“Not that my father is anywhere near as powerful as yours,” Caiso immediately said. “Walking away was easy enough. He swore to disown me, and for all I know he did. Best thing that ever happened to my younger brother. Maybe what you’re really asking me is how you get the world to define your worth without having to live up to its standards.”
“I guess. I don’t know.”
Caiso grinned through his thin goatee. “And so you find yourself here amongst the scum of the earth, defined by your association with yet another man. Not even your first Gorenten, is he? I seem to recall them talking about you and another back at Blackwood. A merchant, or something? I confess, I haven’t been keeping up to date with court gossip since I left home.”
Her cheeks burned at the accusation. “I’m not Luc’s. Just because I’ve slept with him—”
He gave a small bow. “I don’t think you have to explain to me. If you want my opinion? Stop letting yesterday’s grievances drive you and focus on today.” As if aware that she would react badly to such words, he strode away as soon as he uttered them, whistling to himself.
She frowned and sped up to join Luc. He was looking at the map with Ston. “Lady Roena,” he called out.
“What?” She couldn’t stop the irritation from creeping into her voice.
He looked confused. “I just wanted your opinion.”
She bit back the inclination to ask why. It must’ve been clear on her expression, though, because he cleared his throat and tilted the map to show her. “We were planning on drawing them out with a distraction while someone went in to grab the journals. I was thinking of asking you to go with Hana. You’d know exactly where to find these, I think.” He pressed Isobel’s note into her hands. She glanced down briefly, seeing the list of texts.
“I haven’t exactly paid as much attention to my studies as I should’ve,” she said. “Caiso might be a better choice.” She glanced back at the redhead. “Weren’t you a poet back in the day? You must know more about books than I do.”
“As lovely as it is to be popular, I think my sword arm will be more useful in this case,” Caiso laughed.
Roena folded the note. “I can fight, too.”
“I would rather we don’t fight if we can help it,” Luc said. “We’re not getting paid to kill anyone. The less bloodshed, the better.”
“How do you figure we do that?”
“For all the Dageians think, we’re just seeking shelter from the storm. They weren’t expecting us. We can use that to our advantage.” He glanced at Tasha. “You agree too, don’t you, Tasha?”
“I don’t care one way or another,” Tasha huffed. “But the faster you decide, the faster we can get this over with.”
“So the plan is for them to see you, and then you what…talk? About what? The weather?”
Luc nodded. “While you get those journals.”
“You’re fucked up in the head,” Jona broke in, appearing around the corner of the building.
Roena had to surpress a groan while she tucked the note into her pocket. “I thought I told you to watch the gate.”
“Don’t you fret your pretty face, I left one of the others there,” Jona replied without even really looking at her. He jabbed Luc’s chest with a dirty finger. “Are you a coward? If they’re not expecting us, we go in there to kill. That’s how you use the advantage.”
“I’m not going to murder innocent men,” Luc said.
Jona snorted. “Innocent. Listen to you talk. It’s like you were born yesterday. Why the fuck is he making these decisions again, Tasha? Because he was lucky enough to stab that beast between the eyes before it squished him?”
“Get your ass in line,” Tasha murmured.
“The old woman’s fond of you,” Jona sneered. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get us all killed with your dumb ideas.”
“Go back to the gate,” Luc suggested. “You’ll get a head start if things go south.”
“I don’t think you understand a fucking thing,” Jona hissed, grabbing Luc by the arm.
Roena moved to draw her sword a second time, but she didn’t have to—Tasha’s blade was in the side of Jona’s belly before she could blink. “Ass in line,” Tasha repeated.
Jona smiled. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Oswyn’s not here to protect you anymore.” There was hate in her eyes.
Roena cleared her throat. “I’m going. You people figure your shit out.” Without waiting to hear their reply, she gestured at Hana, who led the way. They strolled through the alley, past tall walls covered with damp moss that dripped with water. The air was tinged with a rancid scent, one that reminded her of the back of the castle kitchens the few times she’d gone that way while sneaking out. She wrinkled her nose.
“So you’re a lady, eh?” Hana said as they clambered up a narrow staircase set at the far end of the wall. She looked amused. “Never been around one of you folk before. Not enough like you in Kago. The ones who flaunt their titles never last for very long. I’ve worked for merchant’s daughters before, but I’d bet my ass it’s not the same thing.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Roena replied.
Hana gave a soft chuckle. “You’ve got to loosen up. Half of them still don’t know what the hell you’re doing here with us. They’d argue about it, except they think you were sent by Duke Iorwin.”
Roena sniffed. “Who’s to say I wasn’t?”
Hana didn’t reply, and remained quiet for some time until they found a door overlooking the alley. Hana set her pack to the side and pulled out a lockpick. “I’m trying to find something to say that won’t result in you trying to kill me like you did with Jona back there,” she said while she worked at the handle. “You’ll find—if you open up a little—that we’re more alike than you think we are.”
“I hardly think so,” Roena murmured.
