van shrugged fractionally before turning back around to face them. “Nate’s taught them well. You don’t succeed in this business by asking a lot of awkward questions. Besides, he always tells them when it’s something important.”

  “Right now the best we can do is a general information sweep, but the more you can narrow it down, the better, princess,” Rynne said after a moment, pulling up a chair to the only table in the room and sitting down. The entire building was barely furnished and they hadn’t held a serious business meeting here since Rook bought it. It did have a lot of space, however, and the others had managed to put together makeshift walls and room separators below to house everyone who didn’t have anywhere else to go.

  “Like I said on the way here, it’s not like Veltar walked me in front of a bunch of maps and let me memorize everything about his operation,” Tryss replied, “but I do remember four distinct buildings he used in the city and two places outside the walls. They could be taking Rook to any of them, or maybe even a new place I haven’t seen before.”

  “He wouldn’t have had much time to change stuff around, at least,” Van pointed out. “You said the last memory wipe was just before he put you in that coffin, right? And you were probably only there for a few days at most.”

  She nodded. “Right, so he’s only had about three weeks. But there’s no guarantee I knew about every little safe-house.”

  “Just write down any details you can remember and we’ll send teams to each one,” Rynne told her. “With a little luck, we can have spotters in place by the time they bring Rook in…assuming he’s not here already.”

  Tiel pulled up a chair and sat down at the table across from her. He’d been quiet ever since they got inside the city. Actually, he’d been quiet for most of the trip. Rynne had tried to reach out to him, but every time he had quickly pushed her away. As much as she wanted inside, she knew full well there was nothing she could do to help him. It might have even been best for her to keep her distance. Van was probably right to criticize her behavior during the trip; Tiel’s life had been upended in a matter of days, and there she was selfishly being…well, being herself.

  What Tiel needed right now was time. She just hoped that he would still be willing to help them right now. If they had any chance of getting Rook back at all, they were going to need every ally they could get.

  “Assuming you do find out where they’re taking him, what do we do then?” the monk asked. “No offense, but most of your people here don’t look like soldiers.”

  “They’re not,” Van said. “This is a business, not a barracks. I wouldn’t trust half of these people to hit the broad side of this building with a crossbow. Whatever we decide to do, the four of us are pretty much it.”

  “And what if Veltar puts an army between us and Rook?”

  Tryss shook her head. “He won’t. Any resources he has will be spent getting ready for the celebration. If he’s going to seriously challenge my mother, he’ll need a lot more than a few dozen Balorite zealots with swords and crossbows. If we can find out where to look, the four of us can hopefully get him out.”

  “He might not realize you have your memories back, but he does know the rest of us escaped,” Tiel pointed out. “He also knows Rook is an information broker by trade. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he’ll be expecting us to try something.”

  Rynne shrugged. “No one said it was going to be easy. If you have a better idea, don’t keep it to yourself.”

  “It’s also only part of the problem,” Tryss murmured, her eyes narrowing in thought. “We still don’t know their exact plans for the celebration.”

  Van glanced to her as he leaned stiffly against the wall. “I guess I was just assuming he’s planning an assassination. I mean, you said it yourself: he can’t challenge the Empress with a few fanatics, at least not directly. But if he kills her…”

  Tryss shook her head. “He wants her dead, certainly, but killing her in public wouldn’t be enough to get what he wanted. And that’s assuming he could even pull it off—the plaza will be drowning in soldiers.”

  “With you being officially dead, if the Empress dies the throne would pass to Kastrius, right?” Rynne asked. “Didn’t you say Veltar wanted him on the throne?”

  “Yes, but not like that. Remember, the monarch’s power is largely ceremonial at this point. Other than breaking ties in the Senate and a few other minor powers, Kastrius wouldn’t have much of a say in anything. My mother only seems influential because the people believe she’s legitimate and most of the Senate fears that opposing her would cost them votes. My brother isn’t well liked even among the Balorite senators, and if he came to power from an obvious assassination, he’d have almost no leverage at all.”

  “Then I don’t see how Veltar thinks he can pull a coup in a single day,” Van said. “If he’s not trying to kill her, then what is he going to do?”

  Tryss took a deep breath and pursed her lips. “I don’t know, and there’s only one way I can think of to find out.”
>
  Rynne cocked an eyebrow quizzically. “Which is what?”

  The princess eyed each of them in turn. “I need to get into the palace. Someone inside will know precisely what events my mother has planned, and from there we might be able to guess what Veltar has in mind.”

  “Whoa,” Van groaned, raising his hands in front of him. “Every time we asked about that on the way here you said it was a bad idea. You half expected your mother to throw you in prison or something.”

  “She might. Even in the best case scenario where she accepts me back and wants to make a public spectacle about my return, I wouldn’t be allowed to leave the palace and help you find Rook. She’d lock me away to protect me and Goddess knows what else. Besides which, if she did make it public, it would immediately tip off Veltar that my memories were back. That’s an advantage I’d like to keep.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “So remind me again why you want to go back there, then?”

  “I need to get into the palace,” Tryss explained, “but I wasn’t planning on letting anyone know I was there.”

  “Sneak in and find what you want,” Rynne speculated. “Seems reasonable, except for the fact that it’s the Royal Palace and I doubt they’re exactly lax on security.”

  “I lived there for years; I know where to go.”

  “And if you get caught?” Rynne pressed. “Then we’re back to the same problem. We can’t do this without you.”

  “It’s a risk,” Tryss admitted, “but if we can’t figure out their plans, then it’s all for nothing anyway. I can do this, and I can do it alone.”

  Rynne sighed and rubbed tiredly at her eyes before realizing they were all looking at her for approval. She wasn’t sure why. Rook didn’t use hard-and-fast ranks in the organization, but she was pretty sure that Van was still higher up the food chain than she was.

  Then it belatedly dawned on her that she had been the one giving out orders the moment they got back, and she hadn’t gotten even a hint of lip from anyone. She, the carefree Sunoan bard, and they were all looking to her for final approval. She couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around that one, and she immediately decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

  “You might as well go tonight,” she said eventually. “It’ll give all of us a few hours to clean up, and then we can at least help get you close and stay nearby in case you need help with a dirty escape.”

  “Fighting off a garrison of royal guardsmen,” Van muttered. “How depressing is it that this isn’t even in the top three crazy things we’ve done this week?”

  “I’ll get the information we need,” Tryss promised. “And then we’ll get Rook back.”

  Rynne, just like the others, had been a little worried that if Tryss did get her memories back at some point, she might have become a different person. As it turned out, she had—but not in the way they’d feared. She was the same woman as before, except that she’d replaced her confusion and doubt with raw determination. Tryss had the distinct look of someone who knew exactly what she wanted and was willing to do whatever it took to get it. She was going to that palace whether they agreed to help her or not, and she would probably do the same to find Rook.

  And Rynne was more thankful than ever that they were all on the same side.

  “We’ll set off in a few hours,” she told the others. “For now, we all need to get some supplies. We might as well get started.”