Thief's War: A Knight and Rogue Novel

by Bell, Hilari

  “Caught you trying to scam him, did he? I wondered how you ended up working for someone else.” I let contempt seep into the words, and color rose in Jack’s face.

  “I keep trying to tell you, this is a good job. If your friend would settle down to it, the Rose has use for swordsmen too. You could both come out of this alive and employed, if you had any brains.”

  He left then, before I could come up with a retort. I’d known the Rose was smart, but smart enough to catch and cage Jack was very smart indeed. I was sufficiently distracted by my thoughts, and the way Kitchell was coming up behind me, that I didn’t see the ragged little girl till she crashed into me. But I still felt her fingers slip into my pocket. I started to reach for that small deft hand and then froze, staring into Alessa’s wide pale eyes.

  “’Scuse me, sir. I didn’t see you.”

  “That’s all right.” I strode on, before Kitchell had a chance to do more than glare. She was indeed “good with her hands.” And there was no way I could ask, even obliquely, how she and the others were doing. I didn’t even dare to touch my pocket, to see if she’d taken something out…or more likely, what she’d left there.

  I did walk a little faster.

  * * *

  Captain Rigsby was a ruddy middle-aged man, with a thick mustache and a suspicious expression.

  “Master Roseman is welcome to check my accounts, at any time.” It was the only thing he could say, after all. “I’ll take you to the chart room, set you up there. Would you care for some ale? Tea?”

  “Tea, thank you. Kitchell, you can wait for me at the tavern.”

  Kitchell scowled. He’d been preparing to follow me below, but he couldn’t insist without giving the game away. To follow me into the chart room and watch me work was not how you treated a trusted clerk—which I’d have pointed out to him, Jack and the Rose, if any of them asked.

  So I was free—after the second mate escorted me below, brought the ledgers to the chart room, and then a pot of tea, ink, paper, and offered to fetch me “anything else, for Master Roseman’s man.”

  “Nothing but a chance to get to work,” I told him, and he took the hint and departed.

  Just in case, I sat down at the desk and opened the first ledger before reaching casually into my pocket.

  It could have been anything, but a note was the most likely. He hadn’t signed it, but I recognized Michael’s untidy scrawl: Must bring HL’s troops to take down R & guards. Need evidence! How?

  He might as well have signed it—and could he possibly have written anything more incriminating? But that was Michael.

  I took some time to consider my answer, then turned to the ledger where I hoped to find…not the evidence we needed, but maybe the beginning of way to get it. I’d seen enough of Roseman’s ledgers to know that his ship captains could probably supply that evidence, if I could win their trust.

  I worked through the morning, and declined an invitation to join the ship’s officers for luncheon, though I welcomed the sandwich the cook sent in.

  It was late afternoon, and sunlight slanted through the windows when I closed the last ledger and asked if Captain Rigsby would join me.

  “Your man, Kitchell, he’s been aboard twice now to ask if you need anything,” the captain told me. “If you’ve gotten through that stack already you’re a hard worker, Master Fisk.”

  “He’ll wait,” I said. “And judging by these books, you’re a hard worker yourself. I only found three small errors—the largest of which is in Master Roseman’s favor.”

  I let him relax for a moment, under my pleasant smile, before I went on. “Then I found this…” I opened one of the ledgers, and pointed to an entry near the bottom of the column. “This isn’t an error, Captain Rigsby.”

  After one glance, the color drained out of his face. But he tried to bluster his way out of it.

  “Three crates of dried woad to the dyers guild in Tillsport. Did I make some error adding up the price?”

  “No, you entered the price for three crates. But looking at the cargo you added on later, you had room in your hold for thirty crates. Which also explains why you sold so little other cargo there, and so much more at the next port. Raw woad fetches a good price, but it is bulky.” I shook my head, sadly.

  “It’s not my fault some clerk dropped a zero when he entered the number of crates,” the captain said. “This is a simple error!”

