Loren flushed. From the corner of her eye she could see Annis looking at her strangely. “It is nothing so precise, Your Grace. But I have a … a sense for people. I only ask that we proceed with caution.”
“We will do that, of course,” said Jun. “But for now, this is the only path we have. We must take it, or waste away here with inaction.”
Loren bowed her head. “Of course, Your Grace.”
How could she explain herself more clearly? There was no way to do so without telling Jun of her dreams, and she knew that would be a mistake. She realized suddenly that she had not told Annis, Gem, or Chet of the most recent vision. That would have to be remedied, as quickly as possible. Mayhap Annis could help her devise a way to convince Jun of the need for caution.
“It seems that our next task is clear, then,” said Wyle from his armchair in the corner. “We need to empty your treasury, Your Grace.”
“We had already thought that might be necessary,” said Senlin. “My father knows as well as anyone that many of his soldiers serve him for pay.”
Gem piped up. “But how to do it? I have stolen coins before, but I do not think all the kingdom’s wealth is contained in a single purse.” The boy had seated himself upon the floor about a pace away from Prince Senlin’s chair. Loren had noted it with some surprise; Jo and the other guards made no mention of it, though they were hesitant to let Loren get near the king and prince.
“Indeed not,” said Senlin. “Our treasury is sizeable—a building near as large as a warehouse, and filled with many treasures besides mere coin. Even if we could somehow remove all the coins—which would be a considerable enough feat—Wojin would yet possess a great deal of wealth. Many of the treasures are bulky, all are difficult to remove, and they could easily be sold in order to continue paying the army.”
Jun said nothing, but sat pensively in his chair with his chin in one hand. Senlin watched him for a moment, seeming to expect him to speak. But the king said nothing.
“It seems that our problems are access and time,” said Loren slowly. “Might I ask, Your Grace—do you have any alchemists who are loyal to you?”
Jun frowned at the question. “One served me, but he perished during Wojin’s attack.”
Loren looked to Gem. “Fetch Shiun. We may have to reach out to the Mystics here and see if they have an alchemist to help us.”
The boy leaped up at once to obey, but Jo stopped him with a raised hand and leaned forwards. “I do not understand. Why do you want an alchemist? If you are thinking of storming the palace, you would do better to have a firemage or mindmage at your side. But I doubt even a wizard could help us here, unless they were uncommonly powerful.”
Loren could not help a little smile. “My strength is not as a warrior, but as a thief,” she said. “An alchemist might help us where a firemage cannot. If Wyle could lead us to the sewers beneath the treasury, an alchemist could tunnel up through the stone into the treasury itself. From there, with enough help, we could remove the treasure without anyone being the wiser. It would still take time, of course.”
“That would not work,” said Senlin flatly. “Forgive me, Nightblade, but you are hardly the first to think of such a scheme. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the treasury are all enchanted against such magic. Indeed, we even have guards posted in the sewers below the treasury to ensure no one can even make an attempt, and Wojin will have maintained those guards.”
Blood flooded Loren’s cheeks, and she ducked her head. “My pardon. I am less educated in ways of magic than I should be, it seems.” She motioned Gem to sit again, and he sank to the floor with a dejected sigh.
“There are two things you can do to remove a man’s wealth,” said Wyle suddenly. His voice was filled with sudden eagerness, and Loren glanced at him. He leaned forwards in his chair now, hands on its arms, no longer slouching. “Did that man Xain ever tell you how we met, Nightblade?”
Loren arched an eyebrow. “He did not, though you hinted at it before. I gathered you did not part as friends.”
Wyle snorted. “That we did not. I hired him and a riverboat captain to assist me with—” He paused suddenly, eying King Jun. “Well, with a certain business transaction. Yet when Xain discovered my aim, he misunderstood entirely, and he and the captain destroyed the goods I had intended to sell.”
Annis’ eyes flashed. Loren raised an eyebrow at her, but the girl held her peace for the moment. “I do not entirely understand,” said Loren. “What are you saying?”
