Beautiful? What kind of madman describes weapons as beautiful?
He continued on, absorbed in his machinations. “We’re devising a ballista now that could strike targets miles away. Every kingdom will be—” He smiled and shrugged. “Let’s just say, we will be the center of everyone’s universe now. Nothing could make me give up that kind of power, especially not for someone like you. I have dreams Montegue hasn’t even thought of yet. He is the perfect partner in this venture.”
Distant barking erupted, yelping, as if hyenas had found a rabbit and were tearing it apart. Banques turned toward the door. The barking grew louder and was accompanied by footsteps. Banques shook his head.
My back was still to the door, but I heard it bang open, and the room was instantly filled with wild snarling and barking. Montegue stomped forward and spun my chair to face it all.
A handler held the leashes of two straining dogs. Not just any dogs.
Ashti.
Sour saliva bloomed in my mouth.
Montegue untied my arms and legs, but my neck was still chained to the center pillar. “Stand up,” he ordered.
I did, and he pulled the chair away.
“Look how eager they are,” he boasted, as if he controlled them. “They’re drooling over you already.” He leaned close and whispered. “Is this getting my hands dirty enough for you? Whatever Banques had planned for you, I promise it would have been nothing compared to this. I’m told there is no death that is quite like it. Very slow. Very painful. Some liken it to being burned alive—but gradually. It can take several days.”
I remembered the few hours of pain I had endured when I was bitten by them in the Ballenger tunnel. It was unbearable. Jase told me the agony of such a death could last as long as a week.
“I hid your vial behind the bench in the pavilion,” I confessed. “I was going to go back for it but then I didn’t get the chance.”
“Good,” Montegue said, nodding. “That’s a start. We’ll check it out right away.”
He walked over to the handler and took the leashes from him. “If you’re finally telling the truth, you’ll get the antidote.”
And then he let the dogs loose.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
JASE
Judith used a heavy wooden spoon to lift a steaming cloak from a large pot of boiling dye. “What do you think, “Patrei? Black as midnight, as you ordered.”
“It’s perfect, Judith.”
She moved on to the next cloak. She had come alive since yesterday, her hair back in its neat braids, a renewed purpose showing in her face as she studied the bubbling water. In fact, the whole vault had come alive. They had all been up since long before dawn. Sleep could wait for another day. Gunner and I hadn’t slept at all. Once we decided on our course of action, we went rummaging through the vault for supplies and then decided who would do what.
Everyone had a job. Even the children. They were busy weaving leaves and moss into caps that Tiago and Hawthorne were stitching together. My mother, Rhea, Wren, and Samuel were measuring out lengths of rope. Gunner was right. We had almost as many shelves full of rope as we had dates.
Aram and Titus had left for town while it was still dark. They needed to be there by first bell when Banques made announcements. I prayed there would be none today. Every trip up and down the mountain was a risk, but Titus and Aram knew the mountain like the back of their hands. They would also try to seek out Aleski and Imara. Aleski needed to spread the word that everyone was to show up for Kazi’s hanging. We needed a full plaza. We were also going to need more horses, and if anyone could manage to “borrow” a few without it being noticed, it was Imara.
“Like this,” I instructed Mason, showing him how to load the launcher. He was the one who would have to fire it. I would be busy with other duties. “You can get four shots out of every load of ammo, but you should only need one.” I tried to recall every instruction Bahr had given me. It had been a long time since I had fired it.
“Keep it snug against your shoulder,” I told him. “The mount will absorb most of the shock, but there will still be a strong kickback. Keep a wide stance to your feet.” He aimed it, imagining a target on the far wall of the greenhouse. Unfortunately, he couldn’t actually test it, especially not inside the cave. Even outside, the sound could travel for miles and draw attention, and with clear skies, it couldn’t be mistaken for thunder. We removed the ammo and continued his practice. “Eye your target the same way you would if you were shooting an arrow, then keep it steady while you pull the lever back, nice and smooth.”
“Maybe I’m the one who should be shooting that thing,” Synové said, then shrugged. “That is, if you need someone with good aim.”
“My aim is good,” Mason replied between gritted teeth.
Synové grunted in return.
She already knew what her job was. A fiery arrow. Maybe several of them. Blasting a hole in a wall didn’t require precision. Igniting the contents did.
* * *
Priya stomped across the greenhouse toward me. “We’re all going to die, you know?”
“You didn’t think so when we were twelve.”
“I do now. He can’t tie a proper knot to save his life,” she grumbled, jerking her head toward Paxton, who trailed a few paces behind her.
“That’s what you’re for. To teach him.”
“I think I have it now,” Paxton said apologetically. He stuttered over a few more words and finally said, “I’m sorry.”
Priya blew out a long puff of air and rolled her eyes.
“Maybe we will all die,” I answered. “But if we die, we die fighting.”
