Thief's Curse

by C. Greenwood

  I wasn’t surprised by the declaration. I was more surprised that he offered any sympathy at all. Despite everything, I felt a flicker of respect for his resolve even if it came at my expense.

  He was staring past me again. I turned to see what had caught his eye.

  In the back of the shelter, Ada had created one of her magic blue orbs, which she suspended in the air to light the shadowed interior.

  Habon seemed fascinated by it. “I have rarely seen such magic,” he said, moving past me to approach the magicker girl. “Tell me, how do you do it?”

  As soon as he was out of earshot and occupied with talking to Ada, I vented my displeasure on Tarius.

  “What possessed you to attempt this business?” I challenged. “How did you think it could end in any good? Now your brother knows not only the identity of the killer but exactly where to send his soldiers to find me.”

  “He won’t do that,” Tarius answered with a grimace. “He says he will not help you, but neither will he act directly against you. I’ve never known my brother to fail in keeping his word. His honesty is sickeningly reliable. Anyway, I had to tell him something. He guessed I had some knowledge of the assassination, and the only way I could excuse myself was by turning his attention to you. My plan was to appeal to his compassion and his instinct for justice—which is never far from the surface—and get the manhunt ended. Not that I care so much for your life but if my own involvement is uncovered, I might well be dragged down with you.”

  I thought Habon wasn’t the only member of the family afflicted with an excess of honesty. It didn’t seem to occur to Tarius that I would take offense at these blunt truths.

  All the while he was speaking I had been keeping one eye on Habon and Ada, who were conversing softly in the background. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The magicker girl must have enjoyed having an audience, for she was demonstrating the different types of glowing lights and flickering flames she could summon with her power. By his expression, Habon was admiring not only the magic but its wielder.

  Tarius followed my gaze. “Interesting company you keep,” he said. “The girl is of Skeltai descent?”

  I shrugged, not liking the sneer that hovered around his mouth. I remembered the disdain he had revealed for common magickers in a previous talk, his feeling that magic should be possessed only by the worthy few.

  “Such people should not be allowed to exist,” he muttered now. “I must get my brother away. His head is too easily turned by low influences. He is overwhelmed at the prospect of ruling in our father’s stead and refuses to be guided by those wiser than himself. I fear what sort of praetor he will be.”

  He barged into the back of the tent and interrupted the conversation between Habon and Ada. The two brothers departed hastily, Habon with seeming reluctance and Tarius with apparent annoyance. I could see he hadn’t gotten what he wanted from the visit.

  * * *

  In the days that followed, I kept busy, distracted by my friends in the guild. They frequently visited, bringing stolen goods snatched from the thief king’s hoard. Ada remained with me but wasn’t around all the time. Often she slipped away. I didn’t know where. She claimed she walked in the public gardens near the Temple of Light. Increasingly going our separate ways and each absorbed in our own business, we saw less of one another, despite living side by side. I couldn’t figure out why she remained with me against all discouragement instead of returning to her family in the woods. But at least she had given up interfering in my affairs. I told myself the distant and mysterious aspect she had taken on lately, so unlike her usual practical behavior, didn’t concern me. Even if it did, I was too distracted by my own business to pry.

  The manhunt for the unknown assassin continued for some time, as Habon had said it must. But at last interest began to die down. At the same time, all the visiting dignitaries who had come for the funeral departed to their own provinces. The city was returning to normal again. I kept my head down all the while the search for the assassin was underway, but I had resisted the temptation to flee the city. I had too much going on here. The time wasn’t right to leave yet. No, I must stay a little longer in order to oversee my growing secret faction within the guild. If I ran from Selbius, my supporters would soon lose their nerve and fall away in my absence.

  But we didn’t stay in the under-levels much longer. Aware the place had unfriendly eyes and might be watched by those loyal to the thief king, Ada and I soon relocated. We moved to a ramshackle house that had been found for us by one of our friends in the guild. It was a good-sized place, but only half of it was livable, the rest being filthy and decayed. We chose a set of rooms to inhabit that were better than the rest. There were even some rough furnishings, and the kitchen held a few utensils Ada could cook with. A neglected and overgrown vegetable garden in the walled yard provided a little food.

  This house was owned by a guild connection named Kiril, but he was seldom there. Mostly he only came around to feed his flock of pigeons kept in a coop out back. It didn’t take me long to realize the birds could be useful. I began using them to send messages with the guild members in my traitorous circle and even found a way to get one bird to Tarius for emergency communications.

  I didn’t expect to hear from the praetor’s son anytime soon. But I was wrong.

  I was out in the vegetable garden one evening, digging through weeds and rotten roots for something worth eating. Ada was out. I assumed she was at the market trying to get a little bread or meat. I couldn’t go on such errands myself since it was still risky for me to walk the streets. At least in the walled garden behind the old house, I was safe from the eyes of unfriendly guild members and city guardsmen alike.

  I was about to go indoors with my meager handful of potatoes and carrots when I noticed a fluttering overhead. A dappled gray-and-white pigeon landed atop the nearby coop and strutted around, scratching at the roof. This wasn’t a messenger from my guild circle. By its markings, I recognized this as Tarius’s bird.

