Thief: A Fantasy Hardboiled (Ratcatchers Book 2)

by Matthew Colville

  “Not if the Moon holds out,” Heden said.

  “Which it won’t. How can it? Army of deathless. Come on,” he said, asking Heden to be reasonable.

  “How many people die between now and then? How many innocent people?”

  Teagan took a deep breath, made an “ugh” sound and shook his head.

  “You sure about this polder?” he asked.

  Heden frowned. “Sort of. We’ll see.”

  “We’ll see? You got some balls. The count and Garth against you, me, and ‘we’ll see.’”

  Heden looked at the ground. “There’s more,” he said.

  “Oh of course there is,” Teagan said.

  “There’s a star elf somewhere inside the citadel.”

  “A what now?”

  Heden explained.

  “Cyrvis’ thorny prick. You got a flattering idea of fair odds, I’ll give you that.”

  “You’re the best swordsman I’ve ever seen,” Heden said.

  Teagan looked down at the priest sitting on the cot. “Garth,” he said.

  “Garth’s good, but he has tricks. He relies on tricks. Shadow magic. Not you. You took out three yellow scarves in the Rose in the time it takes to blink, and me blinded and poisoned.”

  “You’re not doing a good job convincing me of your own abilities here.”

  Heden leaned his elbows on his knees, looked at the floor.

  “If you’re telling me no,” Heden said, and then looked up at the man, “I understand. But I need an answer.”

  Teagan thought for a moment. Sighed.

  “We need to ask Domnal,” Teagan said.

  “No we don’t.”

  “You think I’m going with you into the ragman’s fortress without my boss knowing?” Teagan asked incredulously.

  “You don’t want to do it, I can’t make you, but either way taking it to Dom is a mistake.”

  Teagan pushed himself away from the wall of the jail cell. “We don’t know each other well enough for you to call me a coward.”

  “You’re not a coward, you just need to exercise your judgment,” Heden said. “Think about what happens if you ask Dom…,”

  “I’m thinking about what happens to me if I don’t. I’ll be looking for another job, and there’s not a lot of steady work for people with our background,” he said, looking Heden up and down.

  “It’s a mistake,” Heden stressed.

  “This whole thing is a mistake,” Teagan said. “I’m hoping Dom will talk some sense into you.”

  Chapter Seventy

  Gwiddon looked at the two maps, compared them.

  “You’re sure about this?” he asked.

  The young man who’d brought him the maps of the citadel nodded. “There isn’t a master map,” he said. “You know what the castellans’ like.”

  “He’s more paranoid than I am,” Gwiddon said, looking closely at the diagrams.

  “But this is close enough,” the novice spy said. He explained the workings of the citadel.

  “You bring the keys?” Gwiddon asked.

  The young man produced two of the sigils that permitted unrestricted movement with the castellan’s fortress.

  Gwiddon thanked him. “Any danger this will get you in trouble?”

  “Long as you get those back to me in the next…48 hours? Everyone’s busy dealing with the count. No one’s going to notice two keys missing.”

  Gwiddon took a deep breath, rolled the maps up.

  “When I told you about this, you volunteered. Before I could ask you. Why?”

  “I’m the only man you’ve got inside the citadel,” the young spy said, and then shrugged. “And I want to see the priest succeed,” he admitted. “The wode, the knights, the girl, the abbot? He needs some luck. I want to give it to him.”

  Gwiddon smiled. “Takes a rare man to spy for the king,” he said. “And a first-rate watchmen to boot.”

  “Yeah well,” Aiden half-smiled back. “Tell that to Fandrick and Rayk.”

  Chapter Seventy-one

  “Tell him,” Teagan said.

  Heden threw the watchman a look, then turned to his friend, the captain.

  “I need someone to help me infiltrate the citadel,” he said.

  “Infil…what?” Domnal said. Sitting at his desk in his office, he looked from one man to the other, priest to watchman, for an explanation.

  “Sneak in without anyone knowing.”

