Thief

by Jane Glatt

needed to talk to Kane right away.

  eleven

  “You did what?” Kane couldn’t believe it. He sprang from his chair and paced his uncle’s study. “Brenna …” he stopped. What to say to her? At least she had the decency to look guilty. He looked at Uncle Feiren, who only shrugged. Kane turned back the Brenna. “What were you thinking?”

  She looked up at him defiantly. “I was thinking that a visit to the library late at night was the safest time for me to do it.”

  “But you could have been caught.” Or worse, he thought. The orders for the Brothers who were watching her were going to change. The minute she stopped moving he wanted to know about it.

  “But I wasn’t,” Brenna said, and when he glared at her she lifted her chin a little.

  Oh, his orders would change - even if it meant he was woken up multiple times every night.

  “You are too important to risk this way,” Kane said. She’d been so close to real danger and she didn’t seem to understand. Or care. “Brenna, the Brotherhood has waited two thousand years for you.”

  “Oh yes, the precious Brotherhood.” Her voice was bitter. “What about me? Ever since I met you and your Brotherhood my life has not been my own. I’m shut up here for almost two months with no contact with anyone I know because they all think I’m dead.”

  “Brenna, you know that’s for your own safety,” Feiren said and Kane sent him a grateful look.

  “Someone tried to kill you,” Kane said. “And I might add, the Brotherhood has been protecting you ever since.”

  “I know, I really do understand,” Brenna said. “You believe I’m the one prophesied about and that I’m destined to sit the throne. Except we already have a king. What am I supposed to do while I wait for him to die? Sit here and play games with the youngest members of the Brotherhood?” She glared up at him, brown and green eyes daring him to disagree with her.

  Kane sighed and sat down in the chair seat beside her.

  “All right,” he said. “You need something to do. But you have to stay safe. Maybe we can send you down to the training school. Jik knows you can use some more work with the sword and staff.” A thought struck him. “Do you know how to ride?”

  “A horse? No,” Brenna said. “I’m not sure I want to be put in a training class with students ten years younger than me.”

  “I hope you could help train them as well.” She sent him a puzzled look. “You’re helping to train the Brotherhood right now.” He smiled at the disbelief on her face. “Some of them are becoming very good at tracking in the city because of you.”

  “But I check for old steel whenever I leave.”

  “I’m sure you do.” Kane’s smile widened at her puzzled look. “Which is why some don’t wear old steel weapons. For the last three weeks I’ve had fewer reports of you being out of sight. I have detailed reports of where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.” Suddenly Brenna went very still. That was interesting. He’d need to look at the reports again and see if he could find out what she was up to.

  “Sorry Uncle Feiren.” Kane looked up at his uncle. “I didn’t feel that it was my place to tell you Brenna was going out at night.” Uncle Feiren looked at him for a few seconds before he nodded.

  “No doubt you have your reasons,” Feiren said. “I hope to hear them later. Right now we need to focus on what happened to Brenna. I didn’t actually call you over here so you could lecture her.”

  Brenna snorted but Kane ignored her.

  “Brenna has more to tell,” Feiren continued. “Brenna?”

  “Um, yes, well. I went to the library to try to find the plans for the house.”

  “Plans for what house?” Kane interrupted.

  “This one, of course.” Brenna shot him an innocent look. “We talked about recording all the exits for the house so I thought I’d start with the library.”

  “Why would you think there would be anything there?” Kane asked.

  “I’m a thief, remember,” she said. “And a very thorough one. There’s a section in the library filled with building plans for many of the oldest structures in town. I mostly kept to the public ones, inns and such, but I’ve certainly come across plans for some of the older houses.”

  Astonished, Kane sat back in his chair. “There are public documents that may show some of the secrets of this house?” How much could have gone wrong over the years with this type of information out there? An even more uncomfortable thought struck him. “Have you come across any such drawings for the castle and grounds?”

  “Yes, but you’d need to be a fool to try to steal from the castle.” Brenna paused. “It would be very dangerous to try to sell that type of information.”

  “But worth a lot of money to the right buyer,” Kane said. He rubbed his hand across his brow. “Uncle? Have you any knowledge of these records?”