“Apart from the obvious, of course,” Hana grinned. “I joined the Boarshind mercenaries against my mother’s wishes. Near-broke her heart…she wanted me to be a seamstress, I can’t sew worth shit. Kept pricking my fingers.” She laughed. “Of course, the Boarshind doesn’t like women joining, as a rule. Says it creates trouble for the men—like they don’t have their hands full with their whores back in Cairntown! But they didn’t have a problem with Tasha being there—comes with age, I suppose…she made them take me in.”
There was a click, and Hana pushed the door open with flourish. Roena kept her face straight, but she was amazed at how quickly Hana had picked the lock. “You’ve been in this life long, I suppose,” she said.
“Long enough,” Hana agreed. She stepped inside first. Roena followed closely into what appeared to be a storeroom—or at least what was left of a storeroom after over a century. The rancid smell was getting stronger, but Roena decided not to mention it.
“But you’re still young. The men don’t bother you?”
“I’d be lying if I said they didn’t,” Hana said. “I applaud your quick-thinking, putting Luc up as a shield. Worked out well that they’re all not sure of what to make of him right now, either, and so they’ve left you both alone so far. And you never know. Maybe it’ll last. But in my experience, it doesn’t. You’ve got to make the poor fucks think twice about crossing you. What you did with Jona back there was a start. But then you also want them to start thinking of you as one of us, one of the team. Which means sometimes you’ve got to reach out and help that same bastard, even if you’d rather stab his eyes out with a fork.”
“I don’t really know what I feel about that.”
“It’s fucked up, but that’s what Tasha told me when I first joined. Not that I had it as easy as you did. Shacking up with a newly appointed leader…I should’ve thought of that! They got me enough times before I learned my lesson. Not sure how I didn’t end up pregnant before it stopped. Guess I still have something to thank the gods for.” She shook her head with a grimace, as if recalling a mere unpleasant memory.
Roena felt her stomach turn—not just fr
om what she was talking about, but at how casually she seemed to regard it. “Why didn’t you just leave?”
“What, and prove my mother right?” She sighed. “Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, and you just try…to make do. It’s a tough life. I won’t judge you for leaving yours—I’m sure that must’ve been tough in its own way. Just don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t think for a moment that you traded your past for something a lot easier.”
It occurred to Roena that she was looking at herself if she stayed in that same, tough life long enough. “What about Tasha?” she asked.
“You mean, her past? Ah, I haven’t asked. She’s a closed book, that one, but I guess that’s proof enough. Life becomes hard, you break or you toughen up. She and Oswyn, and Jona, they were all in the same group before they split. Tasha and Oswyn joined the Boarshind, and the rest is history.”
“A bad history, if their exchange back there was any indication.”
Hana gave a grim smile. “Whatever it was, she’s never told me. I don’t think she has to.”
“She hates him, that much is plain. But she tolerates his presence. If he’s done something to her in the past, shouldn’t she have knifed him by now? She should be leader. Luc’s the youngest here. Not that I want to agree with Jona, but why does she insist on him taking the reins?”
An odd look came over Hana’s face, as if it wasn’t a question she didn’t want to answer in particular. She glanced away before eventually grumbling, “She doesn’t want the responsibility. She just wants to finish this job.”
“Just this one in particular?”
“And whatever the fuck else our client demands.”
“There seems to be very little by way of negotiation with this client of yours,” Roena said. “If you ask me, we should’ve known what we were walking into from the moment we accepted the job. And that’s even before Lady Isobel got involved. Tasha doesn’t seem like the sort of person who will just let another walk all over her.”
“Tasha’s hands are tied.” Hana scratched her nose.
“Is that mercenary speak?”
“For ‘she got no fucking choice’? Yes.”
“And you’re asking me to risk my life without knowing why?”
Her tone was sharp enough to make Hana wince. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you one thing,” she said with a soft smile. “As long as you understand that if you tell the men, it’ll be trouble for all of us.”
“Apart from Luc, you don’t see me on friendly terms with any of them, do you?”
“We fled Cairntown in fear of our lives. This client has promised to make it all go away. More than that…he promised to get Tasha’s daughter back to her safely. They took her just after we left, and threatened the worst if we didn’t come slinking back to expose whatever treachery Baeddan was accusing us of.”
“She has a daughter?” That came as a surprise. Somewhere along the way, Roena had assumed that mothers looked and acted only a certain way. Tasha, with all her scars and that warrior’s demeanour and seemingly permanent scowl, was the least motherly person she had ever met.
“She bore Oswyn a child a few years back. They weren’t really together, you understand, and Oswyn wasn’t interested in playing house. She left the child to be raised at one of the whorehouses. Didn’t know much about children, Tasha, but she loved Cate and took care of all her needs. I suppose she misses her. Hell, I miss her, and I’m none too fond of children myself.”
They reached the end of the hall. Hana glanced at the parchment in her hand before passing it over to Roena. “This is all you,” she said. “Ston assumes the mages have been staying in the other wing. They didn’t get to the actual library when they were here but they think it’s somewhere in the middle.”