  “You want to break in to the ragman’s fortress? Are you mental?”

  “See?” Teagan said.

  “Heden what the fuck are you on about?”

  Heden explained his plan again.

  “Cavall’s warty nutsack,” Dom said, dragging his fingers through his hair. “You want to get killed that’s your own business, but you’re not taking mine. Anyone gets caught with you, they’re through.”

  “I can’t do it alone,” Heden said.

  “You can’t do it at all!” Domnal said. “What happened to you out on High Bridge? You go funny in the head? They let you out of hospital too quick, you need to get back right away.”

  “Dom,” Heden said, and the watch captain calmed down a little, tried to listen. “Dom, the count is in there. The citadel protects him. If the castellan finds out, he’ll arrest him and by the time it’s before the magistrate the count’s agents will be running the city.”

  Domnal’s brow furrowed.

  “Now, I can get in there, Teagan can get in there. We can take care of the count. You got another idea, I’d like to hear it.”

  Domnal didn’t say anything, just stared at his desk, his palms flat on them as though he were trying to stop the desk from flying away.

  “The moons are turning, Dom,” Heden said. “If you’re saying no, I have to find someone else….”

  “I’m not sayin’ no,” Dom said shaking his head, not looking at either of them. “I’m saying I can’t send my man when I should go.”

  “You?” Heden asked.

  “Well why you got to say it like that?” Domnal looked at him, his face pained. “I’m captain ain’t I?”

  Teagan shook his head, once. “Dangerous,” he said.

  “Of course it’s fucking dangerous!” Domnal said. “It’s fucking mental is what it is! But what do you think happens to you, ragman comes in and finds you leading this one,” he said, waving a hand at Heden, “skulking around in his fortress, murdering people.”

  Neither Heden nor Teagan had any answer for this.

  “Has to be me, for fuck’s sake. If it’s me, it’s the law. If it’s you lot, it’s a bunch of ratcatchers going to war with the ragman.”

  “It’s not about him,” Heden started.

  “Fuck you it’s not,” Dom said. “You don’t get to say how he’s gonna see it. He puts everyone in two buckets. Us, them. That’s it. You break into his palace under his nose murder his prisoner, you’re one of them. And this one too,” he said, nodding to Teagan.

  “You, stay,” he ordered Teagan

  “I have to go,” Teagan said.

  “Balls you do,” Dom said. “You’re the only one in all this gonna have a job when this is over. You fucking stay here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Heden said. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “No you should not have!”

  “Let’s forget it,” Heden said. “I’ll figure something else.”

  “Well I got no choice now,” Dom said. “Either I go with you to the citadel or I go straight to the ragman. I’m a fucking copper, ain’t I? I can’t let you go off and murder people. Only chance we got now is your plan works and maybe ragman lets me keep my job after. Fuck.”

  No one in Dom’s office spoke. Dom got up, grabbed his keys.

  “Alright, come on,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  He stuck his face out at Teagan as he walked by. “And YOU, stay HERE. Fuck.”

  Heden gave Teagan a foul look. The tall, lanky watchman frowned, but said nothing.

  Chapter Se
venty-two

  “Twelve more dead on Warren Road,” Gwiddon said. “Everyone at the docks, the city gates, all the stables, farriers, ostlers, Count’s running them all now.”

  “All the transport,” Heden said. “Smart.”

  “No one ever said he was stupid.”

  Gwiddon held up the maps. “Time for you to get to work,” the spymaster said.

  They were in Heden’s basement. They unrolled the maps.

  “It’s like a warren down there. All twisting stone, darkness. Designed to get lost in.” Gwiddon put the two maps next to each other. “This is level nine, and level ten,” Gwiddon said. “We did some measuring, compared this with a duplicate set of plans. There’s a whole section here,” he pointed to the level nine map. “Six cells, extending down a level, completely isolated from the other two floors. There’s one way in, a triple-hinged baffled door set back into this wall. No one can see who goes in or out.”

