by Beth Alvarez
“He is a strong ruler. I never said he was pleasant.” Though her face was stern, a hint of softness touched her dark eyes.
Satisfied, Tahl paced toward his office. “This isn't going to be an easy job. And I expect the full amount. You don't get to dock me anything just because you're coming along.”
The queen followed. “I'm surprised you're taking me, after you disposed of the mage. What's to keep me from turning against you now?”
“Your honor.” He pulled the dark-colored satchel containing his best gear out from under his desk. “Turn around, please. I'm changing.”
Amusement flitted across her face. “You're surprisingly honest, given your occupation.”
“Turn around.”
She gestured in apology and turned away.
Tahl stripped out of his everyday clothing and slipped into his close-fitting navy heist clothes. One by one, he stashed his favorite knives on his person. Then he stuffed his satchel with a few supplies snatched from around the room. Aside from the one small wooden chair she'd shattered to use as a makeshift weapon, his office had been strangely untouched. Out of everything Tahl stored there, only the crown had been moved.
“I'm surprised you listened,” he said as he fastened his split-toed shoes. “Most people would fear a knife in the back.”
“As I said,” the queen remarked as she cast a tentative glance over her shoulder. She smiled when she saw him dressed. “You're surprisingly honest.”
“Hopefully when everything is over, I'll be able to say the same about you.” He did not smile back. “Let's go.”
Oria's cheer evaporated, though she gave a grim nod and followed him as he led the way to the sewers.
Without a plan or any leads, the new heist began.
Chapter 9
A cold drizzle harbored the onset of an unpleasant night to come. Oria pulled the hood of her cloak up a little farther, but Tahl walked with his shoulders squared and pretended he didn't feel the rain.
He'd considered blindfolding the queen on the way out of headquarters, but after she'd helped him eject Colbin, there had seemed to be little point. She already knew where they were, but her chances of finding her way through the sewers to get to them again were slim.
“I begin to understand why our guards couldn't catch you,” Oria panted as she followed him through the winding alleys.
Tahl raised a brow. He'd set a brisk pace, but he hadn't thought it that hard to follow. “Would you believe me if I said you were slowing me down?”
“Yes. I think I would.”
He glanced toward the rooftops. He would have preferred to be there, leaping from roof to roof in the gloom. Wet roof tiles were always a unique challenge, a good way to hone his acrobatic skills. Occasionally, he was less enthusiastic to admit, they were a good way to earn bruises.
“Of course, you're part of why they didn't catch me. Aren't you?” Tahl cast a knowing glance over his shoulder. Oria still hadn't admitted her involvement, but her silence made him smirk. Of course she'd done it. There hadn't been any other mages there.
After they crossed a wide street and vanished into another alley, he slowed so she could close the distance between them. Her presence tingled in his senses, an uncomfortable sensation that crawled over his skin and his soul at the same time. He'd never known how to explain the feeling of another mage, but his short jaunt back into the academy with Nia had reminded him how glad he was to leave that world behind. Being a formally recognized mage would have been prestigious, made his family proud, and he would always be angry at the way they'd shunned him. But magic was unsettling by nature, and he'd come to realize he didn't miss the lessons or his peers.
“I have a question for you now, Ghost,” the queen said after a time.
“No one's stopping you from asking.”
“I want to know more about the horse. The one you sought to take from me.”
Tahl raised a brow. “I thought we went over that already.”
“Yes,” Oria conceded, “but I want to know why you, the Ghost of Orrad himself, thought recovering one white horse was a job worth your attention.”
Which meant she probably already knew the answer. Even thieves had loved ones. Tahl wasn't sure he'd call Ebitha that, but the old woman had earned his loyalty. He'd declared her estate to be among the properties in the city that were off-limits. Nobody had questioned the choice. The guild protected those who were useful, and no one seemed to care what made the wealthy old widow part of their number.