  Feiren shook his head. “No. I’d not known of them, nor do I think my father or great uncle. Surely no Captain of the Kingsguard would let these plans out of their hand.”

  “I must get them as soon as possible,” Kane said. “Tonight.” He started to rise but his uncle waved him back down.

  “The lass isn’t finished yet. Go ahead Brenna.”

  “All right,” Brenna said. “So I was looking for plans for the house when I decided to check for Brothers, to see if I’d been followed. And I felt something. It wasn’t old steel exactly, but it felt similar in some ways. I tracked it to a section of the library that has some very old books. Later I heard Randell; he’s the head library clerk, say that these books had recently come from the castle. Anyway, what I felt was a book. A very small book that had the feel of old steel. So I took it.”

  From a pack that sat on the floor, Brenna pulled a tattered book. Kane reached out for it and the leather of the binding crackled under his hands. There were splatters on the front cover and he traced a finger along one. It was smooth to the touch and shimmered slightly.

  “Something’s been spilled here,” he said as he turned the book over. The back of the book was almost completely covered in the shiny substance.

  “Old steel,” Brenna said and he looked up at her in surprise. “At least as far as I can tell. Here,” she closed her eyes and he saw the splotches on the book glow unevenly. “But it feels out of balance somehow.”

  The splatters dimmed and Kane flipped the book open. “It’s a work book,” he said. “The Brotherhood has been searching for this for centuries.” He tried to read the fine script but gave up after a few tries. The words crawled and wriggled across the pages. Magic, it must be. He gingerly laid the book on the table in front of his uncle.

  “And we’ve finally found it,” Feiren said. “I looked through it all ready. Between the spatters of old steel on the cover and drawings I could make out, I’m convinced this book holds the secret to forging old steel weapons.”

  Kane sat back and stared at the small book. All the documents they had made it clear that old steel was a key to restoring Wolde’s line to the throne. Over the years Brotherhood families had died out and others had grown beyond their few weapons. Today many Brothers did not have old steel and others did not have the right type of weapon. Now they’d be able to change that.

  “Do we know who can read this?” Kane asked.

  “No,” Brenna said. “But I can tell it doesn’t match you any more than it matched your uncle. You know, the way your family swords match you.”

  Kane nodded. And the way she’d known that the knife the Guild Master’s daughter had wasn’t from their family.

  “So you think the person whose family this is from will be able to read it?” He asked.

  Brenna nodded.

  “All right,” Kane said. “I’ll have Dasid look through the Brotherhood records to see who might be from an old blacksmith family.” Finding the book was yet another sign that Brenna truly was the one prophesied. All the pieces were falling into place. And quickly, which he found a little disturbing. King Matthias was yet a young
man.

  “Dasid is already on his way here,” Feiren said. “But Brenna still has more to tell.”

  Kane looked from his uncle to Brenna. How much more could there be?

  “Um, yes.” Brenna hesitated. “While I was at the library I heard a noise. As I said earlier, I hid on one of the bookshelves. Unfortunately, three people came into the room I was hiding in.”

  “Yes, very unfortunate,” Kane said. Brenna shot him an annoyed look and he crossed his arms. She was annoyed with him? After she’d put herself in such danger? He stared at her until she lowered her gaze. There, that looked like a little remorse.

  “One of the men was Randell,” Brenna continued, her gaze averted from him. “The head clerk. Another one was obviously a guard of some kind and the third was a scholar. Randell called him Master Fridrick.”

  Brenna glanced at him and Kane felt a sudden chill. Fridrick was one of Duke Thorold’s advisors. If he had found Brenna …

  “And that,” Brenna continued. “Was when Randell mentioned that the books and scrolls in this section had recently come from the castle. Then Fridrick told Randell he had to find the information the duke was looking for. Information on the Brotherhood.”

  Kane sucked in a breath. How did Duke Thorold know about the Brotherhood? “Did Fridrick mention what they knew about the Brotherhood?”

  “Not really.” Brenna shook her head. “Fridrick must have told Randell what to look for earlier. Randell found and read the same passage he’d shown me