  “It might be, if he also hadn’t added the price of just three crates to the tally,” I pointed out. “When you turned your profit over to Master Roseman, your books balanced. That would take, not just a few errors, but an outright miracle. It wasn’t a bad idea, but there’s no way you can pass this off as a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes,” I put all the sympathy I could into my voice. “Perhaps you could persuade me that…oh, that you weren’t happy with the state of the hold’s caulking, so you decided to sail with a lighter load till you were certain it was safe?”

  The captain’s hand fell to the place a sword hilt would have been, if he’d been wearing one. Though even if he’d had a sword, he couldn’t use it—not with a guard waiting for me, and all the Rose’s men knowing where I was.

  “I didn’t think anyone who worked for the Rose could be bribed,” he said cautiously.

  “I can’t.” It was time to give up the game. Or rather, pass over the journeyman round and get to the master levels. “But it’s nice to know I could have pulled it off, if I’d wanted to.”

  “What?” His confusion was understandable.

  “Roseman wants me to get you to bribe me,” I told him. “Then I’m supposed to work my way into your confidence till I’ve identified all your cohorts, and learned exactly how you’re cheating him. Then he’d move in.”

  The man’s eyes were all but popping out of his head by the time I finished. “But he… But I… Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I need your help.”

  I reached up and turned my collar so the glowing gem showed. The captain stared at it curiously.

  “I’ve heard of those. I thought they were supposed to keep anyone who wore them from even thinking about treason.”

  Was that what the mad jeweler had needed more time for? Thank goodness for the Rose’s impatience.

  “This gem doesn’t care what I think,” I said. “But if I get killed, or cut the collar off, both stones go dark—and whoever is guarding my friend will kill him.”

  “I don’t have any way to help you out of that,” the captain said. “I might try, if I could do it without risking my family, but—”

  “That’s not what I want from you,” I said. “Though if it all goes wrong, having quick transportation out of here available for me and my friend wouldn’t hurt.”

  Rigsby was already shaking his head so I went on swiftly, “But I’m beginning to work on another idea. One that would make it so you’d never have to worry about Tony Rose again. The first thing I need is enough hard evidence to convince the Liege Guard commander in Gollford to send troops to take over this town. Enough men to fight, not only Roseman’s men, but also the Liege Guardsmen stationed here, since the Rose evidently owns them too. Though how he managed that, I can’t imagine.”

  The High Liege’s men really were unbribable. Jack tried it once—we were on the run for two months, after.

  “You don’t know?” Rigsby glanced at my throat. “The guard captain the High Liege sent when the last one died—old age, they said—the new captain came to town with a pretty young bride. Now the bride lives on the Rose’s country estate, or so they say, and the captain wears a collar just like yours. He keeps it turned, but after a while… Well, word gets around.”

  “Hmm. All the more reason for Gollford’s troops. But I need evidence that Roseman has committed massive, serious crimes. Have you, or any of your friends, kept a record of the goods you’ve fenced?”

  This was the moment of truth—I could have been saying all this to get my hands on those records, to take them to the Rose
. Until he handed them over, Rigsby could deny that he’d admitted anything. His gaze darted around the room, seeking some escape. It settled on the glowing magical noose around my neck.

  “I don’t keep anything, but some of the others do. I’ll name no names, not without their consent. But I think I could get that evidence.”

  “That’s just the first part,” I said. “For the next part, I’m going to need at least three of you, maybe four, who’d be willing to let me turn you in to the Rose.”

  “What? I thought you wanted to help us!”

  I’d actually said that I wanted them to help me. But a bargain has to be more or less equal, if it’s going to stick.

  “I’ve got to give the Rose something,” I pointed out. “Or he’ll know I’m playing him, and kill us all. Surely a few of you have enough salted away that you’re ready to run by now. If the Rose trusts me—which he will, if I’m the one who turns you in—I should be able to give you at least a day’s warning. But on that day you’d better be running, and beyond the Rose’s reach.”

  “Oh.” The captain stood and paced to the windows, overlooking the bustling docks. Pushing would only make him push back, so I waited.