  “I feel like a campaigner again,” Heden said, listening to the elaborate defenses of the dungeon.

  “But that’s not the interesting part,” Gwiddon said.

  “I’m listening.”

  “There’s a special guard on that entrance. Castellan selects him by lottery. The guard who gets the prize is told anonymously, double-blind. No one knows who it is except the guard himself.”

  “So you can’t bribe your way to him. No one knows who he is.”

  “Correct. It also means, if you figure out who it is, and replace him, no one knows. We figure Garth ferreted out which one the guard was. It’s his style.”

  “Count’s using the castellan’s own plan against him,” Heden said.

  Gwiddon looked at the maps and nodded. “You’ve got to admire the count’s ingenuity,” he said. “It’s about as good a plan as I’d have devised.”

  Heden looked at him and smirked. Then his smile dropped. “Gwidd,” he said.

  “Yes,” Gwiddon said rolling the maps up. There was a note of anticipation in his voice.

  “You didn’t figure all this out in the last six hours.”

  “No,” he agreed, and handed Heden the maps.

  “You’ve got a man inside the citadel.”

  “Yes,” Gwiddon said sharply. “And I’d like to keep him there, so if you would be so kind as to not get found out, I’d be grateful. Castellan has access to the Aduro Vera I’d hate to see the wreckage from this if you get put under.”

  “Is this man spying for the king, the church, or the Moon?” Heden asked.

  “You’ll need these,” Gwiddon said, ignoring him while he extracted two of the silver amulets that allowed the special watchmen to come and go from the citadel. It wasn’t the only security, but it was among the hardest to forge.

  “The two of you wear these, you’ll be able to get down to level nine without anyone stopping you.”

  Heden stared at Gwiddon waiting for a reply. When there was none, he scowled and snatched the amulets from him.

  “There’s three of us,” Heden said. “The polder and a watch captain.”

  Gwiddon looked at the amulets. “I can get another one, but it’ll take a day.”

  Heden shook his head. “No need. The polder’s not coming out.”

  Gwiddon stared at Heden.

  “I thought you were working together,” Gwiddon said.

  “We are.”

  “I thought you trusted him.”

  “I do, for the moment.”

  “So how come…,” Gwiddon started. Heden gave him a look.

  “He killed the abbot,” Heden said. Gwiddon took a sharp breath.

  “I thought Garth…,”

  Heden shook his head, once. “Nope. The polder did it. Killed the abbot and got the girl and gave them to the count. That’s why Brick is still in business. The polder fixed it.”

  “And now you’re working with him. How is that?” Gwiddon was baffled.

  “I forgave him.”

  “Black gods. Heden that man was a father to you.”

  “He didn’t know what he was doing,” Heden explained. “He was out of his head with drink and killing. He doesn’t even remember it.”

  Gwiddon was clearly confused. “So if you forgave him, if he’s helping you….”

  “The one’s got nothing to do with the other,” Heden said without inflection. “He killed the abbot, he’s going down for that. Me forgiving him is beside the point.”

  Gwiddon said nothing for a few moments.

  “You might be the hardest man I know,” Gwiddon said. Heden said nothing.

  Gwiddon held out his hand. “Maybe that’s why I think this ridiculous plan is going to work.”

  Heden took his hand, and they shook. Friends again? Neither could be sure.

  “Good luck Heden.”

  “Thanks, Gwidd.”

  Chapter Seventy-three

  She sat at the desk he provided and read one of the books. It kept her sane. The harlequin taught her all the letters and enough words she could make her way. And the challenge helped keep her mind off things.

  The room was small, just the desk, a bed and a small bookcase, full. She’d grabbed a selection of knightly romances and discovered one of them was about an all-female order of knights. She’d already read it twice.

  The door opened. She didn’t bother looking, she wasn’t interested. Was never going to show any interest, no matter what happened. She pretended to keep reading as two pairs of boots trod on the stone floor.