“If we cannot steal Wojin’s gold—or, more properly, King Jun’s gold, of course—we can destroy it.”
That gave everyone in the room pause. Prince Senlin frowned in thought. “I do not see exactly how,” he said slowly. “Even if we were to … to melt it somehow … Wojin could simply re-melt it and cast it into new coins.”
Gem spoke quickly in Senlin’s support. “And I do not see that it removes our earlier problem—namely, that there is a great deal of treasure. How could we hope to melt it all without alerting the guards?”
“We could burn it,” said Annis. “We could burn it with magestones.”
At the word magestones, the king and prince gasped. Wyle very suddenly looked as though he would rather be somewhere else.
“Do you mean to say that you are carrying those cursed stones?” growled Jo. His hand fell to the hilt of the blade at his hip.
“Of course not,” said Annis smoothly. “Yet my mother may have some on hand.”
Jun’s eyes narrowed. “There have long been rumors that the family Yerrin traffics in magestones, but they have always denied them. Do you mean to say that it has been true all along?”
“I would never suggest such a thing,” said Annis. “What wise family would condone it? Yet we all know that my mother has been sundered from the family, and I from her. Did you not know that was the reason?”
That gave them pause. “A different reason was given,” said Senlin. “It was said that she aided the Shades in their assault on the Seat.”
“Sometimes the High King cannot be entirely plain in her proclamations,” said Annis. “Sometimes she must give a reason for her actions that is—not a falsehood, of course, but not the entire truth.”
Loren’s heart thundered in her breast. Annis walked on the edge of a knife. Revealing Damaris’ involvement with magestones brought a dangerous amount of attention to all of them. If Jun learned that they had trafficked in the stones, or worse, learned that they still bore some, all their lives would be forfeit. Yet Annis seemed utterly calm.
The coin was cast. If they were to remain safe and avoid suspicion, Loren had to help. She nodded slowly, as though she had been considering Annis’ words and had now come to a conclusion. “I think this is the best course, Your Grace. If we can steal Damaris’ magestones and use them to destroy the treasury, we will accomplish two ends: we will remove Wojin’s ability to pay your soldiers, and we will remove a great store of dangerous and illegal goods forbidden by the King’s law.”
The room went silent. Jo studied Loren and her friends with a stony expression, while Senlin looked to his father, gauging his reaction. But King Jun looked straight at Loren. She felt as if he was trying to read the truth in her face, and she was grateful that her upbringing had taught her to lie so well. Even Damaris had praised Loren’s skill at telling falsehoods.
At last Jun nodded. “If you believe she has a store of those accursed stones, then I think there may be some merit to this plan.”
Gem wore a wide grin. “Do I understand our plan aright? First steal magestones from Damaris, then use them to destroy the treasury?”
Loren matched his smile. “You must admit it is audacious.”
“Audacious?” said Gem. “It is brilliant!”
“We would not even require very many,” said Annis. “When magestones burn, they burn with darkfire. It will not only melt the gold, it will destroy it—and the fires will last until they have consumed everything they have touched. We will have to set th
e flames carefully to see that they do not spread too far, but once we start them, Wojin will have no way to put them out.”
But Jun held up a hand, his brow furrowing. “Yet one detail still remains to be resolved. Namely, once I have reclaimed my throne, how can I expect to pay my soldiers any better than Wojin could?”
“We would be in just as precarious a position as Wojin is,” said Senlin. “Damaris—or any other foe—could overthrow us just as easily as we now plan to overthrow him.”
“When my friends and I enter the treasury, we shall bring packs with us,” said Loren. “We will fill them with as much gold as we are able to carry. That can be your soldiers’ pay, at least for a little while.”
Jo’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “You overestimate yourselves—or you underestimate the size of our army. Even if you took as much as you could carry—which would be so heavy that you could not escape afterwards—that would not last us a week.”