Not that wealthy anymore, Tahl reminded himself. He needed to figure out what had happened to Ebitha's fortune. And retrieve her horse. Unconsciously, he rubbed the crease that had formed between his brows.
“I see,” Oria said. Her voice was soft, far from accusatory, but it held a note of knowingness that rubbed him the wrong way.
“I don't need to explain my reasons for accepting a job.” He tried not to snap, but the words still came out hot. “My guild brings me leads, I choose which ones we take.”
She straightened her cloak as she trailed behind him. “And which ones you take for yourself?”
“I do what I please,” Tahl said. “That's the best part of being who I am.”
The queen said nothing else.
The rest of their trek through the city was silent, save for Oria's ragged breath whenever Tahl moved faster than what she could easily keep up with. More than once, his eyes drifted toward the sky as if to check the moon's position. With the cloud cover, it was nowhere in sight. He had a strong internal clock and didn't need it, but some part of him felt like the wandering moon would give him something to point at and hurry the queen along. Tahl bit back his frustration and remained outwardly cool and calm.
That facade was so practiced that half the guild thought him unshakable. He wished he was. His powerful flight instincts had kept him alive through a number of scrapes. Only occasionally did that panic break through to the surface. With the queen close on his heels and the meeting point looming ahead, he felt a little more shaken than he wanted to admit.
“Where are we?” Oria asked in a murmur as they reached a narrow but well-lit road.
“Just outside the garden district. I'd think you'd know that, considering this was supposed to be your city.”
An angry flush colored her cheeks, but she ducked her head and the fight in her seemed to subside. “I've spent a great deal of time in the palace. I no longer know the city as well as I once did.”
Tahl paced backwards down the avenue. “Oh, so you wouldn't know that in approximately thirteen minutes, there will be a brief guard rotation at the district gates that leaves an opening where we'll be able to slip in unnoticed.”
She blinked. “That's strangely specific.”
“Strangely specific keeps us alive, Your Majesty.”
“How could you know the time with that much accuracy?”
“I do a lot of jobs here.” He flashed her a grin. “There's a certain satisfaction that comes from infiltrating the security of people who've sequestered themselves off from the rest of the city. But then, I've noticed all my favorite heists involve walls.”
The queen gave him a disapproving look, but he ignored it as he gently directed her into a narrow gap between two tall buildings.
“Eleven minutes,” he whispered.
She frowned, but settled in the shadows to wait.
Tahl leaned against the wall and watched the guards, though he remained aware of the queen in his peripheral vision. At this point, he had little reason to fear she might attack him, but that did not mean it wasn't a possibility. He kept his senses open. At the first hint of magic, he could strike.
The guard slipped inside for shift rotation.
“Let's go,” Tahl said. He set a brisk pace, but this time, Oria was right on his heels.
Together, they slipped through the gate without notice and disappeared into the shadow of the garden wall.
“Has this district always been under guard?” the queen ask
ed in a whisper.
He shook his head. “Not like this. One of many things I've ended up changing in this city.” His footsteps were soundless on the wet grass as he led her behind and around a number of tall houses. “There's the meeting point.”
With how slow she'd made them, they were the last to arrive. The other three thieves lounged around the garden district's fountain with varying degrees of boredom on their faces. Hadren saw him first. He elbowed Jeran and pointed their way.
Had Tahl not wanted to be seen, they never would have known he was there.
“We're meeting out in the open?” Oria asked.
Tahl walked slowly and kept her close. “Anyone who sees us will assume we're supposed to be here. The district is guarded, remember? No one in their right mind would sit out in the open after sneaking in.”
“Comforting,” she mumbled.
“And yes,” Tahl said, “I'm aware of how that makes me sound.” With the absurdity of what he was doing, he couldn't guarantee it was that far off the mark. Taking a job that could be either a trap or an attempt to undermine the empire he loved and called home certainly seemed like lunacy, but it was also the only way he could know the queen's intentions for sure. If she truly posed a threat to the empire, he'd be in a perfect position to stop her.