  Dusting the loose soil from my hands, I went to the coop and captured the bird. Tied to his foot was a scrap of paper. It contained a brief but chilling message: “Price decided. Kill Habon.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Immediately after receiving Tarius’s note I went indoors, donned my hooded cloak, and strapped on the Thief’s Blade that was both a danger and a protection to me in this city. I hesitated over my magic amulet but was still unwilling to sacrifice my memories to put it on. Instead, I left it in my traveling pack in the upper room I had claimed as my own and grabbed my magic bow and quiver of arrows on the way out.

  This was the first time I had come out of hiding since relocating to the old house from the under-levels. Until now, all I had seen recently of the city streets were glimpses over the high walls surrounding the house’s yard. Now as I stepped out the back gate and into a shaded alley, it felt good to leave behind my self-imposed imprisonment.

  But I wasn’t a fool. I clung to the backstreets, passing few people and avoiding crowded areas. I kept my hood up, hiding my face in its shadows, and concealed my black-bladed sword beneath the folds of my cloak. The thief king knew I had it and wanted his famed weapon back—along with my head. The city guard too might be looking for a youth matching my description.

  Even so, I had no choice but to answer Tarius’s summons. It was understood that on receiving any emergency message I was to proceed at once to a previously agreed-upon meeting place. This was what I had gotten myself into when I agreed to accept the spoiled young noble’s help in defeating my enemy.

  The evening shadows were stretching long, and stars had begun to twinkle in the sky by the time I reached the heart of the hedge maze in the public gardens. It made me nervous to return so near the Temple of Light and the sight of the assassination. But the center of the hedge maze was a seldom-visited spot and the safest place we were likely to find for this meeting. The surrounding shrubs rose like tall barriers, hiding the space from all but those mo
st determined to penetrate the maze. The leafy walls shielded us from the casual garden visitors who strolled the grounds outside. Their distant laughter and the indistinct buzz of their conversation drifted to my ears on the cool breeze, mingling with the chirping of crickets.

  I found Tarius waiting at the edge of a splashing fountain. He turned at my approach, his gold-embroidered, scarlet cloak swirling around his ankles as he moved. As usual, the praetor’s son could never resist the temptation to make himself conspicuous.

  “I got your message,” I said.

  “And you hastened to answer my summons as a loyal Valko should,” he said with a smirk.

  I ignored the remark. It would do no good to ask him not to compare me to my enemy, the hated man with the scarred chin.

  “Are you sure about this?” I asked.

  “Our meeting?”

  “Our conspiring to kill your brother. Last I heard, brothers are usually on the same side. Why the sudden desire to remove him?”

  A muscle jumped in Tarius’s cheek, but he gave no other sign of internal conflict. “I had hopes for my brother, but he is proving unfit to rule.”

  “He hasn’t had much of a chance,” I pointed out. “He hasn’t assumed the title of praetor yet.”

  “And already he shirks his duties and avoids his ministers. Worse, he keeps company with unworthy commoners of unfortunate background. He has been seeing that magicker you introduced him to—the Skeltai girl.”

  “Ada?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. I hadn’t realized her mysterious outings from the house had involved meeting anyone. But I supposed it made sense. She was young and pretty in a rough sort of way, and that day in the under-levels Habon had obviously been interested.

  “He’s besotted,” Tarius said, following my thinking. “It’s disturbing really, a member of our house mingling with a magicker of primitive origins. His association with her will ruin him, of course. It’s just another indication he’s not suited for the high position he’s about to take on.”

  Privately I suspected Habon’s actions were irrelevant. No matter what he did, it was inevitable Tarius would eventually want to get rid of him. The younger brother’s ambition wouldn’t allow him to be second while another ruled the province. I should have seen that when he first schemed to murder his own father.

  I hid the distaste I felt for anyone willing to turn on his own flesh and blood. “Then you’re determined to go through with it?” I asked.

  “I am. I only need to work out the details.”

  “Leave those to me,” I said firmly. I had no intention of allowing Tarius to arrange the when and where of the deed. That hadn’t worked out well for me in the past. “I’ll take care of it.” I continued. “But I need time to plan.”

  When I left Tarius a short while later, it was with the agreement that I would act against his brother when the time was right. Privately I was sickened by the business and wondered if I could find a way out of it. I had never killed someone who wished me no harm, someone I had no fair grievance against. In fact, of the two brothers, I had more respect for Habon than Tarius. Besides, I was still dodging the authorities after the assassination at the temple. What was the likelihood I could kill a second important figure—the most important in the province—and again escape capture? But Tarius had me trapped, and I knew it. I saw no alternative but to do what he wanted.

  Back at the house, I found Ada had returned from her earlier outing. I confronted her with the information I had learned from Tarius. I said nothing of the plan to destroy Habon, only that I knew she was seeing him in secret.

  “I didn’t realize I needed your permission,” she pointed out, eyes narrowed.