  “If you like it,” a voice said, and she froze, “you can take it back with us. Plenty of room in the library for more.”

  Heden.

  She stood up. Heden noticed the dress. It was beautiful. She noticed him noticing and looked down at herself in disgust.

  She pulled and clawed at the thing until it hung off her in tatters. It was too well-made to destroy completely without more work.

  She ran to him, grabbed him like she wanted to crush him.

  “I knew you’d come,” she muttered into Heden’s jerkhin, the steel breastplate underneath bruising her cheek. “Knew it. Knew it.”

  “Sorry it took so long,” he said.

  She disentangled herself. “You’re forgiven,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Heden indicated Domnal. “You remember Dom,” Heden ventured.

  Dom looked weakly at the girl. The last time they’d met, she was in the grip of one of her fits.

  Vanora frowned. “No?” she asked.

  “Good,” Heden said and Dom sighed with relief. “Now…this is the hard part.”

  Vanora saw it on Heden’s face.

  “You have to stay here,” Heden said.

  “What?!” she barked. “No! Fuck no!”

  “Dom, wait outside,” Heden said.

  “Fine with me,” the large man said, and turned around. “I’ll keep watch. Hurry.”

  Once he was gone, Heden said, quietly. “I’m going to stop the count and Garth.”

  “Good,” she said. “I’m going with you.”

  “You can’t. People will die. You’re getting out of here.”

  “’People’ will die? Or you will die?”

  Heden ignored this. “You’re safe here,” he said.

  “I don’t care,” she said.

  “I’ll come back when this is over.”

  She shrugged. “I’ll follow you.”

  Heden shrugged back. “I’ll find a guard. Turn you over to him.”

  She glared at him. Stalemate. She collapsed a little.

  “I hate this,” she said, he hands balled into fists, her eyes darting around as though a solution might be found.

  “Please stay here,” Heden urged.

  She nodded.

  “I need to know you’re safe,” he said.

  “I know. I hate it. I should be there.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “Of course it’s fucking dangerous,” she said. “You’re going to kill the count and Garth and who knows what else. I should be there.
”

  “It won’t take long,” Heden said.

  Vanora thought of something she’d been wondering since she got here. Something she might not get a chance to ask again. “What happened to the abbot?” she asked.

  Heden’s mouth went dry. Sometimes he went as long as a whole turn without thinking about his dead friend.

  “He’s dead.”

  She pressed her lips together. Her eyes went red. “I liked him,” she said quietly.

  “Me too,” Heden said. Had he mourned his friend yet? Time enough for that later. If they lived.

  “It was the polder, wasn’t it?” she asked.

  Heden nodded.

  “Why did he do that?” Vanora asked. “He helped me, back at the inn. While you were gone.”

  “I think he was punishing himself,” Heden said.

  Vanora scowled. “What?”

  “He knew the abbot was my friend and he hoped, he guessed, that if he killed the abbot I’d kill him.”

  “He wanted to die?” Vanora said.

  “I think so. But I didn’t do it.”

  “Good. I guess.” She thought. “I don’t think he’s bad,” she said.

  “Me neither,” Heden said.

  Silence between them.

  “Go,” she said eventually. “Hurry. I hate this.”

  Heden left.

  She stared at the doorway he left open behind him. The torchlight from the room failed to illuminate the hallway outside the door.

  Chapter Seventy-four

  Teagan threw his sword down on the kitchen table.

  “Hey watch it, watch it!” Gowan called out. He bustled into the kitchen and snatched the sword up. “I’m setting the table,” he chastised

  He looked at Teagan and saw immediately something was wrong.

  Leaning the sword carefully against the wall, he walked up to the man he thought of as his husband and put a hand around his waist. Tried to look into his eyes. Teagan was lost in worry.

  Gowan kissed Teagan lightly on the cheek.

  “What?” he asked the younger man.

  Teagan took a deep breath, glanced at Gowan, flashed a smile. But his heart wasn’t in it.

  “I think I just did something awful.”