Though Hadren had been the first to see them, Ashyl was the one who stood and strode to greet them. “I think you'll want to see this, boss.” She cast Oria a wary look as she extended a small, folded pieced of paper.
“Notes, or something you found while scouting?” Tahl studied the texture of the paper. It was ordinary, the common wood-pulp paper found anywhere in Orrad. He unfolded it and paused.
“Can you read it?” From the note of uncertainty in Ashyl's voice, he guessed she couldn't.
Tahl strode toward the fountain and did not reply. The plaza around the fountain was well-lit, and he had no difficulty seeing the sepia ink. “Where did you get this?”
“The iron refinery. Sort of.”
He raised a brow.
Ashyl squirmed. “It was in the pocket of a worker who was leaving by the back door. He looked like he was in a hurry. He kept looking over his shoulder.”
Tahl fought back a frown. He'd seen men leaving the building the same way. Maybe he should have sent Ashyl to investigate sooner. “When?”
“About two hours ago. Long after work should have ended.”
The queen glanced between them. “What is it?”
“Schematics,” Jeran said.
Tahl shot him a glare and stuffed the paper into his pocket. “Not just schematics. A proposal. It's written in one of the northern alphabets. There aren't a lot of people who still use it outside of Daribur, which is one of the larger kingdoms that emerged from the Claiming Wars.”
“So you can read it?” Ashyl asked.
He did not acknowledge the question. “They're trying to find someone who can replicate it.”
“But what is it?” Jeran rubbed his chin. “Ashyl let me look. I know it's some kind of mechanism, but I don't know what it's for.”
“It's impossible to say without more context. Could be a door latch, for all I know,” Tahl said. “But we don't have a trade relationship with Daribur. In fact, they're considered one of the biggest antagonists against the empire.”
Hadren grunted. “Think this is where our shipment's coming from?”
“It's a possibility,” Oria said.
Tahl nodded. “Probably the best lead we've got, too. But Daribur is on the western side of the continent's northern half. Transporting anything by ship would be cumbersome, since they'd have to go all the way around the Westkings in one direction or the other.”
“So you think they're coming by land?” Jeran rubbed his chin a little more aggressively.
“That would be my wager.” Tahl crossed his arms and shifted on his feet. Once he had his gear on, he always found he wanted to move, even if it was just an uneasy shifting of his weight. “They could go one of two directions once they hit the break in the mountains where the north and south Westkings meet, but that divide is where anything coming from Daribur is most likely to pass.”
The thieves quieted. Hadren had traveled a great deal as a porter, but Ashyl and Jeran had never ventured beyond Orrad's surrounding countryside. Traveling as far as the neck of land that connected the north and the south had to be intimidating.
“Of course,” Tahl added to waylay their concerns, “I'd want more evidence we should look that direction before we try to make that kind of trip. One piece of paper from an unfriendly country is hardly proof of where the queen's mystery shipment is coming from.”
The other thieves visibly relaxed.
“Where to, then, boss?” Hadren asked.
“The refinery.” He touched two fingers to his pocket. The paper stashed inside crinkled. “If someone's sneaking out with a proposal, there might be more paperwork in the building that could give us an idea what this is, or if it's worth pursuing.”
Oria grimaced. “I recall Atoras granting permission for the structure to be built. It was quite a fuss in court, being so much larger than a typical bloomery.”
“It's also outside the city limits,” Tahl said, guessing at the reason for her grimace. “And you can't exactly slip in and out of the city gates unnoticed.”
The rest of the group fidgeted.
Eventually, Hadren slapped his thighs and stood. “Well, we'd better get on, then. Hope Rupert's not hungry.”
Beneath the shadow of her cloak's hood, the queen grew pale.