  I had to admit it was none of my business. I didn’t warn her I had been ordered to kill Habon. But thinking of the awful secret, I said that their relationship could only end unhappily. After all we had been through together, I didn’t like the idea of her winding up hurt. If she continued seeing Habon, it was inevitable that she would be.

  I expected an argument, but her expression became subdued. “It won’t last,” she acknowledged. “There’s no future for us. With the difference in our stations, no one would ever accept us together. Least of all Habon’s ministers. He feels ruled by them and dreads accepting the praetorship. It is the position he was born for, and everyone expects great things of him. But it isn’t what he wants.”

  In the face of her sadness, I said nothing. I could think of no comforting words, considering what I knew lay ahead.

  Our conversation was interrupted by a noisy pounding at the door. We were in the kitchen, and there was a side door there that led into the walled yard and garden.

  My mind jumped immediately to the many enemies we had feared would catch up to us sooner or later. I drew my sword and silently stationed myself behind the door. Then I signaled Ada to let the newcomer in. I had to admire the magicker girl’s calm. She didn’t look at all alarmed about what she would find on the other side. Then again, it wasn’t her they were probably coming for.

  The frantic pounding stopped abruptly as Ada opened the door.

  “Where’s Rideon? Is he here?” someone demanded anxiously.

  On recognizing the familiar voice, I relaxed and lowered my sword.

  “Kinsley, you gave us a fright,” I said as Ada ushered my friend inside. “We thought something was wrong.”

  Then I saw the look on the young thief’s face and reassessed my assumption. Something was wrong, it just wasn’t clear what.

  “It’s Javen,” Kinsley burst out as soon as the door was securely closed behind him. “The thief king has determined he’s the traitor responsible for the theft of so many items from the treasure room. He’s going to kill him.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  There was no question what I must do and no time to be wasted on details. I snatched up the bow I had only recently leaned in the corner.

  “Take me to them,” I said to Kinsley. “You can explain everything on the way.”

  And that was what Kinsley did, filling Ada and me in on what had happened, as the three of us hurried out into the night.

  Kinsley didn’t seem to know much more than he had already told. Only that the thief king had grown suspicious that there was a rebellious faction within the guild and that it was led by me. He had been watching and waiting and had finally caught Javen in the act of lifting an item from the guild’s treasure hoard. Javen had steadfastly refused to give up any of the others within our circle and would pay for his loyalty this very night with his life.

  Every detail I heard added to my sense of responsibility since it was entirely true that Javen was acting under my orders. I couldn’t let one of my oldest thief friends suffer for his allegiance to me. I hadn’t planned to confront the guild leader this early. In fact, I’d never intended to confront him before an entire gathering of thieves. But the speed of events left me with no choice as I followed Kinsley down winding backstreets and dark alleys.

  The site the thief king had chosen for his ceremonial execution of the traitor was the ancient temple in old town. We didn’t attempt to hide our approach, passing through the narrow gates of the abandoned part of town and striding up the moonlit path between the hollow shells of abandoned houses. We met other thieves on the way. Although we attracted interested looks, none attempted to stop us. I suspected the thief king guessed tonight’s meeting would tempt me in, and he had given instructions I wasn’t to be interfered with. He wouldn’t want me chased away just as I was willingly entering his trap.

  As I mounted the temple steps, flanked by Kinsley and Ada, I had the strange feeling that destiny had been drawing me toward this moment since my first encounter with the guild and its captain. Conscious of the curious eyes upon me, I tossed my cloak over my shoulder, affording a clear view of the Thief’s Blade at my hip. I had used the symbol of guild leadership once before to muster support, and I hoped it would lend me an air of authority again.

  I entered a meeting that was alrea
dy underway. A gathering of thieves filled the space, clustered around their king, who stood between the pillars at the head of the temple. At his feet was a bloodstained block, and on it rested a head, still attached for the moment to its owner. Javen’s hands were bound behind him, and he was obviously in no position to help himself. Lacking his infamous black blade, the thief king gripped an ordinary sword as a replacement. The scene was made more dramatic by the fiery glow of the torches along the walls, casting dancing patterns across the room. The faces of the spectators were bathed in the orange light of the torches and of the braziers filled with hot coals burning in the center of the room.

  When I glimpsed the thief king through the crowd, he stood poised to swing his sharp blade and lop off the head of my friend.

  It wasn’t a moment for hesitation.

  “Stop!” I called out loudly, my voice ringing through the silence of the place.

  Looking startled, the thief king lowered his blade. The heads of the crowd turned my direction.

  “This man is mine and acts under my orders,” I continued, approaching the front of the temple. “You’re grievance, thief king, is with me.”

  Strangely, the spectators parted to make way for me. Walking through their midst, I tried to still the hammering of my heart against my ribs. If the thieves smelled fear, it would be the end of me—and likely of Javen, Ada, and Kinsley too.

  “So you have come to rescue your follower,” said the thief king. “You are a greater fool than I imagined.”

  Although his words were directed at me, his voice was raised for the benefit of the crowd. His one sharp eye fixed on the black sword I carried at my hip.