“Don’t go reciting history on me,” she answered. “Who are you? Greyson Ballenger?”
“I need his eyes on this, Priya. Please.”
She looked at me, her frustration draining, her expression filling with worry instead. It was crazy. I knew I was asking a lot. She closed her eyes and nodded as if fortifying herself, then turned to Paxton. “Let’s go, genius,” she said to him, and they returned to their knot practice.
We’re all going to die.
Maybe for the first time, I really understood all the generations of history I had studied and transcribed, and Greyson Ballenger’s desperation when he shoved sticks into the hands of his newly adopted family.
Maybe I finally understood that history wasn’t just written on walls and in books but made in a thousand daily decisions, and some of them went wrong, some went right, and some decisions just had to be made because time was running out. Waiting for someone else to write your history was no way to live. Sometimes it was only a certain way to die.
I walked across the greenhouse and stopped to look at one of the finished cloaks, black on the outside and a forest of color on the inside. A perfect lie.
Here you go, Patrei. Listen up.
I saw Kazi looking sideways at me. Her grin. Her pursed lips. The line of concentration between her brows. Her voice. It was all clear in my head.
I have two arms but not a bone,
I can’t be hurt with knife or stone.
I have a head but lack a face,
I don’t need eyes to match your pace.
I’m shifty, a thief, a trick of the eyes,
My robes are made of mystery and lies.
I am short, I am thin, I am monstrous and tall,
But when midnight comes, I am nothing at all.
A shadow.
A trick of the eyes.
And that’s what I would become.
What we would all become.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
KAZI
Montegue sat on the edge of the bed looking down at me.
“It wasn’t there,” he whispered.
It had been a few hours. I was already weak and shivering with fever. They had moved me to the bed, but my neck was still chained. They didn’t bother with tying my hands and feet. His healer was busy wrapping my wounds. There was one bite on my forearm, another on my thi
gh, the pain already unbearable. Banques, Zane, and Garvin stood near the door. They had just returned from the pavilion.
Every word I said was an effort, strained and shaky. “It’s dark,” I gasped. “I promise you it’s there. Unless one of them took it.”
Montegue brushed a strand of hair from my cheek and shook his head. “No one took it. Maybe when I return in a few hours, your tongue will become a little looser.”
* * *
I pulled at the shackle around my neck, my fingers desperately feeling the lock. Even if I had something to pick it with, my fingers shook uncontrollably, and then the cramping started. Every few minutes, a violent spasm doubled me over. The room spun, blurred, the floor bobbed. Your tongue will become looser.
It was my greatest fear. What if it did become looser? What if, as I lost a grip on reality, I said things? What if I answered his questions? Told him where Lydia and Nash were? Or where the other vault entrance was? What if I told him Jase was alive?
Practice, Kazi, practice what you will say, no matter how bad the pain becomes.
* * *
Hours passed. Days. Weeks. Forever. I screamed for them to come back.
My skin flamed. Burned.
My eyes were coals. My lips melted against my teeth.
Fire seared my throat.
The iron ring around my neck was molten.
I don’t where they are! I don’t know where—
I don’t know! I don’t—
I … I …
I …
* * *
And then I broke.
I told them everything they wanted to know.
Every practiced word.
The arena.
The stables.
The temple.
Darkcottage.
Cave’s End.
I sent them chasing everywhere.
Until the words were gone, and there was only pain.
* * *
Zane was suddenly there. My mother was running for the stick in the corner. Where is she? Where is the brat? The seconds, the years, they swirled in a fog. Zane’s face pressed close to mine. No one will believe you now. You would say anything to save your skin. Keep your mouth shut, or I will kill your mother. It will be your fault if she dies. You can still save her. I blinked and he was gone. Gone. I wasn’t sure if he had ever been there at all.
* * *
Zane, coming back again, and again, his lips touching my ear, whispering my worst nightmares.
* * *
Please. Come back.
Please. Let me die.
But they wouldn’t come back. And they wouldn’t let me die.
* * *
The blanket was wet beneath me, soaked with my sweat. Cold liquid touched my lips. I felt my tongue again.
The pain rolled back. The fire in my throat cooled.
I heard voices. Faces loomed in front of me, but my eyes wouldn’t focus. A hand gently curled around mine. “It’s Jase. Can you hear me, Kazi? I’m here.”
“Jase?”
“Yes, it’s me. You’re going to be all right, but I need your help. Lydia and Nash are dead. But if I hurry, I can still save them with the stardust. Where is it, Kazi? Tell me. Hurry.”
“No, they can’t be dead. They can’t—”
“It will be all right.” His lips met mine, his tongue exploring my mouth, his hand caressing my cheek. “Just tell me, my love, tell me where it is.”
How does Jase know about the dust? How could he—
Maybe she doesn’t know?
She knows. Never trust anything a thief tells you, not even when they’re delirious.
Garvin’s voice.