“Remember,” Tahl said as they stopped in front of the gate that led to the natural caverns, “keep right. The right path only forks once. When you find it, also keep right. I'm putting out the mage-light as soon as we start walking. We'll all be walking blind, and hopefully staying as silent as possible.”
“Right?” Oria asked.
“Correct.”
She frowned at him. “Last time, you said keep left.”
“Because we were going the other direction. We were going in, not out.”
A hint of color rose in her cheeks. “I was blindfolded. You can't expect me to have a sense of direction.”
“True enough. Now, be quiet. The last thing we want to do is wake the bear. Rupert's never gone down that tunnel, which is why we use it most, even though it's longer. But we can't overlook that fact that Rupert is a bear, and animals are unpredictable.” He glanced between his companions to make sure they understood.
When everyone had nodded their agreement, Tahl curled his hand around the glowing coin and unwound the delicate strands of energy that constituted the light. The mage-light extinguished and a hint of suffuse warmth spread through his hand. He resorted to magic less often now, most jobs easy to achieve without his smoke tricks. Tahl was careful to keep the skill honed, practicing when he was working in the guild headquarters or when he was home alone, but it was rare to need his Gift. With Oria present, he doubted his ability would be of any use beyond occasional lights.
They padded on down the tunnel with Tahl in the lead, the quiet shuffle of feet and puff of nervous breath close at his back. Now and then, someone came close enough to brush fingers against his arms or shoulders. Every touch made him grimace and twitch a hand toward his favorite dagger. He liked the crew he'd chosen—aside from Oria, as he wasn't sure what he thought of the queen—but only Nia escaped that sort of reaction from him.
Somewhere ahead was a point where the passages converged. The faint sound of movement reached his ears and Tahl reached back to catch hold of the next person behind him. One after another, he propelled the rest of the group ahead of him with a near-silent whisper of “Go.”
It wasn't as if he'd be able to escape the bear if he was in the back, but as far as he was aware, he knew the cave's tunnels better than anyone else. His chances of evading the beast were the best, and putting himself at the back gave him the opportunity to distract the bear if need be.
The group hurried on in
tense silence. Tahl's heartbeat hammered loud in his ears and he breathed a little more slowly to reduce the speed of his pulse. It wasn't as if the bear could hear his heart, but with it beating that loud, he couldn't hear the bear.
Eventually, the scent of fresh air reached his nostrils and a sense of relief came down on his shoulders. It wasn't exactly safe at that point, but the cave's mouth gave way to a wide slope where it would be easier for the group to split up and escape. Jeran took the lead as they emerged into the night, cutting straight north from the exit. He was sure-footed and quick, almost as much so as Tahl, and the other thieves had difficulty matching his pace. The queen lagged so far behind that Tahl decided she was most likely to be mauled, should Rupert emerge on their heels, so he posted himself at her back and managed not to be frustrated by their lack of speed.
The field beyond the cave hosted little more than farms, but as they trekked north, the city's growing industrial region came into view. Large warehouses and manufactories sat still and empty in the night. A faint glow came from closer to the river, where workers caroused until the small hours of the morning. Tahl expected the sounds of life would fill the air there and he wished the iron refinery were closer to the river. Noise was a buffer of safety, something to hide the sounds of their activity. He, Jeran, and Ashyl could probably get into the refinery without making any noise. He was less certain about Hadren, and he assumed Oria would not be proficient at sneaking. Nobles were occasionally surprising, but as they approached the refinery from behind, a look of uncertainty painted her face.
Ashyl had taken the lead. She motioned them through a narrow alley and flashed a quick hand-sign to Hadren and Jeran as they passed. Scout. Guards? The question mark was implied by the tilt of her hand at the end, her little finger hooked. The men nodded. She had no instructions for Oria, or for Tahl. Wise of her, considering this was his operation.
The men disappeared from sight. Ashyl hung back, waiting for Tahl and the queen.
“I don't think there are guards, exactly,” she whispered as they approached, “but there are definitely still people inside.”