  “You know, I grew up in the Port. My father was a sail maker. I could have taken the shop, but it was always the sea for me, so his partner bought me out. That’s how I got the money to buy this ship. It was a good town then. And it wasn’t so bad, when the Rose first started taking power. The city government actually ran better for a while.”

  Anything I could learn about the Rose interested me. “What changed?”

  “I don’t know, not really. But about ten years ago, maybe a bit more, the boss started talking about some big plan. Really big. Then he stopped talking about it, but that’s when the city tax began. Other things, too. We’d been disposing of a few trinkets, here and there. Then the number of valuables he had us handling grew and grew. It’s gotten so bad, our buyers really are dropping their prices. They say the market is saturated. And it’s always harder to sell jewels with blood on ’em.”

  I waited.

  He took a deep breath, and made his choice.

  “You can turn me in. I started skimming because I wanted to get my family out of this town. Raise my children where the law is guardsmen instead of thugs, and justice is real.”

  I wasn’t sure justice was real anywhere, but I let that pass.

  “But I’m going to need that day’s warning,” Rigsby went on. “I have to be sure I can get my family onto my ship and sail before the Rose can stop us.”

  “You can’t tell them,” I said. “No packing. No saying goodbye to your daughter’s best friend, who goes crying to her mother, who tells her husband, who just happens to be a drinking buddy of one of the Rose’s men.”

  “I won’t warn them,” he promised. “My wife knows what I’ve been trying to set up. The children love to come aboard—they won’t make a fuss.”

  “Can you find some other captains who feel the same way? Who could be relied on to keep it quiet till I’m ready to turn them in?”

  “We’ve been cheating the Rose for years.” Rigsby smiled sadly. “We can all keep secrets.”

  They hadn’t done it all that well—the Rose had sent me to nab them.

  “I’ll need to forge some evidence against you,” I said. “I’ve got to show the Rose something. Can you give me some blank receipts, manifests, that kind of thing? I’ve got access to the Rose’s ledgers, so I can figure out what to fill in.”

  “You don’t need me to write them up?” He went to a cabinet and began pulling papers out of a drawer.

  “You were too smart to keep a record,” I said. “We’ll leave it at that. I’m thinking more about papers other people might have given you, cargo lists you wouldn’t have been able to alter easily, things like that.”

  While he gathered the blank papers I needed, and others to disguise their presence, I composed a note to Michael. One that would be less compromising than his, if it fell into the wrong hands.

  People talk about a man’s handwriting, or a woman’s, but in fact you can’t always tell gender from people’s penmanship. And I can forge most people’s writing, anyway.

  Once the ink had dried, I crumpled my note and then tore off the top half, so it looked like part of a letter blown out of the trash. The remainder said:

  …thought Roberta’s playing was quite good. Unlike most girls that age. Why some women think that men will be attracted by bad music, I shall never understand. The Key to the Door of a man’s heart isn’t talent—and without that Magica Key no girl stands a chance. I’m sure you understand. People living in the Countryside have more understanding of the true Keys of the heart. But even if Roberta plays decently, someone has to get that girl out of those gaudy necklaces she favors. So inappropriate for her age—she might as well be wearing the chandelier! Someone should drop her a hint—but that’s so hard to accomplish without offending. Any idea how it might be done? It’s going to be necessary, if she ever wants to marry and get out of that house. I shall be at…

  The page ended before I had to make up another name.

  I left the ship shortly after that, carrying an armful of ledgers, notes and bills to “study” later. Kitchell joined me as soon as I left the ship, scowling over how long I’d been out of his sight. This didn’t worry me—or it wouldn’t, if he hadn’t expressed his disapproval by walking only a few strides behind me.

  I spotted Alessa soon after we left the docks. She had enough craft not to approach me, but skipped down the other side of the street without even glancing in my direction. She would then turn and follow us, waiting for me to drop my reply…which was going to be curst hard with a guard glaring at my back.

  As Jack used to say, if the situation doesn’t work for the scam, then change the situation.