But Annis only smiled as she turned to Wyle once more. “You have wealthy friends within the city.”
“I do,” said Wyle cautiously. “Many of them.”
“Surely they have gold on hand. And I would wager they have a considerable amount of it.”
Wyle’s eyes grew shifty, and he did not reply.
Annis sighed and adopted a more careful tone. “If your friends happen to have gold on hand, and if they were to use it to supplement the king’s ability to pay his soldiers for a time, I am certain His Grace would extend his forgiveness to your business associates.”
Wyle raised an eyebrow. “Mayhap he would. Why do you speak to me of this, when it seems only to help my friends?”
Annis snorted. “Very well. And I am certain he would repay the gift as soon as he was able—with, mayhap, a bonus of two percent for the honest businessman who made it possible? As a reward for your exemplary assistance to the kingdom?”
The smuggler’s eyes narrowed. “Five percent.”
“You remember what happened the last time we bartered,” said Annis. “Do not toy with me.”
Wyle spread his hands with an easy smile. “What was it you said to me then? I accused you of haggling for scraps, and you told me you were only trying to maintain your reputation as a merchant’s daughter. I am trying to maintain my standing as an honest businessman.”
“You will wind up an honest corpse if you do not aid us,” snarled Jo.
Wyle eyed him uneasily. “Three percent,” he muttered.
“Done and done,” said Annis. She relaxed into her chair and drummed her fingers on its arm, smiling.
“You seem to have bartered on my behalf without consulting me,” said Jun, though his tone was not very severe. “You speak of repayment—yet how am I to repay Wyle? I will still have no coin in my treasury, and I cannot raise such a heavy tax so quickly. There is enough instability in the kingdom as it is.”
To Loren’s surprise, Prince Senlin leaned forwards to speak. “Yet you will have the throne, Father. That is the only thing that truly matters. You, unlike Wojin, are loyal to the High King. Once you have reclaimed your seat and rallied Dorsea to her side, I am sure she will compensate us for our loss. Especially if the Nightblade should speak on our behalf. It is a small price to pay for having the might of Dorsea on her side again.”
King Jun sat silently for a long moment. He drummed his fingers on his chin, deep in thought, but he did not look at any of them. His gaze was far away, seeing something Loren could not. Mayhap he imagined the future, thinking through the advantages and disadvantages of such an arrangement. Frankly, Loren’s head spun at even the limited discussion they had had here in this room. She did not think that hers was a mind for the politicking of the nine kingdoms, and once again she felt an enormous wave of gratitude for the presence of Annis by her side.
“Very well,” said Jun at last. “We shall follow the plan of the daughter of Yerrin.” He inclined his head towards her.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” said Annis, standing to bow in response. Loren thought that was a bit of a joke—she was helping him, and not the other way around. Annis should have been the one to receive gratitude.
Jun excused himself from the room, taking Senlin with him. With a forlorn expression, Gem watched them go. Jo stood as well. But rather than leave, he fetched a map from a cabinet across the room and spread it on the floor between them. Loren studied it for a moment, but could make little sense of it without being able to read the words.
“This is the palace,” said Jo. “This building here is the treasury.” He pointed to a building drawn on the palace’s northern side. “There is no entrance but the front door. There are windows, but they are very high. I do not know if you could sneak in that way.”
“We will see when we get there,” said Loren. “I am quite good at getting into places when people do not want me to.”
“And how often have you had to sneak into a well-guarded palace?” said Jo.
Loren fixed him with a look. “I once strode into the middle of a mercenary army and stole a horse I liked, then set the rest of their mounts to stampede. This seems a small feat by comparison.”
Jo grunted. “Very well. But we have not been in the palace for some time. If the Yerrins are not keeping their supplies of magestones in the treasury, we have no way of knowing where they would be.”
“They will be close at hand,” said Annis. “My mother would not risk letting the stones out of her sight.”