The cool liquid spread from my lips to my fingertips. The room stopped spinning.
And then I saw the face looming above mine.
It was Montegue.
* * *
The voices were nightmares now. I couldn’t trust any of them. They pounded in my head.
It’s Jase. Lydia and Nash are dead. Tell me where it is.
No one will believe you. You can still save her …
Keep your mouth shut or I will kill her.
Tell me where it is.
Something cold trickled down my throat. The pain receded again, and I saw Montegue standing at the end of my bed. He ordered everyone out of the room.
“It’s only been two days since you were bitten,” he said. “You have days of this agony to go.” He held up the glass I had sipped from. “The healer gave you a painkiller. It will only be an hour or so before it wears off and the pain returns.”
He pulled the chair up to the bed and sat down beside me. He took my hand in his. “The antidote would end your suffering for good. Maybe we can—”
“I will never tell you anything, Montegue.”
“You will. Trust me, you will.”
And so it went every day. Or maybe it was every few hours. I wasn’t sure. I lost track of light coming through the attic window. Blinding light was always behind my eyes until cold numbing liquid was poured down my throat because they wanted to give me another chance. An hour or two of lucidity and questioning followed, and then I was plunged back into my fiery hell.
* * *
More cool liquid.
More questions.
But even my moments of lucidity were growing blurry. Every time they brought me back from the brink, I was weaker. All I wanted to do was sleep, fade away in these brief moments of calm. Dream. Hold on to something good. But even sleep was withheld from me. Sometimes Montegue, Banques, and Zane would sit around the room and talk kingdom business, waiting for the medicine to take effect and for my shaking to stop. It was as if they were keeping a friendly vigil at a deathbed. More chairs were brought in. Sometimes they argued, stealing my peace in these brief pain-free minutes.
They’re grumbling for payment.
They’ll get it.
Taste this.
Delicious. Pass the decanter.
Two more loads. That’s all.
Why isn’t it done already?
I can only move one load a day without rousing notice.
Finish it. It’s not safe where it is. Too many come and go at the arena.
And they found a squad of murdered scouts in a ruin yesterday. It was a bloody mess. There are still loyalists out there.
You hear that? We need to get it below ground. Do it tomorrow.
More wine, Your Majesty?
Include spy as a charge. That will validate our attack when it comes.
Someone throw water in her face. I want her looking at me when I ask questions.
* * *
The healer’s hand shook as she poured more of her medicine into a glass. Another convulsion twisted my body. She leaned close and I heard a faraway voice. Hers? I’m sorry. I have no antidote. I never did. But I do have other poison I could give you. It would finish this for you. They would never know. Nod if you want me to give it to you.
* * *
Death paced the room, watching me. Impatient.
He walked to the end of my bed and stared, his bony fingers curling around the bedpost, his stare cutting through me, as if he knew what I was thinking. Blink last. Make it one more day.
My shoulders shivered with his chill. I had always thought those were my words, but they were his. They had been his all along. I remembered the fear that gripped me that long-ago night. His whisper. His challenge for to me to stay alive.
I felt his fear now. Or maybe it was his anger.
Make it one more day.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
JASE
The moon was a sharp scythe in the sky, smoky orange against a backdrop of stars. A reaping moon. Not enough light to expose us. We were shadows, trees, an army of specters that were there, but not there at all.
We assembled at the base of Kalliope, the largest tembris just past the outskirts of town. Her arms reached far into the other tembris. Next came Eudora, then Acantha, and Gaia. The sisters, we called them.
&n
bsp; Synové’s blunt arrow whirred upward through the night, then fell back to the ground, circling one of the lowest branches. We used the string attached to it, to hoist up a heavier knotted rope into the towering tembris. Six of us would be going up.
Five days we had been waiting. The announcement only came yesterday. I had paced the vault like a madman, wondering what they were waiting for. What was taking them so long? It was insane to be eager for her hanging—but I wasn’t going to let her hang.
We would be in position when the sun rose.
Soldiers stationed on roofs would be looking down for trouble when they should be looking up.
CHAPTER FIFTY
KAZI
Tonight I woke. Or maybe it was a dream. But my eyes seemed to open. The room was as black as the deepest, darkest hole in the world, and I was falling into it, a hole that had no bottom, but through the attic window, a light shone, the brightest light I had ever seen.
Hold on to me, Kazi. Let me show you the stars.
I watched a sparkling galaxy pass by the small window. From the lowest star on the horizon to the highest one in the heavens. Some were horses racing across the sky. Don’t look down. Keep your eyes on the stars. That one there is Thieves’ Gold. And over there is Eagle’s Nest. I watched them glitter, listening to Jase whisper the stories of the universe.
Hold on to me, Kazi. I’ve got you. I won’t let go.
“I know, Jase,” I answered. “I know.”
* * *
She’s still shaking.
Give her more.
Vow of Thieves (Dance of Thieves) Page 29