Roena glanced down at the scribbles. She had never been in an archives building before and had no idea where to begin. Most of her studying, when she was expected to take them, had happened in the castle with private tutors. But she’d explored as much of the king’s palace in Tilarthan as she could get away with when she was there, and she recognized the arrangement of chambers, how they curved around two main halls fringed with massive stairwells. Likely work from the same builder—both the Tilarthan Palace and the main buildings of Windroost were erected at the same time.
A thought occurred to her. “If we take these stairs and go down to the main hall, we might be able to find a map of the building,” she said.
“We were hoping to get to the wing without going to the main hall,” Hana replied. “The Dageians…”
“Wasn’t that the whole point of Luc’s plan? To try and distract them? It’ll be worse if we just wander around—we’ll run into someone sooner or later.”
Hana tapped her sword. “Straight to the fucking heart, eh? I do like how you think.”
Roena started down the steps. They creaked under her weight, but the condition was surprising for a building that had been abandoned for so many years. She could imagine that just a bit of dusting and polish would be enough to restore the sheen of the wood. They had spared no expense in building this. For them to have left it all in a rush…
The stories returned to her, along with the fear. She patted her own sword to try and calm herself down. Behind her, she heard Hana try to choke back her breath. She realized that the smell was getting stronger, and strong enough now that she could feel the vomit threatening to come up her throat. Her hand went up to cover her mouth and nose.
“Did Isobel’s men come through here the first time?” she asked. “They could’ve at least mentioned the stench.”
“They were in the west wing, too,” Hana replied with a grimace.
“And they were so sure the Dageians stayed there?”
“They watched them for a few nights. No lights out here.”
Roena felt her senses whirling. “Why wouldn’t they come out here?”
Hana stopped in her tracks. “What are you saying?”
“If they came out here to look for something, they should’ve gone to the east wing at least once. Why have they left it alone?”
They stared at each other for a moment. And then Hana’s eyes widened, but not because of her words. They weren’t moving and the stairs were still creaking.
Something else was in the stairwell with them.
Chapter Fifteen
Luc had never seen a Dageian before.
Somehow, he had expected something straight out of the stories. Of strange people who were both more mysterious and terrible than the ka-eng. They were foreigners, invaders who landed on the continent and proceeded to take over every nation along the northern shores with such efficiency that these people, their histories, and culture were all but eradicated. Only Gaspar to the south and the Hafed have been able to resist their forces—the Gasparian mage-warriors, the mandraagars, proved to be a match for the Dageian mages, and in the meantime, Hafod had Agartes Allaicras.
Had. Luc was keenly aware that past glories didn’t count at a time when the kingdom seemed more interested in fashion than bolstering its borders. If anything, it seemed as if Dageis just didn’t care enough about conquering Hafod to bother it again. Their ships regularly cut through trade routes between Baidh and Hafod. Luc could remember Uncle Ian complaining about it more than once—his business depended on Port Greenleaf in Baidh, and it suffered every time the Dageians scared the sailors shitless. They took slaves for their mages to draw power from. Gorenten, usually, but it wasn’t unheard of for them to raid a coastal Kag village once in a while.
With all these thoughts rolling in Luc’s head, it seemed almost strange to come face-to-face with a soldier who looked oddly normal.
Normal, at least, compared to the ka-eng Luc had encountered in the woods. His clothes were very different—no armour that Luc could see, but a stiff uniform with rows of buttons and leather belts. He was also wearing white leather gloves and plain, black boots. His features clearly weren’t Kag. If anything, he looked closest to Alun—fa
ir skin that tanned easily, but with straight black hair tied over his head, a broad nose, and thick lips underneath a thicker moustache. He could be Jinsein, he could be part Gorenten or Gasparian, even—he was probably a mix of everything. Dageians came from different races, with only one thing uniting them: an empire that relied heavily on magic.
The moment he spotted Luc, he drew his sword, a blade with a curved grip. Luc held out his hands. “I’m not here to fight you,” he said. “My men and I…” He jerked his head back to indicate Caiso and Demon behind him. “We were passing through when the storm hit.”
“The road doesn’t just pass through here,” the soldier said. He spoke Kagtar a little differently, but it was clear enough for Luc to understand. Luc noticed his men appear from behind him. They were all dressed in the same uniform, though the colours of the fabric were different—brown instead of blue.
“We saw the city from the distance,” he said, keeping his ground. But the soldiers’ approach must’ve been concerning, because Caiso and Demon drew close enough that they were flanking him on each side. “We thought we’d take our chances. What’s wrong with this city? You can see the storm out there, but it’s like spring in here.”
The soldier gestured for his men to stop. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what this city is.”
Luc glanced up and licked his lips. “It’s Wind—” He pretended to take a deep breath. “Wind—”
“Superstitious Kags.”
He gave a sheepish grin. “My Grandma did warn me.”
The soldier didn’t looked amused. “Yet superstition didn’t stop you from taking shelter in a city covered in layers of spells. You’re either extremely brave, or extremely foolish.”
“Or both?” Luc offered. He smiled. “Look, we built a large fire by the wall there, and we’ve got food and drink to share. You’re welcome to join us. We don’t have to be hostile with one another.”
“How many of there are you?” the soldier asked.
“More than enough,” Caiso interjected.
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