Loren thought back to Cabrus. There, just before she had fled the city, she had infiltrated the apartment Damaris kept at one of the inns. There she had found the woman’s magestones, all kept together in a great wooden chest with a lock. It had been one of her first thefts—though she had not stolen the stones at all, but had destroyed most of them and scattered the rest for others to find, bringing the King’s law down on Damaris’ head. That move had been meant to remove Damaris’ threat forever, though of course things had not worked out that way.
“She will have them wherever she is staying,” said Loren. “I am sure of it.”
“Her apartments will likely be here.” Jo tapped the map with a thick fingertip. “Those are the chambers where guests of state reside.”
“Then that is where we will go first,” said Loren. “Sneak into Damaris’ apartments and steal as many magestones as we can, and then bring them to the treasury.”
“It seems a bold plan indeed,” said Jo. “Audacious, as you said.”
“But you have never seen us work before,” said Gem, grinning. “Or rather, you have never seen the Nightblade in action.”
“Oh, leave off, Gem,” said Loren.
But despite herself, she felt a growing excitement. When she had spoken against Wojin, she had seen Damaris’ face. The merchant had been furious, yes. But she had also been surprised, and that surprise had been delicious to see. After weeks spent dodging Loren, predicting her every move, the merchant had finally been caught unawares. Loren’s plan was too unpredictable, too unbelievable, for the merchant to have considered. This felt very much the same. Rather than try to draw Damaris out, Loren meant to go in. Why should Damaris expect them to come after her magestones? She knew Loren had no wizard by her side. And though she might know the treasury was one of their targets, she could not possibly guess that they would destroy its wealth rather than take it for themselves.
For the first time in a long time, Loren felt hope swell in her heart. This was going to work.
She was even able to ignore the voice in her mind. Duris’ voice. Never again will Jun sit the Dorsean throne.
DAMARIS PACED HER APARTMENT. TWO pewter goblets of wine sat on a table against the wall, untouched. Gregor sat in a massive chair—it had been brought in especially for him, since all of the room’s normal furnishings were far too small.
The bodyguard studied his mistress with worry. Damaris’ steps were calm and measured. She was not breathing heavily, and there was no flush in her cheeks. But anyone who knew her would know that she was seething
, and no one knew Damaris better than Gregor did.
“This means nothing,” he said softly. “The girl’s theatrics only make her an easier target. Someone must have seen where she went. My agents will find her.”
“Will they?” snapped Damaris. “You have said that for days now. Yet we have discovered nothing.”
“These things take time,” said Gregor.
Damaris stopped short. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then lifted a hand to her forehead. “I know they do. I know it, Gregor. Yet we have no time. That was never true before. All these long years together, we have been able to take as long as we wanted. Or at least I thought we could. But now with the war, and with the Necromancer—”
The candle on the table guttered. Gregor looked at the room’s door. A gust of wind? Most likely. But a thin sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead.
“They understand,” he said. “They have told us they understand. After all, the brutes were no more help against Loren than we have been. The Nec—the Necromancer is more tolerant than we once feared they would be.”
Damaris smiled at him, as though she could sense his heart skip as he said the word. “You have never named them before.”
Gregor’s jaw worked. “Forgive me. It is a foolish superstition.”
“You are many things, my friend, but you have never been foolish. Indeed, in fearing them, you show your wisdom.” Damaris sighed and leaned on the back of the chair opposite Gregor. “It will be all right. We will find Loren, and King Jun as well.”
She looked up, across the room and right into Loren’s eyes. “Duris will tell us everything.”
Loren jerked, suddenly aware of her own presence.
When had the dream taken her? She had watched the conversation without even realizing she was there. Now she whirled about, looking around the room. Where was she? She had not seen this place before.
But the door was right beside her, and Damaris and Gregor were across the room. She threw the door open and ran through it, pounding down the hallway outside.
Yerrin: A Book of Underrealm (The Nightblade Epic 6) Page 19