  I gave it two more blocks, then stared looking for something I could trip over, which wasn’t hard to find—in this rough neighborhood there were plenty of loose cobbles. I rammed my toe into one and then, naturally, flung out my hands to break my fall.

  Papers flew everywhere.

  Unfortunately, the neighborhood wasn’t quite rough enough. Three passersby stopped to help me gather them, and Kitchell, who’d started forward, stopped.

  “These are Master Roseman’s papers!” I said. “Very important. Don’t touch them!”

  The mere mention of Roseman’s name had them backing away. I turned to Kitchell. “What are you waiting for? Help me pick them up or they’ll blow away!”

  There wasn’t much wind, which was lucky—the papers had scattered over half the street. I’d proclaimed Roseman’s name loudly enough that no one stepped on them, and Kitchell hustled to gather them up. By the time we departed he was walking beside me, carrying an armload of ledgers and notes…and just one piece of paper had been left behind, tucked into a shadowy niche between a rain barrel and a step.

  I’d have worried about someone else finding it, but I’d developed considerable respect for Alessa’s craftsmanship.

  Back at the townhouse, I’d have plenty of time to forge evidence against Captain Rigsby, and also to copy any evidence of Roseman’s crimes. As long as I didn’t have the ledgers the guards paid little attention to me, and the Rose himself was gone.

  As for Jack, he’d never enjoyed “paperwork.” Indeed, the fact that I had some clerkly skills was one of the reasons he’d picked me up in the first place.

  When I was finished, I’d take the real evidence back to Rigsby, to hide until I had enough to send to the High Liege’s men. As for the fake evidence, against Rigsby and his friends, I had no fear it would be disbelieved. The difference between a ship’s captain and a bandit is that the one’s called a pirate instead.

  Though Rigsby would probably have been an honest man, if not for his boss. The Rose had told me to win the captain’s trust. By offering to rescue him from The Rose, I’d done it in just one day.

  If Jack wasn’t the one I was scamming, he’d
be proud of me.

  <

  I had hoped we might linger in town for a time, which might have given me a chance to get Fisk’s reply. But fear of the Rose overcame bruises. We left the man with the concussion and his comrade with the broken arm at the healer’s, and rode back to Rose manor that very afternoon to report our failure.

  Tossman, perhaps thinking that the Rose would blame him for his failure to control me, said nothing of the slight disturbance I’d created in the alley. So, although he glared at me a great deal on principle, Roseman was forced to accept a simple victory for the orphans.

  Seeing how furious that made him, I resolved to tell them all about it if I ever got the chance.

  Except for seeing him at meals—which had a sad effect on my appetite—Roseman’s presence in the house made little impact on my days. Lianna was sleeping well with my potion of magica chamomile, so I’d no need to find other herbs, but I still continued my walks about the countryside. In part, this was because I liked walking in the countryside, even with a guard trailing at my heels. But mostly ’twas to allow the orphans a chance reach me.

  I exchanged a few words with anyone I met on those walks, so my guard thought nothing of it when I strolled up to a boy who sat by the stream, fishing. And in truth, I was almost upon him before I recognized Jig under the ragged straw hat.

  “Did you mange to contact Fisk?” I tried to look like I was making casual conversation, and I must have succeeded, for my guard came no closer. “I can’t talk too long. Roseman’s here now, though I think he’s leaving in a few days.”

  “We know. We always try t’ know where he’s at.” Jig pulled his hook from the stream, saw that his bait had vanished, as it does when fish are clever, and made a sound of disgust.

  “I think they’s magica fish in this creek. Been here two days now, and all I catch is little ones.

  “Are you using worms?” I asked, drawn in despite myself.

  “Cheese. It works as well and it’s easier come by.” He pulled a cloth-wrapped nugget from his pocket and rebaited the hook as he spoke. “If you was t’ climb up that rock pile down the stream there, and admire the view for a while, you might find a bit of paper under a stone at the base of that little oak. And if you wanted to reply to it, you could just leave a bit of paper in the same place, and someone would pick it up when there’s no one around at all.”